Homeward bound

We were awake about 6 ( which seems to be the norm for us these days )

We had a full breakfast at Vivaldi sandwich/ coffee shop next door as usual ( a MUCH better value than the hotel buffet offering)

We checked out of the hotel at 9 AM as ChatGPT said it would take one hour to the airport via the metro (it actually took 70 minutes from the hotel to inside the terminal ).

Interesting thing about the metro. Normally you have your ticket and you just go up to the entry gate and it opens when you place your ticket on the scanner , and after your trip you simply walk out of the metro station via a one way gate. 

The metro ticket to the airport is much more expensive and you are warned there is a fine of 100 euros if you are caught without it. It isn’t until you arrive at the airport metro station you are informed you  need to scan  your ticket to leave the station (otherwise the exit gate won’t open). Too funny.  I wonder how many people tried to rip off the system before these exit scanners were installed. 

Air Canada baggage drop was quick and soon we faced the massive security lines. The photo below shows a 10 minute wait. That time ( which was highly suspect) was only to get us to the start of the large serpentine lines to the machines. It just took time with so many hundreds of people continuing to go through (157,500 passengers a day here)

Once through security I made a quick purchase of a coke and Caro had a final souvenir store check before we headed to passport control which was a couple of steps but fully automated. Caro seemed to have no problems but I had to do my finger prints ( which I had already completed when we entered the country at Malaga). We arrived to our gate to see our plane had arrived previously so that was nice. 

Boarding started at 12:20 as expected and after loading a packed Boeing 777-300 ER we were told there was traffic control delays and we were going to be on the ground waiting for an hour. Thirty minutes afterward we pushed back and slowly made our way to the runway so that was better than we originally heard. 

We found that we preferred Madrid to Barcelona. Barcelona was too busy, more beggars and too big. I also preferred the metro in Madrid ( although they both worked awesome)

Upon arrival into Canada, passport and immigration went very smoothly. Love those automatic passport readers!

Our plane to Edmonton was , what appeared to be, a brand new A321 (M). What a beautiful plane. 

We took the opportunity to have wine while on board to finish off a wonderful trip. 

The pilot really mangled the landing (very hard) leading to a few muffled screams and loud comments.

Mike picked us up. Thanks Mike!

Last day in Barcelona

 We took the metro downtown (three separate lines but only maybe 20 minutes total).The target today was to see the cathedral. We got off the metro on La Rambla street (which has all the construction I mentioned the other day) and made our way through the Gothic quarter to the cathedral. We paid to go inside and then extra to go up to the roof. The cathedral was full of construction scaffolding so wasn’t that great because we couldn’t really go into the main areas.

A couple  of photos from inside

The cloister

Up about 150 steps and this was some of our views

Above, in the distance, is the harbour and three cruise ships. Below is the a photo of the high  ground I mentioned yesterday that I enjoyed when we were on the HOHO bus

Next we took the metro back up to the Sagrada Família temple (Sacred Family temple). We had a tour of the place and an explanation of many of the carvings and how the building was designed and built. It is a truly astonishing site and what is even more astonishing is that it relies on donations to continue construction and in 2025 that total was over $C200 million, from the approximate 5,000,000 paying visitors per year-a good couple thousand today while we were there.

The photo above is the intricate carvings above the entrance

The top of the highest spire is 172 meters and this makes it the tallest church in the world. Inside it was full of light and was quite spartan in decoration compared to the older cathedrals we have seen. (This has been under construction for about 150 years and you can tell it is an Antoni Gaudi design- and he died in 1926)

There are really weird designs for carvings of the people shown on the outside of the building (which in all honesty is the best part)

One final photo

After a break back at the hotel we walked about 25 minutes to see two of Gaudi’s famous buildings he designed.

A close up up of the front of the building in the photo above

We walked back to our area and found a hole in the wall restaurant run by a Chinese family that seemed to scream at each other when communicating. I had something like a stir fry and Caro had her last paella.

First Full Day in Barcelona

 After really good sleep last night we took it easy this morning until  after 9 AM at which time we went to a nearby coffee shop for a delicious breakfast sandwich which we split between us.

We walked down to the sea (a couple of kilometres) via La Rambla street (which is a thing “to do”). Unfortunately the street was being ripped apart all the way along so not that great a walk. One stop we did make on this walk was the Mercat de la Boqueria, a fresh food market which was interesting to say the least.

Check out the dragon sticking out of the corner of the building

By the time we got down to the Med sea we had decided to buy tickets on the hop on hop off bus service.The first stop for us on the HOHO was Park Guell This is one of the numerous UNESCO sites in the area. The claim to fame is that the designer off the Sagrada Família church (Antoni Gaudi ) is super famous here in this city and much of his designed houses etc are “must see’s”. This park was designed by him.

 It was frustrating at first to get in because the park (which gets LOADS of visitors ) does not have a ticket office. You have to buy the tickets “on line” and afterwards present the QR code you received upon successful payment, to the staff at the gate for entry. You accomplish getting your code while standing outside the gate working your phone along with everyone else, also going through the same procedure.

After entering all the info into their ticket form my EQ card wanted verification so sent a code to my phone $#@T^%T! NO good when you don't have a phone number that works overseas. This has happened a couple of times on this trip and I thought I had set everything up with the card to send validation codes to my gmail.

With that not working we tried my ATB card. Went through all the BS again on their ticket form and the same #^#^$ thing happened again. So in desperation I tried my PC Mastercard (which I have not used at all on this trip) and it worked! It didn’t need a validation code. 

In the park we got looking at some of the weird buildings and structures Gaudi designed. I think the writers of the Flintstones TV show saw some of this guys designs and incorporated them into their animation!

We sort of looked at each other after walking around and said “Really?, this is a UNESCO World Heritage site?

We hopped on the HOHO bus again and finished the first of the two loops.

We then got on another HOHO bus at 3 PM for the second loop and spent the next 2 hours and 15 minutes driving around this huge city. We saw some pretty cool stuff up in the high areas of the south part of the city and it was pretty cool to drive right beside FC Barcelona stadium (Messi played there). We got off at Sagrada Família church and walked back to our hotel area 10 minutes away. We found a good seafood restaurant nearby and had different tapas, which were excellent. 

By 6 PM we were back at our room and Caro had a bath while I wrote this blogpost up.

Barcelona

This morning we basically just chilled as we didn’t need to leave the hotel until about 10 AM. We went to a bakery nearby and purchased our breakfast and lunch ( for the train ride). 

I always prefer to get going with plenty of time to spare and as the metro was running smoothly we were at the train station at 10:15. 

Our train left the platform a couple minutes late at 1125 AM, 

We went about 100 metres and stopped. HMMM.  Something wrong?

Nope,ten minutes later we were on our way. 

We paid extra for the “quiet coach” and interestingly some people were chatting rather loudly and then the train attendant came through and told everybody to be quiet ( and it was!)

The countryside between the two cities was quite varied. At times it was rolling hills that somewhat reminded me of the Drumheller area. Some areas were mountainous and populated with small villages and old castle tower ruins looking down in the village. Some areas were flat but no matter what the landscape there was fields or trees ( orchards) all along the route. 

About 40 minutes before Barcelona we went through a small mountain range, through fog banks , going 295 km/hr before emerging into what appeared to be a high plateau with lots of towns. 

Got to Barcelona at 3 PM.  Thanks to YouTube videos we were able to get tickets and ride the metro to our hotel right away. 

This hotel is really awesome compared to the Madrid hotel. The first shock though is the tourist tax we had to pay for three days. $C74 Yikes!!

We walked a few blocks to the huge church Sagrada Família and then over to Barcelona’s version of the Arc de Triumph. 

We celebrated Caro’s birthday at an outdoor restaurant somewhere between the Arc and the hotel

A photo on the train

Last day in Madrid

We headed out this morning straight to the Royal Palace to get in line at 9:30 AM for the 10:00 AM opening.

We made it in OK and after security and ticket purchase we were inside looking at this gorgeous palace by about 10:25. Incidentally many of the official places we go to have 1/2 price seniors discounts

The first photo is the grand staircase

At the top of the staircase looking up is this ceiling

We saw numerous items as we worked our way through beautiful rooms.

A few that caught my eye,

The banquet room

Nice seat/couch

The Royal Chapel;

I believe this is called a fortepiano;

The palace had a number of Stradivarius instruments;

A crown:

Photos of the throne room;

More rooms;

I laughed when I thought of Chelada in armour!

It really was spectacular seeing so much of the personal and animal amour; ( the tapestry in the photo below is from 1730)

Next we proceeded to the Royal Armoury; example photos below (i could have included many more)

The final photos were taken at The Royal Collection Galleries. By now we were tired (four hours of walking and looking at things);

They had a lot of things to look at too;

This gallery had a lot of tapestry’s (actually the palace did too). The last part of this gallery was a selection of the clothing and cloth that was available to the Nobles during their time.

Caro and I headed back to the hotel in mid afternoon, first stopping for a tapa and some refreshments at a bar/cafe on the way back.

A couple of hours later it was time for supper. We thought to try the Spanish version of Five Guys burgers but the cost was terrible. A regular bacon cheese burger was the equivalent of $C20.69 and then you paid $C8 for fries…….Pass…..

We found a place selling Argentinian empanadas which were great ( we have had them here in Spain before). 

It was a beautiful night (23 degrees) and we wandered around the area. The big protests are still occurring and the government just called a snap election yesterday or today. We went past the place where people have set up tents and have taken over the plaza (square). Major police presence except today no helicopters overhead all the time.

This photo is just a tiny portion of the total.

Well,Madrid is done for us. We want to move on.