Heading Home

September 20, 2013

Earlier that evening, we had arranged with our daughter in the States to call us and awaken us.  In addition, I had set my alarm on my phone to go off as well.  We had to be ready to leave at 4:00 am because the concierge had arranged for a taxi to pick us up at 4:00.  We scurried around and got ourselves downstairs to await the taxi.  He was on time and we were ready.

 

The driver expeditiously got us to the airport, about a fifteen minute ride.  We went inside and began the check-in process.  When we got to the agent, it was discovered that my bag was overweight.  I had to pay about $75.00.  They sent me to the baggage desk and I paid.  Fortunately, we did not have to get back in line.  After we were checked in, we looked for food.

 

We found a food court of sorts and  got something from McDonald's.  It was not very good.  Dolly abstained from eating fast food. 

 

We left there, went through security and went to the waiting area.  Our flight to Amsterdam was departing on time.  We had a short wait and boarded the plane.  The flight was rather quick and we were in Amsterdam.  We had thought about going to the city, but our passage through immigration and customs took forever, so we decided to remain in the terminal.  Additionally, the weather was lousy. 

 

We waked around a little and bought some gifts and some chocolate  While we were shopping we went into a duty free store and found these gadgets that can charge your phone.  We had some Euros left so we bought two, one for each of us.  I went to smoke and then we waited for our trans-Atlantic flight.

Walking the Neigborhood

September 19, 2013

We had decided the night before that we would remain in the neighborhood and walk around.  We awoke and lounged a bit.  We went out to have breakfast and found a great little place not far from the apartment that had nice al fresco seating.  We ordered and just sat and enjoyed the ambience of a business day in Barcelona.  It was quite lively.

 

We ate and left and walked down a very busy avenue.  Somehow Dolly knew where we were and our relationship to the apartment.  We did a little window shopping and went into a few stores to browse.  The walk was quite enjoyable

 

We checked email and just relaxed for a while.  Since our flight was quite early in the morning, 6am,  we felt it would be a good idea to pack most of our items.  We did that and then just chilled.  A nice lazy afternoon of sorts. 

 

We had seen a Chinese restaurant while we were walking that was not far from the apartment.  We checked the menu and it appeared adequate.  That was where we would eat dinner.

 

After relaxing and packing, we got dressed and went out to dinner.  As it turned out, we were the only customers.  The service was quite good.  We got lots of attention.  The food was also quite good.  We dined well and left to go back to the apartment.  It was a balmy evening and we had a nice walk.  We got back and put the finishing touches on packing and went to bed.

 

 

Going for Gaudi

September 18, 2013

We decided that today, we would go to Gaudi Park and La Sagrada Familia (the Sacred Family), a cathedral designed by Gaudi.  I had a little orange juice and Dolly had some coffee and we left the apartment. 

 

We walked to the metro and found the directions to get to La Sagrada Familia.  It was a short ride with one transfer.  We got there and there were people everywhere around the building.  Dolly said she would like to go inside so we got in the line, which was wrapped around the entire edifice.  She got in line and I walked around and took some pictures which will follow.

 

 

 

It is a truly magnificent building.  It is not completed and according to lore regarding Gaudi, it will never be completed.

 

 

Dolly had not made much progress in the fifteen minutes or so that I was wandering around taking pictures.  She said that she was not anxious to wait for a long time to go inside, so she got out of line and we wandered around admiring the building.

 

 

Dolly and I in front of La Sagrada Familia

 





We went to the McDonald's across the street from the site and had a bite to eat.  We then boarded the metro to go to Gaudi Park.

 

It was a rather quick ride to the stop for El Parque Gaudi.  We exited the metro and got to street level where I inquired of a vendor where the entrance to the park was.  He gave us directions and we began our trek.  We rounded a corner and followed the signs.  The park was at the top of a steep hill.  We started up.  The first few levels had escalators.  Whew!!!  After that however, it was climbing steps.  I had to stop a couple of times because it was hard work.  We finally got to the entrance and we climbed a little bit more.  At least it was a ramp type situation.

 

On the way up inside the park, I took a few photos of the Barcelona skyline from that vantage point.  The blue you see in the background is the Mediterranean Sea.

 

 

La Sagrada Familia

A Barcelona landmark

 

We wandered the park around many trails.  While walking, we encountered several vendors and some real characters.  One man was dressed in a animal print jumpsuit and singing.  He was not very good.  Later we encountered two mimes who were quite good.

 

 

Dolly and the mimes

The mimes

 

 

We proceeded further up the trail toward what we thought was the top.  Not so, but we were at a restaurant type area that was cut into the mountain. 

 

 

The mountain in Gaudi Park

 

 

We used the facilities and ordered some food.  If you notice, Gaudi designed the columns above the snack bar.  It was quite impressive.  We ate and wandered out onto a plaza that had more examples of Gaudi's genius.

 

Buildings in Gaudi Park

A bench on the plaza

Dolly on one of the benches

 

The art you see on the benches and the roof of the buildings is an  example of the broken tile technique that Gaudi experimented with.  The pieces were quite beautiful.

 

 

We decided to leave the park and headed down a steep hill past a number of souvenir shops and small restaurants.  We were trying to find a bus stop so that we could get back into the center of town.  We casually walked down the hill stopping several times to look in the shops.  We finally got to the main street level and caught the right bus back toward Las Ramblas. 

 

We walked down Las Ramblas toward the harbor area.  We had decided to go for a sail on a 75 foot Fontaine Pagot catamaran around the harbor and into the Mediterranean Sea.  We were a little early so we got a snack to eat and Dolly got the tickets for the cruise.

 

The boat left at approximately 6:30 with a two man crew and captain.  We also had a saxophonist who was quite good.  They had wine on the boat and we got a glass and sat down back near the helm and the captain.  He was quite a likable guy.

 

The sky was clear and the moon was full and we had a great sail out of the harbor and in to the Mediterranean Sea.  It was great. 

 

 

 

 

Dolly and I on the catamaran

 

 

Barcelona from the sea

 

 

We went a few miles out into the Med and sailed around for a while and then started back.  The moon was magnificent!  We sailed our way back into the harbor and pulled into the slip.  We thanked the captain and disembarked.

 

We were hungry and did not want to eat anywhere on Las Ramblas.  We had seen a nice restaurant in the marina next to Mar Magnum called Maritime.  That was where were going.  

 

The restaurant was empty and we were seated rather quickly.  The place was beautiful.  We were out on a covered open air area that was quite lovely.  The service was perfect!  The servers were efficient and the food was delicious.  We casually dined and relaxed.  It was restful to just look at the marina.

 

We left and walked back up Las Ramblas to the metro.  Of course, I had to stop and get a gelato.  We sat on a bench and watched the people.  We noticed a couple of hustlers working the people.  We went on to the metro and traveled back to our apartment.  A truly great day.



 



 

 







 





 

 



 





Another Tour Day (Open Top Bus)

September 17, 2013

We awoke at about 8:00 AM and Dolly went out for her walk.  She said she needed to burn some more calories because we have been eating well.  I lounged a little bit and then I got up.  Dolly came back with some goodies for breakfast. We ate our European breakfast in the apartment and planned our day.  We had another day of touring on the Open Top Bus so that was the plan for the day.  We got dressed and headed out.  It was a slightly cool and somewhat overcast day with mild temperatures.  We caught the metro and headed down to the circle adjacent to Las Ramblas.  We found the area where our bus line was and waited to board a bus.  The area was crowded with tourists and shoppers as there was a large department store and restaurants in the area.

 

Finally we were able to board a bus.  We had to sit down in the covered area because the top level was full.  After a stop or two, we were able to get upstairs.  It was getting cloudier and there appeared to be a serious threat of rain.  Fortunately, I had my rain jacket and Dolly had a poncho for raingear.

 

Going down El Diagonal

 

 

These buses have different routes and we took a different route today since we had done the entire circuit of one route yesterday. The bus started down El Diagonal again and once again the view of the shops and buildings was amazing.  The bus headed north toward a very different part of Barcelona.  Today we were passing through more residential neighborhoods, but one place we passed was La Sagrada Familia, a cathedral designed by Gaudi. We decided to go there tomorrow when we could spend more time and go inside.

 

We stayed on the bus until we were in the area of a local marketplace with vendors, fresh food, and a few restaurants.  We selected an alfresco place in the market to have lunch.  The food was good and we enjoyed our meal there.  The proprietor was impressed that I spoke Spanish and he wanted to talk.  A small group of Anglos sat at the table next to us and wanted to engage us in conversation.  We talked for a bit and then paid our bill and left.  We wandered around the market and bought some gifts for folks back in the U.S.

 

We reboarded the bus on the same route and proceeded on our day's tour.  We headed toward the area of the Universidad de Barcelona.  It was a very open and spacious area that housed the numerous buildings of the university.  We also passed near the Parque Gaudi.  We decided that we wanted to visit the park tomorrow.  Dolly wanted to go to El Museo del Gaudi, but it was in the suburbs and not easy to reach. 

 

The rest of the tour was rather uneventful, but quite interesting.  It rained some during the afternoon, but we were prepared.  The bus took us back through some of the residential neighborhoods and we returned back to the Las Ramblas area.  We got off of the bus and wanted to get something to eat.  We ended up going to The Hard Rock Café.  The food wasn't bad, but it was so loud.

 

Gary in The Hard Rock Café

 

Dolly refused to have her picture taken in the Hard Rock.  She said it was too American.

 

We left there and walked down Las Ramblas for a bit toward the harbor.  It was raining intermittently and we decided to head back to our apartment.  But first, I had to have a gelato.  Good eats!!!! 

 

We went back and decided to tour on our own tomorrow. 

 

Dolly had the idea of calling Air France and complaining about how we had lost two days of sightseeing because we had no luggage.  She did not make any headway.  I took the phone and requested to speak to a supervisor.  Eventually, a very nice agent in Atlanta came on and began helping me.  Air France, Delta and KLM are all in the same alliance and ownership.  After about an hour on the phone the agent booked us on a KLM flight out of Barcelona through Amsterdam to Dulles International scheduled for September 20, 2013 as opposed to September 19, 2013-- a day later, but it did not cost any fees.  Bonanza!!!!!

 

After that, we went to bed and got ready for our adventures tomorrow.



 



 

 









 

I Hope the BAGGAGE comes!!!

September 16, 2013

We awoke at about 7:30 AM.  Dolly decided that she wanted to take a walk around the community and burn some calories.  I stayed in bed.  She came back after about an hour with some bags and some breakfast goodies.  She had found some inexpensive articles of clothing for herself as well.  We sat and ate some cheese and bread with some juice for me and coffee for her.  Dolly said that we ought to go back to the store where we got my shirt and see if they had any pants that would fit me.  I had clean underwear and a clean shirt, but I wanted some pants.  We went back to MareMagnum to the same store where I had gotten the shirt.  The sales person said they had some pants to fit me.  We left after the pants did not fit.   

 

We walked back up Las Ramblas toward the Open Top Bus stops.  I called Air France and inquired about our luggage.  Finally there was some positive news.  They had found Dolly's bag, but had not positively identified my bag.  Dolly's bag went to another city in France.  The agent stated that both bags would be delivered tonight after six pm.

We decided to buy a two day ticket for the tour bus.  We boarded the bus and began our tour.

 

Upstairs on the Open Top Bus

  

The bus started down El Diagonal, a beautiful tree lined avenue with many upscale shops and eateries.  The bus took us toward some buildings that were designed by the Spanish artist, Gaudi.

 

 

A Gaudi design

Another Gaudi design

 

As we traversed El Diagonal, there were many examples of his style of architecture.  If you notice from the pictures above, much of his designs appear to resemble melting wax in many areas like around the windows and the decoration of the balconies.

 

As we proceeded down that avenue there were numerous beautiful examples of architecture.

 

 











Barcelona Soccer Stadium 

 

We wound our way through the city discharging and collecting passengers as we went.  As an interesting observation; when we stopped at the different stops we looked on top of the bus shelters and they were covered with discarded earbuds.

Most of our tour was of the downtown area to start.  We were taken past the football (soccer) stadium of their famous football team, pictured above.

We next climbed a series of hills and went up to the Olympic Stadium and complex.  It was built on a site that had once been the residences of many poor residents. These people were relocated to another area into new houses. There was the swimming venue as well as an Olympic museum on this site.  There was also a tram that ran from the harbor area to the Olympic venue.

We next descended from that area and headed toward the Mediterranean Sea and the harbor.  The view was magnificent as you can see from the picture below.  That's the Mediterranean Sea in the distance.

 

 

We toured the harbor area and saw Barcelona's largest mall, Mar Magnum with its accompanying marina.  It was absolutely beautiful.  While in the waterfront area, we were taken past a great beach and the Olympic Sailing Center and part of the Olympic Village.

 

The buildings that had once housed the athletes were sold once the Olympics had ended.  The tour guide stated that it had once been believed that the farther away from the sea you were the more valuable your property was.  The Olympics and their dwellings changed that thinking.  They were sold after the Olympics were over and are very valuable real estate.

 

We proceeded through the financial district and an older part of Barcelona.  Before we knew it, we were back where we had started our tour.  We disembarked the bus and headed back to our apartment to receive our luggage.

 

We picked up some food on the way to the apartment and began our wait.  We had left word with the concierge that Air France would be bringing our luggage and she placed a note on the glass door to ring the bell to our apartment.  Now we settled in to wait for the delivery of our bags.

The hours seemed to drag by with no courier with our bags.  I got tired of waiting in the apartment.  I went down to the lobby and took a chair and propped the door open to wait for the driver.  Some time near 10 pm, the driver arrived with our bags.  HOORAY!!!!!!!  We checked them and went to bed.  We now have fresh clothing.







Barcelona!!!

September 14 & 15, 2013

After everyone was dropped at their destinations, Dolly and I were taken to the Split airport.  We were able to get a bite to eat before we began our journey. We were flying Air France from Split to Barcelona via Paris.  Ah Paris!

Our flights were uneventful.  We had a layover in Paris for a few hours and we tried to just relax while we waited for our flight.  We had a small meal in a great little bistro in the airport and then we cleared security to the boarding area.

Finally, at about 10:40 PM local time, we landed in Barcelona. We went to the baggage carousel to await our luggage.  We both waited and watched all of the bags go around and around, but not ours.  Little by little, the number of bags that were circling around was getting less and less.  Finally, we went to the baggage claim counter for Air France to complain.  We were asked for information and the color of our bags and handed a form.  The staff person said they would put a trace on our bags and they would be brought to us.  There was nothing else to do.

 

We caught a cab to our lodging for the night, Hotel Frontair Congress Aeropuerto, which was about a ten minute drive from the airport.  The hotel was quite modern and very slick.  Our room was very nice and we settled in as best we could.  Finally we went to bed.

 

The next morning we went to breakfast in a very nice dining room with a terrace.  All the while we were hoping that our bags would be at the front desk when we went down.  No such luck!  The hotel had a free shuttle into downtown Barcelona, so we decided to utilize that and get into town.  We only had our carryon bags.  As a note, I have long preached to carry a change of clothing and clean underwear in your carryon bag.  Somehow I did not and Dolly had just a pair of underwear I believe.

 

We got on the shuttle bus and were discharged in town.  We quickly caught a taxi and were taken to our apartment, Apartamentos Descartes.  I had received an email from the management that no one worked on weekends and that the key to our apartment would be elsewhere.  When we arrived, I called the number on the reservation, but got no answer.  Shortly, some people were leaving and they said they had gotten their key from a parking garage down the street.  I walked the half a block and the key was there waiting for us.

 

The apartment was very European modern and quite nice.  We settled in as best we could and made a plan regarding getting some interim clothing.  We had trip insurance and it had a monetary provision for lost luggage.  It was Sunday and we were wondering what was open.  We managed to get into the center of town using the Metro.  We got off at Las Ramblas station and began to look for stores.  We looked in a department store, but they did not have anything to fit me.  As we strolled down Las Ramblas we noticed a number of stores were closed.  A gentleman in one store we visited told us to go to MareMagnum, a mall.  It was at the end of the avenue.

 

We walked down to the mall and it was teeming.  It contained a variety of shops and boutiques.  We went into several menswear shops and they had no pants to fit me and we found one long sleeve polo shirt that fit.  We got that and went to look for underwear.  Finally, we found a store that had underwear to fit me.  Of course, we anxiously waited for a call from the luggage services office.

 

We went back to the apartment and waited a little longer.  No call. 

 

We went back to the hub of life for tourists, Las Ramblas,  to get some dinner.  We found a very interesting restaurant and had our evening meal. Before we decided where were going to eat, we got several "pitches" from people about their respective restaurants, but we chose a very active restaurant with a good menu.  The food and the service were good.  After I got some great gelato, we took the metro back to our apartment.  Another day without our luggage :-(

The Crew of Mediterraneo

Susan Lynch

 

Shirley Woodson

Dolly Turner Dixon

Denise Alston

 

Cheryl Green

 

Bertina Suber and Cheryl Green

 

The Captain, Gary Dixon

 

 

The crew onboard Mediterraneo