Spent my first night on the road at the famous Area 112. I decided not to stop at Area 107 or Area 124 because 112 seemed like a nice middle ground.
Living out of a rental car in Spain, days 1 and 2
Living out of a rental car in Spain, days 1 and 2
Marcus UlrichI'd been wanting to go back to Spain since last Spring, but had no particular plan or reason so I kept pushing the date. Finally, I just bought a ticket. Most airlines give you 24 hours to cancel a flight, so why not?
Then I wondered if I could extend this period of indecision. It turns out, at least with the booking portal for my Chase credit card, I was able to cancel and rebook the same flight seemingly indefinitely, or at least until 7 days before the flight. Of course, the price could change.
This set the tone of the trip. My plan was no plan, but also that was the plan. To keep costs as low as possible, I'd use credit card points for the flight and rental car and then sleep in the rental car.
My flight cost 52,000 points with a cash price of $787. There were ticket as cheap as $350, but I wanted to avoid middle seats and bring more luggage than the tiny backpack allowed with basic economy. I need space to bring back sherry, and ... camping gear.
The secret almost no one in the U.S. seems to know: campgrounds in Spain (and maybe the rest of Europe though I've not tried) are amazing and cheap. While a KOA with clean showers and toilets would probably charge $50, in Spain I've spent as little as $11 and they'll often have a great restaurant/bar on site. Prices vary by season, style of camping gear (trailer, van, rental car, etc), and whim of the receptionist.
This requires the second big expense of the trip: a rental car. I ended up using 27,300 points while the cash price was $409. The math works out to it being a similar cost to staying in cheap hostels, but without sharing a room or being in the middle of cities. This can be good and bad.
Finally, the time came: Seven days before the flight I could no longer cancel and rebook. Even if I could, within 7 days is when prices really increase, from what I've seen.
I stayed one night here in Madrid as the flight arrived after the rental pick up desk had closed.
The trip got off to a good but terrible start. My 8 pm flight from San Francisco to Munich was delayed by about 4 hours. This was perfect. I was flying with Lufthansa and European airlines have to give compensation of 600€ if your flight is delayed by more than 4 hours. I'd also miss my connection in Munich and they'd have to provide a hotel. Great! Not needing to actually get anywhere, this was perfect!
But the 4 hours came and went. Finally, at 3 am the flight was cancelled. Still, we weren't kept informed of what came next. Company employees seemed to not know. Go pick up you luggage they told us. Then head to such and such desk to get a hotel voucher. Then, they announced they ran out of vouchers and said we should book our own hotel and we'd be compensated.
I took them up on this and booked the first hotel I called, which charged $350 for the night. When I showed up at the hotel, Aloft SFO, they'd somehow lost my booking despite me having booked it minutes earlier. The receptionist then seemed to blame me and told me I'd have to call the number I'd called earlier to fix the problem. I guess she didn't want to use the phone? After fixing the problem, there were more problems I can't even remember now. Weirdly, I had to call the number a second (third?) time, and it was routed to the receptionist, I guess because it was after 5 am at that point. So, I was like, I'm calling because you told me to call this number which apparently routes to you.
Eventually, I was let in to the overpriced room. It was adequate but I certainly wouldn't recommend Aloft. Even more eventually, the airline re-routed me through Frankfurt with no free hotel layover and a flight seat neighbor who felt entitled the entire armrest a couple inches on both sides of it.
My home for the next 3 weeks. Looks like the previous owners left some nice scratches, but only a couple seemed to have been recorded. Always check!
The biggest risk to living out of a rental car in Spain is that driving there is no joke. GPS with turn by turn directions is essential and even then it's easy to exit a roundabout at the wrong spot and end up on crazy narrow roads. Sometimes, the crazy narrow roads are the only option. Drivers are generally much better than US drivers, but overconfident in my experience and they will tailgate the crap out of you if you're not blasting along mountain roads way over the speed limit.
I made sure insurance was included when booking through my credit card. It's a little unnerving, because you have to decline the insurance the rental company tries to upsell. It's also good to double check because, in my case, Chase said they don't provide coverage for vans or rentals over 30 days.
I'd planned get a SIM for the month from this Orange Mobile location like I'd done on a previous trip. It was 11 am when I went by the first time on a 'Sabados'. Of course, this time it was a festivo. I asked around and the only option seemed to be to head back to the airport. After some Internet searching, I realized I could buy an eSIM online. I got 100 Gb of data with SMS and calling for $50.
Once I'd acquired a SIM, I went back to the airport where the fun continued.
The previous day, Hertz had sent me an SMS with a link for changing my pickup time and date if necessary. In keeping with the theme of the trip, it didn't work. It couldn't find my booking. I only had a short layover to deal with it, so I let it go.
Later, arriving to pick up the car, I was told they'd rented it to someone else because I was 24 hours late picking it up. And of course they didn't plan on refunding anything despite the fact that they were apparently able to rent it out again just fine.
Chase has travel support, and I called them. They were able to convince Hertz to refund my points but not help me get the car I'd booked. Fortunately, prices were basically the same for a similar car but through Europcar.
Dawn at Area 112
My first cortado and pintxo de tortilla for the trip. An important milestone. My least favorite kinda of tortilla though: fat and dry.
Super clean and clean bathrooms too.
Ensalada Especial 112 (con pollo). Very good aside from the overcooked egg.
There are those who bring you churros, and then there are those who bring you the best torreznos in Soria.
My hotel for the night.
spooky
Actually, I stayed at a creepy turnout in the middle of the mountains. Fortunately it didn't snow, but I probably should have checked. They salted the road in the early morning.
buenas noches
