Paracuellos de Jarama, Spain and Canary Islands

We are now on route to California, by way of Amsterdam. We’ve been up since 1:30 am. We woke with the alarm and ready very quickly since our bags were packed, and clothes laid out. We said goodbye to the son of our hotel keepers, and he charmingly invited us to return next year. We were surprised when we got down to the darkened street because it was lively with people mostly returning from their night out. Our shuttle bus was waiting for us, even though we were earlier than our reserved time. We arrived at an airport shut down, but filled with sleeping people. I was grateful we were in a hotel for part of the night and didn’t need to sleep in the airport. We found an open coffee shop and at breakfast so we could pretend it was morning, though it was just 2:45. We had to wait more than three hours for our flight. We should have wrapped our packs and the check in attendant was annoyed because the straps could hook onto the loading belt. This was a new procedure for us, so I just tied up the floppy straps as best as I could so they were acceptable. Norm was restless, and scooted all over the airport while I watched the bags until it was time to board. After a couple of hours, everything came to life, and we boarded for Amsterdam.