Central Spain to Start '09

As we alluded to in our last lengthy post, we made a trip to central Spain from San Sebastian to start the New Year. The trip had both planned and unplanned stops but, thankfully, no catastrophes (such as…batteries dying in rented vehicles in a parking garage in the middle of Paris, just as an example…).

We left on the 3^rd, ready to take our rented Seat Ibiza (translates into “typical European 4-door hatchback”) to Madrid. Unfortunately, the rental agency screwed up and did not have the right size car seat for Audrey (a problem in Spain since it’s against the law for someone her size and age to travel without one). The best solution was to stop in Burgos on the way to

Madrid, a town that we had considered seeing (since only the BEST are named Burgos – right Bill, Karen??) but were not sure we could fit in on this trip. This unplanned diversion ended up great, however, and not just because it broke up the trip. Burgos is home to a famous cathedral, located on one of the pilgrimage routes to Santiago de Compostella, and it is really a great place to see (see Cathedral pics). In addition, the historic center of the city is great and the girls loved walking through the tunnel of trees along the creek near the cathedral. We were also able

to eat a great lunch at a restaurant just off the cathedral plaza, the first of many great meals we’d have during our travels.

We arrived in Madrid the evening of the 3^rd and decided to see the holiday decorations that we had heard about during our time in San Sebastian. As we discussed in previous posts, Reyes Magos is the

BIG DAY for kids in Spain and, as a result, all of the decorations were

still going strong during our time in Madrid. They were amazing to see at night – with many streets in the center of the city having series of lights strung across them and each street having a different color or theme. Walking from block to block with all the shoppers and lights really got us into the holiday spirit, if only a week or so late.

We spent the next two days visiting museums and other sights and busing/training/walking the

city. The museums included the Prado to see some of the great resident collection and a BONUS Rembrandt exhibit (girls pic out front), and the Reina Sofia to see Picasso’s Guernica and th e other great modern art there (TRAVELER’S NOTE – if you have to wait in line to get into a museum and see some kids between 5 and 10 milling around, BORROW THEM BECAUSE IT WILL GET YOU INTO THE MUSEUM QUICKER – we were pulled from long queues in both Paris and

Madrid and taken to the front of the line because we had the girls). We crossed through the Puerta del Sol many times (Madrid’s equivalent to Times Square – see the Tio Pepe sign), went to the Plaza Mayor (yep – that’s Yoda in the Plaza in the 2nd plaza pic – he’s A LOT bigger in person) and attempted to visit the Palace (see the sign – royals think they can do WHATEVER THEY WANT).

One night we went to dinner and a flamenco show (yes, that’s AJ McLean ofBackstreet Boys fame, or at least his twin, Jorge, in the 2^nd pic) and on

Reyes Magos-Eve we attended the parade (Spain’s equivalent to the Macy’s Day parade) with 1,000,000 of our closest friends. We are not sure if all holiday parades start with large bugs and involve small children on REALLY tall stepladders jockeying for viewing position or continual floats throwing candy, but this one does. Our entire time in Madrid was great.

On our trip out of Madrid, we planned a stop in Segovia to see the huge Roman aqueduct which still stands in the center of the city. This is one stop that was high on maxo-geeko-gearhead Dan’s list (it’s listed as one of the greatest engineering structures in the world) and, since he was driving, well… The girls were not so sure about this diversion or the way to our one night in a “castle” (see below) but it ended up working out fine since we (a) had tapas for lunch and (b) they went ice-skating.

Our last stop on our adventure was in Lerma to stay at the “castle”, actually called a parador (www.parador.es). A parador is a government owned and run hotel (NOT the type of government run hotels that you are thinking of, U.S.-wise - they are VERY NICE), which is usually in a former castle, palace, or other structure that probably has a history and/or view. This one is located in the former palace of the Duke of Lerma – built in the 16^th century in his hometown (a small hill town - he located his palace at the top of the hill, not surprisingly) using money he fleeced from the country via his buddy, the king. So, while it does not necessarily have a completely honorable past, the place was great and we enjoyed our one night there. The former courtyard was enclosed and now houses a huge lobby, into which new age music was piped and coffee, hot chocolate and snacks were served. Needless to say WE HUNG

OUT THERE FOR A WHILE. After that, we did dinner in a big way in their dining room having traditional dishes from the area (for certain members of the family pasta counts as traditional and from the area). The girls’ meals were presented in really cool fashion as shown in the pic – main course in the center and the supporting cast around the periphery. We then slept well in our nice room and the next morning we toured the town QUICKLY

(freezing cold temps! - photo looking through a church at the surrounding

countryside) and headed back to SS.

The trip was everything we had hoped for – much fun and good food and drink – and we arrived back to our apartment safe but wiped. This was probably our last trip during our time here and we could not have asked for a better swan song.

We hope you returned from your holiday travels happy and safe, as well. We miss you one and all.