Food and Fun!

Madrid does not have very many skyscrapers so the ones they have really stand out in the skyline. I like that the city is spread out and has so many old buildings and beautiful architecture, but the more modern section of the city has a mix of old and new that is cool. Puerta de Europa (Gateway to Europe) these two buildings are the worlds first leaning tower high rises built in 1996 by two American's. I read that they are leaning more then twice that of the "leaning" Tower of Pisa. And what a perfect day it was. Look at the sky in this picture it looks like a backdrop it is so blue.

This picture compliments of Kaleb. I think he did a pretty good job.

Kaleb wanted his picture in front of this statue. There are sculptures all over the city.

Stadium for the soccer team Real Madrid next time we are hoping to take a tour but it is very expensive so we are hoping to find a tour discount on-line. It was a beautiful day, but you can see Kaleb wrapped in a scarf. I was wearing it as a shall and he wanted a scarf. I think it looks silly I am in short sleeves and he has a scarf on. He only wore it for the picture then asked to take it off.

Torre Picasso another cool building.

Here are a couple of pictures of us out at a Spanish Tapas Bar for the first time in Madrid. We are poor college students so we eat at home most of the time but we finally made it to a restaurant. Spain is famous for its Tapas. Which are small appetizers. We love it because you can try lots of different things to make up your meal. In this picture you will see Calamari Rings, Huevos y Patatas Fritas (Eggs and fried potatoes) and Croquetes. It was all delicious and so fun to try some new foods.



EL Rastro is a flea market that dates back to the Middle Ages. The flea market is set up every Sunday and Public Holiday so when we had a holiday this past Wednesday I knew we had to go. It claims to have over 1000 different vendors with all different things to choose from. We had fun looking at all the different things and just experience the street market. I have to say I would have been able to browse longer with out two crazy boys, but we had fun anyway.


Anyone who knows me knows I love bags and they probably had 10 different vendors with stalls full of bags. I think Erich was worried as soon as he saw them. So of course we didn't leave with out me finding something. I did end up getting a bolsa (purse) for 10 euros.


And here is just a cool fountain the boys had fun watching. It changed from red to blue to green to purple. It was pretty cool. Lots of fountains here also in all the plazas.

Museo del Ferrocarril

This museum was awesome with over 30 full size train engines. There were Steam trains, electric trains, and diesel trains. Admittance into the museum was only 3 euros total for the whole family which made the experience even better. The boys loved the museum. Trains had been used in Spain starting in the 1840's, but this museum was the first proper train station in Madrid in the 1880's and was used until 1971 then converted into this train museum in 1984. The old steam engines are what I enjoyed the most they are so beautiful and have so much more character then our modern trains. The boys were excited to find out that you could climb in the trains and were able to touch. They both also carried their tickets the whole time we were in the museum and home they didn't want to let them go.

Train cut open so that you can see how steam propulsion works. Erich explained how it worked to the boys and amazingly they were fascinated. They had information about all the trains and Erich was reading them to us since they were in Spanish. It would say what year the train was constructed and after a few times Tyson would ask Kaleb when was this train made. So Kaleb went around telling us. He was our tour guide.




Entering the Cafe'teria. They had an old dining car that you could eat on so we got a snack for the boys to eat and they thought it was cool to eat on the train.

All the trains lined up on the tracks.

Passenger car. Seats don't look to comfortable for a long journey, but there was tons of leg room.



Waving goodbye. Leaving the station.