We arrived in Madrid after two flights, around 8:15am, Madrid Time (which was around 11:15 pm Seattle time, after leaving the house at 3:00am). We made our way to Chamartin Station from the airport via metro, and dropped the luggage in the “lost luggage” locker area.

Then we hopped back on a metro train to Atocha station downtown, about 3 blocks from The Prado museum. Rather than spend hours walking up and down stairs and in museum hallways, we elected to visit the Real Jardin Botanical gardens. Senior admission was just 0.50 Euros for me, 5 euros for Linda.

Here are some pictures from Madrid – we wound up walking over 6.9 miles, getting back to the Chamartin station about 5 hours before our train. The waiting facilities were not, shall we say luxurious, but we were able to sit down, and there was limited wifi. The train left on time for the next step of our trip. The train room was quite small – much smaller than a bedroom on Amtrak, although happily larger than a roomette, and it did contain a shower and bathroom – with almost warmish water.

Photos from Madrid -we took hundreds of course, these are just a taste for now: