Where to begin?! To put it mildly, getting to Madrid was an ordeal. First, our flight from PTI was delayed due to thunderstorms in the Washington D.C. resulting in our spending 2 ½ hours on the tarmac. Air Traffic Control kindly updated us of our situation every 45 minutes which allowed for a relaxing and convenient wait (rolls eyes). Then, after deboarding the plane for about an hour we got the green light to head to D.C. The ground delay in D.C. meant that there was still a slim chance that we’d make our connecting, direct flight to Madrid. So after we arrived to Dulles Airport we realized that our flight was still on the tarmac but away from the gate. In short, we were screwed! Things only got more frustrating from there. Matt got in line at United’s customer service desk with the hundreds of others who missed their flights while I ran around trying to determine if there was still the possibility of departing that night for Europe (there wasn’t but shout out to the wonderful Ellen Lindh who braved the storm with us, literally and figuratively). We were downgraded to a flight connecting through Zurich, Switzerland which was scheduled to ultimately arrive in Madrid a day and a half after our original flight. United then informed us that they were unwilling to comp a hotel room for us because the delay was weather related. We contacted everyone we knew in D.C. so that we wouldn’t have to sleep in the airport and Matt’s friend, Ashley Casteel, picked us up from the airport, let us stay at her place for the night, and drove us back the next afternoon. As if we didn’t have enough getting in the way of our departure, United didn’t get our luggage to us for 5 HOURS. We sat in baggage claim until midnight. After we’d asked them several times in the 5 hours we were waiting because after we got them to radio down they “must have just not sent it up” according to the apathetic lady working at the baggage claim desk. Then, the next day, our flight to Zurich left over an hour and a half after the scheduled departure time. We spent that hour and a half sitting on the tarmac and were left ignorant as to the cause of the delay for most of the first hour. Needless to say United Airlines (and all affiliates) were added to our “No Fly List”. Well, in other news, we finally made it to Madrid where we will spend our first day before heading to Valencia.
Finally got our bags
The sun rising over the Atlantic Ocean
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