Madrid Trip Report: March 2008 with Kids. Great!

Thanks to many expert and generous posters here my family enjoyed a wonderful Semana Santa trip to Madrid. I will share some of the aspects of the trip that made it work for our family that includes a 13-year-old (on a second trip to Europe) and a 9-year-old (first trip).

My primary objective was to have the trip be enjoyable for all. That meant some changes in the way my spouse and I would travel if alone or with only other adults. My main concern going into the trip was whether my children would be able to be comfortable with the very late hours of Madrid dining, and the effects of jet lag.

I had to make a last-minute change to our itinerary, which originally included a mid-week trip to Valencia for Las Fallas, but in retrospect having the additional time in Madrid probably helped everyone feel less rushed. (Although I hated missing Fallas, was hoping to meet lincasanova, who had provide much invaluable help, and I intend to go one day to see it.)

Jet lag: We got no sleep or very little sleep on the flight to Spain. On arrival on Saturday, once we got to our apartment, I departed from my usual "no naps the first day but push on through" rule, knowing that we would need to be up late and that much of Madrid takes a siesta in the afternoon. So we took naps for about 1 1/2 hours, then headed out into the city. Wanting an activity that wouldn't make the children sleepy, we rode the Teleferico cable cars over the large park and got good views of Madrid, and the children really enjoyed it. It was a good way to begin.
We strolled around the city afterward, noticing the absence of a line at the Reina Sofia museum close to closing time and headed inside to see a few paintings, making sure to see Guernica. We then headed to Plaza Mayor where the children enjoyed watching the performance artists sprinkled throughout the square. We had dinner at one of the overpriced restaurants there, sitting at an outside table and enjoying the view and people-watching. Sleep came easily that night.

Sunday we spent in Retiro Park. There is a lot there to entertain children, teens and adults.

Monday we sampled churros and chocolate and toured the Royal Palace in the morning, where there was a very short line. I had thought about seeing it on Wednesday when the Changing of the Guard would occur, but was afraid that would bring a lot of other people to the Palace for a tour and the lines would be long. That turned out to be right.
That evening we took a walking tour of Madrid, seeing some of the old churches near the heart of the city, like San Gines, and for dinner we enjoyed roast lamb and something I thought I'd never eat but which was delicious, blood sausage (murcillo?) at Restaurante Botin. My 9-year-old, who felt sorry for the lamb and didn't want to eat it, discovered the best scrambled eggs she has ever had.

Tuesday we took a day trip to Segovia. I must especially thank yk and Maribel for helping me create a perfect daytrip for my family. I may post this separately as well since it truly is a perfect daytrip. Thanks to all the knowlege they shared, we did as follows: Took the 10:35 a.m. train from Chamartin to the new Segovia train station. Knew to get a taxi there to take us into town (could have taken the bus, but had a specific itinerary for which a taxi was needed). Had the taxi driver take us to the picturesque spot for photos of the Alcazar (thank you, Maribel!) and then to tour the old church built by the Knights Templar in the 1200s. Very interesting and completely worth a visit. The taxi then took us up the hill, sparing us a long uphill walk, and dropped us off at the Alcazar for a very nice tour. After that we walked the rest of the way up, to the Cathedral, also for a pleasant tour. Following that, we had an enjoyable stroll down to the Aqueducts and our luncheon restaurant, Candido, where we had reservations for 3 p.m. We enjoyed roast suckling pig, a salad and red wine (not for the kids), a nice ceremony in which the owner cut a roasted pig with the edge of a plate, then happy and sated we strolled outside to catch a cab back to the train station for our 5 p.m. departure back to Madrid. The timing was perfect....the route was perfect....the sights were perfect...the train ride is only 35 minutes, I was able to buy and print out my train tickets online before we left so we had absolutely no waiting in line, and I think Segovia is now, as I said, the perfect day trip from Madrid especially if you have children.

I considered Toledo as a day trip but after much consideration, and my spouse asking "What would the children enjoy there?" and realizing well, not much, I took Maribel's advice to go to Segovia and am very glad of it. Also, as I said, thanks to yk for the timely post about the new train route to Segovia. I am sure the area around the new train station will become developed as people catch onto what a great trip it is.

Wednesday -- headed back to the Royal Palace for the Changing of the Guard, bypassing the enormous line of people waiting to get into the palace, and going to the location outside the palace where the guard changing would occur. It was interesting. I think it took about 15 minutes, start to finish. Afterward we enjoyed the beautiful and peaceful gardens next to the Palace, taking our time, strolling to the Plaza de Espana, sitting awhile on benches, enjoying the day. Took a cab to the Sorolla Museum, the former house of Spain's most famous Impressionist painter. The children liked those paintings after seeing a lot of Picassos (the Reina Sofia had a special Picasso exhibit) and unlike the apparently advanced children of some of the Fodor's posters, my children are not fans of Cubism or modern art.

Lunch at Madrilia was pleasant, followed by a late afternoon visit to the Prado (we found that visiting museums near closing time meant truly no lines), and we enjoyed dinner that night at Casa Lucio near the Plaza Mayor.

Thursday we told the children they could have free rein to plan the day. I told them of some things available in Madrid, and they chose (gulp) a giant mall on the outskirts of the city, called Xanadu. We played mini-golf (caution: total cost for the four of us was $110) and then the children went snow-skiing INDOORS. I have never seen anything like it! It's real skiing -- they rented ski clothes and helmets, bought gloves, (you buy theirs unless you bring your own, but we didn't have any on this spring trip) and they get ski boots, skis, ride the chair lift, ski down, etc. There is a restaurant that has windows overlooking the ski "mountain" so we enjoyed a cerveza or two and watched the children ski. It was a unique experience! Afterward when my children were asked what their favorite thing they did in Madrid was, they said "skiing!"

That night we watched one of the Holy Week religious processions that went through the Plaza Mayor. It was very interesting, but slow and there were big crowds and a lot of waiting.

Friday morning we spent at the Madrid Zoo and Aquarium. We arrived early and loved seeing the animals, watching them interact more than I am used to seeing animals interact in U.S. zoos, and everyone enjoyed it. By the time we left the zoo was becoming very crowded and incoming traffic bringing more visitors was backed up for a long way. We were so glad we had arrived early, for a very fun and memorable visit.

In the late afternoon we explored the Thyssen-Bornemisza museum. We went by a couple of times during the day, turning away on seeing long lines. When we returned in the very late afternoon there was NO line so we went right in. No lines at a museum not only means no wasted time waiting to get in, but also a more pleasant time inside since there are not crowds of people around the paintings.

Since we had had to cancel our Valencia trip but everyone wanted to try paella, we went to a paella restaurant for our last night in Madrid. I think the name was La Barraca (?) Fortunately we had reservations, because when we got to the restaurant there was a crowd, and they first took people with reservations.

We ended with a late-night trip to the San Gines chocolateria for churros and chocolate. Delicious.

I highly recommend reservations for dinners. We wanted to go to one restaurant for lunch, La Bola, and did not get in as we did not have reservations. Fortunately, we had them everywhere else.