You know, this is the first time I have ever blogged on a holiday. I am sitting in my hotel room while Jimmy has a siesta. It's not a bad hotel room. We have an 8th floor room with a terrace overlooking the Teatro Real. We also have a jacuzzi which is very acceptable.
The journey was relatively straight-forward. I tend to the view that if one is burning up the planet by flying, one at least ought to try to reach the airport by public transport. Which very nearly fell at the second hurdle, when we reached Clapham Common to be told that there were no trains between Stockwell and Oval. Thankfully that problem (radio breakdown) cleared before our train even left the station and it was plain sailing all the way to London City via Northern and Jubilee lines and DLR.
Gosh, were we grateful we didn't fly via Heathrow. I seem to recall it had been a finely balanced decision. I can't actually remember whether it would have been BA if I had chosen Heathrow. Jimmy was feeling very smug as we watched he news reports last night from T5; I told him not to speak too soon.
We did have opportunity to worry at LCY. Various flights were being announced as cancelled, due to crosswinds at the airport. I knew it would happen to us,and having got up way too early, I did not fancy making alternative arrangements. Our plane was announced as delayed, I couldn't tell if that was a good or bad omen. We watched a light plane come in, KLM, so maybe from the Netherlands and that made quite a few people queasy just watching it. Shaking from side to side, bouncing around. One guy on the phone was telling whoever he had seen a plane fail yto land before the end of the very short runway (it's a former dock, surrounded on three sides by water) and have to get airborne again. In the event we were called to our plane and ended up only being about half an hour late into Madrid.
In the early evening we went for a walk over to the Royal Palace and mosied around the Sabatini Gardens. We have only been here a few hours but we have both already decided we really liked Madrid. The buildings in particular: everywhere we look there is another delightful view.
I would write more, but it's half eight here, and I am yet to upload my photos or dress for dinner.
Laters...
