Into Spain, In the rain, not yet in the plain!

We stayed but one night in Toulouse, had scheduled our Airbus Industries visit for the next day in the morning and now that that had been concluded, we  headed off towards Burgos, Spain.  Quite a run for this day as we had been at the Airbus Industries site for several hours, now we exited Toulouse and headed south towards Burgos in (at times) driving rain. 

Such is travel,  we found a small grocery store and decided to eat that night in our room of sandwiches, snacks and fruit rather than go through the unfamiliar city to an unfamiliar place to eat unfamiliar food.  We wanted only to sleep here, rest, watch a bit of TV and get going first thing in the morning.  These days, in Europe, most (if not all) hotels, (no matter the cost) have a breakfast first thing in the morning that you can buy for between 4 and 7 Euros per person.  It is a bargain in most places, featuring, unlimited coffee, tea, hot chocolate, pastries, various local meats and cheeses, and juices.   Makes the stay far more interesting and fills a very substantial need at times.  Outside of the hotels it is difficult to find any place that has ANY breakfast-like settings.  Do take the hotel breakfasts, they are a real bargain.

Then we were off to Burgos.

Airbus Industries, the site.

Big, very big, everything in sight is larger than life.  The buildings are enormous, the pavement, acres of it, covers all the land between the numerous buildings.  Planes of huge size are parked neatly alongside each other along the 2 plus miles of runway, of which there are 2 plus all the taxiways thrown in for amusement.  It is...big! 

Our tickets were dispensed by a very pretty staff person in the reception center, filled with few exhibits including a model A380 made out of toy building blocks and a souvenir shop which we caroused.  It began to rain, whole buckets of rain, the roar of it hitting the roof sounded like jet noise.  Then a bus pulled up and we were called to board it, however it was some 150 feet away and the pouring rain was now creating lakes and runoff making the run to the bus a very wet experience.  That could have been thought out better that's for sure, hope it's a sunny day when you go.

The bus lumbered it's way a short distance to a huge building that appeared to be 4-in-oneas the outline of one section of the building was duplicated three more times.  It was fully 1/4 mile in width!

And contained 4 A380's!  Wings had been mounted, tail assemblies were in place but the nose cones were not as of yet, installed. 

Now the sad part, we were told (and most respected the request) that we were not to photograph ANYTHING we saw!  So, I was thwarted and disappointed.  To actually witness the size and massiveness of the machinery as well of the buildings and planes and NOT take pictures?!  Blasphemy! Nonetheless, we had a great time, the crowd was small and polite as could be and came from many nations, demonstrated by the many  languages spoken.  

A380 Taxi and Takeoff

The Making of the A380

Off to Toulouse...

Toulouse was our first stop being it was about 300 miles south of Lignieres and home to Airbus Industries.  So on Friday morning some 7 weeks ago we joined the very few on the A71 and drove south through Claremont-Ferrand.   I was interested in us getting a tour of the manufacturing plant where the Airbus aircraft were assembled.  We had gotten our reservations when we were in California and now we would get our tickets to see one of the biggest factories in the world!  I've seen Boeing's in Seatle and it is impressive but this is supposed to be much bigger, so we would see.

 

The Sud Aviation SE 210 Caravelle was the world's first short/medium-range jet airliner, produced by the French Sud Aviation firm. Its maiden flight occurred in 1955.

 Kelly on her way through the rain drenched parking lot to the reception hall at Airbus Industries.

The Airbus A400M Atlas is a multi-national four-engine turboprop military transport aircraft.

Off to France in March...Hmmmm

Yes, we did that.  Came here in early March, stayed here three days recovering from the damned flight over the "Pond" and the associated travails it affords us.  We rented a car this time from EuroCar whoever they were, they were cheap online but once at CDG they were s-l-o-w to assign the car, then I found out why, they didn't have one of what I wanted and so, of course, a much larger beast was available for only a small token expense more.  So while they young man typed away at his PC to assign us top the car, a system that should be ready to deliver a car in a moments notice took 45 minutes!  That was just to get papers on the counter, dealing with them afterwards took another 30 minutes!  Good god!  We were sooo tired and then had to face the awful Paris traffic on the fucking ring road.  So once in the car, loaded with every bag on our inventory plus 2 cats in carriers stacked on top we were off to find the on ramp to the ring road and, of course, I maneuver our fine vehicle into the wrong lane and wind up going exactly the wrong direction from what I had so carefully plotted.  Shit, shit, shit.  Never fails, snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.  So off we go across the rolling hills of northeaster France for some good ways, 30 minutes I estimate before we detect that the fault has been made and we are indeed not going to get where we want by this roadway.  We take a while to find a turn off and return to this roadway going the other way.  Nearing Charles De Gaulle once more we decide to just "go over the top" (of Paris that is) "it'll be way shorter!".  Driving on, we go through about as mindless an exercise as one familiar with Paris traffic could do. We struggle "over the top" and drop down on the western side of the fine "City of Lights" and fight traffic we do!  The freeway system here MUST have been designed by Cal Trans of California highway construction fame.  Knots!  that's what has been built, knots!  Interlacing wonder-ment built in beautiful French style with beautiful roundabouts covered with flowers leading to a dozen different ways to get somewhere we didn't want to go!  Grrrrrrr.  I was so stressed, Kelly kept petting my shoulder trying to calm the raging me inside.  Fuck!  This was NOT in "The Plan" let me tell you, NOT AT ALL!  We added at least two hours to whatever trip south to Lignieres this was going to be by this "shortcut across the top".  Eventually, I calmed and we found ourselves on the A71 South. Yes, somewhat later in the day than we wished but it was, indeed, the highway of our dreams and destination.  We cruised.  Home as the day darkened at 4:30, we shuffled to our respective bedrooms and fell away to the haven of sleep.  The cats did not.