Sun and sightseeing in Spain COMPLETE - Page 13 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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Park Guell looks like a very interesting place to visit with so much to see, all the details and everything. It sounds like your day is a good one, if only the crowds had been lighter. Enjoying the photos!
Saturday 20 September – part three: the Spain of years gone by
We headed towards the National Museum of Catalonian Art, which is housed in a stunning building, as you can see:
Even more stunning is the lead up to this building. We walked down the stairs – definitely the right way to go. Last time, we’d given up at the prospect of walking up those steps, so we knew how daunting they could be.
Our final stop of the day was to be Poble Espanyol. This was established for an international festival in the 1920’s and showcases architecture from across Spain. I had heard that this was excellent and not to be missed, but it was up another darned hill and we were very tired. We almost didn’t go, but decided to persevere and I’m so glad we did. The second we walked in, we were just overwhelmed with all the different types of architecture we could see before us.
There’s one huge square at the entrance and then you can wander through a series of side streets. Each of the buildings is home to either craft workshops, shops or restaurants. It’s a really creative place and we got to see glassblowers at work. We were so impressed by the cow that the guy created that we ended up buying one.
The glassblower at work And the cow he produced, which we ended up buying one just like it
We also bought a few presents and a couple of treats for ourselves in another shop, all in the Gaudi mosaic style. We’d been really taken with this style, much more than on our last visit. This was a beautiful place, but it’s also a dangerous place, as you could end up spending so much money here.
We sat for a while and took in the beauty of the main square, before finally heading out and back down to the underground. Why is it that when you’re tired the walk underground at the station always seems to take forever? It’s something that always seems to happen to us. The journey back to the hotel was much easier than this morning, with a tram turning up just minutes after we got to the stop.
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Cheryl I am sad that your trip is nearing it's end!!
I showed this picture
to Carlee without telling her where it was. She said BARCELONA!!
The Cheetah Girls( my two girls love them!)were in that same spot in Cheetah Girls 2(original, eh?).
More interesting places and photos! I do love the cow! A walk around there would be a nice addition to a Disney cruise, since they are preparing to go back to the Med!
I'm just getting all caught up. I don't know how I missed so much.
What an ordeal you had getting to your hotel. I'm sure you can look back on it now and laugh.
With all those hills and stairs you're climbing your legs must be in great shape.
More great Pics! That must have been some cow if you got one of those instead of a donkey!
Well, actually cows and donkeys are my two favourite animals. I've always loved cows, as there was a herd outside my parents' house and they all had their own individual characters.
Saturday 20 September – part four: the nightmare flight home
We went back to the hotel and spent some time there, just freshening up, before driving to the airport, stopping to fill up on the way. Good grief, fuel isn’t cheap in continental Europe any longer. OK, so it’s no way as bad as it is in Britain, but even so, 55 Euros (£45) to fill the car up is not cheap.
We made it to the airport quickly enough and handed back the car, then it was in line to check in for our flight. It didn’t take that long to get through, even though the lines looked horrendous at first. Our suitcase weighed exactly 32kgs, the absolute weight limit, which wasn’t bad going. The guy who checked us in was impressed with the way we did that, but as I told him, I doubt we’d manage to do that a second time.
We were quickly through security, although interestingly, I had to take my watch and pedometer to get through, both of which went through the security machine just over a year ago. We were getting hungry, only having had a snack since breakfast. There were a few options, but none really appealed, until we saw a restaurant which looked like it had some nice choices. We settled down to look at the menu and then our server explained that we could opt for either the hot or cold buffet instead. A quick look at that showed lots of fish and vegetable choices, so we both went for the hot buffet and very good it was too. It was exceptionally filling with a paella and pasta dish amongst the choices and I don’t doubt that was their intention, so that we didn’t eat too much. Along with a piece of strawberry cheesecake as well, it was a good meal and we were set for the night… or so we thought.
We wandered around the various shops for a while and then headed for the gate. There was a flight showing up for 9pm that was just boarding when we got there. That was fine, as ours was due to leave at 10.50pm. I started to get an inkling that all might not be well with that a little earlier, as every Easyjet flight into the UK that night seemed to be late in leaving, but was optimistic that maybe we’d escaped. However, when a flight to Dublin showed up at 10pm, we began to think that this might be cutting it a bit close. Sure enough, the words “delayed” soon showed up next to our flight, but heck until 11.08pm. We could live with that.
A change of gate later and the time ticked past. It was soon 11pm and it was clear that we wouldn’t be leaving at the time they reckoned. A woman went and told the member of staff that in no uncertain terms. Apparently she works at London Gatwick airport turning planes around and she immediately told the staff member that it wasn’t possible to do it in less than 40 minutes. Interesting. Perhaps she should go and see how Southwest operate…
Finally, the plane came in just after 11pm and it seemed to take an age before we were able to start boarding. When we did, we were amongst the first and snagged seats near the front of the plane, but we soon realised how bad those seats were, when the two kids behind us began to scream their lungs out. It was horrendous and we weren’t the only ones feeling it. A number of the people around us were soon shooting the parents grim looks and they didn’t seem to care. Mark concluded in the end that perhaps they were deaf, as they didn’t seem to hear the kids at all and they also seemed to ignore safety regulations, getting up when the seatbelt signs were on. They were certainly a piece of work.
Even after everyone boarded, we still didn’t move. Apparently, there was a problem moving the stairway leading to the plane and, at one point, Mark heard a stewardess say that if someone didn’t come to move it a.s.a.p, they’d do it themselves. What a nightmare.
Eventually we took off an hour and a half after schedule. We were shattered and tried our best to sleep the whole way back, although it didn’t help that we were woken up by turbulence halfway back and the steward telling us that he needed to see our seatbelts were fastened, which they were. All in all, it wasn’t a good flight, although thankfully the kids managed to quieten down, until we came into land, when the screaming started again. I don’t think I’ve ever been so glad to get off a plane before!
We were quickly through customs and then we played the waiting game for our luggage for about 20 minutes. That’s how long we stood there, waiting for the carousel to start up. By the time it did, I think every single person was off our plane and many of them were complaining about the wait. I mean, let’s be honest, it was stupidly late by now. We’d been late leaving, late arriving and then this. I was so relieved when we finally saw our case, could grab it and head out.
We headed for the taxi office and ordered a cab back to the hotel, which fortunately came pretty quickly and the driver was very good at getting us back there fast. I guess he must’ve picked up on the vibe that it had been a long day!
When we arrived at the hotel, we walked into the middle of a massive row between an American woman, who was obviously a guest at the hotel, and her taxi driver. We couldn’t quite work out what was going on, but they were shouting at each other and we heard her offer to pay him in dollars, but he was having none of that. He declared that he was going to call the police and the woman went off to her room. Just as we left, we saw two policemen arrive, so goodness knows how that one ended up being resolved!
We weren’t best pleased when the staff couldn’t find our car keys at first. The woman we saw first kept telling us that they weren’t down under today for collection or even yesterday – after all, it was the early hours of the morning, so I wondered if that’s where they’d been put. I think it’s fair to say that we were both getting worried and were on a pretty short fuse with the day we’d had. We managed somehow to keep smiling and eventually they found our keys. They’d helpfully been filed under Wednesday for collection – great. Soon we were reunited with our car and on our way back home.
At least there was one benefit of the late hour – the roads were deserted as we drove home and we walked in the door at 3am. Yes, 3am. By then, unbelievably, we were hungry again, so after a quick snack, it was finally off to bed and our Spanish getaway was over.
Today we walked 8.12 miles. The weather today was very hot, cloudy at times, with some bright sunshine and some light rain and temperatures in the 80’s. The best thing today was finishing seeing everything in Barcelona that we didn’t get to see last time. The worst thing today was the flight home. Today we tried going to Park Guell And the result was it was stunning and well worth a visit. The most magical moment today was stepping into Poble Espanyol for the first time.
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Pixie Dust
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Wonderful pictures. Sad to see you're almost at the end of the trip, though.
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