Hi folks,
I hope that everyone is well and that you were able to avoid the cold that I had! I have one more day on the antibiotic for the ear infection that I developed last week Saturday night - I'm almost feeling normal again.
Mike flew back to San Jose yesterday. He had two connections - one in Detroit and one in Minneapolis. All his flights went well and were on time. Tomorrow he starts classes.
Jenn has been hanging out with friends and getting everything ready for heading back to Binghamton on January 20. She'll be living off campus in a house this semester.
Today Joe and I took down the Christmas tree. It's been very cold - the lights outside will have to stay up a little longer until it warms up a bit!
We had a great time with everyone over the new year celebration! I wish we could all get together more often, but at least we're able to do it once a year. As I told Tom, I'm planning on going to Detroit for a weekend in mid-April to visit with Tom, Mary, and Ed.
While we were together, I didn't get a chance to tell everyone about our Madrid trip, so I'll use these next few newsletters to send some pictures and give some highlights. I think everyone heard our story of the trials and tribulations we had getting to Madrid, and that we got there a day later than planned. Jenn met us at the airport and we hauled our luggage on the metro to our hotel, located in the center of Madrid right near the Puerta del Sol. After dropping off the luggage at the hotel, we went to Cafe Botin, Spain's oldest restaurant. Opened in 1725, it is near the Plaza Mayor. On this first day in Madrid for us (Tuesday) we tried to get on the Madrid "eating schedule", which means you have your big meal between 2-4 pm and the later meal sometime 8 pm - midnight. Restaurants really cater to this schedule - if you get to a restaurant before 2 pm, they're not really ready, and after 4 pm they are clearing up. After the big meal, one takes a short siesta, and then finishes up the day. So our first big meal was at Cafe Botin. After that, we went back to the hotel for a siesta, although Jenn and I went for a walk together around the hotel while Mike and Joe rested. After the siesta, we went to the flat where Jenn lived for the semester to get her remaining luggage (she had moved some of it to the hotel on her own after we knew that we would be a day late getting there). Jenn's "host mother" was away visiting her parents, but her daughter was at the flat, so we were able to meet her and see Jenn's room, etc. After getting all Jenn's stuff to the hotel, we walked around the Puerta del Sol and the Plaza Mayor, and then we went out to a Cuban restaurant that was close by. That was pretty much our first day - the first picture above was taken near one of the metro stops, the second picture was in the Cuban restaurant, and the third picture is the view from the small balcony in our hotel room - it's a small street directly off of the Puerta del Sol, and it was busy with people most of the time!
Kind regards,
Terry
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