I’d pick Croatia because it really was a magical place to Jay and I. Split had a charming old town made up mostly of a giant old Roman Palace dating from 305 A.D. The buildings were all made of ancient stone with orange clay roofs. The streets were small and winding and seemed to offer endless new discoveries. We could walk to groceries, shopping, restaurants, parks, the sea, work – almost anything we needed.

Just a 10 minute walk from the center was a large park that offered beautiful views over the old town and the sea. It was full of jogging paths and rocky beaches. I’d run on the paths overlooking the sea a few days a week.

Split has just 220,000 people, but it is the largest Croatian port city, making it easy to get to the islands. There were three island we could get to in less than an hour on a ferry (and the ferry was just a 15 minute walk from our house). It was common to hear, “Oh, we just decided to pop on over to the island of Brac for the afternoon.” I’ll likely never be able to say that again in my life. And the islands were fabulous. They were mostly under-developed. There was pristine nature and crystal clear turquoise water.

For being a fairly small country, Croatia offered an amazing amount of beautiful places to visit. My favorite was the island of Vis because it was the least developed and offered such a variety of beautiful coves and diverse beaches. My second favorite was tie between the two national parks with waterfalls: Plitvice and Krka. Plitvice was a bit more impressive and much more expansive, but Krka was less crowded and we got to swim beneath the falls.

We met wonderful people in Split and not just acquaintances that we will lose track of now that we’re gone. Some are close friends that we’ve already seen since leaving Split. We visited Milda and Mario in Lithuania. And Paula and I vacationed together in Prague. We are looking forward to them visiting us here in the United States.

Sometimes when I think about it, Croatia seems like a little paradise, but then I remember that that it wasn’t. No place is perfect. And as much as I love Croatia, its not the place I would pick to live forever because the business culture and bureaucracy drove me crazy. Magical islands and sparkling turquoise seas can only sustain me for so long.

I get a lot of fulfillment in life from being a designer and helping businesses grow using design, but too much time in Croatia was dedicated to trying to overcome silly Croatian bureaucratic and cultural business obstacles. And this had absolutely nothing to do with internal workings of my company, Elevator. Croatia overall does a poor job at encouraging business growth and entrepreneurial success. The nonsensical constant changing laws and nepotism were never ending. I have seen some of the most intelligent people I know (local Croatians and expats) trying to make a career for themselves only to be spun in circles and spit back out by the bureaucracy. I am confident though that some of these people will succeed. I admire their perseverance.

That was the main reason that I would pick Madrid over Croatia as my preferred place to live forever. Madrid wasn’t quite as enchanting as Croatia, but it was still pretty spectacular. The city offered a never ending stream of exciting things to do, travel was cheap and easy, I loved my job and I got the opportunity to drastically improve my Spanish.

We lived in the center of the city so we could walk to most places and Madrid has one of the largest metro systems in the world so it was easy to get anywhere. Madrid doesn’t have the obvious tourist attractions like some large European cities, but it is a great place to live or visit. It has a very rich culture. There were wonderful museums, lots of parks, and always great events.

Retiro Park is my favorite city park I’ve ever been to because the gardens are beautiful, there are great walking/running paths, the beautiful main pond is fun for row boats, and there are plenty of grassy spots to find your own private corner for a picnic.

Jay and I appreciated the plethora of events that can only happen in a big city, like the free Linkin Park / Katy Perry concert. And being in Madrid for a victorious World Cup was something we’ll never forget.

Madrid also boasted an amazing amount of discount airline routes. We visited the island of Mallorca for less than $25 round trip each and made it to Marrakesh for less than $50 round trip each. Plus there were numerous great day trips we took by train. We were completely spoiled by the amount of wonderful places we got to visit. We wished we were able to snag such great travel deals here in Cincinnati (but we did learn we need to explore our own region more because it has a lot to offer).

I wish I had had more time in Madrid, especially for improving my Spanish and because work was fun too, but I know I should just be thankful for the eight months I had. Jay and I both feel amazingly blessed for the experiences we had the last two years. It surpassed all expectations. But no matter how marvelous Croatia and Madrid were, they were both missing what was most important to us: our families. We also feel pretty blessed to be back in Cincinnati spending time with those we love most.

Below is a 90-second New Year video I made frame by frame with post-it notes. It was officially made for my work at Cato Partners Europe, but it was created with sentiments for my family and friends. Jay and I wish you the best in 2011 and all the years to come.

Notes: 1. Cato’s logo is a bee. 2. Turn your sound on.

A few weeks ago my boss approached me about making a New Year’s greeting to share with clients, something interesting yet short and simple. I’ve always been fascinated with stop motion animation, and somehow I thought this sounded like the perfect opportunity to experiment. The process was definitely not short and simple, but I’m happy I tackled the challenge.

The process involved over 1,000 post-it notes (250 hand-colored black), over 600 photos, and over 60 hours in 6 days. Jay and I turned our tiny studio apartment into a photo studio by moving all of the furniture into one corner and ever-so-professionally taping my camera to a dresser so it wouldn’t move. I arranged every light in the apartment so it was spotlighting the wall, which included rigging the overhead light with rope and paperclips to get it in the proper position.

Our apartment become an obstacle course rigged with traps and we were very careful not to touch anything so we didn’t mess up the lighting or camera positioning. We even climbed over lights and the couch to sleep in our bed that was nestled next to the window. I was thankful I never had to go the bathroom in the middle of the night; I surely would’ve tripped.

I started shooting photos on a Saturday morning and Jay was such a trooper that he helped out all weekend with very minimal complaining. I wanted black post-it notes for the video, which I couldn’t find anywhere, so Jay took on the task of coloring in 250 post-it notes by hand with marker. The marker I bought dried up, then another we had at home dried up too, so I ran out to the store to buy a third that got us through to the end. Jay even sporadically paused the UC basketball game to help fill in the post-it note grid as I created new words.

I spent about every waking minute of the weekend moving post-it notes and taking photos. And then I spent time the next four days editing the images in Photoshop (my make-shift spot lights weren’t good enough), creating more images, picking out music, and putting the animation together. I stayed awake until dawn to get it finished before we left for our Christmas holiday trip – it brought back memories from pulling all-nighters in college working on graphic design projects.

I will definitely think twice before starting another stop-motion animation project because of the time commitment needed, but I do hope an opportunity for one presents itself again. I learned so much throughout the process. I know that just having one under my belt will make a world of difference.

So, it’s been five months now. Did I achieve my goal? No, not yet. Studying Spanish during high school and at university gave me a good start, but my biggest obstacle is still listening comprehension. I do pretty well in one-on-one conversations because people slow down for me. I get lost quickly when I am trying to understand a conversation between native speakers; they just speak so quickly and often don’t wait for each other to finish sentences. And the same thing happens when watching movies in Spanish. It often becomes a jumble.

Even though I am not quite where I want to be with comprehension, I have made some great improvements overall. I got over the fear hump! I speak without much apprehension. I still trip over my words, but I don’t let it stop me. I can have a conversation in Spanish for hours without a problem – though a bit of Spanglish is always thrown in. My vocabulary has markedly improved, but still has a long way to go. My comprehension is a little better, and the optimist in me says I will eventually get over that hump too, though most days it honestly doesn’t feel like it.

There are still so many things I want to accomplish with my Spanish. Here are some things I have been doing to improve my Spanish skills:

Spanish Classes

Shortly after we arrived in Spain, and before I started working, I took two weeks of intensive Spanish classes at Don Quijote language school. I took five hours of classes a day full of grammar, vocabulary, speaking, and culture. I was actually disappointed that most of my teachers seemed unprepared and taught straight from the book. My class had four teachers in our two weeks, so it was hard for them to get to know our needs. Though a good teacher would’ve been nice, it was still a great way to get my brain accustomed to speaking and hearing Spanish.

Since then I have been taking evening classes at CEE. It is ironic that CEE’s classes are remarkably more affordable, yet I feel like I have gotten so much more out of them. Classes are one hour a day and I usually attend three or four days a week depending on work and travel plans. I’ve had two different teachers. The first teacher I had was one of my favorite Spanish teachers I’ve ever had (after my high school teacher Señorita Bock). He really helped me understand a lot of grammar so I can better say what I intend to say in Spanish.

One of the best things about my Spanish classes are getting to know my classmates who come from all different parts of the world. Along with learning Spanish, I always get a few culture lessons from other countries too. I love learning the little idiosyncrasies. Just the other day I learned that most Europeans pronounce Nike as it would rhyme with bike or like. I’ve always heard my boss refer to it that way and I thought it was just his weird personal quirk. I had no idea it was a peculiarity of millions of people.

Language Exchanges

A language exchange or “intercambio” is a good way to practice speaking a language. I’d meet up with a native Spanish speaker who wanted to learn English and we’d speak in English half the time and Spanish the other half. Though work has put an end to the regularity of my language exchanges, I did quite a few when I first arrived and I met some great people.

I found language exchange partners online through Couchsurfing and Loquo. Jay and I also did a group language exchange through Couchsurfing, which felt like a mixture of speed dating and summer camp. We spoke with lots of different people and played word games.

I liked doing language exchanges because they were a good way to meet people and to have someone to ask all of my language questions. One of my language partner, Noelia, and I would keep a notebook and write down all of our questions that came up though the week. We’d usually walk through a park or the streets of Madrid and then find a bench on which to sit afterwards and ask all of our questions.

Work

Working in a mostly Spanish speaking environment may be doing the most for my Spanish skills. I have to use all of my skills at work. Though my boss speaks perfect English, I speak Spanish with everyone else. I learn vocab and grammar as I write presentations and review my colleagues’ corrections of my errors. I read briefs and write emails in Spanish.

I think my biggest challenges have been a few ideation work sessions recently. Anyone involved in work sessions knows that sometimes everyone seems to be talking at once and when this happens in Spanish I can’t understand a thing. Sometimes I just want to yell, “One at a time, please!”

These sessions are completely exhausting as I use all of my brain power just to keep up with what is going on and then try to contribute on top of that. The first time I spoke up was the most nerve racking experience. It’s one thing to have no fear in the grocery store; its another thing to speak up at work in front of a group of professionals who are all native Spanish speakers. After breaking the ice the first time, I’ve gotten over my fears. I know it’s the ideas that count and not my grammar mistakes.

Anki

I have been using the online program, Anki, to improve my vocabulary. Anki is a spaced repetition flashcard program. It is just like the hand-written flashcards I used back in elementary school for studying, except these are online and use an algorithm to strategically space out how often I see each card. I recommend Anki for anyone trying to learn a new language.

Reading

I usually read for a little bit before going to sleep, so I have been trying to stick to Spanish language books. I recently started reading Paulo Coelho’s El Peregrino on Jay’s Kindle. I was loving the embedded Spanish English dictionary we bought for the Kindle – I could just hover the cursor over a Spanish word that I did not know, and the English translation would automatically display along the bottom of the screen. It was so useful for learning new vocabulary. I hope the thieves that stole all of our stuff last weekend are enjoying it too (sarcasm).

Podcasts

My walk to work is about 30 minutes and I have found that Spanish Language podcasts are a great way to productively spend that time. I definitely think it is helping my listening comprehension. The podcasts have really brought to my attention how much different accents trip me up. Even though South American Spanish speakers are generally thought to speak clearer, I find them very difficult. I do the best with native Madrid speakers since that is what I am becoming accustomed to.

My favorite podcasts are Nómadas and Viajeros del Mundo, two travel podcasts that take me around the world. The vocabulary is usually pretty basic so I can follow the story and they always give me ideas for new places I want to visit.

Movies

I make an effort to watch movies in Spanish with English subtitles to try to help my listening comprehension. The English subtitles are there so Jay can understand the movie and so I don’t get completely lost, but I find that I just read instead of listen. I’m not quite sure how much help they are.

Regardless, this has been a good compromising tool for Jay and I. I never wanted to watch all of the Godfather and the Star Wars movies, but I agreed to do it if we could watch them in Spanish. The Spanish voices definitely add a comedic element to the movies for us.

I know that when I move back to Cincinnati many of these efforts will consequently fall off the list, but I hope I have enough willpower to keep up a lot of them so that I continually improve. At times I feel desperate about my lack of comprehension skills. I often feel like I am just hitting a brick wall. I’m always looking for new ideas to improve. Anyone have language learning advice that worked for them, whether in the native environment or at home?

The bus dropped us off right near Segovia’s most famous symbol, its ancient Roman Aqueduct. It is made of over 25,000 granite blocks that were constructed without any mortar around the turn of the 2nd century. The aqueduct is a powerful sight — it is 94 feet tall at its tallest point. In front of the aqueduct was a big pedestrian-only square, which was the sight of a dog show when we arrived. I loved seeing so many dogs together. They had such distinct personalities: the dignified greyhound, the lazy beagle, the spastic french bulldog, etc.

We walked through town and stopped at the Segovia Cathedral, the last Gothic cathedral built in Spain. The magnificent exterior reminded me some of Toledo’s cathedral. For some reason, I always pictured Spain as lacking the glorious cathedrals that dot the rest of Europe, but I was completely wrong. I am repeatedly pleasantly surprised in many of the cities we’ve visited.

We continued on to the Alcazar of Segovia, a palace on the edge of the old city walls. It immediately made me wish we had time to take my parents here because my mom would’ve really liked it. Alcazar is a fairy tale castle, built for the King of Castile in the 12th century. We climbed the castle’s tower to the highest point and we could see out far over the valleys and to the cathedral shortly off in the distance. Up to this point, the sky had been full of gloomy, grey clouds, but as soon as we stepped out of the tower’s spiral staircase and onto the castle rooftop, the clouds in the sky began to break up and the sun peeked out. Not long later, it looked like a completely new day full of sunshine.

We took a break for a late Spanish-time lunch and a pleasant conversation with Gaelle and Thibaut. They told us stories about their time studying at Georgia Tech and traveling all around the United States. It is always fun to hear what surprises people about the States, from the large food portions and free refills to tipping etiquette to the abundance of fast food restaurants to dating misunderstandings to the lack of public transportation and the urban sprawl to giant houses. I think the urban sprawl of Atlanta would be a culture shock for anyone from Europe. At least now Gaelle and Thibaut are conditioned to long drives, and a three hour road trip for sightseeing is no big deal. After eight months in Georgia, their English is perfect, and luckily they still have French accents and not Southern ones.

After lunch we took a walk, downhill, outside the city walls, along a small river and through a wooded path that offered peeks of spectacular views of the castle and the cathedral. It was hard to believe the morning had been dreary and cloudy. We eventually climbed many flights of steps back to the center of town and leisurely walked through the uncrowded streets. Segovia had such a calm and tranquil feel, probably because there aren’t too many tourists in November and most head to Toledo anyways. I loved the traditional architecture of the old town: tiled roofs and walls decorated with sgraffito, contrasting patterned designs made of plaster.

As the sun set so did the temperature and we stopped for hot chocolate and tea. Before we knew it we were almost late for the bus back to the train. As we left the coffee shop we could see the cathedral brilliantly lit up, but there was no time to stop and enjoy it. We made it to the bus just in time – we were the last ones on the standing-room-only-filled bus. The day wore us all out; Jay and Thibaut both napped on the ride back to Madrid.

Click here to view more photos from our day trip to Segovia.

We were able to share many of our favorite places in Madrid with Mom and Dad and to discover new favorite places. We packed a lot into three days; we checked out the Temple of Debod, Campo del Moro Park, a city guided walking tour, Plaza de Mayor, Puerta del Sol and the yummy bakery, a walk along Paseo del Prado, Plaza de Cibeles and the old post office, the Caixa Forum Museum, the turtles at Atocha Train Station, the Costume Museum, San Francisco El Grande Basilica, the Royal Palace, the Cathedral of Almudena, Retiro Park, and a day trip to Toledo. We had perfect sunny weather everyday (Historically, Madrid has more sunny days than any other European capital – in a close running with Athens.) and my favorite part of their visit was probably simply walking all around the city spotting random beautiful buildings.

Here were a few of our other new favorites:

San Francisco El Grande Basilica
The San Francisco El Grande Basilica rises above La Latina neighborhood in the older part of Madrid not far from the Royal Palace. It has a commanding exterior presence, but the interior is where it really shines. We entered through one of the seven massive carved walnut doors.

There visiting hours are quite limited (11:00-12:30 and 4:00-6:30) and we arrived just in time to join a tour that was included in the small entrance fee. The tour was in Spanish and luckily the guide acknowledged non-native tourists in the group and he spoke very slowly and clearly. I enjoyed the listening comprehension practice and being able to periodically translate a few sentences for Mom and Dad.

The basilica has a round floor plan and our guide led us around the outer edge along the adjoining chapels. One by one he turned on the lights in each chapel while explaining its highlights and he would turn off the lights before heading to the next one. Each was elaborately decorated and once contained the basilica’s most famous painting by Goya. The center of the basilica boasts the largest dome in Spain, at 108 feet in diameter. Every surface was covered in decoration with minute attention to detail, gorgeous stained-glass windows, elegant frescoes and barrel vaulted ceilings.

The Costume Museum (Museo del Traje)
Mom and I have always been fascinated with costumes and period clothing, so when I found out Madrid had a Costume Museum, I saved a visit to share with her. I didn’t have high expectations because most museums and exhibits I have seen in other cities have been small and homogeneous; always the same with mannequins lined shoulder to shoulder displaying the costumes. Madrid’s Costume Museum quickly blew away my expectations with its size, voluminous collection, and very well-designed displays.

The permanent collection takes you on a walk through fashion history from 16th century tunics and doublets to contemporary runway designs. I loved seeing the cocktail dresses from the 1950s; there were so many that I wished I owned today. There was also a temporary exhibition displaying the costumes from a current Spanish movie set in the 17th century called Lope. Mom and I spent a couple hours strolling through all of the displays. I was impressed with the detail and ingenuity in each of them. I know Jay and Dad were thankful they didn’t have to go to this museum, but I know they would have enjoyed it more than they think. Mom and I could’ve spent all day there, but more of Madrid was calling.

The city of Toledo and its cathedral
We spent the last day of my parents trip visiting the medieval town of Toledo (Toledo, Spain (pronounced toe-LAY-doe), not Toledo, Ohio (toe-LEE-doe). It is a formal capital of the Spanish Empire and actually has a much longer history than Madrid. Long ago Christians, Jews and Muslims coexisted here, and the city boasts ancient sights representing the different cultures.

Toledo is just a half hour speedy train ride from Madrid’s main Atocha station, so it was an easy day trip, but there were so many places of interest that one day didn’t give us nearly enough time to see everything. It was the last chapter on a long trip and we were a bit worn out so we took our time, taking in what we did see a bit slower than normal. We walked around town enjoying all of the historic buildings. We visited inside the Alcazar fortress and the Army museum, the Synagogue of El Transito, and my favorite of the day, Toledo’s cathedral.

Toledo’s 15th century cathedral has a dominating gothic exterior, but it was almost hard to get a good view of it because it is nestled so closely between other historic buildings. The interior felt like a maze of treasures to me. There were so many side chapels, a sacristy, a treasury, and more and more rooms leading to other rooms whose names I quickly forgot.

My favorite part was the Transparente, an ornate Baroque altarpiece in the ambulatory behind the high altar. Its name refers to the unique illumination coming in from the skylight in the vault above it and the numerous stained glass windows. (The cathedral has over 750 stained glass windows.) The transparente is decorated with with fantastic figures in stucco and bronze, paintings, and many colors of marble.

Hanging from the transparente (and several other places in the cathedral) was a lone red hat. It belonged to a cardinal who was buried in a tomb directly beneath me. Toledo’s cardinals have the opportunity to choose anywhere in the cathedral to be buried, and their hats are hung above their tombs until they rot away (which obviously takes a long time). I had read about these before visiting the cathedral, so I had my eye out for them, but they were quite hard to spot at first. They somehow blended into the fabric of the decoration in the cathedral. I felt like I was playing a game of Where’s Waldo? So many cathedrals run together in my memory, but the transparente and the cardinals’ red hats made Toledo’s unique.

The last thing we did before heading back on the train to Madrid we was introduced Mom and Dad to churros, often referred to as Spanish donuts. They are fried rings of dough sprinkled in sugar or dipped in chocolate that taste similar to a funnel cake. They are my favorite Spanish treat — delicious!

The next morning we took Mom and Dad to the airport. We were so glad they had gotten to visit us in Madrid to share in a city we love. It may have been snug in the apartment, but I had gotten used to them being around. I surely wasn’t ready for them to leave.

Click here to view more photos from Mom and Dad Klocke’s visit with us in Madrid and Toledo.

This quote seems to summarize so much of life for me — and I know every year I will feel more that way. Jay and I celebrated our wedding anniversary last weekend with a short trip to Santander and Bilbao. I can’t believe we have already been married for 5 years. Sometimes we still feel like kids and other times we feel like old fogies. We booked the trip because we found a great deal on the discount airline, Ryanair, and it wasn’t until a few days later that we even realized the trip coincided with our anniversary.

Our flight left at 6:30 am Saturday morning, so that meant we left our apartment at 4:15 am — ouch! The subway doesn’t open until 6:00 am, so we had to take an airport shuttle taxi. It was fun driving through the city and seeing everyone still out for the night going to bars and drinking on stoops. And when we got to the airport we were surprised by the scene in the check-in area; it was filled with hundreds of backpackers sound asleep. They were spread out everywhere and lined up in rows along the walls. Most slept on sleeping mats with their heads resting on their backpacks. Some slept with their mouths wide open, others curled up in the fetal position, and some twitched as they dreamt. I was amazed at the multitude of people and how many were sound asleep even with all of the noise. I guess it was a good way to save on a night’s hotel and taxi fare.

Luckily we got the emergency exit row on the plane, so we had extra leg room and got some extra sleep. We continued our nap on the hour and half bus ride from Santander to Bilbao. Like most visitors to Bilbao, we went to see the Guggenheim Museum. It is a modern and contemporary art museum designed by architect Frank Gehry. When it opened in 1997 it was immediately touted as one of the most spectacular buildings of our time and put the formerly unknown town of Bilbao on the world map. Since it was built, I have wanted to see it, and it lived up to my expectations.

The building is formed from random curves made of titanium fish-like scales. The curves catch the light and reflect brightly. It’s beautiful. It feels more like a sculptural work of art than a building. I couldn’t decide if it dwarfed the importance of the artwork inside or elevated it.

We walked all around the exterior of building, snapping way too many photos along the way. The sun was scorching, but we climbed up seven flights of stairs onto the neighboring bridge to get a view from above. When we got to the top we saw a group of people walk out from around the corner and realized there was an elevator we could’ve taken instead.

As we approached the front of the museum we admired Jeff Koon’s sculpture “Puppy,” a 43-foot-tall topiary terrier made of fresh pansies. It was intended to be a temporary exhibit during the opening of the museum, but was so well received that it found a permanent home. It was playful and fun.

The inside of the museum follow the same theme as the exterior with all walls, hallways, and galleries formed of curves. The galleries contain permanent works from some important 20th century artists such as Picasso, Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg, Ives Klein and Willem de Koonig, and temporary exhibits from current artists.

My favorite exhibit showcased work from Anish Kapoor, who many people know for his Cloud Gate sculpture (or giant reflective bean) in Chicago’s Millennium Park. Much of his work explores themes of ambiguity and distorted perceptions. One gallery had a giant yellow piece of art that at first looked like a flat painting trying to give the illusion of depth, but as I approached it I realized there actually was depth — a giant hole going deep into the wall. Another gallery contained an array of different shaped mirrors that distorted our reflections. Jay and I had fun seeing how silly we could make ourselves look. Other pieces of Kapoor’s work challenged the traditional static nature of sculpture and painting. He used wax and pigment in his pieces, but instead of arranging them on a canvas, he used them as the work of art itself. In one piece he had a cannon that would randomly shoot out red wax and splatter it on the wall, so the piece was always evolving. My professional classification of his work would be goofy, but fun and intriguing.

After leaving the museum, we planned to walk to the old part of town and to see more of Bilbao before heading back to Santander, but our energy quickly waned from the sweltering sun and our lack of sleep. Instead we walked through the nearby park that lined the river, found a shady spot in the grass, and took a nap. I’m a little ashamed to say we didn’t see much of Bilbao except the Guggenheim, but that is why we went, and the nap in the park was lovely.

Click here to view more photos from our trip to Santander and Bilbao.

After an hour bus ride into the Sierra de Guadarrama mountains outside of Madrid we arrived in the small town of San Lorenzo de El Escorial, which is dominated by El Escorial, a historical residence of the King of Spain built in 1584. Today, it is a large monastery, an austere royal palace, a fascinating museum, a school, and a royal pantheon where Spanish royalty are buried. We walked around the exterior of the building and peeked over the walls to the gardens and decided to take advantage of the cool morning air with a small hike. We headed to the tourist office so they could point us in the direction of Silla de Felipe II (Chair of Philip II).

The hike to Silla de Felipe II was about 2.5 miles. It began on a wide path through a park, climbed up a rugged trail through the forest, and ended at a magnificent view of El Escorial set against the Sierra de Guadarrama mountains. It could have also been reached in the opposite direction by car, but that wouldn’t have been nearly as much fun — plus, we don’t have a car. The hike itself offered many outstanding views and we had the path to ourselves most of the time.

At the site we sat on several blocks of stones that were in the forms of chairs and overlooked the vista. Supposedly they were the same stones where King Philip II sat and watched the building of his palace and monastery. We relaxed on his throne, ate our granola bars, and watched two young boys interact with their grandpa and his binoculars. It was fun watching their excitement at seeing faraway things so big, and I was just happy I could actually understand some of their conversation in Spanish. The boys were rambunctious and impatient. They wouldn’t let grandpa look through his binoculars for a second without chanting, “Give them to me, give them to me, I want them.” As they left, they gave us a cheery, “Adios.”

After our hike back and a quick lunch, we entered El Escorial. The well-directed path through the massive building led us to the Museum of Architecture, the Art Gallery, private apartments, the Hall of Battles, the Pantheon, numerous ceiling paintings, the Grand Staircase, the Basilica, and the Library. My favorite was the Library. I am always drawn to books and the room was beautiful. It glowed a warm gold. The walls were covered with books and the ceilings were covered with paintings.There were over 40,000 volumes, including King Philip II’s personal collection. The paintings on the ceiling were frescoes depicting the seven liberal arts: Rhetoric, Dialectic, Music, Grammar, Arithmetic, Geometry and Astronomy.

I also really enjoyed the Basilica and the Museum of Architecture. The Basilica had wonderfully high ceilings and an impressive 92-foot tall altar adorned with gilded statues and religious paintings. The Museum of Architecture featured original plans, drawings, models, and tools detailing the building of El Escorial. The blueprints and detailed drawings of the building’s exterior were fascinating. They were pen drawings, but they were so intricate and precise that they looked like they could have been printed from a computer today. It was compelling to think about how far we’ve advanced technology in the past five hundred years, yet so many principles of architecture are enduring and relevant.

The Museum of Architecture was the first feature we visited and I probably spent too long perusing all of the drawings there because by the time we made it through the building we were exhausted and a bit slap happy. We spent a short time in El Escorial’s gardens checking out the hedges that were trimmed and sculpted into silly fun patterns. And we ended the visit on a high note with a perfectly yummy lemon icee.

Click here to view more photos from our Day Trip to San Lorenzo de El Escorial as well as other recent adventures around Madrid

Almost all of the parks and gardens in Madrid are well kept: plenty of trees and dense green grass with well manicured lawns and bushes. This characteristic was a pleasant surprise to me considering it almost never rains in the summer and temperatures reach into the upper 90°s Farenheit almost daily. I expected them to be more like the city parks we visited throughout Italy, which were usually full of dry barren spots. Madrid works hard to keep them pretty.

And I know most of the parks in the city have a rich history, but this gets stored in my short term memory and is quickly forgotten. I remember seeing the sights, walking along the paths, laying in the grass, and people watching.

Retiro Park

Retiro Park, Madrid’s main city park, is probably my favorite city park in the world because it has so many interesting aspects: walking paths, gardens, forests, Dr. Suess trees, a lake with row boats, statues and monuments, fountains, playgrounds, a glass building, art exhibits and more. I fell in love with Retiro during my first visit to Spain in 2001 and I was excited to share it with Jay, so it was the first park we visited after the West Park (the park closest to where we live).

We made the baneful mistake of sleeping in late and not going until the afternoon in the sweltering heat. Living in Madrid has quickly made me understand the traditional Spanish siesta. In July and August, the mornings are cool and comfortable (mid-60°s F and 70°s F) until about noon when the temperatures slowly rise to oppressive levels. I was really looking forward to the row boats at Retiro, but we decided to save them for another time and stick to the shade. Since there is very little humidity, the air feels fine in the shade; it’s just the sun that can be unbearable.

Even though we didn’t make it onto the lake ourselves, we enjoyed seeing the impressive monument behind the lake and the people watching. We watched children splashing water as the parents scolded them in vain and men rowing while their ladies sunbathed at the front of the boat (this being the exact reason Jay was not about to step in a row boat with one set of oars when it was 98°F outside — he didn’t want to do all the work).

We walked along pathways that wove like a maze throughout the park and walked through a few of the gardens. My favorite garden had a bunch of trees that looked like they belonged in a Dr. Suess book! I also thought La Rosaleda, the rose garden, was enchanting, but there wasn’t any shade, so Jay’s interest there lasted about 3 minutes.

In the middle of the park there is a beautiful glass building call the Crystal Palace with a small pond in front of it. The Crystal Palace and the Palacio de Velázquez host free art exhibits. The Palacio de Velázquez was showcasing work of Antoni Miralda from the 1970s until today. I wasn’t familiar with his work, but the exhibit was enjoyable, amusing, and often funny — plus the air conditioning was a nice bonus.

Campo del Moro Park

So far, Campo del Moro is my second favorite park in Madrid. I had never heard of it before a few weeks ago and I had no expectations, so it was such a pleasant surprise. This time, we were smart and made it out our door by 9:00 am, so we had the entire morning to enjoy the nice weather. As soon as we entered the park we were greeted by a beautiful view of a green fairway with the Palace in the background. Jay jokingly said he wished he had his 7-iron with him, and I had to agree that it looked beautiful for golf.

The park was quiet and is not often visited by tourists because it is not easy to find. Though it is right next to the Palace, there is only one small unmarked entrance on the back west side of the park. Most of the other visitors seemed to be elderly people sitting on park benches reading their morning paper. We walked along the tree covered paths, stopping at several pretty fountains and a pond. The pond had fish, ducks, turtles, and black swans. Sometimes Jay and I still feel like little kids — we spent way too long watching the baby ducks swim around and dive for food, and Jay said he was quite upset I did not tell him to bring food for the ducks.

Sabatini Gardens

Near Campo del Moro are the Sabatini Gardens. These gardens line the north side of the palace and we overlooked them from our hotel our first week in Madrid. They are much smaller than Campo del Moro and we stayed a short time to see the sculpted plants, royal statues, and reflecting pool.

The highlight for me was an energetic french bulldog zipping around the park. On one hand, he was well behaved and would quickly return to his owner as soon as she whistled because he had been out of sight for too long. On the other hand, he was quite mischievous. He greeted anyone who didn’t shy away, swam in the reflecting pool, ran through the manicured hedges and seemed to pose in front of statues for me.

Royal Botanical Gardens

The Royal Botanical Gardens were the only gardens we had to pay to enter and ironically they were the only ones we found disappointing. They were the only ones that were not well kept. I imagined that it would’ve been much prettier in the Spring, but now there were many plots that were barren and dead. We really enjoyed the greenhouse though. There was a fun cactus room and tropical plant room that made up for the small entry fee (only 1.25 Euros each).

Casa de Campo Park

This morning we planned to take a day-trip to El Escorial, a town about an hour outside of Madrid that has an impressive monastery, but the bus didn’t show up as scheduled. We waited an hour and then changed plans. We head to Madrid’s largest park, just west of the city, Casa de Campo. Casa de Campo was formerly the Royal hunting ground and covers over 4200 acres. It contains hiking trails, bikes paths, a lake, an amusement park, the city zoo and more.

We walked around the lake, but decided once again it was too hot for a row boat. Instead, we watched other row boats and kayaks and an interesting “soccer meets kayaking” game being practiced on the water. I think the park would be best enjoyed with bikes because it is so large, so next time we may rent bikes. This time we stuck to the shaded walking paths and yummy Magnum ice cream bars.

One of the parks main attractions is its cable car that transports you from Casa de Campo Park to the West Park right in our neighborhood. It provided a great view of the park and of some of Madrid in the distance and it capped off another fun Madrid park experience. It wasn’t what we planned for the day, but Jay told me to turn my frown upside down, (seriously, he literally told me that) and we ended up having a great day anyways.

Click here to view more photos from our park visits and sightseeing around Madrid.

Saturday, July 3: Quarterfinal Match vs. Paraguay

As Kelly has already shared in her previous blog, the football match was actually not the biggest happening in town this night – Madrid hosted its annual Gay Pride Parade which culminated in a free Kylie Minogue concert attended by several hundred thousand people. In between the parade and the concert, we watched the match at “Las Delicias del Jamon” – a local tapas bar / deli / butcher shop. The place had a very authentic, down-to-earth feel about it. One side of the restaurant comprised a deli counter and a bar, and about a dozen 2-4 person tables filled the rest of the place. All four walls were covered with about 100 hanging dried pigs legs.

We arrived right at kickoff and grabbed the second-to-last table. We enjoyed watching the match with the locals, and listening to their cheers and jeers. Of course, the place erupted when Spain scored the sole goal of the match, and everyone applauded when the game ended. Later that night, we saw lots of supporters decked out in their Spain apparel – even some dogs!

Wednesday, July 7: Semifinal Match vs. Germany

We weren’t sure where to watch this game this time, but about an hour before kickoff, Kelly received a tip from our hotel receptionist to go to Real Madrid stadium, where they were showing the match on giant screens. The stadium was about 25 minutes away (walking and subway). We weren’t certain which station to get off, but we figured it out real quick when the entire subway train emptied and everyone started cheering and blowing horns. It brought a huge smile to our faces right away – and mine hardly went away the whole night.

Exiting the subway station placed us right on top of the stadium. The place was buzzing – it had a definite tailgating feel to it. Vendors were selling souvenirs and fans were downing beer – it wasn’t allowed inside the gates. After walking through security into the plaza outside the Real Madrid stadium, we found the four giant screens surrounded by mobs of people. I’d estimate we stood with about twenty thousand people to watch the match.

It was a blast to see and hear the crowd wave flags, blow horns, cheer, gasp, moan and applaud throughout the entire match. Fans continually sang several cheers/fight songs, including “yo soy Español, Español Español!” (I am Spanish) and “Este partido, vamos a ganar” (We will win this game). Written down, they don’t look like much, but I enjoyed cheering along with them – and I heard them quite a bit the next few days!

We were very amused during the game that a group of college-aged Spanish men accused us of being Germans. They looked at us – about a foot taller than the average Spaniard, blondish hair, fair-skinned, not decked out in Spanish colors – and assumed we were rooting for the enemy! We assured them that we were from the USA, which brought big smiles and enticed them to chant “USA! USA! USA!” (they were among the leaders in starting all chants throughout the match). Later on, they asked us which state, which of course resulted in an “O-HI-O! O-HI-O!” chant! And of course, it must be noted, that these young men were, of course, under the influence of liquid courage.

After the match ended victoriously, we entered into the loudest subway station I have ever been in. Everyone was yelling and hollering and blowing horns. I thought it was great, but felt a bit sorry for the workers who were likely in for a long, headache-filled night. Oh well, it sure beats losing! And during our walk home, all of the cars were honking their horns and people were still singing and chanting. I believe we still heard celebratory car horns the following morning!

Sunday, July 11: World Cup Final vs. Netherlands

We had so much fun watching the semifinal match at the Real Madrid stadium that we returned for the final match – this time of course decked out in Spanish (and University of Cincinnati) red. Only one problem, there was no buzz and no crowd, just a few dozen other fans looking around confused with us. The vendors were still all set up – we spoke with a couple of them, and they informed us that the viewing party was at the Plaza de Colon, “about a 15 minute walk away”.

Of course, a 15 minute walk really means about 35 minutes (about 2 miles). We had begun to get worried that we had gotten lost, but we eventually found our way, and found the party. The city shut down the street between two squares and set up at least eight giant screens for everyone to watch. Newspapers estimated 300,000 people watched the match here. And of course the crowd’s spirit was just as energized as Wednesday, except that the crowd was a multiple of ten larger! Absolutely awesome.

It was quite a nerve-wracking game, with no goals scored during regular time, leading to extra time. When Spain scored the goal with only a few minutes left in extra time, absolute bedlam ensued. Horns, yelling, everyone jumping up and down. Fireworks, cheering, hugging, singing. Everyone calmed down – just a little – to make sure that the goal held up for the final minutes of the match, and then the celebration began! We spotted a few grown men in tears – this is after all the first time Spain has won the world cup – and right as the game ended, the barricade protecting the drained fountain was pulled down and everyone rushed to celebrate around the fountain’s statue. We have since learned that this is a Spanish celebratory tradition, and is likely why this fountain was emptied. We saw photos the next day of other people splashing around in the fountain beds.

After the match ended, the streets became flooded with more than one million revelers, and the largest street party that I have ever experienced ensued. We walked around town for a couple of hours, taking it all in. We made it back to our apartment shortly before 2 a.m., and I’m sure that the party lasted until sunrise.

I feel so lucky that the timing of our move to Madrid coincided with this World Cup run. It was so much fun, and I understand and value how unique and rare of an opportunity it really was — the World Cup is the largest sporting event in the world, save the Olympics. I also have a great appreciation for the rarity of championships, coming from Cincinnati. I joked to Kelly: we have lived in Cincinnati for the last 20 years without witnessing a championship, it only took two weeks for it to happen in Spain!

Click here to view more photos from our World Cup viewing experiences.