Exactly a year ago (April 11, 2008), I set off on a school trip to Spain which was mostly composed of my fellow high school seniors but with a few juniors as well. So, why am I writing this now? Well, I wasn’t blogging back then, and Ben and Gray’s recent trip reports put me in a mood to write one. But I also decided to write this as I intend to send it out to those who were on the trip who are now at different schools as a way to say “Hi!” and to share some great memories. It’s been a very stressful few weeks at school (but with only a month left!), and, well, putting together this trip report just brought a smile to my face and kept my spirits high in the midst of papers and exams. Anyway, I’m going to split up the trip report in this way:
Parts:
- Introduction/BOS-CDG
- CDG-BCN and First Day in Barcelona
- Figueres and Girona (and Some Barcelona)
- Barcelona
- Montserrat and Valencia
- Valencia and Madrid
- Madrid
- Segovia, El Escorial, and Madrid
- MAD-CDG and CDG-BOS
Part 1: Introduction / BOS-CDG
April 11th finally arrived! Unfortunately, I had to go to school that day for classes, which meant getting up around 5:45 AM. I only had a little over of six hours of sleep under my belt, which wasn’t great considering the long day ahead. Anyway, I got to school and dropped off my bag and backpack and went off to class. Fortunately, one of the periods of the day was my free period, during which my friends and I always played that lovable card game, Uno. By pure chance, a good portion of that group was going on the trip anyway. After that, it was time to head to my last class, which I only had to attend half of. Eventually, 12:30 approached after what seemed like an eternity, and it was time to change out of my school uniform and head off!
My parents had come to wish me farewell (and drive my car back home), and I gave them my school bag and my dirty uniform (yeah, kind of an unfair trade), and then it was time to get on the bus to Logan. During the ride I called a few friends to say goodbye. Fortunately, traffic wasn’t too bad and we got there plenty of time before departure (about 2 PM).
Goodbye, high school!
Delta gates (from outside the terminal).
Check-in was quick and painless, and security was, well…your normal security experience. Finally, we were in terminal E with a few hours to spare. Obviously, a game of Uno was needed to pass the time.
Thanks to my friend Matt for this photo.
I picked up some food at McDonald’s with my friends Laura and Dan, and noticed that the food court ceiling is decorated with a list of cities, so I found where we were headed!
Later, I took care of getting some Euros, which was kind of a painful experience. Seriously, just look at this graph of the exchange rate. I was just plain unlucky!
Eventually, the 747 came in (albeit a bit late) for a landing and taxied to our gate. I was pretty excited! This was also my first widebody flight in a long time. If I recall correctly, the previous one was a Delta L-1011 that I flew from MCO-ATL when I was about five years old. It was also my first transoceanic flight.
The Alitalia 767 landed right before our flight.
My friends Hillary and Lauren were really happy to see our flight arrive.
The turn was going to take awhile, so my friend Elizabeth walked around the terminal and eventually got to the part Northwest uses for domestic flights (which it has since left for the Delta gates).
One of the two Aer Lingus A330s.
Air France Flight #337
April 11, 2008
Depart Boston (BOS): 5:57 PM
Arrive Paris (CDG): 6:04 AM
Duration: 6:07
Aircraft: Boeing 747-400
Seat: 51L
Eventually, we boarded about a half hour late, and I plopped into seat 51L. This worked out well for me, as it’s a window seat and also in the last row that is in a 3-4-3 configuration. Since the others are 2-4-2, there is some extra space behind the seat, and my friend Alex let me put my bag there, giving me some extra legroom.
View from my seat.
After a short wait, we were off!
Northwest and Aer Lingus A330s.
Soon menus were distributed. Obviously, they are much more basic than the ones found in Ben and Gray’s trip reports. 
(I’m not including the drink list, though.)
Provençale-style couscous and salmon
Choice of Main Course:
Sautéed beef with vegetable sauce accompanied by vegetable medley
Tricolor cheese tortellini with cream sauce
Cheese
Entremets
Cranberry-orange cake
Coffee and tea
I went with the tortellini and found it incredibly delicious! Maybe I was just hungry, but I thought it was great. Apparently I made a good choice, because my seatmate and friend Brad didn’t like the beef. I also enjoyed the couscous and salmon much more than I thought.
Here are some pictures of the meal, one covered and one uncovered, but blurry.
I noticed that my other photos were coming out blurry, and it turns out that at some point the flash on my camera broke! Luckily I was going with a group of friends so it was easy to borrow their pictures.
Soon, the IFE came on, and the movie was National Treasure 2. I had already seen it but watched it again anyway. After the movie, I listened to a nice audio channel that was a mix of American and European pop that I really enjoyed.
At this point, I tried to sleep, but it just wasn’t going to happen. I was in a coach seat and was a little caffeinated, and it didn’t feel like it was that late. Plus, I was really excited about this trip. So, what’s there to do so early in the morning? Clearly, the answer is to play Uno.
The flight attendants were very nice and allowed a few of us to hang around in the back around the lavatory, and it was nice to chat with my friends and stretch my legs a bit.
After a few hours of quiet the flight attendants sprung into action and starting serving a breakfast of orange juice, yogurt, and a blueberry scone. It wasn’t that great, but it was something.
Almost there…
The approach was pretty great, as we could see the sun begin to rise over Paris, though I do wish we landed a bit later to get some better views. The 747 touched down nice and gently, and we began a very long taxi through a very quiet De Gaulle. Soon, we reached our gate and it was time to bid the Queen farewell and make our way to the next leg of the trip.
“The flight attendants were very nice and allowed a few of us to hang around in the back around the lavatory”
Jeez, do AF flight attendants have no sense of safety? Think of all the dangerous things that could have happened!
OK, just kidding. Great report!
My family was fortunate enough to be able to get seats on the upper deck when we did a check in 24-hours in advance (just to make sure the seats were all set), because no one had bought them, AF had lowered the price to regular economy seats, so we changed the seats right away! Since barely any one had bought the seats on the upper deck for the flight that my family went on, all of the people on the upper deck were able to get their own row to sleep on! The AF flight attendants let everyone lye flat on their own row to sleep for that overnight flight.
AF 337 is the flight that got me interested in commercial aviation.
Wow, Upper Deck, I’m happy to hear that! Thanks for sharing that memory.