Today we ate our menu del dia (meal of the day) at a typical Spanish bar in Madrid – mini bar stools, CruzCampo and Mahou on tap, old men reading the newspaper and football on the TV’s.
Dylan was his usual charming self while the owner clucked over him filling his sticky little hands with chewy sweets in exchange for besos (kisses).
When she disappeared to the cellar after a game of hide and seek over the bar Dylan was curious. “Where’s the lady?“.
He takes to people quickly and especially loves when they play with him. She eventually ascended the stairs with a toy elephant and explained in rapid-fire Spanish that it was for Dylan – to tocar (to play) or tomar (to take).
I couldn’t make out whether it was to play with while we dined or for him to have. These are the daily battles we have with Spanish – we get by but accents and speed just floor us sometimes.
When we paid and tried to give the elephant back she explained it was “para él” (for him) and we melted a little inside.
Dylan is shown this kindness everywhere we go, and every time someone is kind to him it swells my heart. We named the elephant Romy – after the bar – and spent the day showing Romy the sights of Madrid.