Madrid at Last!

We left Halifax Wednesday morning at the civilized hour of 10 AM. After nearly 24 hours traveling, delays and rerouting due to a couple of strikes we finally arrived in Madrid late Thursday afternoon. The flight over was quite nice actually and short compared to the flight to New Zealand. Of course many kilometers below us Canada was playing Russia in a hockey game being watched by millions. The flight attendant was happy to give us the score of 7:3 for Canada at the end of the 2nd period along with two bottles of wine. When the final period was over she came by our seats with two more little bottle to celebrate the victory, Bob was delighted!

As the plane landed rain streamed across the windows and the bleak grey day outside was reminiscent of Halifax.

We are staying at the Hostal de Fontana near the Puerto del Sol, the heart of the city. This evening we strolled around this central area stopping for a glass of wine and some tapis along the way. Here we are posing in front of some Spanish jamon the very popular delicacy beloved by the Spanish.

I notice my hair is almost indistinguishable from the ham. Do you think I night have gone too far on the red side of the spectrum this time?


You can see by our faces we were pretty tired but not too tired to case out the joint. We walked all around the central area to see the lights come on illuminating the exteriors of the Royal Palace, the cathedral and other beautiful buildings. I have attached some photos.






This is the Plaza Major lit up at night. We will return tomorrow to get a closer look on our way to the Monet exhibit.





Here is the cathedral peeking out from behind the Royal Palace. Neat spot, Nancy tried to introduce me to her relatives at the Palace!