Madrid, Spain!

Ahh, what a fantastic and much needed vacation Zannah and I had this September in Spain! We planned and saved up for more than a year to go on this trip, the longest vacation we've ever had together, a whole 10 days!

We flew into Madrid, a huge city that quickly won us over with its small town personality, extremely clean subways, easily walkable city center - full of world renown art museums, palaces and churches (look at the painted ceilings below), and every store front was either a tapas bar, or an outdoor cafe (or both). Needless to say, we ate and drank our way through Spain: inexpensive wine, savory pork, and sweetly tender seafood. My Central American Spanish dialect was sufficient and quite helpful, albeit lacking that characteristic lisp, and I felt surprisingly confident and encouraged by the locals when speaking with them.

We met up with Zannah's parents on our first day in Madrid, which also happened to be their 44th wedding anniversary! In celebration they chose the perfect restaurant, full of locals and families (even the children eat dinner starting at 9pm), where no reservations are taken we just got there early and waited in line! Our entrees were artfully done and included steak, lamb, and duck, and we toasted cava (Spanish sparkling wine) for dessert!

Our second day in Madrid was museum day - we saw El Prado museum, where my interest in Valazquez and Goya grew exponentially. And then we went through the royal botanical garden so that Duncan could teach us about some of the local plants and the statues of important botanists. We completed our museum tour with the impressive modern art museum, Centro de Arte Reina Sofia. This museum used to be an old hospital and is 4 floors packed with people and art. It was packed because we went when admission was free, and because this museum holds what many think of as the most impressive piece of art in Spain, Picasso's Guernica. We also got to see photos of the evolution of this piece, and many more works by Picasso and Dali. We were too tired to see more than just a fraction of this museum, but we didn't leave without a ride in the glass walled elevator that provided an exceptional view of the city. The great thing is that nothing closes early here, you're not rushed out at 5:00 pm, instead the night lingers on, people use the courtyards inside the museums to have a beer or a cafe, and then start to think about dinner around 8-10 pm!

That night we went out to eat tapas - little bites of meat, cheese, bread, fish, pig skin, hot peppers, etc, out in an old square that was full of tables and people. Then we found ourselves walking the streets of Madrid with rivers of people, more people than I have ever seen in my life. There was a huge event (la noche en blanco) with art, music, poetry, at venues all over the city. It didn't seem like most people were going anywhere - they were just dressed up, out walking in the beautiful evening air, and eating and drinking whenever they felt like it, a past time called el paseo. Later we'd see arial images of the night on the news with record crowds filling and filing through Madrid. Imagine a street from the MN state fair at dinner time - at least 20 people across - now imagine this going up and down EVERY street, big 4 lane roads and tiny winding streets alike! It felt extremely safe, because there were so many people (families, children, babies) out and the city was very well lit. Zannah and I saw more of the city this night between the hours of 10-2 am than we saw the previous two days! It was just contageous to be out amongst these happy people. We finally sat down at the bar outside our hotel to drink some wine in tables where the chairs are always facing out - to watch the people go by!