My first day in Madrid. We arrived at 7:40 am and cleared customs at 8:00. Veronica’s husband, Enrique was at the airport to pick us up. Veronica was not with him and he has never met Marybel. This was what he said when he picked us out from the passengers. “Not too many Chinese people so it was easy to know who Marybel was as her friend is Chino. Easy to pick out!” He embraced and kissed us on both cheeks and grabbed our bags.

They live in Cuellar, a town of 10,000 people. It was a two and half hour drive to his home. The spanish countryside is exquisite.

“I know I am not in Kansas anymore”.

They live in a flat and will be moving to a new home in a week (We visited their other home later in the day). As I had slept on the red eye into Madrid, I felt fine but Marybel was extremely tired not having slept at all on the flight. As soon as we were shown to our room, Marybel went to sleep right away. I had nothing else to do, I allowed myself to catch another two hours of rest.

Veronica and her family are extremely good hosts right from the beginning, ensuring that we had everything we needed. After our nap, it was lunch time at 2:30pm which is the normal time for the Spanish afternoon meal. They have dinner at 9pm at night. Chicken Lasagna with a light house green salad and delicious wood oven baked bread. Yes, I had to partake of meat as it was just wrong to be ungracious to my hosts. We opted not to tell them about my vegetarianism. I will take a break on this trip as being a non meat eater is totally unflexible and unforgivable of what is presented in blessed sharing. Later, we were also shown their spanish Ham (whole leg of cured pig hanging on a peg for delicate thin slicing with a fillet knife), that is commonly available in this part of Spain. It is not proschiuto and not serrano ham but was quite delicious as marbled fat and salty red meat melded together once it touched your mouth and tongue.

I took many pictures but not able to share at this time as wifi is not possible and direct internet access is not as easily available at this time.

I also met Pedro Luis whom Veronica arranged to have an info session with us. He has done the Camino twice and had some practical advice for beginners for the Camino. We had a list going such as how to pace yourself (not more than 15 kms a day for the first week), towns to stop for the night (for sight seeing interests), types of hostels and pensions to avoid and information about a taxi service for backpacks (which can come in handy when you have a difficult stretch ahead and need to be free of your pack for the walk).

We have a decision to make at this time. As there is some snow in the Pyrenees, we might have to begin our Camino at Leon instead of Roncesvalles. This is just to avoid having to walk on slippery paths and possibly freezing cold. He said that next week, the weather will be better and spring begins on March 21.

We will sleep on this tonight and will decide after some more rest and more delicious vino. 🙂