Honeymoon Part Dos - Day 1

Honeymoon Part Dos

Day 1 - Travelling to the Future

Well,,,, here we go again, Honeymoon Part Dos.  Actually, Katie and I discussed if our trip last year to the Bahamas for one night counted as an annual Honeymoon getaway.  We ultimately decided it did but that since 5/15/12 is our second anniversary we'd count this as our second honeymoon.  At the request of many, including Katie, I'm going to blog daily about our adventure.  Sooooooo, here we go:

We left our house at 11 AM, Friday May 11th.  I had a 10 AM meeting and had just arrived back at the condo where Dave and Katie were waiting.  I ass-u-me-d that we were all set so I parked my car, hopped in the SUV and we were off.  Dave wanted us to see some lights for the building project so we took a detour on our way to Tampa to visit the LED light store.  After a quick stop we continued to the airport.  About 10 minutes before arriving at Tampa International Katie asked if I had packed the garment bag (insert heart stopping sound here).  I figured she would have grabbed it but I had neglected to leave it by the door where I told her all my stuff was at,,,, ready and waiting to go.  I made a quick call to Allison but it was already too late, it wasn't coming with us.  Allison ran to DHL and sent it off so hopefully we'll have it here by Monday.  It turns out that shipping a suitcase RUSH from Sarasota to Barcelona isn't cheap.

Check in was a breeze, as it usually is in Tampa, and Katie and I headed to Chilis for some pre-flight margaritas.  Our plane was about 30 minutes delayed taking off (darn, there would have been time to receive the bag in Tampa), but it was of no consequence.  I had booked the flights so that we would have plenty of time in Philadelphia to change planes and catch our non-stop to Barcelona.   We landed in Philly, made another pub stop, and then boarded our plane.  The US-Air attendants are typically the worst in the business.  On the way from Tampa to Philadelphia they proved they still hold the title.  However, the ones on our international flight were as nice as could be.  They welcomed us with champagne and orangejuice along with a menu for dinner.  We took off Friday night at 6:30 PM (Saturday 12:30 AM Barcelona time), and we were on our way.

The flight was fantastic despite the fact we had a family of 4 (including a lap child) behind us.  The baby cried for 10 minutes and then was quiet the entire remainder of the trip.  The food was as good as airline food can get.  Katie enjoyed champagne while I took them up on their Spanish Red (Rojo) wine offer.  I was also pleasantly surprised by their list of recently released movies.  There were at least six movies I hadn't seen that are on my "Movies to Watch" list.  We choose "In Time" staring Justin Timberlake.  Although it wasn't my favorite movie, I love JT and overall it was worth watching.  Katie made it to the end of the movie but she was soon asleep after that.  I wasn't a bit tired so I stayed awake for another movie on my list "Jack and Jill" staring Adam Sandler and Adam Sandler (he plays both parts).  It was a great movie.  At the end of the movie I brushed my teeth, reclined my seat which went completely flat (nice) and I drifted off to sleep.

An hour before landing I was woken by the sound of breakfast being served.  I begrudgingly got myself up to enjoy some breakfast and prepare for landing.  Breakfast wasn't nearly as good as dinner but it was edible.  We landed shortly after breakfast and made our way to clear customs.

Clearing customs was by the far the easiest I've ever experienced.  We walked in to a large area with little toll booths setup for each passenger to clear through.  We picked a line with only two people in it.  In about 15 seconds it was our turn.  We handed the guard our passports, he found an empty page, stamped it and handed them back to us,,,,, "NEXT."  That was it.  He didn't scan them, he didn't ask us any questions, there were no forms to fill out, etc.  We were off to bagage claim.  Bagage claim was FAR less impressive.  It took about 35 minutes for the bags to finally make it to the carrousel.  Our bags were just about the first ones off.  We grabbed them and headed straight for the exit.  Just outside we found our driver holding a sign that read "M/M Biter."  He grabbed our bags, pointed us to the car (a Mercedes Van) and we were quickly on our way to the hotel.

We arrived at our hotel 20 minutes later.  "Mr. Biter, we have good news and bad news."  We arrived at our hotel at 8:30 AM and our room wasn't ready (bad news).  However, they gave us a free upgrade to their "Junior Suite" --- (good news).  We checked our bags at the bell desk and proceeded to walk around town.  None of the stores were open at this point so we found a nice little outdoor bistro where we stopped for another, and much better, breakfast.  At 10 AM the stores were all open so we continued to walk and shop our way around town.  The mission of the day,,,,,, find a cell phone.  Our Verizon phones don't work here and being out of touch just isn't an option.

A few hours in to the phone shopping Katie and I were ready to do something else.  We went to a few different stores trying to find some solid answers on how the system works around here.  One thing is for certain,,,, there are more english speaking people in Asia then there are here (by a lot).  None of the phone stores had a pre-paid smart phone that I wanted so I ended up going to one of those "everything electronic" stores.  You know the ones, with all the crap loaded up in the front window and all the stereos, speakers and,,, suitcases?, stacked in the back.  I bought a nice Samsung smart phone which was "unlocked." I inserted the pre-paid sim card I purchased just earlier from Vodaphone.  Like magic I was back in business.  For 4 Euros a week I now have unlimited high-speed Internet and, with the pre-paid card, I have 200 minutes to call anywhere in the world.  I plugged in my Gmail account and 10 minutes later I had all my contacts, calendar entries and emails downloaded to the new phone.  Technology is great.

After the 2 hour phone shopping spree, Katie and I headed to a brewpub that was recommended to us by our Vodaphone rep.  It ended up being as good as he described.  After lunch we continued to shop our way back to the hotel.  Upon arrival we were told our room was ready and they graciously escorted us and our luggage to the room.   They showed us around the room, as they seem to like to do anywhere but in the US, and left us to ourselves.  Katie was excited to get a siesta in while I was excited to take a shower.  The weather is perfect but after sleeping in the same clothes I just walked around town in, I was ready for a nice long shower and some fresh clothes.

Katie slept for about 2 hours while I spent that time trying to get my phone's voicemail from Spanish to English.  What sounds easy was indeed not.  The instructions to do this task are to dial "123" from the phone and ask a rep to change it for you.  Well, "123" dumps you in to a spanish only phone menu.  No "Press 1 for English" option,,,, I guess Americans are the only ones to offer this feature.  I finally figured out how to get an operator on the line (no, it's not as easy as just hitting 0).  However, each time I got someone on the line they didn't know how to speak english and would eventually just hang up on me.  This became comical.  I found an online app that would speak in spanish what I typed in english.  I gave it a shot but it ended in them laughing and still hanging up on me.  They would rattle something off in rapid-fire spanish and then transfer me to another spanish phone que that would just say a bunch of stuff in spanish then just end the call.  I gave up.

Katie woke from her coma (2 hour nap) and we both got ready for dinner.  Our dinner guide was meeting us downstairs at 8:30 PM so we went a bit early to enjoy some drinks at the bar.  WOW, drinks aren't cheap. A single shot vodka on the rocks is 16 Euros (almost $20).  Four drinks and 70 Euros later, it was time to go.  Our guide "Carlos" pronounced "Car"--"Less" was waiting for us in the lobby.  We said our hellos and then went outside to meet the driver.  The driver was caught in some sort of traffic so we stood around for 45 minutes just chatting.  It ended up working out because we were able to learn a lot from him and he was able to call "123" for me and get my phone converted to english,,,, YAY.

Our guide took us to two of his favorite tapas restaurants.  At one point he went on for 10 minutes explaining to us what tapas are.  I guess he didn't realize we have tapas all over America.  Either way, the restaurants he took us to were amazing.  At one point, while going from one restaurant to the other, we stopped at a palace they built for the 1929 world's fair.  It was amazing.  There were lights, water and loud music all over the place.  You'll have to see the pictures for more detail but everyone there was having a lot of fun.  I even got to do the "welcome to Vegas" drive down the strip standing up through the sunroof.

After the last restaurant he dropped us off at the happening place in town.  We went to one of the clubs but it was dead.  It was 11 PM and I guess the clubs don't get going until 12 or so.  We went to the casino next door but they wouldn't let us in without our passports (a copy wouldn't suffice).  Oh well,,, I had hit the wall although Katie was ready to go (that long nap worked out well for her).  We ended up calling it a night and took a taxi back to our hotel.  At the hotel there was a live cover band playing 70s and 80s music.  We hung around for a night cap then headed off to bed.  Day 1 was over.

Take a look at Day 1 Pics here: https://picasaweb.google.com/113169248147362226921/20120511_SpainTripBarcelona?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCMKY9fqeiP-OgwE&feat=directlink