The Trip: Day One

We have arrived in Spain. I have to say that plane rides are not my favorite thing in he world...neither is jet lag.

I think you have to see a transatlantic trip as one 36 hour day rather than as two short days, because it really is impossible to get decent sleep on a plane.

Funny side note: On the plane they gave a variety of health tips like stand up and do these excersizes. One thing that they said was to wear (not that anyone had a choice of what to wear once they got on the plane) natural fibers because they breath well and help your body cope with the flight. The funny thing is that the seats are made out of the most uncomfortable, prickly, SYNTHETIC fiber imaginable.

Anyway, I was disappointed that the plane didn´t have the individual movie screens on the back of the seat--if you have the choice fly British Airways or Virgin Atlantic rather than Iberian or one of the American carriers. Also the plane like most Airbus aircraft I have flown on was strangely deficient in the way of bathrooms. It had less than half as many as a decent Boeing jumbo jet--and te lines to use them were correspondingly long. Why can´t Europeans ever build enough bathrooms. The same is true in European cities. I always seem to end up running into McDonalds or Starbucks to avoid long lines and surcharges at other places.

For youo loyal readers of the Economist--Spain really is going through a constuction boom. Cranes litter the horizon in every direction. I have counted as many as thirty in view at one time and they are never out of sight.

More later...