Things I’ve learned or recently recalled:

1) Do not wear convertible hiking pants through airport security. Zippers. Snaps. Don’t do it.

2) Fly home via Dublin if at all possible. They do US customs at the Dublin airport, so you just walk off the plane as usual when you arrive back in the US.

3) The people playing music in the street here aren’t your typical singer/guitar player. Tonight it was three violinists and three cellists!

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4) To keep people cool on a 95 degree day in a city where most people walk, cover the streets with parachute type things.

5) When Michael’s not with me, I can spend as long as I want taking pictures. And seeing museum exhibits. (In this case, the museum of the Almudena Cathedral and pics from the dome of said cathedral.)

6) And something I remembered from my Camino with Lois: the pics you most look back on are the ones with people in them. Specifically yourself and/or friends you meet along the way. (And that you should show them no matter how bad you think you look in them. In this case, it will help you remember that it was 95° the day you first saw Madrid.)

7) Not all big cathedrals were completed before my birth. This one was finished in 1993 and so has some colorful modern touches in addition to the traditional.


8) How much I love traveling. And how the best way to see all I’d like to see is to live here. Some day. Sooner rather than later.