First night for the Schroeder Family in Madrid

My family came in on a Thursday and Ben and I were both able to get the day off from school to get ready for them to come. We got some grocery shopping done, tidied up the apartment and then all that was left to do was to wait for their plane to land. About an hour before we left to get them, Amy called from London to say they missed their connecting flight and they wouldn't be in until later in the evening. I was bummed but at least  we didn't show up to the airport two hours early! 

Even with the extra time Ben and I ended up being a little late picking them up because we took what we thought we would be faster transportation to the airport. It ended up not being faster and as we were finally getting in to their terminal I got another call from Amy asking if we were almost there and explaining to me where they would be waiting. I rushed up the escalators and finally got to my family! We were all very excited to see each other! We grabbed their stuff, got them some transportation tickets and headed to our place. 

We hung out for a bit and ate some tapas and then we hit the streets of Madrid. We wanted them to experience the night life and see all the Christmas lights. We walked through Plaza de Espana, Callao, Sol, Plaza Mayor and by the cathedral and the palace. We also stopped off at Mercado San Miguel to get some more tapas. Ben really likes this mercado because they have a lot of fun tapas. By the time we got home we were all pretty tired so we got the futon set up, busted out what Ben and I think is a floaty toy for a lake that we borrowed from a friend for Amy to sleep on and headed to bed. 

 Waiting for the metro to come.

Getting fueled up on tapas. 

The tree in Plaza de Espana

Looking up Calle Gran Via, one of the main streets through Madrid and only a few blocks from where Ben and I live. 

The Christmas tree in Sol. We think it is about 5 stories tall. 

Mercado San Miguel for tapas

Plaza Mayor. We got there a little late so it was pretty empty.

The tree in Callao which is on the way to Sol. The red lights in the background is advertising the entrance to an ice skating rink that was brought in. 

The streets were full of lights like these.