The first day is always the fairly boring travel day. And this trip was no exception. We were lucky enough to have a reasonable flight out of Aberdeen too Madrid through Amsterdam. And of course since the reason for the trip initially was business, I got to fly business class. So to be the nice spouse, we got Frank business class too.
The flights were fine. Between business class food and lounge access, we did nothing but eat from the UK to spain. Attach it to the hotel in madrid, settling in, and then exploring the city for a little while on our first travel day was about all we could manage. We found a tapas place that served nothing but gluten-free food which was lovely and called it an early night.
Day two was the main reason for the trip: a presentation to the governing council of the Bank of Spain to discuss the report that I had helped to create as an expert external reviewer on their data management practices. This meant I had to drag a suit with me on vacation; even though it was linen it was very hot to be wearing in Madrid. The presentation went very well and the whole team celebrated with a lovely lunch that lasted until about 5:00 p.m.
Then it was time to adopt the Spanish tradition of siesta and take a nice nap before venturing back out for tapas and wine with one of the bank staff that I had worked so closely with. We wandered back to the hotel at 1:00 a.m. the work part was done; now it was time for the holiday.
Not much exciting data for the first few days. Temperature ranged from 22 overnight to 37 during the day. Frank clocked the most steps wandering around the city while I was working. More fun stuff to follow when we get to the holiday part.
Here’s a few pics from the interior of the bank. Their art collection is insane and the architecture is stunning.
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