Hitting the dusty trail again

Well, my birthday came and went without any ill effects, and as of 3:45 this morning, we're on our way to Spain. The hideous hour is necessary because Ryanair (one of Europe's low-cost airlines) keeps its flights cheap by flying at strange hours to the strange airports it flies to. Since more of the low-cost airlines fly from Pisa than from Florence (well, actually, more of the regular airlines fly from there, too), the trip to the airport involves about a mile or so walk to the Santa Maria Novella train station in Florence (no buses operate at that hour), a 1 1/2 hour train trip to Pisa, and then the 2-hour flight from Pisa to Barcelona. The airport we're flying to (again, this is a Ryanair thing) is Girona, about 70km north of Barcelona. To split the difference, we booked a hotel in between, in Lloret de Mar. It's right on the coast, so it should be a nice place to hang out.

After getting off the plane, we waiting in an interminable line at the Hertz rental counter--seems the system was running a bit slow. Our patience was rewarded, however, with an upgrade to a Renault Magane instead of the tiny hamster-powered car we'd booked, and it's pretty nice. It's also diesel-burning, which seems odd but is obviously very common in Spain. Gets some nice pick-up on the roundabouts, too.

Once we had the car, we drove north. One of us noticed that the French border was just about 75 km away, and so we thought, hey... what a cool place to go for lunch. Then, having no other agenda for the day, I persuaded (though it wasn't all that hard) Harry to stick in southern France for the day, and we drove on toward Tolouse, home of the Airbus plant and the test facility for the behemoth A380. The drive was gorgeous, and in a couple of hours (allowing for a few twists and turns), we were at the airport, looking for anything that resembled a super-jumbo aircraft. Somehow, we found the active runway, and a cool spot right at the threshold where we were able to watch the arrivals at close range. The only drag about this spot was that it was totally backlit at this time of day, but it was still fun, and I even found a spotter's platform with a couple of guys there taking pictures over the fence. Incredibly, one of them-a French chap with a Canon set-up similar to mine, asked (in French) if I'd like to see a spot on the other side of the airport. Of course I did, and after collecting Harry, we drove around the end of the runway to the opposite side, parked, and walked up a short hill to a spot at the top. It had an unbelievable view of the taxiway, the touchdown point, and--as a bonus--full sun that made for great photography.

Needless to say, I was having a blast clicking away, but the best was still yet to come. Soon, a Virgin Atlantic A340-so new it wasn't yet painted-was taxiing by for a run-up test. A few minutes later, a Turkish A330 did a high-speed taxi and brake test on the runway. Then, when I thought things couldn't get any better, Beluga Five, one of Airbus's five Super Transporters, began a slow roll toward us, preparing for its takeoff to Hamburg, Germany. The Beluga is a wild-looking airplane; it's used to ferry large assemblies (like fuselages) from one Airbus plant to another, and its enormous fuselage is the widest of any transport except, possibly, for the Antonov AN-225. I got some great shots of it taxiing by, then as it made its takeoff roll and lifted off into the blue sky. It was the weirdest-looking aircraft I've ever photographed.


Unfortunately, it was getting late in the afternoon by this time, so we had to bid my new friend good-bye and head back south to Spain. It was a lovely drive and we were treated to a beautiful sunset. Soon, we were in Lloret de Mar and hunting around for the hotel. We found it-right on the waterfront overlooking the Mediterranean-and although it isn't exactly the Ritz, it's clean and has a wonderful bathroom with GREAT water pressure. Funny how those little things can mean SO much.

Ciao for now,
Leanne