Sunday was blazing hot, so we took it very slow. Spent time at a massive park (Parque del Buen Retiro) and wandered around the city. The Spain Saudi World Cup match was in the evening, so we enjoyed some bread and cheese and watched it in the comfort of our air conditioned Airbnb.
I’m putting these pics in their own dedicated post because there are a lot of them, and they’re rather repetitive if you’re not a particular type of nerd. Happily, I am precisely that type of nerd, so the royal armory was a highlight of the trip for me.
We visited the Royal Palace on Saturday afternoon. It was pretty over-the-top. Over 3000 rooms. Gilded everything. Frescoes on the ceilings. Enormous paintings. All the things.
There was also an armory, but I’ll post those pics separately.
The two close-ups of the ceiling corners (before the piano)are worth looking at more closely. The artist combined 2D and 3D techniques to make some of the painted figures in the fresco become sculpted plaster as they crossed onto the wall.
Addendum: in one of the parks outside the palace, there are a great number of statues of eminent historical men. On most of them, most of the time, sit one or more pigeons. This seemed right and fitting.
We met Griffin at the airport with the rest of the exchange students, both from SPA and Colegio Malvar.
Griffin is in great spirits and is far more confident in his Spanish. He had a great time on the trip, and seemed excited to keep exploring for another two weeks.
He chose a great Philippine restaurant for dinner.
We embarked on a mega-walk today through many lovely Madrid neighborhoods. We stopped for amazing chocolate dipped churros, lots of people watching, and pauses in the shade. (Have I mentioned the blazing summer heat?)
Eventually, we made our way to the Royal Palace where we had 4:30 tickets. After running into one of my students in the plaza, we wended our way through the security line only to learn that our tickets were for tomorrow. They wouldn’t budge. Fortunately, we are on vacation, so who cares? We’ll try again tomorrow.
It was a great adventure, but after more than 20,000 steps, we were worn out by the time we got home.
Left home early Wednesday. Arrived in Madrid early Thursday. Managed to successfully use public buses to get to the Arganzuela neighborhood. Too early to check into our Airbnb, we trundled our luggage along the sidewalks until we found a little cafe/bakery where we picked up some pastries. We perched on a sidewalk bench, in a jet lagged fugue.
A highlight involved an elderly woman marching up and asking us to make room for her. Apparently she likes to sit on this bench in the morning. She proceeded to happily regale us with stories, despite our extremely limited understanding of Spanish. Apparently she’s 80 years old. Her family has lived in the apartment above the cafe for the past seven decades. She was casually racist when she learned that Maggie speaks Chinese, saying that she didn’t like Chinese people. Despite this sour note, I think we all felt lucky to get this unexpectedly intimate introduction to an unvarnished local.
We proceeded to our Airbnb. Small but well-decorated. We took a siesta for a few hours and then headed out on our first adventure to the Museo Reina Sofia, a wonderful art museum where we got to see Picasso’s Guernica.
Dined at a street cafe at 9:30 PM. As we had been told, nights run very late in Madrid!
Griffin, of course, is still with his host family. We’ll rendezvous with him on Saturday morning.
After a fantastic morning hiking the north rim of the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone (that post will have to wait for better bandwidth), we headed back to our cabin via the longer route along the shore of Yellowstone Lake. We encountered multiple natural obstacles along the way.
First, a bison crossed the road near Canyon Village. This brings traffic to a stop not just because people don’t want to injure the bison, but because everybody wants pictures. Including me.
Shortly thereafter, we stopped again for an elk with an impressive rack of antlers moseying across. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get a picture. It’s the closest view I’ve ever had of an elk.
Then we were hit with a sudden thunderstorm. The temperature dropped more than 20 degrees in ten minutes and the wind picked up dramatically. The waters of Yellowstone Lake were whipped into whitecaps.
Shortly after Maggie took that picture, we were stopped because a large pine fell across the road about five cars ahead of us. It fully stopped traffic in both directions. A group of road heroes managed to tow it to the side with a large pickup. This only cleared one lane, but it was enough for people to squeeze by.
When we finally returned to our cabins, Old Faithful welcome us home by erupting as we pulled in. Pretty amazing.
We hiked up past Grand Prismatic Spring and Fairy Falls to Imperial Geyser. Although it was a relatively easy route, the sun is intense at this altitude, so we were flagging a bit by the time we got back to the trailhead.
We decided to take the risk of traveling this Christmas after two years of staying put. We flew to Bethesda to visit Andrew’s parents (known to the kids as “Grummy and Grandpa Stape”). Andrew’s brother, David, also visited with his family (Nancy, Raven, and Max). We were nervous about COVID the whole time, but multiple self-tests have come out negative, so we think we made it.
We avoided indoor activities beyond the family, but had a great time skating and exploring the National Mall. Pictures below capture a bit of the spirit (click on them for larger versions).
And, a video of Raven and Nancy doing a spin on the ice:
We usually avoid places like Legoland. They’re expensive, crowded, and cater to a materialist brand-oriented ethos that we dislike. Did I mention expensive? But this year, knowing that we were going to San Diego, and we might not be back until Griffin’s too old, we considered checking it out. Grummy and Grandpa Stape jumped in, offering to give Griffin and Maggie gift certificates for their birthdays. That clinched it, and the kids were bouncing with excitement during the intervening weeks.
To our great surprise, all five of us had a great time and we stayed all day… we closed out the park! We went on a cloudy Wednesday and the park wasn’t as mobbed as usual. Lines were short, people (guests and staff) were kind and cheerful, and food options were better than expected. Oliver even took an afternoon nap in the stroller while Griffin and Maggie played at the waterpark. Lounging in a cabana while the older kids played and Oliver slept was not-at-all what I expected from a trip to Legoland. Moreover, the lego models were wicked cool.
