Saturday, October 13, 2012

A NEW ADVENTURE IN EUROPE 2012!

Monday, October 8:

Departed Erie at 7:30 a.m., drove to Rock Hill, SC—10 hours. Hampton Inn-no charge.

Cool, low 40s. Some soft rain. Not much traffic, few construction areas. Tuna fish pitas for lunch. Cracker Barrel for dinner—next time order the fried pork chops like Tim did! Three stops for gas--$3.95/Grove City; $3.43/Rock Hill, SC-total gas about $110 for the
 
Tuesday, October 9: Titusville, Florida

Drove 8 hours today and arrived in Titusville for dinner at Dixie Crossroads (http://dixiecrossroads.com), favorite seafood restaurant of ours. With a lobster dinner at $12.99, Tim jumped for it. We are staying at the Hampton Inn—no charge. Today the weather was warmer and warmer until now it is sunny and mid 80s. Tim is in the outdoor pool as I type!

Ironically we ran into Sherry and David Golab at a gas station in Blythewood, South Carolina (gas $3.45/gal) just off I-77. A couple hours later we ran into them again at a Georgia rest stop.

Total gas cost today-$100

 Wednesday, October 10: Arrive Miami, Florida

It is actually hot in Miami---87 F today! We had a shorter drive today. We stopped at one of our favorite malls, Sawgrass Mills, in Sunrise, Florida. http://www.simon.com/mall/?id=1262  This is a huge mall and we got plenty of exercise. For lunch we ate at the Cheesecake Factory. We drove to Homewood Suites, Miami Airport West for the night.
 

Since our flight tomorrow is at 4 p.m. we have plenty of time to organize and weigh our luggage. The requirements are so strict—our carryon luggage and checked luggage are all weighed. Carryon has to be less than 13 pounds and the checked luggage cannot weigh more than 50 pounds. I could probably have done better, but so far my checked luggage weighs 46 pounds. I had to buy more books because I read two on the way to Florida.

 
My carryon (aka cabin luggage) has to hold my laptop, 2 cameras, one extra lens, a blanket, 2 books, my jewelry (which I did limit) and an umbrella. I was horrified when I found that the luggage alone weighed 4 pounds. Add 8 pounds for the laptop and I am already at 12 pounds. My cameras are not light either and so I am carrying them in my purse. Once again, I will not be making a fashion statement! If this was a domestic flight we would be OK, but since it is overseas on Air Berlin things are a little stricter.
 
Thursday, October 11- Friday, October 12: We hoped to leave Miami aboard Air Berlin to Berlin, Germany/ Flight #AB7211, Q then Flight #AB8792, O to Barcelona, Spain. The flight was delayed an hour which caused us to miss our connection in Berlin by 5 minutes. That meant an extra 6 hour wait in the outdated Berlin airport. The brand new Berlin airport won’t be finished until next year. So, we have spent about 32 hours on the go, but we are safe and sound in Barcelona at the Hotel Pulitzer.

Brief comments so that any possible readers aren’t too bored!

  • Miami to Berlin was about a 6 ½ hour flight, we left Thursday at 5:15 p.m. EST—arrived about 2:30 a.m. EST. Waited in terminal for 5 hours. Read a book and made new friends, even if they did not speak English and we don’t speak Spanish. Pilar was in the same predicament as we were, but we helped each other the best we could and it worked! She is from Barcelona and was returning home from Colombia via Miami, a lovely lady.
  • Berlin to Barcelona was a 2 ½ hour flight.
  • We finally arrived in Barcelona at 7 p.m. Friday on Spain time. If that does not all add up, I am very tired!
  • The Air Berlin food was great—rice, peas, sliced olives, spicy tomato sauce, chicken, brie cheese, bun, butter, cheesecake topped with caramel. Breakfast was equally as good. Then they gave us a10 euro voucher for lunch because of our delay. By the way, Air Berlin made all the arrangements. I remember being delayed like this in Detroit with Delta and the airline said, “We can get you to Erie in two days.”
  • Our luggage passed all tests. In fact, the airline not as strict as we thought they would be.
  • The flights were quite smooth and our luggage was in Barcelona when we arrived. What more could we really ask?
  • If we were flying the day before the cruise, we would have missed the cruise.
  • We took the Aerobus to the area of our hotel and then walked the 2 blocks. Cost-5.90 euros each!
  • Our hotel is clean, comfortable, and well situated in the center of Barcelona. We walked for a light evening snack in the neighborhood and found a 3 story tech store with a book store inside—like a really really big Best Buy. We will tour Barcelona tomorrow!
 OK, so this is long and we haven’t even done anything yet! I will try to be concise, I promise!
 
Saturday, October 13: Tour Barcelona
I never expected to love Barcelona so much! Tim is having a blast from the past since he was here in the Navy forty years ago. Luckily we got up when we did this morning because our new cruise friends arrive at our hotel early with today’s tour guide. They called from the front desk and we had just finished getting ready. No coffee, no croissant!  Armando, the guide, was very pleasant and proud of his city. Originally founded as a Roman city, Barcelona is Spain’s second largest city with a population of 1,622,000 people.  It is the largest metropolis on the Mediterranean.
Our first stop was the La Sagrada Familia or Holy Family Church. It is so unique!  This Catholic Church is funded solely by small private donations and construction began in 1882. Architect Antoni Gaudi invested 40+ years of his life to designing and building the church. When he died in 1926, construction came to a halt until there was more money and political times were better (Spanish Civil War 1936). The church is still not finished and projected finish date is 2026. Gaudi (whose name inspired our English word “gaudy”) envisioned a church that would tell Biblical stories on the EXTERIOR. I can’t begin to tell you how fascinating the exterior of this exquisite church is—from the spires with mosaic balls atop (there will be 18 spires) the Nativity facade, the Passion façade, the tortoises and lizards at the base of columns, etc. I wish we had time to go inside (the line at 9 a.m. was a block long). When finished, the church will seat 12,000 people-that should give you an idea of the size.
 We went to Park Guell, a park designed by Gaudi, the 1992 Olympics site, the 1929 International Exhibition Center where one can see the whole city from atop a hill, Columbus Square, the site of the earliest Roman port fortification, and the port.
La Sagrada Familia--Nativity Facade
 After we returned to our hotel we strolled nearby along La Rambla all the way back to the port, bought some souvenirs, dined at La Poma (delicious 4 cheese pizza and finally diet soda.) The highlight of La Rambla was the indoor food market—at least twice the size of Philly’s market with bars and food vendors: seafood (lobster, shrimp—all kinds, sole, blue fin tuna, octopus, squid, clams, crabs, so many fish I could not identify), candy (e.g. marzipan fruit exquisitely detailed), fresh vegetables, beef, chicken, pork, lamb (pork legs, etc.) mushrooms (many I have never seen), fresh fruits. Many items I have never seen, e.g. shelled seafood like whelks and more, unidentified fruits, and so on). The ultimate sensory experience. We did not see any sushi!
We finished our walk with a gelato—strawberry and lemon for me, chocolate for Tim. I could eat a lot more!!

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