Madrid: A Royal Reception and a FInal Farewell

Our very last event in Spain was a formal dinner.  After our Saturday afternoon siesta we got ourselves all gussied up for the big event.  I have to admit, I was a bit worried that I would not be able to fit into my dress after all the food they had stuffed us with this week!  I have never eaten so much in a week in my whole life!  I think I gained 10 pounds!  Luckily, I was able to get the dress on anyway.

We all boarded the charter buses and headed through the city and out of town for about 45 minutes until we got to a long stone wall out in the countryside.  Once we drove through the big gate we continued driving through the estate for at least another 10-15 minutes.  We saw numerous deer and big game on the property for hunting; a 7,500 acre royal game preserve, where the Spanish elite can come and hunt.

Finally the buses stopped and unloaded all the party goers here...

at the Castillo de Vinuelas.  This small castle with 4 towers and an intricate facade was built in the 17th or 18th century, and is fabulous, well, because it is pink.

Right across from it is a small church...

which is even more pink!

What a beautiful place!

A great place to pose for a few pictures.

My handsome prince.

The pre-dinner cocktails and fabulous appetizers (tapas) were served out on the lawn while a troupe of traditional Spanish musicians played for us.

I loved their colorful old world costumes.  They were really wonderful!

Music filled the air.

It was such a beautiful evening and a lovely setting overlooking the vast hunting grounds,

and a beautiful old castle loomed over us.

I love gargoyle spouts and the writing on the eves.

One more taste of the yummy jamon!

It was a great reception, and everyone was having a great time with the new friends we had made over the week talking about the wonderful adventures we have shared this week, and our families that we were missing at home.

I, however, we more interested in taking pictures.

When the sun got low on the horizon just before sunset, it set a bright orange glow on everything!  It was just beautiful!

Which meant I now had to take more pictures.

I love the details!

Time to head inside!

The castle itself was not that large, certainly not large enough to accommodate our whole group, but there was a modern addition built onto the back - a giant ball room that was all set up beautifully for our dinner.

Dinner, interestingly, was French, not Spanish with foie gras, crepes, and tenderloin, and a trio of yummy desserts.  Awards were given and recognitions made by the company, and I just enjoyed my dinner and thought of getting home.  Some people stayed late into the night for dancing and drinking, but we caught the first bus back to the hotel, because we were tired and still had to pack for our flight home in the morning.  Our fantasy evening at a castle, and indeed our fantasy week in Spain had come to an end at last!

We had to leave early Sunday morning to get to the airport, even though our flight wasn't scheduled to leave until later because there was supposed to be a bicycle race through the city, and the buses wanted to make sure they got out before all the traffic was held up.  Man, how I would have like to see a bit of that!  We ended up getting to the airport at about 9am, and unbelievably we did not take off until 5pm!  We spent an entire day at the Madrid airport!  And entire day!  Just think of what we could be doing with one more day in Spain.  Oh well.  Our flight was delayed, and delayed again, even though we could see it sitting right there at the gate for hours.  They we started boarding, finally.  But when I went through the gate they called me back and said my seat assignment had been changed because they had given my seat to someone else.  What?  That meant I would no longer be sitting next to Dennis on an 8 hour flight!  Why would they just give my seat to someone else when I had my ticket for weeks?
Then they announced that there was a problem with the plane and we hand to all get off and go to another gate where we waited for several more hours while they prepared a new plane and moved all our luggage and the food to it.  We finally boarded again, and this time, they told Dennis his seat was not changed, and they gave him MY old seat.  WHAT?  Why was my seat suddenly available again, and why did they give his seat away to someone else?  What the heck was going on?  Iberian Airlines was so messed up!  When I boarded I explained the problem to the flight attendant, who also couldn't understand what had happened, and I begged her to please let me sit next to my husband for the over-seas flight.  Apparently, some guy had talked them into giving him our window seat.  The flight attendant was great.  She just marched up to this guy and told him he had to move so this woman could sit with her husband.  He refused, and said that this was his seat.  She simply said, you can move to that seat over there, or you can get off the plane.  Period.  You go girl!  He moved and he was not happy, but I was thrilled to be back in my seat again.

When we finally arrived in New York, we had completely missed our connecting flight, of course, and so they put us up in a hotel near the airport.  By this time we were all tired and nearly giddy and got a big kick out of being all crammed into the shuttle bus for the airport.  At least we got stuck with some of the coolest, funnest people from the whole Mapfre group.  The bus was so loaded down that we could hear it crunch on the ground over every bump!  We were all laughing so hard that I had to snap a few pictures.

It would have been really fun to make the most of a bad situation and take a taxi into Manhattan and enjoy a night on the town, but we were all just too exhausted!  We had our complimentary dinner at the hotel and hit the sack before our 5am shuttle ride back to JFK.  We finally got home at about 2 pm on Monday, rather than late Sunday night.  I felt so bad that my mom had to teach seminary for me another day, but it was completely out of my control.

It was so good to be home again with my family.  I sure love them and missed them, but wow, what a great adventure we had in Spain!

The more I think back on that trip as I have done these posts, the more I am amazed by the place.  What wonderful memories!  Those Mapfre folks really went above and beyond to show is a great time and get us fat.  We were truly spoiled!  So grateful to my man Dennis for working so hard everyday to earn us this trip!  Hope there will be more like it down the road.  The more I think about Spain, though, the more I appreciate it.

Man, I love to travel!  Where to next?