6 Apr - Day 22
It was an early start, and breakfast was sacrificed for sleep that morning. The Airbus tour was booked for 9am and we had to check-in at 8.30am. The best Toulouse traffic could do was delay us by 15 mins, so we arrived at 8.45am, plenty of time.
No cameras were allowed for the A380 part of the tour, so all I can show is the outside of these hangers built for 96 foot tall basketball players. This tour was done in English, but most people on it were Spaniards. We were given a run down on the testing involved in putting one of these monsters in the air, very comprehensive.
It is an international effort to build these planes. Parts of the plane are built in Wales, Spain, Germany and France. All the parts are then sent to France to be assembled and then flown to Hamburg for painting. Sent is easier said than done. Parts of the fuselage are too big to sent by cargo plane (by the Beluga cargo plane which was designed to carry A380 parts), so they have to be shipped by road at night. In doing this, lamp posts, traffic lights, street lights,wing mirrors from cars and homeless people have to be removed and reattached after the convoy has gone past.
In the Toulouse assembly line we saw 5 Emirates, 1 Thai and 1 Malaysia A380 being prepared to be flown to Hamburg for painting.
After this, it was on to the Heritage tour where they show you how France aviation started. It featured the Caravelle, Concorde and one of the earliest Airbus, the A300. This tour is a Spanish language tour, which explains all the Spaniards in the A380 one.
The bus took us to what looked like an aviation grave yard with a lots of rusting planes. It was a very diverse collection, and I am sure I saw a couple of Russian MIGs, French Dassault Mirages etc.
Anyway the Concorde was the highlight. It is really tiny inside and it flies at 3 times the speed of sound, getting to New York from Paris in 3.5 hours, departing 11.30am and arriving 8,30am. All for 8,500 Euros return in early 2000s. As the plane is 30 years old, there is no LCD tv, no galley to serve 3 course meals etc. What you do get is a panaromic view of the earth from the stratosphere, curves and all from the hankerchief sized windows.
The rest of the day turned on us, and it was rain and thunder. We got take out pizzas and stayed in.
7 Apr - Day 23
It was time to leave Jit Hu and Toulouse. The drive to Bilbao in Spain was very pleasent. We stopped for lunch at Pau (pronouced Poh, not Char Siew) and a look around this beautiful town at the foot of the Pyrenees.
You can just make out the Pyrenees behind Marcus. The rest of the town is beguiling.
We also stopped at Biarritz a seaside town on the Atlantic. We spotted a few surfers in their Kombi vans in the supermarket parking lot when we were filling up and buying provisions at Biarritz.
The cost of tolls from Toulouse to Bilbao was horrendous - about 40 Euros thru at least 9 toll gates - 6 French, 3 Spanish.
I didn't mind the Spanish ones because they excavated a dozen mountain tunnels for the motorway. The hotel we checked into is the best so far. But I will let Marcus elaborate tomorrow.
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