Rota to Naples

We arrived here at Naples last night via the long way. Got up at 5:00, had breakfast; drove to the Rota base first to meet up with mom's co-worker and then took a taxi to the Jerez Airport which was about a 30 minute ride. Plane took off on time at 7:10 (surprise!!!) arriving in Madrid about 8:00. We had a 5 hour lay-over which was good/bad because the new terminal was opened 2 weeks ago so there were still some glitches.

It is a huge airport and had satellite arrival/departure areas. The shuttle from the arrival to the baggage claim area was about 3 minutes so we had to wait awhile for our luggage to arrive. There's not enough directions/signs to find your way around so we had to continually ask to find the departure area and we had to ride a shuttle bus to the original terminal (about 10 minutes) which was quite a distance from the baggage claim area. Had some coffee and danish after checking in and just read magazines/window-shopped to kill the time.

The plane took off on time again (1:00 pm) and landed in Rome at 3:45. We had a box lunch (sandwich/drinks) on board and slept a little bit. It was a smooth and an uneventful flight. We only had an hour lay-over there and then boarded the plane at 4:55 to Naples which is only about 45 away. It was hazy and a little dark already when we reached Naples and the view would have been awesome because we flew over some islands and then close to the mountains on the final approach. We were able to see the villages/houses and winding roads on the mountainside.

We had a minor scare at the baggage claim area when we thought one of our luggage was lost because the conveyor stopped turning and we were still waiting. It's a good thing one of the passengers who apparently was looking for theirs checked behind the rubber curtains and found ours laying on the ground after falling off the conveyor.

The airport is very close to the base because the runway is shared with the navy and the buildings and perimeter fence is parallel to the runway. It was still a pretty good walk because the officer's quarters was almost at the very end and it was cold. The accommodations were nice since the building was only about 2 years old. We had dinner at the club and I had the 5 alarm burger (1 in my standard) while mom had the BBQ chicken sandwich with bottomless fries. An outstanding meal. We returned to the room, had a hot shower, watched some English TV (finally) and then went to sleep. It was an extremely long day which should have been only a 2 1/2 hour direct military flight from Rota to Naples. Oh, well...