Llegamos a Madrid ... I mean we made it!

---

Hola de Espana! Well, we have been in Spain now for a solid week and a half. We have been touring with a group of students from Sparta high school through Madrid and the south of Spain and we have been so busy we have not really had time to blog. So, our mission now is to get you caught up on what we have been doing so far.

We left for Spain on June 12th and arrived at mid day on Saturday June 13th. The travel here was very smooth. Our flights were on time and we made it here with no problems and no luggage lost which is always a good thing. We were both able to sleep on the flight over, I got a solid 3 hours in, and we also were very entertained. It was one of those planes where each seat has its own TV screen so on the flight over I watched Spiderman, Office, and played Chess and Sudoku.

We arrived around 11:30 and after making it through customs we met up with our tour director Fran, who is the funniest person on the face of the earth! We made a quick stop at our hotel and then got right to exploring the city. We headed to downtown Madrid where Steph and I were able to sink out teeth into a solid tortilla Espanola sandwich. Then we made our way through Madrid’s largest and most beautiful park (El parque del buen retiro). We also went to the Prado museum but I could tell that the kids were quite tired when I left the Prado and saw about 15 of them laying on the grass outside of the museum zonked out! Jet lag was starting to take over. But we got some dinner in us and then made it back to the hotel. Needless to say it was a quiet night in the hotel.

Sunday we were able to sleep in a little bit to recover from jet lag but we were on the road and ready to go by 10am. We went to down town and toured the Royal Palace and went to mass in la catedral de Madrid. After that we had some solid free time near Puerta del Sol where Steph and I wandered around until we found some real good Spanish bread. Dinner was early by Spanish standards but it was awesome, can’t go wrong with a couple Spanish classics … tortilla Espanola and paella! Then it was off to the bull fight. An amazing experience for all of us! We saw some very good fights, including one where the bull died within seconds of the matadors first strike … something that does not happen that often. We all were excited to see such an unique part of Spanish culture in its true form.

---

Comments

[Cramer]

Andy-you look pretty intense with that screen on the plane...hahaha! Bull fight LOOKS AWESOME!!!! And I am guessing Fran was saying something dry and sarcastic in the picture, if he is not making a weird face.... What great chaperones!