Today I left cold, ice, and snow behind in Seattle to fly to sunny Spain. The first leg of my journey, walking from my house to the nearby bus stop, was the most harrowing because of the ice on the sidewalk. A broken wrist from a fall would have been a crappy way to start. But thankfully that didn’t happen. The bus was on time, light rail was great, and I got to Seatac Airport early.
The boarding time for my flight was delayed because the plane arrived late and needed cleaning. So we got a late start with no promises to make up the time. But 10 hours later, after 3 meals, 3 movies, and a very smooth flight, we were in Amsterdam. I hustled through the airport, noting with interest that they had a red Tesla Model 3 on display in the duty-free shop area, being polished by a young woman. Passport control was a breeze, so I arrived at my gate for the flight to Madrid just as the main cabin passengers were boarding, about 25 minutes after landing in Amsterdam. Perfect timing!
Two hours later I arrived in the smallish Madrid airport, under a blue blue sky. But my checked bag didn’t make the Amsterdam connection and wasn’t in baggage claim. A very nice man in the lost baggage office looked on his computer and said it would arrive on the next flight in 2 hours. After taking down all my information, he arranged for it to be delivered to my hotel.
I navigated the Madrid subway and then walked in the sunshine the last 15 minutes to my hotel, the Infanta Mercedes. It’s not a Hilton, but works well for me.
Since I was bleary-eyed from the flight, I decided to skip dinner at a restaurant. After looking at my room, I walked back to a grocery store I had previously passed and bought a couple things to eat in my room.
While waiting for my luggage to be delivered, I scoped out my sightseeing plans for Saturday in central Madrid.
Lori's Travels 