Spain 2009

Old men playing chess in the park.
Cibeles Fountain

Botin--oldest restaurant in Spain/(in the world?)

Dustin and Bill standing in the middle of the city.

Dustin with a street performer.

A door into the Madrid Cathedral.

Don Quixote and Sancho Panza.

The Spanish girls that interviewed us.

The vertical garden.

Hello All,
Well, we just finished our trip to Spain, and are now en route to Ecuador. We will stay in Ecuador for just one night, and will then fly over to the Galapagos Islands where we will board our ship. We will stay on the ship for one week, cruising to all the different islands. After that, we will fly to Peru and will tour Cusco and Machu Picchu. But I’ll write more about that after we have visited. For now, I’ll fill you in on our Spain trip.

The trip didn’t start off that great, as both kids were sick on the plane. Bill slept the whole flight, so I was up and down all night (our flight didn’t leave until 10:00 PM), with both kids. I went to take Jensen to the bathroom to throw up, and when I got back to our seats, Dustin was gone. He had gone to another bathroom to throw up. Generally, the kids do very well flying, but I think they just get over excited, and eat too much food they’re not used to, and don’t get enough sleep, so they end up getting sick. Dustin was fine after that, but Jensen did not feel well the whole time we were in Spain. She still made it out for some sightseeing and shopping though.

We got into Spain on a Tuesday morning, and because we had been flying, or waiting in airports for more than 24 hours, we were pretty tired, so just chilled for a few hours. We got ourselves moving mid-afternoon, and of course, the first thing the kids wanted to do was eat at McDonald’s or Burger King. It always seems as if our vacations revolve around fast food and/or eating. I think that we feel so deprived in the Congo that it is always such a treat to have familiar food, even if we can’t quite read the menus! I think McNuggets is the same in any language! There definitely was not a lack of McDonald’s or Burger Kings in Madrid.

Once we got food, we went exploring. Our hotel was located in a great location—close to all the major attractions. That first day, we saw the Royal Palace, the Plaza de Oriente (a garden), the Prado Museum, and the Madrid Cathedral. Similar to Paris, everything looks like a castle, and all the buildings look very old. In fact, when walking downtown, Dustin saw a building that looked like a huge castle, and he wanted to go in, so we did. It ended up just being a post office! But it looked as if a king could have lived there.

The next day, we learned how to use the Metro, and that was great. It was very simple, and after riding it just a couple of times, we felt like pros—switching lines and trains like we’d been doing it our whole lives. It is very easy to see why there are not a lot of overweight people in Europe. You either walk everywhere, or you take the metro. And taking the metro involves a ton of stair walking. We felt like we were getting ourselves in shape to climb Machu Picchu!

Madrid is a very clean city, with city workers everywhere always sweeping the streets and sidewalks. It reminded me of Disneyland—someone right there to pick up any little piece of trash. There were also tons of police everywhere, so we felt quite safe. Many people warned us of pickpockets, but overall, we felt safe walking throughout the city, and on the Metro.

Our second day in Madrid we went to Retiro Park, where we watched ducks on a lake, saw lots of fountains (one which was called the Galapagos Fountain—how appropriate!), and watched old men playing chess. Also in the park was the Palacio de Cristal (Crystal Palace), which we saw as well. We also got pictures of the Cibeles Fountain, a typical fountain in Madrid. There are lots of fountains in Madrid!

Jensen was not feeling well, so we left her back at the hotel. After about 3 hours, Dustin wanted to go back too, so we left both the kids there, and Bill and I went out to explore some more. We walked up Gran Via street, which has great shopping, sat at the fountain at Puerta del Sol, and ended up at Plaza de Espana, where there is a statue of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza. We took lots of pictures there, as Man of La Mancha is one of my favorite musicals. In fact, at one point when I was pregnant with Jensen, I had considered naming her Dulcinea. I think she would have killed me.

Our last day in Madrid, Jensen felt well enough to come out with us, so we started off at a museum called Caixa Form. It has this very cool vertical garden that is about 200 feet tall. In that same area, there were also all of these great sculptures down the middle of the street. While we were looking at the sculptures, 2 young Spanish girls stopped us and wanted to ask us questions. They were taking an English class, and their assignment was to have a conversation with English speaking people and ask questions. It was fun talking with them, and we even got a picture with them.

Later, we did some shopping for souvenirs, and then the kids wanted to go back to the hotel. We took them back, and then Bill and I went in search of Botin, supposedly the world’s oldest restaurant. We found it, along with Plaza Mayor (another big, important square with a statue), but decided not to eat there. Their specialty is roast suckling pig, and that just didn’t appeal to me. The prices were quite high, and there was really nothing that appealed to me, so we walked around and found a little café to eat in. Bill ordered some type of Iberian ham sandwich, and I got something called gulas, that I thought was a type of pasta, but it wasn’t. Once I saw it and smelled it, I knew it wasn’t pasta. I took one bite and didn’t like it, but Bill ended up eating it. He wasn’t sure what it was, but he liked it. We went back to the hotel and googled it, to see what it was, and it turned out to be baby eels! Yuck! I’m glad I didn’t eat it. Now I tease Bill about it because he ate the whole thing.

We went out again that evening with the kids, and boy does the city come alive at night. The square/plaza at Puerta del Sol was just packed with people, and lots of street performers and musicians. We watched several mariachi bands, and Jensen liked one of them so much that she bought the CD! We got Ben and Jerry’s ice cream and then went back to the hotel to pack and play a game of Pounce (a traditional card game in the Sanders/Grief/Beck family). We always buy a deck of cards from each country that we visit, and we initiate the deck with a game of Pounce in the country that we bought the cards in.

We got up early today to catch our plane to Quito, Ecuador, and that is where we are now—on the plane. It’s about an 11 hour flight, and we have about 3 hours left to go. We are trying to stay awake the whole flight, as that will help us to easily get onto South American time, which is basically the same as US Eastern time.

Well, that’s it for now. I’ll get some pictures in here, and then get this sent off (after we land and get to our hotel). Look for my next entry in about another week, when we finish our Galapagos trip.

Hope everyone is well, and Happy Thanksgiving! We’ll be spending Thanksgiving on a ship in the Galapagos Islands!

Cheers!
Laurie