Holla Espana

Monday 16 April 2012  -Good Morning Frankfurt. Hello Madrid

Day 4 and 154 to go

So we have landed in Frankfurt. A pleasant 6 degrees awaited us at 5.30am. By Perth time it is 11.30am already. We kept the inflight blankets as our clothing was far better suited to the 30 degree days of Singapore. Frankfurt airport is much like any other, big and bustling with travelers heading all over the world. We wound our way through immigration and baggage check. I must have looked suspicious as I was whisked away to a private room for bag swabs, but was given the green light J Was a bit confronting having to go on my own as Paul collected our other things. We continued to wind our way through the airport terminal constantly searching for our gate. The Frankfurt airport is not as entertaining as the Singapore one, so we holed up at our boarding gate and watched the day awaken from our window looking over the airport.

Was an hour or so later that I checked that our boarding gate was still the same only to be told no it had been swapped to another gate 20min away. OK on the hike again.  Lucky we still had 2 hours.

The other part of the terminal was somewhat more bustling and interesting as we could see many planes come and go. We found a free hot chocolate machine too, so we made use of this on numerous occasions. YUM

 

We watched our plane arrive, people disembark, the food, bags and fuel loaded and 1 criminal enter the back of the plane between plain clothed police officers. Ummmmm

We were finally called to board our 737 and we made ourselves comfortable. It was a while before we had lift-off as some passengers from Istanbul did not make it on board. Grrrr! No sooner were we in the air than I needed the loo, too much hot chocolate coming back to bite me L

Breakfast was served. They love their potato on Lufthansa. I was so hungry that anything would have been welcome. 

The views of France were colourful. It was a patchwork of fields for much of it until we flew over the Pyrenees Mountains, much of it still covered in snow. It was so spectacular. With the mountains behind us we were finally over Spanish land. It looked extremely dry. Much of the land was divided into orange squares. I was surprised at how rugged the land appeared.

Two hours after leaving Frankfurt airport we landed in Madrid. The usual routine behind us, we were in a cab and heading to our hotel once the driver worked out where it was. It was obviously a little obscure, as he had no idea. However with his GPS set we were dropped at the hotel door, well almost we had to walk all the way round the building to find the entrance, but once we did we were pleasantly surprised.

The hotel was a small but funky boutique style hotel. The front staff were super friendly and helpful. We found our room and settled in, before heading out into the streets.

 

Like many European Cities Madrid has many cobbled streets and old style buildings. Just beautiful and so enjoyable to wander around aimlessly. We found somewhere to eat and then decided it was time to head back to our room as we were beginning to fade fast. By 5pm we were out like a light.