Marie's Web Log

Read all the way down - there's a bonus photo at the bottom.

We got back on Monday at midnight from two days in Madrid. No, it didn't rain - the weather was lovely, 25 degrees and sunny, with a bit of a breeze. We stayed in a hotel just outside the centre, but on the Metro line. There was a children's play park just outside the hotel, which was useful, as we took Amelia with us. She was very well behaved, although she hated the take-off and landing of the plane on the way out. She's so old now (at two and a half!) that she has to have her own seat, and she didn't like being buckled in. On the way back she was OK though.

We enjoyed strolling through the big park in Madrid, watching the boaters on the lake and the puppet shows, and sitting in the shade drinking beer and iced tea. We managed to pop into a couple of art museums (Madrid has more than 30, apparently) - not for long, but long enough to see Picasso's Guernica (huge, and done in shades of grey and black and white - for some reason I always think of it as being in colour, maybe because the subject is so graphic) and some works by Valasquez and other Spanish painters from the 16th to 18th centuries. (You never knew I was so arty, did you? I took an Art History course at university many years ago, and sometimes I still recognize paintings from it.)

The only drawback really was the food. We knew it would be heavily based on meat and therefore a challenge for us, but we thought there would be at least some seafood or non-meat choices (it is a big city, after all). But it was pretty much meat, meat, meat. Add to that the fact that the restaurants don't open until 9pm for dinner - not ideal when you're travelling with a toddler. We survived mostly on white bread and cheese, and some crackers and fruit we'd brought from home (and the hotel breakfast!).

We had one bad hour on Sunday during which Amelia spilled a glass of red wine at a tapas bar (too young to be drinking, I know), we then went to another cafe to eat where we found bits of plastic in our paella, and then Amelia knocked over a mug in a shop and chipped it. At least we didn't have to pay for the plastic food or the damaged mug!

The "Madrilianos" loved Amelia. The Spanish culture is very family-based of course, and they seem to dote on children. People couldn't help stopping to talk to Amelia, or pinch her cheek. Often strangers would (almost absent-mindedly) reach down and pat her head as we walked by. We did experience some of this when she was younger in Canada, but not so much since we've come to England. Perhaps the natrual reticience of the British is to blame.

I'd forgotten how much security there is in European cities. There's always some terrorist group or other trying to blow things up. Case in point - I see on the CBC web site that a car bomb went off today in Madrid. In the nothern part, not the centre, but still.

Amelia is going through a period of not wanting to go to bed (have I mentioned this already?). It's very light here in the evenings, and will keep getting lighter until the solstice. She has just fallen asleep on the sofa (it's 10 pm). Ian is watching the Liverpool vs. Milan football match on TV. (Soccer, that is, for those who care about that sort of thing.)

More soon...

Bonus photo: