Parque del Buen Retiro is a former Monastery/Royal Gardens or Retreat in what used to be the outskirts of Madrid. It is now very close to Madrid's city center and would be, I guess, the equivalent of NYC's Central Park.
It is filled with trees and absolutely gorgeous. We didn't see half of the park during the few hours we were there. It was beautiful and peaceful. Lots of families hanging out before going home from school. And LOTS and LOTS of green.
I offered to take things to Spain for my friends Paco & Star as well as for a woman in my ward whose son is serving in the Barcelona Mission. And since we'd be meeting up with Matt at his Barcelona dance event, I offered to bring some books for him to sell at the event. All of this resulted in about 65 pounds that Lynda and I split up between our checked luggage. I decided to put the heaviest box in my carry-on.
The security process was an ordeal as the line I chose had a man barely ambulatory man going through security with 7 trays of belongings and his tiny dog. The person in front of me went around the man just as he was grabbing his dog from its carrier. This move must have startled him a bit as he almost fell over as she breezed past him.
The people behind me were grunting and shuffling around impatiently in a non-verbal attempt to get me to jump the queue as well so they could do the same and get on with rushing to get a seat in the boarding area. I couldn't bring myself to do it for several reasons: I felt bad for the guy...here he was, in sweat pants and shirt, barefoot, dog in arms, hobbling his way to the scanner. I wanted him to preserve a little dignity. 2. I'm a klutz. I'd probably knock him (and his little dog too) to the floor by nicking him with the corner of my heavy carry-on. 3. It didn't seem like the right thing to do. I think Grandma Ev would have been disappointed if I couldn't be patient for 3 minutes. So I waited.
On the other side (after I was body scanned), as I was waiting for my trays to appear and Little Dog Man was collecting his overabundance, I heard someone announce: Someone forgot to remove their liquids! "Oh," I thought, "they found where I put my tiny one ounce tube of sunscreen I tossed in my personal bag at the last minute and couldn't find it to have it scanned separately." But when the TSA agent came towards me it was my carry-on she was carrying, not my personal item. As she disassembled the contents (with minimal disruption, thank you packing cubes!) she opened the shoe box containing the heavy items for the missionary and said: that's what it was!
Peanut butter, when packaged alone in its plastic jar and protective plastic wrap, is a liquid and had to be abandoned at security. However, when enveloped in chocolate and transported in a pliable plastic bag, peanut butter suddenly becomes a solid...as is evidenced by the Reese's peanut butter cups Lynda was allowed to pass through security without so much as a batted eye.
Behold the power of chocolate and pliable plastic!