Pig Out!

February 25th--Today we took a day trip to Segovia. It's about 30 minutes (via train) north of Madrid. We made reservations and our train was to leave at 10:30. Well...our train did leave at 10:30, we just weren't on it. Apparently, we misjudged our time from the apartment to the train station. We left the apartment and had to take 2 subways to the train station. We arrived at the station about 10:28 but had no idea where we were to go. Mike was holding Austin and I was dragging Abby behind me as we ran through the train station. All that running and we still missed it. We went to the ticket window and were able to get on the next train which left at noon, so no big deal. In the end, it actually turned out better that we caught the later train because had we arrived in Segovia as planned, we would of had too much time to kill before our train departed back to Madrid. So, we arrived at the Segovia train station at 12:30 and took bus #11 (per Rick Steve's) into the town which was about a 20 minute ride. The bus dropped us off right in front of the Roman aqueduct. Segovia was a Roman military base and needed water. Emperor Trajan's engineers built a nine-mile aqueduct to channel water from the Rio Frio to the city. The exposed section, which we walked, is 2,500 feet long and 100 feet high. It was an amazing thing to see especially since it was all built with 20,000 granite blocks without any mortar. From the aqueduct, we walked to Plaza Mayor where we decided to have lunch. We ate at La Concepcion Restaurante (again, thanks Rick Steve's) where we experienced Segovia's culinary claim to fame, roast suckling pig (cochinillo asado) and judiones de La Granja (a popular soup made with flat white beans from the region and pig ears). Along with our meal, we enjoyed a wonderful bottle of red wine while watching the kids play in the square with several other kids. After a nice 2 hour lunch and with our bellies full, we went into the Cathedral. The church was absolutely beautiful...again, we are amazed at the fine architecture and construction from the 1500's. It was definitely a educational experience for all; especially Abby. She asked a lot of really good questions about Jesus, his death and resurrection based on the many paintings and sculptures. After leaving the Cathedral, we walked to see the Alcazar. The Alcazar is a fortified castle that has also served as a prison and a Royal Artillery School. The kids loved entering on the "grumpy ole troll's bridge" and finding the Princess room. After touring the castle, we climbed 152 stairs up to the tower. It was a little rough climbing all those stairs, but well worth the view from atop. We could see the town of Segovia and the snow capped mountains in the distance. Apparently, after seeing the palace, we had walked off our lunch and went looking for a dessert. Rick Steve's recommends a place called Limon y Menta so we didn't want to leave anything out of our culinary experience so we tried his 2 recommendations...ponche segoviano (mazapan) cake and the honey-and-almond crocantinos. They were both good, but the cake was to die for. Loved it!!! After enjoying our snack in Plaza Mayor, we walked back to the bus stop where we boarded the bus back to the train station. Our train left Segovia at 8:13 back to Madrid. We got back to the apartment about 9;30 and all headed for bed after a wonderful day in Spain!

Jesus has a boo-boo

February 24th--Today we tried to adapt to the Spanish lifestyle of sleeping in and staying out later. We didn't leave the apartment until about noon to head for the park by the apartment to have a picnic and do some playing. After the park, Austin was forced to take a nap because we knew we were going to be up late. After our siesta, we took the Metro to the Atocha train station. We needed to make some train arrangements for our future travel. That was fairly pain-free, especially since the lady helping us spoke English. That always helps! We then walked from the station to the Prado Museum, one of the world's great art museums. The Prado is free between 6 and 8 p.m. and we decided with 2 kids (who could care less about looking at paintings), 2 hours and free sounded perfect. Free also sounded right within our budget. We followed Rick Steve's walking guide through the museum which allowed us to quickly navigate the 3,000+ canvases and see the true masterpieces. Honestly, we are not "art people" so we had never heard of the artists or their work. However, what we found amazing is that these paintings were done hundreds of years ago. We have a hard time imagining someone in the 21st century doing some of these paintings. Unbelievable! The kids were troopers through the museum. Abby has decided she wants to be an artist and Austin loved the "poo-poo" picture. It was a picture of a naked kid with just a leaf over his privates and Austin thought it was poo-poo. One of our favorite paintings was by Diego Velazquez titled Cristo Crucificado. It was a very life like painting of the crucifixion. When Austin saw it, he said "Jesus has a boo-boo". After that, every time he saw a picture of Jesus (or any man for that matter), he would say "Jesus has a boo-boo". We found the art through the kids eyes much more entertaining then the guide books. After we left the Prado, we walked to another of Rick Steve's recommendations for dinner. It was a quaint little restaurant called La Plateria Bar Museo. We sat at the outside tables in the Plaza de Platerias de Martinez and enjoyed some cheeses, meats and chorizo pasta (along with a little red wine).

Potty in the Park

February 23rd -- We had a slow start to the day because we spent a big part of the morning looking into future places to stay. Once we got going, we decided to take the Metro to Retiro Park. Wow! It is a huge park (comparable to Central Park in NY), and we only saw a small portion of it today. When we arrived at the park, we walked around for a little bit looking for a place to eat. We ended up leaving the park and eating lunch at VIPS...it's a chain restaurant with Friday's. Not exactly traditional Spanish cuisine, but the kids were starving and we were trying to avoid any meltdowns. After lunch, we walked back to the park to enjoy the beautiful weather. Soon after reentering the park, we noticed 2 outdoor eating places on site. We were a little bummed that we hadn't seen them earlier. Oh well, we'll know for next time. There will definitely be more visits to this awesome park. The kids started playing on one of the many playgrounds when Abby announced she had to go potty. So, she and I took off walking for a bano. In our attempt to find a place to go potty, we discovered a lot more of the park including the beautiful lake in the middle where you can rent boats and paddle around. She quickly didn't have to go potty anymore and wanted to rush back to get Mike and Austin to go ride on the boats. We got Mike and Austin and headed for the boats. You could rent a boat for 45 minutes at a time. So, off we went, paddling a way into this beautiful pond of water. Right after we got on the boat, Austin decided to "dirty" his diaper (he hadn't gone since arriving in Spain). Need I say more! The boat ride was very relaxing and enjoyable by all. Unfortunately, after we left the boat we realized that we left the dirty diaper under the seat on the boat. We felt so sorry for the next people. Oh well! The kids wanted to play on one of the playgrounds in the park just a little bit longer. After they started playing, Abby quickly remembered how badly she had to go to the bathroom. Unfortunatly, We didn't know where to take her to the bathroom. She announced that she could just squat in the park, but Mike kept telling her no, you can't. Well, all of a sudden, she started screaming I'm going to have an accident and before we knew it, she was squatting behind the bench. It was so funny! Both of tour kids definitely left their mark at Retiro Park today! Besides, their potty experiences, they both enjoyed playing on the playground equipment and with the other kids too...language is not a factor with kids, they were laughing and playing. It's really fun to watch.

Sunny Madrid

February 22nd --We decided today would be our day to get acclimated to the area. The apartment where we are staying is one block from a metro stop, so we got on the Metro (subway) to head to the Puerta del Sol metro stop. When we stepped out of the station, we were amazed at all the people. We realized quickly that we were in the BIG city. Our goal was to find the Tourist Information office in order to pick up maps and information of the area. Well, we walked around the Plaza Mayor for a little while we no luck. So, we decided to sit down in the beautiful sun and enjoy lunch. The weather is absolutly beautiful right now. It is bright sunny with highs in the low 60s. While we were eating lunch, Opera music started being played throughout the plaza. Then, we saw this guy performing on a excavator...yes an excavator! It was definitely interesting to watch this guy perform with such elegance on a piece of machinery. We later found out that Carnavale (like Mardi Gras) is going on. We had been wondering why we were seeing so many people and a lot of children dressed up like it was Halloween. The performance we had seen at the Plaza Mayor is called Transports Exceptionnels created by Compagnie Beau Geste. It's a duet for a dance and an excavator. After watching the performance, we continued to walk around the plaza and came across several of those people that dress themselves up and paint there faces and stand still like statues. I've seen them a lot in Vegas. Well, the kids got the biggest kick out of this one lady that was dressed all in copper. Austin even let go of his money to drop in her bucket. While we were watching her, Mike discovered the Tourist Information center and picked up some information. We walked back toward the metro station to El Corte Ingles, a huge department store. We walked through it for a while or should I say we rode the escalators all the way to the top (6 floors) and then all the way back down. It goes down to -1 floor. It has to be the biggest department store we've ever seen and it had everything. After leaving the store, we caught the Metro back to our stop and walked to 2 different parks near our apartment. The parks are really pretty here and the kids had a lot of fun playing. We soon discovered that the grocery stores were closed on Sunday so we had to venture out for dinner...and it was an adventure! It was our first big challenge of ordering from a menu we could barely read with a waiter that spoke no English. Having been in a tourist area in Switzerland, we never encountered a restaurant that the waiter didn't also speak English. Mike did an excellent job of deciphering a dish to chicken and luckily they had tapas that you could just go pick from. In the end, it was a very good meal.

Leaving Switzerland...Arriving in Spain

February 21st--

Our travel day started early with a bus ride into Lauterbrunnen at 8:15 a.m. We had a funny story from last night in preparing for the bus ride. We have had a bus pass for the last 2 weeks that expired on the 19th. So we needed money to ride the bus into Lauterbrunnen. However, we have been trying to leave with no Swiss Francs so as not to loose money in a second currency exchange. We cut it a little close. Last night we spent about 20 minutes going through the apartment trying to find enough loose change to pay for the bus ride. I finally found some money in my ski jacket that put us over the top. Whew! After the bus ride into Lauterbrunnen, we caught a 30 minute train ride into Interlaken where we switched trains for Bern. It was about a 50 minute ride to Bern where we switched trains for Geneva. About 2 hours later, we arrived at Geneva Airport. The switching of trains was easy in comparison to arriving in Switzerland. We think we might be pros now. It helped that the kids hoped on our 2 rolling duffel bags. It was the funniest thing...they would grasp hold and ride on them as we pulled them along. It is a great way of keeping up with them and our luggage at the same time. Who needs strollers? Anyway, we arrived at the airport with plenty of time before our flight left so we checked in and grabbed some lunch. I tried a Rivella which is a Swiss made carbonated drink. I'm not even sure how to describe it because it's nothing like anything I've ever had. Mike tried it and said it tasted like Jagermeister. I can neither confirm nor deny that since I've never tasted Jagermeister. Anyway, after lunch, we headed through security and to our gate. We had no problems with any of the airport process including boarding the plane. It was all fairly simple. The airline we flew was easyJet...very comparable to Southwest Airlines. Our plane left on time about 14:45, and we landed in Madrid a little after 16:00. It was about a 1 1/2 hour flight. The interesting thing about the flight was drinks weren't included. Abby and Austin have already gotten accustomed to getting a drink on planes. Austin definitely didn't understand the concept that they cost and we hadn't exchanged our Swiss Francs for Euros yet, but luckily the airlines accepted credit cards. Whew...Crisis adverted! After getting our bags at the Madrid airport, we took a taxi to our "home away from home" apartment for the next 2 weeks. When we arrived, the owner's nephew was here to greet us. He spoke excellent English and was so helpful about the apartment. This apartment is awesome! It sits up on the 2nd floor of a complex, has Internet, Internet TV (many Disney channels that can be converted to English) and a washing machine. It'll be nice to not have to wash by hand for the next 2 weeks. After we got a little settled in, it was already 18:00 and we had no food. So, we took off walking and found a grocery store (Simply Market). We picked up a couple of essentials and some food for dinner. We are looking forward to our time in Madrid, but have quickly realized that it is going to be very different from Switzerland. Our last 2 weeks have been spent in a rural location with lots of "vacation" activities (skiing, sledging, ice skating, etc.). We are now downtown in a large city with endless "conveniences" (such as grocery stores, restaurants, etc.) within walking distance. However, outdoor activities will be a little harder to come by. We will be looking for parks, zoos, museums, etc.

Switzerland Wrap Up

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow…
February 17th – The night before, I had wished that we would have another snow storm before we left Switzerland…well, that happened. When we woke up this morning, it was snowing really hard. We decided to take the train into Interlaken today to shop and arrange our train ticket to Spain. It’s about a 30 minute train ride. We arrived at station Interlaken Ost, but needed to make our way to Interlaken West (a couple of miles apart). Instead of paying for the train ride, we decided to walk. Daniela, at the Booking Office, said that it was an easy walk with a lot of shops along the way. Well, I have no doubt about the easy walk on a good weather day, but it was snowing a lot. We did make the walk, but were very cold and wet by the time we stopped for lunch. Migros Restaurant was our choice for the day. Rick Steve’s book recommended it as an inexpensive lunch, as did Daniela. Migros is one of the local grocery stores with a cafeteria style restaurant. It reminded us a little bit like Central Market and definitely was inexpensive in comparison. After lunch, we decided to do some shopping since we had to wait for the train ticket office to open back up from lunch. Around here, everything literally closes for a couple of hours for lunch. I was determined to find a Santa Claus made in Switzerland. I was thrilled to find one that was carved out of wood locally. We then arrived back at the train station to check on the tickets to Spain. Well, we learned the hard way that overnight train rides need to be booked way in advance. There was nothing available. Mike spent about 20 minutes with the travel agent looking at all various train options and all that was available was a day train that would have taken over 15 hours. We decided that would be a nightmare with the kids and was not a task we were willing to tackle at this point. We were upset that we wouldn’t be able to take the night train and headed back to Lauterbrunnen to determine what to do. Once we arrived there, Mike went to search the internet to figure out how we were going to get to Spain. After some research online, he found us a flight out of Geneva to Madrid on one of the local budget airlines (think Southwest). While it cost a little more than we had planned, a 15 hour train ride turns into a 3 hour train ride to Geneva with a 2 hour flight to Madrid…definitely a good trade-off.

Bond. James Bond
February 18th –Today we took 4 different cable cars up 10,000 feet to the summit of the Schilthorn (mountain). Piz Gloria, the station at the top, includes a rotating restaurant. We decided to eat lunch first and it was by far the best meal I’ve had so far. Sputzli was the name of the dish, but basically it was homemade mini-dumplings with ham, pears and fried onions. Also, it was cool to rotate around while eating and see all the beautiful mountain tops. The James Bond movie, “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service”, was filmed at Piz Gloria and highlights from the movie are shown in a panorama video. While we were at 10,000 feet, Austin had his own shining moment. He pee-peed in a public restroom potty for the first time. I do believe we had to make some James Bond moves to make that happen too. After we were over the “007” hype, we headed back down by 2 cable cars to the village of Murren and went ice skating. The kids had a rough start, but finally got the hang of it (a little bit) and we skated for a couple of hours. The weather was absolutely beautiful. The sun was shining so it was perfect for ice skating outdoors.

Never Say Never
February 19th –Scratch the last sentence in “Got Snow boots?” blog because we did go sledging again today without proper footwear! We obviously got over the effects it had on us and given that it was our next to last day in Switzerland, we wanted to do it again. We rode the train up to station Kleine Sheindigg so that we would have a long sledging run. Well, halfway down, Mike and Austin’s steering wheel on their sledge broke off which caused Mike to have to steer the sledge with his feet. When we arrived at the Allmend train station, Mike’s shoes were full of snow and he could not go any further. So we took the train back down to Wengen where we had a picnic lunch. After lunch, we went to trade out the sledge, but they did not have another one with a steering wheel. Lucky Mike (at least he thought) because they loaned him a pair of snow boots so that he could steer his new sledge with his feet. We went up the cable car to the Mannlichen stop. Off we went down the sledge trail…Abby and I were doing fine, but Mike and Austin were having a little difficulty. When they came down the mountain, the “steering feet” caused snow to blow right back in their faces. Poor Austin looked like a snowman because he was completely covered with snow. It is hard to steer a sledge with your feet or at least harder than it looks. It took about 2 hours to make our way down the run and then back to Wengen. We had to make a stop at our favorite bakery in Wengen for some sweets before heading back to the apartment.

Top of Europe

February 15th –When we got up this morning, the weather was absolutely beautiful…not a cloud in the sky. We had been waiting for a day like this in order to go to Jungfraujoch, the highest train station in Europe. At 11,333 feet it is the “Top of Europe”. It turned out to be the perfect day to venture up the mountain because it was bright and sunny all day long. We took the 2 hour train ride up the mountain. About the last 20 minutes of the ride was in a tunnel through the Eiger Mountain. As you ride up, it’s amazing to think about the Swiss building this train track more than 100 years ago. We arrived a little before noon so we decided to eat lunch first. After lunch, we walked through the “ice palace”, an all ice cavern with ice sculptures. We made our way up to the plateau which is the outdoor viewing platform. The minute we stepped out onto it the wind was very strong and it was cold (-17.6 C). At times, it almost felt like the wind was going to blow us over. The view was awesome, and we got some quick pictures. We only could handle being out there a couple of minutes. From there, we walked via tunnel to the Sphinx Observatory (observation tower) for the highest viewing point (11,760 feet). From the Sphinx, you could see as far as Bern and beyond; plus the majestic peaks of the Eiger, Monch and Jungfrau. It was also a great vantage point to see Aletsch Glacier – Europe’s longest at nearly 11 miles. It was a magnificent view! The air was definitely thin up there…we were breathing a little heavy and our hearts would pound at times. We took the 14:30 train back down the mountain. The altitude must have gotten to Austin because he fell asleep almost the instant the train started moving.

Got snow boots?
February 16th - Ok, so Amy and I made a strategic packing decision not to bring snow boots for 2 weeks of snow (we did buy them for the kids). We each had Gore-tex / waterproof shoes or hiking boots. That had been sufficient until today! We decided to head up to Wengen and go sledging. I’m not sure if this is big in the US, but its huge here. The ski areas have specific, designated sledge runs. We rented dual sledges and headed up the mountain on the train. We got off at the first stop and started on a nice easy run…Austin and I on one sledge and Amy and Abby on the other. We soon hit a pretty steep slope and I realized the “brakes” were my feet. As I dug them in to stop the sledge, I sprayed snow all over Austin and I…including into my hiking boots. As I turned around to watch Amy and Abby, I saw Amy having the same “stopping experience”. We knew that our feet were a little cold, but didn’t think it would be that big of a deal. We got to the bottom and took the train a little farther up the mountain. This run was much steeper from the beginning. I basically had to drag my feet the entire time to keep us in control and not go off the side of the mountain. By the time we got all the way to the bottom, my boots were completely covered / filled with snow. Amy had the same issue. We sat on our sledges at the base and ate a picnic lunch that we had packed. As the snow melted, my nice, thick, warm wool socks begin to absorb the melting snow. So by the time we finished lunch and went back up for another run, my feet were soaking wet. Oh yeah, Amy and I thought our bums were cold from sitting on the sledges, but soon realized the snow was going up our backs and down our ski pants and so they were actually wet! No matter our woes, the kids were having a blast and wanted to keep going. We made a few more long runs. As we were coming down, I got a little daring and Austin and I caught air after hitting a bump and had a little crash (we went inverted for a few meters – ground, Mike, Austin, sledge). Unfortunately, Amy had chosen that time to let Abby steer and so they slammed right into my back. Luckily, we were all ok. However, we decided that we should call it a day and head into the village for some hot chocolate to warm up. We enjoyed our hot chocolate and then took the train back down the mountain to Lauterbrunnen. If we ever go sledging again, we will definitely make sure we have on good, tall snow boots!