Then, on Monday, it was off to Spain. We left the apartment early - around 7:10 for our 9:30 flight. There is a direct bus from the train station (a 5 minute walk) to the airport. The bus only takes 13 minutes and runs every 15 minutes, so we were comfortable that we had plenty of time. Well, we waited over a half hour and the only bus we saw for the airport drove straight through the bus stop and did not stop. Someone near me mentioned that they had been waiting over an hour for an airport bus. Now we started to panic! All that extra time we had allowed was evaporating.
Along came a local bus headed for the airport and we jumped on it. It took over 30 minutes to get to the airport. We added to this the unnecessary step of getting off a little early and taking the free airport shuttle to get to our terminal. We rushed through the terminal to find out check-in desk. We were flying Baboo Airlines (no joke!) - a Swiss airline. It was hard to find but we finally got checked in and got rid of our bags. Through all this we had been lugging two very heavy suitcases (I have done a bunch of shopping) and several smaller bags and a rolling computer case with two laptops in it. My whole body ached that night from the effort.
Okay, so now that we are checked-in, we proceeded towards the gate and discovered a huge line at security. We now have just 35 minutes to get to the gate....very stressful. Fortunately, the line is moving along nicely, but it is so long. I'm not at all sure we are going to make it. Out of nowhere a security person appears and takes a whoel bunch of us out of the long line over to a new line that is empty. What a godsend. We are now second in line. Phew. That was a close one.
The flight to Geneva was uneventful and comfortable. We had almost two hours in the very swanky Geneva airport to grab some lunch. The shops were amazing: Mont Blanc, Hermes, Ralph Lauren, and expensive jewelry store after jewelry store. Needless to say, we didn't do any shopping but headed for the food court area. We managed to security an okay lunch (pizza for me, cheeseburger and fries for Larry and two cokes). All this for just over $40 !! I know airports are expensive places to eat but that was ridiculous!
We got a great view of the Valencia area as we came in. The city is surrounded by a patchwork of fields and orange groves. They actually grow Valencia oranges here (duh!). They grow a lot of different kinds of produce here.
We took a taxi to the apartment and were met by the sister of the guy we are exchanging with. She showed us around the really lovely and modern apartment and took us to the nearby car park and showed us the car. We are going to be very comfortable here. The apartment is very well appointed, very clean and new, despite being in an old buidling. And it is AIR CONDITIONED! which is wonderful as it is hotter here than in Nice by about 8-10 degrees. Our apartment is on the 5 floor of the white building in the top left below.
Right next to the station, was the bull ring. We will not be going to a bull fight here, but the building looked impressive.
We walked home discovering several grocery stores along the way, picked up some sandwich makings and snacks and went home to collapse for the evening. It had been a hard trip with all that luggage and stress and we were both tired. Exploring Valencia further would have to wait until tomorrow.
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