Travel

 ¡Por fin hemos llegado!

The end of the most hectic travel day has finally arrived! PHEEWWW! Let's just say that we left at 7 a.m. Colorado Springs time (3 p.m. in Madrid) YESTERDAY and arrived to Barajas airport in Madrid a whopping 24 hours later and to our hotel a large chunk of time after that. 

Here's some reasons for el viaje MUY LARGO with a few noteworthy moments of stress mixed in: 

1) Flight in Houston delayed about an hour due to air congestion in Newark. 
2) Flight in Houston delayed for "15 mins" (curse those words!) multiple times due to the thunderstorm that rolled in as we waited for the go ahead from air traffic control. 
3) When we finally got the go ahead to depart from Houston, our runway was closed down because there was a back up of  flights trying to depart - another delay of, roughly, "15 minutes". 
4) SO, we left Houston around 6 p.m. Newark time and had a connection in Newark that was to depart at 8:30 p.m. The flight takes about 3 hrs. You do the math. 
5) We arrived at the Newark airport around 9:15 p.m. (after being held in a circling pattern while an emergency aircraft landed), to receive the wonderful news that our next flight was delayed until 9:40 p.m. The catch - the gate wasn't ready for our flight from Houston yet. The wait to the gate (which led to a very important date with another plane!) would be...oh, about...none other than "15 minutes"!
6) At about 9:45 we deplaned and frantically ran about Newark (quite possibly passing our gate multiple times without noticing...ahemm....OOPS) trying to locate the flight (if it was even still there)
7) To our luck, the pilot for the flight to Madrid happened to be on our flight from Houston. HOWEVER, the air conditioning/heating for the plane was broken and maintenance took 4 hours to fix it. I think we departed around 1:30 a.m., Newark time. 
8) We finally arrived to MADRID! And guess what!? Our gate was ready for us and there were no further delays! ( :)
9) BUT WAIT! The adventure continues! Our hotel is on a "calle peatonal"(street for pedestrians), which means no taxis allowed! So, the taxi driver dropped us off by Plaza Callao and pointed us in the direction of the hotel. Let's just say that dad and I walked back and forth down "Calle Preciados" to find the "Hotel Preciados", following the mistaken directions of hotel staff from Best Western, a guy from the information booth, and even the local police. We finally asked a very personable street cleaner who outdid all of the aforementioned entities in giving accurate directions. WHO WOULDA THUNK?!

Well, after all that mess it's time to relax with the padre and gloat in the glory of having to survive only an afternoon instead of the originally scheduled full day (We were originally supposed to land in Madrid at 10 a.m.) on less than a quarter tank of energy . Oh the joys of travel delays working out in your favor!

Hasta pronto y un abrazo fuerte,
KO :)