Day 1 - Monday, Dec. 17th
We fly away.....
The flight was fairly uneventful - if not amazingly long. Of course there were a 1001 last minute things I hadn't thought of and some things I should have known and it just escaped me - like you really, really can't bring toothpaste on a plane anymore. LOL - I was only thinking about wanting to brush my teeth before seeing Jerry after having been traveling for about 20 hours. (gross). The security guards at the airport were very nice about it and we just threw it away - bigger loss was my foot spray (again, thinking only of smelling and looking as nice as possible upon arrival :) - airport security was definitely not high on my list of packing priorities.
We flew out of Austin at 5:45pm on Monday, Dec. 17th - arrived in Minneapolis a few hours later and let me tell you - 50 minutes is exactly enough time between planes. Not one minute extra. We got to the gate and boarded immediately. (whew!). Seats in the middle stink on an 8 hour flight by the way - which of course is what we had - luckily we had tolerant neighbors who put up with Riley laying across my lap to sleep (they were probably just thankful he wasn't one of the other kids on board who were intermittently screaming). Riley was actually VERY good on the plane and slept quite a bit - kept himself occupied a lot and used his best manners without being reminded all the time.
We arrived in Amsterdam forever later and had a 5 hour layover which was enough time to figure out how to get a boarding pass (long line but not complicated) and go through security and customs in Dutch. On the way home, we will spend more time between ticketing and customs and see some of the great looking shops in that airport. This time we had an incredible bowl of tomato soup (and for those of you who know I don't eat tomato soup - let me tell you - I loved this!). It was like eating marinara sauce (the really good stuff from Gino's). Yum! After the soup, we found our gate (completely deserted) then found lounge chairs at the end of the empty terminal, laid down and rested - brushed my hair, did a little makeup, etc.
Finally, off to Madrid on the last stage of our journey - and yeah! There was Jerry. Now, remember, we hadn't seen each other in 3 weeks, so I was feeling a bit emotional - add almost 20 hours in travel to that and the fact that I couldn't find our luggage carousel in spanish and yes, I cried just a little - but happy tears - found my luggage and we went to our hotel in Madrid and crashed.
Day 2 - Wednesday, Dec. 19, 2007
Still just getting there....
Yes - seems like it should be day 3 - but really we lost a whole day in travel, so I am just counting it as second day of trip....
We slept fairly late and took forever getting ready and out the door, so it was pretty late by the time we got on the road to Allirez. Jerry was supposed to work today, but by the time we got to the hotel in Allirez, he only went in for a couple of hours. The drive was beautifully scenically, but honestly, I was still so exhausted from the travel, I kept dozing off. I felt so badly, but Jerry just laughed and said I would probably understand how wiped out he is after those trips better now. (I will - I still won't like him needing to sleep for 2 days when he gets home - but I will definitely like it!).
Day 3 - Thursday, Dec. 20, 2007
Finally - a day to explore
Today, Riley and I went out exploring Allirez. This is a beautiful little town with ancient (re: medieval times) churches, stone walls and homes. Jerry lives here at the AC Hotel when working in Spain - although he actually works in Ourense which is about 15-20 minutes away.
We fly away.....
The flight was fairly uneventful - if not amazingly long. Of course there were a 1001 last minute things I hadn't thought of and some things I should have known and it just escaped me - like you really, really can't bring toothpaste on a plane anymore. LOL - I was only thinking about wanting to brush my teeth before seeing Jerry after having been traveling for about 20 hours. (gross). The security guards at the airport were very nice about it and we just threw it away - bigger loss was my foot spray (again, thinking only of smelling and looking as nice as possible upon arrival :) - airport security was definitely not high on my list of packing priorities.
We flew out of Austin at 5:45pm on Monday, Dec. 17th - arrived in Minneapolis a few hours later and let me tell you - 50 minutes is exactly enough time between planes. Not one minute extra. We got to the gate and boarded immediately. (whew!). Seats in the middle stink on an 8 hour flight by the way - which of course is what we had - luckily we had tolerant neighbors who put up with Riley laying across my lap to sleep (they were probably just thankful he wasn't one of the other kids on board who were intermittently screaming). Riley was actually VERY good on the plane and slept quite a bit - kept himself occupied a lot and used his best manners without being reminded all the time.
We arrived in Amsterdam forever later and had a 5 hour layover which was enough time to figure out how to get a boarding pass (long line but not complicated) and go through security and customs in Dutch. On the way home, we will spend more time between ticketing and customs and see some of the great looking shops in that airport. This time we had an incredible bowl of tomato soup (and for those of you who know I don't eat tomato soup - let me tell you - I loved this!). It was like eating marinara sauce (the really good stuff from Gino's). Yum! After the soup, we found our gate (completely deserted) then found lounge chairs at the end of the empty terminal, laid down and rested - brushed my hair, did a little makeup, etc.
Finally, off to Madrid on the last stage of our journey - and yeah! There was Jerry. Now, remember, we hadn't seen each other in 3 weeks, so I was feeling a bit emotional - add almost 20 hours in travel to that and the fact that I couldn't find our luggage carousel in spanish and yes, I cried just a little - but happy tears - found my luggage and we went to our hotel in Madrid and crashed.
Day 2 - Wednesday, Dec. 19, 2007
Still just getting there....
Yes - seems like it should be day 3 - but really we lost a whole day in travel, so I am just counting it as second day of trip....
We slept fairly late and took forever getting ready and out the door, so it was pretty late by the time we got on the road to Allirez. Jerry was supposed to work today, but by the time we got to the hotel in Allirez, he only went in for a couple of hours. The drive was beautifully scenically, but honestly, I was still so exhausted from the travel, I kept dozing off. I felt so badly, but Jerry just laughed and said I would probably understand how wiped out he is after those trips better now. (I will - I still won't like him needing to sleep for 2 days when he gets home - but I will definitely like it!).
Day 3 - Thursday, Dec. 20, 2007
Finally - a day to explore
Today, Riley and I went out exploring Allirez. This is a beautiful little town with ancient (re: medieval times) churches, stone walls and homes. Jerry lives here at the AC Hotel when working in Spain - although he actually works in Ourense which is about 15-20 minutes away.Riley and I took several pictures today - Him standing on a typical street in Allirez. Yes, they are all that narrow. No wonder Europeans drive such little cars. They have no choice. You can still find many of the horse hitches on the walls outside shops and buildings. Many of the streets and buildings are renovated and updated, but original stonework and structure from the 1200's. (yes, over 700-800 years ago). There are parts of Allirez that are more modernized of course, but even those roads are fairly narrow in comparison to ours.
Here, Riley is posing with artwork representing the "Festa Do Boi" - a traditional festival in Spain that I haven't quite gotten translated out yet to fully understand - but believe it is closely associated with the running of the bulls in Barcelona which occurs in July. This festival runs March to June each year. More info (in espanol) can be found at http://www.festdoboi.com/. Also here is the sign I photographed to translate later....
More photos from Allirez - including our hotel, a beautiful river running through Allirez and a church all featuring the most charming young man - Riley.
More later - time to get today started (Dec. 29) we are shopping in (hmm... where are we ... ) Oh yeah! A Coruna.... port city on the coast......
For more photos - view my web album at....
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