Sometimes I feel as if I’m too old for this travel lark. Travelling for 18 hours straight was how we got from Barcelona to Quito, between flights, delays, time at Madrid airport – God I’m so sick of that airport. Our flight to Quito was delayed by 1 hour and 20 mins. So Hubs and I decided to get a bite to eat while we waited. We didn’t realise that they decided to change the delay to one hour only, bringing the departure time forward. That never happens!! Little did we know. We sauntered up to the departure gate, a little perplexed as to why there was no one there, just to be told by the snotty nosed stewardess that we were the last passengers and that she had to radio to the pilot to check that we could still be let on the plane.
WHAT?!! We were shocked~! How could this be the case? I explained to snot-nose that because the flight was delayed, we went and grabbed some lunch, that’s all. Anyway, after a very nervous wait, the pilot radioed back and gave permission to let us on the flight. PHEW! That was a close call! We got on the plane to the sounds of ‘tuts tuts’ from some holier-than-thou business class passengers. As it turned out, stupid Madrid airport only had one runway operating, so we were stuck on the tarmac and our take off delayed by about an hour!!
I had the worst seat. Number 2 in a row of four, with an active noisy 3-year old behind me, who thought it was fun to kick the chair in front of her. GRRRR. I had to ask her Spanish parents twice to please stop. A couple of times I was almost asleep, then ‘bang!’ from behind. I could have locked that kid in the toilet for the duration of the flight and not felt guilty about it I was so mad!
It was endurance travel to say the least. The flight from Madrid to Quito took 12 hours. 12 HOURS!! In the worst seat on the plane. Thankfully I had a little Ecuardorian man next to me who did not encroach on my space at all. At least that was one good thing. Arriving at the airport was funny – there were huge crowds at Quito airport – whole families there to welcome home loved ones. It was really nice! Everyone we came across – the taxi booking girl, the taxi driver, and hotel staff all seemed really nice and friendly.
My first impression of Quito, from the seat of a cab, is that it’s a nice clean city. The buildings looked in good shape, houses looked very liveable by our standards, and the roads were in good condition. Quito was in better shape and any Egyptian city we went too!
We had booked ourselves into the Royal Radisson Hotel in Quito for one night. Thank the Lord we had a nice hotel with fabulous beds and soft linen. Aaaaahhh. We checked into our hotel about 7pm, and I was showered, in bed and snoozing by 8pm. We were both spent. Our tour agent was picking us up at 6.45am the next day to take us to the airport to catch a flight to the Galapagos Islands and getting some sleep was the most important thing.
I love posh hotels and the Royal Radisson delivered just what I needed.