Spain
Arrived at Madrid on Wednesday (6-24) and departed Barcelona on Saturday (6-27)
As anyone that has done a lot of pass traveling knows, you give yourself plenty of time traveling before you have to be there. The cruise left Barcelona on a Saturday. We started trying to get there from Florida on Tuesday. Wouldn't you know it, we made it on the first try. Arrived in Madrid on Wednesday morning, refreshed and ready to go (you have to love that Boeing 777 International First Class). That left us with 3 days to travel a couple of hundred miles to Barcelona. We decided to see Madrid for a couple of days then rent a car and drive to Barcelona on that Friday. Things worked out great.
Let me tell you, that International First Class is something else.
It took half the flight to figure out how the seat worked.
Real pillow, nice thick blanket. The entire flight, I had a Scotch in one hand and a fork in the other. I wasn't sure if they were going to have to pour us or roll us off the plane.
Madrid has a neat airport. At first I thought I was in Miami because they kept calling the exits "Salida".
A classic example of Neo Spanish Graffiti.
This is the ghost camera.
This is the hotel where stayed in Madrid. It was more like an apartment.
This guy is a cousin of Gerry's. The stupid Spanish Offshoot of the family. He can't even spell his last name right. Everyone knows it's "Bruen".
We went for a walk around town and ended up at this beautiful park.
Path's going up and down and all over the place.
A couple of weeks before we got there, they had a rose festival. It must have been great. Of course, by the time we saw it, they were for the most part dead or dying. That didn't stop Jen from taking about a thousand pictures. I won't put them up but if anyone wants copies, let me know.
Our first European Naked Statue. As you can imagine, we saw about a million more during the course of the trip.
Our first European Palace. Yep, saw a few of them, too.
Jake's first Fanta. I always thought this stuff was disgusting but the kids love it.
Kris got the "Yogur" stuff from some place or another. She thought is was fine but I wouldn't even try it.
Our first European Starbucks
This guy claimed to be the real Spider Man.
I think Peter Parker has let himself go a bit.
This was our first Spanish Pooh Bear. Thankfully it was also the last. Kris thought he was some kind of pervert. She said he kept fondling her ear lobes. I guess it's an European thing.
A family picture outside our second European Palace.
On the drive to Barcelona. We had the five of us, 4 backpacks, 3 purses, 4 roll-a-boards, 2 suitors and 2 duffle bags. Needles to say, we needed a large van. And we got it. A 9 passenger behemoth that is larger the a full size van back home. Did I forget to mention that the roads are very skinny in Spain. At least they drove on the proper side of the road.
Kris was impressed that I was going 125. Until she realized that that is in Kilometers Per Hour and it is only 75 mph's.