GRANDAD & NANA DO IBERIA

I'm sooo behind in my postings, you'd be surprised to realise how hard it is to find time in the day when you're not working!!! Anyway.......

We've been lucky, Grandma and Papa visited earlier in the year and were here for Aimee's birthday, and last month we had Grandad and Nana in a visit that coincided with Buzzy's cumpleanos. They spent a few days here, then headed off on a bus tour that took them clockwise down to Gibraltar and then back here for another 5 days. We had a great time, and here's some of the highlights.

Arrival at Barajas Airport - where's the chauffeur...

 

Straight into a Rueda region verdelho

I'll have some apple pie with my cream por favour

 In recent months I've been learning a whole lot more about Madrid (indeed, Spain) courtesy of attending walking tours of the city - apart from me, the beneficiaries are those who come to visit as I am able to expand my personalised 'tour guide' experience.

We popped into the Palacio de Cibeles, one of the city's most stunning buildings and went up to the observation deck (a first for me too) which provided glorious views of this elegant city.  The building is now the Town Hall and tourist information centre (surely the most stunning of its kind anywhere) and it was hosting an amazing exhibit by leather goods manufacturer (not sure that's the right description) Hermes, which included a one-of-a kind handbag being silent auctioned by Christie's (proceeds being donated to the Prado Museum - as yet undisclosed).

Fuente D Cibeles

Palacio De Cibeles rooftop view towards Gran Via

The beautiful Puerta De Alcala

Hermes leather motor bike

Ride 'em cowboy!!

Hermes/Christie's 'one-of-a-kind' handbag - out of my price bracket

 Sol is the heart of Madrid and so we went in there (a few times), as well as taking in lunch at Estado Puro. This, of course, meant we were across the road from the Prado. Anyone who knows grandad will be aware that he has a tad more than a passing interest in art (!!) and so a visit to the oil and canvas wonderland was a no brainer. I just took them in and let them off the leash - pigs in pooh they were!

We saw a protest at Sol......

The bear and madrono tree - Madrid's Coat Of Arms

Kilometre Zero at Sol

A quick bite at Estado Puro before.....

...checking out Goya and....

....the mighty Museo Del Prado

 On the weekend grandad got up early (6:00am) and sat next to me in 'The Cave' to watch the AFL Grand Final on the iMac - we've never watched  a grand final together before, and here we were in Madrid....amazing! We all went in to Plaza Mayor and a walk through the old part of the city where we visited the San Isidro museum to find out all about the legend of 'the well' (another blog to come!), Plaza de Espana to see the Cervantes monument and the Temple of Debod (another blog to come!), followed by a ride on the cable car across Al Campo.

Plaza Mayor

Restaurants don't get any older than this - anywhere!

The well of San Isidro - great story

Cervantes monument - Don, Pancho and some Australian blow ins.

Egyptian Temple Of Debod (it's the real thing!)

The cable cars traverse Al Campo

Madrid is home to 4 magnificent art galleries, and a visit to the Thyssen-Bornemisza was on the agenda. Before Spain acquired it, this collection of 1,600 paintings was the 2nd largest private collection in the world (to the British Royal Family), and needless to say, 1 day here wasn't nearly enough!!

Rembrandt in the Thyssen

Not Rembrandt but I like this one!

 When growing up (and, I guess, even as adults), we all have heroes, I just never expected someone in their 80s to still have heroes and be so enraptured by them. I never realised the extent to which grandad idolised the work of the famous Spanish portrait and landscape artist Joaquin Sorolla; as luck would have it, his old residence in Madrid has been converted into a museum (another blog to come!) of his works and so I sprang a surprise visit. Quietly following them around the rooms was a genuine sight to see and I loved it...you're never too old to have a hero in your life I realised.

Museo Sorolla

Beautiful ceramic tiled entrance

Self portrait (Sorolla, not grandad!)

Grandad & nan have a print of this on their wall at home - this is the real thing

The studio - magnificent really

 Cervantes was, by any measure, one of the greatest writers in history and it happened to be his birthday - this is big news in Spain. So we zipped out to his birthplace - Alcala de Honores to see the celebrations (another blog to come!).

Outside Cervantes home in Alcala De Henares

The 3 of us took a day trip to Avila, the wonderful walled city. Sadly, Don Legsy totally stuffed up by not realising that access to the wall itself is closed on Mondays - you only get one guess which day we went!

Avila, the walled city

One of the Avila gates

The one on the left looks alright

Near El Escorial (in the background)

And the 3 musketeers ventured over the sierras to Segovia, my favourite place in Spain, where grandad finally got to sit and sketch whilst Judith and I did a bit of retail therapy! Did I say that I love going to Segovia? It's so much more than just a 2,000 year old aqueduct.

Segovia

The 12th Century Alcazar

Beautiful Segovian ceramics

The master at work (seriously, he's not asleep)

Segovia cathedral

The aqueduct

Grandad served for over 30 years in the RAAF and his love of aviation is on a par with his art - 'obsessed' readily springs to mind. As it turns out, and unbeknown to most of the population at large, Madrid's Museo del Aire has one of the world's greatest collection of rare civil and military aircraft. So I organised for a private tour of the museum. If you've seen grandad since his return then you will know about it, because he hasn't shut up talking about the place. Being totally ambivalent towards flying machines (other than as a means to get me where I want to go), I must admit I was rather impressed myself, and it has some very interesting machines of great historical significance in both aviation and political history. The saddest part of this is that Spanish tourism and tour organisers make no mention of it or seem to show any interest in it, and it's so poorly advertised that we got lost trying to find it (despite being on a major thoroughfare) as there are no signs.

Grandad, Manuel Mariz (chaperone) and a rare Fiat CR32 "Chirri"

Generalisimo Franco's Dragon Rapide!!

Whaddya wanna know about Sabres, Manuel....

The first gyrocopter - a converted Avro 504K

The only surviving Dornier seaplane under restoration

Transavia PL-12....made in Australia no less!

Of course, we had a special dinner at a lovely Michelin rated restaurant as well, this time at a place called El Cenador de Salvador (review to come!). It was 30 minutes out of Madrid and Don Legsy took a wrong turn making it 45 minutes out of Madrid. It was very nice too, one of the few restaurants we've been to that concentrated more on traditional fare than molecular pyrotechnics.

Ready for a big night out - I'll drive there...

Nan approves of El Cenador's culinary delights

...but who's driving home!

Finally, the day before their departure was Buzzy's birthday and we celebrated in great style.

Buzzy turns 8 - with his new Barca futbol

Party time at Tommy Mel's

 There is very little to complain about living in Espana, I just wish we could grasp the language better than we do (los ninos aside), but we're trying our best. But when one stands at the security gates of Barajas airport watching your parents descend to the departure gates, it reinforces that 17,000km is a hell of a long way from those you love - family and friends - although not far enough away from the Melbourne Football Club. Thanks for coming grandad and nan, see you again next year.

Puerta De Europa at Plaza De Castilla - the world's first angled skyscrapers

Final day afternoon tea - grandad finishes as he started.