Saturday, 10/8/05 11pm

Made it to Madrid and back, and had a blast! Found the U.K. Airliners.net contingent by nearly-quite literally-running into them on the moving walkway. My arrival into the lounge had been delayed by having to drive all over the airport on the terminal shuttle and THEN go through passport control for some reason, and so I was running to catch up with the rest of the group. As I hopped onto one of those moving sidewalks, I was being slowed down by a bunch of English folks who seemed preoccupied with the equipment they had just been flying on, and suddenly... it clicked.

The next couple of hours were an airplane geek's heaven: being able to wander slack-jawed through an international airport, in the company of people who didn't seem to think that sort of thing was odd. We hung out in the terminal cafeteria (good windows) while we waited for more of our brethren to arrive. By 1pm we'd collected most of the lot, which included members from the U.K., Spain, France, the Netherlands, and me from the U.S. Then, finally, we were ready to roll.

So we headed out-with Andy, our representative from the Isle of Man-driving. Of course Andy was on the wrong side of the road (for him), so I was quite impressed with his ability to navigate the streets of Madrid... he did a far better job that I would have been able to, and I'm used to driving on the right. In any case, after checking him out of a hotel on the opposite side of town (he would join the rest of the group that night), we proceeded to a spotting location that Alfonso (our guide from Spain) had showed Andy the day before. It was right near the taxiway, with arrivals coming from one direction, and departures headed the opposite direction, and the traffic was great-I got pictures of at least a half dozen airlines I had never seen before. Thus it went for the next couple of hours... about ten photographers were there in all, and we had a great time until, all to soon, I had to head back to the terminal for my flight back to Barcelona.

The ride home on Iberia was pleasant enough, but this trip was way too short, and I only got to read about the fun the rest of the crew had over the next couple of days. Still, it was a total kick to be able to jump over there and meet them, even if only for a few hours.

Until Amsterdam, that is... :-)

Bye,
Leanne