Madrid to catch up with our "boys" after 13 years!

Way back in 2005, I signed us up as a host family for Spanish students coming to Boston for a few weeks in the summer.  Much to our good fortune we ended up with two boys, Aitor & Inigo.   

I wish I had an old picture from then to add to this post...but here we all are now in a tapas restaurant in Madrid.

Charlie didn't quite make it to the end of dinner on Spanish time...they eat crazy late!  Aitor is seated next to Katie and Inigo is standing. 

That summer we had a great time showing them Boston, introducing them to our family and friends and watching them have all sorts of encounters with local law enforcement (mainly for being excited tourists taking pictures of buildings).  Greg was so happy to have them he even bought a Playstation to keep them busy some evenings.  We even attempted a weekend of tent camping with the Bodenhoffers...much to all of our dismay!

When we came to Europe I knew we had to track them down!  I am happy to report that they are all grown up and very professional these days, Aitor is a University Professor who teaches International Tax Law and Inigo is a newly married banking consultant.   It was incredible to see them both and laugh at old stories and have them show us Madrid, where they both live. (even though they grew up in Pamplona which is several hours away in the North)

They remembered Kelly hiding under the table and playing with her toy cash register!  They also remembered questions that people asked them about what life was like in Spain, like did they have TV remotes!  The best part of all is that they never knew each other before that summer trip and they have stayed friends ever since, Aitor even attended Inigo's wedding!  They don't get together that often with busy schedules, but it is pretty cool that they are lifelong friends.

Before we caught up with them in the evening we had a nice day exploring a bit of Madrid.  We checked into our place and explored an Art Museum which was in walking distance. 

Our apartment was on the top floor of the center building, it overlooked this cool square.

Incredible art in this museum, it originally was one mans private collection!  I'd like to tell you I saw & appreciated all of it, but that would be a lie, as I was RUSHED through by Charlie so we could go look around his stores.  So I traded in pictures like the one above for....

New favorite Charlie store.

For only 20 Euros you can buy a horse head too!

We did get to pass by this Metropolis building on most of our adventures, it is just an office building, but absolutely incredible looking!

We were happy to find a Dunkin Doughnuts...look at the Halloween ones on offer!

They sold this donut with the syringe of goo in it!  We saw them on the shelves!

More to follow in the next post, but I crawled into bed that night with the biggest smile on my face having seeing "the boys" after so long!  I'm not sure what to call them now?