Sunday, 28th April - Santa Fe to Albuquerque

The morning was spent walking around the picturesque city centre of Santa Fe whilst a fair amount of window shopping was undertaken. We visited the very doorway where Oppenheimer's scientists used to assemble to be spirited into the New Mexico desert to undertake their top secret work on his "deadly toy".

An adjacent coffee shop has a suitably topical name:

Respite from retail therapy came in the form of a most welcome coffee and cake break in the La Fonda French patisserie and coffee shop 😋

We then started our journey south from Santa Fe to Albuquerque down Highway 14, otherwise known as the Turquoise Trail - a scenic highway - via the little town of Madrid, famous for its role in the concluding scenes of the film Wild Hogs (worth watching if you need cheering up).

https://www.turquoisetrail.org/

Unfortunately the owner of our motel for the next two nights, the recently restored Route 66 motel the El Vado, was blissfully unaware of our reservation! Thankfully a couple of phone calls to the intermediary company responsible for the booking got things sorted.

https://elvadoabq.com/

The day ended on a huge high with a New Mexican meal with members of Suse's family - her aunt Barbara, cousins Dandy and Glyn and his wife Jeanne and their daughter Sara and her husband Jesse. A grand reunion that was a lot of fun.