Spain will always have my heart – Part II

June 2024

This morning, we woke up at 6am to catch a train from A Coruña to Segovia.  Everyone but Henry slept the whole way (and that was because a young girl behind us was watching her iPad, and Henry would trade sleep for screen time every day of the week).  Our arrival in Segovia came at about the same time that we realized both of our kids were sick.  Not Covid, thankfully, but a new fever, cough, congestion, occasional nausea, and exhaustion.  And, to top it off, they each had somehow acquired a growing staph infection.  Aside from going to one of the many convenient European pharmacies to get a topical ointment to deal with the staph, we also had to figure out how to progress on the trip, still allow the kids to experience and explore new areas of Spain, without forcing it to become a daily sick death-march.  We tried to build in more rest, and more stops/sits/eats/drinks; but we probably still pushed them too hard, even dialing it back.  In spite of it all, they were troopers, and did their best.

We went to Segovia because my husband has wanted to go there since our first trip to Spain together in 2002.  And the only draw we knew of, up front, was the (what proved to be, in spite of my two decades of objection) absolutely incredible Segovia Aqueduct.  Yet another UNESCO World Heritage Site (declared in 1985), built by the Romans in the first century AD, it is a site to see.  At almost 100 feet tall, spanning a half mile across a large plaza in the middle of old-town, the entire structure is made of unmortared granite blocks, and was actively used up until the middle of the 20th century to transport water from the mountains over 10 miles away.  Segovia also has a very pretty alcazar, a huge cathedral, ancient templar churches, and boasts the best cochinillo (suckling pig) in Spain.  We ate at Bar Jose Maria, which appears to be a standard tapas bar at the entry, but has a nice restaurant in the back.  We urged the kids to order the suckling pig, but when the waiters brought one out for another table, and the boys saw that it still had a face and was getting cut into portions with dinner plates, they were a hard “no”.  I think they, and we, missed out… but we respected their wishes.  As we walked back from dinner to our hotel (Hostal Don Jaime I y II; yet another spartan choice by my husband, and thankfully his last one this trip), they were showing the European Championship, Spain vs France football match on a huge screen in the Plaza del Azoguejo, in the shadows of the aqueduct. The boys were enthralled by the energy of the very large and enthusiastic European soccer crowd.

The next morning, we took the train to Toledo.  My husband and I have been to Toledo (a beautifully quaint walled city about 40 minutes outside of Madrid) together 3 times before, and I had gone by myself once before that.  We loved the Alcazar and its army museum, and couldn’t wait to show the boys.  We wanted to take them to the various El Greco masterpieces around the town.  To show them the nunneries selling marzipan while hidden behind opaque partitioned turntables.  And, I wanted them to try my absolute favorite croissant on the planet (a sugar/honey glazed bit of perfection that has been sold for decades by Santo Tome, originally located in Plaza Zocodovar).  Imagine our disappointment at a vast majority of those things.  The Alcazar museum was closed for renovations.  The nuns had all turned their marzipan sales into a robust, no longer secretive, business.  And Santo Tome told me that they don’t make those delicious croissants anymore (we bought a standard one, which was a huge let-down).  We did get to show the boys El Greco’s masterpiece, The Burial of the Count of Orgaz, in the Iglesia Santa Tome, though.  And we did get the train tour around the ancient walls, so they could see the whole town from the outside.  And my hotel choice (Hotel Eugenia de Montijo Toledo, in the middle of the walled city) was a great one.  And I am happy to report that, walking past Santo Tome (the bakery, not the church), the next morning, we did find my croissants!   So, while we couldn’t reheat a souffle, so to speak, Toledo wasn’t a total loss.

The next day, we took the train to Madrid, to finish our Spanish adventures.  We stayed, for the first time, in the Barrio Salamanca (a lively, restaurant and shop-laden, always active neighborhood North of the Prado Museum and Parque El Retiro, which was recommended to me by another wonderful patient of Texas Dental Specialists who adores Madrid).  I would happily stay there again.  We were at the Hotel Wipton, which was nice and well placed, but there appeared to be many other great hotels to choose from too.  

We are, at heart, museum people.  So, we’re trying to force our kids to be museum people also (with limited success).  My favorite piece of art on the planet is Las Meninas, by Diego Velazquez, in the Prado Museum in Madrid.  I wanted to show it to the boys, but didn’t want the 1000 yard stare we sometimes get from them in large museums, as the boredom starts to overpower the newness of these vast art repositories.  In the hopes of countering this, we found www.acrossMadrid.com, and hired Almudena to give the boys (and us) a tour of the Prado.  She was absolutely amazing.  They were fully entertained and interested for 2.5 hours, which is something that has never happened before.  And they (and we) learned so many things about the art and the artists that we didn’t know before.  I would recommend Almudena to literally anyone going to Madrid, especially with kids, who wanted a truly engaging guide.  After the Prado, we took the boys to the Reina Sofia museum to see Pablo Picasso’s La Guernica, a huge painting depicting the tragedy of war, specifically bringing attention to the Spanish Civil War.  I don’t think the boys were as awed by it as we always are; or, maybe they were just done with Museums at that point.  But, at least they saw it.

The next day, our last in Madrid, was spent taking the kids to the Plaza Mayor, as well as hitting a few of the highly recommended dining spots that were also recommended to me by our truly knowledgeable patient.  Those included Cerveceria Cervantes, as well as La Maquina (and, as was expected, they were both fantastic).

And so it was time to wrap up our family adventure overseas.  But, we weren’t quite finished yet.  As we did on the way in, we flew out through London; again for the same reason… United isn’t to be trusted!  We arrived in London on an early flight from Madrid, and immediately went to the London Eye.  A truly touristy gimmick, in my opinion, that we have done many times before.  It gives someone with a very limited timeframe the ability to see a lot of the sites in London, albeit from a distance.  But, the true joy of the day was getting to take the boys to the Globe Theater, on the Thames Rier.  It is connected to the Swan restaurant, where we had a light meal and drinks, and then we filed into the theater to watch a presentation of Shakespeare’s “Much Ado About Nothing”.  While it isn’t technically the original theater built by Shakespear’s acting company, it is an experience to be had.  It was the boys’ first time to see a Shakespearean comedy (or a Shakespearean play of any kind), and we all truly enjoyed it.  The boys talked about it all night.  After the play, we got a brief rest, before catching the plane back to Houston, and reality, once again.