Off to Casablanca

The entire process of getting here actually went pretty well. There was a bit of a mess at Tucson Airport because earlier flights to Dallas had been delayed and were still boarding when I arrived. My flight, though, was on time, so there were no issues getting to Dallas.

I was early, as I normally hate tight connections, so I had a couple hours to spend in the Dallas airport. I know it was a cold day outdoors in Dallas, but that was the most frigid damn terminal I have ever been in. I sat there reading my book, with just my shirt and a sweater, and was freezing to death. I had more clothes in my suitcase, but I had just checked that all the way through to Casablanca. I actually went into a couple of shops just to see if it was warmer in there.

Flying premium economy sure makes the process of flying across the Atlantic a whole lot easier. After boarding the 777 heading for Madrid, I settled in, and after the first hour or so of flight, dinner was served. Maybe I had a glass of wine, maybe I didn’t.

I’ve seen a lot in the news lately about the movie called Emelia Perez. It was on the list of free movies on board, so I decided to try it. It certainly was different, and I can see why it may have been nominated for best picture. It’s a story of crime and corruption told in kind of an upbeat rap format. With some controversial subject matter as well, it’s not for everybody.

After all the dishes were collected, and my movie was finished, I put my seat back, took my Skechers off, and drifted off to sleep with my headphones and sleep mask in place. Again, it got too cold on the airplane during the night. I had my sweater and warm socks on, pulled the provided blanket around me and still would have preferred to have had one more layer.

When I woke up and looked out the window, it was already starting to get light. We had great views of the city of Madrid as we approached the airport, and as a matter of fact, also when we left.

We were about a half an hour late arriving, and I was feeling the stress of an already-tight connection to catch my plane to Casablanca. I normally pride myself on being pretty good with directions, and have managed to negotiate many different airports around the world, but boy, did I have trouble at this one.

My Iberia Airlines flight to Casablanca was leaving from gate S32. After going through passport control, somehow, I got turned around, thinking I was in the wrong terminal, and took the underground train to the other terminal. It didn’t feel right, and in fact, I hesitated to get on the train because I didn’t think it was right, but then the doors were closing and I didn’t want to miss the chance.

Well, it turned out that my instincts were right and the train was the wrong choice. It’s only a five minute train ride from one terminal to the other (but it seemed like ten) so I thought, “Oh, no problem. I’ll just get back on the train in the other direction and get back to the correct terminal.” Wrong!

There was no way to do that without actually going outside the controlled area and then coming back in through security. My backpack needed to be screened, and I had to have my passport stamped a second time. As you can imagine, I was feeling a little tense. But I finally got back on the train, got to the right terminal and ran for my gate. I arrived just as they were boarding my group number. Whew! That had a lot of potential for disaster.

The flight to Casablanca was routine, and I had some nice views of the coast and of the city as we approached the airport.

I had used booking.com to arrange the ride from the airport to my downtown Marriott Hotel. Because I was getting in a day earlier than the official arrival date for our group, I decided to stay one night at the Marriott instead of the group hotel. I had Platinum points available, and sure enough, they upgraded me to a very nice room, and invited me to the members’ happy hour and breakfast. It was 23 hours, almost exactly, between the time I rolled out of my garage and the time I checked into my room here.

I’m going to hit that happy hour in a few minutes. Hopefully there are some snacks or light food involved after which I’m going to retire to my room and watch the version of Casablanca that I downloaded on my iPad. I don’t imagine I’m going to have any trouble falling asleep tonight.

I did take a walk around the neighborhood and visited one of the markets just to get a sense of the city.

Here are some more of the colorful views from today: