November 16th - Trip to Home Sweet Home!!!

The day started with an earlier than usual breakfast!!

Pretty typical spread - Churros and Chocolate and the sugar coated muffins were always a treat

We then took the 7:40 am. shuttle to the airport and went through the typical process of checking bags and getting through security.  The Madrid Airport like others has the new and old terminals.  We were in the old, but still pretty nice.  Overall process for security was clean, but two steps with another check at the entry to boarding area for Delta and again when getting on.  I guess in case you change out of your normal skin between locations. :)

The first leg of the flight from Madrid to Atlanta was 10 hours planned and only 8.5 with taxi time, so we got in to Atlanta over an hour early.  I watched 3 movies and enjoyed what was really good meals and snacks.  Janie watched a couple as well and also enjoyed the food.  She slept a little, but for the most part we stayed awake.

Arriving in Atlanta was going smoothly with getting through customs, grabbing our bags and checking them through to KC inside the customs area.  Then back through the normal screening without TSA pre-approved lines.  Just a little bit of a bummer, until on the other end neither of our carry-ons passed.  After a little panic that someone walked off with my backpack we figured out the bags had been pulled aside.  Very poor communication by the TSA agent (clueless frankly).  So Janie's was up first and of course the items she packed had liquid, so not going to go through.  I had one item due to overflow in my backpack, so same.  Either check with luggage or throw away.  Of course our bags were already checked, so that meant winging it.  We went to the customer service area and one of the ladies was kind enough to find an empty box that we put all the items with Janie's coat and taped up with fragile and crossed our fingers.  Then after dropping at the baggage check back through security and repeat.  Ugh.  So our two hour layover that was made into three was back down to 1.5 hour.

We hit the Gordon Biersch restaurant in the terminal for a couple of appetizers.  Even though quite a bit of food on the plane, when you factor in the time before and after its more like 16 hours, so a little more was needed to keep us from starving.

Not too eventful of a flight home to KC.  Our baggage made it the whole way without issue including the special package!  Our car was ready for us at Park Air Express and we made the 50 mile journey home with only one detour.  Stopped by to see the grand kids and deliver their little gifts!

It was super nice to come home to 70 degree weather after really having great weather our entire trip. However, it does feel weird to be at home with a bare refrigerator and nobody to great us along with a bottle of champagne in the room.  Back to reality and a yard full of leaves to pick up this weekend.  The forecast shows the temperature dropping, so it looks like we missed out on some fantastic KC Fall weather.  Maybe next year!

Home Sweet Home!!!

So at 10:30 p.m. central time (5:30 a.m. Madrid time) and basically 23 hours of being up we hit the sack.  The moon was extremely bright, so we had to close all the blinds to make sure we didn't wake up in the middle of the night thinking it was time to get up.  Surprising enough we both just fell asleep.  They say jet lag hits day three after being back, so we'll see!!

Thanks for following our blog and hopefully you got a little feel for Janie's 60th BD Vacation to Spain and Germany.

Jeff and Janie

LAST DAY in SPAIN

Slept in!

Breakfast!!

Trip into Madrid!!!  Hit a few places we did not get to the last two trips in to the city.  The first destination after an excursion across downtown via back roads and a stop for a slice of pizza was the gondola trip across the largest park in the city.

Loved the crust and need to figure out how to make at home

Unfortunately they are not operating other than weekends during this time of year.  Should have done this first over the weekend, but didn't know about it until Monday.  Ugh!  The park was the private hunting grounds of the royal family before turned over to Madrid.  Would be a State Park based on the size in the US.  Right on the western side of the city.

We love the trees all through the parks in Madrid

Locked - bummer

View across the park from the trail on the very eastern edge of the park

Hiked over to the Universidad and Musea of America to get to the Faro De Moncloa, which is a quick elevator ride up to the top where you have a full vista of the city.  301' to the top and man was the western side hot from the sun pouring in.

Viewing tower on the NW side of the city

View over the city to the east

View of tower from edge of park

View of the city to the west

Nice arch in a plaza where major roads streams by the tower

Mariachi band in Parque de Sol our last stop for a final sit with Sangrias before heading back to the hotel

Can't top free booze every night!!!

Last night in the executive lounge to spoil ourselves.

Early rise tomorrow to catch the hotel shuttle to the Airport!

Toledo - Day 9

A little earlier start than yesterday with another great breakfast (the muffins are like angel food cake with sugar topping) before taking the shuttle to the train station.  We quickly found the ticket office and purchased our round trip tickets for Toledo.  The train is a high speed train (electric) and takes 33 minutes to Toledo, Spain.  Last night I was able to map out the entire day on Google Maps and print out the itinerary, so when we arrived and got a city map the day came together (should have thought of that trick earlier in the trip).

Keeping the selfie trend to start the trip!  Renfe is the train company in Spain.

From the train station we started the hike into town and stopped by the Castillo de San Servando before crossing the river and our first set of stairs to climb.  Then we traversed the city past all the various sites: Santa Iglesia Cathedral, Alcazar de Toledo, Museo De Santa Cruz, Monasterio de San Juan de los Reyes, San Martin's Bridge, O Puerta de Alfonso VI, Puerta del Sol and the Roman Ruins.  If you envision hills and valleys and the city sitting on top of one of the hills you can imagine Toledo.  The walking is up and down as you work your way around.

Arriving in /Toledo at the train station just on the out skirts of town

View on hike up to the city from the train station - sunny day - no clouds

Cathedral that takes up a large portion of the city center!

What a view!

View of Church wall from my seat at lunch

When we got to the church just above the San Martin's Bridge we stopped at a street cafe for a late lunch.  They had a deal to pick an appetizer, entree and get one of an assortment of deserts with Bread and water.  I wanted to try a Sangria being in Spain, so Janie followed suite and to my surprise very good.  Janie ordered the Onion soup and Chicken plate and I ordered the Castillo Soup and Iberian Steak.  The soups came out in a cast iron bowl (smaller version to what they cook Paella in) and very hot to the touch.  So of course the soup was super duper hot.  I burned my tongue a bit, and Janie avoided the same result.  The soups were outstanding and then the entrees came out that we awesome as well.  The scalloped potatoes with peppers was very unique and tasty.  Then Janie had a Flan and I had Tart to cap off the lunch.  Another great meal just winging it!!

Onion and Castillo Soups - Hot!! and Tasty!!!

Herb Chicken and Iberian Steak w/ Potatoes

Guess who had two Sangrias?

From lunch we wandered down to the San Martin Bridge where they had a zip line setup to run across the Tagus River.  Only 10 euros, so Janie stepped up to make a run!!  Gotta love my birthday girl!

Please step into your safety gear

Let me hook you up, hold here and you're off

There she goes!!!!  Only a little girl yelp at the beginning

Professional Pic

Champion

The end of the line

Roman ruins of a Circus built over Muslim grave yard and turned into Pottery Kilns and now just ruins.

Another great view of us - I mean the town of Toledo

This was our first climb after we walked up the hill.  The city is from the top of the stairs to the left!

We continued touring around to the Roman Ruins and then a few shops on the way back to the train station.  We had an ice cream in the cafe at the station and then the 33 minute ride to the Atocha station.  Grabbed a few things and then the cab ride to the hotel.  Another evening hanging out in the lounge and finishing the blog for the day while catching up on news, emails, texts and social media.

Tomorrow is the final day in Madrid before we start the trek back home.  10 hour flight to Atlanta and then the 2 hour flight to KC!!!

Madrid - Day 8

Nice leisure morning!!!  Our room has the best shower of the trip so far!!  After breakfast I spent the morning planning our trip to Toledo and confirming what we would do today in Madrid.  Then we packed up our gear and headed down for the hotel shuttle to city center.

Today we walked Parque Del Buen Retiro (large park) with a huge monument with man made pond that people were paddling boats around.  The park was filled with families and street performers of all kinds.  Clown, Magicians and Musicians.  A city of 3.2 million (6.5 entire metro) has quite a bit of artistic talent!

Keeping the trend of a selfie with Janie at the start of the day in front of a fountain at the entrance of the Park.

We visited a couple of other key location in the park as well.  One is the Puerta of Americas building where an Art Exhibit was setup for viewing.  Sorry hard to explain and frankly don't get it.  Then off to the Palacio de Crystal, which was very interesting and reminded me of a structure I've seen in a movie somewhere?

Yes besides boaters there are a lot of carp in them there waters

Palacio Crystal

Pond with Cypress Trees - reminded us of the Cypress in our OP back yard that Frank and Billie planted

Then we strolled through the park watching the leaves turn and drop and came across the La Chopera sports facility with Tennis Courts and soccer fields.  You can see where many of the city dwellers spend part of their day.

Overall Madrid central is park after park.  It is very hard to describe, but you can walk for miles through parks as you roam the city.

From the park we cut cross down through the alleys until we stopped at a corner restaurant and sat outside el fresco.  Turns out this was a very small mom & pop local joint with grandma serving and who didn't speak English.  No menu so I winged it.  We ended up with a plate of Manchego Cheese (goat milk based from La Mancha region of Spain) smothered in Olive oil, Iberia Meat platter and a side dish of braised beef chunks in a gravy with bread.  Two glasses of Rioja white wine which came with green olive plate.  OK, the Tapas turned into lunch/dinner.  Two more glasses of wine and we enjoyed every crumb.  We were treated to a nice pastry at the end of the meal for free, which was a nice touch.

Wine and Olives before the Tapas arrive - nervous how the wine would taste after ordering red and what would we get for Tapas after seeing no menu!

The Iberia meat and Manchego Cheese plates arrive - then bread basket and Beef Cubes

After our afternoon light feast we walked the rest of the way to the Palacio Real the home of the King of Spain.  We came back for the audio tour and like so many historical buildings we were not shorted on awe.  The amount of craftsmanship and over the top decorations is too hard to explain.  The few pictures we were allowed to capture before the main rooms just scratches the surface.  Someday remind me to talk about how the French and Roman influence on the Spanish shows up in so much of the history.

This is the entry area that they do the changing of the guard once a month on a wednesday.  The view out the arches is over another city park that is just hard to capture in a picture.

Steps up from the main entrance

Ceiling above steps and last place we can take a picture.  Think all the rooms having this type of ceiling!

As you walk out the main entrance this is the view of the Basilica and main gates.  The sun was setting and the gold on the gates were lit up like lights.  Camera phone pictures by an amateur just does not do the site justice.

After the palace tour our feet said no Mas and we headed to find a cab.  We did find Janie some Gelato (chocolate) to eat before heading back to the hotel to hang out.  Even had a Skype session with Sara/John and Wyatt.

Tomorrow is our day in Toledo, so going to rest the balance of the evening for a big day tomorrow!

Madrid - Day 7

An even earlier rise and departure via cab for the Munich airport to catch a 7:30 a.m. flight to Madrid.  Pretty long lines for check-in and security, but well organized and efficient.  We even had time sit and wait for the flight.  Thank you Janie for getting there early!  The Iberia plane was an Airbus, but the seating was as tight as they come.  Two hours of cramp for me and Janie slept the entire trip.

We landed at Madrid, which is a huge airport.  Like good timing when we arrived at baggage claim our bags popped right up.  No waiting!!  We hailed a cab and had a our first real bad experience.  The cab driver got lost and Janie had to run Google Maps to get us to the hotel.  The driver gigged us as well, which we confirmed with our trip back to the Hotel from downtown Madrid 4 times as far and cheaper that evening.  Ugh!!

The Hilton is again very nice and we have a very contemporary room.  Even a bidet in the bathroom.  There was a free hotel shuttle to Mid-Town Madrid at 12:15, so after grabbing a late breakfast and getting our room settled, we ventured out for our days adventures.

On our bus were two guys that after we got off approached and asked where we dropped off. Being the navigator type I was able to successfully point out our location on the map.  The small world piece is they are from Chicago and are tax accountants from Arcelor Mittel, a steel company that supplies steel to Hanna Steel Corporation where Janie works.   Small world indeed.

Its a small world!!

Our starting point after guiding total strangers on their way!

From there we hiked along a route I mapped out and never ran out of a new site to see.  At the Prada Museum we came across a movie crew filming.

Movie Crew

As we wandered towards the train station we found a large round object like a phone booth, but it was a public restroom.  Coin operated and probably the size of a an airplane bathroom.  Did not venture in.  So when we got to the train station figured a good time to get the lay of the land in case we use later and good opportunity to grab a bathroom.  However, we found that doing your business in Madrid costs money.

Can you guess what I'm doing?

If you are getting tired of the protesters in the US, we saw another group protesting for Immigrants  and how they are being treated.  Germany and now here.  Sad part is they seem to want jobs and services as if the country can just over night absorb them.  Seems a bit selfish, since nobody in the protest looked like they suffered a day.  From what I can tell they are getting three squares.

Protesters - whats left of them and police and city crews having to clean up after them.  Glad they can be free to voice their opinion, but wish they had a real cause.

We continued to wind our way through the streets, which are much more hilly than expected.  The whole city is up and down as the country side, which reminds me of the foothills in CO.  Plateaus, hills, valleys and dry desert like conditions.  Although in the city very pretty with those Sycamores and Evergreens everywhere.  Even an olive tree!

Olive Tree close to the Train Station

After trekking across the city east to west we came across a plaza, which is surrounded on all four sides.  This is the Mayors house or building and the square is very large.  All around the outside are restaurants and shops.  More protesters, but also a couple getting married!

Group on the right are waiting for the wedding party (two women) to appear in the window.

Another really cool market place for supplies or Tappas. Crowded is an understatement.  Good thing is I'm one of the biggest guys in the whole city.  I've only come across a couple my height so far. :)

Getting pretty good at the shelfie thing!!

Vegetables, meat, cheese, wine, beer, etc!!

Great area for shops and restaurants by the Mayor Plaza

Throughout our street walks we came across violinist, opera singers, magicians, mimes, accordion harp players.

Janie toured another Basilica...have to admit I've started to bow out and rest my feet.

We made it to the Royal Palace (think Buckingham Palace) that was Huge!!!

Front gate and entrance right across from the Basilica

Other side of the Palace - several city blocks

Yup a reflection pool and massive park as well!

On our way back we came across the mounted police getting ready to start their evening tour!

Mounted Police

We stopped in front of the Theater for Tappas and Wine, then strolled back through all the back allies until we came to a major cross road to find a cab.  Passed a church and monastery and more street...wait where did all these people come from?  One street was wall to wall people and street performers.

Then we came to a main road and headed to where we could find a cab and felt like we are in NYC on New's Eve.  Wall to wall people as far as you can see coming and going.  After 10 plus city blocks we covered including going by Telefonica's HQ (one of our international carrier partners), we finally found an empty cab.

Hotel lit up and looking very cool.

Headed back to the hotel and spent the evening in the executive lounge snacking and enjoying some Vino!  Oh and catching up on the blog for the past few days.  Oh yeah we had a nice snack waiting for us in the room.

Hope you enjoy and not sure yet what tomorrow will bring!

Jeff and Janie signing off from Madrid, Spain!