So...9/14/11: my parents hired a driver to take us to the airport, they came and picked me up from work at 3pm. Our flight was for 5:50pm. We got to LAX by 3:45 (did I mention our driver was Asian? And drove his rocking minivan like it was the grand prix?), we were checked in by 4 (my dad is a super duper galaxy commander mileage person who gets to bypass all lines - he has front of the line access, including security) and had over an hour in the exciting land of LAX. Never fear - dad can go to the business class lounge, even though we were lowly plebians traveling on economy. But he could only bring in one guest - so my mom opted to go and shop while I went and inhaled coffee, crackers and cheese and surfed the internet in the lounge with the rich people. The rich people with their Italian leather shoes, designer sport coats, Gucci briefcases and carefully coiffed hair. I was there in my fake sneakers, ratty jeans, a tank top (which I discovered had a hole in it. How did I miss that? I mean, I wore it to work that day!) and hoodie. Oh, and I carried my laptop in my backpack. I looked like a homeless straggler who wandered in.
But after checking what Pioneer Woman had to say for the day, scanning my email, making sure my iPod was synced up, grabbing a bunch of little packages of shortbread cookies and bottled water because I was afraid of starvation in economy class, we headed to the gate and saw my mom wandering the halls. I'm going to be stoned for this - but I haven't been on economy in a really long time. I forgot about the pushing and shoving and the fighting over the overhead storage bins - they may as well have been peeing on them the way they'd mark their territory.
Anyway, our tickets were obtained my my dad's mileage, so they were free - so we can't be too picky. We even got bumped up to economy plus, which ain't no plus except for a few inches of extra leg room. See?
The seats weren't bad - I had plenty of leg room, and the plane had been renovated recently so each seat had its own little entertainment screen. The sucky thing was that we couldn't really recline, so I couldn't really sleep, but I watched Kung Fu Panda 2, read my Kindle, and listened to some audiobooks to pass the time. Oh, and I ate my cookies. Because I wanted to.
Us all bright and happy...when we first got on the plane. We don't look this happy after an 8 hour flight where we've shared a bathroom with 200 other people.
The food was...edible. I think it was some kind of beef with limp green beans in brown sauce. Eh. I'm not a picky eater. But I have to say the bread was bad. How do you screw up bread?! It was hard, and cold, and when I tried to cut it with my little serrated plastic knife, crumbs flew everywhere. It was the first time I left bread uneaten on a plate. Oh, the horror!
After the exciting 8 hour flight - we had a 2 hour layover in Heathrow, which is ginormous. And confusing. But my parents went to the lounge while I explored...I mean, it's the first time I've ever been to England. Granted, it was the airport, but they all had the cool accent! So I went to Boots, which was kind of a let down, because the Target section of Boots is so much prettier :( I bought a few things, then wandered to the bookstore and looked at some very expensive postcards (which I did buy, to pretend I actually went to England), mouse pads, poker cards, and candy. Then we went to board our flight - and we had to take pictures of the fuzzy hat man.
The Swiss Air flight to Zurich was short. Their business class sucked - it was the same seating as economy, they were separated by a tiny flimsy curtain, but they got a meal instead of a sandwich. But they gave us chocolate!
We had a quick layover in Zurich - it was literally go through immigration, go through security, and then we ran to board our short flight to Barcelona. At this point, I fell asleep and snored my way to Barcelona. Apparently the scenery as we were taking off was beautiful, but I was too busy drooling in my sleep to notice.
At last we arrive!
And this is where we sat around for about 2 hours waiting for Raymond to arrive from Paris.
Raymond arrives!
I had booked Autos Vilar to take us to our hotel and to pick us up from the cruise ship - they came highly recommended, and now I know why. Always punctual, great communication, excellent service, and they were fluent in English. In about 20 minutes, we were at our hotel, Hispanos Suiza Siete, which was literally around the corner from La Sagrada Familia.
We had a 4th floor 2 bedroom suite that had a kitchen, living/dining area, two bathrooms and a bedroom with a kind size bed and a 2nd with 2 twins.
the living room - with all our stuff everywhere
The kitchen, with stove, microwave, fridge and coffeemaker
the balcony
the view from the balcony
Then we walked around the corner and found dinner!
you had a view of the church from this little outdoor restaurant
the $4 apple juice
tomato bread. Never thought to rub raw tomatoes on bread before, but it's pretty good.
Paella. Mmm...
Our nice non-English speaking waiter volunteered to take a photo for us. I guess we looked like tourists?
We strolled around and wandered into a gelateria, our first of the trip:
And we ate like cows. Then we wandered back to our hotel to sleep like cows. Mooo
