Wednesday, August 13th
It was an early morning for the Swarthmore women's soccer team following their last evening in Barcelona. Despite a 4:30 AM departure time on Wednesday, some of the players elected to re-watch Harry Potter for the umpteenth time until the wee hours, leaving only an hour for sleep. Many of the players and coaches made up for the lack of sleep throughout the morning hours by napping on the bus ride to the airport, in the terminal, and then on the short 7:00 AM flight to Madrid.
All in all, it was a smooth transition to our next destination. Upon arrival in Madrid, our bus took us to directly to Estadio Santiago Bernabeu, the home stadium of Real Madrid. The team enjoyed an informal tour which included close-up views of the locker rooms, player tunnel, training room, press room and bench areas.
The highlight, though, may have been individual pictures with Cristiano Ronaldo, Sergio Ramos or Iker Casillas (totally not photoshopped in, we swear). We also had an opportunity to shop for some authentic Real Madrid loot.
After the tour, our bus took us to check into our next resting spot in downtown Madrid, Hotel Husa Princesa. Despite the lack of free wi-fi (pronounced wee-fee here) to communicate with loved ones at home, the hotel and rooms proved to be modern, clean and spacious. The team can't wait to take advantage of the large fitness room! (Obvi, fitness test is bright and early on Monday! They are so totes excited.)
With several hours to kill before a low-key dinner at the hotel, most of the team elected to get a quick bite to eat for lunch and catch up on some much needed sleep, as we had another training session and game the following day.
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