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Day 1 4 May TRAVEL Day FLORIDA TO ATLANTA AND ON TO MADRID

Tracey of 5th Avenue Taxi, she picked us up at 1245 exactly and got us to the airport in good time. Things have changed quite a bit since the last time we flew from Melbourne. Things are expanding and changing but it is still better than the madness at Orlando!

We departed on time for Atlanta and the new Honey roasted pistachios were a big hit with Paul! LOL!  We landed at Terminal C and had to hoof it to Terminal E Gate 6. However as Gate 6 is right at the end ( of course it is) we did flag down the nice man with the cart and rode sedately as elderly travelers should. Not sure how these damn feet of mine are going to handle all this!

Storks nest atop everything!!
Another on time departure, the plane is full. A new experience with different lie-down seats than we are NOT used to! There is a partition between our seats and it all seems a little strange even though it slides down a bit. We settled in with some champagne and prepared for dinner.  I had Halibut and Paul a Sweet and Sour Roasted Duck. Now, the flight attendant swears she did not spike my wine but I never did see the end of my movie and crashed for a solid 3.5 hours and had trouble waking to enjoy the breakfast before landing. I never sleep like that on a plane! I was positively groggy as I ate something (cannot remember what) and drank some coffee!

As always, we walked for miles before we hit immigration and baggage claim and staggered out to Hertz in bright morning sunshine. Hertz gave us a brand new Seat baby SUV which could not accommodate our luggage, even though we had asked for something big enough for 2 large and 2 small suit cases. Next up was a Ford Puma 5 door that held everything; Same price (much better than the class uptick for an additional €464! It has a GPS also and some hilarity will ensue, I can see it! We stopped at a Hypercor near Alcala   for tissues, Lysol disinfectant, booze, wine and  it was way too early for our Paradores check in. They let us put the car in the garage and we walked into town about 3PM for a late lunch of tapas at Lizarran for Pinxtos vs tapas. Crab, tortilla de patatas, ensaladilla rusa, etc. Draft beer and a clara for Jane. I did not dare to have wine I could feel the fatigue creeping up on me. We checked in and hauled all our “stuff” up to the room.

More Storks in Alcala

Evening meal was close to home, in the hotel bar/cafeteria, after our travels for 26+ hrs. we had nothing left. Vegetal with avocado , and a  Pepito de Ternera.

I noticed that several street names in Alcala are Irish i.e. Parque O’Donnell in Alcala de Henares and will need to research those facts. Ok, it turns out that in the 17th C many young Irish men left Ireland, braving dangerous sea and land journeys to study for the priesthood at Irish colleges in Alcala and Madrid. It was during a time of religious persecution in Ireland. Remember Henry 8th renouncing Catholicism because his 1st wife could not give him a son and the Pope wouldn’t give him a divorce? It all stemmed from that, if you are interested try Google because I would have to study for a History degree! Anyway at that time Jews, Christians and Moslems lived in harmony in Alcala so these young men would come and study at the colleges here. Really interesting stuff that I had not noticed before!

Don Quixote and Sancho Panza in Alcala

After these two long travel days, Wed plus Thursday we hit the sack at 1000 PM to complete our time change thru jet lag period.

 

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