Madrid, Spain

Got back from Madrid late yesterday evening. We were supposed to arrive home at about 6pm but our flight was delayed in Madrid already. Ugh.

We had a great time. We arrived on Friday evening and met the groom-to-be and a group of his home-town, Italian friends for drinks and dinner. I think we ate dinner at about 10:30 pm. Which, by the way, is totally normal in Spain. A little difficult for me, because I've been in bed by that time of late... We visited the La Latina quarter and had a great meal.

We stayed at the Hesperia Hotel, which is a 5 star, and worth every star. Especially since it was only €130 per night! I don't know if that was a special rate Antonino got for us wedding guests, but I'm not complaining.

The wedding was lovely, Alicia looked so Spanish in her veil. The wedding reception was at our hotel - a blessing! We had finger food and drinks until about 4:30pm and then moved on to lunch (!). Yes, lunch. That's what they called it anyway. The food was fantastic. I had a bit of trouble with the start of the finger food, because it was all raw. But then they brought out some yummy things I could eat. It was really too bad, being in spain and not being able to eat the Iberian cured ham (basically raw) and a lot of the fish finger food. But I didn't starve!

We spent a lot of time with Antonino's Italian friends, and had a great time. They didn't complain about my slow pace or need for frequent breaks. I expect they barely noticed. Italians can't walk and talk at the same time anyway, so I often found myself walking even slower than I needed or out-pacing the pack! We took the subway everywhere and someone always got up to give me their seat. It was very sweet. We visited the main tourist attractions: The Royal Palace, the Cathedral, Plaza Mayór, Plaza del Sol, Gran Via. Drank cheap beer (well, I didn't!) and ate great, but inexpensive food. Nom!

We forgot to charge the camera batteries, so no pics at this point. We used Magnus' phone instead...


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