We made it to Spain! AND getting here wasn’t AS horrible as expected. It was definitely trying but Caroline didn’t scream nearly as much as we anticipated. Yay! We started off by enjoying the sweet lounge life at MSP. Not surprisingly, the kids weren’t as excited for the free food and drink as we were. But they got to play in the kids area for a few minutes and they were happy.
Our first flight was to ATL. I got stuck sitting with both of the kids and with the exception Bennett spilling a bit of his drink and Caroline yelling a few times when things were going her way. Once at ATL, we went to the crowded Delta lounge. Again, the kids weren’t as excited about this as we were, but Bennett did get a fancy drink and Caroline ate about five brownies.
We thought we were going to get five seats to ourselves, 3 in the middle and two in a side, but someone was seated next to the window, which meant one parent would get to sit with both of the kids. Joel graciously agreed, since i had to sit with them from MSP to ATL. They were pretty hungry and tired, since they had only been picking at their food all day but we wanted them to stay awake through dinner and then go to bed. Caroline is at that great phase in life where she screams whenever things aren’t going her way, and we were worried that she’d be screaming the whole flight since she was so tired and hungry. Anyway, she again picked at her dinner. Joel was having a hard time getting her to sleep, so mean mommy took over and she fell asleep pretty quickly. With three seats to two little kids and one adult, i thought we’d have plenty of space but that was not the case. Bennett couldn’t get comfortable and Caroline thrashed around every 15 minutes because she couldnt hey comfortable... and i was holding her, which meant i had to quiet her down. I think she slept 3-4 hours during the 9 hour flight. Bennett slept 1-2 and Joel and i slept next to nothing. It was exhausting because there just wasn’t space. Anyway, we made it to Madrid and had to walk what seemed like a mile to the metro. 
We had to make two transfers on the metro, each time taking a flight of stairs deeper underground, knowing we’d have to eventually walk up flights of stairs. By this time Caroline was really tired and crabby, so she refused to walk and since there were no elevators, i had to carry her so that Joel could carry the stroller. Luckily for us, Bennett was SO GOOD about walking on his own. So Joel would carry the stroller, wear one big camping backpack on his back, and Our small book bag on his front. I was wearing the other big camping backpack and carry Caroline around. Honestly i think we each were lugging around 60-80 pounds through the Metro.
We had to make two transfers on the metro, each time taking a flight of stairs deeper underground, knowing we’d have to eventually walk up flights of stairs. By this time Caroline was really tired and crabby, so she refused to walk and since there were no elevators, i had to carry her so that Joel could carry the stroller. Luckily for us, Bennett was SO GOOD about walking on his own. So Joel would carry the stroller, wear one big camping backpack on his back, and Our small book bag on his front. I was wearing the other big camping backpack and carry Caroline around. Honestly i think we each were lugging around 60-80 pounds through the Metro.
Once we got to the train station we needed to wait to buy tickets. This pretty accurately describes the mood:
But the kids perked up after eating some applesauce and got a surprise toy.
Finding our train was pretty stressful and Caroline had just fallen asleep as i was carrying her, so we were really rushing to find the right platform. In the end, we got on the train. Everyone napped most of the time. I had to wake Bennett up once we reached the Seville station because there was no way we could carry them and unload all the luggage from the train... all before the train left the station. He was a trooper, however there was a tense moment when we were supposed to go out one train door and meet Joel, who was pulling out the luggage from the train, and at that moment Bennett decided he needed to pee. So i needed to run him back in to the train, while carrying a sleeping Caroline, all while trying to keep an eye out so that Joel didn’t leave or wonder why we weren’t meeting him. Anyway, it was fine and the kids were so happy to be at the hotel.
But the kids perked up after eating some applesauce and got a surprise toy.
Finding our train was pretty stressful and Caroline had just fallen asleep as i was carrying her, so we were really rushing to find the right platform. In the end, we got on the train. Everyone napped most of the time. I had to wake Bennett up once we reached the Seville station because there was no way we could carry them and unload all the luggage from the train... all before the train left the station. He was a trooper, however there was a tense moment when we were supposed to go out one train door and meet Joel, who was pulling out the luggage from the train, and at that moment Bennett decided he needed to pee. So i needed to run him back in to the train, while carrying a sleeping Caroline, all while trying to keep an eye out so that Joel didn’t leave or wonder why we weren’t meeting him. Anyway, it was fine and the kids were so happy to be at the hotel.
We sat for a little bit then decided to explore. In our hotel lobby we booked tours to the Alcazar and Cathedral tomorrow, so we decided to see the Plaza de España this afternoon. The kids were understandably tired and for some stupid reason we decided not to bring the stroller with, we we had to carry Caroline A LOT. But it was beautiful. The colorful mosaic tiles were so wonderful to look at and the air constantly smelled of roses and blossoms. We saw orange trees, which was also exciting. We saw some wonderful flamenco dancing, accompanied by acoustic guitar and a singer. It was amazing. Joel and i looked at each other and said, “perfect. No we don’t have to book tickets to a flamenco show.” Caroline, obviously, could’ve watched for hours. Bennett was bored after three minutes. After seeing the flamenco dancer i told Joel that the chances Caroline is going to go home with a flamenco outfit are now about 85%...
Honestly, she’s probably flamenco dancing:
As you can see from the last photo, Bennett needed to use the toilet, and being at the plaza, there wasn’t really one right there to use. The building, from what we could see, is closed off to the public. So we raced around and found some pay toilets in the nearby Parque Maria Luisa. I’m kind of excited we stumbled upon it because it was one of the places i was hoping to take the kids, but didn’t think we’d have time to see. We were debating between going on a carriage ride (which Caroline REALLY wanted to do, but she was already kind of crabby. We knew she’d never last for the whole ride and it’d be a waste. Second, it was 45 euro, so coupled with how crabby Caroline, and to a slighter degree, Bennett was, we opted to skip the ride. Instead, we found a park and the kids were SO happy. They were wild and crazy at the hotel but we were trying to shush them, due to other guests, so this was their chance to really go wild.
When we left the park we wanted to walk to the nearby barrio Santa Cruz. It was definitely more of a walk than we were prepared for and the kids were getting crabbier by the minute. We passed a gelateria and i asked Joel if we should stop. It was around 4:30 pm by this time, however we had a ways to go to Santa Cruz and dinner in Spain starts around 8 pm. So Joel was hesitant to stop for gelato, wanting to find some place that served tapas during siesta, but when i asked, “should we stop?” Caroline yelled, “YES!!!!!” And the decision was mad. Bennett picked some cotton candy flavor, which we coupled with cheesecake. The lady put some special marshmallow on top, that Bennett told me tasted like toothpaste. Bennett said, “gracias!” when the lady handed him his gelato. She was quite amused by that. Caroline had strawberry, which we coupled with mascarpone. For Caroline, the lady went all out, add pink marshmallows and a flower wafer. “For the pretty princess!” she said handing it to Caroline. So obviously this is just playing in to Caroline’s belief that she will be a princess some day...
After gelato we kept walking. Poor Bennett really was a trooper. I think today was the most he has walked ever. (We ended up with over 10k steps over the course of the day. He rode in the stroller some, but honestly, not that much.) We finally walked past the alcazar and stopped to see a church, while trying to find restaurants when Caroline said she needed to pee. Again, Europe doesn’t just have tons of restaurants with bathrooms open to the public, plus many were closed for siesta. Finally we came across one that also served tapas, and decided to stop for a pee and a bite. After Caroline went to the toilet, she crawled in to my lap and immediately fell asleep. We ordered four tapas. The flamenquin cordobes were Joel’s favorite. It was pork filet stuffed with ham, then deep fried, served with some white stuff. It seemed like some kind of sour cream cheese. So good. It was like fancy fair food. We had the pincho moruno with both chicken and beef. The beef was by far my favorite. It had a great charred salty crust on the outside. So good. Served with potatoes and some red spicy sauce that reminded me of siracha with Lay’s BBQ chick flavoring. Very very good. We also had the green beans sautéed with ham. Also tasty. Since Bennett had about 3 bites of food, it was actually quite filling for the two of us. After dinner we went back to the hotel. I plopped a sleeping Caroline in bed, and she continued to sleep since dinner. Bennett played for a while. It’s amazing how he never wants to sleep. Even in the train from Madrid, he said he wasn’t tired. Honestly he didn’t act tired, other than being a little testy and whining for his kindle. It’s quite impressive for a five year old.
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