It’s Monday morning at my keyboard in Santa Barbara, but it’s supposed to be Monday night at pintxos bars in Pamplona.
As you may have read in last week’s newsletter, I was on my way to Spain this past weekend for a press trip to the Navarra wine region, where I had an last-minute assignment from Wine Enthusiast in place of a colleague who couldn’t make the trip. The whole experience was already tight to begin with: Nearly three days of travel for only four days of being there, as I needed to come home by Friday to make it to the Santa Barbara Vintners Festival this Saturday.
I was scheduled to make it to Pamplona on Sunday night, leaving Santa Barbara just after noon on Saturday. I’d had no luck picking seats on my Dallas to Madrid leg, despite multiple internet attempts and two long phone calls with Iberia Airlines , who couldn’t seem to figure it out either. Thankfully, once checked in at Santa Barbara Airport, I did have an aisle seat on that full Madrid flight, which was all I cared about given the 10-hour jaunt.
My flight to Dallas was fine. So was the three-plus hour layover, which I spent enjoying some Texan and Sicilian wine over pear and gorgonzola pizza at Cru in DFW , followed by two pre-flight martinis (and ample iced water), egged on by the Marine Corps welder from San Diego I sat next to at the Applebee’s bar next to my gate.
We boarded the Iberia plane close to 10 p.m. I sat next to a wine bar owner from Dana Point , and started watching The Phonecian Scheme despite the warning slide that it included airflight trauma.