Roger and Jennifer's Travels

Saturday – October 19, 2024

After picking up our rental car on Friday, we were all set to hit the road Saturday morning. We drove to Dulles airport in order to catch our flight to Paris. We left home around 8:30 AM and arrived to the car rental return just before the 2:00 PM cutoff. Whew! We went through our check-in and TSA without a hitch and headed for the Capital One Lounge.  It was really nice to have a comfy place to kick back before our flight and the free food was a nice perk too! It really added to the experience. We left there to head to our gate in plenty of time to board Air France AF051 – Washington, DC to Paris. We had gotten Premium Economy seats in order to have a little more leg room. Our flight was around 6:30 PM. Once we were in the air the got us fed within an hour or so. Roger got a fish dish and Jennifer opted for the vegetarian option since she does not eat seafood. Both were very tasty! They provided us with a gift bag that included a toothbrush and toothpaste, eye mask, earplugs and socks. We both brought a neck pillow and noise canceling headphones. Jennifer attempted sleep right away while Roger watched some videos. Of course, sleep on an airplane isn’t something easily obtained. We both cat-napped our way through the night. Around 6:00 AM (Paris time, so midnight at home) they turned the cabin lights on to wake everyone up in order to serve breakfast, and I use the title loosely. We got a roll, butter, jelly, a probiotic drink (which was pretty tasty), a small orange juice and an unremarkable pastry (I can’t honestly remember what it was). As I like to say, It was carbalicious, but not too filling. Not something I would normally choose.

We landed safely in Paris, although it felt like we were coming in a little off-balance and we swerved a little!  Being our first trip to Europe, we didn’t fully know what to expect. Our luggage was tagged for Barcelona, so we didn’t have to get it, thankfully. We had under 2 hours to make our connection. By that time we had little sleep. We went through immigration and got our passport stamped and headed out to find our gate with sleepy brains. Our boarding passes, which were printed in DC, had the terminal number but not the gate number. We found the terminal, but it took us a little while to figure out the gate. Perhaps it was a pre-supposition or perhaps it was a sleepiness, but we found the airport workers in Paris to be unfriendly. The lady stamping our passports did not speak and didn’t even crack a smile when I thanked her, or even acknowledge our existence. When asking if we were going the right way to the terminal, all the employees would do is point the direction with an annoyed look. We found the correct gate in sufficient time. The gate agents were pleasant and actually smiled! Maybe it’s not everyone in Paris! We had priority boarding because our first flight was Premium Economy, so we got in the short line for Zone 2. That didn’t last long because there was a technical difficulty with the plane.  They decided to send us on down the jetway (isn’t that what it’s called?) to wait outside of the plane while they got the issue fixed. It didn’t take too long to get us on the plane and seated. The flight was just under 2 hours and we got to Barcelona without a hitch.

We had booked a transfer from the airport to the hotel along with Roger’s cousin Linda and her husband Michael. They took different flights to Barcelona and arrived before us, but they had to go through customs there, where we did that in Paris, so their wait wasn’t too bad. Once we got our luggage (thanks to having Priority status for our flight our luggage came our very quickly!) picked up we sent a WhatsApp message to the shuttle driver. Within a few minutes we were on our way. We got our first look at Barcelona through our weary eyes. We commented that it looked a lot like every other city except for the scooters. We made it to our hotel and Michael and Linda’s (Roger’s cousin) room was available, but ours was not. It was around 1:00 at that time and we were hungry and tired!  We took all of our luggage to their room and headed out for a bite to eat. We are staying at TOC las Ramblas. We didn’t know what to expect, the hotel is really small (maybe 20 rooms total), but it had good reviews. They are on the 4th floor and we are on the 1st floor. First off, we each had to take the elevator separately because it is only about 3 ft. X 3 ft. It is rated for 4 people, but you are in there tightly with 4! It worked fine for one person and a couple of bags – LOL! The rooms are very minimalist, but clean. We commented that we think that cruise cabins are larger than these rooms. It’s about what I expected based on other comments that we had heard about hotels in Europe, so no surprises there.

We were off to a restaurant recommended by the front desk for lunch. We went to Bar Muy Buonas. It was opened in 1928, so we figured it must be OK to have been in business for nearly 100 years! Roger and Michael were a little more adventurous than Linda and Jennifer. The ladies ordered ham croquets from the appetizer selection. Roger ordered Catalan Chicken and Michael ordered Meat Pie (I think that was the name). All of the food was really tasty. There were a few items that were needed from the store, so we stopped into the tiniest store to get what was needed. After that, our room was ready. We went up to Michael and Linda’s room to retrieve our luggage and made it down to our room, which was exactly like theirs. As much as we wanted to sleep, we just changed into comfy walking shoes and headed out to La Rambla. Jennifer’s totally dead phone was charging while we were out walking, but Roger got some pictures. We walked all the way down to the water and decided that we needed to head back because we were all basically sleepwalking. We actually stopped at Taco Bell for a small bite to eat. Believe it or not, it was pretty tasty. Roger and I shared a chicken quesadilla and nachos. Roger picked us up a few bottles of water from there because we didn’t feel like stopping at the store again. We walked back to the hotel and managed to stay awake until 8:00 PM!  That was a major feat.

A little more on La Rambla. It’s a major attraction in Barcelona and our hotel is about a block away. There were thousands of people walking along this thoroughfare. There are restaurants, shops and street performers. It was a bit of an overload with sleep deprivation! The restaurants reminded me a bit of Jamaica from the aspect of people trying to get you to come to their place. We have not yet figured where the actually restaurant is because they were just tables on the walkway. Maybe today we will figure that all out.

So, we managed to stay up until 8:00 PM and we went to bed and we were dead to the world. The hotel is either very quiet or we just slept through any noise. Jennifer woke up around 4:00, grateful for the attempts to get on Barcelona time in advance. Roger slept a little longer. 

With Love, Jennifer