Madrid

Moving DayAfter 2 1/2 years of living in a "village" we decided to make the move to Madrid even if it would likely be for less than a year.

As expected we accumulated much more than we came with.  Our initial 22 boxes and 14 suitcases turned into nearly 100 boxes and 14 suitcases.

We had no furniture so we decided to move ourselves all by ourselves and in only our minivan.  After a few trips stuffing the van, unloading it and carrying it up 3 flights of stairs to our new apartment I wished we had asked for some help.  

 

Grand Tour of Our New Home

This is our new small living room. We were so exhausted after the two days of moving, that all we wanted to do was make it to our couch or beds to be able to sit and rest our backs, and extremities.  Unfortunately we couldn't make it to our beds or the couch with all our stuff, we also didn't have time to rest since we had a trip two days later and school right after that.   

This is our very small "American Style Kitchen" and Dining Room which are next to the Living Room.

Kaiya's room is half the size of her last room so she still has yet to find places for all of her things.  Most of her stuff is still in boxes under her bed. Her room came furnished with a Marilyn Monroe poster that she would love to remove if we had a place to store it.

The apartment has two levels. The 3 younger and louder kids strategically have their rooms upstairs.

Morgan is thrilled to finally have his own room and his own space.  He was unpacked within 10 minutes since all he owns fit in 2 boxes.

Kamree and Mason were fine sharing the 4th bedroom only because we bought a bunk bed for them.  They swap every couple of nights sleeping on it. 

Also upstairs is an office all-purpose room.  This is where we keep our TV, library, decorations, tools, storage, sports equipment and everything else.

This is the large upper terrace that is home to our bikes, pool/beach equipment and our dryer.  The washer is downstairs in the kitchen.  Dryers are not used much in Spain and washers are most often in the kitchen.

This is one view from our balcony of our street, Avenida del Doctor Federico Rubio y Gali.

This is the view from our balcony in the direction we walk to go to school and church. 

 
We live between a nice clean University area and a not so clean  area.  We walk through this neighborhood to get to Bravo Murillo for shopping and for the kids' school.

This is Bravo Murillo where I spend much of my time.  It is only an 8 min walk and it is on the way to the kids' school.

 

As we were moving in we discovered a Pizza Hut about a 15 minute walk away which brought on many squeals and screams.  Sadly the pizza isn't quite as good as it is in the US.

El acueducto de Amaniel en Madrid

We were happy to have an aqueduct about a block away to help us feel right at home.

 
 Pictured here is the same aqueduct taken in the middle of the 19th century upon it's completion.  It's amazing how different the surroundings are now.

 

Colegio El Porvenir

This is the kids' new and much better school.  The building on the left is about 2 years old and the building on the right is about 100 years old and houses the middle school.  This is a semiprivate Presbyterian school which is quite unusual for the predominantly Catholic Spain. 

 Our kids go to school from 9-5 

with a 2 hour lunch break in the middle, the lunch is a whopping 8 euros.  They wear school uniforms 2 x's a week for PE and on all field trips.  

 The Dentist

This glass candy dish is at the kids' dentist in Madrid.  I have never seen a dentist give out candy before.  We weren't sure if the candy was meant for before or after their teeth were cleaned.  This was not the only unusual thing about the dentist. The dentist also wouldn't clean Mason's teeth because she said they didn't need it.  I guess he brushed really well that day.  The cleaning, the polishing, the revision and fluoride only took a total of 10 minutes.  It was an in and out kind of place I guess. 

 My Friend Brenda

 My friend Brenda came for a visit in October and we spent many full days on our feet.  A couple of days we walked over 30,000 steps according to her Fitbit.  One of the days we dropped the kids off at school, rode the subway to the center of Madrid for a tour and did a little shopping and returned to pick them up at 5:00.
 

This street plaque is placed in the popular Puerta del Sol which is the center of Spain and where the street numbers all begin in each direction.

On the tour we were taken to the Restaurante Sobrino de Botin which was founded in 1725. It is the world's oldest restaurant according to Guinness Book of World Records. Goya worked here as a waiter while waiting to get accepted into the Royal Academy of Fine Arts.

After sneaking away from the rest of the tour we watched part of the changing of the guard at the Palace Real.

Behind the Palace were the horse trailers and horses, I felt like I was at a rodeo.

This is the Egyptian temple that was brought piece by piece from Egypt. I am pictured here if you can find me.  I was resting from trying to keep up with Brenda all day. 

This was from our 2nd day walking around Madrid.  This was an interesting art display with a Christ statue hanging among bones inside the Crystal Palace in Parque Retiro.