Wednesday, March 11

We had to wake up ourselves and the kids at 1pm today.  We ate lunch at the apartment and then walked to the kids' school.  It's next to this amazing structure - Metropol Parasol.  We had a great tour of the school with the English para for the boys' class.  She's from Ireland and obviously a fabulous English speaker, but what we experienced is that even the native Spanish speakers at the school who we met were amazing English speakers.  The school has 3-4 classes/grade, so much bigger than what we're used to.  But, the staff and students seem as friendly as what we're used to.  The kids will start on Monday morning.

After the tour, the kids and I had coffee (me) and water (all of us) in the plaza where the picture is taken (Plaza de la Encarnacion).  The waiter thought the kids were triplets.  As we left, I was asked for directions in Spanish.  Apparently we're already looking like locals.  Of course, I had no clue where we were.

Then we walked partway back to the apartment and stopped at the playground across the street from El Corte Ingles in the Plaza del Duque to play.  

Scott had left early so he could go back and do a little work.  He took a different route and found a playground we plan to check out tomorrow.  It's just across the street from here and along the river.

Tonight we walked down the next street, Calle Banos (aka Bathrooms Street).  It's a narrower street with a very narrow sidewalk.  It was super fun to explore as after 8 or so blocks we stumbled upon a new to us plaza, Plaza de la Gavidia.  There were a few restaurants/cafes there with outdoor seating, and in this beautiful weather, we had our 2nd dinner in a row outdoors.  We at at Bodega Amarillo Albero and experimented with a few tapas and enjoyed them all.  Here are pictures of the inside of the restaurant.