Greetings from Madrid!!

It has been a true travel experience and I finally have wi-fi to give you all an update.

As you know, after we left we learned that Orly was officially closed and our connecting flight cancelled. The flight to Madrid was calm and Iberia did a fine job. The flight took off on time and arrived early. They served two "meals" on board. Unfortunately, I chose the chicken-like substance - I am told the beef was better. Breakfast was also served and I give them an "A" for effort. Most of us got a little sleep and chatted away.

We arrived in Madrid and the airport is modernistic and gorgeous. Getting through customs was a breeze, much easier than my memory of entering the U.S. Frank, our tour leader got to work on figuring out what our next move would be and we soon learned that the French train workers, believing that a volcano was insufficient disruption to travel, decided to go on strike. The airport was teeming with stranded passengers and lines hundreds of people long to rent cars.

Rather than wander around the airport all day, we decided to take the Metro and visit Madrid for the afternoon while Frank explored our options. It was probably the 1st experience with a Metro system for many of the students, and it was a lot of fun. Madrid is beautiful. The architecture is varied and very impressive. We basically took the metro in to a random location and wandered around downtown and side streets for a few hours.

In the meantime, Frank looked into motor coaches to Paris, flights to elsewhere in France from which we could then bus, but to no avail. By the time we returned to the airport, he had booked us into a hotel for the night - ah, shower and a bed!! With more than one million people stranded in Europe right now, finding a hotel for 41 was no small achievement. The hotel is old-world, has beautiful common spaces, and surprisingly nice rooms. As far as I know, we have burned out none of our iPods yet, nor have we fried the hotel's wiring.

We arranged for a group dinner in the hotel - a rice dish, ribs, potatoes, and ice cream for dessert. By this time it was 10:00pm and we were running on about 4 hours sleep in the last 48 hours, so we were all pretty giddy, but it is amazing what a shower and a meal will do for spirits. The kids went off to bed and the chaperones huddled to make some decisions about our next moves.

As I am sure you know by now, we have decided to abandon the Paris portion of our trip. Our very best case scenario was a 16 hour bus ride to Paris, effectively killing a day in order to have one remaining day in Paris. We have no idea whether the train strike will end, so we would face another 16 hour trip back to Barcelona. The train to Carcasonne would also be iffy. So, we are substituting Madrid for Paris, La Prada for the Louvre. We think that we will still be able to go to Carcasonne from here instead, and as I went off to bed, Frank was busy arranging additional sights to see in Spain. All for now.

FYI, I can write these blog entries from the hotel lobby. I will do an entry as often as I can. Your comments are not posted until I "moderate" them, which is why they took so long to appear.