Onward to Barcelona

Thursday 21st July 2016

The driver was waiting to pick us up from the Hotel this morning to take us to the airport at 5.30 am, for an 8.15am departure. It takes about half an hour to get to the airport.

In contrast to our arrival experience, this morning Dubai Airport is bustling and there are long queues
to check in.  The process is slow, as it seems to be a bit of a National sport to try and get overweight luggage through the process without paying for the extra weight. The officials were on the ball, and we saw several people given their luggage back and sent off somewhere to resolve the issue.

Once through the formalities (security was quite strict with the scanners set to go off at any sign of something metallic), the departures area was packed with people everywhere. There is a huge variety of shops and eating houses, one of which particularly took our fancy, but was not well supported for some reason.

The caviar looked excellent

Our plane left on time and we had a good tailwind, so it was a pretty quick flight. This time the service on Emirates was a lot better (we must have got a dud crew on the last one).

Arrival in Barcelona was ahead of schedule at around 1.15pm, about 20 mins ahead of time. Buoyed by the good progress, we looked forward to any early arrival our hotel. However, the baggage handlers had other ideas and it took an eternity to get our bags and clear customs.

Fortunately, our driver was waiting patiently, and whisked us off to the Le Meridian where we are staying for the next 3 nights. Although we arrived at around 2.45 pm, it wasn't until 3.30pm that our room was ready ( we are in Spain after all). However they were kind enough to provide us with a cup of coffee whilst we waited.

Access to the hotel entrance is very tight

The hotel is well located in the middle of town, and we used what was left of the afternoon to have a bit of a look around the nearby surrounds. We quickly realised we will not have to go far for a feed. There are literally hundreds of little restaurants/tapas bars within a short walk from the hotel. 

Everywhere you go here there are stunning buildings, big plazas with fountains and statues etc. Here are a few shots from the nearby plaza ( Plaza Catalunya).

Back at the hotel it was time for a shower and a bit of rest, as we have had a few short sleeps since we left Aus. Once revitalised we headed out on the streets in search of our evening meal. Not content to select a nearby restaurant (as they all get a bad rap), we covered a lot of distance before finally settling on a suitable place and had a nice tapas meal (actually we ordered far too much expecting Australian sized serves) and a bottle of local red.

We covered even more ground finding our way back to the hotel, having taken in many of the local tourist sights, unintentionally (but at least we will know where they are tomorrow).

Our official tour with Tauck Tours starts with a welcome dinner tomorrow evening, so we have all of tomorrow to explore some of the more obscure sights on our own.