Barcelona, day 1

Tuesday, October 8, 2013, Barcelona, Spain

We are at the apartment in Barcelona, arriving around 3:30pm, local time.  The place is a bit more rustic than we expected, but the woman who let us in, Lana, was very nice.  She did a marvelous job of instructing us in the working of the place.  It is on the 5th floor, but does have a small elevator.  Small means that Lana and Co went up with a set of bags and John followed later with the rest.  There is a small 'L' shaped patio that has views of the backsides of other buildings.  Nothing spectacular, a good location,  but it is very hot and muggy here.  There is working A/C, a real blessing.

The flight was a long overnight flight, nothing really notable.  When we landed  in the Paris airport, we were in a really outer terminal and had to go through security scanning and John's backpack, first time ever, garnered a long slow hand search.  The backpack is full of all of our electronic gear.  Alarm clock, shaver, trimmers, flashlights, adapters and cords, small batteries and a charger, cameras with batteries and chargers, an eyeglass repair kit.  Lots of other items, but the eyeglass repair kit got special attention.  The searcher felt the need to take it to his supervisor to get an ok for us to keep it!  We got out to our departure gate with 10 minutes to spare.

All in all, a good flight and travel day.  The apartment is in a downtownish area.  There are many small stores with fresh meats and vegetables.  We are near the large outdoor market, which is undergoing renovation.  It has been relocated a block north in a very temporary 'building'. We went out shopping and brought home what we need for the next few days meals before boarding the Ruby Princess on Saturday.

Colleen and John