Holidays with the Family

Even though A and I didn't have to teach for the last few weeks, we've been pretty busy with holiday festivities and family gatherings! My family came into town and celebrated Christmas with us! It was their first time in Spain, so everything was a new experience. It's great because even a trip to the market is interesting to them;).

It's funny...as a tourist, I go out and try to see all the important sights, but now that I live in Madrid, I realize that I haven't actually toured many of the famous landmarks in my ciudad. One of our first stops was to the Royal Palace in Madrid, which is the largest European Palace. Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take photos inside, but here's a picture of the front.



It's an extremely decadent building filled with large rooms covered in decorations. The king does not live there now, but it was home to Spanish royalty for hundreds of years. After our tour of the palace, we headed on over to the Prado to take a gander at the art. My sister was especially excited to see Velasquez's "Las Meninas" painting. It's huge and there is always a crowd around it. When we went home, I was able to get a great picture of the dome near Banco de Espana at night.



My family was enjoying Madrid, but they also wanted to make a trip to one of the more ancient cities. We decided on a whim to spend the night in Toledo. After we called a hotel and ordered our train tickets, we threw some clothes into a bag and headed out to the famous medieval city. We checked into a nice hotel where we had balconies with our rooms. Here's the view from our room!







After we dropped off our things in the hotel, we set off to explore the city. Here's a picture of one of the typical streets in Toledo-small and downhill-with my parents leading the way. We were very worried the cars wouldn't be able to drive through these small passages, but they succeeded unscathed.



My family came to Toledo equipped with a travel book that had recommendations on how to see the city. That evening, we packed ourselves into a small train and had a tour of the city. I have to note that this was not a real train-it was one of those small ones you see when you go to an amusement park or on the boardwalk of a beach. We crammed ourselves into the train and even though I cursed under my breath about how bitterly cold it was, we were able to see the beautiful city lit up at night. This picture is a bit fuzzy, but it's the old palace at night.



When we got back to the hotel, we had to take several night pictures.



I love how the houses glowed at night.





The next day, we toured the major sites. We went into the Cathedral, which is the most impressive edifice to visit. Unfortunately, you are not allowed to take pictures inside. The sacristy has a wealth of art-especially some great El Grecos. Other than the fact that it was very cold, the Cathedral is a must-see when you are visiting Toledo.

We also took my family to the monastery San Juan de los Reyes. I know I posted pictures when I went a few months ago, but here's another one.



The visit went by in a flash. Suddenly, we were helping them pack up and researching whether they would have any security problems getting home. My family flew on KLM from Amsterdam back to the US and there was a terrorist attack attempt only days earlier. The family was able to arrive home safely, though they did experience severe security inspections while in Amsterdam.

Of course, yesterday was New Year's Eve and we celebrated it here in Madrid. To be honest, I'm not a huge fan of New Year's, so we stayed at home and followed the traditional Madrid customs. When the clock bell at Puerta del Sol strikes at midnight, you have to eat a grape for every chime (and a swig of champagne). We watched the crowd gathered at Puerta del Sol on tv (much like when we would view Times Square) and we began to eat the grapes. I wasn't able to keep with the strokes and I maxed out at 5.

Happy New Year!