Madrid

We knew when we arrived for our "layover" with the volcanic ash in Madrid it would be a few days of sightseeing until we would make it home. But we had no idea it was going to be 5 days! I have to admit it was very nice having some extra days with Jason and also having a little longer vacation with the family than expected. Madrid is a great place to visit especially in the spring time before the heat sets in!
When we arrived at the Madrid airport it was unlike anything I had ever seen before. There were thousands of people in customer service lines, sleeping in every hallway they could find and talking to anyone they could to get some extra info about what to do. We arrived on Saturday and had our flight rescheduled for Monday. The Iberia airlines assistant told us to go to the bus area to wait for a shuttle that would take us to a hotel. Well...hundreds of others were also told the same thing. We didn't have the same stamp that everyone else had, so long story short, we decided to take it upon ourselves to find our own hotel and know that we had a bed to sleep on that night. The hotel was nice and not far from a big mall and restaurant area as well as a 5 minute walk to the subway station. Thankfully it was so close because we rode it every day we were there going to different parts of the city. We met some great people along they way and heard some amazing stories. One man from Finland at our hotel was there with his 3 daughters and his pregnant wife was at home expecting any time now. So, he ended up renting a car for 800 euro a day to get home. Sounds crazy, but the car rentals businesses were taking full advantage of the system and jacked up their prices. So sad...
One man and woman we met were reporters from the BBC network and were stuck in Ethiopia (they were doing a story in Africa) having to take a ferry back to the UK. We got an email from him just a few days ago and he had some crazy stories on his journey back. Crazy thing is he is already heading back to Africa to start a new story. Sounds like he should of just stayed there!
After waking up day after day and still seeing the volcanic ash flow from the volcano we just took it in stride knowing we would eventually get home. Thankfully on Wednesday night at 8:30 we were on our way back to Frankfurt. I was a little nervous flying not knowing what the conditions were like, but more happy to just be on our way home!
We are so thankful for the "adventure" we went on and made some great memories and friends from around the world along the way. We can be sure to add this to the Scherden memory books!

On one of our many trips on the subway system. It was a great, easy, cheap way to navigate the city!
The bear and the cherry tree statue; a symbol of Madrid.

Grace loved chasing the pigeons around!

The kids taking a break eating a bocadillo for lunch...yum!

This tapas bar was in the Barrio De Las Letras quarter. It is an area that is full of tapas bars. The ham in the back on the post is called Iberian ham (cured ham) and it is everywhere! We went to the grocery store and they have a huge section with hundreds of these for sale. They were not cheap. A small one was at least 200 euro, and that was the cheap one! We would have it for breakfast every morning at the hotel. It is really good!

The Almudena Cathedral

An inside picture
We went to the Retiro Park one day that we didn't have anything planned. It turned out it was the most gorgeous day there yet. The kids had fun running around and chasing the birds...yet again. This trees reminded me of something out of Alice in Wonderland. They were so strange!
This is just a neat shot I got of AJ at the park.
The pond area at the park. Beautiful!
One of the many fountains in the park. I love this shot.
Another day we decided to take a trip to the zoo. When we got off the subway we met a mother/daughter from Australia (who were also stuck) and hung out with them during the day. They were very nice and we have been emailing back and forth since our return.
Jackson and Thalia had so much fun together. He loved hanging out with her. She was such a sweet girl!


These were some other friends of ours we met at the airport when were were waiting at the bus area. We ran into them a couple of times during our stay which I thought was so funny, especially how big Madrid is. We hung out with them our last day at the park. It was so nice for them to play and get that needed energy out!
Yeah...time to go home! The kids were very excited to get home after being away from almost two weeks.
I took so many pictures, but had to be selective in what to post because it takes so long to add pictures to the blog. But maybe in a few days I can get another set out to blog about...