So this weekend was a loooong one, thanks to Rosh Hashanah. We started it off by dividing and conquering the kids -- on Thursday, Jon took the big ones to the big museum in Madrid (successfully! They don't hate art!) and I (HCH) took Seth to see backhoes in the 'hood and then around in his stroller to do errands.
On Friday, we rented a car and drove up to Segovia, a city to the northwest of Madrid. The city boasts an enormous Roman aqueduct, a beautiful cathedral, and a palace reputed to be the inspiration for Walt Disney's. Jon and the big kids climbed up 152 steps to the top of the tower to see, as Nathan reports, "A really good view, you know." Heather had a panic attack at the thought of shlepping a backpack full of water and huge toddler up the steep spiral staircase, and stayed at the bottom to collect chestnuts with Seth. Nathan reports that he was a little freaked out by the moat around the castle, which was in fact several stories deep with mud along the bottom. Who knew moats were for real?
On the way back from Segovia, we drove through the mountains north of Madrid -- very beautiful. A lot of the landscape reminded us of the southwest, especially Joshua Tree and New Mexico.
On Saturday we retained said rental car (imagine a Hyundai hatchback stuffed with Starhills) and went out to El Escorial, home of a monastery/palace/burialground for Spanish royalty. I didn't get the full history because I was shepherding a grouchy toddler ("I can't walk! I can't walk!") through gallery after gallery of 16th-century paintings of the crucifixion--the perfect Rosh Hashanah activity. The burial rooms were indeed impressive, with lots of marble and gold. Lunch, dictated by Nora's never-ending quest for hamburgers and thus "American" grill restaurants, less so. A quick visit to the non-feverish toddler cousin (Liam) and some intelligence from my cousin (Mary) re: Spanish lifestyles, and we were back home. Well, except for Jon and Seth who left to return the rental car and had a 90-minute bus adventure. And Nora, who got asked to go see Phineas and Ferb (in Spanish) by one of her school friends.
Today was fairly quiet, spent cleaning and then downstairs with the UN crowd. There has been an addition of several new French kids, tipping the balance in favor of that language; two new Spanish boys, however, seem promising in terms of providing Nathan some soccer buddies. Seth has finally learned how to ride his balance bike fast -- fast enough to keep up with the big kids, whom he follows around religiously and very seriously emulates.
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