I’m staying in the Melia Galgos in Madrid this week. One of the reasons I selected it from the IBM approved list was because it promised internet connectivity. Sadly this hasn’t really proved to be the case. The wired connection in my room stays up just about long enough for me to accept the terms and conditions and what, at the time, seemed to be a very reasonable rate of 8€ for 24 hours. Unfortunately it then proceeds to go up and down randomly every minute or so before eventually giving up completely. The hotel sent someone up from “technical services” who proceeded to restart my browser and then my machine to no good effect. He then pulled the plug on the router which fixed things but only long enough for him to get out of the room. I then tried the wireless access available in the lobby which worked fine until I tried this evening when it failed to give me an IP address. I’ve now had to resort to using my 3G card. 🙁
Archive for the ‘Travel’ Category
Lack of connectivity
Tuesday, January 22nd, 2008Driving tour of Madrid
Tuesday, January 22nd, 2008Work took me back to Madrid this week. The trip didn’t get off to all that an auspicious start. I had hired a car as the customer is based some 20km out of the city centre however I had agreed to pick up one of the local team at the IBM office in town first. Unfortunately, at the airport Hertz were unable to provide me with any form of map, instead giving me the simple directions to “follow the signs for Madrid and then take the Avenida de Americaâ€.
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Festive Frolics
Sunday, December 30th, 2007
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Norwegian nights
Tuesday, December 4th, 2007I had a meeting in Oslo yesterday and flew out on Sunday evening so I could be there in time for the mid-morning start. Unfortunately we were about two hours late boarding our BA flight from Heathrow and then sat on the tarmac for another half an hour waiting for a slot to take off. Apparently the strong winds meant bigger gaps between aircraft landing and taking off and hence delays. As a consequence, we arrived at Oslo airport at around 1:30am. The train in to the city centre stops at midnight and the taxi desk (where you can normally get a fixed price trip) was deserted. This left me little choice but to get in to the only taxi at the rank outside for the 50km ride in to town. He generously stopped the meter just short of NKr 1200 (around £100)! The return journey on the train was faster and around a tenth of that price.
Madrid by moonlight
Sunday, November 11th, 2007German travels
Friday, October 12th, 2007I’ve spent the last few days at a customer workshop in Münster. I wish more of my trips went as smoothly as the journey out. Christine gave me a lift to Southampton Airport and within 20 minutes of leaving home I had cleared security. The flybe flight in to Düsseldorf arrived so early that Hertz were looking in the wrong pile of car keys. (They gave me a Peugeot again but at least it was a 207 this time!) The directions for the drive to Münster worked like a treat (Map24 is my favourite route planner at the moment when it comes to printing European directions). The only minor niggle was that, on arrival at the hotel, they couldn’t give me a door key that worked and someone had to let me in until they fixed it the following morning. Even then, I was still tucked up in my bed just four hours after leaving the house.
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Tube strike over
Wednesday, September 5th, 2007Unlike many others, I was disappointed to hear that the London Underground strike was suspended late last night. The trains in to London have been fantastically empty the past two days. So much so that a young couple boarding my carriage last night enquired whether they had mistakenly entered first class!
Czech wedding
Tuesday, September 4th, 2007
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