We Made It To Spain!

Our much anticipated trip to Spain with our friend Pauley arrived on April 1st. We left Grand Rapids for Chicago around 10 am. Our mini road trip went smoothly and we arrived at our friend Tito's place in Chicago. As a bonus we were also able to stop at at Jewel Osco and exchange our old I-Pass transmitter for a new one as requested by the state of Illinois. 

Tito is an awesome friend who when he heard we needed a ride to the airport worked from home and took a half day to take us. We are so spoiled by him, so we wanted to at the very least take him out to lunch as a thank you. Catching up over delicious sandwiches and shakes at Potbelly's was fantastic, and a great way to start our travels to Spain. 

Pauley, me, and Tito in front of Potbelly's

After getting through the airport rigmarole shockingly quickly and walking laps around the terminal until Pauley reached his 10,000 steps for the day it was finally time to board our Iberia flight. It was a direct flight to Madrid, which was awesome since I'd never taken a direct flight to Europe. The time saved, however, gave us less time to sleep. In fact, none of us slept, but we did try and after failing we able to view a couple in-flight movies. 

We arrived in Madrid at 7:20 am local time and though tired we were immediately impressed by the architecture of the airport. The rolling ceiling and spectrum of colors painted on support beams was neat. 

You can see part of the color spectrum and textured ceiling of the airport

We breezed through customs and found our way to the metro station in the airport. There we figured out the ticket system and with the gift of a map from a metro agent we were on our way to the Atocha Renfe station. As this station is a hub of train and subway systems I had heard there was a luggage storage area. This would be useful as we could not check into our Airbnb til 1 pm. Indeed there was a storage area with high security, and for a very reasonable price we were able to keep all our belongings in a locker for the day. 

On the Metro, Pauley admitted to bringing way too much luggage

From there we decided to find the Pabellon de Cristal in La Casa De Campo where packet pick up was located for the 5k Pauley and I are running tomorrow. After at at least three mile walk and Brandon's fine navigation skills we located the running expo. On the way we took in our surroundings and explored a farmer's market where we picked up a free cheese sample. 

Manzanares River flowing through Madrid

Fountains at the park along the river

Spontaneously checking out a farmer's market 

At the expo we picked up our packets which included race bibs, shirts, and socks. We were especially surprised to receive socks. Exciting! We're used to being provided with safety pins for the bibs, but there were none to be seen. We tried asking for safety pins, but just created more confusion for ourselves. So we're still not sure how to attach our bibs to our shirts, but Brandon does have some duct tape if needed. Brandon was also excited to get some free juice box samples from the expo. 

Happily drinking our juice boxes at Pabellon de Cristal

On the walk back from the packet pick up we all started to crash. Fatigue set in as well as needs for bathrooms and food. With great effort we soldiered on. We found some lunch food from a grocery store and headed to the apartment as it was thankfully nearly 1 pm. There we met Ruth, our Airbnb host, and waited around as she finished cleaning up the apartment. Then at last it and the keys were ours! We ate our lunch and were ever so grateful for beds to nap. With a promise to ourselves to pick up our luggage later in the day and not nap so long that we would ruin our sleep that night we collapsed into bed. 

Our sweet "bunk bed" area of the apartment with Pauley's bed on top of the loft and Brandon and I in our cave below 

Sorting out first days in a new place is exhausting...we walked over 6 miles today, but the lovely weather made it much more tolerable. And, we're here! We've made it to Madrid, Spain!