At home again
When we flew home, we took a limo from the airport to our house in Bethalto. It seemed like a good way to end an amazing adventure.
Shortly after that we visited my parents, who were pretty glad to get us back in the States!
7/8 - 7/9 London
When Randy came to Spain to spend a couple of months, he wanted a car with air conditioning. The guy who leased cars to our company didn't have one, so he went out and bought a brand new car for us. I felt bad about that, thinking that when we left he would be stuck paying off this car that nobody wanted to rent. I didn't need to worry. When we dropped the car off at the airport, it never even got back to the lot; one of the managers at Continental immediately leased it back out. I guess they were just waiting for me to turn it in.
As part of our trip back to the US, we planned a long weekend in London. We flew from Spain to London on the same plane as Mario, who wanted to rent a car for us. We told him we didn't want one but he insisted. We got a Cosworth, dark maroon, very fast, and of course the steering wheel was on the right side. Randy drove it from the airport to our hotel, parked it in the parking lot, and from there on we used the tube system. The subway is a very good system, and cheap with an all-day pass.
We toured the Tower of London. The big "White Tower" is the most recognizable part; this section is visible from the River Thames.
Later we walked over London Bridge again. Before this year I didn't know that it has such pretty blue cables.
Then we walked through London, by Westminster and Parliament.
And we walked the length of Fleet Street, which eventually leads to beautiful St. Paul's Cathedral.
Piccadilly Square is always full of people; of course, a lot of them are tourists.
We saw some charming London Pubs, invitingly picturesque.
London's iconic black Fairway cabs were everywhere.
As part of our trip back to the US, we planned a long weekend in London. We flew from Spain to London on the same plane as Mario, who wanted to rent a car for us. We told him we didn't want one but he insisted. We got a Cosworth, dark maroon, very fast, and of course the steering wheel was on the right side. Randy drove it from the airport to our hotel, parked it in the parking lot, and from there on we used the tube system. The subway is a very good system, and cheap with an all-day pass.
We toured the Tower of London. The big "White Tower" is the most recognizable part; this section is visible from the River Thames.
Inside are the Crown Jewels, displayed safely behind glass. Since no photos are allowed, I had to make do with a postcard. Funny, the jewels don't seem to shine as much in reality as they do in the postcards.
We visited the London Dungeon. This is not old, it's a new exhibition aimed squarely at tourists, but I loved it.
We also took the “Jack the Ripper” walking tour in Whitechapel, to the sites of horrific murders and a summation of "who done it". The answer? Nobody knows.
Farewell at the Farmhouse
When it was time for me to leave Spain, the group of people I worked with took Randy and me out to dinner at the Old Farmhouse, near Asua. This was probably the best restaurant in the area. Since they didn't take reservations before 9pm we had a late dinner, but we were used to that by then. It was a great meal, and afterwards the my co-workers were kind enough to give me some presents, to commemorate my stay in Bilbao.
I am so glad I got the chance to meet these people, who made me feel welcome and helped me do my job. On one side of the table sat Jeff, Rita, Mario, Stephan and his wife, and Santi.
On the other side of the table were Edwardo, Inyaki, Mercedes, Anna and Tapia.
I will always look back on my time in Spain as one of the most wonderful times of my life, and all these people helped make it that way.
Bilbao fair
One evening we joined Rita and Tony to visit a fair, just outside of Bilbao. There were some rides and a wine booth that we checked out, but we thought it might be a good idea to skip those.
On our way out of the fair we passed a booth with some local bull-fighting posters pinned up. As we walked by I was wishing I had one of those; suddenly I decide to go back and ask the guy if I could have one. He didn't speak much English but he understood enough to know what I was asking, and he generously gave me one. It became one of my favorite things.
7/01 - emergency trip home
I got a call from home telling me that my maternal grandmother had passed away. I loved her dearly but this was not entirely unexpected. She had lived a long life and I was sure she was ready to go. But I was very worried about my mother. She was very close to her mom, and this was a hard blow to her. I really needed to be there for her. The funeral was going in a couple of days, in Missouri.
I spoke with management about this and they agreed to pay for our round-trip tickets. The company travel agent worked to find us a flight, but there was some kind of festival going on and every flight she checked was fully booked. We asked about getting a flight out of Madrid, figuring we could drive there, but there just wasn't anything that would work; anything available from Madrid required a ton of driving and bad seats that would leave me so tired that I would be useless to Mom. The travel agent finally found a couple of first class seats for us from Bilbao. Now first class on an international flight was really pricey. I hesitated to ask the company to pay for them, but I didn't have any other reasonable option. I realized I needed to agree to book that flight quickly, before someone else got it, so I said we would take it.
Randy and I packed that night and boarded the plane the next day. First class was upstairs, and we were the only people there. I learned that the food in first class is quite a bit different - the stewardess kept offering us all food and drink we wanted, including lots of vodka and caviar. And I was relieved to have enough room to stretch out in; I was able to get some sleep on the flight. I knew that when we landed we would have a long drive to meet the family, and I would need to be alert to support Mom.
I was so glad that I was able to be with Mom; burying her mother must have been like a nightmare to her, but having her family with her made it bearable.
It was a short trip; we flew in one day, attended the funeral the next, and the day after that Randy and I were on another flight back to Spain. Not first class this time, but that was fine.
I spoke with management about this and they agreed to pay for our round-trip tickets. The company travel agent worked to find us a flight, but there was some kind of festival going on and every flight she checked was fully booked. We asked about getting a flight out of Madrid, figuring we could drive there, but there just wasn't anything that would work; anything available from Madrid required a ton of driving and bad seats that would leave me so tired that I would be useless to Mom. The travel agent finally found a couple of first class seats for us from Bilbao. Now first class on an international flight was really pricey. I hesitated to ask the company to pay for them, but I didn't have any other reasonable option. I realized I needed to agree to book that flight quickly, before someone else got it, so I said we would take it.
Randy and I packed that night and boarded the plane the next day. First class was upstairs, and we were the only people there. I learned that the food in first class is quite a bit different - the stewardess kept offering us all food and drink we wanted, including lots of vodka and caviar. And I was relieved to have enough room to stretch out in; I was able to get some sleep on the flight. I knew that when we landed we would have a long drive to meet the family, and I would need to be alert to support Mom.
I was so glad that I was able to be with Mom; burying her mother must have been like a nightmare to her, but having her family with her made it bearable.
It was a short trip; we flew in one day, attended the funeral the next, and the day after that Randy and I were on another flight back to Spain. Not first class this time, but that was fine.
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