Grand Tour, Day 40: Last Day in Europe

Our last day in Madrid was very chaotic at the start. We thought we were going to miss our flight. My mom and I started running towards our flight. Pablo and Nina tried to keep up with us, but they got lost. Luckily, my dad found them and we made it on the plane. On the plane I watched The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug and a little bit of The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies. Every hour, I stopped watching and wrote about our last days in Europe for thirty minutes. Pablo was very happy on the plane because he got Goldish for the first time in 40 days. We landed in North Carolina, Charlotte, and we had to wait for a few hours until our flight to Texas took off. I did not really like the flight to Texas because it was pretty boring. We landed in Texas got our bags and then we saw Grandmother and Grandaddy waiting for us. We drove to their house and went to sleep after talking for a little while.

When we got back to Ada, my dad asked us some questions about memories from Europe. Here are my answers:

1. Best Decision? Going to Zell-Am-See.
2. Best Train? Salzburg to Zell-Am-See.
3. Best View? From the top of the Alps in Austria
4. Best Dessert? Nectarine Ice Cream at Madrid Rio park
5. Best Restaurant? Pizza in Torino on our first night there
6. Best Snack? Malaga Goldfish. I was very happy when we saw flavor-blasted Goldfish in a store in Malaga, but no one was happier than Pablo.
7. Best Walk? Malaga with my dad
8. Best Art Museum? El Prado
9. Best Day? The day when I played soccer in the park and had a sleepover with Rita and Uxue. I forgot to write about the sleepover in my journal, but it was fun.
10. Best non-train transport? Madrid Metro. I really didn't like any non-train transports, but this one was OK. If the chair lift counts, then that would definitely be it.
11. Hottest Moment? Rome Taxi to Vatican. That taxi ride almost made me throw up.
12. Coldest Moment? Alps
13. If we had one more day to spend in any city we visited,  it would be … Madrid. I would spend time with Abuelo and Abuela and Rita and Uxue and Tia Gimena.
14. Most Memorable Artwork? "The Night Watch" and "3 de Mayo."
15. Best Bed? Bruges Hotel
16. Best Shower? Abuela and Abuelo’s
17. Biggest Surprise? Missing the train in Munich. That was bad.
18. Best Performance? Soccerman on Montmarte. That was awesome.  I don't know how he did that. It was like he was defying graviety.
19. Best Book? Trials of Apollo
20. Best Park? The park where I played soccer with some boys in Madrid.

While we were in Europe, I tried to write every day, but sometimes I either forgot or did not have time. So I sometimes had to write two or three days in one day. I also wrote the last ten or so days on the plane from Madrid to Charlotte. During my sixth grade school year, I came to my dad’s office and typed my journal entries. During the summer of 2018, my dad and I worked on giving them more detail and making them longer. At the end of the 2018 summer, we finished writing and posting it. I think that this vacation was the best vacation eve,r and I wish we could do it every year. I saw a lot of famous artworks, famous buildings, and a lot of my family that I had never met and family that I had met but don't get to see a lot. My favorite thing was seeing family.

These are my reflections on the 2017 Ruiz Benton’s summer vacation. Emilio out.