Our Terrifying Visit to the Modern Art Museum

Today, on our first full day in Madrid, we spent the morning at Spain’s lavish Royal Palace. After lunch and a stop at the playground we went to the Reina Sophia Museum. Madrid’s modern art museum, focusing on the years 1900-1965ish. Artist heavy-weights include Picasso, Dali, and Miro, plus a handful of post-impressionists. Because of the time and place the art in the collection was created many pieces focus on the changes the 20^th century brought to the world, the struggles of Europe and the first and second World Wars. By far the most famous piece is the hauntingly beautiful painting "Guernica" by Pablo Picasso. It depicts the carnage of the people in the town of Guernica after Franco allowed Hitler to use the town to test new bombs. It is moving, and it opened the eyes of a generation to the realities of modern warfare.

Our kids are generally good in museums. They kind of enjoy looking at the various art, and we try to engage them in conversations about various paintings. This visit did not go as planned. In the very first room, Sebastian excited about a painting that looked like a mermaid, walked up to it to point something out to me and touched it. Breaking the cardinal rule of museums everywhere. Gardner, I and the guard all loudly, and in unison said “NO”. My sweet, sensitive son was so embarrassed by his overly-enthusiastic response that his little eyes welled-up as he tried in vain to hold back tears. I hugged him and told him it was ok, and tried to comfort him. His little lip was still a bit shaky as we entered room two.

The curator of the museum has done something unique and interesting. They have paired short video clips made during the time the paintings were created, near the art. So in the second room, the paintings were mostly circa 1915-1920. Off to the side there is a little black and white picture showing “Un Chien Andalou” (co-directed by Salvador Dali). Gardner leads us in, a perfect distraction to move past a moment of embarrassment, or so he thought. The movie starts. It’s a man, getting ready to shave. He is in his undershirt, running the water, sharpening the old-fashioned razor. Everything is great. And then all of a sudden, out of nowhere there is a close-up of a women’s eye and the man is cutting through her eyeball with the blade. Now this is 1915’s graphics, so not super-realistic, but of course our hands fly-up over the kids eyes, and we rush them out of the area. Everett was pretty unphazed, but poor Sebastian was so affected. He talked about it the whole rest of the visit. Of course we feel terrible and so guilty, although there was no way to know the image would be violent. Clearly the intention was shock-value. He rebounded and we had a long conversation about movies not being real, and how sometimes art is intended to surprise people and to make them feel a particular way. Then we came “home” and made a dream-catcher for over his bed tonight. Hopefully my little man hasn’t been scarred for life. We are going to the Prado tomorrow, and Sebastian made us promise that there won’t be any movies there.

Now we are headed out for dinner. Hopefully some paella and a yummy dessert will wash away any bad dreams. You can’t protect your kids from everything, in the world as hard as you might try, but I feel bad about this one. Not winning any parenting awards tonight.

Update: Poor Sebastian. It’s midnight and he is still awake. He says he is going to lay awake in bed all night. :( 

The First Week in Spain

Wow, we are already over a week into the trip and the time has flown by. Sorry, I am already behind on my posts, Traveling can be so exhausting, by the time we get back in the evening it’s usually late and I have no energy left for typing a thoughtful post. But I figured I better catch-up or I never would. This first week has been so full, so much; I already know that I can’t accurately describe the experience here. Maybe that’s why I have been avoiding writing about it, because I know I can’t do it all justice. So I’m not going to try. But I will give you a brief daily overview, and try to do better going forward.

Day 1- Ronda! An ancient fortified hill town. Awesome, huge bridge. Moorish and Roman roots. Magic- watching my children plays bull fight with their daddy in the first bull-fighting ring in all of Spain. It was so awesome…up until Sebastian and Everett ran smack into each other, giving Sebastian a goose egg on the head and Everett a huge black eye, which you might notice in the pictures.

Day 2- The long drive the Granada to see The Alhambra! AMAZING! GORGOUS!! Unfortunately our tickets into the palace (even though we reserved weeks ago) weren’t until 7pm. By that point the kids were tired, cranky and really “over” the whole “We are walking through 1,000 year of history”, and “Look at the original Moorish carvings” sentiments, and they whined basically the whole time. Highlight for the kids, the 12 lions fountain in the central courtyard. Highlight for me- feeling just like Jasmine walking around the upper balconies watching the sunset over Granada.

Day 3- Beach break day in old town Marbella. Paella, sangria, and splashing the in the ocean. Fun for everyone.

Day 4- Africa!! We took a day trip to Tangiers, Morocco!! We drove about an hour to the “fast ferry” for a 30 minute ferry ride and a two-hour wait in passport control. Then we met our private guide and driver. They took us all over the city, and I am so glad we had them and didn’t just try to walk it on our own. We visited the Kasbah, the ancient part of the city, feels very third-world. Drove around the large modern homes in the San Francisco-like hills, feels very first-world. Ate lunch at delicious lunch at a local place. I had a roasted chicken and veggies dish that had been cooked a long time in a clay pot, Gardner had a yummy braised lamb and date dish. The kids had french fries. The highlight of the day was the amazing, camel ride on the beach which we all LOVED; Sebastian wanted to go a second time. We ended the day with a shopping trip through the Medina, were we bought a few small souvenirs. Ferry ride back to Spain. It was a great day. The kind that makes you exhausted in the best way, where you feel like you grew a little.

Day 5- Another beach day! Puerto Banus. Very resorty. Very expensive. Not as nice as Marbella. Soaking-up the sun was rejuvenating.

Day 6- A trip to England! Well, Gibraltar, which is technically England. Nice because all the signs are in English! We took the cable car to the top of the rock. Saw the amazing wild monkeys. There are so many! The babies were by far the cutest running all around and playing with each other. We decided to walk down, which was described as an easy 3-hour walk, including visiting all the sights on the mountain, a cave you can tour, old military tunnels blasted out during the revolutionary war times, etc. What was supposed to take 3 hours, took the short legs in our group 5. Sebastian was such a trooper matching us step for step, with minimal complaining. Everett determined to be carried, and I can hardly blame him. My legs hurt for 3 days after the walk. Back at sea level with very tired feet, I had the best fish and chips of my life for lunch!  We drove back home, rested a while and then went down to Marbella for the Semana-Santa Parade. The small town vibe was infectious. The Spaniards take Holy Week very seriously and the parades and rituals are done in the spirt of complete devotion. Afterwards, newly energized, as people seem to get here around 9pm when the sun goes down, we went on a little tapas crawl; finally figured out the right way to order for our group!  

Day 7 – Packing-up and heading out. We drove to Sevilla. The famous Cathedral, which houses Christopher Columbus’s tomb, was closed for Semana-Santa. We toured the Alcazar, which has been continually inhabited for hundreds of years and built in the Mudejar style. Designed by Moors for Christians to live in. It’s gorgeous, and still used as a royal residence by the King so it has really been well-maintained. After a tour of the palace and gardens we went to a flamenco show, which was perfect. It put the kids to sleep, which allowed Gardner and I to enjoy the show in restful peace. After a walking tapas dinner we went back to our room to catch some late night Semana-Santa parades from our balcony.

Day 8- We drove to Madrid, stopping in Cordova to tour the famous Mosque/Cathedral.

Now we are feeling settled here in Spain and so far we are enjoying Madrid. Our new apartment is nice, and in a great neighborhood. We are starting to learn some key phrases in Spanish, and we feel like we fitting in, sort-of. Ok, now I am officially caught-up, and very tired. Buenos Noches!  

And Away We Go!!

Since many people expressed interest, and I really enjoyed keeping a little written accounting of our last long trip, I have decided to reinstate my blog for this European adventure. What prompted this odyssey was a culmination of many factors. We were on the brink of moving across country, as of last week almost everything we own is sitting in storage pods, we were forced to move-out of our rental house earlier then we planned because the owner decided to sell, and maybe most importantly we just had the itch to get out there and see stuff. To live as a citizen of the world. This being the 4^th trip for both Gardner and I we are becoming increasingly comfortable navigating Europe, and absolutely love it there. Since planning time was short we decided to stick with the sort-of familiar and head to some old favorites as well as some places that are brand new to us.

So after what has felt like a complete whirlwind of sorting, selling and packing up our house, packing for and planning this trip, and serving as a bridesmaid in my oldest friend’s wedding, I still can’t 100% believe I am currently sitting 10,000 feet in the air above the Atlantic ocean, only a few hours from landing in Madrid, Spain! We won’t be stopping there; we have one more short connection after this that will take us onto Malaga, Spain, the Costa del Sol.

Sitting here peacefully watching my babies (all 3 of them) sleep, I am struck by how fortunate and excited we are to be embarking on this adventure. This trip will be very different from the last, the kids are older this time, we won’t be changing any diapers. (YAY) I am anticipating that the kids increased age will make things both easier and harder at the same time. What I want to focus on is really soaking up this time with my people, the three that I love most in the world, enjoying them and taking on this adventure together. So here we come Spain, France, Italy, and Istanbul! For the next 7 weeks you will be our temporary homes.

Also for the record…the kids have been amazing on the flights!! Walking through the airports with two little aspiring ninjas, makes a mom want to pull her hair out, I think I said “Come on Ev” 1 million times at least, BUT they have been rock stars on the planes! It’s amazing how a combination of ipads, Kindles, and Nintendo DS’s, plus a mandatory “bedtime  kept the kids calm and happy.

Update:

We are here, exhausted, but all checked-in to our temporary home. It’s a nice 2 bed-room apartment with killer sea views, and an unfortunate habit of the breaker tripping every time more than 3 things are plugged in. It’s already happened 4 times today. Massive annoyance. But all in all, we are good. New SIM cards purchased, fridge-stocked and laundry started, we are ready for a fun week exploring the Costa Del Sol.