I left Tuesday afternoon for Mallorca, Spain via London Heathrow, on British Airways. What I learned:

British Airways website says that passengers can carry on two racquets in a slim case. I interpreted that to mean a tennis bag like covering (a long version of the string bags we often get as player gifts at tournaments)…mine was from Volkl Tennis and said as much. The check in person at BA in San Diego disagreed and said it had to zip around and only hold 2 racquets (who makes such a bag?)…so at check-in I had to put my two racquets (and case) inside my larger suitcase, which fortunately had plenty of room and weight to allow this. It’s something at the whim of the desk person or supervisor as I’ve seen people on BA carry on racquets in a similar sized case.

My flight was good and even landed a bit early. I had a fairly long layover in London, before flying for two more hours to Palma de Mallorca. My bags made it but after taking my two previous trips, within California, without checking a bag, I see the allure (of course with BA it would not have worked anyway).

I found the shuttle to Wiber car rental ok but on checking in for my rental car, was asked (for the first time ever) about an international driver’s license. Which I had considered getting, but just ran out of time..and also forgot to get. (Paper versions can be purchased at AAA in the USA). So I bought one on the spot online and have a digital international driver’s license…the car rental company didn’t refuse to rent to me but said if pulled over it could be a problem. It was about $45 for a three-year license.

My first stop was at Aldi, where I picked up breakfast stuff, salad fixings, nuts and more. It was pretty busy even at 7:30pm.

I found my lodging just before dark (only 10 min or less from Aldi), which of course involved lots of turns on narrow Mallorcan streets, many of which were one way (and one way streets mean there’s not room for both a car and a pedestrian on the same side of the street! But the directions from the owner were perfect as is the apartment.

Tennis tomorrow…and it’s pretty hot and humid here, nearly 90.