Espana

I had set up this blog on the plane.  When we found out we were on the flight to Ramstein so soon, I figured I’d just delete it; our plans changed.  Some Spanish observations:

The temperature had dropped and it was pretty cool.  Of course I was dressed for the high altitude, cold cabin – long underwear, long-sleeved tee, scarf, mohair sweater, wool coat (Remember this, it will figure in later.)  I went outside to walk.  A beautiful, full Spanish moon met me and I strolled under lines of tall palms, listening to Tori Amos on the iPod.  Perfect.

I sat up all night in the terminal, what there was left of “all night”, about 4 hours.  When the sky began to lighten I went outside and saw the sunrise on my left and that beautiful full moon against a dark sky on my right.

Our fellow travelers all still slept and visited in the terminal because they had to wait for the car rental agency to open.  The agent arrived and they all cheered.  The intense British lady stood visiting with us while her husband went to claim the car.  He drove up in one of those funny little European cars in lime green.  She shouted, “No! No!  Green won’t do.  Green is unlucky.  Green is very bad luck in Britain.”  When her husband came in to claim her and the bags, she talked him into going to the agent to trade the car.  The agent said, “Nothing to fear.  Green is very lucky in Spain.”  They left in the green car.

There is no customs station on base – it is run by and located at the local police station.  So we had to hire a taxi and drive into town to get our passports stamped in case we were not able to fly into Ramstein.  The reason?  (get this)  They close on the weekends and are only open Monday through Friday from 9:00 until 2:00.  So we carried all our papers inside.  There were several very smartly uniformed policemen standing there staring at us.  One of them marched over and said 386 words in Spanish in 18 seconds.  Then he looked at us and said, “Comprende?”  Steve and I turned into Lucy Ricardo and Fred Mertz.  We stared at each other and looked back and said together, “No.”  They all motioned for us to go sit down and went in search of the official who spoke our language.  He turned to his fellow officers and said one more word in Spanish; I’m pretty sure we know how to say “idiots” in Spanish now.

After we impressed the local police, we decided to walk around a bit down by the ocean.  I was struck that I was looking at the Atlantic from the other side.  It was a pretty little town.  We had planned to go somewhere to sit outside and enjoy tapas.  However, I learned a little something about myself – 23 straight hours is my limit.  I hit a wall.  I simply could not go on.  Of course the fact that we were dressed for the arctic tundra in a sunny little seaside town probably didn’t help.

Do you know how tired I had to be to stretch out in a public airport across a row of seats?  I didn’t care.  I couldn’t go on.  Two hours sleep, a club sandwich and a cup of coffee later and I’m ready to take action and wait some more.

However, let me close with one more little travel miracle.  Our plane sat on the tarmac.  We were checked in and holding our boarding passes.  We were due to board at about 9:45.  10:00 came; 10:30 passed.  The agent walked up to the tower to find out what was wrong.  Turns out there were no crew, no call for a crew, and mechanical problems.  No flight.  She said, “It’s just not going to happen.”  Steve began to work with the agent looking at trains, flights, and a combination of the two.  Nowhere in that equation was a bed or sleep.  I sat in the back and prayed.  I asked God to send us an answer.  I told Him we were too tired to do this and, if He didn’t have it in His will to rescue us at that moment, would He please send us extra strength.  We had pretty much reached the end.  About that time a young agent, the one who had originally signed us in, came up.  She had been away for a bit.  She said, “This will not happen.  The plane is sitting there; it will go.  Flights do not just disappear.  You have boarding passes and you are on the manifest.”  She told us to continue to try to make other plans; meanwhile she got on the phone.  When she hung up, she said, “The flight will take off at 4:00 and you will be on it.”  The other plans would have cost us well over $400.  God is good.