Trip 45

January 10, 2024

We’ve had this trip planned for quite a while, but life being what it is, made preparing for it totally last minute. We’re flying from Dallas to London (Heathrow), where we have a short layover, and then on to Barcelona, Spain- a city and country we’ve never visited. The weather in Dallas the week after we leave is supposed to be horrid ; we can only hope things don’t freeze up and the power remains on.

Although we booked this flight quite awhile ago, Iberia cancelled it (months after we booked). British Airways owns Iberia. We contacted them and they rebooked us, upgrading us to business class; quite a step up from our norm. Lay flat seats are great, if you can sleep in them (my seat being on the aisle means more people going to/from the restroom) . I did get more sleep than I would have otherwise, but it’s difficult to get comfortable. Food was a huge upgrade from what we normally see on airlines, though these seats would go for >~$5000 each, one way, if we paid for them (vs using points).

The flight was routine, except it was an hour late getting into Heathrow and although we don’t have to go through passport control because we have a connecting flight to Barcelona, we still have to go through security, again…Heathrow security is “thorough “ and a PITA when you’re running late. Though it looked iffy about making the flight based on posted times, they had not yet started boarding. Good thing we “rolled on” with our luggage. With the short layover, it wouldn’t have been an auspicious way to start a trip with lost luggage.

Much of our first day was spent traveling, first to London, then a short hop over to Spain, landing in Barcelona. Going through passport control was a non-event and pretty quick. Then, how to get into town? We’d pre-purchased a metro pass, but didn’t want to use a day simply getting into town (it’s now about 3pm) , so we took the 20 minute bus ride into town. The bus stops not far from our hotel, about a 15 minute walk. Coming into the central part of Barcelona, the many of the apartments along the Avenida Roma have balconies, some of them have their green awnings pulled to shade them.

Along with the drama of Iberia canceling our flight, a couple of months ago, our hotel informed us they were canceling the first day of our stay because some one (or group-Growth Summit 2024) had booked the entire hotel. They wanted to rebook us at some property that wasn’t too far from the airport, but that’s a long ways out of town. We said no, and they rebooked us at an unaffiliated (and much nicer) property in town. So we get to change hotels tomorrow morning , but our longer stay hotel is paying for the taxi between properties.

As late in the afternoon as it was and as tired as we were, it was time to get the sleep we’d missed, so no sightseeing today.

Here’s a view from the top floor of the hotel (the next morning).