Perhaps the BEST B1G Forum anywhere, here at College Football Fan Site, CFB51!!!

More thoughts from Madrid–

At one point my buddy wonders whether living in Madrid is comparable to New York. In a cosmopolitan way, yes. More notably, Madrid is centered by Retiro Park, it’s a green, forested haven equivalent to Manhattan’s Central Park. My week in Madrid well acquaints me with Retiro Park due to crossing it twice a day, starting in the morning walking from the more working-class neighborhoods at the Park’s south, and making my way north to my buddy’s vivienda in the wealthier neighborhoods above Retiro Park. The neighborhood south of the park is Pacifico, lined shoulder to shoulder with residential buildings. Little room for parking or breathing. Parents walk children to school. Shop owners roll up aluminum shutter gates to reveal various storefronts. The faint scent of cigarettes carries through the streets. Real Madrid fútbol banners and jerseys hang like laundry from the windows. Navigating my way through Pacifico’s dense grid, I orient my sense of direction by watching for the belltower of Parroquia Nuestra Señora de la Paz (Parish of Our Lady of Peace):

Turning north at the church tower, Retiro Park is reached in another few similar blocks. From the park’s south edge, I walk up its east side and into Central Madrid’s fancier neighborhoods where my buddy is residing for the summer with his family. Their second-floor vivienda faces another city park. Below his balcony, the wider sidewalks are frequented by fashionable Spanish women. Their figures slim and tall, their elegant dresses and hair flowing, their faces striking and clear. Joining the crowds back on the sidewalks for an afternoon walk, we near the Puerta de Alcalá, Madrid’s version of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, and pass by sprawling café patios, luxury brand fashion shops, ornate building facades, and Michelon rated restaurants. With near record high temperatures sweeping across Spain, a heat wave blankets Madrid. The sun not a clear sun in a clear blue sky, but a glaring sun in the yellow sky of its relentless glare. The heat not like the sweltering desert, but the humidity lingers into the evenings, highlighting why Siestas are such a lasting fixture of the Mediterranean regions. Before I walk back to my hotel for the evening, we cool off with iced glasses of sangria or vino blanco. His family’s summer in Spain is the dream Americans have when they long for own relaxed season of living in Europe.

Not me. 

Farthest north I've ever been in NA is Edmonton, and as for eastern Canada, is Ottawa. Farthest north I've been overall is Stockholm, and that's on the Baltic Sea, not the Arctic Ocean...

I've been to Alaska and the Yukon. 

Going on a cruise in a couple of weeks and just read that Honduras is requiring proof of measles vaccination or immunity.  Well I had measles some 60 years ago and won't get a vaccine booster since I am immune. And i am not going to get a blood draw to prove it i guess I am not getting off the ship there.  Been to Honduras many times so the only ones losing is Honduras because they won't be getting my tourist dollars

Turns out landing on a Denali glacier is a great idea.