May 2, 2024 to May 3, 2024
Vancouver to Bilbao
I can’t remember starting a trip to Europe this late in the day. There’s always an overnight flight in the mix and this time, it’s the first one, YVR to AMS, scheduled for 17:50 and delayed to 18:20, with no first connection in Calgary, Toronto, or Montreal.
So we had time this morning for a leisurely breakfast and no need to rush about. I like it this way!
Our taxi and Canada Line travel to YVR went smoothly, the airport was quiet, and check-in and security were fast and easy. Hoping the whole trip flows like this!
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1 week ago
The first, long flight was okay. Even the food was pretty good for economy (I hear business class is better). Unfortunately, the seats in front of us were occupied by a small child and her parents and, as soon as the cabin lights went down to encourage passengers to sleep, she started babbling and “singing” quite loudly. She continued for hours, despite her parents’ attempts to shush her. I suspect, had they tried more forcefully, the result might have been a full-on tantrum and worse than the noises she was making, which were at least happy noises. Even so, neither Al nor I got more than about half an hour of sleep, nor did anyone else in our area of the plane unless they had effective earplugs or noise-cancelling headphones.
Amsterdam Schiphol airport was efficient and two hours was more than enough time to make our connection.
Finally, the last relatively short hop to Bilbao. We both had another nap, feeling very sleep-deprived by the time we arrived. Luckily the Bilbao airport is small and easy to navigate. The only non-obvious part is that “special luggage”, which includes bicycles, is brought to carousel 0, just to passengers’ right as you enter the baggage hall.
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After a short taxi ride to the hotel, we dropped our luggage and headed out for a walk, more to force our bodies to start adjusting to the 9-hour time change than anything else. We saw the Abando train station, the Decathlon, and several blocks of bars serving beer, wine, sangria, and other aperitifs to groups of locals.
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