I am back now from my trip to Madrid from last week.
I decided to take the
Aerocity shuttle in lieu of a taxi or the hotel shuttle. My flight was scheduled to arrive at 8:15 am, and I noticed that my reservation indicated that pick-up would be made at 9:00 am to give me time to get through customs and get my luggage. However, my flight came in earlier, and so I was at the bus stop waiting at 8:40 am. I saw an Aerocity bus at the bus stop too and was happy. However, the bus driver got into the bus and started to move away without me! So, I rushed up to the door and pounded on the window with my widdle fists trying to get in! The bus driver, appalled, gave me a card and told me to call the office.
So, I sat down and waited somewhat embarrassed about the widdle fist pounding on the wrong bus. I waited about 5 or so more minutes when a guy carrying an Aerocity notebook came up and, I guess, wanted to check out the situation. I gave him my email reservation, and he called the office looking for my bus. He seemed so full of angst about my bus not being there early, and I was content that someone knew where I was. At about 8:55 am, he said that the bus was 10 minutes away.
At 9:20 am, another Aerocity bus came, but it was not my bus. A few minutes later, another one came, and the Aerocity guy who called for me told me to get in. I got in, and I swear, it was the same driver from the widdle fist pounding incident!
Anyway, we drove, and it seemed like 10 minutes later, we pulled over to a bus stop across from the Atocha railway station. The driver told me to wait there. He got out and spoke at length to a guy standing at the bus stop. I figured that we had more passengers. However, the driver got back on the bus and started calling the office, I guess. He started whining and, I think, saying bad words, but no one from the office would respond. Suddenly! He pounded his widdle head on the dashboard and moaned and moaned!
After he banged his head for awhile, he got out his map. It turns out that he didn't know how to get to my hotel. I did, so I showed him, and we got there quickly with no further head pounding on the dashboard or pounding of widdle fists on the window.
The bus trip made me laugh and got me to the hotel so it all worked out.
I took the Hotel Carlos V shuttle back to the airport. It was 5 minutes early and got me to the airport in 20 minutes.