July 7, 2004 - Madrid, Spain

After we got off the plane we waited to collect our luggage. My suitcase was the last suitcase on the belt...I was beginning to worry that it didn't make it. The tour promotor, Alfonso and his wife Anna, were waiting for us. We loaded our luggage and ourselves in the van and we took a 40 minute ride southwest into the city of Villalba. When we got to the hotel I decided to try to get some sleep. Today was a day off and I knew that I would end up being very busy later. My friend Eduardo Kinderman was going to give me a tour of Madrid. Divinity called my room to see if she could hang out with us.

After resting for less than an hour, Eduardo called and said he was downstairs in the lobby. I called Divinity to let her know. It was great to finally get a chance to meet Eduardo. We had been emailing each other back and forth. He is a very kind and gracious man. The tour promotor had gone to the bank to convert dollars to Euro's for us, but we didn't have time to wait for him, so we left. So Divinity and I didn't have any money. Eduardo was kind enough to give both of us 40 Euro's. He drove us into Madrid and then we caught a cab to see some of the sights in Madrid. We got out of the cab and walked. We found a nice restaurant to have breakfast and then walked around while Eduardo pointed out some historical sights. Later we found two music stores. After spending a couple of hours running around, I told Eduardo that I would love to go to Ducati of Madrid. Because gas prices are so high, almost $4.00 a gallon, there are a lot of motorcycles and very small cars on the road. The Ducati dealer in Madrid was a very cool place. There were more women working in there than men. One of the women helped me find a shirt for my wife.

On the way back to the hotel we decided to stop and get ice cream. At this point I've probably had less than 3 hours of sleep in 2 days. I was really tired. When we got back to the hotel the band decided to meet Alfonso and his wife for dinner at the restaurant in the hotel. I knew I didn't have the energy to make that, so I went right to bed. At this point it was about 8:00PM Madrid time. I ended up sleeping for about 2 hours and then I went down to the restaurant. The band was finishing up dinner. Divinity and I decided to take a walk around Villalba to see what we could find. We were really interested in trying to find some phone cards so we could call back to the states. We ended up walking around for a couple of hours, but pretty much everything was closed. When we got back to the hotel I hung out with Joe in his room for about 40 minutes. Then I went back to my hotel room and waited for my wife to call. While I was waiting I watched reruns of a Bull fight that I saw earlier in the day. I didn't realize that bull fighting was such a graphic sport. I had to turn my head away a couple of times.

My wife and I finally got a chance to talk. She checked my various email accounts for me over the phone. I told her about what my day had been like so she could do a tour diary entry. Then our line was disconnected and we weren't able to get back in touch with each other. I decided to stay up as long as I could just to try to get on a decent time schedule. I ended up falling asleep close to 4:00AM Madrid time. Today had been a really exciting day for me. I really want to thank Eduardo for his graciousness. Him showing us around allowed me and Divinity to take a ton of pictures. I'd also like to thank Divinity for hanging out with me and having an adventurous spirit like me.

peace & blessings

Anthony