Leg 1, Part 2 was a little testy - after a couple of hours at the airport in Dusseldorf, I learned my flight from Dusseldorf to Madrid was "cancelled"! The only real scare was - where was my snowboard bag with my hang gliding harness? (It's the most important piece of a pilot's personal equipment, measured and manufactured for each pilot - more important than the glider.) But thankfully it was found at the airport in Dusseldorf, and after 9 hours, I got on a flight to Madrid.
Around the time we were coming over Spain, we got out of the overcast, and the view was spectacular!! The terrain was full of mountains and canyons, surrounded by fields everywhere, the cloudbase was at least 10'000 feet, and once we got below it in the plane, it was rockin' and rollin' - looks like amazing hang gliding conditions.
Upon arrival at the airport, I was met by Sandra and her dad, Luis. Sandra had been a summer homestay student with my family 4 years ago. I didn't think about it until later, but it didn't seem like it had been 4 years since we had seen her, and it didn't seem like I had never met Luis - because we have spoken so many times on Skype!
Several of the family took me to downtown Madrid. It was fabulous!! The central part of the city is closed to traffic and there were thousands of people walking around all the restaurants and historical sites. When we left (after 1 am) it was still full.
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| Arrival at the Gonzalez Carcamo home, with assorted family and neighbors. |
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| A statue to a Spanish king. I'm not used to seeing dates with only 3 digits! (415 A.D.) |
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| Kilometer 0 - all roads in Spain originate at this point. |
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| View from my room in the top floor, this morning. |
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