Generally, I can manage to sleep anywhere. I’ve crashed for a good six hours on long trans-Pacific flights and I’ve never been one to lose sleep because I’m not resting on my own pillows. However, on my recent flight to Spain, I just couldn’t sleep. Not for a lack of comfortable accommodations but because of timing. Departing just after 5 p.m. on a Saturday evening and landing (my time at home) just after 11 p.m., my body just wasn’t able to adjust to sleeping at those times. Luckily, my long layover at Madrid Barajas afforded me some rest. I made my way to the Iberia VIP lounge where I found a comfortable, padded lounge chair waiting for me in the sleep room. The darkened room offers about six loungers, separated by dividers, along one wall. Each has a lamp and a small table as well as plenty of space to store belongings. I grabbed a drink and settled in, awakening about three hours later, one hour before my next departure. This was the perfect option for transiting through Madrid; the lounge also offers shower facilities, plenty of comfortable seating, food and drink options and WiFi access. There’s no other way to pass a layover in MAD. Before my trip to Spain ended, I had the opportunity to take a behind-the-scenes tour of the Iberia engine maintenance facility and hangar. About 50 airline customers hire Iberia to maintain and repair their engines here. In the hangar, we wandered through an Airbus A330 undergoing its retrofit to the new Iberia cabins. — Kim Krol, managing editor