Sat continued

Managed our way through Edinburgh airport.  Panic set in when we realised that boarding commenced at 16.35 - would the National be over by then or would we have to wait until Madrid to find out who'd won £10 from our mini sweep.

Peace restored when we discovered a TV en route to the gate as can be seen in the photo.  Comply or Die won and our winner wasn't even watching!  David was the lucky recipient - drinks on him tonight!

Our Easy-Jet plane had a very quick turn around - all of 10 mins - but there were plenty of seats to go round.  Ronnie the rabbit who is accompanying Lee even managed to have his own seat.  Colin was determined to be the last on board but he was pipped at the post by a late arrival.  His argument for being last - you tend to get a good aisle seat near the front.

We had a Spanish crew including the delightful Carlos who had a fit of the giggles during the safety demonstration.  Surely that's not part of the training.  Confusion arose during the visit of the drinks trolley - new price and product list but they were working on old stock.  Carlos struggled with the maths and tried to give Liz more change.  He thought she was very honest when the £5 note was returned.

Liz and I are convinced we had a near miss about halfway through the journey.  A plane was nearby and its exhaust fumes were not fluffy and white but very dark and sinister looking (if it was a car it looked like a major oil problem).  The suspect plane was approaching rapidly from our left and our plane was continuing on course.  Both of us expected our pilot to begin to ascend very rapidly - nothing happened so we held our breaths.  The other plane passed very closely below us and there seemed to be some slight turbulence.  Nothing was said or done - maybe we were the only people who had spotted it.  Maybe we'll find out in a couple of months when there's a news story about a near miss that happened 3 months ago!

Brilliant sunset as we landed at Madrid airport and we had bags collected and through customs in less than half an hour.  It took us almost half an hour to get to the metro station and about 45 mins to get to our hotel for the night.  Google Maps indicated we had to cross a roundabout and a busy dual carriageway.  Yes, Google can get it wrong - it was a simple 2 min walk across a back road that looked like it was the station's staff car parking area.

The hotel was impressive - lots of marble and steps.  Rooms were very good although it was slightly spooky to have the TV on and welcoming you by name as you walked in the room.

Quick 15 mins turn around and it was down to the bar for much needed refreshments.  This was our first lesson in Spanish but at least we know grande means large and pointing works wonders.  Midnight saw us off to bed for an 8.00 am breakfast ready to leave at 8.30 am.