We have arrived!!
The day started around midnight on Monday when M arrived at mine, I was busy filling in a job application and watching the Anaheim Ducks win against the Calgary Flames (wooo!!!). We were planning not to go to sleep because we has to get up so very early and spent a few hours settling down with Dr. Quinn on (I've been turning M into a Dr. Quinn fan!), we made it through the first four episodes of Season two (watched in the correct viewing order, not the order it was aired... because I'm a fussy nerd like that!! Despite our best efforts we snuggled down on the bed in my Den and fell swiftly to sleep for an hour!!
We were rudely awoken at around 0430 by our set alarms and wearily piled in for breakfast burritos
(recipe below!) at 5am. Once we were adequately fed and watered we picked up our belongings and went to catch the peasant wagon to the Airport. The only good thing about living near the airport is that its only £1.60 to get a bus right up to the terminal, sadly this also means that all public transport links go to the airport and not through my village, and the bus stops at about 2300 and doesn't start again until 0543 meaning our options for a night out in London are limited to an extortionate taxi fare home!
 |
Felt a bit like The Beatles... but not as much as
when I was in China wandering to a charter jet
(same as used by private jets) with guitar in hand! |
We arrived at the airport at around 0550 and, thanks to some generous fast track passes that were donated to the cause, were through security baggage by 0630! Just in time to have a wander through the revamped terminal. A little tidbit of information here: When I was 18 I had a job working at Wetherspoons airside in Stansted Airport, I LOVED that job and the folks that worked there and had a great time. That was, however, 10 years ago and my goodness how the terminal had changed!! It is entirely unrecognisable and so very easy to lose my barings!! The Windmill Bar has changed completely and looks nothing like it did when i worked there at all, so very strange!!
 |
| Memories!! |
We stopped in for a drink and then headed down to gate 45 for our flight. Luckily no-one questioned me about my rather large "one personal bag" or the fact that my tripod renders my carry-on bag too tall, so thankfully we were right through and on the plane in no time!
 |
| and we're off!! |
Settled down in time to hear the Captain state that the journey to Madrid would be "bumpy" and boy was he right! For the entire flight there seemed to be turbulence! I did wave to my house on the flight over (although, truthfully I'm not sure if it was my house!) and I think we flew over Jersey...or possibly Guernsey... or possibly the Isle of Wight?! I can hear my dad singing a song about the IoW right now that I won't share with you!!
 |
| Start as you mean to go on: with food! |
We touched down in Madrid with a fairly pleasant landing and passed thorough customs in record time (despite having a near miss where my bag got caught on the escalator and almost pulled me over the side!), ready to navigate the Metro to our hotel. We've picked up a tourist travel card for three days that gives us access to unlimited use of public transport in the Madrid area, this will be really useful and, as it runs out on Thursday and we fly home Friday, we're planing on being a bit lazy and hopping in a taxi to the airport Friday morning!
 |
| I am so proud of this photo... |
Its the first time, as an adult, I've been on the underground service in another country and I was really surprised to note that it smelled exactly like London... minus the piss! It was easy to navigate too, although the Madrid Metro has numbers (line 1, 2, 3, etc) rather than names (Central, Circle, Victoria, etc). Getting to our hotel was a doddle too, we're about a 15 minute walk from a metro station!
I'm please to report that our hotel is LOVELY! We've pad around 30E (can;t find the Euro sign..) a night and were expecting just above hotel standard, but we've actually got a really nice hotel that is above Premier Inn standard! It also has A BATH!! <3
Few hours kip in the hotel and it was off to find some food, what do you eat while you're in Spain? Japanese Sushi of course! It was an interesting experience trying desperately to order from a Japanese lady who spoke Spanish and precious little English, my appealingly bad Spanish helped us through with a lot of pointing, hand signals (the polite ones) and nods... we wont mention the fact that we ordered off of the Valentines menu... We finished off our food by heading over the road from our Hotel to the Irish Pub! Such cultured people we are!!
Back at the hotel by midnight and, after a long day, there was only one thing to do... plug in M's harddrive to the smart TV and watch an episode of Dr. Quinn before bed!
Tomorrow we plan to head into town and see a few of the tourist sights, more selfies to come I promise!!
Buenas noches mis amigos!
Few hours kip in the hotel and it was off to find some food, what do you eat while you're in Spain? Japanese Sushi of course! It was an interesting experience trying desperately to order from a Japanese lady who spoke Spanish and precious little English, my appealingly bad Spanish helped us through with a lot of pointing, hand signals (the polite ones) and nods... we wont mention the fact that we ordered off of the Valentines menu... We finished off our food by heading over the road from our Hotel to the Irish Pub! Such cultured people we are!!
