Wanderung 14

The Plane to Spain replaced by the Bounding Main!

April-May 2007

Day 31: Wednesday May 16 2007, Flying Home

Wednesday May 16 2007 Noon Position: Madrid airport, terminal 4 (Iberia Airlines)

Bob:

My intestinal bug still had me in its grip in the morning, so I approached the long flight home with some trepidation. The hotel shuttle bus transferred us out to the brand spanking new terminal 4 that serves Iberia Airlines, which lies a bit separate from the older terminals 1, 2, and 3. We took pictures of some of the solar energy features of the new terminal while we waited for our flight from Madrid to London, and Monika found a Spanish book of Su Do Ku puzzles that we started working on to pass the time.

I was somewhat surprised that the flight to London took two hours, because I estimated based on my GPS readings that Madrid was almost due South of London. I must have underestimated the differences in latitude between the two capitals, including Spain northwards to the Pyrenees, the Bay of Biscay, and then the distance from the coast of England up to London. Monika had a window seat and she managed to snap some pictures of London as we descended for our landing.

Monika:

Today was the longest day of our trip. Where we had lost 6 hours in 7 civilized days on the cruise, we would get them back in one fell swoop. We got up around 8 ate the last banana, and the last rolls we still had, packed and re-packed our suitcases until we finally were ready around 9:30. It was not a holiday, so the kids started trickling back into school. We noticed there was a lot less shrieking in the morning than at recess or end of school.

Checking out was quick and the bus to the airport was waiting for us. We had to go to terminal 4, a very modern building specially built for Ibera Airlines. It was impressive. We checked in. No complaints about the weight of our luggage, and so we first headed for a restaurant for a coffee and hoping for a WiFi spot. WiFi, of course, was not free so we decided to wait for home. The trip to London went quickly. I had a window seat and managed to take some pictures.

Bob:

Once we were in Heathrow Airport we had to be re-screened with the new prohibitions on any bottles of fluids over 3 ounces. But since no garbage cans were provided everyone had to simply throw their empty or full bottles right there on the floor, along with other prohibited items such as fruits or unprocessed food, etc. The result was an extraordinary mess of garbage lying all over the floor as we snaked our way slowly up to the scanning machines. I was glad that my illness didn't include nausea because if it had I think the mess would have triggered it. Next we took a rather long and convoluted bus drive over to our departure terminal where we got some British pounds from an ATM, bought some types of Cadbury chocolate that we typically don't see in the U.S., and had a snack to tide us over until they would serve the evening meal on our flight.

Due to headwinds averaging 100 mph, our flight back to Washington took a 8 full hours. Flying in economy class is generally unpleasant (except for Air France flights on Wanderung 10) and still feeling ill made it even more so. The big beefy guy in front of me immediately leaned his chair back into my knees, and that's how he stayed for the duration of the flight, occasionally trying to rock even further back as if it were a Lay Z Boy recliner. Monika had been assigned a seat across the cabin, but she was beside a three year old who was acting like a two year old, rampaging around the airplane and weeping and wailing when he didn't get his wishes. So it was a long, weary flight for both of us and we were happy to land and take a taxi to our home sweet home.

The lawn was mowed (thank you, Pablo!) and everything inside was the house was just as we had left it. Surprisingly, all of our houseplants had survived the drought, and our African violet had apparently been growing and blooming like crazy. The birds had cleared out our birdfeeders, but I still had some safflower and thistle seed, so I soon put that right and the birds and we settled back into our normal daily routine.

Monika:

Heathrow Airport had the usual large, mad crowds. But we survived another security check, a longish walk and finally a bus ride to terminal 4 where we finally found a spot to sit down. I looked in vain for an ATM, but didn't find any interesting books either. We were finally called to British Airways information to have our passport info entered and he showed me the ATM. Now having pounds we had a snack and picked up some Cadbury chocolate bars, before boarding our flight to Dulles and a quick taxi ride back home.

Copyright 2007 by R. W. Holt and E. M. Holt
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