Segovia, Part II (with armor)

Segovia's Alcazar had a huge tower with 152 steep winding steps. Which were exhausting and a little scary but the view was just breathtaking and it was no surprise to learn that they threw hot oil off to discourage enemies. On the way down Nate and Ben got passed person to person by some concerned Spanish mamas. It was pretty steep after all. We're so glad we took multiple pictures of the knights (check out those pointy toes next to Nate) as Madrid's Palace Museum of knights in shining armor was much better but didn't allow photos. So the boys had great fun at the fortress looking at all the swords, shields, and massive metal covered clubs.

Segovia, Part I

Segovia was such a great day out of Madrid that it's going to take more than one post to capture the fun we had. The kids aren't always impressed with what we're impressed with. But that's to our advantage as Ed and I get the best view of the plaza to people watch while the boys draw or journal. To date, we seem to have picked the right mix of cathedrals and castles and cafes. So the kids are still having a good time exploring the cathedrals. Nate has a newfound interest in Jesus and I had to explain the Immaculate Conception to Ben just yesterday (umm, well, Mary's stepping on the cherubs' heads as they're really angels lifting her to heaven as she's without sin [thank you Fodor's].) Segovia's cathedral was plenty impressive but the day started with its amazing aqueduct--over 130 arches and they are just the remaining fragment of its original glory. No mortar. Just an astonishing engineering feat and balancing act of huge stones for the sake of water. The swallows appreciate the aqueduct too, though they're not as evident in these photos.

Internet Struggles

If you're reading the blog (and thanks for all the nice emails!), there's been a delay as the internet we were promised at our apartment in Seville is at best wonky. So uploading photos (or even receiving emails) has been very problematic. Perhaps Granada will be better... Will retroactively blog when we get some juice. For now, we may have to "disconnectar" until July 3.

Sub-par Water Park Gets 4 out of 4 Stars from Kids

So we'd been to El Escorial yesterday (essentially a giant royal palace/museum) and to the Thyssen Museum the day before (5 hours of amazing art) and so Ed and I "owed" the boys some serious kid fun. Despite mediocre web reviews for AQUAPORTO!, we decided to indulge the boys in their water slides anyway. As usual, we had a rocky start, taking two metros to a bus (recommended by Frommers, I might add) that dropped us off on the side of the highway leading to exactly nowhere. At which point we wondered aloud "What on earth are we doing?" Even the kids were slightly nervous as trucks thundered past us at 80 mph. So we picked our way down an exit and finally found a shopkeeper who pointed us over a busy overpass, found a crumbling sidewalk on the opposite highway to cross a bridge over a river and after more walking at last spotted a sign that directed us to AQUAPORTO. Which, from the perspectives of the 1o yr old and 7 year old, was nothing but awesome. They just loved it. We were happy they were happy and it's always fun to be at a giant pool with several slide options but we wouldn't recommend it for adults. It's mediocre and expensive (entry, food, cabanas, etc.). And due to some rowdy teenagers, the wave pool was shut down for the day after only 3 or 4 waves. Still, the boys could not have been happier. Plus the staff helped us get a taxi, which was well worth the added expense for our return. Now off to find a new tapas place to recover from a full day!

Zoo shots (see previous post)

Here are the zoo pics, as promised earlier. And I'm feeling a little guilty for attending/enjoying the dolphin show. I know it's bad for the dolphins to be entertaining us and I'm pretty sure there's never enough space for dolphins. So I'm sticking to photos of the kids in the approved animal interaction areas. I have a thousand adorable photos of the lemurs--one arms outstretched sunbathing his belly next to my toe that I'll try to remember to post later--but the look of joy on Ben's face is priceless. No one touches the lemurs but it was pretty hilarious when the lemur grabbed Ben's pants. The boys got so much out of that up-close interaction and learned so much about all the various lemur types that I'd have paid 50 Euros instead of a measly 3 Euros. They also loved feeding the flamingos (can't do that at Oakland!)

Toledo snaps

Toledo was our first jaunt outside Madrid and even getting on the train was at a literal run. Though we caught the right train, we started out with a major disappointment in that Toledo's Alcazar was closed for restoration until late June/July. The Alcazar was kind of first on the hit list, where we might see some purported Christopher Columbus' artifacts, El Cid's sword, a ton of arms and armour, and well so much more from this fortified and fascinating city. The kids didn't care but Ed and I were deflated and as the entire town is built on a hill (mountain) everyone quickly lost their legs. And then, of course, it began to rain. Fortunately it didn't last long (as you can see in these photos) and it forced us into a cafe where Nate found a newfound love for pisto manchego/ ratatouille and Ben found yet more bread. (Ben has a remarkably narrow palate right now but a huge appetite as he grows, so Spain's bread has become increasingly important.) Toledo's cathedral was very impressive, even for the kids, and we sampled Toledo-famous marzipan (note the sword made of it with Nate's excited grin). We took the faux train (essentially an open-air bus) around the outside of Toledo which gave us some terrific views. We also saw one of El Greco's masterpieces (The Burial of the Count of Orgaz) and spent a lot of time in the Jewish barrio to see the two remaining synagogues and the Sephardic Museum. Toledo is alive with history but we'll have to come back for the Alcazar. p.s. Dad, the bridge shot is for you.

Random shots

As thanks to some Spanish archaelogists who helped out with a particularly difficult dig, Egypt gave the Temple of Debod to Madrid. It's a little odd but we climbed its hill one night to explore the tablets on the way to dinner and found it crowded with locals and tourists. The Madrid park police horses must navigate tricky flights of stairs. And in the case of two children who could have cared less (and you can kind of see it in the poses), here are poor Don Quixote and Sancho Panzo, a bronze tribute to Cervantes. No respect at all from the Stackler boys. Our attempt to explain the story left them even more baffled (why did he battle windmills again?) Ed, who really can't stomach wine, found a bottle he loved for the name alone (and I'll let you translate this naughty one on Google) during one of the many World Cup games. In fact he pretty much dragged me to the tapas bar the next day to find out what I thought of it (barely passable but amusing).

Birds and Swordplay at the Palace

Even when they're wandering around the beautiful Campo del Moro, which are the extensive gardens below the palace, the boys are thinking about how to beat each other with sticks, how to find a bigger stick, and which stick makes the best sword. We were all happy to see peacocks/peahens (and pea babies below who walked right in front of us). Ed was excited to hear (from his childhood hunting days) an actual pheasant and called back to it, which seemed to surprise the bird who expected something entirely different than Nate stalking it with the camera. We all like birds and it was nice to get such variety in what was essentially a city park. As a sidenote, the Campo del Moro public bathrooms were unusually plush (clean, soft towels, etc) and then I remembered they were royal. So if you're ever at Principe Pio metro station, there's a particularly luxe pit stop nearby.

Reina Sofia Belated

Last Thursday, we were a little surprised to walk away from Reina Sofia (1) with two unimpressed kids. We were all blown away by Guernica. And some of the multimedia pieces interested them. But our conversations about modern art (and we were just in MOMA last summer!) fell on deaf ears. One floor-to-ceiling video of the Statue of Liberty taken from a helicopter on a sunny day was spectacular. Truly moving, not out of patriotism per se, but it was such a close-up, capturing her hair bun and the muscles in the back of her arm. It's part of a Mixed Manhattan temporary exhibit so if it ever travels, I'd highly recommend it. The next two photos here are of Caixa Forum, another museum we won't be visiting. But it's an impressive space with an amazing exterior wall of plants. Finally, a little food sculpture, this time a vegetarian's artwork at Biotika. Ed and I loved it but the kids were less than enticed. Maybe they were "off" after all that day.

Retiro Park Belated

Madrid's parks are so gorgeous. Pretty, clean, fun, and a bit wild too. Retiro Park from earlier this week gave us dramatic skies, our first parrot sighting (exciting then but now we realize these green pairs are everywhere in the city), and some closely cropped cyprus trees which looked like they'd been drawn by Dr. Seuss. The boys posed with as much nasty abandon as they could next to Fallen Angel, the only Devil statue in the world.

Botanical Belated

The Prado's Botanical Gardens from earlier this week--loads of plants and trees but I'm posting a few photos of puerro, yucca, and a pretty white flower I admired and made the boys stand in front of to show off Spanish flowers. Only to read the sign and realize it originated in California. Today's Fathers Day hike in the Casa de Campo also made us think of the Bay Area. It's amazingly similar sometimes. After a teleferico (skyride) and a rowboat romp in the lake, we came back into town for a hot chocolate and churro at the divine Chocolateria San Gines. Happy Father's Day indeed!

Goose Egg--Both Kinds Unfortunately

After a mostly great day at the zoo and aquarium (amazing dolphin show! private tour of lemurs inside the enclosure because we don't speak spanish! parrot feeding! huge sharks! even some new animals we've never seen before!), poor Nate took a header on the sidewalk as he was racing his brother to the metro. Now he has a big old goose egg. He's a-ok but future photos will show a pretty serious shiner on his forehead.

We had mixed feelings about the Madrid zoo itself. It was clean, we saw a lot of different animals up close, and most of the animals had big enough fixtures. The fences seemed surprisingly low/weak, though perhaps that's our perception due to the SF Zoo tiger-mauling. The biggest bummer of the day--and this may be a kind of cultural difference (Ed thought maybe some sort of family tradition even)--was the public's endless feeding of the animals despite huge signs extolling them not to. And with no staff reinforcing those rules, grizzly bears sat begging for popcorn and nuts about 10 feet away from 30 families. People poked and petted anteaters over fences despite signs that warned them they were aggressive and dangerous. And we saw a boy pelting a deer repeatedly with stones while his family looked on. All that said, we had the most amazing interaction with a very empassioned and kind staffmember who gave us the up-close educational tour of the endangered lemurs. (Pictures of a lemur trying to pull Ben's pants down to get to some peanuts in his pocket tk. Ben didn't give him any.) So it was one of those kinds of days. Bad behavior happens everywhere. We reminded the (shocked) boys that the tigers at the SF zoo were being harassed too...

Dead Chicken

This was our first really terrific day--good coffee/hot chocolate, off to the Prado, great Cuban food for lunch, siesta, back to Botanical gardens near the Prado where we met this cat, extensive ramblings in Retiro park, 2 World Cup games, etc etc. But more on that later. Here are a couple outside shots of the Prado, where nothing can be photo-documented inside but the boys listed their three favorites. Most of which involve death, dying, hell, or skeletons. To which Ed added one of his faves: Saturn Devouring His Child. Which nearly happened only once when there was some close pointing near a masterpiece...But we made it out with no actual touching. Hooray for the Stackler*Williams family!

Ben:
1. Brueghel's Skeleton Army
2. Velasquez's King Ferdinand's Stag Hunt
3. Bosch's The Garden of Earthly Delights

Nate:
1. Patinir's St Jerome Pulling A Thorn out of a Lion's Paw
2. Goya's Third of May
3. Bosch's The Garden of Earthly Delights

In addition to the love for Bosch, there was all-around enjoyment of a painting heretofore referred to as the Dead Chicken (can't remember who painted it) as well as Velasquez's Las Meninas.

So we found we had pretty common taste. Or, rather, that the masterpieces really do take your breath away--even if you're 7 and don't know a masterpiece from a dead chicken.

Nate loses first tooth!

Our dentist said the kids have deep-rooted teeth and Nate left 1st grade with all his "little" teeth intact. But a Spanish roll finally did it yesterday. Nate was excited to find out if the tooth fairy in Madrid would leave behind a euro or a dollar. Euro!

Around Santa Ana, our neighborhood

The first picture isn't actually in Santa Ana--it's the Madrid symbol of a bear eating from a strawberry tree in Puerta del Sol.

It may just be in comparison to SF June gloom but the Madrid sky is so blue we can't believe it. These pictures don't really capture it but there are other pleasures too (note the cerveza while we watch Portugal vs. Ivory Coast in tapas bar).