June 16 Day 3 Arrive in Barcelona

The night was long and pretty uncomfortable as we shifted and moved the pillows and blankets and our feet trying to find a comfortable way to sleep. Part of it was it was an old 767 plane where the seats were just less comfortable. The night dragged on and on until finally we noticed it was getting light outside. Then, we still flew longer. Finally, we were thrilled to find out the window we could see Spain. Hooray! We landed in Barcelona at around 10:30 local time. We actually were not cleared to land the first time in, so got an extra tour of the Barcelona area in the bright sunshine.  Neither of us had ever been to Spain, let alone Barcelona, so it was exciting to peek out the window and know that we would learn this new city much better during the next 5 days.  The metro area has around 8 million people, so it was certainly a large city.

Once we landed, we then went through the easiest customs and passport check either of us could remember, including coming into the US. Especially coming into the US. We cleared customs and quickly followed directions to find an Aerobus, which in a half an hour took us right to downtown Barcelona right in the tourist area that we wanted to start our visit in. Because our Airbnb apartment would not be ready yet, Patti had researched and found “Locker Barcelona”, a place you could pay to lock up your suitcases while you were doing the touristy things. We were grateful to leave our suitcases and a couple other bags safely as we went out to begin enjoying Barcelona and to start orienting our self to this amazing beautiful city.

First, we walked through the beautiful Placa de Catalunya plaza area. It was filled with tourists and pigeons and balloons and quite delightful. Next, we decided to take a long walk down Las Ramblas,  which is the main tourist street, and headed all the way down to the cruise ship port. The street truly was full of tourists, tourist traps, restaurants and shops. We walked with interest and also a little amusement at all the funny things we saw there. It is a very, very touristy street, but still with some fun people watching opportunities.

We were starting to run out of gas having had very little sleep for the past three days. A little chocolate gelato seemed in order. And, we gratefully ate and sat in the shade. Next, we took a short walk to get to the hotel where our friend from Colorado, Jenny, had been staying these past several days while she was at a training. What a happy coincidence that we flew in the day that Jenny was leaving so we could meet for lunch in Barcelona. What a joy! We talked about Jenny’s training, as well as our sightseeing plans for the week. Being able to see old friends is always wonderful.  We joined her at her favorite local café, eating outside and soaking in the energy of the city.

After lunch Jenny strolled with us around the neighborhood, pointing out things like the

Barcelona Arc de Triumph.  Then, Jenny was off to fly on to Switzerland and it was time for us to go check into our apartment. We were two tired travelers.

We dragged our now too heavy suitcases, and struggled with both the Metro subway and figuring out how to check in remotely into our Airbnb.  Exhausted minds are not the best problem solvers. We were so glad to get to the apartment and finally lay down on a real bed.  We skipped going to the grocery store and just fell into deep and restless sleep.

But, we had arrived at our first real destination. It’s so fun to be still at the beginning of our vacation!