20261020-1021 Tuesday, October 20, 2026 to Wednesday, October 21, 2026; Heading to Spain and Portugal

20261020-1021 Tuesday, October 20, 2026 to Wednesday, October 21, 2026; Heading to Spain and Portugal

We are heading off on another adventure.  This time, we are heading to Spain and Portugal to do a Viking River Cruise on Portugal’s River of Gold, the Douro River.  This runs through the Iberian Peninsula from North Central Spain to Portugal’s Atlantic coast.  We will bookend the river cruise with a pre-cruise extension in Madrid, and post-cruise extension to Santiago de Compostela.  

The getting to and from these destinations is always the least enjoyable part of any trip, but at least we had beautiful fall weather for the start of this trip.  We have a red-eye flight from Seattle to Madrid, changing flights in London’s Heathrow airport after an overnight flight.  To get to the airport in time for the 8:20 p.m. departure from Seattle, we actually have to leave Coupeville at 2:15 p.m.  The airport shuttle only runs every 2 hours, but since we are flying business class, we got to relax in the British Airways lounge before the flight and got an early dinner, drinks, and snacks. 

The British Airways lounge in the South Satellite is adjacent to the SEA Lounge shared by several other airlines, but the British Airways lounge was much less crowded and much nicer.  We had used the SEA Lounge on our last international flight, and it was crowded, run down, and the food was not good.  

We had Viking Air arrange our flights.  We were booked on British Airways via American Airlines, and when we tried to check on seat assignments, we were unpleasantly surprised to see that British Airways was asking for $160 per person for advanced seat assignments even in business class. After contacting Viking Air, Viking Air did get us seat assignments for the Seattle to London flight segment at no extra cost to us, but we had to wait until this morning to get seat assignments for the London to Madrid flight.  We did not get a choice of seats, but at least we got seated together.  This was the first time we have ever had any issue with getting seat assignments for flights.  This appears to be unique to British Airways.  On our return flights, which will be on American Airlines, we were able to get seat assignments in advance for free.  

The flight from Seattle to London passed over Canada and Greenland overnight.  The business class was only about half full in the 777-300 jet.  This worked out for the better because Ben’s seat 16F was broken and would not recline flat.  Fortunately, both the pods in front and behind him were unoccupied, so when the time came to sleep, he just scooted back one seat.  The flight had a full dinner service shortly after takeoff, and a breakfast service about 90 minutes before landing.  Ben watched Disclosure Day, while Janet worked her way through the Lord of the Rings series.  

The flight was fairly smooth, and our seats were situated over the wing box— near the center of gravity and strongest part of the plane.  Even with lie-flat seats, it is hard to really sleep well on planes due to the noise, and Ben checked his O2 saturation with his Apple watch, and it read only 92%, and the watch had recognized the reading was taken at high altitude.  

The 777 must not pressurize the cabin as much as the 787 Dreamliner, so passengers are essentially being subjected to high altitude.  Based on the O2 saturation, it was close to what we had encountered in Tibet.  While Ben had laid in the bed “sleeping” for 5 hours, his Apple watch only gave him credit for 2 hours of actual sleep and gave him a LOW sleep score.  But for a 9-hour flight, we were comfortable, well-fed, and entertained, and didn’t have to hobble off the plane stiff and in pain.  

Although the flight was routed through London, we were able to avoid having to pay for the UK’s new electronic Travel Visa because we did not have to go through UK immigration with our single-ticket travel, but we did have to have our passports and faces scanned as we passed from our arrival gate to our continuing flight gate.  
We had a couple of hours to kill, but fortunately, we had access to the British Airways lounge, where we had lunch.  This lounge was a little more crowded and busy than the one in Seattle, but still well appointed and with good food and beverages.  

The flight from London to Madrid was on an A320 that was basically configured as a single cabin, so business class was just the first 12 rows where the middle seats were blocked out.  We unfortunately got assigned seats in front of the exit row that did not recline, and the passenger in front of Ben shoved his seat back as soon after takeoff as he could, and left it reclined for the duration of the flight.  It was fortunate that it was only a 2-1/2-hour flight.

We arrived in Madrid after dark, so we didn’t get to see much on the drive in from the airport.  We were greeted by a driver holding a Viking placard and had a private transfer to the Hyatt Regency Hespira in downtown Madrid.  As we approached the hotel, the entrance was blocked by police vehicles and security.  

We had to get dropped off on the corner and wait for a dignitary to exit the hotel and be on his way in his motorcade.  One of the officers said it was the President.  When we checked into the hotel minutes later, the staff said they were not allowed to disclose who the dignitary was.  We arrived after 9 p.m., so had missed the Madrid walking tour and talk that was scheduled by Viking from 4:30-5:30 p.m.  

We checked into our room (103), which was nicely appointed but a small room, typical for downtown metropolitan hotels and not much larger than our cruise ship veranda staterooms.  

Breakfast is included, and tomorrow we will have a “Panoramic Madrid” tour during the day and a Flamenco Dinner experience in the evening.  But for tonight, we’re just going to sleep like logs in the comfortable hotel bed after a hot shower.