cacahuete que come osos loco

We went to the Madrid Zoo on Saturday and saw some crazy bears that really love peanuts. If you can't tell from the video, people are throwing peanuts to the bears and it doesn't appear to the the first time.

Paella

Because we are in Spain and the markets are full of everything you need to make paella, I made some. It was pretty good for a first attempt. It will not be the last. I didn't have the correct pan, but I think this works. Oh and thats about a $6 bottle of wine. Not bad for $6.

Las niñas que comparten un cono del helado

Last night we went for a stroll around town and ended up having tapas at a little plaza near our apartment. The girls played at the playground while we drank cerveza & ate some dinner. Afterwards we went to the heladoria and the girls shared an ice cream cone.

Day Five

Think I'm about to ditch the days title - because a) I'm losing track of what happened on what day and b) i think it's making the posts boring. And I certainly don't want to bore our readers.

These were from our first full day in Madrid. Still all very jetlagged, but we managed to get out a walk around a bit. The picture of Charles and the girls are from the Plaza Mayor which is just a few blocks from our apartment. The others are from random parks and fountains around town. There is a park or a fountain every few blocks it seems. Which is nice, because for the most part the city is pretty dirty (which I guess is to be expected with 5 million people). The girls' feet are absolutely black at the end of the day - and it's not like they are running around barefoot outside.

Retiro Park

There is an amazing park here, Retiro. We have only been through part of it, but there are gardens, fountains, ponds, and playgrounds everywhere. We went last Monday, after our first day of class. There are also little outdoor cafes throughout the park, so we enjoyed some cervezas and bocadillos. Yum!

Hogar Dulce Casero! (at least for a little while)

I thought I would post some pictures of our home for the next month. We were living it up a the Palace Hotel for 3 nights until our apartment was ready, but we have now moved on. While its no Palace Hotel, it is good to have more space for the girls. I'll miss the room service, but a kitchen is nice too.

This is a view of the living room. There are 2 balconies overlooking Calle de Atocha. Unfortunately we don't have couches at the moment. The last people to rent this apartment requested beds instead of couches and we are trying to get the couches back.




The Dining Room








The Kitchen (small, but it works)








The view off the balcony at night.

Day Four

Travel day to Madrid. I don't think I took any pictures, but it literally took us all day. The Dublin airport is the most insane airport I've ever seen. And we flew Ryannair to Madrid, which Charles and I have decided is the public transportation equivalent for airlines. First of all, it is so cheap, we didn't know quite what to expect. I think we paid less than $150 US for 4 tickets (not 150 each, the total price was 150) from Dublin to Madrid. When it's time for the flight everyone lines up to rush on board for seats because they aren't assigned. Then of course we're delayed, because that's what happens to us when we fly with our children. Finally get in the air, of course there is no free beverage or snack, but they will try to sell you anything and everything, including scratch off prize tickets to win money. It was so loud, children everywhere, (also kind of smelly). It was absolutely PERFECT for us, there was no way our kids could bother anyone.

Day Three

Sorry I'm so behind. I've had problems staying connected to the internet long enough for my pictures to upload. Day 3 is in Ireland. This was our day to explore the countryside. Everything is beautiful and very green. We started at the Irish Sea, then drove in to the "Meeting of the Waters" where 2 rivers meet, then to Glendalough which has an old monastic site, river, trails through the hills and woods. Very nice day!

Day Two

Okay, so day two starts with an early morning arrival in Dublin, Ireland. The girls did sleep the whole flight, but 6 hours is only a small dent in what they normally sleep everynight, not to mention not much sleep the night before since our flight left so early. They were real troopers, much better acting than I though they would be, but they had their moments!

Collected our luggage, finally found our way to the rental car site. Picked up our red Toyota Avensis - which we think is the european Camry - but of course in Ireland they drive on the left side of the road, the steering wheel is on the right hand side of the car, and pretty much every car is a manual transmission (which also means you shift with your left hand, that didn't occur to us until we got to the car!). Fortunately Charles is a pretty capable person, and managed to drive us around Ireland for 3 days without incident.

Drove about an hour south of Dublin, into County Wicklow, stayed at a Bed and Breakfast in the country. It was by no means fancy, but we were the only people there, we got to rest and relax, it had beautiful gardens. Really, by the time we made it to the B&B, had naps, it was dinner time, went into town for dinner, came back for bed time. Which were learning is kind of difficult with jetlagged children. They haven't been going to bed before 10 or 11 each night. They will adjust, I'm sure.

Pictures are of us driving on the "wrong-side" of the road, and the rest are in the yard at the B&B, with red Avensis pictured in the background. I was actually quite disappointed we didn't get something a little more European than a Toyota - like an Opel, or a Seat, or a Fiat, or a Peugot.

Day One

Hola! Buenos dias from Madrid. We are here. Thought I'd try to quickly recap the last few days, day by day, with pictures included. Let's see. Wednesday (Day 1) we left the house at 3:45am headed to the airport. Aunt Bonny dropped us off, thank you again to her. The Memphis airport was fine. Going through security was quite the experience with all the stuff and children. Both kids have to come out of the stroller, their shoes have to come off, we always carry lots of electronics that have to be pulled out (Charles), stuffed animals, sippy cups, etc etc... all through security. We think we had about 7 bins full of stuff that first trip through security.

Flew to Charlotte, not a very long flight. Quick connection to New York, for about a two hour flight. The kids were fine, as far as I remember, it's really all quite a blur at the moment. They really didn't sleep much on the way to New York. However, because I'm such a cheapo, we had a 7 hour layover in New York (due to my creative ticket purchasing). We managed to eat up a couple of hours just getting our luggage, getting to a completely different area of the airport to check-in with a different airline, more security checks, finally lunch. The kids did manage to sleep a little in the stroller during all that. Although I almost cried when we had finally gotten them both to sleep and security made me take them both out to go through the metal detector, which of course ended the naps. Oh, and pray that you never lose your luggage at JFK, we're pretty sure it's the luggage graveyard. The room where we collected our luggage was absolutely stacked full of luggage from wall to wall surrounding the conveyor belt thing - Charles and girls pictured here.

We still had to waste several more hours, which involved lots or walking around the terminal, Carlisle listening to Charles' ipod (pictured), trips to get juice, change diapers, and potty breaks (JFK bathrooms not so outstanding either - FYI). Then of course our plane was delayed boarding by 30 minutes, and THEN delayed almost 2 hours at the gate AFTER we were on board. That has probably been the worst part of the trip, those 2 hours stuck on the plane, not moving, nothing to do with the kids. Finally, we got flying, the girls fell imediately asleep and slept the entire 6 hours to Dublin - such Angels. We arrived in Dublin about 8am - so on to Day 2.