Day 4: Madrid, A City of 25,000 Steps!

 

Oxford, Ma, Racine, WI, and Saugus, MA all together at the Prado Museum 

Before I start tonight's blog, my prediction came true...Late last night, I was awoken by a knock at my door. Startled, I sprung to my feet with a bounce in my step.  I called out, "who is it?" I listened so I could hare.  Nothing was spoken back to me.  I peered through the peep hole, expecting to see a rabbit dog.  Again nothing!  Slower than a tortoise in a race, I cautiously opened the door.  Out of the corner of my eye, I sweat that I saw a 6 foot tall bunny hopping its way down the hall.  I tried to give chase, but tripped over 17 small gift bags.

The Eurotrip Easter Bunny struck again! Reportedly, the bags contained an Easter Egg filled with sweet treats, but I am only assuming because no one offered to share their candy with me!!! Don't worry the travel gods paid me back with good karma.

Back to the blog....

First, I wanted to thank everyone who trusted me with their kids over Easter this year. I know for some of you it was really hard today. I get it. I hope that this experience is worthwhile for your child and that you see the change in them when we return. We are a third of the way through this trip, already, and Saturday night will be here before you know it.  I already mentioned that Mrs. Agola and Mr. Sepulveda are here with me and I need to throw out a special thanks to Mrs. Agola today.  Sadly, one of our students was not feeling well enough to join us today.  She seems to be getting better and we are grateful for that.  Mrs. Agola stayed back at the hotel and stayed in communication with the child's Mom to ensure that all of their needs were met. We never anticipate when an illness will strike, but knowing that Megan was her to assist provided me a great sense of comfort.  Thank you, again!  This also means that we were one less chaperone throughout today.  This means an extra thank you to Mr. S for his help, plus that of our two parents, Vinnie and Amy.  You all made a great team today!

Back to the blog, again....

When I travel, I look for signs.  I don't literally mean "Dunkin Donut" signs, but sometimes the figurative world and literal worlds collide. Today was one such day. I traveled to Madrid in 2010. I was a chaperone on that trip led by Dr. Clifford. I don't really remember much from that expedition, but I know that our hotel was across the street from the train station and that there was a Dunkin Donuts near the entrance way! As we took our bus tour yesterday, I was shocked...Madrid built a new train station, BUT the Dunkin Donuts was still there across from the old, repurposed station (its now a botanical garden). I wondered if we would have a chance to visit and get a taste of home.

If you follow me on Facebook, you already know the answer was yes, but here is the rest of the story.  As the first photo indicates, we are sharing this experience with two other groups. One from Central Mass and one from Wisconsin. Both groups are great and our kids are starting to chat.  Today, however, they had both signed up for an excursion to Toledo.  We did not.  This meant that Stefano had to take them to Toledo and I became a makeshift tour guide. In Paris, Dublin, Rome, Prague, in those places, I would be able to lead a tour comfortably, but I didn't know this city as well...until today.

So, to bring these two things together, our bus took us into Madrid today and dropped us off across the street from the old Train Station...and Dunkin Donuts.  Of course, we had to visit.

Fifteen years ago, I was here. Today, Eurotrip karma was repaid

The staff was very impressed that we were from the birthplace of Dunks...yes, I gave them a history lesson.

Some pictures need no explanation!

Stefano had prepared me for today with a list of about a dozen things we could do, but it was impossible to do them all in the time that we had. I had been looking at Google Maps for a while and had come up with a plan for the day. My Facebook post today explained that I don't have many pictures and it is because I was in charge of navigation for the day. Our first destination was the El Rasto flea market. On our way from Dunks to the market, I stopped a couple of times to talk about how to safely navigate a city that is foreign to you. I also chatted about how to best protect ourselves in areas where pickpockets might be around.  

The flea market is a huge tradition on Sundays in Madrid. We arrived as they were opening and were able to see and shop before the crowds arrived. 

After El Rasto, we walked towards the Gran Via.  This is Madrid's Fifth Avenue.  Our goal wasn't to shop at Michael Cole or Prada, but instead to go to the Hotel Rio.  This hotel stands 27 stories above the city and has a roof deck with a panoramic view of Madrid. We were able to ascend to the top floor using the donations that some folks had made to #Eurotrip25 this spring...so again, another huge Thank You!

I was very scared!

If you haven't seen other photos, that is a glass floored walkway!

In the distance you can see the Royal Palace

Frequent readers of this blog know that I am not a fan of heights, but here we are again on top of the world!  The kids really liked being way up there. I did not, lol.

After such an uplifting experience, it was time for lunch.  We went back to the Gran Via and there a quite a bit of options. Knowing that we had some time, we decided to find nicer places where we could relax. 

Seafood Paella shared by two students.

Beef, Fries, and Peppers

With 20 people out and about, we couldn't all go to the same place.  So some of us went to a steak house and others went to a Spanish food restaurant...others had less adventurous cuisine! Last night, I tried an olive for the first time in 15 years....today, I had traditional Paella.  I thought it was going to be mostly chicken based on what we ordered, but I was wrong...the mix was some chicken on the bone with a ton of different seafood. I was sharing with Jayme and thankfully, she liked the seafood...and thankfully Ma'Isha couldn't finish her beef with fries!

We gathered together again, and moved towards the Prado Museum.  At this point, we had 20k+ steps on our feet, so I navigated our group to a nearby park where we participated in Siesta (Perhaps my favorite Spanish tradition). 

Pretty much every bench was occupied by one of our Eurotrippers

We were there for just about an hour, but it was a much needed rest. It also afforded many of us, including myself, to call home and exchange holiday greetings. We met back up with Stefano and our new friends and entered into the museum. It was at that point that we found out that pictures weren't allowed. Stefano had crafted a scavenger hunt for the kids to partake in and even is awarding a prize to the winning team tomorrow.  That said, some folks enjoyed the museum without a scavenger hunt.  It is supposedly the largest museum of paintings in the world and it showed. It was massive. I found a quiet room with some of Goya's paintings and appreciated his realistic take on life in the Spanish countryside. I have no idea if I saw any masterpieces, but I definitely saw a master at work. 

It was finally time for dinner. We walked back to the Gran Via!!! I forgot to take a picture of the restaurant, but here is some shots from our dinner.

Salad tonight was delicious. I used my bread to sop up the oil dressing!

I never would have thought one of my more unique dinners on an EF trip would Meatballs and Rice, but here we are...most of the kids really liked the familiarity of the meatball.

Flan...at least that's what the kids told me it was. I donated mine to some growing boys

Stefano going over some of the results for his scavenger hunt (and a Monty lookalike painted into the background). 

 

And now...we are back to the hotel. I've been writing off an on for two hours. I've been chatting with the kids and sharing memories that we've already made. They have been sniping pictures of each other when folks aren't looking. They've been posting them in a shared group chat that we have...but they didn't realize that I've been playing this game since 2005.  Twenty years ago...wow, that shocks me. I have done this for a long time, lol...but here we are: My snipe:

A special treat goes to the first student who mentions this photo to me tomorrow!

Good night everyone! Tomorrow, we leave Madrid for one more night in Spain and then Portugal!

Mr. Lavoie, relishing the fact that he's the master of the snipe...been sniping Eurotrip photos since before these kids were even born!!!