I arrived in Madrid yesterday morning. I flew in from Chicago. My mother-in-law, María Rosa, flew in from Guatemala. However, our timing was excellent!
Despite the size of Madrid's Barajas airport, despite the large crowd going through baggage pickup and customs, my mother-in-law was the first person I saw as the automatic door to Luggage Carousels One through Six slid open. She had already retrieved her suitcases, and within a couple of minutes, I had mine. Two years ago when I came for Easter, it was the same; she was among the first I saw when I entered the luggage area. She had been scheduled to arrive a couple of hours before me, but various delays put us together at the most opportune time.
It could have been worse, I assure you, much worse.
Had I chosen to go on the same flight one day earlier, it would have been a disaster. My plane was scheduled to depart for Madrid at 5:30 p.m. However, I arrived at Chicago's O'Hare Airport at about 10 a.m. I was surprised that there were about a hundred travelers in line before me and the airline desk hadn't even opened yet. An employee of the airline told me that these were passengers from the previous day's flight, which had been cancelled due to mechanical problems. She suggested it would be quite a while before passengers for today's flight would be served, and that I might enjoy waiting in the Starbuck's on the lower level. When I returned an hour later, there were a couple of hundred more people waiting in line, and there was still no one at the counter to serve them. As I watched, more and more people kept arriving and the line kept getting longer and longer.
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| Passengers of a delayed flight that I was fortunate not to be on. (You can click on photos in this blog for a larger view. On a full size computer hit the "Escape" or "esc" key to exit full size.) |
To make a long story short, when I finally went through the security gates after 3:00 p.m., those passengers from yesterday's flight were still waiting. Before I boarded my on-time flight, I heard someone say that parts for the plane still hadn't arrived and that the poor passengers would be delayed for a second day. I felt very fortunate, indeed, not to have chosen to leave a day earlier.
María Rosa and I took a bus from Madrid to León, in the north of Spain, where she has an apartment. Since I didn't sleep on the plane, my moments of consciousness during the five hours on the bus were few. However, at one moment, I awakened to look out the window and see that we were surrounded by recently-fallen snow.
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| A view out the bus window somewhere between Madrid and León. |
We arrived in León just before 4:00 p.m. I opened my eyes just before we pulled into the bus station, and was surprised to see sunshine and clear streets. For me it was a promising sign that the weather might hold out for the upcoming Easter processions, which can easily be cancelled because of inclement weather. As I was planning my trip, most of the extended forecasts had called for snow or rain in León.
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| This is the view from my mother-in-law's apartment window last night. Note the crescent moon and the clear skies. |
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| The same view of the Plaza de la Inmaculada this morning. The skies are blue and the temperature is 41 degrees F. (5.5 degrees C.). |
The extended forecasts still calls for rain and even more snow over the next few days, but this isn't stopping the people here from preparing for the amazing Holy Week processions that occur the ten days leading up to Easter.
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| A Legos model of a Holy Week procession in a shop window near my mother-in-law's apartment is a tradition in León. The scene changes from year to year. The shop was closed when I went by in the early afternoon, and the shop lights above the display were not lit. I'll return for better photos when the lighting is better. |
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| A closeup of the window scene. |
I'll also be writing more about food and the amazing tapas here in León. The city has been named: Capital Española de la Gastronomía 2018." Or in English: 2018 Gastronomic Capital of Spain. (
See my post from October of 2017). It's only my first full day in León, but that hasn't stopped me from having a drink and trying out some tapas.
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| These tapas of toasted bread, cheese, meat and other toppings served at the Cambalache restaurant are typical of what you might get when you order a drink. |
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| This baked ravioli is another of the tapas at the Cambalache. |
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| This red wine is a Rioja. Rioja is one of the great wine producing regions of Spain. If you order a glass like this, the cost is only about 1 Euro ($1.25), and you get a tasty appetizer (tapas) like those above at no additional cost. |
As I said, I'm hoping that good timing and blue skies are good signs, but come rain or shine, I'll be blogging about Holy Week, tapas, and much more over the next three weeks. If you don't want to miss any of my blog entries, please
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