Flight from Prague to Barcelona
Trip Start
May 18, 2009
1
28
47
Trip End
Jul 04, 2009
Where I stayed
Rent Barcelona 2
Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain and Canary Islands
Sunday, June 14, 2009
The taxi turned up right on time and we had a a quick trip to the airport (the taxi driver must race rally cars at the weekend!). It was a scenic route past the Vltova and up the hill past the Prague Castle.
We were actually too early for the check-in but went to wait in the check-in queue for it to open, next to a sign that said that Clickair put punctuality first (or words to that effect). While we waited, a huge tour group arrived and lined up behind us, so we were glad we had gone to the desk straight away.
After checking in, we finished off the last of our Prague food supplies (bananas and a can of Tesco beer!) before going through security. We had a look at the duty-free shops then went to our departure gate. It was already full, so we sat at the next one . There had been an announcement that our flight was delayed by an hour (so much for the punctuality mission statement!), so we had some time to kill. The gate at which we were sitting had a flight to Paris that was also delayed, so it seemed to be a common problem.
A little while before we expected to board, we went to check at our gate, only to find it empty and to hear a call for us to go there - we hadn't heard a boarding call at all! Fortunately we joined the queue of people in the air-bridge, so we weren't holding anyone up.
The Airbus A320 was set up for charter flights, with very little legroom. However, we were comfortable enough for our 2-hour flight. We had glimpses of snow-covered mountains on the way (Swiss Alps?), then flatter land and coastline before arriving at Barcelona and doing a long slow loop around, with a great view of the city.
We followed the signs to baggage collection at Barcelona airport, only to find that we had come to the wrong carousel. We had to go back upstairs, through security again, then walk a long way through the airport to find the correct carousel. We were surprised when we got there to find that it hadn't started yet - we had had visions of our two cases circling around after everyone else had left. We picked up our bags, went to the tourist info for directions, then walked what seemed like miles further to catch the train into the city.
We negotiated the transfer from the Renfe (train) to the Metro Line 5 and arrived at the station near our apartment. We followed the directions given to us by the tourist office, which ended up in us walking a lot further than we needed to. Anyway, we finally arrived at the apartment, which is looked after by the Everest Hotel (although not part of their operation). We were shown to our apartment, which turned out to have twin beds rather than the double bed we had booked. When we pointed out the problem, the lady from the hotel went off to ring the apartment people, but eventually returned to say that we couldn't do anything until tomorrow.
We went out looking for dinner and found a decent looking cafe just around the corner with a 2-course daily menu for just 11 euros. We had a very nice tuna tapas dish and a not quite so nice beans with bacon, followed by a very good veal in lemon and cream sauce, including a beer each, for the advertised price. Much better value than we had found so far on the trip.
We slept moderately well, despite our apartment being on the mezzanine floor, so only just above the noise from the busy street.
