Hello!  My name is Kyla Gurganus, and I am a chemistry teacher from Ypsilanti, Michigan.  While teaching is a great career, and I love living in Michigan, I enjoy travelling all over on my time off.  Just before my school's mid-winter break in February 2009, I found an amazing round-trip airfare ($483) to Madrid, Spain on US Airways, so I decided to go.  Because the fare was so cheap, I decided to invite my mother along on the trip.  She speaks quite a bit of Spanish, so she was a huge help.

For some reason, I've always been a little hesitant to travel to Spain because I speak quite a bit of French but very, very little Spanish.  My fears were baseless, though, and I had a fabulous trip!

The weather was pleasant during the day (in the 50s and 60s) and chilly at night (in the 30s), but we had come prepared for colder, so it was a pleasant surprise.

I purchased my air tickets only a week before going, so I didn't have very much time to plan.  I relied heavily on two guidebooks, Frommer's Madrid (2009) and Rick Steves Spain 2009, plus information gathered locally from tourist offices.  Our trip lasted 4 nights in Spain plus travel time.

We flew out of Detroit to Philadelphia on US Airways.  Because of a mechanical problem, we were delayed overnight in the airport.  We were supposed to arrive in Madrid at 10:15 am but actually landed at 6:35 pm, a delay of over 8 hours!  I got euros out of the airport ATM, we got subway tickets, and were whisked away to our hotel.  You'll learn the rest from the pictures below.  [And please note that I really did take this trip in 2009; I set my camera date incorrectly!]

It was a whirlwind trip, but I would do it again in a heartbeat.