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Here's the rest,
Nancy


"Many airlines offer special meals if you order in advance.  Gluten FreeYou can Google "gluten free in Spain". There will be
plenty to read about!"

"What we learned (and I don't know about dairy free in all these
recommendations) was that MANY restaurants understand about gluten free
there. They are much further ahead of us in understanding the ins and outs
of the GF diet. What we did was stay in places where we could make our own
food and then kept it very simple.

In the larger Corte Ingles grocery stores, there is a special diet section
in the grocery store. Sometimes it is within the grocery and sometimes in a
separate section, but on the same floor. There is a good selection of GF
foods in the GF section. We really liked the croissants and the chocolate
filled croissants for breakfasts. There are also little chino grocery stores
that have drinks and fresh fruits and vegetables. IF you are staying in one
place for any amount of time it is worth going to the bigger markets. The
fresh fruits and vegetables are awesome! So are the meats, etc. Again, most
understand about gluten.

In eating, our goal was to get balanced meals into our kids. We tried to
make sure that there was some kind of protein, a fruit and a vegetable
several times a day. This is reflected in the ideas below.

For breakfasts we ate the croissants, or made hard boiled eggs or ate the
cereal that we brought from home. Each family member had their own bowl and
utensils kept in their own plastic bag. We would was and return to the
plastic bags after each meal. That way we were less likely to be
contaminated.

For lunches we either ate fruit, nuts and rice cakes (from home) with peanut
butter (the little single servers by Jif from home- hard to find PB in Spain
and you have to be careful of PB in carry-ons.) and jelly (we collect the
single serving containers wherever we go so we don't have to worry about
keeping it cool). The rice cakes are bulky but light. Thus leaving room for
souvenirs. We would sometimes buy spanish tortilla for lunch. This is like
and omelet with potato in it. We also brought GF pretzels from home to eat
with PB. Hard-boiled eggs are also good to carry around. I forgot that we
also ate peanut butter on apple slices and would also eat carrots. All of
these foods were good since we could stop most anywhere and eat.

For dinners we ate out or cooked in our flat or hostel. To cook in was more
of a challenge sometimes. We also brought the foil packets of tuna fish and
single serve mayo packets to mix with it. There are also foil packets to
bring from home with plain chicken. You might also just look around in the
grocery store. Again, many of the restaurants understand well about gluten
free.

There is also a gluten free grocery store in Madrid. I think the hours are
not long, but I am not sure about it. I never went there myself.

Do you or your daughter speak Spanish? If not, it would be helpful to carry
the restaurant card that uses Spanish to let people know that you cannot eat
gluten. It should spell out the words for wheat, rye and barley. You can
look for those words on the labels in the grocery. You also need to keep in
mind that their products there are manufactured differently and though they
shouldn't, they do have gluten in them. Be vigilant.

Another thing to know is that you buy milk (and they DO have lactose free
milk, but only in the larger Corte Ingles) in boxes and unrefrigerated. This
is fine until you open it and then need to refrigerate. We were moving
around a lot so this became difficult. We took a neopreme (sp?) lunch box
with us. We also had ziplock baggies that we put ice in until we got to the
next place which hopefully had a fridge. You could even take two and use
both if necessary for lunches, etc... The unopened milk could travel in a
suitcase.

As for food on the airlines...most don't carry GF meals any longer. Delta
used to, but the cereal they had for breakfast was Corn Flakes, which are
not gluten free. I complained to the airline, but no changes were made. I
would recommend taking your own cereal and buy milk on the flight. You can
also take your own fruit or carrots..., but it does need to be eaten before
you go through customs. I don't think you can really do any kind of GF meal
on your own. I would just plan on heavy snacks and buying drinks.

As for luggage, I think you can still check a bag for free and carry one on
for free. Just check on the airline website under baggage and then overseas."

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