I MADE IT TO MADRID

I have arrived in Madrid as of about 3 o'clock yesterday. I will say I prefer Madrid over Barcelona by far. This is SPAIN. Being the capital there is much more Spanish presence and less tourism. Of course this is a highly touristic part of Spain there is far more Spanish culutre than Barcelona, which was more of a European melting pot.

We visited the Palace yesterday which was very cool. It was built in the late 19th century when Spain was still a monarchy. Very beautiful! I got a pictured of me jumping off some stairs outside of palace....I was excited to finally be in Madrid and get to experience the "real" Spain.

We attended two presentations today, the first in a meeting room here at the hotel, was held by the President of Cushman & Wakefield, Spain. Roger Cooke. Mr. Cooke was British but has been heading up the Spanish operations for 15 years. C&W is the largets privately held real estate firm in the world. The figures presented to us were almost unbelievable...i.e. 230 offices, 58 countries, and over 15,000 employees. Although down quite substantially over the last three years, by 2012 C&W is projecting almost triple the revenue they see today. This organization truly has a global approach to business and it was finally good to have the practices we have been learning about in school be real and tangible. The second visit was to the Madrid International Airport. This was the coolest presentation we have been to, in my openion. We started with a short history of the airport and then we got a full access tour, complete with official aiport visitors badges. Madrid's airport is the of its kind in the world. The infrastructure and technology is unrivaled, 60% if the airports function is automated. The baggage system in the newly devloped T4 and T4s is fully automated, the system devolped by siemens, runs on a conveor systema nd has over 180 kilometers of tracks on 5 levels. The hub of the airport where all systems come together is straight out of the NASA control room. It is also the first time all goverment police and security agencies have worked together side by side. Unfortunetately we couldtn't take pictures inside this room....:(.

Madrid is definitely a place to visit. The thing I find the most interesting is Madrid uses many local architects when building new buildings...it really shows of the talent the city and country produces in this sector. What a place.

Stay tuned for more action from Madrid!!

I do like it here....but I will say that I am ready to get home!! I miss you all!