Hello Madrid

Following on from the previous post, I’m now in Madrid. The train ride from Valencia to Madrid was rather quick, look at that speed.

I did however discover i had booked a train going to the north of Madrid, not the southern station — about 40 minutes apart by metro, but no worries.

The hostel is very nice, exactly the sort of high quality I’d expect for the price (€50, you’d be paying twice that for a cheap worse hotel).

For everyone who has been asking, yes, I slept very well in the dorm. Everyone is respectful of noise, in fact I’ve stayed in hotels where the overall noise in the room (from AC and neighbours/street) was louder than this. 

Last night I went for a walk through the Sol district of the city, and to say it was busy is a vast understatement. 

Goodbye Valencia

Well, I’m terrible at keeping this up to date, but yesterday I took the trains to Madrid.

Cullera was a great place to visit, very beautiful. In the summer months the population goes up by an order of magnitude from all the Spanish and British people who own summer flats here.

Those condos are all basically empty during the winter.

Directly on the beach are smaller condos that apparently are occupied more often. Shockingly real estate prices are surprisingly low here. Makes it rather tempting!

I enjoyed the last few days here, and I thought I’d be spending my down time writing code — why else would I bring a heavy large laptop with me? — but instead I spent it working on my digital art. I’m assured that this is perfectly normal, there’s a history of artists holidaying in the south of France and Spain and being prolific in their works 😂.

My cousin has a lovely place about 20mins walk to the beach, and beautiful views of the river.

Reunited

In what I hope is the last post on my saga of getting my luggage, I am now in possession of it. It was even an experience at the airport where I ended up in a bunch of places, finally got sent airside and had a customs inspection of my bag for my troubles. They were kind enough to tell me that I had no contraband, such a wonderful free service!

Jack Reacher Plus

Bag update: While it’s at Valencia airport, the desk for picking up the bag is closed and regardless I can’t pickup the bag until BA put it through the next part of the system. Officially they haven’t found the bag, but the bag was on a flight this morning to Valencia (their words, they maintain they haven’t found it, but it was on a flight).

At this time I have to wait for an email that will provide me instructions on how and when to pickup the bag. 

The AirTag shows the bag is at the airport.

Back to the regularly schedule post…

Lee Child’s Jack Reacher (not the Tom Cruise imitation) is famous for travelling with a toothbrush, at most.

I’m no way ready for that, but going single carryon only is sorely tempting. The last few days have shown how I can do it, and with proper rolling of clothes I can fit a surprising amount in (not that I want to!). 

I’m sorely tempted once I get back in London in a couple of weeks to swap out some gear (as I was intending for Iceland), but rock just the carryon. If I can manage the cold of Iceland with just a carryon, then clearly I’ll be able to manage a lot of other parts of the trip.

Regardless of these plans, today I await the arrival of my backpack at Valencia airport. The AirTag is a curse and a blessing. I can see where it was 3 hours ago, which was Heathrow airport, but that was a full hour after it should have left Heathrow on the flight. 

As of when I write this, the plane landed 15 minutes ago, so hopefully the tag should update soon and I can head north to the airport. 

They found it!

BA just rang and they’ve found the bag! It should be in València airport tomorrow 

Bag update: none

My bag is still unmoving, and BA is still unwavering in saying it’s lost.

Circled in red is precisely where my bag is, according to my AirTag.  

Well that was a short trip (not really!)

British Airways have lost my bag. I can see it quite clearly using my Apple AirTag at Heathrow at baggage enquires, but talking to a human who could actually help is way more difficult than you could possibly imagine.

The lost bag report has been filed, I am most amused at what BA feel I could pack in my bag — they asked for a list of things it contains, and one of the items, well, see the last item in this picture 

Please BA, explain to me how passengers can pack weather, and yet nobody thinks to bring sunshine back to England from their holidays?!? 

So aside from questioning the nature of the environment and the ability to transport rain, wind, and sun, I am now faced with an uncertain future for my bag. The only hope is the AirTag.

(To clarify, I’m still in Spain, the trip continues, I’ll just hope that my bag eventually turns up)