Tuesday 11.23.2010


Heading Home


Dear Blog, it has been a wonderful 70 nights in foreign lands, but all good things must come to an end. Is that really true? We have a 5:00 am wakeup this morning with plans to be packed, checked-out and heading for the subway tunnel by 7:00. We have rationalized that the train is much more reliable in potential traffic situations than surface transportation, and besides it is 6.30 euros instead of 50.

As is always the case there is a learning curve involved in new experiences and when coupled with the truth that a 50-50 chance is always 80-20 against, there are definitely things that can go wrong. We are efficient, however, and out the door by 6:45 for the 50-yard walk across “our” square to the elevator down to the trains. This is a “Renfe” train, part of the Spanish national train system (like Amtrac) that happens to run locally in Madrid. We have to find out which train to catch when we get to our track level and while Mary guards the bag and John checks the system map we let two trains go. We find out that actually any train going this way goes to the next station which is where we switch to the Metro Line to the airport. No problem, another comes along in a few minutes and we are on our way.

Things get a bit more complicated after that. We are three levels down and at this point figure out that we should have bought our Metro tickets when we bought our Renfe tickets because we have to leave one gated area to get into the other. Again, Mary guards the luggage while John goes up the three levels to buy the Metro tickets, and to do that he must leave the Renfe area. Now, of course, he can’t get back in the Renfe area so has to buy another ticket so he can get to Mary and they can make the move to the Metro. And here hilarity ensues. It turns out that there are several more steps to this process, and like a good Broadway farce there are slamming doors and bumbling characters who can’t find their way or sometimes each other. Suffice it to say that we are at the correct airport terminal by 8:00 AM for our 11:00 flight so all is well.

It is a pretty easy check-in with some extra beefed up security for flights to the U.S. There is a rigorous Q & A session before we get our boarding passes and a pretty extensive screening process. Mary has to repack a small scissors that has been ok on previous flights and she gets a pat down at the X-Ray machine. John loses a corkscrew that has also been ok in the past and is disappointed that he doesn’t get a pat down. There is another pretty long train ride to get to our remote gate area and it is closing in on 9:00 by the time we get through the process.

We have access to the Iberia Airlines Club as they partner with American Airlines on these flights. There is a nice breakfast buffet set up for John and an equally nice serve-yourself bar for Mary’s pre-flight medication. We can relax now that we can see our plane outside and we have plenty of time. Mary does some last minute duty-free shopping to use up our last few euros while John contemplates seconds at the breakfast buffet.

It’s an easy walk to the plane, we board immediately, somebody gives us a glass of champagne and as much of a hassle as flying can be, this seems fine to us. The flight is uneventful although long at nine and a half hours. We get a couple nice meals, sufficient beverages, a plenty on-demand movies and a nap. It is shades of our B & B experiences as our flight attendant, Kevin, comes by for hugs and handshakes before we get off. We must just look huggable.

It is now a 3-hour layover in Miami and here we find the American Admiral’s Club. We are starting to get tired and a little edgy and the late afternoon business crowd are here in big numbers all shouting into their cell phones about this deal or that. Welcome home.

Finally our three and a half hour flight to Minneapolis is underway, we get fed and beveraged yet again and we are perfectly on-time for our 10:00 pm scheduled landing. It is exactly 24-hours since our alarm went off this morning. Two things that have never happened before occur at this point: (1) we are first off the plane; and (2) when we get to the baggage carousel our bags are the first to drop out of the chute. We call sister-in law Lynn, she is outside within minutes and we are in her vehicle on our way to her house at 10:20. Does the cold weather make people that efficient?

We will record our reflections of our trip here within the next few days after we have had a chance to recover a bit. The one thing we agree on for sure is that this is what we really like to do, and while we may fine-tune based on our experiences, there will most certainly be more adventures in the future. Stay tuned.

Today’s Picture: Checking out our chariot from the Iberia lounge in Madrid.