More Plans

I wasn't as successful finding a cheap flight from Madrid to London as I was from Glasgow to Barcelona.  I looked at every option I could come up with, and the best I could do was an EasyJet flight from Madrid to London Gatwick for 177 euros.  Time is getting relatively short, and I was afraid it would only get worse, so I took it.  I guess I can't really complain, since everything else has come together pretty easily. 

After a lot of consideration, I ended up taking a slightly more expensive afternoon flight instead of the cheaper early morning one.  The cheaper one would have forced me to take a more expensive method to the airport, thereby negating any savings, but it would have given me a whole day in London.  I thought about it, but ultimately decided that it wouldn't be worth it, since I would have no place to leave my bag.  And any running around I might do in London would just increase my expenses. 

Instead, I will have a last lazy morning in Madrid.  If it's nice, I will go to Retiro Park.  If it's raining, I will visit the Prado or the Thyssen museum.  By the time I need to check out of the hotel, it will be time to head for the airport, so I will walk down to Atocha and catch the Airport Express bus.  Thanks to Lynda, I will be staying at the Westin Palace again (yay!), which is really handy for arriving from Barcelona and leaving for the airport, as well as all the major sightseeing.

Everything is decided except for three nights' lodging in Barcelona and one in London.  I also haven't booked a bus from Gatwick to Heathrow yet because I haven't figured out whether I will stay near Gatwick or Heathrow that night.  All in good time....

Planning Again!

Way back last year when I was at Vaughantown, some of us were talking about future travel plans (see, it never stops - even when I'm on a trip, I'm working on the next one).  I said that what would be fun would be to fly to London, meet up with Sue, travel together to Scotland to see Lisa (and Scotland, of course), and then the three of us go on to Spain.  I was building up airmiles on Virgin Atlantic, but really had no plans to go this year at all.. 

 

Then a series of things happened.  First, Lisa announced her civil partnership coming up in late July with the reception/party on Aug. 10, and she said it would be a good excuse to plan a trip.  When I said it was tempting, Sue commented that if I wanted to, she was up for it, too.  Still, I didn't have quite enough airmiles to get to London.  Then Virgin Atlantic had a sale.  The flights that normally cost 38,500 were on sale for 28,000 - and I had 35, 600.  So after a little more waffling, checking with Sue to make sure she was still in, and rallying other support, I got ready to book.  I could fly on Aug 7, but the only return choices I had were Aug 23 or 25.  That seemed like an awfully long time, particularly since I hadn't applied for a Vaughantown week so I would have to foot the bill for an extra week's lodging (horrors!).  The VT week that would fit into that schedule was full, but I went ahead and booked the 25th, so that if I did get into VT (I was waitlisted) I could accept it.  Coming back on the 23rd meant that it wouldn't be possible at all.

 

Then I got an email offering me a VT week at another location, one I wasn't terribly interested in.  I thought about it for a couple of days, then emailed to see whether there was any hope of getting into the other one before I accepted.  Lo and behold, I got an email back saying she just couldn't tell me no, and had "super squeezed" me into the one I really wanted!  So I had my excuse to go, and my excuse to stay till the 25th!

 

Sue and I started working on trains from London to Scotland, and I ended up booking one through Virgin Trains.  Virgin allowed me to use my Virgin Atlantic Amex (points for the purchase) AND I also got 2 miles per dollar spent because I am a VA Flying Club member.  Double score!
 

After a few days in Scotland, I plan to fly to Barcelona to see Jaime, one of the Spaniards from last year's program.  We intend to do some geocaching and see the sights of Barcelona, then I will take a high speed train to Madrid from there.  So I started looking for budget flights to get to Barcelona from London.  Instead, I found one from Glasgow on Ryanair.  And it was 39 GBP.  With a checked bag, it comes to 65.27 GBP, but it saves me a 55 GBP train back to London and a 52 GBP flight from there to accomplish the same thing!  It's starting to sound like it was meant to be, isn't it?  Well, except that I will be traveling on alone instead of with Sue and Lisa.

 

I still need to book a flight from Madrid back to London to come home, and the train from Barcelona to Madrid (but I am waiting for the discounted point at 40 days out).  Also, haven't dealt with accomodations in Barcelona, Madrid, or the last night in London, but I think things will all fall into place. 

Stay tuned....