Spanish views from a small town

Though the moments of greater travel were last week as people scrambled to be home with family for Christmas, there are still people travelling home for the New Year. My brother-in-law and his girls came to spend that holiday with the grandparents. We went to pick them up at the airport last night. Theirs was the last flight into Santiago for the night. As we awaited them, others arrived through the door. The first one out was a youngish woman. She walked up to an older man and a little boy and a big smile lit up her face when she saw the boy's reaction. Another woman, close to her in age, shouted, "No!" She backed away, then ran into the traveller's arms, and the two engaged in a prolonged bear hug. Apparently, the traveller and the man who seemed to be her father had made her believe they were awaiting someone else. It was a surprise that made many around them smile in complicity. Others started straggling out. Some were older couples, who appeared through the d...

Being a large, international airport, Barajas-Madrid (renamed for Adolfo Suárez, but everyone still calls it Barajas) is a secure airport. One cannot simply jump onto the tarmac and ask around for an airplane to the Canary Islands. It's simply not the done thing. Or is it when you are desperate to catch your plane that will take you to your long-awaited vacation? Apparently, a man with a boarding pass for a Ryanair flight to the Canaries, passed through security like everyone else, but then got lost or caught up in something within the terminal and realized his flight was being called. He ran to the boarding area, and saw the gate had closed. Without thinking it twice, he opened the fire escape door, ran down the boarding bridge, and jumped a few meters onto the tarmac with his bag. There, he tried to get a luggage trolley to drive him out to the plane. The driver ignored him, and he ran further onto the tarmac. He found someone who explained his flight was at a different gate an...

Last night my husband and I drove his youngest brother to the airport to catch his flight back to Barcelona. My mother-in-law had mentioned that she wanted to go, but then she changed her mind. As the car drew away from her house last night, she waved and put her hand over her heart. This brother-in-law has always been her favorite. Probably because he is the youngest. My husband always complained that when they were single and went out on weekend nights with friends, his brother could come home the next morning and there wouldn't be any problem. But if he did the same, he'd get beaten with the broom.  At the airport we had some doubts about my brother-in-law's suitcase. He opted to pay for a suitcase weighing a maximum of fifteen kilos, but it felt like a lot more. His intention hadn't been to take anything more than a carry-on bag, but his mother, in true Galician fashion, urged him to take things back with him. Such as homemade orujo , a type of Spanish grappa di...

This afternoon I had a trip to the airport to pick up my brother-in-law who was flying in from Barcelona to spend a couple of weeks visiting his parents. It's August, the month for vacations and visits home. More than half the tourists visiting Galicia are emigrants who have come to visit family. There has been a new airport terminal in Santiago since September of 2011. It's a large, white box of a building with a slightly domed ceiling and plate glass windows stretching from floor to ceiling. It's divided into two main floors and three basement parking garages, including the rental cars. The bottom floor, where the taxis wait in line, is dedicated to arrivals. It's a long, empty area broken by two elevators and staircases, and a small café. There's only one arrival gate with opaque sliding white doors into which you can see baggage carousels only when passengers come out. That's where everyone stretches their head, trying to see if they can see who they'v...