Madrid, Spain

---

After a scenic 2 hour train ride from Alicante, we arrived in Madrid, the capitol of Spain. The main train station Atocha, has a very scenic, almost tropical interior filled with palms and even a pond in the center filled with turtles! Sadly however, what it offers in scenery doesn't make up for the crappy signage that we're used to in most major transportation hubs as we wandered around 5 levels looking for the taxi stop. We were told by station staff to exit at level 5, where we found the cabs dropping people off but no indication of where they loaded. After a few trips up and down we finally discovered where they loaded, which was a long distance away from the main station, and as I said earlier, not marked at all. The Skinners said the Spanish are like the Norwegians and have built-in ESP...haha

One of the many highlights we toured was one of the many palaces. This one was filled with the largest and most impressive armory collection that any of us had ever seen. Skinners and Ingrahams took the full tour while Barb and I hopped on the "HOP on HOP off" bus. We have used this mode or transportation extensively in most large cities we have visited. What we soon learned was in Madrid it seemed to be a HOP on "only" sort of thing as no ever departed the bus. Every bus we saw was packed so getting 2 seats together was a bonus. Needless to say, Barb and I followed the theme and never left the bus until it made a complete circle.

On day 3 we took the train to Sergovia which is home to many ancient Roman ruins. I will highlight this trip in the next posting. Many of the photos in Madrid and Sergovia were "stolen" from Lisa Ingraham due to some technical glitches I encountered in downloading the ones I shot...so thanks Lisa!!!

Our final day was spent touring the botanical gardens and many parks that populate central Madrid. It was a great 2 weeks with our extended family, Jeff & Traci Skinner and we were saddened to separate from them but know that we'll soon be in Norway visiting them again! Next stop is Switzerland 😊

---