Come Rain or Come Shine...

Well, we are *certainly* glad we changed what we packed!  We arrived to rain in Toulouse - dead tired from a full day of flying, sitting up - we were some of the "lucky" few who didn't get an extra seat to spread out in (some actually had THREE!).  We landed in Madrid first, to a beautiful sunny day, super fast lines through immigration and customs (seriously, *no* waiting), and then had a few hours to kill before continuing on to Toulouse.

Once in Toulouse, the airport bureaucracy was non-existent - no passport checks, no luggage checks, nothing!  We followed the signs for the navette (airport shuttle), went a little bit too far, turned around and spotted the office for information and buying tickets - the gentleman at the counter was wonderful!  He listened patiently to my French :-), answered in French until I ran out, then he switched to English (still smiling!).  We found our shuttle, got on, watched the others slide their tickets into the machine, did the same, and then waited for our stop - it was the final one, so easy.  It was also *right* across the street from our hotel, which we saw just before the stop - one less anxiety :-).

We decided that we needed to have a light dinner, so we took a short walk in the direction recommended by our hotelier, and found a likely place.  Even though it was after 7pm, it wasn't quite open yet, but the owner (tending bar next door) opened it for us :-).  We had a nice dinner - the waiter introduced us to "the gold of Bordeaux" - a type of course salt called "sel de la Garonne."  Our long long day ended a short while later - we were asleep by 9:30.  We both woke for a couple of hours in the night, but then we were up by 7 - a little sleep-drunk and groggy, but ready to start our day.  In the rain...