Official Day 1

After two flights, two bus rides, and 45 minutes of sleep in 24 hours, I ended up at my hotel in Santander with enthusiasm but some deficits in my ability to reason. Add that to the plate of mussels and glass of wine I had for breakfast (hey, if my body is certain that it’s 10 am but the clocks all say it’s 4 pm, it’s 4 pm), you have the makings of a perfect day. I was happy to engage in meaningless small talk with anyone who made the mistake of glancing my way. People generally responded politely and no one called the police so I guess I did OK, although there was a woman on the bus who treated me as if I had some kind of cognitive impairment when she pushed the stop button for me when it seemed like I couldn’t figure it out. But honestly, I could have done it myself if she had just given me a minute.

In all these years of travelling to Spain, this is the first time I’ve experienced a solid, socked in rainy day all day. But I’m not on my bike, there’s no place I have to be and it doesn’t matter that all of my clothes are soaked, so let the trip begin!

Spain Yet Again

Nothing ruins a vacation more then having to wait in an airport with regular, non-priority people. Sorry if this includes you, but really, I´m at a stage in life where I deserve to await my flight with my feet up in a recliner, sipping champagne. So I shelled out a few bucks for a premium credit card that gives me access to over 1,000 exclusive airport lounges worldwide that are only open for a select group of people, specifically people like me.

I arrived at the airport today uncharacteristically early so that I would have time to enjoy the benefits and, after going through security headed straight to the lounge, the door to which is pictured here.

No problem, my Priority Pass app told me that there were other lounges in every concourse of the airport. Except, it turns out, my concourse. But after waiting at the gate for a while, I have come to realize that common people aren’t so bad in small doses. I have another layover in Barcelona, where I’ll have a chance to try the premium lounges there, which I’m sure will exceed my expectations.

Even before that, my expectations were exceeded by the plane. United has upped its entertainment game by adding a huge selection of movies, streaming programs, and a fancy 3D real time display that shows exactly where we are. About 30 minutes after our takeoff time, that display showed this. The accuracy of which I confirmed by looking out the window. 

But we eventually took off. About an hour out of Barcelona, they served breakfast, a sandwich made of things that would never go together in nature – industrial egg, frozen turkey sausage, hot pepper cheese and sweet waffles for the bread. Knowing that I had a VIP lounge waiting for me at the airport, I passed.

And now I have to take a detour from my planned remarks. My expectation was that trying to get into
the lounge in Barcelona would also fail and I would write about buying a crappy sandwich at the airport. But actually, there is a lounge, and it is fabulous. I followed the VIP signs up to the door, they checked my credentials and waved me into the members' area. It is quiet and clean and has an enormous spread of food and drinks, all included. Fruit, cheese, eggs, Spanish tortillas, coffee machines galore, fresh bread, and more, plus a room with plush chairs where you could put up your feet and drink some of the available wine, which I would do if it weren't 9 am. The only thing better than realizing that common people aren’t so bad is making myself another café con leche in my private lounge area and watching the common people waiting in line at the Starbucks. Oops, gotta go. Looks like the pastries are just coming out of the oven.