Madrid #3

The big event for Thursday was the arrival of Lucy, Grandma, Grampy and Auntie Goose. They pulled up around 10:30 AM, just as Sara Sue was waking up. Much excitement and activity ensued. Eventually Lucy & Goose settled down for a nap, although Lucy never really fell asleep - too much adrenalin. She finally emerged and played with Sara Sue a while while Goose napped. While this was going on Elisa took Stan & Ann over to their hotel a couple of blocks away near the Estrecho Metro, and Elisa returned once they checked in. At around 1:15 we woke Goose up, and I took the girls down to the pool until about 2:00. About 2:30 Stan & Ann returned, and we headed out at 3:00 so Elisa could teach her class at 4:00. We all went with her to her school, and had some time prior to class to grab a quick sandwich and drinks at the school's cafe.

Once she left for her class the rest of us went to the Musee Sorolla just about a block away. Joaquín Sorolla was a painter in the late 19th and early 20th centuries who did some very nice work, both portraits and landscapes. They had a temporary exhibit which contained various pieces of his work, all of which were portraits of his wife (and a few of his children) over many years - it was an interesting timeline of their lives. The museum itself was formerly his house, but it was very expansive considering it is right in the middle of the city. There is a very nice garden/courtyard area right outside the house, so we got some good pictures there.

Once we were done there we met back up with Elisa and headed over to Sol (center of town) to a travel agency in order to get our train tickets for tomorrow's journey to Seville. While I waited for Elisa to work her Spanish magic with the travel agent, a little girl about 5 years old who was sitting next to me leaned over and asked, "Habla Espanol?" When I shook my head No, she took it upon herself to show me a travel brochure she was looking at and teach me the numbers in Spanish. It was all at once cute, adorable, and somewhat humiliating.

Once that was taken care of we headed over to the nearby Plaza Santa Ana to have some tapas for dinner. Since the weather was cooler today it was comfortable to eat outside, so we settled in at a place called La Suiza - food was good but nothing extraordinary. Then finally after a stop for some ice cream we headed home at about 9:45. We were all so pleased and shocked at how well Lucy did with so little sleep (as well as Ann and Goose). :)

Tomorrow we leave at around 11:45 to catch a 1:00 fast train headed for Seville. We'll get in at around 3:30 and we've leased an apartment for 2 nights. Saturday night we have tickets to see a flamenco performance which hopefully won't be too cheesy/touristy. Will be off the grid until we return Sunday evening, but will post another entry when we get back.