Madrid, Ole!

Thomas got sent on a TDY (temporary deployment) in the middle of January to Albacete, Spain to be part of the crew from RAF Lakenheath taking part in NATO's Tactical Leadership Program. While I hate to have him gone for any length of time, it was much better knowing it would only be for a month this time, instead of six months. Plus, most TDY's are different than regular deployments - the guys will get weekends off (usually) and as long as they have permission they can explore the off-base area as well. Since we knew TDY's were more lax, we were hoping to be able to meet in Madrid about halfway through Thomas' time there and celebrate our anniversary! For once everything went according to plan and the Air Force didn't cause any problems for our rendezvous. I flew in on a Friday afternoon and made my way to our apartment all by myself, without asking for directions! Usually Thomas is the navigator, so I was pretty nervous about finding my way by myself, but it turned out to be easy. I explored a bit on my own before it got dark outside, and headed back to the apartment to wait for Thomas to arrive. He was taking the train with some friends after they all got off of work, and were due to get in around 11:30pm since it was a two hour train ride. I was anxiously waiting at the apartment, running from window to window to see if he was coming down the street...and by 12:15am I had worked myself into a little panic. His new cell phone plan doesn't have international calling/texting so I had no way to communicate with him. Finally at 12:20am he came around the corner and I was SO excited to see him! 

On Saturday morning we slept in, had a nice lunch in Plaza Mayor, and met up with the Sandeman's walking tour. We have enjoyed these free walking tours in a couple of cities we have visited, and we like to do them on the first day so we can get the history of the city as well as get oriented with the landmarks and get an idea of what else we want to see. Our guide was great and we got to hear lots of interesting tidbits about the city. We had some delicious dulce de leche ice cream after the tour, and took a nice siesta!

Plaza Mayor

Bridge where many people used to commit suicide from, until the government put up another plastic barrier behind the metal bars, and it drastically reduced the suicide numbers.

Sobrino de Botin - oldest restaurant in the world according to the Guinness Book of World Records

Pope John Paul II statue in front of the cathedral

Cathedral

That's a lot of beer caps!

Madrid Opera House

Thomas in front of the Palace

These statues supposedly used to be on top of the Palace, until one night an old Queen had a nightmare that they were attacking her. She ordered that they all be taken down, and they are now on the grounds around the Palace.

The street our apartment was on - a great location!

We had a nice anniversary dinner at Venta el Buscon. The restaurant was perfect - delicious local food, friendly waiters, and a fun atmosphere. The language barrier was evident here - although I remember some spanish, I'm not very fluent. I tried to cancel our order of cheese tapas, because I was afraid we had ordered too much, but I didn't communicate my request properly. I'm glad I didn't though, because I think that was my favorite part of the meal, along with the sangria. ;) After dinner we met up for drinks with some of Thomas' friends who had come into Madrid also. Madrid has some of the most active nightlife I've ever seen - I've never been to New York, but I bet Madrid could give them a run for their money as "the city that never sleeps". It was so fun to be out on the town, the atmosphere was just amazing!

Thomas at dinner

Cheese tapas - delicious!