Heather and Simon came to visit too!

On Saturday we went to Toledo.

We really like hanging out with Heather and Simon.  Too bad they live so far away from us.

We really liked getting to climb up through the thick city walls.

After a rather full day of walking around Toledo, the boys crashed on the train ride back to Madrid.

When we got back, we went to the Prado (it was free for the last two hours of the day).  Afterwards we walked to find a Thai restaurant.  On the way, there was this awesome wall all covered in growing things!  I loved it, so I took a rest from walking here for a wile.

After dinner, we took Simon to see the Ham Museum - a restaurant chain that specializes in Jamón sandwiches.

Yup.  The jamón in Spain is impressive.

Amusement Park

When our friend Christian came to town we went to the amusement park that I had mentioned in our ZooQuarium post. Christian and I had a great time going on all of the spinny rides and roller coasters, while Michelle patiently enjoyed watching us. She did enjoy the ride where you drop straight down (akin to the Puyallup Fair's Tower of Terror) and the roller coasters where you don't go upside down. Also, as it was a cool November Saturday, there were almost no lines and we got to ride many of the rides multiple times. Our collective favorite was a roller coaster that also allowed free 360 degree spinning on each of the cars (they went one at a time) so you don't change to direction you faced as you turned corners, or you started twisting while going straight. It was called the Tarantula, but was broken for the second half of the day, and we only got to ride it once.

This displays our beautiful windblown hair after such rides as the spinning chairs on chains 150 ft in the air. Also, we randomly found the Oscar Meyer Wiener Mobile, but there was no one inside giving out free whistles.

They had all of the classic rides, one, that launches you up in the air while allowing you to flip forward and backward, the ring of fire, the pirate ship, the free fall tower, nausea inducing teacup style spinning rides, airplanes you ride in while going up and down, and an assortment of roller coasters, both the looping and non-looping kind.

Michelle has a poor stomach for spinning rides and there was one that spun you in a circle as it launched you up the sides of a half-circle. Christian and I both thought it was pretty great and just to see if her stomach still couldn't handle it, Michelle tried it once at the end of the day. She couldn't. She didn't throw up or anything, but was very glad we were headed home.

I am really excited to go back, but don't want to go alone as that creepy, lonely, older guy that hangs around the amusement park by himself and doesn't really speak much Spanish.

Real Madrid

Also, during the week that Christian and his girlfriend Stephanie came to visit, we went to a Real Madrid Soccer Match. (It's pronounced Ree-al, meaning royal in Spanish). It was against the Dinamo Football Club from Zagreb Croatia. We all loved Bernabeu Stadium, because even the worst cheap seats (ours) had a great view of the game. Madrid beat 'em good.

This is a picture of Michelle and I desperately trying to keep our eyes open for the picture, despite the flash. I think it just came of a bit creepy

This is the teams warming up before the game as fans filed in.

Christian and Stephanie excited for the game.

A couple of pictures of the four of us after the game.

This is what it looked like cramming into the metro after the game. I love the two guys on the right side totally hamming it up!

After the game, the security held the Dinamo fans (they were all kept in one section) until after most of the stadium had cleared in order to try and prevent riots and violence. They even had to expel one guy in the Dinamo section halfway through the game for some reason.

Madrid with Christian

These are some pictures from around Madrid. Most of them were taken when we were showing our friend Christian around.

This is the interior of the H&M on Gran Via in Madrid. I think they converted a hotel. Talk about classy casual wear.

This is a picture Christian took of Hollis in front of Bernabeu Stadium, where the Real Madrid soccer team plays.

 

This is us in front of the northern facade of the Madrid Cathedral. Completed in the 1990's, it is the newest cathedral I've ever been to.

 

This is the courtyard in front of the royal palace. We haven't gone a tour yet, but I hear it is fantastic. It is directly across from the cathedral as viewed in the picture above.

Not actually a picture of Hollis, he was the excuse to take a picture of the Spanish guys in the the cafe window.

And there are lots of motorbikes that just get parked wherever.  This one was pretty cool.

'Cause frowning while posing with a cool scooter makes the picture even better.

This is what it looks like when they tear down a building in Spain. Almost every city block here is solid buildings, even though each building is owned and built by different people or groups. When they demolish a building, they spray a orange foam sealant on the surrounding walls until a new building goes in. Sometimes buildings stand like this for a very long time.

Hollis and Christian (former roommates and kind of/almost related) in front of the gates of the Royal Palace.

 

Snaking on the train ride home. We were pretty beat.

At the Bernabeu shop, we came across these beauties. They are some of the lightest soccer cleats in the world. Literally what the pros wear. They weighed about as much as half of a small/medium sized apple.

ZooQuarium

I don't know who decided to put an aquarium in the middle of the Madrid zoo, but they were a genius. Not only do we get to enjoy both land and water animals, I get to call it a ZooQuarium!
Michelle and I each bought a season's pass to the zoo, that also includes most of the amusement parks, water parks, and zoos in Spain. So we immediately went to the Zooquarium, and then a couple weeks later, to the local amusement park. Also awesome. Here is a collage of some of our favorite pictures:

A stunning pose of Hollis and a bear; Michelle and the flamingos; self portrait of Michelle and Hollis posing as lemurs; the bears giving Hollis the cold shoulder, and both of us with a porcupine. 

It was chilly and few of the animals were up and about, but it didn't stop these lemurs from being adorable!

These bears were being all photogenic for the camera and not hiding like the stupid tiger was.

PostScript Editor's Note (May 2012): Since Michelle has been pregnant, she has been endowed with the super-sniffer and we have yet to go back to the ZooQuarium.

Madrid

On Monday Hollis and I ventured into Madrid for our first day trip. Well, I had to go to Madrid anyway to finish applying for my NIE (resident card) so I can be legally in Spain. It's been nice because the Ministry of Education has taken care of all the filing of paperwork and I've just had to show up when they say to show up and bring the things they say. Also, there are no long lines when we go (because I think they make special appointments - yay working for the government!). So after that, Hollis and I headed to the Modern Art Museum - Casa Reina Sofia.

On our way there, we passed the BIGGEST Nutella jars that I have ever seen. Yes, they are bigger than my head.

Then we went to Reina Sofia. Awesome side note: because we bought Youth Cards, we got in for free! Yay being under 26!

There were some cool things that you would only find in a modern art museum. One of our favorites was this room full of embroidered world maps, each contry colored by it's flag. There were several different backgrounds, but we picked our favorites and had pictures next to them. We also LOVED this random stack of animals: a cow, pig, and sheep. They all had UNICORN HORNS! And they were carved with the skin missing and all the cuts of meat labeled. We also needed pictures next to those.

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We also really liked Guernica, but you aren't allowed to take pictures where it is displayed. So I found one online where someone broke the rules and took a picture so you could see how big it is. It was really cool because they have several pictures and preliminary sketches of the work. You can see how Picasso deliberately designed everything in the painting to be the way it is. Yes, he purposely made the bull face weird and be different colors. I know because it looked different in the original sketch. He kept changing it until it looked as it does here.

After the museum, we were quite thirsty. We had already eaten the potato chips, sandwiches, and cheese that we had brought from home, but we wanted more. I decided that what I really wanted was a Jamba Juice, and then we walked past this smoothie bar. So we got some smoothies.

Totally a coincidence that our cups spell out the company's full name: faborit. They weren't that good, but somehow still felt very satifying. I guess I really needed blended fruits with no sugar or anything else added. Mine was oranges and carrots. Yep. Only ice was added.

We then went to Parque de Buen Retiro. It is what used to be the royal summer grounds. We first walked past this large pond. I learned that mock Naval battles used to be staged in the pond for the King's entertainment. Or education. I'm not sure which. We then went to look at the summer palace, but it was closed (I'm in front of the closed doors). I was excited to see the crystal palace because it was sunny and it sounded beautiful. And it is beautiful (it's the glass building below). It too, however, was closed. Sad. But at least we could see inside the building.

While we were there we saw wildlife! I saw some beautiful black swans, eating a fish that they might have killed (you can kind of see the fish's tail if you look closely).

Then Hollis tried to call this squirrel over to him. I put my camera on high speed and managed to catch it mid-leap.

After all the walking we had done that day, our feet hurt. And Hollis's brown shoes wore out (sad!!).

Finally, we went to Atocha to catch the train home. I made Hollis walk even farther to show him the turtles inside the main atrium. I was surprised to see so many! So I included a picture of the turtles from four years ago so you can see the massive increase in turtle population.