First Impressions

Uuff. Travelling by plane is so stressful these days. Departure lounge was full, this being August, so that was to be expected.

Terrorism has made travel so painful these days. One has to take it with a different mentality.

"This way, this way!".

"The last table, the last table!"

"Belts off!" "All objects in the tray!"

"No, no, no!" This doesn't go here!" "Off!"

"Rucksack not in the tray! "Computers! Mobile phones!" "Yes, yes, yes!"

"This here! That there!" "Move, move, move!"

Phew!

Like herding animals to their pen.

And, as usual, when I stepped over the screening system, the alarm went off. No matter what I remove from my self, I am always subjected to a hand search. I'd expected this. I said, "Watch this. What's the bet that the alarm will go off?"

We laughed when it happened. You just had to take it that way, don't you?

Ten minutes before scheduled take-off, the PA went "Mr Diego so-and-so, please contact a member of the cabin crew, please."

Oh.

An important call? Bad news?

Five minutes before take-off, the captain came on, "We must apologise because someone has checked in but has failed to show up. For security reasons, we'll have to locate their luggage and until we do so, we won't be able to take off."

Damn, now we won't make that 21:00 bus!

Minutes later, a lady rushed in, hot and flustered. A flight assistant took her bag and tried to find an empty spot in the overhead cabins to shove it into.

I didn't know Diego could be a woman.

In any case, points to Vueling. There was hardly any delay.

Landing was perfect as it had been all the time I've flown with Vueling. Claimed our baggage. No problems either. Rushed out.

Weather was perfect too. Not too hot, not too cold. Bus was there to the right of the airport as I'd expected. People were boarding. We managed to get on. €1.45 was the fare per person. Just 5 cents off the published price. Internet prices seem to go out of date the moment they're up.

Suitcases heaved onto racks. Phones on. Yippee! Wifi on the bus. Not everyone knows this, of course. I'd tried it on the Granada trip but none of the ALSA buses I took had it. This time I was lucky. Tried password ALSAPREMIUM. No. Wrong!

Tried WALSA! Yes, yes, yes! Connected. Map on. Where are we? Wasn't it Murphy who said that the time you manage to get free wifi on the bus, your trip will be a short one?

I didn't keep track of the time, but it couldn't be more than 20 minutes when everyone went oohhhh! The sun was setting... To the right of us, this huge glittering monster loomed. I thought I was going to hate it. But, I must admit, Guggenheim was impressive. Bigger than I'd imagined. In the glow of the setting sun, it deserves to be the centre-point of Bilbao. Biscay.

Welcome to The Basque Country!

To be continued...