Day 13 - the trip home begins in Madrid

We breakfasted this morning at 5:30 and the bus left at a few minutes past 6:00 AM.  We were at the airport in Santiago shortly after 7:00 - it sure was quicker driving than hiking!  We were all checked in with plenty of time to spare - and then got to enjoy the airport and each other's company for an hour and a half while the plane was delayed!  We arrived in the Madrid airport and headed to our lodging for the rest of the day.   On the way to baggage pickup, we passed through a hall with the following ominous warning "the aisle of no return":

I went with Rose and Karen C to a very nice bed & breakfast operated by an equally nice man named Mario (who speaks English). 

As it was now long past our early breakfast, we were very hungry.   We wandered through the neighborhood and found a very pleasant little restaurant which fed us well, and then went back.

After we rested for a little while, Karen wanted to buy a few souvenirs, so Mario recommended to us a nearby shopping area named "El Corte Ingles".  It is about 3.5 kilometers away, so he drove us to a park and gave us directions for the rest of our walk.  With assistance from Google, we had a very nice walk there.   The park had some interesting features - an olive grove, a some beautiful flowers, and a mostly abstract sculpture which included some steel birds - and they were joined by real birds!  The is named for King Juan Carlos, and has a big statue which we believe is this king.   Perhaps you can read the signature?!
Karen C and Rose with one of many olive trees
One Rose admires another




Can you tell which birds are real and
which are made of metal?



Can you make out the signature?

We finally reached our goal:
and it turned out to be a huge upscale department store with a sizeable grocery.  Not so good for souvenirs, although we bought some food which we brought back to our bed and breakfast for dinner.  We left the store in search of better shopping.  We didn't find any, but we saw some interesting foreign influence:
McDonald's meets Hollywood

We walked back home through the same park.  The olive trees and flowers were still beautiful, but we noted some birth trees that have had a more difficult time.   Look at the graffiti which has been carved into many of these trees:

We got home after walking about 5 miles - which seemed longer than some of our 15-mile days!  

Tomorrow a taxi will pick us up at 7:30 AM.  We will fly to Philadelphia and then home!


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