With budget airlines charging so much for luggage, Dave and I opted to pack light and save all of our shopping for the way home (international flights get better luggage allowances).
To make that happen, I scheduled a “bonus day” in Madrid after Poland, which worked out really well because we LOVED Madrid! It also meant we got to divide our flights home to make our travel days easier.
On this trip, we had the following flights:
– Shanghai to Paris (12 hours)
– Paris to Madrid (2 hours)
– Madrid to Barcelona (1 hour)
– Barcelona to Warsaw (3 hours)
– Warsaw to Lisbon (4 hours)
– Lisbon to Madrid (1 hour)
– Madrid to Paris (2 hours)
– Paris to Shanghai (12 hours)
That’s 37 hours of flying. When you add in layovers, we easily spent 2 full days of our holiday in airports. I Actually much prefer taking the train when possible, but flights save so much time that it’s often a no-brainer.
Still, flight days are useful… I often spend the time catching up with my journal, or writing up post cards. I also read. This year I reread The Diary of a Young Girl, while we were on our way to Poland. I feel like it was a good way to set the mood for some of the things we saw there.
All of this is to say that flights and travel days are a necessary part of traveling the world.
My last post will be up soon!
We just received our postcard from Spain! Thanks so much! We love getting them!
Gosh that is a lot of flying. I usually have to take a few flights to get to Europe but you did a whole lot more. What did you think was the best airport facility wise?