We’ve just started a family vacation to Spain, celebrating Easter in Madrid.  Our trip has gotten off to a fine start, with long but undramatic flights and a free humongous room at a fancy hotel (thanks to points from all my business travel) with a view out the window of the beautiful Fountain of Neptune.  The weather today was warm and sunny and we walked all afternoon, joining lots of families at Madrid’s 500 year-old Sunday market, El Rastro, and enjoying lunch on the Plaza Mayor.  Three fun notes:

• We have so much stuff for the girls that we needed to take two taxis last night from the airport to our hotel (embarrassing!)
• After lunch on Plaza Mayor, Juliet for the first time walked a full ten steps from Katherine to me
• We got a pleasant surprise at dinner out tonight:  a “half bottle” of wine, at least in this restaurant, is a half liter of wine so is what we would consider two-thirds of a bottle!

Click on picture below for a few slides from today, plus bonus pictures including an Easter Egg hunt, egg decorating (and eating), Juliet discovering the joys of toilet paper, and taking our new family wagon to a neighborhood birthday party.