jim comes to madrid.

The Saturday right after my birthday my Dad flew to Madrid. Although I like to think that he dropped everything to come wish me Happy Birthday, it was more a product of convenience than anything else. He had to be in Brussels for business that coming Monday, and it would have been a shame to be in Europe and not stop by to see me! So he left Sandy at home with Jackie and Elaina for a girls weekend and came to hang out with me.

I met him at the airport bright and early, and we headed to the hotel. The first order of business (as it generally is in our family) was food. We walked through Sol and down to the Plaza Mayor where we sat and had some coffee (Dad learned the hard way that “free refills” don’t exist in Europe) and bacon and eggs. The weather was great and it was still early so the Plaza wasn’t full of tourists.

Plaza Mayor

Plaza Mayor

After breakfast, we headed back towards my house so Dad could meet my Señora. She took us to a Chocalateria near the house for churros con chocolate, a Spanish favorite. These aren’t churros like you can sometimes find in the States – those are Mexican churros. Spanish churros generally don’t have cinnamon or sugar on them – they’re just deep fried. They come on a big plate and everyone gets their own cup of melted chocolate. You eat them by dipping the churro in the chocolate, and let me tell you – it’s delicious.

Stole this picture from the internet to give a visual image

While I’m really glad Dad got to meet my Señora, the whole experience was exhausting. Dad doesn’t speak any Spanish, and my Señora doesn’t speak any English, meaning that I had to translate for 2 hours. It was good practice though!

After churros, Dad and I headed to El Estadio de Santiago Bernabeu, where the Real Madrid fútbol (soccer) team plays. They offer tours during the day, and we got to see the memorabilia museum, the field, the players bench, and the locker room. It was awesome!

Checking out the view...

Trophy row in the Real Madrid museum

I made him smile.

Ground level with the amazing field

Sitting on the players bench!

They have a hot tub jacuzzi in the locker room

After the tour of the stadium, we headed back to the hotel for the second favorite family activity – a nap. Thet jet lag had caught up with Dad, and my birthday festivities had caught up with me. We napped, showered, and then headed to dinner with Erica. We went to a restaurant called Lua that the director of the Syracuse Abroad program recommended. It was quite an interesting experience – there’s no menu. The chef goes to the market every day and buys what’s fresh and creates new entrees out of his purchases. There are seven courses of small portions, and I have no idea what we ate. It was definitely nothing that we would have ever ordered off a menu, but it was all really good.

Sunday morning we headed to El Rastro, a giant outdoor market that takes up entire streets. We were on a mission to find a Real Madrid jersey, and to pick up some birthday gifts for friends at home. We stuck it out through the rain and were quite successful. After El Rastro we headed back to the Plaza Mayor for a lunch of the most expensive pizza.

After lunch we headed back to the hotel for another nap. Dad couldn’t even make it up to the room before he fell asleep.

Sleeping in the hotel lobby

I wasn’t feeling very well, so I slept for an extra hour while Dad grabbed a Starbucks and read his book. We grabbed dinner in Sol and then headed across the street to a bar to check out the Steelers game! Sadly they lost, but it was great to be able to watch the game in Spain.

Dad headed to Brussels early Monday morning, but I was glad he got to come visit. Now Sandy has to come!