We discovered that PDX is a very busy place at 5:30 am. What are all these people doing up this early?!!! And not one person wearing pajamas - unlike my last visit to Walmart.
We had a stopover in Dallas, where we checked emails, listened to audiobooks (Library2Go - such a deal!), and generally hung out until our flight to Madrid left.
The plane we took from Dallas to Madrid was very new (in contrast to the one from Portland to Dallas that was so old it had ashtrays in the armrests) - our seat belts had shoulder harnesses, which was a first. We used a bucketload of frequent flier miles for business class, which is a treat - my own "pod" with storage, a recliner seat that stretched out flat, and what seemed like hundreds of movies to choose from (John watched several, but I opted to listen to my audiobook - I love Library2Go!).
We arrived in Madrid right on schedule. Barajas airport is vast - and empty. I should have taken pictures, but my camera wasn't out and I was busy walking down seemingly miles of empty hallways, through several unused baggage claim rooms - it was almost eerie. When we went through passport control, we didn't have time to get our passports out before we got to the window- there was only one person ahead of us in line. That's never happened before!
Picked up our rental car - a new Volvo CX60. We'll get a picture of it tomorrow. It's very nice, except that the diesel motor shuts off automatically whenever you stop without putting it in park. It also came with GPS, and since John got a chip for Spain for his portable GPS, as well, we had tandem directions getting to Toledo (about an hour south of Madrid).
We've been reading Rick Steves's guidebook to get oriented - this is a very old city - a center for the Romans, Visigoths, Moors, and Christians for about 1250 years, give or take a week. We're looking forward to checking it out tomorrow.
We had dinner here at the hotel and discovered just what Rick Steves meant when he said that Toledo is beautiful by day but magical by night - we had a table by a window overlooking the lit up cathedral and other major buildings. Spectacular!
We're staying at the Parador - one of the many crumbling historic buildings that Franco declared be fixed up and made into luxury hotels to promote tourism. He actually did something good - but, then, a stopped clock is correct twice a day.
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