Madrid and the Long Journey to Sydney

“Once you have travelled, the voyage never ends, but is played out over and over again in the quietest chambers. The mind can never break off from the journey.” – Pat Conroy

And so we arrive at our final twenty four hours of our journey in Europe after thirteen flights, thirty eight train journeys and three hundred and eighty one days on the road. Madrid was to be a one night stopover before the flight so we decided to take it easy.

Plaza de Espana, Madrid

 After arriving by super fast train we made the plan that today we would walk to the nearest park for the afternoon and the following day we would do the "hop-on-hop-off" bus before our evening flight home with a few hours in the del Museo Nacional del Prado in there somewhere too.

 Luckily for us the closest park to the apartment was Parque de la Montana and our  walk there took us past the Plaza de Espana. In the middle of the park we were surprised to find an Egyptian temple, the Temple of Debod.

The temple dates from the 2nd century BCE and was moved to Madrid after the construction of the Aswan High Dam posed a threat to its safety and as thanks for Spain's assistance with saving the Temples of Abu Simbel.

 The temple was closed for the day, but we were not concerned as we were enjoying the peace and tranquillity of the park and resting in preparation for the next day.

 Mostly it was case of Rob and I resting and the kids playing on the playground, while I talked about how much I was not looking forward to the flight home. I must confide that I'm not too keen on flying and dread the thought of the dreadful 24 hour trip from Europe to Australia and vis versa?..In fact I had delayed buying our ticket home as I just did not want to think about it. Also I must admit that I wasn't overly keen to return home, having no idea what life after this experience would be like.

 In the end I was on the flight before I even had to chance to worry about it, but not in any way I would have imagined. Over the year we had been away from home, apart from a healthy dose of Chicken Pox each for the kids in England and the odd cold here and there everyone's had been in good health. It was a nasty shock when just as I was going to bed that night that I noticed Julian was unsettled in his sleep and was running a  39.5 degree temperature. Luckily for us when our travel insurance expired at Christmas we decided to extend it for a further fortnight. After getting his temperature down with the emergency kids paracetamol from the trusty first aid kit we took everywhere I sat up watching him throughout the night. First thing in the morning we went to the nearest hospital and were transferred to children's hospital out of Madrid. He was diagnosed with Pneumonia and we were told we should fly home, leaving the hospital as late as we could so he could stay on a drip until then. Ten hours and twelve hundred euro later (never travel without insurance!!!) we were on the plane to Sydney. 

It was a nightmare journey of two nights and a short day for our poor little man as we flew to Sydney via Dubai. Emma I think enjoyed it as we didn't limit how much screen time she had and we even let a delirious Julian watch TV for the first time just to shorten the journey. As we flew over Perth, after three nights without sleep I was prepared to jump rather than face a further four hours to Sydney, which is of course the same distance from Perth as London is to Istanbul, but the thought of being looked after by my wonderful mother kept me going.

And finally we arrived and after two days of sleeping Julian got well very quickly we were able to spend such wonderful time with my Mum and some of my special friends. I spent most of my teens living in Sydney and I believe you never truly appreciate the places you have lived until viewed with the eyes of a traveller.                                        

 And so our holiday continued with special days with long lost friends and lovely long lunches with my wonderful family.  We were very pleased to have two weeks of mild summer weather, having expected unrelenting heat and humidity, and the kids loved getting out of their thick layers of clothing.

We even revisited scenes from my youth with my best friend and her gorgeous boys and had a fabulous day, though perhaps Luna Park is not what it once was.

BFF

 



 My mother and I had an amazing girls days out thanks to a Christmas gift from my big brother, a fascinating architectural tour of Sydney's history, not simply the buildings but the nitty gritty political history, with Sydney Architectural Walks.

 And so we spent two wonderful weeks with my Mum enjoying ourselves immensely and avoiding any thought of the trip back to Perth and the awful, unavoidable consequences of travel..unpacking