In Madrid

Hola from Spain! After nearly 23 hours of travel from home to hotel we made it safety to Madrid. The flights all went well. Alec and Becky took us to the airport in Sioux Falls, and were able to have lunch with them and Lori. It was Becky's birthday, so that was fun to be able to celebrate with her before we left. We had a 3-hour layover in Minneapolis, so Brian got is in the Northwest Airlines lounge. He's only supposed to have one free guest, but they made an exception and let both Rachel and me go in with him. Those lounges are great - so much more relaxing than sitting at the gate. Plus there's coffee, juice, cookies, TVs, work areas, comfy chairs, etc.
The 7:30 p.m. flight to Amsterdam took right at 8 hours. Rachel was all excited about having a personal on-demand entertainment center to watch movies, TV, play games, etc. Well, it didn't work very well and was out of commission for about 3 hours of the flight. But she was still able to watch a movie and some Disney Channel shows. I think we each slept 2 hours at the most, so we were dragging when we got to Amsterdam. Our layover there wasn't very long, so that was great. We were all pretty much wiped out for the 2 hour flight to Madrid.
After a short taxi ride to the hotel, we rested (again!), and then went for a walk. There's a huge department store, Carrefour, close to the hotel, so we checked that out and got some bread, water and pastries. Rachel felt so European walking out with two baguettes sticking out of her bag!
Now, even though it's 2:00 p.m. "body time", it's 9:00 p.m. local time, and I think we'll head for bed soon. Brian doesn't have to work or meet with anybody tomorrow, so we have a day to catch up on sleep and get prepared for the week. We may take the train into downtown Madrid as well.
Thanks for your prayers for a safe trip. We're excited to go to the Bible Society office on Monday morning and see what the week holds for us! Take care, Donna