As much as you may want your travels, especially abroad, to go smoothly you should expect a hiccup to your plans. After getting through airport security within 5 minutes, I should have been prepared for a problem. Our flights were originally from Austin to Charlotte to Madrid, with an expected arrival time around 7 a.m. Unfortunately, our plane landed on time in Austin but with a hydraulic issue! The mechanic tried his best to fix the issue so no one missed their connecting flight in Charlotte, NC but was unable to do so.

While still in Austin, we were re-booked from Charlotte to Frankfurt (!) to Madrid. I prepared myself for little sleep and a long travel day. But, I forgot to prep The Boy. Oops. He was antsy and anxious and didn’t sleep at all making for a very tired, grumpy teenager who was also STARVING.
I lived in Germany over 30 years ago and when we arrived I searched my brain to remember what I could of the language. Luckily the greetings and please and thank you came quickly. Another delay, albeit slight, and we were finally off to Madrid.
After arriving almost 10 hours after our original arrival time we were only able to muster up enough energy to find a place to eat and take a walk after dinner. We ended up passing on the Flamenco show as we were exhausted.
Where we stayed…
Cute Flamenco shoes were above the bed on the wall. Each room has different shoes.
Where we ate the first night. We could have eaten the appetizer plate alone and been full but we ordered a pizza as well.
More shoes – I found a Flamenco shoe store while walking around the first evening.
That was our Day 1-ish. I’m just happy we arrived safely to our destination.