Highlights-Madrid to Albuquerque

This is my last day summary of the trip. Breakfast in Spain was a grilled croissant, butter, jam, and coffee (very Spanish). I don’t know why you can’t get grilled croissants in the U.S. I know why you can’t get them toasted (they catch on fire if hotel breakfast signage is to be believed). At the airport, after escalators that came perilously close to the center of the earth, a train to terminal 4S, more escalators that almost gave me a nosebleed back to the departure gate level, and passport and departure control, there was another passport check at the gate. The agent issued me a receipt for this, which they check when you board in case you were mugged in the bathroom and replaced by someone who doesn’t look like you. The “S” in T4S stands for Satellite. Why isn’t the terminal called T5? On the flight, the movie selection was appalling (unless you consider Scream 7 an example of cinematic excellence). The most entertaining aspect of the entertainment screen was its unentertaining unresponsiveness (I don’t think that counts as a double negative). I thought I was going to get a blood blister on my index finger I was poking the screen so hard. A “touch” screen it wasn’t. This was another reason for only getting 2 hours of sleep the night before. I lost consciousness for five hours after the meal service. One final example of traveler abuse: after landing in Dallas, we had to walk almost to Houston to reach customs and immigration control (my watch indicated 1.2km, but it felt longer). There were only two moving sidewalks and the second one was broken. No wonder people walk around airports with looks of grim determination.