Wednesday

Matt is off to a ‘work’ conference in Madrid, well it’s actually the AWS self driving car racing that he does but he seems to be able to pass this off as being work. I’m going along for the ride too so first things first we need to get the automatic feeder ready for the cat as she’s going to be on her own for a few days.

Cat done and we’re off. Time for me to take photos and see what’s interesting on the drive to Madrid.

I was very excited to see this hospital as I think it might be the one the one that I missed from a tour that Pete and I did back around 2011 but I missed the Spanish leg, so this one’s for you Peter!

Checked into our Airbnb in downtown Madrid which was nice enough, the little hidden kitchen made me laugh but made it feel quite spacious and a table in the bay window so what’s not to like. Place checked out we off to find something for dinner, tapas and a couple of beers, lovely.

[14 June 2023]

Thursday

Morning and Matt is off to AWS to get kitted up and speak to pro-geeks. I’m not registered for this part of the event, need to let him do his thing like a good girlfriend, and have better things to do [sleeping], plus I just got lost.

Time to head over and start seeing what this is all about.

Not much I can do here, but there is apparently a nice botanic garden nearby so I’m pretty sure I know what I am doing this afternoon. Also they wouldn’t let me into the health conference happening in the other room – I tried but it was a no go and I have zero Spanish to convince them.

I really enjoyed the botanic gardens so it wasn’t much of a loss after all. Would have been nicer to share it with Matt but I took lots of pictures to share with him – and also you. I got back to the conference centre and Matt and I had a nice lunch together but he still wasn’t finished and it was going to be a while so I decided to pop back to the apartment and have a swim. I’m a nice girlfriend not a saint.

Having done my lengths I finally got a message to tell me that they were getting close to final rounds so it was time to dry off and head back to the conference centre.

Sadly he came second. There was a guy from Canada who was apparently on holiday with his family – personally I believe that this is cheating and he should have remained in the US league but apparently I don’t make the rules which is also a bit rubbish. I did however make the most of it and enjoyed pretending that I had won.

We are however in Madrid and apparently Matt has a friend here so we met up with him for dinner.

We had a lovely bottle of wine, an alberiño, and was good to have someone who speaks Spanish too. Then back home to bed and get packed as we’re heading home tomorrow. Was a shame Matt didn’t get to test out the pool or see the gardens but at least one of us did.

[15 June 2023]

Friday

It’s another long drive home so I’m busy making up stories and chatting away, I’m pretty sure Matt loves it.

One of the things I was very interested in as we drove out was the huge rocks that were no doubt sent down as part of the rock slide when the glaciers melted many years ago. As a result I made Matt stop while we had a closer look and clamber about.

Time to get back on the road. As we headed back however we decided that there probably wasn’t much food at home and we should stop for dinner at a nice little place on the edge of Bossost that we’d looked at before and had a nice garden.

Back home and the cat is pleased to see us and we’re pleased to be back. It was only a short trip but we enjoyed it, even if we did only come back with second prize.

[16 June 2023]