During my teen years I always wanted to go to Spain. Not only because I took Spanish as my foreign language but also because I was fascinated by Flamenco dancing and the vibrant colors and laid back style. During our European adventure, we actually visited Spain 3 times which included a visit to the beach area of Costa del Sol, South of Malaga; a stop in Barcelona during our last cruise; and a visit to Madrid which provided some of my favorite pictures of the girls during our travels.
We visited Madrid in January when Sugarplum was not quite 6 months and Honeybun was 2 ½. While we saw a lot yet I remember it being one of our more laid back city visits. We spent a lot of time walking around the city, sipping coffee in local cafes where I fell in LOVE with Café Bombón (espresso with sweetened condensed milk) and still make it at home sometimes.
We arrived mid-morning and took the metro to our hotel. Unfortunately not all metro stops have elevators (which I failed to research before arriving) so hubby and I had to schlep our suitcases, buggy and both girls up the stairs from the metro station, luckily we traveled light! We stayed at the Anaco Hotel near Puerta del Sol. Our room was small and simple but we spent very little time there so it worked for us (and I would imagine those visiting Madrid without kids would spend even less time at their hotel with all the night time things Madrid has to offer!)
Our first stop was the Botanical Gardens, next door to the Prado Art Museum which is a popular stop but we decided to skip since art isn’t really our thing and we knew our children’s limitations. Our visit to the Botanical Gardens, though, was so much fun and has become a joke between hubby and I (why WOULDN’T you visit the Botanical Gardens in January?!?!) Despite most everything being dead, we still had a fantastic time taking pictures of the girls and each other with all the plants and there were very few other visitors (I wonder why…) so we were able to let Honeybun run around and play without disturbing others (this was during her “supermodel” phase where she was obsessed with America’s Next Top Model–mommyfail on the TV watching–and wanted to pose for every picture!)
The next day we visited the Royal Palace. We chose to do the full tour of the palace which included not only the main palace but also the Royal Pharmacy and the Royal Armory. The girls did ok during our visit, it was a bit long for them and they needed to be quiet, but I still really enjoyed wandering through the lavish rooms and seeing all the concoctions and specially made ceramic pots in the pharmacy. Though pictures were not allowed in the palace, we took advantage of a great photo-op in the Parade Grounds after our visit.
We then headed to the Templo de Debod, which is an ancient Egyptian temple that was moved and reassembled in the middle of Madrid. The temple houses many tiny rooms which Honeybun loved exploring. It is free to visit but because it is small it is very crowded and they limit the number of people in at a time. Hubby and I took turns exploring with Honeybun while the other waited with Sugarplum who was happily napping in the buggy. After our visit, we again took advantage of another great family photo-op!
After a nice lunch at a little sidewalk café, we decided to hop on the Teleférico which took us to Casa de Campo, one of Europe’s largest parks. While the park houses the Madrid Zoo and an amusement park, we chose to stick with a carefree visit to the playground near the Teleférico instead. Honeybun had fun running and playing and even Sugarplum got to swing and see-saw while I chatted with a mom from Canada who had just relocated to Madrid (she was drawn to my American English and apparently I looked so relaxed and “at home” she assumed I was a long-time resident of Madrid!)
That afternoon I convinced hubby to wait in line to visit the Convent of Las Descalzas Reales which is a convent which previously housed noblewomen who were not married and is now a museum which houses all the treasures the women brought with them when entering the convent. The only way to visit the convent is through a guided tour and since tours in English are not that frequent, we decided to try a Spanish tour, assuming we would be able to still enjoy hat there was to see. Unfortunately there were a lot of people on the tour, the rooms were small, we couldn’t understand the tour guide and the girls were not happy campers. This was probably one of the worst tourist experiences we had in all our travels (and I’m really sorry to those who were on the tour with us!)
That night we wandered the area around Puerta del Sol where there is plenty of shopping and restaurants. This area comes to life in the evening when the locals are out of work and the visitors are enjoying some tapas. Beware, though, of the many street “artists” who are looking for donations. There are a lot of human statues which scared Honeybun when they would move unexpectedly and there are also tons of people dressed as children’s characters, one of which (Winnie-the-Pooh) got too close to Honeybun, terrifying her and then followed us around for a while!
The last day we spent more time walking the city. We tried going to the Casa-Museo de Lope de Vega which is the original seventeenth century home of writer Lope de Vega’s which has been restored back to its form when he lived there. I didn’t realize though that the museum only accepts a certain number of visitors per day and we should have bought our tickets ahead. I love seeing how other people lived in the past and was disappointed we didn’t get to visit.
So instead we headed to the Museo del Ejercito (Armory museum) and we ended up seeing a special exhibit called “Spaces for Culture”. We just happened to stumble upon the exhibit when we realized the Armory Museum was closed and didn’t know much about it at the time but it was a really fascinating exhibit and I have since discovered it was an exhibit to show the buildings that had been built and renovated by the Spanish Department of Infrastructure and Equipment of Culture (translated by Google, so that could be completely wrong!) Because it was a temporary (and I think pretty unknown exhibit), there were very few people in there and we let Honeybun get a little wilder and louder than we should have!
That day we also had a nice little lunch in Plaza Mayor and spent some more time walking the city before heading to the airport for our evening flight. It was short but fun visit which provided our family with many wonderful memories and despite all we did in less than 3 days, it did not feel rushed or stressful.
