Walker turns 1 and I go to Madrid

It's hard to believe but that little stinker Walker turned 1 this month. His momma worked extra hard to make a great 1st birthday party for him.  The theme was pirates (because daddy was all about the pirates).  Chelsea sent out the cutest invites and spent countless hours making adorable decorations including a great banner that spelled out Captain Walker, the cutest little cupcakes that looked like pirate ships, and making pirate hats and eye patches for the little ones. There were also swashbucklers and treasure chests filled with goodies.  The party was held at a park and was a great success.

Right after the party, I took off to visit Nick, Jamie and the kids while they are spending a few months in Madrid for an internship.  It was only for a week - much too short - but I'm so glad I did.  Jamie, as usual, is a fabulous hostess and planned some great activities while I was there. The kids live in the La Latina district and very near the Plaza Mayor.  Everywhere we went I was impressed with the overall cleanliness; the friendliness of the people and their attentiveness and tolerance for small children; and the terrific metro and train system. And the architecture was fabulous.

La Latina, near the kids' apartment

Plaza Mayor.  You can't really see it, but there are paintings on the building facade.

Just random photos of Madrid

We took two day trips.  The first was to Segovia, which is a world heritage site. Here is some information from Wikipedia:


Segovia was first recorded as a Celtic possession, with control eventually transferring into the hands of the Romans. During the Roman period the settlement belonged to one of numerous contemporary Latin convents. It is believed that the city was abandoned after the Islamic invasion of Spain centuries later. After the conquest of Toledo, Segovia began restocking with Christians from the north of the peninsula and beyond the Pyrenees.

Among the interesting sights there is the Aqueduct of Segovia.  Built by the Romans during the 1st and 2nd Century, it is one of the most impressive things I've ever seen.  At its tallest, the aqueduct reaches a height of 28.5 m (93 ft 6 in), including nearly 6 m (19 ft 8 in) of foundation. There are both single and double arches supported by pillars.  From the point the aqueduct enters the city until it reaches Plaza de Díaz Sanz, it includes 75 single arches and 44 double arches (or 88 arches when counted individually), followed by four single arches, totaling 167 arches in all. All granite.  NO mortar!  There is also an amazingly beautiful cathedral and Alcazar, which was originally a palace and was later used as a prison.  Segovia is really a beautiful city.

The Segovia Cathedral

Alcazar

The Aqueduct

The Aqueduct is immense and towers over the city

Walking through Segovia

We visited the palace in Madrid:

Another day trip took us to another world heritage site: Toledo.  I'm hard pressed to decide if I liked Toledo or Segovia better.  Both were SO impressive.  You can definitely see the Moorish influences in Toledo.

From Wikipedia: one of the former capitals of the Spanish empire and a place of coexistence of Christian, Jewish and Christian cultures, as well as the place where harsh religious persecutions were held against the Jews by the Visigoths.  Under Arab rule, Toledo was called Tulaytulah.  Because of its central location in the Iberian Peninsula, Toledo took a central position in the struggles between the Muslim and Christian rulers of northern Spain. The conquest of Toledo by Alfonso VI of Castille marked the first time a major city in Al-Andalus had fallen to Christian forces; it served to sharpen the religious aspect of the Christian reconquest.  After Castilian conquest, Toledo continued to be a major cultural center; its Arab libraries were not pillaged, and a tag-team translation center was established in which books in Arabic would be translated from Arabic or Hebrew to Spanish by Arab and Jewish scholars, and from Spanish to Latin by Castilian scholars, thus letting long-lost knowledge spread through Christian Europe again.

Toledo is known for its metal working, including making of swords. And a beautiful type of metal artwork called  damasquinado using gold or silver to make intricate arabic and spanish designs on metal.  We also ate some pretty wonderful masapan (marzipan) for which Toledo is well known.  Not as sweet as what we have in the US, it is very tasty.

I took a lot of photos of tile work

Even the doors were beautiful

Sadie like to knock on every door.  There were a lot of doors.

The cathedral was phenomenal

Antique vestments in the cathedral

The mercy seats in the cathedral

Sacristy ceiling

Another ceiling

So picturesque!

We had churros con chocolate one morning in Madrid.

 The grown ups went on a tapas crawl one night including at the Mercado de San Miguel which was quite the happening place:

After tapas, we saw Flamenco en Vivo at Casa Patas which is renowned for being one of the best places to see real flamenco in the small cabaret type setting.  It is almost impossible to describe  the mesmerizing effect of watching these dancers and the singers and guitarists bring this highly interpretive art form to life.

Nick, Andrew and I got to see this small,  sort of out of the way church in Madrid called  San Antonio de la Florida which inside contained beautiful frescos painted by Goya. I didn't take any photos but please click on the link to see how magnificent they are! It was amazing that this small church, with not a single tourist present, and with no charge to enter, was sitting there like a hidden pearl.  Just beautiful.

On our walk about the city, we found this cool playground

One night we also had dinner at the world's oldest restaurant called Botin (established 1725).  Ernest Hemingway mentions it in The Sun Also Rises.  I had the roast pig.  In fact, Spain certainly loves its ham.  Pork is served everywhere.  And the gazpacho is amazing everywhere.  So are the croquettes.  You get the idea. 

I don't think I'll ever get the hang of  how to get the pictures to load correctly and lay out correctly on the blog so sorry if it's a little random looking.  In the end I had such a fabulous time and wish I could have spent another week hanging out with the family and enjoying beautiful Spain.  Ole!