Madrid showed us her best face. For two days she displayed cerulean blue skies, long city walks in the shade of majestic plane trees, and smiling,  relaxed people,  mostly natives.

In keeping with the good mood,  the flow of people and traffic seemed less frenetic and lawless than the scrum of scooters, cycles and law-defying drivers that we left behind in DC.

One of our main goals was to mail my rheumatoid arthritis medicine (which must be refridgerated) to future stops along the Way. It only took three boxes and a very good natured Correos employee.

Unfortunately,  we were not able to see our Madrilleno friends,  Julio and Luz, whom we met on our first Camino in 2015.

On the positive side,  we found Madrid’s connection to the Camino de Santiago de Campostela in the form of a church dedicated to St James. Who would have suspected that we would walk in just an unpublicized mass in English was beginning! The celebrant turned out to be an American priest who gave an excellent homily about preparing for and disciplining oneself for life’s pilgrimage.

After Mass we visited the church’s sacristy where a Camino volunteer prepared pilgrim passports for us and provided scallop shells with which to adorn our backpacks.

The next day we will use train,  busses and taxi to travel from Madrid to the starting point of our walk.