Well, we made it! After 28 hrs in transit and not without considerable angst at Melbourne immigration – the scanning machine attempted to eat Kate’s passport, resulting in her photo being torn. Aargh! After lengthy determination by the immigration authorities, it was deemed ‘minor’ damage and she was allowed to leave the country, but with the warning that other countries may not be as lenient and deny entry. What to do? As they supplied a letter confirming the damage had occurred at the airport, we decided to take our chances, not without a lot of stress though as it was something we wouldn’t know was the right decision until we reached Madrid. Fortunately, they cared not a bit, so here we are, but it just proved that clearly the best laid plans can go awry, through no fault of the planners!

We are only overnighting in Madrid, and are travelling by train tomorrow to León, which I am really forward to – it’s meant to be a beautiful city and I can’t wait explore it. Madrid will still be waiting for us in 4 weeks time, when Jeff arrives and we’ll have several days there to see the sights.

You’ll be pleased to know I’ve been practising my very bad Spanish with mixed effect, but I love having a go and smiling helps a lot too, so so far so good. My ‘café con leche’ arrived as ordered, but asking the price needs some improvement. And finally, after all these years,  I can’t but feel very thankful for my lisp.  I feel right at home here already as everyone else seems to have one too!

Our flight arrived at 8.30am so we’ve done well to last all day, but jet lag is finally creeeping in, so it’s something to eat, a hot shower and Bedfordshire for me.

I’ll send another up date soon, but in the meantime it’s ‘Besars de mi’ (I’m not sure if that’s exactly right, but you get the picture!!)

Adios Amigos 🙂

xx

Karen