Quick Trip Review - Madrid

Making a 13 year old almost speechless was fun.
The Surprise
We loaded Clarke into a taxi and and then told him to open his presents.
Clarke: "In the taxi?!"
Us: "Yes."
He opened a Madrid guide book
Oscar, the imp: "we know you'd like to learn more about Spain.".
Clarke: "thanks....."
He is obviously getting confused at this point. He then opens his next present, a map of Madrid and says "wait a minute...".
The piece de resistance, though, was the present from my sister Mary Jo (aptly nicknamed The Peach) who had fedex'd him some euros inside a spanish-language card.
Clarke: "MOM, ARE WE GOING TO SPAIN?!!"
mom: "Yes"
Clarke: "When?"
Mom: "Right now"
Clarke: general freak-out ensues

Day 1:
We headed to the airport and took an overnight flight. After not too much sleep by anyone (except Clarke) we landed at 11:30 am in Madrid. We checked into our great apartment, (thanks Jose!) and Joe and I insisted upon a quick 45 minute nap. By 2pm we were out and wandering the streets. It was sunny and we just walked and walked and stumbled upon a great restaurant. We met some really nice people inside who were very proud of Joe for ordering the local specialty which was a special shrimp cake with all the bones and shells and innards. Joe, as you can imagine, was thrilled to learn this. We then walked through the Latin Quarter, past the Royal Palace and checked out our local plaza San Domingo. We just hung outside and had drinks and another small snack and successfully stayed awake until 9pm Madrid time.
Day 2
Alarmingly, we did not move until 10:30am but decided it was ok, as we'd be staying up late for tapas anyway. We walked down to Puerto Del Sol to gets churros & chocolate and cafe con leche. We decided to walk to Retiro Park to hang out. It was beautiful day and a lovely, long walk. We picked up sandwiches and snacks for the park and just hung and people watched for a bit. Oscar, who must compare everything to his New York, thought Retiro Park was on par with Central Park, which is a grand compliment. Clarke needed no comparisons and just loved Madrid unequivocally. Period. When we visited Costa Rica, Clarke stated that when he grew up he was going to live there his whole life, and now, he is determined he is going to live in Madrid. So adorable. After Retiro Park, we headed to El Prado. The boys slightly protested but I told them they'd make me turn in my parent ID card, if we went to Madrid and didn't visit our friend El Greco and his pal Goya. As I knew, they ended up really liking and being very intrigued with all the dark images, especially the religious. We kept it quick and light and they could decide when and if they wanted to stop to look longer. They found 1 or 2 "cool" paintings in each collection. Afterward, we collectively agreed that it was truly amazing museum but we were a MOMA type family and wish we had the time to see Reina Sofia. We then decided to try out the metro, as we were all exhausted, and successfully made it back to our apartment for a little siesta before our first night out. At 9:30 pm we headed into the throngs, and walked down to Santa Ana neighborhood to check out the tapas scene. It was insane. Our limited spanish was a bit of a hindrance but we finally found some great spots. We made it home around midnight!
Day 3:
OK, another sleep in but we were starting to dig this night owl scene. We headed over to the Royal Palace. This was tons o fun. The boys loved every minute of it and had some very good questions about monarchy and wealth. We walked through the armory which of course was super cool and they noticed that medieval spanish knights were very tiny. :-). We had a great paella lunch and then started on a crazy path trying to find the football stadium for the night's main event. Real Madrid vs. Atletico Madrid (think Mets/Yankees). After a 20 minute metro ride mistake, we found the scene...and immediately ran for the hills. I don't know if it was the M80 exploding at our feet or being shoved by the riot police but we decided we'd gladly watch from a bar. We then found this really cool street with cave bars. We found one specializing in football and belgium beer and had a lovely time with our Cuban waiter, watching the game with some insane locals. Of course, Oscar backed Real Madrid, Clarke had allegiance to Atletico Madrid and the waiter promised chocolate to the winner. Oscar made it look like the most delicious chocolate he had ever had...
We were darn exhausted by now but decided to skip siesta as we were leaving the next day. We walked through Plaza Mayor and made our way to tapas again. More yum, more nice people. The amount of sausage, pork products, olive oil, and bread we consumed was fairly staggering. We stumbled home exhausted around midnight and prepared for our departure. It was a fantastic trip and the boys were such great travelers. They are already planning our next trip so if you have any rich uncles, send them our way.