We're Here!

Waiting on Terry for most of Sunday. I was packed and ready to go early, Of course we had been watching the weather forecast. Disconcerting to see beautiful sunshiny days up until Sunday. It poured in the morning. By the time we left for the airport, the sun had appeared and all was well with the world. Then we watched the skies darken as we waited for takeoff. When my Red Cross mobile app warned us of a Tornado watch in Dallas (and just about every other county in Texas) I went to planning my funeral. 

Our Ride to London

We flew British Skyways out of Terminal D, DFW Airport. While there were a host of interesting seating arrangements, we were flying on points, i.e. cheaply. Terry snagged us two seats at the back of the plane. The alternative in our price range was a seat of three seats on the side or 5 in the center. We got a little more space for our legs and our stuff and less companionship with total strangers. Maybe in order to make the flights profitable they have to cram us all into postage size seats so the guys up front can have recliners. Whatever.

A lovely British accent warned us that due to the weather we would have a bumpy ride at first while we cleared the 'weather'. I expected about 15 minutes of it. As we coasted over the east coast we were still being bounced around. I was amazed they still managed to get us food and it didn't get all over us. Although they limited the coffee to 1/2 a cup, I did manage to drink it without spilling it on myself. 

To distract my brain  from the inevitable crash (in my head), I watched four movies on my personal tv! Enoug

Our Home for the Day - London England

h Said, Inside Llewyn Davis, 12 Years a Slave, Forgetting June, and another I skimmed through and quickly forgot. Curried chicken and rice for dinner. Breakfast raisens, scone and juice. The 9 hour flight finally made it to London. Since my mortality had me on high alert, I had not slept much.

We were looking forward to the American Airlines Ambassador Club. Maybe catching a snooze, eating some free food, being pampered. We had a 7 hour layover till the Barcelona flight. A couple things conspired to change our plans: 1. Security is ridiculous at Heathrow. I'm sure they think its perfectly fine, but every time you move to a different part of the terminal or terminal complex you have to go through security. They have an abbreviated version for those of us transferring planes, but if you leave one terminal and go to another (the club was in Terminal 3 and our plane left from Terminal 5), we'd have to go through security there and again at 5 when we came back. Worse, we'd have to take a bus to 3. 

Gordon Ramsey's Plane Food

So Terry thought he'd talk his way into the British Airways lounge.  There were 3 of them at Terminal 5. One on the North, two on the South. We are member of Admirals Club, and flying on AA miles, so theoretically reciprocity would exist. If anyone had a chance at it, it would be Terry, who has a Master in BS. 

He had luck with the first lady who directed us, based on his ruby status, to lady two, who told us we weren't good enough. He was ruby, but not One World Ruby.  We needed executive, she said. I had an Executive Platinum Membership with AA/Admirals club and was gold but that still wasn't good enough. We threatened to never fly British Airways again. She cried (not) at the loss of our three upcoming cancelled flights.  And we went  in search of our next best option, caffeine.

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I was past tired, so I actually Missed the Starbucks!  A rare occurrence. They even took our Starbucks card. Since I was close to passing out we headed for Gordon Ramsey's Plane Food. Our FIRST in person GR experience.  I just needed something (anything) to eat so I had eggs benedict and orange juice along with my Starbucks. Terry opted for garlic soup and some strange looking, but good tasting cheese salad. The waiter was delightful and kind enough to respond when I asked if he'd seen the Chef much and if he was yelling at the time. He said yes to both, but he was probably humoring me.. 

Terry can Sleep Anywhere!

After that we headed for the Quiet Zone, which had a few lounging chairs looking at the airfield. Interesting to note there was an excavation going on at Heathrow quite close to Terminal 5. They had a few artifacts on display. I thought about walking to it, but decided I'd probably get arrested, leaving Terry alone on vacation. Couldn't have that! We watched an endless parade of British Skyway  and Iberia planes and every 1/2 hour checked the monitor for our upcoming gate. 

While I love the British accent, and most British gentle people, I wasn't overly fond of the British airport. Information was more like Dis Information. They claimed they had no idea which gate the plane usually came in at. We, being skeptical Americans, didn't believe that. But true to form, the plane destined to leave at 5:20 did not have a gate posted until 4:30.  We headed over that way immediately and by the time we arrived every seat was taken. If the people who work at the airport didn't know what gate was usually used, the passengers must have an outside source.

Parade of Planes in the Quiet Zone

The flight must have been at least half school age children. That would have been okay if they had been in some other part of the plane, but they were all around us.  Ruby got us onto the plane slightly ahead of most of them and Terry had managed to block a middle seat, so we were in comfort for most of the smooth fast flight.A light snack of chicken wrap, apple juice and coffee and we were almost there. If we hadn't been so tired from the first flight, we probably could have driven. Did get an excellent view of the snow covered Pyrennes and the sun setting over Barcelona.

The Barcelon airport was totally unlike Heathrow. We must have been close to, if not The, last flight of the day, Security had gone home. Disinterested official reviewed our passports. Our luggage made it, which is always a welcome surprise, and our driver meet us out front, his IPAD displaying "TERRY ROSGA'. Of course Terry walked right past him. His explanation was that he was going to the end of the line and working his way backward. Sure. System Engineer excuse.

Although our driver spoke little English and we spoke no Spanish, he was able to get us to the car and our hotel. Hotel Barcelona Catedral - older and rennovated, situated in the Gothic quarter and right down the block from the main catedral. We scoped out the 'infinity' pool on the roof (thankfully closed) and the IT center (2 computers) in the lobby and talked to Oriole (which sounds more like Oreos to me) our gentlemanly host. Internet is fast, even in the rooms. 

We figured out how to get most of the room lights to work.  Our chargers worked to restore life to our phones. We discussed the high price of breakfast.at the hotel, and although we were sure we were too tired, we took a quick walk to the square where young children were launching blue illuminated missiles into the sky and charming cafe's beckoned at each corner. Although Starbucks had closed, we found an out door cafe serving java. 

After two cups of cappucino and dessert we toddled back to our hotel. Terry was always afraid the waiter had forgotten our order..there did seem to be a lapse between when we thought we had ordered and the confirmation of the order. Whatever, It was a beautiful jacket-less night. We even enjoyed the garbage truck at 10 which stopped in the middle of the square and gathered blue lights in its engine. 

Sunset Over Spain

Our room, which some deluded person  described as spacious and cozy (those two words do not exactly go together) was really more cozy. The bathtub was long enough for a smaller version of Jack the Giant. The window opened at the top and looked out at a narrow street and an apartment building, whose residents evidently enjoy being connected to the larger world. One writer sat at his desk overlooking his side of the street, oblivious to us watching him. Another couple were watching tv in bed. Their rooms, like ours, were small, so my guess is they became connected to the larger world by leaving their windows open. That certainly is my tendency, but Terry closed the curtains anyway.

There is a closet, refrigerator, tv, stereo, desk, easy chair and bed. One night stand  looks like a miniature tree stump with a black rotary dial phone from my youth. The other was a miniature end table with a goose necked lamp. No chest of drawers, which suits me because I don't like unpacking anyway. and a variety of other eclectic lighting fixtures. Very Interesting. 

I slept better than I ever have in my life. Terry is still snoring. Of course that guy can sleep in the most unlikely places...middle of airports, surrounded by crying babies, in the midst of crashing aircrafts - he can snore on.

Right before we left Terry watched a program on aspertame which claimed that it, as little as one diet coke a day, increased a woman's likelihood of having a stroke to 61 percent. That, along with extensive if unvalidated internet research, convinced me to give up diet coke and Equal. Although my mind was in shock for a few days, I noticed that I drank less coffee.  

SO it really wasn't the caffeine I craved, it was the artificial sweetner. Just like sugar, it sets up a craving that I want satisfied.  And I thought I was doing a good thing by substituting artificial sweetner for sugar. Including all those diet cokes for real cokes....However, looking back I used to eat just so I could drink them. Can we spell addictive? They say that artificial sweetner is a hundred times more sweet than sugar. I guess we need Diet Coke Rehabs. At any rate, I ended up drinking less coffee and diet cokes at night and amazingly enough didn't have to get up 5 or 6 times each and every night. And here I thought it was old age. 

Well it's 10:34 AM, an unheard of time for me to get up.  Barcelona Awaits.