The Spanish Adventure Begins

We have friends, another couple, that we've been traveling with for years. We barely see them during the year, spend a couple of weeks together, and still think of them as dear, close friends.  It is so rare that two couples fit together so well, under stressful conditions (this year especially so), and enjoy it so much we do it again and again, year after year.

During the trip we begin discussing our next year's adventure.  Dave has been voting for Spain for years.  He's been the lone vote.  Until this year.  So we're off to Spain.  I thought we were going to Spain in 2008, I bought the Rick Steves' book, and then read it again for this trip. Rick Steves has always been spot on for us....until this year.  As I re-read the book, I just couldn't get in to the whole Spain decision.

We usually begin planning the trip one year in advance, booking the air and hotels about six months out.  This time it seemed we were throwing it together, all last minute. We didn't book until three months out and then didn't meet with the travel agent until about a week before departure.  We missed the trip last year and were not sure it was going to happen this year.  The economy has been so tenuous that we weren't sure it was a wise choice to spend the big bucks on travel.  Then we all decided what the hay, let's do it. If we run out of money we'll just move in with our children and they can take care of us.

We left from SFO and arrived in Heathrow (London) about 10.5 hours later.  We fly United and go with the Economy Plus which gets you 6 more inches of leg room (and plenty of "six inch" jokes).  It doesn't sound like much, but it's HUGE on a long flight. In the past it's only cost $100 extra, total.  Now that United has merged with Continental, it's gone up in price, considerably.  Oh well....

Because United does not fly to Barcelona, we had to claim our luggage in Heathrow and go through customs, passport control, and security.  The four hour lay over sounded like plenty, but we just made it. Seriously.  Air travel is so ghetto now. Absolutely no glamour. And we're four physically capable, intelligent, and experienced people.  The terrorists have won.

Miguel had a terrible time with security during this trip.......He set off every alarm, at every airport, and we never figured out why. He was scanned, frisked, and had all his stuff rifled through.  He maintained a great attitude.  Copping an attitude would have only made it harder.

Travel is fun.  You see all sorts of odd stuff.  In the United Kingdom they say "Mind the Gap" to tell you to watch your step.  They even have T-Shirts, etc. that mock this.

After the layover we flew another 2.5 hours to Barcelona and arrived safely.....a bit tired, but still smiling....