Spain 2026-07,

Spain 2,

Sept 21a, 2026,

Hi Everyone,

Yesterday was really ‘a longdays journey into night’. Although far from my 36 hour, door to door voyage that I did last year for my trip to Israel, 21 hours is still rather long for an experienced traveler like myself. Dominique drove me to Trudeau Airport at 2:30 arriving 3 hours ahead of schedule. I had the ‘Yul Express app’ which allows you to skip the line, saving a few minutes. Once through customs, I went over to the BNC private lounge where I have privileges. Unfortunately, many others also have privileges so I had to cool my heels in a regular chair for 30 minutes waiting for the invite to go in. I began my trip in the middle of the afternoon with a Bloody Mary and a piece of cake. What the heck, I am not operating on anyone today, don’t have to drive anywhere or fly the plane, do I might as well enjoy myself.

I had a direct flight to Madrid, but unfortunately the take off time was 5:55 pm. I usually prefer to leave at 11:00 pm which allows me to go asleep and wake up 7 hours later in Europe in the morning. With a 6 o’clock take off time, I didn’t fall asleep until 11:00 and only had 1.5 hours of sleep before arrival. I sat with a lovely girl from Quebec who was flying to Spain to meet her father. He is doing a 300 k walk and she will accompany him for 200 k to be done in 10 days. The walk to Santiago d Compostela is very well known and I will perhaps try to visit it when I am here. (By car, not on foot)

I took a shuttle bus from T1 to T4 with my 2 bags bumping along with minimum trouble. I find that people are very willing to help a short old white haired gentleman with 2 bags of luggage. The shuttle took me to the Madrid train station where I had a cappuccino in a restaurant waiting for my train. I boarded a train high speed train to Pontevedra which took 3 hours. I was able to cat-nap for a couple of hours. From Pontevedra I took a local bus to Vivo airport to pick up my car. I didn’t have any change for the bus, so a kind American lady paid my 1.3 Euro fare, Who ever said that Americans are not nice.

I picked up my Hertz rent a car at the airport and drove to Pontevedra and then to Meana where I am staying. I arrived at 5:00 rather exhausted from the lack of sleep. I am staying in a hotel-apartment with a pool and exercise room. I left the hotel at 9;30 to get a bite to eat in town. The locals go out to eat at 10:00 pm. There are a lot of Spanish tourists here but no Americans, Germans, Chinese or English. Supper consisted of a fish empanada and a salad with a glass of local beer and wine. The portions are very large

I got lost. The roads here are 1 lane wide and it is pitch black after 10:00. A drove around for 1 hour thinking that I might have to sleep in my car. My GPS lady was totally lost and my phone didn’t have a local SIM card. Finally I saw a couple sitting on their balcony at 12:00 am enjoying the evening. I called out to them and they directed me to my hotel. 50m away. I must have passed it 10 times. I went to sleep at 1:30 am.

Love,

Brian