NOTE: Yes, we have been home for a week. Just catching up on the blog.
Knowing that we would be sitting down for a long, l-o-n-g time from mid-afternoon today we decided that we should take a decent walk this morning so that we would, at least, achieve our Exercise goal today. We walked to the end of our street and turned right onto the Gran Via Cortes Catalanes a major avenue that crosses Barcelona from the north-east to the south-west. The avenue is about 13 kilometers long making it the longest street in Catalonia and the second longest in Spain. We walked but a small portion of it!
The avenue has a tree-lined pedestrian walkway in between road lanes to either side. The trees made it a lovely, shaded walk with the day already warming up at only 9.00am. We walked past Les Arenes which looked like a bullfighting arena possibly now used as a concert venue we thought? We learnt later from our taxi driver that it has actually been redeveloped as a shopping centre. With tree pruning taking place in the centre of the road we had to cross to the path on the side of the avenue to reach the Plaça d’Espanya … which would have been much more attractive if it was not surrounded with temporary fencing!
From the Plaça d’Espanya we were treated to views of the Torres Venecianes and the Palau Nacional de Montjuïc. The towers, modelled on the Campanile of St Mark’s Basilica in Venice were designed by Ramon Reventós and built between 1927 and 1928 for the International Exposition (World’s Fair) of 1929. The Palau was originally the Spanish Pavilion at the World’s Fair and now, after extensive renovation work in the 90s, houses the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya. Exhibiting more than 260,000 works of art it is considered the largest and most important museum in Barcelona. Alas, we could only admire it from afar with our time in Barcelona galloping to an end! But if we ever return to Barcelona there are STILL things to explore.
The towers were intended to be temporary structures, but they continue to stand astride the Avenida de la Reina Cristina that leads to the Palau nearly 100 years after the 1929 World’s Fair. So many things built as temporary structures for World’s Fairs that end up being retained. On our walking tour on Monday Theo mentioned that Barcelona was offered the Eiffel Tower for the Exposición Universal de Barcelona in 1888 BUT … they declined. It WAS built amid controversy as a temporary structure for the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1889, but later Gustave Eiffel argued for it to be retained to conduct wind resistance experiments, for meteorological observations and as an aerial for the new science of radio broadcasting. And now, no-one can imagine Paris without the Eiffel Tower as part of its skyline!
We re-traced our steps to the apartment so that we could change into our travel clothes and finalize our packing before reading for a short while until it was time to lug our cases downstairs and book a ride to the airport. As luck would have it our driver was Afghani and as soon as he realised we were Australians he couldn’t wait to talk about the cricket. He made sure we were aware that the Australian T-20 team was on its way home too. Then re-lived the glory of his team defeating the Aussies and the excitement of securing a place in the semi-finals for the first time. It was a long ride to the airport, ha, ha!
Check-in was already open so we made our way straight to the check-in counters via the Checked-in Online queue so that we could relieve ourselves of our suitcases. With only our hand luggage to carry we headed towards security screening. Blagh! The screening at Barcelona Airport remains relatively unsophisticated so we had to take all our electrical items out of our carry-on bags and Bernie had to remove his belt and his hiking boots. I had decided not to wear my belt with my pants so that I could avoid the hassle of taking my belt off and then having to re-thread it through my belt loops on the other side of the scanners. My runners were also acceptable to go through the walk-through X-ray scanner on my feet rather than in a tray. And, although I forgot to take my Apple Watch off, it didn’t set anything off. Next stop was the Immigration counters where we were stamped out of Spain by the world’s most miserable Immigration Clerk! Talk about unhappy in the service.
After all this fun we settled in to wait at the gate until flight time. There was no aeroplane at the gate when we arrived, so Bernie stalked it on Flight Radar. He discovered that it was flying in from Mexico City and was expected to arrive in Barcelona on time. Phew, it was good to know that we were looking good for an on-time departure to Dubai. Sure enough, the aeroplane pulled into the gate before 2.00pm leaving enough time for it to be serviced before boarding was due to commence at 2.45pm. While we waited, we tried to hydrate for the flight ahead and I dosed up on Panadol and Nurofen in the hope of managing my sinus situation. Double dosing has been keeping my snot under control on the ground, fingers crossed that it will assist in the pressurized cabin??
Boarding commenced on time, and we queued up to make our way onto our flight. We found our way to our seats fairly quickly and Bernie stowed our carryon in the overhead lockers, and we settled into our seats. No sooner were we settled than we were approached by a flight attendant asking us if we would move to the two seats in front of us (from 37D and 37E to 36D and 36E) so that a family could be seated together. Sure, OK, we said. At least we were being asked rather than arriving to find said family had already re-seated themselves!
BUT then the flight attendant said, sorry, sorry, I mean can you change to the seats in front, but on the other aisle (from 37D and 37E to 36F and 36G). Damn, not a problem to move ourselves BUT it was a pain to move our carryon from the lockers on the aisle between seats C and E over to the aisle between seats G and H. Which we hate. We like to get on, get our carryon stowed and then settle in. At least the family was very appreciative, and the father thanked Bernie several times and added that his young son might be a bit restless so let him know that if he kicked the back of our seats, he would sort it. Good to know.
The flight from Mexico City had brought a bunch of teenagers to Barcelona who were flying on to Dubai and then Malaysia for a youth camp. I had two of these teens sitting beside me for the flight to Dubai. OMG, they did not sit still for the entire flight. They bounced around pummeling each other in the arm and putting each other in headlocks and just generally fidgeting for the whole six-and-a-half-hour flight! On the plus side, they didn’t seem to mind me being snotty and sneezy with them blessing me each time I sneezed. I really hope I didn’t pass my head cold on to them.
We landed in Dubai w-a-a-y out on the back blocks somewhere. No aerobridge for the flight from Barcelona. We were able to disembark from the back of the plane and make our way onto a bus for the twenty minutes journey to the terminal building. Arriving at the terminal building we still had a long way to go. Up and down escalators and lifts and the driverless train shuttle to the right part of the terminal. So different from flying in from Manchester last year where we arrived at one gate and departed from the gate beside that one. So much easier than all the palaver tonight. And the news that our flight is going to be delayed by forty minutes. Groan!
Finally in the right part of the terminal for our flight to Melbourne we found our way to the Emirates Lounge. We had been in two minds as to whether it would be worth checking in, but with our flight delayed by forty minutes we decided we would benefit from the relative comfort of the Emirates Lounge over the plastic seats at the gate. More hydrating and more dosing up with Panadol and Nurofen while we waited for our new departure time to roll around.
Steps: 9,247 (6.23kms)
