Cadiz; Thursday, 16 March, 2017

Having worked from home in the morning I was on a lunchtime train up to Clapham and then back out to Feltham, reaching Heathrow in almost record time as every part of the journey connected smoothly.

I had an equally smooth journey through the airport, albeit a lengthy one as the plane was parked out at one of the satellite terminals so I had to take the shuttle train out to it. To make things more interesting BA had the flight showing as boarding on the screens in the main terminal building and there were quite a few people running down the escalators to catch the shuttle – the same one I ended up catching without the need to hurl myself down a very long escalator. However, in the B terminal the screens were all still showing the more benign go to gate.

It did ensure that everyone was at the gate on time and consequently at the exact time we were due to push back the plane was moving away from the gate and out to join the long queue on the taxiway.

It was another 30 minutes before we finally made it to the far end of the runway and could take off into the clear skies of a lovely spring day in London and head towards Madrid.

Just under two hours later and again on time to the minute the plane touched down and pulled up at the gate in Madrid. As we were out on the Terminal 4 Satellite Terminal it was a lengthy walk through the terminal, onto the shuttle train and then through the main terminal to baggage reclaim, where my bags still hadn’t arrived by the time I got there.

Thankfully the bags came around only a couple of minute after arriving and I could head out of the baggage hall and pretty much the same time the half hourly shuttle bus to the hotel must have been leaving, as I didn’t see anything when I got outside, but I ended up having to wait over 25 minutes for the bus to turn up so I must just have missed the previous one.

As the bus had to serve all the terminals it was quite a lengthy bus ride, especially as nobody got on at any of the other terminal stops, to reach the hotel. I quickly checked in, dropped my bag in my room and headed back down for dinner.

I’d decided, rather than trying to hunt out somewhere local to eat – or head into central Madrid and really show I was a tourist by eating several hours before the locals – to head down to the hotel restaurant and dine in there.

After a very pleasant meal I had a quick drink in the bar before turning in for the night.