Well, this will be one birthday I'm sure to remember. After all the rigors of transatlantic flight I arrived in Madrid just as my clock rolled over, spent a scarce hour and a half trying to finally get some sleep and then out into the evening to see the city. I had less than a day in Madrid, but I feel I've met my tourism quota walking thru the park and all around downtown: Fountians, drums, monuments, boats in the lake, famous steets, robot dancers and the jugglers in the square, strange cricket-sound balls.

Amaya's hospitality is a force to be reckoned with (as are her cats), and there's a great group of debianistas here. Dinner ran late into the night, and I was lucid for most of it despite lack of sleep, and thanks to their brilliant jet lag amangement, woke up bright and early for the next leg of the trip. In the bus to Extremadura now.