After getting off the plane, I walked about 3 miles to one of the other terminals to connect to the Bilbao flight.

Love MAD airport...



Eventually found the Iberia lounge and got settled in for an hour or so.









Food selection was ok - some sandwiches, wraps, salads, chorizo and cheeses along with a full drinks selection.



Couldn't get enough of the roof!



The boarding gate wasn't too far from the lounge and when I got there, boarding was nearly finished. I settled into 1A and was offered a newspaper.





Now bearing in mind this was about a 40-45 minute flight, I was pretty surprised to be offered a pillow and blanket. Why pass up the opportunity?!



Safety announcements were done and the crew sat down with seconds to go before we started the take off roll. We shot up into the night sky on the way north.





Curtain shut while the crew did whatever it was they were doing.



A snack was offered to all passengers - a mozzarella, tomato and rocket focaccia which was nice and hit the spot during the short flight.



Glass of sparking wine - much nicer than the Monopole BA serves lol



Before I knew it, we were starting to descend into Bilbao with some nice views on the way down.



So, first experience with Iberia and I was pretty impressed. For a flight of that length, the service was brilliant. The crew were friendly and spoke English very well. Top marks!

I jumped into a taxi and arrived at the Holiday Inn 15 mins later. It was nice to be upgraded to an executive room on the 8th floor.





I headed into the old town for some dinner but it wasn't too late a night. Grabbed a beer from the hotel bar and had that in bed before dozing off on the very comfy bed!