We are in heaven. The kids and some of
the adults are at the beach, while my mom, Tricia and me are back at the house
after grabbing a drink and splitting a plate of fried fish. Our house is
everything and more than we expected. It’s just a two block walk to the beach
and it sits on a quiet street filled with little bars, restaurants, and shops.
The house itself has more than enough room for the nine of us, combined with a
beautiful outdoor patio and private pool. It’s really a splurge for us, but well-deserved
after sleeping almost literally on top of each other during our week in Madrid.
Not that I’m complaining at all about our stay in Madrid. It was wonderful, and
free, and provided to us very generously by David’s parents Paco and Carmen.
Our last days in Madrid were good ones. I
took my kids to the Reina Sofia art museum on Friday morning. This was a very
cool place, a museum I have wanted to visit for a long time, mostly because it
holds Picasso’s “Guernica” painting that depicts some of the horrors of the
Spanish Civil War. The museum also contained other Picassos as well as many
works by Salvador Dali. Casey especially enjoyed this museum because of the
contrast between the historic pieces we saw in the Prado and the more bizarre
modern art pieces we saw here.
The kids and I had a nice, leisurely time
hanging out at Reina Sofia before venturing into the center of Madrid for an
afternoon meal. We contemplated a few different spots for lunch, but ended up
back at the Plaza Mayor. Why not? This is such a nice, comfortable place to
hang out and people watch. We had a great menú del dia and some nice chill time
before meeting up with the gang once again a bit later.
After exploring the river with the kids
that winds around Madrid, all of us gathered for dinner at one of the cuevas
(cave) bars that are near Plaza Mayor. This was essentially our last group meal
and experience in Madrid before we’d be heading out of the city on Sunday. We
had a bunch of raciones and pitchers of sangría, enjoyed the caves, then made
the journey back to the apartment.
Saturday proved to be a day of function
rather than leisure. Santi came with me to pick up my rental car at the Atocha
train station. This turned out to be about a 4-hour experience rather than the
hour-long experience I thought it would be. The Hertz office was not at the
train station like advertised but rather a 12 block walk into the city. Also,
after waiting in an aggravatingly long line at the rental counter we were
informed that they didn’t have our car. One of the agents would have to drive
us across town to pick up our car at a different office. Holy cow, what a
freakin’ fiasco. Santi and I could only shake our heads and laugh at the
Spanish inefficiencies. Nada es fácil in España!
But, the car rental experience aside,
Saturday was a great day. It was the day Tricia arrived! After finally getting
our car and managing the mean streets of Madrid in my new manual transmission
Opel, we grabbed David and the kids at the apartment and went to the nearby mall
for a McDonald’s lunch and some wifi. We scarfed down some burgers – and I was
especially happy of the fact that European fast food joints serve beer – then
drove out to the airport. After a little waiting, Tricia walked through the
sliding doors and we had ourselves a little reunion. Yippee, Tricia’s now
here! The kids and the cousins got very sick of me talking about how happy I
was that Tricia was arriving soon. They were happy to see her because then they
new I would finally shut up!
Then, Saturday night. It was a fun night.
Paco and Carmen came to the apartment and we walked to a great little
neighborhood place for dinner. Grandma Nancy and I wanted to treat them to
dinner to thank them for all their hospitality. Of course, Paco put up a fight
but finally relented. The meal was wonderful. We had some raciones and salads,
then the main course. They delivered two of these little tabletop “grills” to
our tables along with plates of ox meat. It was up to us to cook the meat on
these grills ourselves. It was like fondue but grilling instead of fonduing. And
the meat was fantastic. We stuffed ourselves silly, sitting outdoors, enjoying
having Tricia with us, and laughing constantly at Paco’s funny comments and
funny faces.
To end this post, I’ll just say that
yesterday was a slog. We woke up early and then spent a large part of the day
driving to the beach. Not necessarily fun, but well worth it to get to this
beach, and this house, and this área of Spain. We’ll be here until next Sunday,
and right now we’re exactly where we want to be!
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