the Prado and Retiro Park

We finally had what may have been the perfect day as our first day

day starts out well

 in Madrid.  Oscar woke up early with John and we were able to get up and out for breakfast as a family.  McDonald’s unfortunately, but there was a caramel and sea salt muffin that was worth it that I got.  Oscar was along for the ride to the Prado museum and I

 let him out to run around while we waited in line to get in.  He didn’t want to get back in his stroller and has a hard time understanding when it’s time to get back in line.  I’m trying to give him freedom some because I know he wants to expend energy and run around, 

 but he has to understand that there is a time to get back in the stroller.  John was able to get half the students in for free because they had their Ferris ID with them and were under 18.  So, that was a bonus.  There were no problems with getting the stroller in or the full diaper 

 bag.  We fed Oscar some and started wandering this vast place.  Around the time of the black paintings of Goya, Oscar started to get fussy and for once John was in charge of him when this happened and embarrassed as hell.  He wanted to hightail it out of 

 there and go to the main hall until things settled down, but I just took that stroller and started walking through the same rooms that we were going to walk through anyway.  He fussed and yelled for a couple of minutes, but with all the 

 school kids in there, I don’t think that it was that distracting and then he fell asleep.  I told John that you just got to mow through that fussy time when he doesn’t want to take a nap.  It was fun seeing him on the receiving end for the first time this trip of being the parent that

  just wants their kid to be quiet and can’t figure out what the kid wants and needs.  We were able to see almost the entire museum while he was asleep and this was what I had hoped for everyday of this trip.  That he would nap while we got to see a museum.  Too bad it was 

 the Prado.  Don’t get me wrong, this is a world class collection of Rubens, Titian, Goya, Velaquez, etc, but the theme is very one note.  Unlike other museums, this is the Spanish Royal families’ personal collection over the years and they only liked religious 

 themed stuff.  It was very dark, very moody, and very much too much Jesus dying, Mary lactating, people being beheaded and martyred.  There didn’t seem to be many happy themes depicted and when they were, like Mary with baby Jesus, she was shooting milk 

into someone else’s mouth across the sky.  I’m all for breastfeeding in public and all, but I’m not sure why’re your breastfeeding someone other than your child and how you can control the stream to the point that you can feed some Saint 10 feet away from 

dragging my purse around the park

 you…..But it was extremely prevalent in this collection.  I would show you pictures, but the Prado doesn’t allow them.  So, we’re back to that.  And the most interesting painting in the whole place, Bosch’s in the Garden of Earthly Delights, is off the wall because they have 

moved it to a special exhibit wing to make up there Bosch exhibition in a couple of days.  So, this was a bummer visit for a couple of reasons, but still, we left feeling like we had seen the entire museum, were not rushed and able to see it together.  We followed the Rick Steves’ book on where to find some tapas near the museum and made a delightful little lunch of beer, tapas, and Oscar seems to like the chips here.  He also started reaching for a donut while we were sitting there and so, we got it and he ate almost the whole thing.  This was the first time that he has reached for something in a restaurant and then proceeded to actually like it.  Refreshed, we headed for Retiro Park, which is huge, beautiful and has so many little areas in it.  Oscar got to swing, ride a horsey see saw thing, go on his first slide, run around in the grass, and basically be free a lot in this park.  We didn’t have to stay off the grass, we didn’t have to watch where he ran as much because the park is so vast, he couldn’t find the street if he tried.  John read the paper and found out that we were lucky to get out of France when we did because the whole country is now on strike, and I got to relax in the sun.  It’s hot here in Spain for the first time and the sunscreen and more water is becoming a must for us wimpy Michiganders.  Oscar fell asleep on the walk back to the hotel because he was worn out and John and I were able to sit down at a pedestrian street café and get a drink to watch the crowd go by.  Oscar woke up and demanded my milkshake, we headed on and fed him some more because he was a little cranky with not enough sleep.  So, it was a perfect day of what I had expected us being in Europe to be like.  Better treasure it, because I’m sure tomorrow will not go as well.