Madrid, Spain

Last weekend, Jay and I took a trip to Madrid. Jay had a four day weekend and I took two days off. Madrid was such a beautiful city.

The weather was absolutely wonderful. It probably got up into the 80’s each day. I was in shorts and a tank top each day. I’m sure glad I covered myself in sunscreen. On Sunday, it was evident where I missed. I forgot to put it on the tops of my feet and I missed a spot on the back of my shoulder, where I can’t reach! It has soaked in now to a tan. Notice my left shoulder, the inside didn't get covered!

All day Saturday we just walked around town, went into the King’s palace, and took lots of pictures. That evening we wanted to see flamenco dancing, but nothing started until 11:00. We stayed out that late, but still couldn’t find any place that had it, so went home. 11:00 isn't late in Spain. Their hours are definitely different than ours. They eat lunch between 2:00 and 3:00 at night and supper between 9:00 and 10:00 at night. Because the sun stays up so late and the town is so lively, you hardly notice that it's so late.

We found this restaurant on one of the main drags! How cool is that! We didn't eat there though as the menu didn't look too appetizing. And Jay even had his Iowa shirt on, so we had to take a picture!

On Sunday, we bought tickets to the bullfight in the morning. Then we had all day to mess around before actually going to the bull fight. We went and saw some more buildings, took hundreds more pictures, sat in a massive and very busy park for a little while, then went to the bull fight. This park was huge with a lake in the middle. The lake was full of paddle boats. Looked like fun on a hot day!

The bull fight was interesting. It was good to see once, but definitely never again. Thankfully we were prepared for it. We saw some pictures and video that a friend showed us, so we knew what to expect. If it wasn’t for that, I think I would have been totally turned off and wouldn’t have wanted to watch it. We have tons of pictures and video, so you can watch too if you care to see it!

On Monday, we took it slow. We didn’t leave the hotel until 10:00. We left our bags at the front desk because we had to check out, but didn’t fly until the evening. We saw the last few things we wanted to see. We weren’t in a rush, so took it slow, as slow as Jay allows!! We ate lunch at a tapas restaurant. Jay got a whole plate of things I wouldn’t touch!! It was all from the sea. I ordered a plate of fries! That’s all I could handle!

We thought for sure something bad was going to happen on this trip. We tried going to Madrid a couple years ago, but had to cancel because Jay’s commander cancelled the four day pass. The morning we were leaving last weekend, I got a call from my principal saying I couldn’t take Monday off because of the government shut down. They weren’t allowing any paid leave. We talked about it some more and then she said I could take it, but wouldn’t get paid. I said that was fine. So, we were still going. At this point, I was asking why God didn’t want us to go on this trip. He kept trying to keep us home! We drove to the airport and went to check in at the desk. She told us that we were late and wouldn’t be able to make the flight. Even though I looked at the tickets a million times, I switched the minutes for the boarding time and the flying time. I thought we were boarding at 1750, but really we were boarding at 1650 and flying at 1720. We tried anyway! Jay ran through security, where thankfully the line wasn’t long. There was one person ahead of us and Jay asked if he could go in front. They let both of us in front and helped us get through quickly. The gate was just around the corner. We were the last ones to get through the door and the stewardess followed me out to the plane! That was a close one!!! Made us question even more why we weren’t supposed to go on this trip! All went fine while there. We were super careful with our bags, making sure nothing got stolen. Our friend was pick pocketed twice and someone got into his bag while it was on his back. We made sure that didn't happen to us. We made it to the airport in plenty of time on the afternoon we were leaving Madrid to come back to Frankfurt. We had at least an hour to spare before we needed to board. We sat and played a game of cards. The whole time we were playing, they were constantly announcing things in Spanish over the intercom. Finally Jay looked at his watch and realized that we should be going. We assumed our gate had changed at this point since there was no line where our gate was originally suppose to be, so Jay went to go ask. Yup, it did. So we ran down the hallway to find a long line of people waiting to get on the plane. They hadn’t started boarding yet, so all was well! We figured we were going to die on the plane! Something bad had to happen and that’s the last thing that could! Once we landed in Frankfurt, Jay said he better drive home very carefully so he doesn’t get in an accident! Once we got home, we were sure glad God was watching over us! We were being protected the whole trip!!

It was a fantastic weekend overall. Madrid is definitely a great city! It was nice to have a break from real life and be able to relax for a bit!