Cultural Encounters Engage kids with fascinating opportunities to learn while traveling. BY RICHARD NEWTON
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Grand Greenhouse: Palacio de Cristal in Buen Retiro Park, Madrid PHOTO: © SAIKO3P | DREAMSTIME.COM
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visit to a museum or gallery as part of a family holiday sounds great in theory. The reality can be a nightmare of boredom and tantrums. We’ve struggled with our own kids and can probably recall our own childhood traumas when confronted with room after tedious room of culture. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Few museums prove as daunting as the Prado in central Madrid. This vast complex, housing one of the world’s greatest collections of European art, proves a hard sell to the average kid. Fortunately, private tour companies such as Across Madrid offer tours specifically designed to bring the fusty museum to life for younger visitors. Across Madrid’s tour lasts 2.5 hours and is structured as a treasure
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hunt, guided by Dr. Almudena Cros, an art history professor who previously worked as an elementary school assistant. By focusing on themes of universal interest to kids (monsters and heroes, animals, fashion), the tour aims to stimulate and entertain. Dr. Cros also offers tours of the wider city specifically for kids, helping to decipher Madrid’s long history and explaining some of the quirks of Spanish tradition and lifestyle. Kids don’t need a tour guide to get the most out of El Retiro, the 350-acre park situated immediately east of the Prado. In summer it attracts local families, strolling the shaded paths and rowing rented boats on the large central lake. A giant greenhouse within the park, Palacio de Cristal, displays free art exhibitions
