It’s time to say goodbye to Madrid and all our new friends.
Most people hate travel days, and I am not overly fond of them. It’s a long way from Europe to California and our bodies go through such an assault with the nine-hour time change. It takes many days for me to recuperate from a trip. Even with these inconveniences, I’m not willing to give up the joy of travel because of a little jet lag.
The alarm rang at 3:15 AM. I’d managed to get a couple of hours’ sleep, but kept waking up in case the alarm didn’t work. The suitcase was out at 3:30 and we were in the lobby at 3:45, along with our guide Susana and three other friends who were in the same shuttle. The driver was there.
The streets were crowded with revelers. It was still warm out. Madrid is a 24/7 city. We made it to the airport in record time; the streets may have been busy but the freeway was mostly clear of traffic at 3:45 AM
The airport was filled with lots of people waiting in long lines. The staff didn’t come on until 4:00 AM with one lonely clerk processing people through..very slowly. At 4:30 there were three clerks and the line moved faster. After we checked in our bags, we wandered a bit getting those last-minute souvenirs and post cards.
Security was a nightmare for me. I had to go through THREE times before I was cleared! I don’t know what triggered the alert, and neither did the security people, but I was finally allowed to proceed. That was the only little problem of a very long day.
The flight from Madrid to Frankfurt on Lufthansa was uneventful. It was a smooth flight and we got breakfast: a tasty egg and potato omelet, with fruit, bread and juice, with coffee, tea or water. Nice! I’m getting spoiled by European airlines it was a two hour ten minute flight.
We had just under two hours for the transit from Madrid to Frankfurt and, for once, there were no problems; it was, in fact, the smoothest transit I’ve had at Frankfurt. We did not have to go through security again, to my delight, and we were able to stroll through the corridors instead of run at breakneck speed. It was very civilized.
The best was yet to come, as we were flying back on my beloved Airbus 380 and we were in premium economy seats! I had Overseas Adventure Travel make the airline bookings, as it was cheaper to do it that way, and chose to travel via Frankfurt on Lufthansa because of this airplane. It just happened that Lufthansa offered O.A.T. a promotion when I was booking and we got the seats at a true premium price: my seat was $50 extra. My sister’s seat cost more but together the price was about the same for the United Economy Plus seats. We were really lucky. Ordinarily The cost can be up to 900€ per seat, one way.
Our seats were in our special cabin, just behind the cockpit, with the stairs for the second floor in front of us. There was a curtain in front of us and a curtain behind us. Our section consisted of rows 50-56, I think. There was a two-four-two configuration. My sister and I sat across from each other in aisle seats, she in the center section with two empty seats in her row. I had a lady sitting in the window seat to my left but there was plenty of room, both under the seat and across. Each seat had the large individual TV screens and there was a console containing the tray for food service.
We were served a drink before takeoff. We each got a lovely little toiletry kit. We were given a menu with food choices, which were different – presumably better – than regular economy. The food WAS good. The drinks were plentiful and, if one wished to indulge, there appeared to be no limit, as I observed with a fellow passenger, who passed out after her seventh serving of varying libations. Yuk. Mother said “Don’t mix your drinks!” As usual she was right and I couldn’t help but wonder how this passenger would feel when we landed. She was out like a light for most of the flight. I did manage to sleep quite a bit but my alcohol intake consisted of one glass of wine and a Bailey’s after dinner.
The airplane has 95 rows in the main cabin. I don’t know how many rows are in the upper deck; first class was upstairs. Most of the middle rows had only two passengers instead of four, which was nice. We weren’t crammed in like sardines.
This plane floats, it doesn’t just fly – it’s also very very quiet. My sister was reading her book and didn’t even realized we’d taken off. Landing is also very smooth.
Because it is such a large plane, it is not available at all airports. It flies out of NYC, LA and SFO. There may be other airports, but I’m not aware of them. Air France has the same plane, but with different interior configurations. As a matter of fact, I’ll be flying to Paris on it in the fall, on my way to Bologna, Italy for an O.A.T. trip to Tuscany and Umbria with my friend Ann from England. I also got the $50 promotion price on that flight and will be upstairs. That should be interesting!
I read, watched two movies, slept, and before I knew it, the journey was over. We landed in San Francisco, went through a computer-generated passport clearance, said hello to a real person to get our passports stamped, and proceeded to get our bags. There was a bag problem because one of the belts didn’t work, so that took awhile. It took us over an hour to get out of the airport, then we were on BART, traveled to my stop, got in a taxi, and came home.
It’s good to be back.
After the heat wave in Spain, we were greeted with – guess what- a heat wave in California!
I’ll be working on my photos, taking a conversational Italian class, tutoring my adult students in French, catching up on my reading, going into the City, and doing some small trips in CA to see friends. I’ll be in Italy in the fall, Vegas after that, and Hawaii with family for the holiday season.
Yes, travel is part of my life.
I hope you enjoyed tagging along with us. I’ll be posting more in between trips. I have lots more photos to show!
Ciao from the sisters
Bea
and
Karen