Welcome to Spain - Bienvenidos a España

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Arrived in Madrid. Local time: 19.40. Height: 655 m. Temperature: 24ºC. WOOO-HOOOO!!! Start peeling off layers….

We set up camp in Maria’s old family home. Felt a bit eerie, as the place is now virtually empty of not just people but furniture as well, but after an initial weird couple of days we settled down and enjoyed the privacy. And the fact that it’s free accommodation in a major city is not to be sniffed at either…

Had a bit of a dodgy start though as Maria arrived in Spain with a cold which she naturally ended up passing on to Mark. This meant poor Mark spent his 35th birthday poorly in bed… Certainly this year’s birthday present left a bit to be desired and Maria’s still trying to find a way to make it up to him, which she will when she gets the chance.

This still didn’t stop us from going out the next day to enjoy the annular solar eclipse which we enjoyed from the grounds of the Planetarium along with a few thousand people, you would’ve thought nobody works in this country! (it was a Monday after all). Dozens of pictures taken but none too good, unfortunately.

Too bad we didn’t go prepared for the drop in temperature brought about by the eclipse, for sitting on the cold grass meant we got poorly again so our first week pretty much disappeared into thin air with nothing much to show for it.

But far from letting this little hiccup dampen our spirits, we packed the rucksacks again and set off to explore a bit of Northern Spain… special mention here goes to Maria’s nephew Raul for lending us his car which was a real life saver and made the rucksacks a lot easier to carry!


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Una vez en Madrid le pegue el constipado a Mark y como consecuencia se paso su cumple en la cama ¡menudo regalo! Al dia siguiente (el lunes 3) se encontraba mejor asi que nos fuimos al Planetario a ver el eclipse anular. Pero no habiendo previsto la bajada de temperatura no nos llevamos ropa de abrigo y sentados en la hierba se nos quedo el culillo frio, el se volvio a constipar y a mi me dio una infeccion de garganta y asi ya fastidiamos el resto de la semana.

Cuando ya nos pusimos buenos hasta nos sentimos valientes para conducir por la derecha, que no es moco de pavo, especialmente en Madrid que vais todos como locos. Por cierto que mencion especial para mi sobri Raul que nos presto su coche para irnos a Asturias y ya con todo el morro nos lo hemos quedado hasta ultima hora. Gracias chiqui, nos ha venido genial.

En esta semana hemos de pasar las gracias (en order cronologico) a Alfonso (cuñao) por recogernos del aeropuerto, a Laura (hermana) por prepararnos el piso para encontrarnos la cama hecha y desayuno en la nevera, a Laura y Alicia (hermanas) por nuestra primera (y no ultima) cena en Madrid, a Ana, Miguel y Valentina (amigos) por un pedazo de cocido madrileño que nos alimento para dos dias, a Juan Carlos y Amparo (hermano y cuñada) por un dia en el campo con “catering” incluido y a Carlos y Alex (amigos) por una tarde de recuerdos, pizzas (gracias tambien a Nadia la anfitriona), y una cama en Alcala celebre ciudad universitaria.

Y a pasar la pagina para enteraros de donde estuvimos cuando nos fuimos “pal” Norte...

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Comments

[Cumberland Sausage]

That one made me laugh out loud
Cool eclipse photo also. Have fun.