Madrid Airport Stuck in Low Gear

by Iva Skoch on

You might remember our baggage disaster, reported on these pages (by the way, thanks for the great comments). Well, three months later, almost to the day, believe it or not, we got our bag back (just as we were still wrangling about getting paid for the lost contents). Funny thing is, even though we didn’t go to Madrid, our bag did, judging by the multitude of tags. Now I can see what the problem was.

It turns out Madrid’s $8B shining new airport is a logistical nightmare: it has 24-minute treks between terminals, and one of Europe’s worst flight-delay records among other problems. The international terminal alone is two buildings that sit 1.6 miles apart, connected by rail. Not too surprising, for the world’s largest airport terminal.

This means that there are delays for bags, too. At best, it will take your bags 15 minutes to get to the nearest carousel. Handlers are trying to double the speed of the conveyors, to make up for the long distances.

I’m guessing our bag was lost somewhere within the 8.5 million-square-foot facility (that’s larger than the entire square footage of NYC’s 19-building, 22-acre Rockefeller Center). What one wonders, however, is how this was supposed to benefit passengers, rather than some architect’s fantasy.

Bullet Trains in Spain

by Iva Skoch on

An interesting article (which was actually a long, but well-written advertisement!) in MIT’s Technology Review this month, talks about Spain’s push to lay high-speed rail throughout the country.

Spain had been hampered historically, from interlacing their rail system with the rest of Europe, since they used a different gauge track; but they developed high-speed switching wheels that switch gauge at the push of a button, and they’re laying new track with the European standard gauge. Their push is so big, that since 2003, Spain is putting more money in rail than in roads, seeking to link all of their major cities with high-speed rail by 2020: 10,000 km in all, servicing 90% of their population.

Already, the Seville to Madrid line is fully operational (and only 2 hours, 20 minutes), and is so efficient that they’ll refund your money if the train is more than five minutes late (which happens only 0.25% of the time). Their trains reach speeds above 200 km/hour (120 mph), and hit as high as 300 kph (185 mph).

Why the push for rail? One big reason is oil independence, and another is air pollution. Rail helps with both goals, plus, it whisks travelers right into the heart of the city.

Hotel of Twists and Turns

by Iva Skoch on

Many travelers have heard of the Bilbao, Spain, Guggenheim Museum, designed by Frank Gehry. But not many know of Gehry’s first hotel project, El Hotel Marques de Riscal, owned by the winery of the same name.

Gehry is well-known for his dramatic, twisting, turning, sweeping designs, including the “Dancing House” in Prague and Seattle’s Experience Music Project building. Now, his characteristic lack of right angles will make finding your room a challenge in the vineyards of Spain.

The hotel is operated by the Starwood chain, and features all the latest immenities, plus Gehry-designed windows that tilt outward, rooms with undulating wall fixtures, and furniture that matches the style.

Maybe your breathlessness at the design can be soothed by their multitude of spa treatments, including “wine therapy.” Yum!

Caves–Not Just for Rent Anymore

by Iva Skoch on

We’ve seen, and blogged about, cave hotels. But if you’re so smitten by staying in a cave, why not buy one of your own? The Financial Times listed a few for purchase.

According to the article, a two-bedroom cave in Galera, Granada, Spain, is going for under 90,000 euros ($117,000 USD). If you don’t have that much to spend, you can try for the nice “restored” 13-room cave house with three bedrooms, in Urgup, Cappadocia, Turkey, for a modest 140,000 lira (about $95,000 USD).

While I wasn’t able to follow the links the article suggested, one link worked: escapeartist.com. And there, you can read about the eco-benefits of cave-dwelling. (W., eat your heart out!) I also clicked through to a link about a new “development” in Spain, offering different 2 and 3-bedroom model set-ups, starting at around $130,000 USD.

Ibizabound Blog

by Adrienne Wilson on

Although this Ibizabound site is the creation of an independent real estate broker agency there are still some pretty good bits and chunks to pick off of their blog. Now, the entire site would definitely be a good resource if you were considering spending a month or two on the island this summer, but don’t feel as though their wanting to help interested parties do such distracts from the blog. I took a fairly lengthy tour of the site and read through many of the blog entries to make sure they had some nugget of good for a traveler trying to score a good meal or simply learn what’s happening with the upcoming 2007 Ibiza Film Festival. And since Ibiza is also known for partying on the beach, in the club and after-after hours, they’ve done the favor of making sure to include some club coverage. Overall it still looks like a pretty new work, but if they keep things up they should have a nice site going both with the blogging and the select real estate offered.