Arrived in Madrid

We spent 5 days in Seville with no internet connection. Now we're in Madrid & I'll spend some time tonight catching us up.

0 comments | Posted on October 18, 2007 | Save to del.icio.us

Feliz Cumpleaños, Baby Girl

Today is little D’s first birthday. It’s also a national holiday (Columbus Day) in Spain.

Right now D is snoozing in my arms while I type… a special treat since I’m usually not great at sitting still, but I’ve been feeling extra sentimental the past couple of days. I just cannot believe that my little girl is officially not a baby anymore. Somehow hearing her first words take shape, seeing her first independent steps, and being on the receiving end of the beginnings of toddler determination haven’t brought it home quite as clearly as this milestone.

We had a birthday celebration with friends and family before we left home, and we’ll eat a cake this evening. Other than that, we’ll play it by ear, and I’m sure that it will be a memorable day.

2 comments | Posted on October 12, 2007 | Save to del.icio.us

Miró Museum with Kids

While it’s fun to take the kids to the aquarium and the park, we also want to see some of the artwork and cultural attractions Spain has to offer. I’ve loved modern art since my teen years, and I’m anxious to pass that appreciation on to my kids. So, not surprisingly, it’s important to me to find ways to enjoy art museums with our kids.

Today, we visited the Fundació Joan Miró, which is located on a hill on the edge of town called Montuic. We knew that the trip there would be popular with the kids -- both are obsessed with public transportation -- because it involved both the metro and a funicular, but we weren’t sure about the museum itself or the line to get in!

It turns out that we shouldn’t have worried. While Spaniards don’t automatically send parents with strollers to the front of the line like the French do, they’re more than happy to accommodate you if you ask, and we bought an ArtTicket pass, which gets us admission to the other major museums without waiting in line.

Before we entered, we talked with E about the museum, telling him that we were going to see some paintings and sculptures made by a man named Joan Miró, and that they would be looking, not touching, the art.

The first exhibit, a brilliant mercury fountain (enclosed of course) by Calder had the kids (and us) entranced, and started us off on the right foot.

Once we were in the main museum, we told E that Miró used his imagination to make up different animals and that he would have to guess what they were. E loved the game! Of course to him, each of the “animals” was obvious and he loved that we always agreed with what he said. We also talked about which things were his favorite, looked for the moon and stars (favorite symbols for toddlers). Baby D seemed entranced with all the sculptures and bright paintings. And why wouldn’t she be… like her brother, she loves looking at picture books. These paintings must have seemed especially large and engaging in comparison. The fun lasted through the entire first floor (with E wanting to stop and look at several paintings a little longer!), until we took a glass elevator to the top floor.

Not surprisingly, the cool elevator trumped anything the second floor might have to offer. Wanting to keep the experience positive so that we’d start future museum visits on the right foot, we took turns riding the elevator with D & E while the other parent visited the second floor and basement exhibits.

Had we chosen to visit on a weekend (we decided to avoid the crowds) the Miró museum, like many museums, has a kids program that looked fun and engaging, even though it would be in Catalan. Perhaps as the kids get older, we’ll have them join in on activities like this.

We wound up the visit with a stop in a café and the museum shop (where E chose some markers and a pad of paper to make his own abstract art) before taking a gondola up to a castle at the top of Montjuc. All in all, I’d call this one of our best days in Barcelona. Everyone had a wonderful time and the kids seemed thoroughly satisfied before they both drifted off for naps.

Later this week, we’ll visit MACBA, Barcelona’s modern art museum, which we hope will be even more fun!

0 comments | Posted on October 10, 2007 | Save to del.icio.us

Picnic in Park Güell

The kids seem to be tired of eating in restaurants, so today seemed like the perfect day to put together a picnic lunch. We’re staying near the Boqueria, Barcelona’s main market, so our first stop was to pick up food. We headed to an olive stand first, where E (who loves any type of olive) got to choose whatever he wanted from a huge display of olives. Next we picked up some cheese, some fresh fruit (and coconut) and water.

Normally, we’d pick up some bread and Jamon Serrano too, but just a few doors down from the Boqueria is the best sandwich place in Barcelona (and according to Mark Bittman of the New York Times, the best sandwich he’s ever eaten). That’s high praise, so we picked up a couple of their delicious sandwiches to go.

We knew that we wanted to revisit Parc Guell, Gaudi’s famous and eccentric park on the edge of Barcelona, a second time. So, even though it looked like rain, we too the metro up and wandered a bit in the park looking for a sheltered spot for lunch. We ended up finding a bench next to a playground, the kids were delighted! E ended up kicking a ball and playing in the sand with little boy from Manchester. After being away from school, and the “Chickadee Classroom,” he was absolutely delighted to have a playmate. He alternated between eating and playing for over an hour. D, true to form, chowed down first, soothing her sore gums on the cut coconut and devouring a portion of my sandwich, and then joined in the action. We all had a great time.

After lunch we walked down through the park, seeing what we’d missed before, and took the train back. E continues to love the tile mosaics, and I plan to pick up a glue stick so that he can make his own with some of the construction paper we brought along.

Baby D was so tired that she fell asleep in the sling on the way out. We took the metro to the El Borne neighborhood and once E went to sleep in the stroller, we had a little bit of grown up time and a gelato.

4 comments | Posted on October 8, 2007 | Save to del.icio.us

Sightseeing in Barcelona

Our sleep situation is not good. We’ve been so tired that we’ve been lax about getting the kids up and going in the morning, and this is coming back to haunt us at nighttime. E is sleeping through the night now, thankfully, but D (who has never been a fantastic sleeper) is having a really tough time both with waking up, and with settling back down to sleep. She’s cutting a tooth, and taking her first independent steps, so her sleep would probably be pretty poor even if we are at home, but this is way beyond the normal range for her, and we’re all exhausted.

As tired as we are, we have been having fun during the day. We’ve enjoyed some great activities, and our days are beginning to fall into more of a regular pattern.

We took the kids to the Aquarium, which turned out to be great. The Barcelona Aquarium is considered to be among the best in the world, and it certainly was great for toddlers and little kids. Most of the tanks went all the way down to the floor, making them easy to view, and the kids absolutely love being able to get so close to the fish. There was a long underwater tunnel through a huge tank of sharks, fish and man-rays. It’s hard to imagine anything a toddler would love more, and baby D found it so soothing she almost fell asleep. Best of all, there was a great play area! While it didn’t exactly meet its goal of getting kids to learn more about water, they did love having a space to play freely with other kids. Between the heat, the crowds, and not knowing where the best play areas are, it’s been hard for us to let them do that.

We also took the kids to Park Güell, Antonio Gaudi’s fanciful park at the edge of town. We’re pretty sure that E liked the Bus and Train we took to get there at least as much as the park itself, but he seemed fascinated with the mosaics, the bridges, and the tunnels. The kids were pretty worn out, and it’s hard to cover much ground with them in tow, so we’ll probably make a return visit to see more.

We’ve also been discovering the music that seems to lie around every corner here. We enjoyed beautiful Persian Sitar music at Park Güell, traditional Catalan dancing, and of course lots and lots of guitar. The music gives us all a quick break as E usually wants to sit still and listen, while D is enthralled with watching how the instruments are played.

Tomorrow we’ll take the kids up to Montjuic Mountain via a funicular. There’s some great open space up there, and we hope to wear them out before nap. We also want to visit the Miro museum, and we hope we’ll succeed in making it fun for the kids.

0 comments | Posted on October 7, 2007 | Save to del.icio.us

First Day in Barcelona with the Kids

We had such a rough flight in, and everyone was so exhausted, that I didn’t have the heart to get everyone up first thing in the morning like I normally do. I know I’ll pay for this later, but at some point, it’s more important to function at all than to get on schedule.

There are always a thousand little logistical things to do on the first day in any new city, and with the kids we need to work those chores in with some fun activities. Today we did a little exploring to get the lay of the land, beginning with a walk down Las Ramblas.

I hadn’t planned to walk on Las Ramblas, it’s crowded, touristy, and not particularly Spanish, but it was the quickest way to get where we needed to be. Through the eyes of the kids, though, Las Ramblas turned out to be fun. The kids liked all the people dressed up as different characters, and were absolutely delighted by the vendors selling different pets as we got closer to Placa Catalunya. We saw baby ducklings, turtles, chickens and lots and lots of birds.

My Spanish is beginning to come back to me (at least the phrases needed to get me through a shopping transactions and meals) and it was cute to notice E repeating “Hola” as we held the door open for some other residents at our apartment. This is the first trip where he's old enough to pick up any of the local language, and it will be interesting to see what he does as he begins to interact with other kids and adults over the next couple of weeks.

After nap time, we took the kids out to do two last errands, a trip to the grocery store and a stop at the Vodaphone store to get Spanish simm cards for our cell phones. The simm cards turned out to be a breeze, when we got them in Italy it was an extended process requiring lots of government documentation, passports, etc. Here we walked in and paid 25 euro for each card, got instructions, and were off to the races with our new Spanish cell phone numbers!

The grocery store, on the other hand, was a train wreck. The small, neighborhood store that we chose was jam-packed with products. The aisles were so small that the cart was always in reach of the items on both sides and the kids delighted at grabbing anything they could (something they hadn’t really figured out at home) and either toppling it or putting it in the cart. To make matters worse, anything and everything was at toddler level, from glass bottles to rat poison. We were embarrased to have the kids so completely out of control, especially as Americans travelling abroad. From now on, one of us will go in while the other plays outside with the kids.

Back at the apartment, we’re going to bed early with no idea how interrupted our nighttime sleep will be as the kids adjust to their new meal and sleep schedule.

0 comments | Posted on October 4, 2007 | Save to del.icio.us

The journey begins, Barcelona with Kids

We arrived in Barcelona at about 10pm local time, safe and sound. The trip was long, but things ran generally on time, and the kids were superstars on the flights and in the airports. E in particular with so delighted with each new promise of a bus ride, train ride, or airplane that he was easy to keep in good spirits until the very last bit of our trek.

Our stroller, unfortunately, lost the British Airways baggage roulette game that we play on each trip. (British has a terrible record with lost baggage, and we've had something lost or damaged on every BA flight we've taken in the past several years) Not having the stroller made the trek through Heathrow and the journey to our apartment pretty tiring for everyone. D was in a sling, but poor exhausted E would have really appreciated being pushed in the stroller for the last bit of the trip, instead of being passed off between the three of us, or trying to walk the long distances we covered.

We're pretty sure the stroller is gone for good. It was supposed to be brought on the plane, but instead the flight attendant stowed it underneath (or perhaps left it in Seattle) with no claim tag. I'll head out first thing tomorrow to buy a new one as we cannot fathom a day in this busy city without it. I have all sorts of ideas about buying a glamorous new European stroller, but I'll probably end up with the same model we had before.

The apartment turned out great. It's a short distance from a major metro stop, and it looks exactly like the pictures. It's a little bit bigger than we would have hoped, so we feel like the kids have plenty of space to play, and they both delighted in exploring it before bed.

We're exhausted and off to bed, but can't wait to start exploring the city tomorrow.

2 comments | Posted on October 3, 2007 | Save to del.icio.us

We're off to Spain!

I took the kids out to a friend's house this morning and E (always reluctant to believe that anywhere could be more fun than where he already is) told me he didn't want to go. As usual, I asked "Where do you want to go", expecting him to ponder the question for a while or change his mind. Instead he shouted Spain!

A van service will pick us up with two car seats installed in about an hour and well head down to the airport. Right now our bags are packed, the kids had lunch, everyone has their passports, and now we're scrambling to do last minute things like take out the trash and empty the diaper genies.

Hopefully my next post will be from Barcelona!

2 comments | Posted on October 2, 2007 | Save to del.icio.us

Leaving tomorrow

We leave for Barcelona Tomorrow! I'd like to say that we're all packed and everything is done, but of course we're not. In a mad fit of energy today, I did a thousand things today, including many that had been languishing on my desk for months. I always have an incredible drive to leave things tidy so that I won’t be overwhelmed when I return home.

E was really sad when we picked him up from preschool today, going so far as to go back inside the classroom leaving P outside, and close the door behind him. (This from a kid who up until a few days ago thought we might drop him off at school forever.) He said he wanted to stay and play with the toys some more.

We know E’s been hearing about how he won’t see his teachers and classmates for a few weeks, and it’s hard for him, even at 2 ½ to let go of those newly forged relationships. Even so, he was all atwitter when a guidebook for Sevilla showed up in the mail this afternoon giving him the opportunity to look at even more pictures of Spain. I know that once we’re on our way, his incredible spirit for adventure will take over and he’ll have a blast.

0 comments | Posted on October 1, 2007 | Save to del.icio.us

Finding hotels for Large Families

I like this humorous story about finding hotels for large families.

We have just two kids, so we don’t run into this issue on every trip like larger families do. However, for this trip to Spain, we’re bringing the nanny, which means 5 people, and a greater need for privacy. We also run into this issue when we travel with extended family. We’ve cobbled together different solutions for each of the places we’re staying.

In Barcelona, we were able to get a three bedroom apartment, which will give the nanny her own room. We’ll decide when we get there whether the smallest bedroom is safe enough for E to sleep in on his own, or whether my husband needs to share a room with him while I share with D. We like staying in apartments in longer trips because it gives us a kitchen, eating area and laundry. It’s also cheaper, in general, than getting two hotel rooms.

In Sevilla, I couldn’t find any two bedroom apartments available, so we have a studio for the nanny and a one bedroom for us. The two apartments are in the same building, making it easy for us to meet up and safe & easy for her to get back home in the evenings.

In Madrid, we have two hotel rooms… this is a more expensive way to go, but after a couple of weeks in apartments we’ll enjoy the daily maid service and other amenities.

Related links:
Tips for booking Hotels and Vacation Rentals with Kids

Villas International
Vacation Rentals By Owner
Barclay International Group
Villas and Apartments Abroad
Ville Et Village

0 comments | Posted on September 30, 2007 | Save to del.icio.us