Madrid Rio and Buitrago

These last two Saturdays have been very fun for us. The first Saturday we were introduced to a new American family from our old ward and we also met up with our friends the Hintze's and uncle Pablo in Madrid at the Parque Madrid Rio.

Thanks to the rain we had the park mostly to ourselves.  This picture is with the new family at the end of the rainy day while enjoying a picnic lunch under (a holey bridge) the best shelter we could find.  Morgan is standing next to his new friend Isaac, and yes Morgan was completely filthy from head to toe after going down the muddy slides.

There is the bridge we used for shelter and here are the muddy slides from the rain.  Uncle Pablo came here with his family last Spring and told us about these really long slides which is what brought us here, unfortunately we didn't get any other pictures of them.  Mason is standing at the top of the tallest one.

 

This is the swing section, mostly under a bridge.  We had many close calls as the kids ran from swing to swing across the bike path.



Morgan, Kamree, and Hailee



Kamree is at the far end.



Kaiya and Mason

The Monkey Swings

 



If you know Kamree you know she loves flowers.  I caught her teaching Hailee to fill up her pockets with flower petals.

This park follows the Madrid river so there are several bridges.  We had to cross this bridge to get to the wooden obstacle course in the following picture.

Everyone eventually made it to the other end including the competitive dads!

 

Buitrago del Lozoya the next Saturday

This is an ancient walled city just 1/2 hour north of us.  We invited Uncle Pablo to join us since he is better than a nanny.

This small town is surrounded by 11th century Moorish walls that were restored in the 15th century.



The city lies on a peninsula  surrounded by the very slow moving Lozoya river.

Here is one of the many entrances to this old city.

I found the staircase in the top left corner interesting since it did not lead anywhere.

 

Can you spot the 4 kids?





What's wrong with this picture?

A couple of the kids were quite anxious about being up on this wall.

Behind Morgan stands the Buitrago del Lozoya Castle, a Gothic-Mudéjar structure from the 15th century. 

The town hall hosts a small Pablo Picasso museum with the collection of Eugenio Arias, a friend of the artist.
 Not sure what is on Mason's mind and Morgan is making his paracord survival bracelet for about the 50th time.

 

Morgan, the soccer player, with amazing foot work could not get the yellow brick road walk.