Lovely and Sunny this first full day in Spain. Our flight from Orlando to Paris on Air France was smooth and uneventful. It was 1100AM local at landing and hot within the DeGalle airport, walked for miles, eventually went thru immigration control and back through security to catch the connecting flight. Cheryl finally arrived on Delta flight from Atlanta so we had a bagette and water before boarding to Madrid on Air France. Landed in Madrid an 4:00PM local and our bodies thought it was 1000AM Eastern time. Luggage for Jane and Paul arrived, Cheryl's was nowhere to be found....up in Paris. So we filed claim paper work and trudged off to find the Hertz counter over in Terminal #1 as the Paris flight had arrived at Terminal 3. Finally got our car (a VW Caddy which looks square and could easily double as a bread van.) Garmin was not changed to avoid toll roads so she took us on the Real Ring road which cost a euro and then 2.55 euros. and we skirted Madrid on the N3 road earmarked to Valencia however, we ultimately arrived in Chinchon to the Parador and dropped the luggage that we did have before parking the car in the garage.
Wandered the center of town through the bull ring (fights each weekend we are told) and met 2 English couples both fairly new to the Paradores hotel chain. Cheryl has been called and told her bag has been found and will be delivered to Chinchon between 1000-1200 Thursday. So our plan is to stay local until the bag shows and off towards Toledo this evening to visit with Gill, Alexis, Guillermo, and baby Alison. We will update more after more time adjustment and luggage retrieval has occurred. Paul
We all slept really well, and after breakfast we wandered around again. Visited a panaderia with awesome bread and cookies. Found a really interesting bar/restaurant with an old wine cellar. It was full of old tinajas(they look like those huge Ali Baba old containers, come on you remember when the girl poured hot oil on the robbers and killed they all?!!)anyway they are huge pottery containers, they also had all the old equipment for wine making. It was an old moldy, dark cave. Really interesting stuff! After a nice light lunch we returned to the hotel to find that Cheryl's suitcase had arrived safely.(lock missing, which means TSA was rummaging around in her underware.) Now we are off for our free drink.More later.
Most pilgrims start in France or Spain and travel across the north part of Spain to reach the NW coast and their destination at Santigao de Compostella, Spain (where Saint James is buried). We however, will travel from Madrid directly to the NW first and then back (East) across the north so we can stay in Elizondo for a week in the valley of the Baztan. PHOTO: Jane Beskow & Carmiña drinking wine on the hood of Paul's 1969 Opel Kadett Ralleye Sport in Pamplona, Spain San Fermin 1971!
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