On Saturday, I stayed late at Hostal Andorra, having breakfast and doing some work. I then realized there was an earlier Lufthansa flight to Frankfurt, so I packed up and took the Metro to Barajas, Madrid's airport. Unfortunately, since I had booked the ticket through United Airlines with frequent flyer miles, I could not change to an earlier flight on Lufthansa. So I spent about four hours in Club Sala at the airport. Instead of clubs for each airline, Barajas just has Club Sala and as a Gold Star Alliance member, I could use the club - great food, fast internet and much less crowded and much quieter than most United Clubs.
Saturday evening, it was raining when I got into Frankfurt. I took the ever efficient SBahn 8 train from the airport into the main train station - only ten minutes. And the Hamburger Hof Hotel is literally across the street, so I did not get very wet even though it was raining fairly hard. It is a great hotel and a very reasonable price and I will gladly stay there again - no need to have a shuttle to the airport, the public trains in Frankfurt are great.
Sunday morning, it was back to the airport. While flying on Lufthansa Saturday, they use my Gold Star status to give me Fasttrack - the TSA equivalent of Pre-Check. Yet on Sunday, flying United, no Fasttrack. Again I got to use the Lufthansa Senator Club - great food and internet, but busier and a little noisier that the Club Sala on Saturday.
The flight to Dulles Airport outside of Washington DC was uneventful. Dulles is not the nicest airport. While my Nexus got me through Immigration and Customs in no time, there was no TSA pre-check line, so it took longer to get through security than for the rest of my time at Dulles. And the flight from there to Portland was uneventful. It just was a long day getting back home to Portland.
Monday and Tuesday were spent dealing with the nine hour time difference, doing laundry and getting ready to travel again on Wednesday. But I did get out for some walks in the neighborhood - although not enough steps. Here are some of the interesting gardens I saw.
And some movie crew was getting ready to film in Laurelhurst Park.
So I successfully traveled to all the places I wanted - but that meant needing to get a new passport. My 24 page passport was completely filled in six years. So I did the paperwork for a new passport and this time got one with 48 pages - that means I need to start planning more trips!!!
Saturday evening, it was raining when I got into Frankfurt. I took the ever efficient SBahn 8 train from the airport into the main train station - only ten minutes. And the Hamburger Hof Hotel is literally across the street, so I did not get very wet even though it was raining fairly hard. It is a great hotel and a very reasonable price and I will gladly stay there again - no need to have a shuttle to the airport, the public trains in Frankfurt are great.
Sunday morning, it was back to the airport. While flying on Lufthansa Saturday, they use my Gold Star status to give me Fasttrack - the TSA equivalent of Pre-Check. Yet on Sunday, flying United, no Fasttrack. Again I got to use the Lufthansa Senator Club - great food and internet, but busier and a little noisier that the Club Sala on Saturday.
The flight to Dulles Airport outside of Washington DC was uneventful. Dulles is not the nicest airport. While my Nexus got me through Immigration and Customs in no time, there was no TSA pre-check line, so it took longer to get through security than for the rest of my time at Dulles. And the flight from there to Portland was uneventful. It just was a long day getting back home to Portland.
Monday and Tuesday were spent dealing with the nine hour time difference, doing laundry and getting ready to travel again on Wednesday. But I did get out for some walks in the neighborhood - although not enough steps. Here are some of the interesting gardens I saw.
And some movie crew was getting ready to film in Laurelhurst Park.
So I successfully traveled to all the places I wanted - but that meant needing to get a new passport. My 24 page passport was completely filled in six years. So I did the paperwork for a new passport and this time got one with 48 pages - that means I need to start planning more trips!!!
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