Madrid

During the 'El Puente' (bridge) 5 day, long weekend, we traveled to Madrid and Salamanca. One of the biggest holiday weekends in Spain, the puente combines the recognition of Spain's Constitution Day (established after the fall of Franco in the 1970s) on December 6 with a religious holiday, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception on December 8.

Photos: On the streets in the Sol district in Madrid. A beautiful area decorated with lights but SO incredibly crowded.



Luckily, we traveled via train as the air traffic controllers decided to strike and shut down air travel for about 48 hours until the Spanish military threatened to intervene. We hadn't taken an extended trip is several weeks and it felt good to explore outside of Zaragoza again.


Photo: Christmas tree of lights in Puerta de Sol.



Photos: Museo of Jamón (Ham Museum) but it's actually a restaurant. The number of people inside was indicative of the packed scene in Madrid. It reminded me of what I would anticipate Times Square looks like on New Year's Eve.





Photos: More Museo de Jamón. Omnipresent in Spain, the ham or Cerrano (pig leg) hanging from the ceiling is a common site in Spain.




We arrived in Madrid on Saturday evening and took a train into the historic district of Sol and Plaza Mayor. Decorated with festive lights for the holidays, the city was swarmed with more people than a packed rock concert. We made our way around the Plaza, shopping and enjoying the holiday spirit before we became overwhelmed by the masses.

Colin and Kelsey were thrilled when they saw that we had a TGIF restaurant right next to our Holiday Inn hotel. Generally, Parker and I have encouraged eating Spanish foods but Zaragoza has only one "sort-of" American style restaurant and nothing like a TGIF so this was a rare treat. The Starbucks was also an unusual indulgence since we don't have anything like that in Zaragoza either.

On Sunday, we trotted out in the rain for the famous Prado museum. To buy tickets, Parker waited in line for almost 2 hours while Colin, Kelsey and Celia grabbed lunch. What a trooper! An amazing museum that offers more than you can cover in a single visit, the Prado has key works – mostly paintings-- from Velasquez, Rubens, El Greco, Ribera, and Titian. After spending the bulk of the day there, we went to the upscale and lively Salamanca district which reminded us of San Francisco. Full of shopping and lights, Salamanca was much more approachable than the crowds we encountered in Sol, and after a good walk, we found a wonderful place to have dinner. Many restaurants don't open for dinner in Spain until 9pm or 8:30pm (at the earliest) which presents a challenge when trying to get the kids to bed before midnight!