Having had our flight cancelled and rebooked a day later, we were more than set to to make progress.
An early start and a quick breakfast at Gatwick saw us away to Madrid for the first leg. A tedious 10 hour wait for the fight to BsAs was broken up by an impromptu decision to try the splendid Metro into the centre of Madrid. We could not believe the amount of people milling around Sol square, it was like Trafalgar Square in New Years eve. We found what seemed to be the only restaurant in town and had a welcome meal.
The flight was delayed an hour but we were glad to get going again. Comfort was improved when we were "upgraded" to the front seats with more legroom. My heart sank when I found my seat right next to a young family with a new born baby but the baby did not make a squeek in all the 13 hours of flight, must have been a seasoned traveller. David ended up with the only seat on the plane that had a non functioning TV and he suggested to the stewardess that he be upgraded to the empty Business Class and got that old fasioned look that stewardesses have perfectly mastered. We slept the best we could sitting upright and arose on landing with suitable bruised coccixs.
Glad to have arrived we happily stared the process of recovering the bikes from Cargo only to find 3 hours into the process that the bikes had missed their flight and would not be there till that evening. Never mind, we said through gritted teeth, and headed in the city.
Hotel is basic but friendly and provided useful wifi as mobile phone connection has proved frustrating.
We grabbed a local bus and headed to #2 on the top 10 must-do sites in BsAs, the local cemetary. Not the usual decayed cemetry we are used to but a whole town of terraced mauseliums where no expence was spared in their construction with more marble than is left in Sicily. One of the more famous interns is none other than Eva Peron, Evita, in her family tomb laid to rest 6 metres below the surface for "safety".
A further stroll around town took us to the most immence dual carriage way, 18 lanes wide, build relatively recently at the expence of some good and bad original buildings. Only a few were allowed to survive, one being a chateau like French Embassy.
Tonights meal was at a restaurant recommended by David's friend, Zulu Warrior, a most splendid meal ending in the most awsome toffee apple pancake flambe'd in white rum.
Our ride home was on the third means of local transport, the underground metro, taking us back to the hotel where we confirmed with Iberia Cargo that the bikes had landed and for a well earned night's sleep.
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