The Spain Trip begins—27 October 2024

 Paul and I left our kitties, Tinker and Belle, in the care of house sitter Laura on Saturday evening. We drove to the home of Peggy and  Bruce Hoppes in San Antonio to spend the night and catch an early ride to the airport in the morning.

There is something weird going on at United Airlines.  We have not flown with them in over a decade. We could not understand their carry on policy from the website. It sounded like you could take your one “personal” item, but bringing a carry-on suitcase was sketchy.  So we very carefully planned the items we might need onboard with us for the  ten or so hours we’d be traveling, including overnight.

When we were in the process of boarding they asked for volunteers to check their carry on bags for free. Naturally, we did not volunteer, because we had an international flight ahead of us.  We could have gotten along just fine if they were offering to check them to the next stop, which was Newark, but the only option was to check them to our final destination, Barcelona.

We were in the next-to-last boarding group, and they announced that the overhead bins were all full, so we would ALL have to check our bags.  After much grief and rearranging, I waved goodbye to my overnight bag, which had cosmetics and an extra set of clothes in case one of our larger bags got lost.  I mumbled something snarky about them getting some GOOD jets like Southwest has, because THEY do not run out of space in the cabin!  As we entered the jet, we noted that the two airlines use the same jet, and we started counting all the empty slots in the bins for our luggage!  I stopped counting at 16 or so — more than enough for all the passengers!  WHY did the gatekeepers outright LIE to us? Why did they choose to make passengers with connecting flights that day suffer such inconvenience?  It was an aggravation to us all.

Our flight from Newark to Barcelona was not too bad. I was tired already and was eager to sleep.  I may have napped a bit even before supper.  I was trying out a new kind of travel pillow that keeps your neck upright.  It took a little getting-used-to, but I think I got much better quality sleep.  It was chilly in the jet, so I pulled the blanket over my head to keep me warm, and my breath helped humidify the air I was breathing. Breakfast was basic but tasty. What I really missed, however, was the warm, moist washcloth they used to provide to freshen up with in the morning!  Or maybe that was only on foreign-owned carriers.

When we arrived at Barcelona, there was of course a massive line (excuse me, I’m in Europe now:  Que) waiting at Passport Control. But they soon opened up new lines, and it wasn’t bad.  It took forever, however, to get our luggage. Ours was in the last group to be off-loaded.  What’s worse is that while we waited, my AirTags were telling us our two large bags were still in Newark! We were about to despair when our bags showed up one right after the other!  Phew!

We had a pick up service from the airport to our hotel near the top of Las Ramblas. We arrived at the hotel around 11:30 this morning, only to be told that our room would not be ready until 3:30 — one little detail I forgot to ask about in advance.  We had planned to check in and take a nap before going out on the town.  Instead we sleep-walked around town for four hours.  😂😢

You can plan things very carefully and then realize that you don’t know what you don’t know.  I was careful to find a hotel with an elevator because I knew we were bringing a boatload of “stuff.”  And indeed, the hotel has an elevator to the 3rd floor where our room is.  But when we exited the elevator, we turned the corner and found four more steps to climb!