Madrid Zoo, Accessibility, Flight home, Article 50 initiated

Wed 29th March. A glorious cloud free warm day. Typical - on the day of departure! I wanted to go to the Madrid Zoo, so we hailed a taxi for the 5 minute trip, to arrive at 10:30 am to find the zoo didn't open till 11. Once in, my aunt and I asked about the wheelchairs available. These were conveniently situated about 100 m or more from the entrance, in an administrative building, in a first aid room, released on filling out a form. I was not impressed by this approach to accessibility. But the wheelchairs were good and could either be used for my mother and uncle seated and pushed or as a walking aid, which speeded up our progress no end.

There was a limit to what we were going to be able to see. Fortunately, there were the baby elephants to delight the viewers, and the delphinarium. We watched the show with ambiguous feelings, the pod of eight dolphins went through their routine to the delight of the many schoolchildren, yet it was sad that they were confined; how endangered was this species?

We managed to have lunch in a cafe that could have served us faster if run by sloths and catch a taxi back to the flat. Then it was time for me to set off for the airport. I took the metro and bus to cross Madrid and this time was not robbed.

My flight was from Barajas Air Terminal 1, linked to T2 and T3. The journey on foot , first to the check-in and then to the boarding gates, was interminable, the process taking close to half an hour on foot for a healthy person like myself. I felt that I'd walked a significant part of the hourney even before getting on the plane.

During the day, Prime Minister Theresa May's letter initiating Article 50 was delivered to Donald Tusk, President of the EU Council. It was top of the UK news stations, but featured lower down in the German and Spanish press. Landing at Stansted and finally getting through security and baggage collection, I went for the newspaper stand and could only buy a Telegraph to catch up on the local response. Not my first choice - and the nauseating content confirmed that.The various news apps available at last at home, as well as the BBC and other TV stations gave a better all round perspective. The Brexit train has truly left the station.