Madrid

The morning began with a buffet breakfast. Up until today I have chosen Adalia's food at a buffet, which I did this morning- fruit and a croissant. At this buffet however, they have a kids section which has a lower serving area. Adalia decided she wasn't happy with my selection and wanted to get her own food. She returned with a plate filled with bacon, chirros and chocolate biscuits!

Then the moment Sammy had been waiting for was upon us, the whole trip was leading up to this day. Today we took the bus to Aquopolis water park!!!

I am not a fan of water parks. Give me a rollercoaster over a water slide any day. They just don't seem safe, you have to get wet, probably sunburnt, and you walk around all day in your swimmers. Not my idea of fun. But Sammy (and Tom) love them.

We have been to a Disney water park in Orlando and Atlantis water park in Dubai, we are seasoned water park adventurers. I was pretty sure a water park on the Golden Coast of Spain just wasn't going to compare.

We got off the bus and immediately took a wrong turn which ended up being fortuitous. We found a tourism shop selling water park tickets cheaper than everywhere else, and you got an extra day free! (Plus a lolly pop for the kids). Now armed with tickets we launched into our day of water sliding fun.

First impressions of the water park were making me wish I had stayed at home. It didn't have the glamour of Disney or Dubai, but Sammy was in heaven! Adalia immediately decided that everything looked too scary and wanted to stay in the kids section (which was impressive by Dubai and Disney standards). This was fine by me, except she would not move from my legs. She wouldn't play on any of the kids slides. I was getting cranky. Tom had run off with Sammy to have fun and I was spending my day standing in full sun with a child attached to me. At one point I picked her up, climbed some stairs and threw her down a slide. I was hoping that after she had done it once she might be happy doing it again. Instead she screamed at me. I was so glad for the defending noise at those places; hardly anyone noticed her.

We put our shoes on and went in search of the boys. When we found them it wasn't hard to convince Sammy to play on the kids slides, and he lovingly encouraged Adalia to come with him. In less than two minutes she was comfortable on the equipment and eager to play.

Tom convinced her to try the Rapids. We had done this in Dubai so we knew she would be fine. She was reluctant, but half way down she shouted "we need to do this again!" So we did...for the rest of the day. By the end she was going down backwards and wanting to go faster. Sammy gave me a break taking me on the "black hole" while tom rode the Rapids, but then it was back to the rapids for me.

At 4pm there was a dolphin show. Turns out Adalia had never seen dolphins before. She asked what they were and was mesmerised with them! Tom and Sammy missed the beginning but came running in with burning hot feet part way through.

I was feeling quite burnt by 4:30. So when Tom suggested we go to the beach I wasn't keen and opted for an early dinner. And....the kids actually had an earlish night!!!Read more