spain day 6

we could call this day "boating pond day" or "james is suddenly terrified of subways" or "the day the teenager took us shopping in her favorite places." it was all of those things, and james' fear was fortunately a very small part of the day.

we started the day by sleeping in, which was the only merciful option for the kids, who still managed to wake up by 8am. after another family breakfast loaded with bread of all varieties, we headed back into madrid city center to cruise past the bullfighting arena (of particular interest to me, not because i like bullfights, but because ferdinand by munro leaf was my favorite childhood book),


and to explore the huge retiro park. think new york's central park, but maybe bigger. upon arrival, we went directly to the ice cream vendor,


then walked along the pond to gape at the terrifyling large carp who congregate and thrash at the surface, clearly accustomed to having food thrown to them. and, as if on cue, ramona gave them some ice cream, and james ended up referring to them all as youtube subscribers. i have no idea why.


we peeked at the gorgeous glass castle, built for the phillipines exposition in 1887, where it displayed various plants from the phillipines. now it has some sculptures in it, and stands magnificently glowing like a crystal palace out to.



the kids learned that paying street performers will earn you photo ops, and exploited this until their little pockets were empty.



then we took out a few rowboats, and david and i had our only 30 minutes of alone time during the day for the entire vacation right there in that rowboat. i wouldn't have traded it for the world.






meanwhile, in the other rowboat....

when the rowing was done, the coercion to get james to go down into a metro station and board the subway started. he's been on countless subways, including in NYC, chicago, and the london tube. he's ridden the monorail, the high speed train, and has even been on a rollercoaster. but right there, in madrid, at that particular moment, he was NOT GETTING ON THAT SUBWAY. we finally bribed him openly and unapologetically into the station...



.....only to discover that the train station we needed was closed for construction, and up the stairs we trudged to find a bus. james was vindicated.

laura took us to the beautiful gran via to shop at her favorite fashion discount malls--primark and zara. it was overwhelming, but the kids were in heaven.



fortunately, primark makes jeans just for me.


we bought them so much garbage.
down the street, james even waited until arriving in madrid to decide his FC loyalties lie with barcelona and bought a barcelona futbol club soccer ball.


we had hamburgers, and the kids rejoiced. actually, this might have been their favorite of days.


after shopping and lunch, we drove up to las rozas in northern madrid to see where laura lives and where she attends university. we took a walk through the center of las rozas, found some signs that perfectly summed up our feelings, and then said goodby to laurita who had to get back to work and classes and studying that evening.

we headed back to fernando's with fernando and coco, and had a delicious meal of morcilla and eggs (for the adults) and macaroni (for the kids). and then it was early to bed, with bellies full of lovingly made food, and hearts full of gratitude for these people who took such great care of us and took time out of school and work to do so. i will never ever know how to show them the depths of our gratitude for them.