First day in Spain

We arrived in Madrid about 9:00 am, local time. Because of the two days in New York, we were off schedule. To get back on, we needed to go directly to the Madrid Temple and then head south to Cadiz.

We exchanged money, found a taxi and continued with our adventure. :)

I knew the metro stop for the temple. With that, the taxi driver got us there. The temple is on a complex with an MTC and a stake center. I practiced my Spanish and asked if there was a place where we could change. We were directed to a changing room with a shower. Very nice. We stashed our stuff in lockers and headed to the temple.

Of course the temple workers were helpfulness itself. We were 45 minutes to the next session. We had to wait in the dressing room until 15 minutes prior to the start of the session. I was worried about Craig being stuck without being able to talk to anyone.

A woman was in the room with me and a temple worker approached. She spoke with the other patron, and I couldn't understand a word. My first day in Spain, and I couldn't understand a thing. My goal had been to do a session in Spanish. I wondered if my goal was out of reach.

The temple worker left and I turned to the other patron. I tried to talk to her and found out she was from Portugal. They hadn't been speaking Spanish, they were speaking Portuguese. We talked. With her talking slower, and me understanding it wasn't Spanish, we had a good conversation. She was very nice. She was excited about the temple that was being built in Lisbon, the capital of Portugal. She had been to the temple in Germany (I'm not sure which one) and the Swiss temple.

I felt lucky to live in a place where multiple temples were close.

A new lady came and she was from Iowa. She and her husband were in Spain with their son who had served in Malaga Spain. They were touring his mission. We chatted a bit and then it was time to go to the chapel to wait. Craig had had a good time chatting with the temple missionaries and the returned missionary and his family.

After some discussion, it was decided to do the session in English. There were five of us that spoke English and three that spoke Portuguese. Then a young man came who was going through for the first time, and he spoke Portuguese. That trumped the greater numbers, The temple worker spoke English and Spanish, so the session was to be in Portuguese and the prayer in Spanish. So I wore headphones and listened to Spanish, I could hear the Portuguese of the session, and I was thinking in English. It was fun with the three languages.

After the session, we took a few pictures.

Of course, we had changed back into our regular clothes. :)

We spent the rest of the day finding the train and going to Cadiz.

We found the main train station, it's a bit like Grand Central Station. We had to take a number -- a bit like the DMV -- and wait for a long time. I practiced my Spanish and we purchased tickets to Sevilla and then to  Cadiz. The first leg of the journey was on the high velocity train -- the Ave. It accelerated so smoothly, no jerks. We watched the passing fields of olives, corn, orange groves and sunflowers. I slept for a bit. Craig said he saw some small deer a mountain valley.

We changed trains in Sevilla and I almost got us totally lost by getting off the train two stops to early. The trains in Spain are exactly on time. Craig knew we were too early, just by the time.

We arrived in Cadiz about 11:00 pm. We walked up a dark sidewalk, headed to the main street. When we came up the stairs, we saw a lot of people. They siesta in the middle of the day when it is so hot and stay up late. We got directions to the hotel we wanted to stay at and walked 10 - 15 min. We asked the hotel clerk and they had one room available for that night, but not the next night. We were to tired to care and we checked in.

The clerk gave us the room number of our friends that we were meeting -- I was a bit shocked -- and we found our room, showered, and went to bed.

We thought about saying hi to our friends. But when we went to their room, it was dark and quiet, so we settled for calling them in the morning.

A very long day, but we were back on schedule and ready to enjoy the beach in the morning. :)

Day two in New York

There is only one flight a day from JFK to Madrid. It leaves at 7:30 in the evening. So, we knew we would have another day in New York. We were thinking about visiting the Statue of Liberty or The Empire State Building. I've wanted to go to the Cloisters for years. So we had options.

We got up and it was raining. We had no jackets, we didn't have a lot of extra clothes. In fact, I packed knowing I would be doing laundry. My goal was to have a small carry on for luggage.

We had to check out of the hotel, I was worried that if we didn't get on the plane this day, that we would have to give up on Spain altogether.

So, with the rain, and remembering our day walking the day before Craig suggested going to a mall. That way we could be inside. With limited luggage space, I knew I wasn't going to be buying anything. But maybe we could catch a movie. We found the mall and learned a little bit about the bus system. There were no movies connected to the mall, and quite honestly the style that looks good on me is out of style and no where to be found in the malls anymore.

Craig came into one store with me and then found a couch to sit on while I browsed. I wandered and then we found the food court.

The day was fine, but we were more focused on getting on the plane that evening.

Planning for the trip, I thought the leg from SLC to JFK would be the hardest leg. I had no idea how many people would be going to Spain. We were thinking there were about 50 seats and we would have a great shot. When we got to the airport, we were very early, it looked bleak.

I was trying to see where we were on the list. But we were so early that the list wasn't on the board yet. The gate agent noticed me lurking and asked if she could help me. I told her I was looking to see where we were on the list and that this was our second day trying to get out.

We watched the list go down and the seats fill up with out us. I was thinking we could maybe go to Boston. Craig said we should go somewhere where I could get a stamp on my passport. And then our names cleared. We were the last on the flight. The gate agent smiled and said "You got on" and gave me our boarding passes. I was so excited. I looked at the passes and didn't really get what she had done for us. We ended up on business class. The seats were awesome. I felt like a bit of a fraud and that they would come and make us sit back in coach. But they didn't.

Craig took a picture of me with my water. I should have had my little glass of orange juice.  We flew over at night, so I didn't see the ocean. But I got a few hours sleep. Very nice.

Pictures from New York

I am having problems with putting the captions where I want them.

The first picture has a little naked boy in a victory position in front riding a stone wave. He reminded us of Boaz. So I took a picture.

I don't remember what the second picture is, or where it was even.

The third picture is, I think, Herald Square. It commemorates the founder of the Herald -- a newspaper. I can hear the song in my head. Give my regards to Broadway, remember me to Herald Square. :)

The fourth picture is the World Trade Center. I think they just passed the Empire State Building as the tallest buildings in New York again.

The last picture is of a weird fountain that I thought Josh would like to see. It was just a random modern piece in front of the Federal Building in the Financial District.

Sightseeing

We decided to head over to Central Park. There was a very cute event going on there. A race for children. They started at 2 years old. Parents were there to try and get them to run. They alternated between boys running and girls running. As the ages got older, some of the runners were fiercely competitive. It was darling.  We watched for a while, and then decided to walk down Broadway.

The concrete canyons of New York City are amazing. The hustle and bustle of the city is fun. Craig was surprised when we passed the building where the Late Show is taped. We had to take a picture.

We took a few pictures of statues for Josh. He wanted us to take a picture of every statue in Philadelphia when we were there. :) I'll have to load them from Picasa to have them oriented right.

We stopped for a breather in Time Square. It was full of people and advertisements for Broadway shows. If we had been there a different day, we might have tried to find a matinee.

Here is a picture of part of Time Square.

We walked down Broadway until it ran into Fifth Avenue. One of the sights that we saw was a group of women -- with perhaps one man -- dressed in nothing. They were wearing thongs and strips of what might have been duct tape or elastic bandages. The small amount of fabric they had on was very colorful. Craig told me I should take a picture of it. The girl closest to us was about a size 16. There were lots of people taking pictures and they were poising for the cameras. I didn't want to be any part of that. The size 16 girl was poising so that her bare behind was in full view of the camera. She wasn't shy of her tummy overlap. I was a bit disgusted.

We walked on and heard commotion coming from a block away. There was also a heavy police presence and barricades. We stopped to ask what was going on. It was a parade. Craig asked if I wanted to see it. I asked the officer what was the parade for. She told us it was the Gay Pride Parade.

We kept walking down Broadway.

The problem with Broadway is that it is a diagonal street. Eventually it ran into Fifth Avenue. And then we couldn't get away from it.

We saw Cindy Lauper -- she was the Grand Marshall of the parade. Behind her was a large contingent of black suburbans. I thought that was weird. Then we saw a bunch of people marching. Craig started laughing and pointed out several tall men in dark suits and ties. He thought it was funny that they were dressed so conservatively and in the middle of that parade. I saw them and noticed they had wires from the back of their collars to their ears. I said that they were protection and we followed along to see who they were protecting. It was the mayor of New York, Michael Bloomburg. There was also an openly gay US Senator and the Speaker of New York and her wife. So we were just feet away from the Secret Service.

I was worried that they would notice us and come and question us. But still I was interested in watching them work. They were much more interesting to me that the half naked and nearly naked people dancing in the streets.

One such person was a naked man who was wearing a head dress and a genital pouch. It was just big enough to cover his package. He was giving hugs to spectators. I had no desire to get closer to the barricade and be part of that. It was a hot day, and he was oiled up and sweating. Ick.

The juxtaposition of the temple with the parade made me think about the end of the world: Zion and Babylon.

We eventually made it to the Financial District. But still we couldn't get around the parade. By the time we came to the World Trade Center we were too tired to try and find the memorial. I took pictures of the towers under construction and we found a subway to take us back to the hotel.

We walked over 70 city blocks. Our feet hurt and we were tired. I called Debbie, and the flights looked bleak, so we admitted defeat and got a room with a jetted tub. We rested our tired feet and got ready to try the next day.

Sunday in New York

We were not dressed for church. Craig had forgotten his razor and had stubble (now it is growing into a lovely beard :).

We saw people coming in, not a lot of them. I thought we could go in for Sacrament Meeting. But when we got off the elevator on the third floor, Sacrament had just gotten out. We didn't want to go into Sunday School looking like vagabonds.

We felt like we were transported back to Idaho. The third floor felt just like our building back home.

What a wonderful thing that The Church is the Church where ever you go. :)

New York City Temple

I couldn't get the pictures oriented right, so I created a new post.

Moroni surrounded by the buildings.






































The temple doors inside the lobby. A little piece of heaven inside the city.

Crazy Adventure

Craig and I went to Spain. We have been talking about it since September. I didn't really believe that we would really go. In fact, two weeks before I started to scramble getting things all ready. I had to arrange for the boys, the cats, and part of the itinerary.

We decided to go stand-by. That increased the adventure. I'm going to try and remember what happened. I'll have to do several posts to get it all in.

So, we started off missing the connection in JFK airport. That meant we had a day in New York City last Sunday. We decided to go into the city and walk around. We took the subway and got off near 65th.

New York City temple is on 65th and Broadway. I love the way the Church does things. The sidewalk was inlaid with marble. A beehive stamped in the concrete.

It was awesome