On September 1st, 2013, we left our hometown for the greatest adventure of our lives. While the three of us had visited several U. S. States together, we had never traveled abroad together. In fact, Bobby and Macy had never been outside the U.S. at all! After 4 years of fantasizing, planning, and scheming about taking a family world adventure (and one ditched plan about living on a sailboat together), we bought plane tickets to Madrid. We said goodbye to friends on Thursday, closed on our house and sold our car Friday, said goodbye to family Saturday, and headed to Miami in a rental car on Sunday.
Packing mayhem – the night before we left
We were anxious to get on our flight, so aside from some excellent Peruvian food and a visit to the Miami Children’s Museum, we didn’t spend any time in Miami. Although, my day there certainly made me realize how little Spanish I know!
Making friends at the Peruvian restaurant
We settled on to our flight to Madrid at about 10pm. After painstakingly limiting ourselves to only bringing enough stuff to fill the largest possible carry-on luggage (to avoid airlines losing it), we were told that our suitcases were too heavy and would have to be checked. Frustrating! All the other passengers seems to have similar carry-on luggage ON the flight.
We limited ourselves to one carry-on suitcase and one backpack each. We are hoping this lessens the chance of having to check luggage – and force us to simplify!
We ate an (expensive) dinner of burgers in the airport at 8:30 p.m., thinking that we’d get right to sleep once we sat on the plane. Well, our Spanish flight crew had other ideas. At 12:30 a.m., we were served dinner. And it was actually really tasty food! They even offered gluten-free meals, but they had lost our request for them (oh well, can’t have it all). At 2 a.m. they finally turned off the lights. We couldn’t figure out why, but now that we’ve spent some time in Spain, we know that no one eats dinner before 9 p.m. here. And 12:30 a.m. really is no big deal. After a rather sleepless 4.5 hours, we were startled awake with bright lights and “breakfast.” Wow! Iberia airlines rocks! The seats were new and clean, we had free movies and games, and lots of food. Everything was translated to both Spanish and English. At about 1 p.m. local time, we arrived at the (HUGE, glass, modern, clean) Madrid airport, breezed through customs, purchased a local sim card, and found a cab to take us to our rented apartment in La Latina. Thankfully, our bags arrived safely in Madrid with us. The weather is perfect – warm, sunny, with a cool breeze, and not a cloud in the sky! Let the adventure begin!
Getting super excited: on the plane to Madrid!