Spain #5: Madrid (27 August-3 September 2013)

27 August: Today we departed the Mediterranean shores of Andalucía for the final time with mixed emotions. We were looking forward to our next chapter, but also with a bit of sadness for leaving friends, family and a way of life we all rapidly grew accustomed too. Our next destination was the heartland of Spain, namely Madrid, with a short stop-over in Cordoba at the northern edge of Andalucía proper. In Cordoba, the intention was to fulfill Frankie's desire to see a live Flamenco show and for all of us to experience one of the architectural wonders of this region, namely Cordoba's Mesquita. Alas, the Moroccan salad discussed on the previous posting during the end of our northern tip of Africa excursion was our downfall... Luca developed a nasty fever and the remainder of us Griswolds, had bowel issues to put it bluntly. Hence, we had to cancel our Flamenco show (we had reserved seating at a show before leaving my prima Marie's house) and nary one of us had the gumption to wander around the Moorish-Catholic architectural wonder of the Mesquita... Cordoba was vanquished to simply a site of rest and recuperation with nary a photo worthy of posting for our brief stay in this beautiful city with a lot to offer!

28 August: We departed for Madrid after a good ole sleep-in Cordoba that increased our fitness to approximately 50% of our normal energy levels (much higher than the previous day!). with the singular objective of reaching our accommodation in the capital of Spain. Unfortunately upon arrival we found that the accommodation was more suited to a family of 3, rather than a family of 5 (i.e. very small). Luckily we had only booked 2 nights! We spent the remainder of the day primarily resting in the hopes of attaining the 100% energy levels that we needed.

One of the reasons for coming to Madrid was to sort out some US Visa issues for the Oz contingent of our family. If you are staying in the US for <90 days, no problem as an online facility and $15 USD fee gets you a visa waiver with 15 minutes of effort. HOWEVER, if you are staying in the US for >90 days for a pleasure/tourism/family visit, then:
1 - you have to fill out a online form that takes about an hour per person
2 - the fee is substantially greater per person
3 - you have to schedule an interview
4 - you have to go to the interview in person at an embassy or consulate
5 - once granted the Visa it is then sent to you via courier (i.e. no pick-up option at the embassy or consulate)...

Unfortunately, both Robsie and I dropped the ball while in Perth, and realised shortly before our departure that we needed a US Visa rather than a waiver. We tried to get it sorted in Perth, but alas there was not ample time to schedule an interview and get the VISA (short version of our trials and tribulation). Upon our arrival in Spain we immediately tried to organize the Visas through the Madrid embassy (unfortunately the Barca consulate does not process Visas). This was a rather complicated process with a number of barriers to overcome. For example, US Visa payments in Spain have to be with a credit card or wire through a Spanish bank (could not pay with our Oz Visa Credit cards?)... Thus, we had to rely on Paul to make a bank wire transfer... At any rate, we finally made the requisite arrangements, and tomorrow morning at 8:30 am at the Madrid US Embassy was our interview day, which served as a major driver for the need to be recuperated from our ailments (i.e. look like healthy specimens wanting to enter the US).

29 August: After a good night's rest, we managed to nearly fully attain a recovery. Both my prima Marie and primo Francisco made phone inquiries into our health and particularly that of Luca, whom they were particularly concerned about. Many thanks for your concern, and at that time we were happy to report she was nearly back to full tilt! We got up early and were at the US embassy gates well before our scheduled interview appointment time slot. I had to remain outside (I was not being interviewed) and after a couple of hours, the Oz contingent emerged and happily reported that the US Visa was granted. We eventually arranged to pick-up the passports at a nearby courier office in about 4-5 days time.

After our US travel visa interview obligations were completed, we sauntered down to the nearby Parque del Retiro, a large park in central Madrid. Beautiful park, great and creative playgrounds peppered throughout the park. There was a very large urban lake in the park with a host of large carp, birds and turtles. Here's a pic of the lake with a large monument in the background.

A popular activity in this urban lake was to row boats with a capacity of only 4 people. Hence, the kids and I had a row while Robsie had a nice tranquil walk for about half an hour after the madness of the morning's US embassy activities.

Similar to Barcelona, we loved the Madrid metro, which again was extremely efficient in getting us anywhere we wanted to be within several hundred meters.

The girls heading down a typical wide shopping area in the Gran Via district of town, on our way down to check out the Plaza Mayor.

A levitating busker in one of the many plazas that intrigued the kids...

In Plaza Mayor in the centre of the city, we encountered all sorts of interesting folks. Here's a weird (South American) mythological character, festival type of thingy... There are lots of folks peppered all throughout Spain from Latin America, though there has been an exodus back to their home countries because of the economic crisis.

Lulu next to the tell-tale heralding of a typical helado shop that were easy to spot after dinner for their now-accustomed (and expected) dessert (must be one helado shop per 100 people all throughout the Mediterranean we reckon).

30 August: We moved to accommodation today with much more ample room, in a great district (not touristy, living with the locals) called Malansana. Thank's Pau for getting us in on such short notice! Today we attempted to make it a kid's day with no specific plan in mind. Big mistake. As during the previous day the kid's enjoyed Parque del Retiro, we decided to have a look at another HUGE park to the east called Casa de Campo. Here's another pic in the metro station on the way to this excursion.

It was hot and there was a zoo (similar to the one in Perth) and a large amusement park (similar to Adventure World in Perth), so after heated discourse with the kids we bypassed both of these attractions. Finally, we made it to the teleferico station (a 2.5 km cable car suspended about 40 m above the ground) that takes you to central Madrid. Here's a few pics of the kids and Robsie at the Casa de Campo side of the teleferico at the viewing station. 

After the teleferico we attempted to make our way over to the Palacio Real (a big ole palace that Robsie and I wanted to check out), but alas the kids were too plumb tuckered out from our afternoon excursions (~5 km of walking in the hot sun in Campo de Casa) to attempt it. We did manage to pass through some really nice city parks with a good city folk vibe along the Rio Manzanares and then stumbled onto the Plaza de Espana. Here's a pic of the kids and Robsie next to the monument dedicated to Cervantes with the large statues of Don Quixote and Pancho Sanchez directly behind them.

On the way home with our typical single file thing happening in the narrow streets of the inner city.

The graffiti thing in the narrow streets of the inner city, which happens to be our front door.

And dinner after our long day's excursion (some tire kids..., except for Luca as she got carried quite a bit by yours truly!).

Oh, shouldn't forget to mention the night club below our house, fortunately they played good music most of the night which seemingly lulled us to sleep both nights we stayed here. Here's a pic of us checking it out before our first sleep above this night club. In 10 years kids we'll be in there whooping it up with all those folks inside...

31 August: So Robsie and I frankly had a rather poor kid's day the previous day, so we had to make amends. So much for museums, palaces and any further plazas we may have wanted to check out during our limited time in Madrid... After a bit of research we decided that 'Faunia' was the go, which is essentially a theme zoo that is kid-centric. Here's a picture of Lulu next to a establishment with a similar name on the way to the metro...

Upon arrival to Faunia it was apparent the park was pretty cool, nice seal-sea lion show first up, and then the kid's got close up with some reptilians (this is a large European python).

Lot's of other attractions, here are Sam and Frankie next to the T. Rex equivalent of this area of Spain about 110 million years ago. Shortly after this pic, Luca burned out so I accompanied her for a 'siesta' in the afternoon on a patch of grass as the myriad of Faunia visitors toured by us with many a comment of our peaceful tranquil bedding arrangement in the midst of them! Both Luca and I were well rested up for the trip home.

The others (Robsie, Sam and Frankie) carried on, but at a certain point (I think in the Reptilian house) they burned out and seemingly had a quick siesta on one of the exhibits, pretty much smack in the middle of China from the looks of it.

Afterwards, back to our beloved Malesena district of Madrid, the single file trek back...

Saw a cool name for a store 'Ay mi madre' (oh, my mother!)...

And a fantastic meal on the plaza and to bed, as tomorrow was departure day to a village on the outskirts of Madrid, namely Colemnar de Oreja. This is the home village of Marie Angel, my cousin Francisco's partner, who was visiting family with Hugo and Luca in tow.

1 September: So we managed to get to Colemnar de Oreja village a bit late-ish in the afternoon (3 pm) where Marie Angel, Francisco, Hugo, Luca, Cecilia (Marie Angel's mother, Hugo & Luca's grandmother), Chelo (Marie Angel's sister), Chema (Chelo's husband), Chema Jr (hmmm, I let you figure that one out) and Celia (Chema Jr's sister) waiting patiently for us late-arriving Griswolds. Great late lunch, swimming pool and pet turtle action followed. Lunch was at Chema and Chelo's place, we then went over to Cecelia's place to drop off our stuff. Kid's immediately got into the soccer action, even Frankie who is shown playing here in the street in front of the house in the village street.

We then headed down to the pueblo's plaza for dinner. The town had just recently had their fiesta that included a running of the bulls (apparently this does not happen just in Pamplona, but it is widespread across Spain) and bullfights. Bullfights occur in the central plaza, which was transformed for this event with stands all around the plaza. The stands had not been taken down yet, so here are the primos having a play on the them with the very large village church in the background (nearly cathedral size!).

And here's us having dinner in what only a few day's earlier was the site of bullfighting.

2 September: Next day Marie Angel took us to meet a good friend (Pedro) of her late father's who has a winery (and vermouth producer to boot!) in town. He gave us a very intimate tour that kids and adults all found interesting. This is the name of the winery (bodega).

And here's Frankie next to some vats of wine that are age-ing...

And the adults sampling in the tasting room, while the kids checking out a cool glass floor thingy with interesting wine things below...

We then had a late lunch at Chelo and Chema's place with their version of a paella. Here are some pics of this gastronomic masterpiece in preparation and the final product. It tasted as good as it looked!

Kids then had a play with the turtles in their backyard, here's Frankie with one now.

Afterwards, we went to the nearby village of Chinchon, which was purported to have the classic plaza of the region (well known and famous in the region for it). Similar to the village of Colemnar de Oreja, Chinchon had also recently undergone its fiesta with running of bulls through the village streets and bullfighting in the main plaza. Here's a photo of flags still hanging across the streets in Chinchon.

A poster of the fiesta...

Us entering the Chinchon plaza...

Luca during her toro (bull) impersonation...

Hiding behind a bull-fighting safety wall in the ring imagining this to be a good place if there was actually a feisty bull in the ring...

And Marie Angel, Chelo and Chema chilling out in the plaza having a few drinks watching the kids go nuts in the plaza.

Afterwards, back to the village of Colemnar de Oreja, and Sam (FC Barcelona) and Hugo (Real Madrid) back to street soccer.

3 September: Next day was departure day, which was sad as we were saying see ya later to Francisco, Marie Angel, Hugo and Luca who were going back down to San Pedro in Andalucia, and we were off to northern Spain to Asturias via a quick Madrid stop (to pick-up passports with US Visas) and an overnight stay in Leon (to break up the drive and to check out another city). It wasn't goodbye to Chelo and Chema though as they agreed to keep several of our suitcases to lessen our load over the next month that was to include stops in Asturias (Spain), Paros (Greece) and Ischia (Italy). So we will see them again on 1 October. Though Robsie and I didn't get to sample Madrid in the optimal manner, we both felt that it was a city we could live in for awhile, maybe when things pick up economically in Spain we'll be back for a longer stint... It was great meeting Marie Angel's family and getting to know where she came from, we are all grateful for the invite and time spent there. Chemo, Chelo and Cecilia were extremely hospitable and knowledgeable, which greatly enriched our experience in the beautiful pueblos of Colemnar de Oreja and Chinchon for which all of us Griswolds are extremely grateful. Muchisimos gracias a todos!