We're Here!

 We're here. We're in Madrid. What a crazy day Monday, April 15 was.

We met in the morning with our architect and contractor for the renovation of our apartment in Chicago. While we were talking, my phone buzzed with a notification that our flight from Chicago to Toronto was delayed. I tried to get an earlier flight over the phone, but we needed to get to the airport and make the change there. Shout out to Nancy Atsumi for her excellent driving that got us to O'Hare. As it was, it was too late to get onto the earlier flight. The agent assured us we would have enough time for our connection to Madrid and we went to the gate. There, I learned that the flight was delayed even longer. Chris went to the airline desk and started investigating alternatives. After a lot of work and frustration, we ended up flying from O'Hare to Munich, Germany - my birthplace. So I've seen the inside of the airport in Munich! We connected there to a flight to Madrid. 

We're in a very nice AirBnB with a lovely terrace/deck. It's very central to the main part of the city, so we're in a good location. 

We're both exhausted. It's 6:45 the evening of Tuesday, April 16. We'll go out to eat and then collapse in bed. Here's a shot of our deck in the AirBnB. I'll be back with more in a few days.



 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Casabarata Souk and Grand Souk

Image
 Our Airbnb host recommended that we visit the Casabarata Souk rather than the Grand Souk, as it would be less touristy. I had mentioned that Chris had an interest in oriental rugs and the host thought it would be a good place to look. In my opinion it was mostly junk. But it certainly was less touristy and I think met the requirements for being "the unbeaten path." While we were wandering through, it started to rain. We ducked into a pottery shop (one place that was NOT selling junk) and the vendor kindly let us sit out the rain storm there. It ended up raining all day, but we eventually extracted ourselves from his shop. I've been impressed at how kind, friendly, and helpful people are here. When we were looking for a food shop the first night, I spoke in French with a woman who guided us to the shop. She did ask for some money for her troubles - and we were glad to oblige! Of course people are friendly because we're spending money in their country, but I lived in a...
Read more

Adios, Madrid! Salaam Alykum, Tangiers!

Image
 Today we flew to Tangiers, Morocco as a side trip to our time in Spain. We'll continue to Barcelona after a few days here. But this is about our time in Madrid! Honestly, the best thing about Madrid was our awesome apartment. It was sunny, spacious, clean, comfortable - and best of all - odor-free. I live in dread of the musty AirBnb. My nose seems to detect mustiness far more acutely than the average human being.  Chris and I both have involved morning routines, so we didn't stir from the apartment until around noon - just after breakfast! We seem to do this when we travel: we end up having late meals and late nights. We followed our pattern in Madrid, but I'm 20 years older than when we did this in Paris in 2000. I'm not sure I can keep up with this schedule!  Wednesday we set off for the renowned Prado Museum of 17th century Spanish art: Goya looms large, but also Velasquez, El Greco. We spent a couple of hours there. Imagine lots of Renaissance religious art and po...
Read more