Ready To Come Home

We caught the train from Barcelona to Madrid yesterday. 4 1/2 hours all told. Most of it on the high speed AVE line. We are now checked back in to the hotel where it all began, Hotel Plaza Mayor.

It’s odd to come back after travelling far and wide for the last few weeks. It’s like coming home in an odd sort of way.

This morning when I got to the breakfast table in the lobby of the hotel I found two birthday cards on my table that Cynthia had been carrying with her the whole trip! She’s so awesome!

Madrid is much quieter now than when we left it a few weeks ago. The end of September is considered the beginning of the “off” season. Now that it’s late in October it’s gotten much cooler and the tourist crowds have lightened quite a bit.

We walked over and took the tour of the Royal Palace we never got around to before. No photography allowed. WAH! It’s gorgeous. We also took the guided tour which we never do. That proved to be rather interesting and we learned a bit more than we might have otherwise.

Tonight we’re going to go out to dinner one last time to celebrate my birthday.

Our flight back to Houston is tomorrow morning and frankly I am ready. Ready to bathe in my own bath tub, ready to sleep in my own bed and ready to watch some American television (In English).

Keeping the blog up to date has been challenging, but fun. Late hours processing images and putting together the entries took it’s toll a little in terms of getting enough sleep but I think getting it written down while it was still fresh will pay off in the long run. Ultimately these posts will serve as a guide to put together our travel scrapbook and are also something I can look at to remind me of the awesome month I got to spend with Cynthia in this remarkable country.

Cynthia has agreed that bringing a laptop along has been a good thing. Initially she didn’t think that I should take a computer with me but after a few weather reports and Google map directions to obscure restaurants she has changed her tune. She’s even on board with the blogging as she will be the one to put together the scrapbook and did not have to keep her own hand-written journal of the trip. Plus she really gets a kick out of it when people comment on the entries.

Thanks to everyone who followed along. It was very cool to have this cyber-tether back to friends and family back home. Sort of a life-line to keep me from getting too homesick which I am surprisingly prone to.

We’ll see you when we get back, after we’ve gotten caught up on some sleep, re-stocked the fridge and picked up the birds.