Well, the Finns are at it again. Alice and Pat embarked on a trip to Spain, Portugal and Poland on August 19th. This will be their first coach tour since Sean's high school orchestra days.
The flight from Chicago to Madrid on Iberia was smooth and on time. The transfer to the hotel went perfectly. By 9:30 Saturday morning we were in our room. After a quick tour to orient ourselves to the hotel, we set off to walk the neighborhood.
Just a few blocks away we noticed a crowd gathering in front of what we thought was the Cathedral. I had checked Mass Times at home to find a church for Sunday, and new this to be the place. We were still two blocks away, and as we got closer we could see that many well dressed young people were gathering. All were finely dressed. It appeared that they were gathering for a graduation Mass. After we stood people watching for 45 minutes, the doors of the cathedral opened and the crowd moved inside. After waiting for some stragglers to arrive, Alice and I entered and stood at the back of the full church.
While the start of Mass was delayed, we admired the beautiful interior and the well dressed congregation. Mass was in Spanish and progressed at a normal pace with a few special references to the graduates. When it was over we followed the crowd to the school. There they gathered for more festivities. We continued walking, eventually returning to our hotel. We rested until it was time for our welcome drinks and dinner. This is a very congenial group. About half of us will continue to northern Spain after we return to Madrid next week. The other half will head to Morocco.
After dinner we went straight to bed. Tomorrow luggage must be out at 7:00 with breakfast at the same time. We will leave for Granada at 8:00, stopping in Toledo on the way. Sleep came easily after being awake for 32 hours.
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