OCTOBER 5TH, 2012 FRIDAY LAST FULL DAY IN SPAIN and LAST BLOG #25

OCTOBER 5^TH, 2012 FRIDAY LAST FULL DAY IN SPAIN and LAST BLOG #25

Friday starts off sunny and warm as most of our trip has been, breakfast buffet at the Alcala Parador and arrangement made with the servers to ensure we can have at least coffee on Saturday AM because the officially do NOT open until 8:00 AM on the weekends. Had a phone call from Gill asking us to meet her (before lunch versus later in that evening of Friday) with the Juanmi family, and so; we’ll meet her around 1:00PM at a bar just below Juanmi’s new apartment complex. ‘Carmen’ Garmin did herself proud as we navigated directly to their new address adjacent to the RTVE facilities and beneath the huge antenna tower. Their area of SE Madrid is a very green area with plenty of trees and small parks and is a short (10 min taxi ride from the Tios apartment). We finally found Gill and got the car parked after the parking meter finally accepted Paul’s coins even though it was 1315 and the parking should have been free during the siesta hours. Anyway pleasantries exchanged,  a beer & wine ordered were ordered before Juanmi called and we explained where and with whom we were already meeting below their digs. Hence, the entire family joined us at the same bar for a round pre-lunch drinkies. We tried to persuade Gill to join us for lunch, but she wasn’t feeling up to par so we grabbed a taxi for her and off she went. It was lovely to see Gill again and we were sorry we could not spend more time with her.

Chef Maite had prepared a feast for us with all possible contents (vegetables) being from Navarra: cream of vegetable soup, white asparagus, stuffed pimentos, and finally the main fish dish: Bacalao. We finished up with a “welcome” cheesecake and champagne now that Miguelto is cancer free even though he has a 3 month check scheduled for December. He had had a skin cancer melanoma removed from his back surgery removal and lymph nodes were clean. However during a subsequent followup they found spots on both lungs. He underwent surgery on the right lung removal was complete. After a speedy recovery it was decided that surgery would be done on the left lung as well. Again he recovered quite well from the surgery. In both cases the cancer was not LUNG CANCER but was determined to be a metastasized cancer from his skin cancer. So no chemo, no radiology scheduled or needed; hence we had champagne to celebrate!! It was a wonderful visit; we truly love our Spanish family and wish we could see them more often. Besos y abrazos queridos you have always been a huge part of our lives.

 

Unfortunately, we had to head back to the hotel in order to organize our luggage for the trip home tomorrow. Hugs and kisses all around and we headed east to Alcala. No energy to walk into the center of town for tapas and so we remained at the Parador, sat outside and ordered our own tapas without the additional exercise.

It was hard to believe that it was all coming to an end. I was pretty sick of the half dozen shirts I kept on washing out but apart from that I really did not want it to end. Sometimes during the trip I was ready to go home but that only lasted an hour or two when I was tired and missed the kids and my lovely home. I did not sleep particularly well and that took its toll. On the plane going over I somehow wrenched a muscle in my back and it took about ten days before I was comfortable again so that didn’t help. Paul and I had a good time and we didn’t kill each other so that is a good sign!   I will miss hearing the Spanish chatter around us. It is still like going home for us, we love the people and the land and the food and the wine….don’t forget the wine! I might have to go in to detox!!

It was horrifying to see the floods in the south of Spain, people died and others lost their homes, it was a mess. Spain is in a financial crisis but people still come out and socialize and have a glass of wine. The Spanish spirit will triumph. They have been through a lot worse, we know, we lived there, they will survive! Godspeed España y hasta el año que viene. To paraphrase a well known movie character  “We’ll be baaack!”