Saturday
For our only full weekend in Madrid, we wanted to make a point of being out in the afternoon and enjoying the beautiful weather! We decided to sleep in Saturday morning and get a “Spanish” start to the day. We started with lunch at Los Porfiados — Spanish dishes and tapas. The veal steak was a particular hit, though Keller really enjoyed the breaded chicken dish too. Burrata is fast becoming a family favorite dish too. We split a cheese cake and a dulche de leche “cake” before walking down toward the river.
Rio Park was on our list for today! The park has been recently completed and replaced a lot of empty industrial buildings along the river. Now there are walking and biking paths for miles along the river, lots of green space, interesting bridges spanning the river, and playgrounds dotted here and there. The rumor is there are 17 different playgrounds along the park, though we didn’t find that many.
Our target was Rio Toboganes — the slides! There was a series of 9 different metal slides built into the hillside. They were fast too! The first time Kamy and Caden went down the big enclosed slide they flew off the end!
Both kids loved the slides — and according to Caden it is his favorite thing in Madrid now! The Toboganes beats out the Swing Saw! Both kids ended a bit dinged up and bandaid-ed, but it was all worth it in their eyes.
They happily played on the slides for about an hour before we walked up the river and found a large climbing structure. Another 45 minutes later, they’d thoroughly traversed the logs and were ready for something new. Now we walked south toward the Skate Park to watch people on skateboards, razors, and bicycles working on their tricks.
We wandered further south and found the Matadero. This was the location of the old slaughterhouses but now is a community space, cultural center, and event space with music and food trucks in the central square. We ordered a few things from the food trucks — a burger for Kamy, a wrap for Keller, and a hot dog for Caden.
The kids STILL wanted to return to the slides, so we walked back up the river and let them play for another 45 minutes or so — well into darkness! Despite the hour, there were still a ton of kids on the playground and many parents standing around visiting. Darkness clearly doesn’t deter the Spanish!
Sunday
A couple of days ago, we bought tickets to a rugby game! Spain was playing Belgium at a local university stadium and it sounded like fun. We decided not to attend a Real Madrid soccer game due to the ticket prices, so this was much more appealing. Keller and the kids had gone to a rugby game with Payton in Houston before, so we were pretty confident we would enjoy the game.
The weather this weekend has been absolutely beautiful and today was no exception. With highs around 70* and a light breeze, it was the warmest day of our trip so far. We walked through a lovely park on the way to the stadium.
Tickets are general admission, so we parked ourselves on the grassy bank near “midfield” and had a great view. The game itself was a bit confusing as we do not understand all the rules — especially when it seemed like the team that just scored gets the ball again? Oh well, we made a lot of guesses and enjoyed it regardless. The final score was 40-9 for Spain, so the home team had a good game!
After the game we tried to eat lunch at a newly re-opened Italian restaurant. Unfortunately, they did NOT have their act together. Our waitress was definitely harried, spoke no English, and made little effort to address our needs. 45 minutes after we sat down, two dishes arrived — neither of which we ordered. She was clearly confused with several orders and we watched multiple other tables wave away food since it was not theirs. We cut our loses and left. Now that it was almost 4:30 (and thus the end of lunch time in Spain, LOL), we decided we’d eat dinner out instead and opted for ice cream as a snack in lieu of lunch. 😉 What kid will turn that down?!
We had much better luck at the ice cream place — the ice cream was tasty, the staff was friendly, and our grumbly tummies were appeased.
On the way back to the apartment, we stopped in at a LEGO exhibit near Plaza del Sol. There were 8 different large-scale LEGO models on display. The biggest model had almost 200,000 pieces in it! Kamy and Caden liked playing I Spy in the displays — searching for everything from Batman to Storm Troopers to carrots to the Quibbler (from Harry Potter).
We went back to our apartment for some down time before heading back out for dinner. This time we went to Oven, an Italian restaurant that seems very popular with tourists and English speakers. The food was all tasty, but the burrata with pesto was the highlight of the meal. We’re finding that the Italian food here is tasty, but about 20% more expensive than Spanish cuisine.
Monday
We had intended to visit the Reina Sofia art museum today, but Caden woke up feeling sick. Poor boy! This isn’t totally unexpected — he went to bed with a headache and each international trip we’ve done has found Caden sick for a day or two in the first few weeks of arrival. We’re hoping the trend holds though, because optimistically this will be the last illness for the trip. I’m crossing my fingers!
Instead Kamy and I wandered around central Madrid and did some shopping. We stumbled into a fabric store (always fun) and found a huge pile of clearance fabrics. Kamy picked out some sheer synthetic fabric she optimistically wants to use to re-create Hermione’s dress robes from Harry Potter.
I also chose some plated earrings that I’d been eyeing each time we walked by the store, post cards as souvenirs, and booster seats for our rental car at the end of the week.
I cooked chicken for lunch with curry powder we’d bought at the spice store last week. Caden slept most of the afternoon and then perked up with the help of some ibuprofen. He’s not 100% but he is feeling much better than this morning.
Keller and Kamy ventured out for some sweets in the evening which they brought back to share with everyone. None were new favorites, but we did try some local specialties.
Kamy has been working on reading the Warriors book series while we travel, so she’s often found with her nose to her Kindle. Though sometimes in curious positions! 😉
We’re hoping Caden will be back to normal tomorrow so we can hit the last few things on our Madrid Wist List before we head out on Friday!
Tuesday
Caden is almost back to normal this morning, so we ventured out to the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum. It was a private art collection that was sold to Spain for $350 million and turned into a museum. The art ranges from early Italian paintings in the 13th century to modern pieces in the 20th century.
As compared to the Prado, it has a much wider collection of art. In the Rick Steves book he described it as “minor works by major artists and major works by minor artists.” There weren’t many famous paintings in the collection, but there were pieces by Degas, Van Gogh, Monet and Caravaggio.
I found these paintings fascinating! They were so realistic and it is amazing how the artist created the illusion of sculpture in front of glass.
I love impressionist paintings, so my favorite was The Wheat Field by Renoir. Kamy loved one of the light blue Monet bridges and Caden liked The Waterloo Bridge by Derain.
Keller particularly liked the three pieces by Estes, set in mid-20th century NYC.
After the art museum we walked to Rosi La Loca for lunch. This is our favorite restaurant in Madrid, so we were keen to stop here one more time before we leave on Friday. The pesto filled burrata, eggplant chips, and pork tenderloin were as fabulous as ever! We added in the huevos rotos — crispy potatoes topped with fried egg and jamon. Yum!
For dessert, we walked to La Mallorquina — a pastry shop that was established in 1894! Clearly it’s doing something right if it has been here for 125 years. Sure enough — it was delicious! We each picked out a piece and shared them back at the apartment. Carrot cake, raspberry sponge cake, red velvet with cream cheese, and a chocolate mousse cake filled us up and left our sweet tooth very happy indeed. 😉
Aside from a run to the market to track down groceries (after 6pm, since the market stands are closed from 2pm – 5:30 or so), we stayed home and let Caden take it easy.
We’re working on planning the next leg of our trip — tracking down accommodations, making car reservations, and putting together a general game plan. Next week will be busier!
Wednesday
The last art museum on our list was the Reina Sofia. It holds Spain’s largest collection of modern and contemporary art. While we don’t tend to be enamored with modern art, one piece in particular was enough to convince me we should visit — Guernica. Picasso painted this large scale painting in response to the air raid style bombing of the town of Guernica in Northern Spain during the Spanish Civil War. We have studied it in our art curriculum and the kids love “checking off” famous paintings and being able to say they’ve seen them. (No photos were allowed of Guernica, unfortunately. So a stock photo will have to do here.)
We got audio guides for each of us, but we found the content really dry and sparse once we moved past the Spanish Civil war section of the museum. Not worth the price, in our opinion.
We wandered through other sections of the museum and saw several pieces by Dali and Miro, though nothing that really grabbed our attention. Alas, modern art still doesn’t do it for us. But now we’ve seen Guernica at least!
After the museum we dropped by the indoor garden / palm forest in the Atocha train station and then hiked back uphill and home. Keller walked to La Mallorquina again for some neopolitanas for dessert, while I cooked fajitas for lunch. School and screen time in the afternoon, plus a market visit for groceries rounded out the rest of the day. We’re ready to move on from Madrid and explore more of Spain starting on Friday!
Thursday
For our last full day in Madrid, we planned to rent bicycles and check out the Casa de Campo park. Casa de Campo is the largest park in Madrid and is 6 times the size of Central Park!
Unfortunately, both kids were feeling a little off in the morning, so we rested at home, cooked lunch, and then re-evaluated everyone’s energy levels. Both kids said they’d be up for biking, so we took the Metro across town and went to Mi Bike Rio for our bicycles. They offer good rates for hourly rental and had plenty of kids size bicycles to choose from.
We then crossed the river and into Casa de Campo! We gradually worked our way into the park and up hill for about an hour. We stopped at a few playgrounds on the way and gave our legs a bit of a rest. Since we were coming up from the river, it was uphill almost the entire way.
Keller found a notable tree, 250 year old Holly Oak (according to Regine). It was pretty impressive, especially the diameter. Most of the trees in Madrid are short-ish, so they don’t compare in height to the trees at home. But this one had definitely been around for a long time!
We worked our way back downhill and enjoyed the chance to coast for a change. A lot of the bike paths had little humps and “whoop-de-doos” which both kids thought was fun. Caden thought biking was a blast and his favorite day this trip so far.
After we returned our bicycles, Keller walked home to get some work done and the kids and I crossed the river and checked out a playground ropes course we’d seen going by. It was a really neat course and both kids managed to get from one side to the other.
We’d intended to walk down the river to visit the slides again, but part of the way there Caden started feeling very bad. Poor boy, there were tears and everything. Instead we caught a nearby bus to go home. Then Caden went to bed and fell asleep almost immediately.
Meanwhile, I worked on packing up the apartment. Kamy and I walked to Plaza Mayor to pick up a souvenir for Caden and then grabbed a few pieces of pizza for dinner. Caden felt better after his nap, so hopefully he’ll be reset for our busy travel weekend.
I think we’ve all enjoyed our time in Madrid, but we’re ready to move on. Time to see something new!
