Bad news - our flight was scheduled to leave at 7:00 and we were not sure how long it would take to get to the airport nor how long it would take to get to the airport or to check in, so we arranged to have a cab pick us up at 3:30. We were a bit worried whether the cab driver would be on time, but he was and we were in the airport in 30 minutes (€60 cab ride). Good news, for the return flight we were booked in Iberia business class so we were able to make use of the Olympic Airlines business class lounge.
Bad news, once we boarded I realized I had left my iPad at the gate in a charging station. Good news, the gate attendant was kind enough to run back and get it.
Good news, the flight was on time. Bad news, this was by far the worst business class I have ever seen. I don't think the food was different - either way it was not very good - and the seats may have had an extra few inches of leg room but that's it. All they did to make it "business class" was to leave the center of the 3 seats empty.
Thankfully it was a short and uneventful flight to Madrid where we had a scheduled layover. Bad news, the layover was for 8 hours. Good news, as they checked out luggage through the next flight we could spend the day visiting Madrid and take in one more city. We were afraid they would make us get our bags between flights which would have ruined this plan.
Once we arrived at Madrid we went through customs and took the train to the Sol station in the center of Madrid. It cost €5 each (€20 total) and took about an hour. (On the return trip at the end of the day we took a cap which took 20 minutes and cost €30. My advice - take a cab).
Our first order of business was to find a vegan/vegetarian friendly restaurant for lunch. No mean feet in a city that none of us knew where the language was one none of us speak. But we found one - although they were just opening and we had to wait a bit to be served.
We just tooled around Madrid for a couple of hours taking in the sights. Madrid is a lovely city with lots of old time charm.
Well, that was the end of our trip. For the last leg of our flight we flew in "real" business class - even with the fold-flat seats. As we were leaving Madrid Andie looked out the window of the plan and commented on the clouds. They were - and I am not exasperating - the first clouds we had seen on the entire trip. This was a fantastic trip and I hope you enjoyed reading about it.
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