LACruiser88

No extra suitcase needed as of yet! 🤣 I'll keep you posted on the remainder of the week!

Hola Vines amigo! That is exactly where we got off the HO-HO bus for the Royal Palace. Amazing location!

Tonight, we had a spectacular tapas dinner! Based on the recommendation of Madrid expert/food critic, James Blick, we dined at La Casa del Abuelo, established in 1906. It is a seafood Lover's paradise! The shrimp in garlic & chili peppers (the house specialty) was truly amazing. As were the grilled baby langostinos, aged Manchego cheese, and house red wine. I would highly recommend this restaurant!!! Debbie was hiding in this photo, behind the wine glass. Btw, even Debbie ate the langostinos whole, tails and heads! I was very proud of her!

Today was a chilly, but fun day. We caught the hop-on/hop-off bus right across the street from our hotel. After staying on through all 17 stops, we decided to get off to visit Madrid's Royal Palace. Directly in front of the Palace, is the Almudena Cathedral. This is the seat of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Madrid. Front of the Palace. South side of the Palace. Rear of the Palace. Views from the north side of the Palace. The next two photos are of the Cathedral. The following three photos are from the park surrounding the Royal Palace. As we were walking back towards our hotel, Debbie just happened to find a six story Zara's! Well, you can imagine what she did for the next 90 minutes. I sat out front and people watched. I had as much fun as she had! Directly across the street from our hotel is a 4 story H&M store. I bid my farewell to her at the store entrance and returned to our room. That was almost two hours ago. I hope we don't have to buy another suit case! 🥺

@NoWhiners We had a similar night. We fell asleep at 9:30 and have been awake since 2 am! Hopefully, tonight our body clocks will be more adjusted. Today, we are going to get on the hop-on/hop-off bus to get the lay of the land. We plan on doing LOTS of walking. Enjoy the Vatican, it is truly an amazing place!

We had some tapas and a very nice bottle of Rioja. It is amazing that on a chilly Sunday night at 9 pm, the streets are full of people, the stores are all open and folks have lots of large shopping bags. Now back to our hotel, a shower and buenas noches to All!

We have made it to Madrid! We are checked in to our hotel, Hyatt Centric Gran Via Madrid, and are unpacking. The streets were busy with tons of people. Reminiscent of Las Ramblas in Barcelona at rush hour! Photos coming soon... Going for a walk and a bite to eat before we turn in and pass out from lack of sleep! 🙄

That will be our challenge too! 😄

We have arrived in Paris on time! We now have 3 hrs to kill before we board our flight to Madrid. I checked our air tags and our luggage made it here too! Interesting boarding at LAX, no boarding passes required. Boarding was via facial recognition. I do not recall doing that before??? The flight crew and food were fantastic. Even though we took "sleep aids" no sleeping occurred on this flight. Feeling a bit punch-drunk! 🤪 Here are dinner photos, we went with the asparagus ravioli as our main. I almost forgot to take a photo of the cheese course! They also served breakfast as we were approaching Paris, I passed. I've had enough food for one flight.

Menu's For the flight...

Nice large screens and nice headsets! And a little "real" Champagne to set the mood!

We will also be onboard for the April 2025 voyage.

We have boarded our Paris bound flight and Debbie has made herself comfortable!

The Promenade deck was not designed as a walking track. The original concept was that of a viewing and relaxing deck. We have a close friend onboard with you, she is having a fantastic time!

Tell me about it!!! 🤣

Check-in was a breeze, as was the TSA Pre-check security line. We checked out the food selection in the Amex Centurion lounge and Air France's lounge. We settled in at Air France.

We have been picked up and we are on our way!!!

Finally, trip day has arrived! Last night sleep was evasive and I was wide awake at 4 am! We will be picked up at noon for our ride to LAX and our 4:25 pm flight. I'm hoping to make up some sleep time on the flight. ✈️

@Pepes Pal ¡Muchísimas gracias! If I start to toss and turn, a Lunesta will be deployed! Hope you have a great flight! ¡Esperamos conocer a nuestros compadres del Sur de Cali! Debbie y Rafa

We are checked into our flight for tomorrow, LAX>Paris>Madrid, and our bags are 99.5% packed. Debbie has a few toiletries to pack in the morning and then we wait to be picked up! I'm sure tonight we will get very little sleep. It is always difficult to sleep the night before leaving home, for me it's too much excitement. For Debbie, it will be worrying that she forgot to pack something! We pack off a very extensive check list that we have developed over the years, that still won't keep her from worrying. ☺️

Thank you for your updates! We also board the Enchanted for the first time on the 12th. Enjoy your cruise! 🥂

Oh, no!!! 🤷‍♂️

If you have the opportunity, the below restaurant was our favorite in Darling Harbour during our 10 day stay in 2019. We had dinner there 5 times! The best grilled Barramundi! We will definitely return there during our week stay next April before boarding the Majestic.

We will see you onboard! We are booked starting on Sept 27th for 51 days. 🙂

We are both looking forward to meeting you!