Eldership 2025 Spain - Total Family Indulgence

I don't know if people who have family close by taken it for granted. Or maybe they think it is a negative to have so many close to you who are in your business. But for our family, that has been flung across the globe for a generation, getting time to be with one another is a precious commodity. So our sole focus during our time in Madrid has been seeing each other and hanging out. 

In all my traveling in Spain, I have never actually spent any time in Madrid other than arriving, departing, and staying over at the airport. Between where RMG lives, where our Airbnb was, and where 2.2 lives, we were spread over a fairly wide swath of the city. But OMG the city is huge! The area we are in and that of RMG are massive, primarily residential areas that are pretty innocuous looking. On the other hand, starving student 2.2 lives in a flat with five roommates right in the heart of the city, the Centro. When we visited her, I could see what a monumental city, central Madrid is. I could see us spending a couple of days 

Since RMG and 2.2 both are in school, we organized our times having them visit us and us visiting them around their schedules. Having 3.0 staying with us meant that even when we were not with the two Madrid based relatives, we were still spending time with family. 

It has been delightful. 

Fotografica

Our local neighborhood did not have much to recommend it nor did RMG's. And we didn't spend a whole lot of time in Centro. So slim photo pickings for this post.

You have to love a country that has stores devoted to providing 'JOY'

 

 You also have to wonder if there is actually a market for commercially provided 'JOY'

Evidently there is.

 

 3.0 is committed to ascending the corporate ladder

 

 While Wife contemplates her daughter's career choices

 

Since we visited 2.2 in the heartland of Centro, I wanted to go to a nice cafe for drinks and maybe a bite.

She directed us through the Asian Quarter that surrounds her flat to a more upscale but not too touristy cafe off the crazy busy main drag with nice environs.

 

 

 So Grandpa, is this satisfactory?

 

 We ordered our drinks and I started to peruse the menu. I found a bunch of things I wanted to try. The others said they weren't really hungry.

 

Until I mentioned I was treating

 

 A much higher degree of enthusiasm

La Comida

Tortilla - despite having just had it for lunch at RMG's apartment, we were all down for it again because Spanish tortilla (potato and egg) is the bomb.

 

 Teriyaki Chicken with Popcorn Dust (It's real name on the menu)

 

 Wife and I somehow had in our mind's eye that this would be chicken wings. Nonetheless it was quite tasty. Though the popcorn dust was just meh.

This was the surprise dish of the evening

 

According to our resident Spanish speaker (level B2 candidate), the dish, Huevos Roto (which translates directly to be 'broken eggs') was to be scrambled eggs with truffles. Well I love truffles in eggs. Except this was no 'broken egg', It was two poached eggs, breaded and fried on a huge bed of truffled cream sauce with gobs of cured ham on it. It was really great!

 

Classic Croquettas

 

 

I thought I'd ordered five dishes but had actually forgotten one. Everyone said they were full, but I really wanted this for RMG, our vegetarian.

 

Grilled Vegetables

 

 

Just as in Italy, a simple dish like this is divine and a perfect foil for the fat heavy dishes we'd had previously.

Resident Vegetarian shows her approval

 

 

Eldership 2025 Spain - Transitioning to Madrid And Family

We left Bilbao early in the morning in order to get to Madrid in time to pick up #3 at the airport. She's taking a couple of days off from work to visit with us and also connect with other family members. Here in Madrid live our niece and fellow blogger, RMG, along with Granddaughter 2.2 who now is studying here. 

I'd had a poor night sleeping, so the drive was a bit more stressful that it should have been. Going into an unfamiliar airport added to the stress but we managed to find a place to park and didn't get ourselves trapped in. 

#3 secured the next stress test was finding the Airbnb. Finding apartment rentals in major cities is always an adventure. This one was no different. I knew from our interaction with our host (no information) that finding parking was going to be a challenge to say the least. I was right. Thankfully, I had #3 come with me while Wife waited with the luggage at the apartment building. (We had arrived too early to check-in). It had the makings of the usual big city parking search disaster. But as luck would have it, we actually found a pay garage not far from the apartment. #3's very rusty Spanish really helped us as she slogged down to talk to the attendant so we could confirm we could park. We, of course, made a number of errors trying to find the entrance. But find it we did and we were able to get our three days parking for a pretty reasonable fare.

Not long after, we were back with Wife and able to get into the apartment. Soon thereafter, RMG arrived. We were all hungry so we went out to grab some lunch. And after lunch, we went to a lovely large Carrefour market that is NOT closed on Sundays to get food for our breakfasts. 

Wife and I were in serious need of a nap. We left the two cousins to talk while we lay down. We were not sooner up, than the granddaughter arrived. We went out to get a drink in the long lingering Spanish way. After a couple of hours of conversation, we decided we'd better all head to our relative places of rest. 

It was so nice to be with the inter-generational family impromptu grouping. It was also nice to get back to the price/value we've become used to in Spain after the sticker shock in Bilbao. I will write more on this later. Now we're chilling and looking forward to some more family time tomorrow.