Well, this is to be our last blog post; we never actually made it to Seville, or Malaga or Cordoba, and the only time we were in Madrid was to board our flight home. Just after I finished writing the previous post we decided we needed to return home for some family reasons. It was all very sudden, and return flights were booked within thirty minutes.

Around four hours away from Sydney, we received a message on Alison's phone to announce that we were the proud grandparents of Xavier Evan Williams. I think the exact words were, 'there is a baby'. Actually, Xavier had been born eight hours earlier and both Elizabeth and her sister Imogen, who was by her side through the entire birth , had conspired to keep it from us, not wanting to worry us. Unfortunately, Xavier's dad, Pete, did not make it back from Perth in time for the birth, but was there shortly after.

We knew nothing of this when we left Madrid, somewhat reluctantly, cutting short the last ten days of our trip. However, the news of Xavier's arrival certainly dissolved any regrets we may have had about coming home early.

All in all, it was an amazing trip. We did not really want to go, at one stage coming up with an exploded gallbladder to avoid it (lol), but in the end we never wanted it to finish. Once more, its not really just about the buildings, or the gardens, or even the cathedrals, beaches or restaurants. It's about the experience of living a richer life for having seen the incredible diversity in us humans. And, of course, it's about doing it with someone like Alison. Without my traveling companion, it would have been neither possible or anywhere near as much fun.

So, until next it's antio, auf weiderschen, sbohem, zbogom and adios.

Little tiny Xavier