It has been three days since I last posted. You will remember in the prior scintillating entry we had overcome the defenses Sweden had erected to prevent de-I blog posting. The mighty citadel of Lund University had succumbed and we had returned victorious to Copenhagen.
So what has happened since?
Travel. Transit. Turmoil. Travails.
After a rest day on Monday, we said our goodbyes to the #3 clan and on Tuesday we flew back to Madrid, Spain. No major issues there, other than driving our new rental car down a deep, narrow (it's Europe remember) ramp underground into the hotel parking garage only to find a metal door baring our way with no obvious way to get in, I will spare you the story of Wife trudging up the driveway, to the hotel reception and finally our getting the door open. (Or I guess NOT spare you).
Wednesday was the big day. We we were scheduled to meet up with the two grandchildren of the #1 clan. We arranged for them to fly from San Francisco to Madrid where we will take them back out to the Alicante area, though in a different locale from our stay in El Campello.
This was a first for the grandchildren 1.1 and 1.2 (18 and 13 respectively) in terms of flying on their own such a long distance, particularly on an international flight. Since we had arrived in Madrid, we were able to give them detailed instructions on how to navigate getting through the large airport, passport control, and where to meet up with us. 1A had made sure they had a phone that would be able to communicate with us when they landed. They were scheduled to arrive just after 2pm. Once they made their way out, (if you've never traveled internationally, it can take an hour or so to make your way through everything), we had a four hour drive ahead of us to get to our new destination, an area between La Villajoiosa and Benidorm to the north.
All the planning went incredibly smoothly. The plane was a tiny bit late. We timed our arrival at the airport well. We had no problems finding parking or getting to the international arrivals area. As planned we got our WhatsApp communications from them that they were at the gate, at passport control, and then on the train to the main terminal, and exiting.
We coordinated our meeting them in the very crowded arrival area. And we happily met...with one slight problem. 1.1 looked terrible. It turned out she had been very sick on the plane the last half of the flight. She'd throw-up at least five times. She looked like she was ready throw-up that moment!
We quickly surveyed the area and found a place she could sit down in relative quiet. I conferred with Wife. There was no way it was going to benefit 1.1 to have another 4 hours of transportation movement. Wife and I decided to call an audible. I got on my phone to the Booking.com app. I found a suites hotel with a 2 bedroom offering just little ways from the airport for less that $300 for the night including breakfast. I texted the rental property manager an told her we would be a day late.
It was a good call. 1.1 had gotten no sleep. She took a shower, feeling much better afterwards, and then went right to sleep. There turned out to be no restaurant where we were staying. But we were not that far from our hotel of the prior evening where we'd had a good meal, so we walked there.
While the hotel was as good an option as we could have hoped for, I had a difficult time sleeping, not ideal before having to do a long drive. But all was well and on Thursday we arrived early enough to go do a supermarket run and get ourselves settled in.
2 comments:
Having a working phone to coordinate makes all the difference. I really appreciated that my current plan works in multiple countries, unlike when we visited Spain with you...
poor 1.1, glad she recovered quickly from all that!
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