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There were fluffy clouds over Barcelona, but the sky was blue and the sun shining. A long snaking queue saw us take ages to get through immigration, but on the plus side, no wait for our luggage, which was already on the carousel. The Aerobus to Plaza Catalunya cost 5.90 euro, and dropped us within 10 metres of the Barcelona Locker storage (12 Euros for the big locker.
Rambled down Las Ramblas, passing Art Nouveau apothecaries and grand apartment buildings, to La Bocqueria Market, where we perused the goods on sale, from fresh fish to jamon iberica,
Had an early lunch at a tapas bar in the market. Grilled mussels, tripe with chickpeas and a cava.
Walked to Plaza Reial, pleasant square with arcades and palm trees (and Gaudi designed lamp posts) and did some people watching. Walked up through the narrow streets of Bari Gotic, passing by the Town Hall and the Catalan government buildings, near cathedral with remains of roman gate to collect luggage and taxi to our lovely spacious apartment. Met in good time by Marta at 1:30pm. The apartment is spacious and impressive, if not quite as spectacular as the Airbnb photos suggested. Cleaning lady not quite done after our apartment lesson, so decided to go out shopping for supplies.
We found the conveniently located Bonpreu supermarket a couple of blocks away, where we stocked up with the necessities for our stay. A crusty loaf of bread obtained from the El Fornet bakery completed the task. Feeling weary, we headed back to the apartment for a rest. Elected not to eat out, so made another trip to Bonpreu to get supplies for an eat-in meal. We dined on pork sausages with sautéed potatoes and salad. Nice with a glass of Rioja.
David had contacted us before dinner, advising that he’d arrived at the airport, and would wait for Christen, whose flight was due later at 10:30pm. A later message advised that Christin’s flight was delayed, and they’d see us about 1am. I elected for a snooze, with the alarm set for midnight. Little did we suspect what drama thence ensued.
Much to my surprise, Christen arrived at midnight, sans David, who it seems, was not at the gate when her flight arrived. We ascertained by text message that David was still at the airport, with a mobile phone low on juice, and unable to find a taxi. Eventually, Christen and I got a cab out to the airport, coincidentally finding that the cause of the missed meetings was that they had arrived at different terminals, David at T1 and Christen at T2. These terminals being some 5 km distant from one another by road! We were extremely lucky to find David at T1 within a couple of minutes of our arrival. Back to Enric Granados and reflected on the misadventure over a beer, before hitting the sack after 2am!