Day 0 - In Transit

The Virgin Atlantic flight to London (LHR) was a joy.  Especially when compared to the flight from Toronto to San Francisco 3 days ago.  I was only in my own bed for two nights after cycling and spending time with family and friends in southern Ontario.  The VA 787 Dreamliner was spacious and many of the middle seats were empty like mine.  The crew were nice as well.  I give Virgin Atlantic a thumbs up.

My wife and middle son - taller than me - drove me to the airport and gave me a nice send off.  Preflight I had a very nice meal in the VA Lounge.  The food was actually good.

Coming into London this has been one of my best long flights ever.  3 movies and a few hours of sleep.  That's as good as it gets.

LHR past security is a mall.  This is a crazy place!  3 hours to kill before the Madrid flight.

I learned my first equipment lesson; wearing a money belt is just uncomfortable.  My pants have zipper pockets so I don't think I will wear it very often but it does make a nice little man-purse and probably good for taking stuff to the shower.  If it doesn't preform better than a plastic bag I may be giving it away at some point.

Was hoping the hotel shuttle bus was late by a few minutes but no such luck.  Just missed it and had to wait for 40 minutes with two other patrons.  Airport free WiFi reached the bus curb, at least.  

MAD is a huge airport.  Walked up to the wrong kind of immigration control and had to go another 100M after trying to scan my passport.  Immigration had a lot of terms I wasn't familiar with but it was still way faster than my other recent experiencs. I came in T4S and took a long ride on a bus/train thing to get to T4.

Shuttle finally came and now I can get a few hours of sleep laying down.  I booked a taxi back  to the airport for 8 hours from now.  I need to get some cash and the is an ATM a few blocks away.  First thing tomorrow.