Up, Up and Away

May 12, 2022

The day we long hoped for has finally dawned. First order of the day was to wake the dog from her slumber and take her to her home away from home. Then, our friend John kindly drove us and our 4 pieces of luggage to the bus depot.

Oh, if she only knew what was about to happen. She had 3 practise days so maybe she realized something was up.

A Long Day of Travel Ahead

We live on an island, so we chose to build in some precautions and take the bus and ferry to YVR where our flight was scheduled to depart at 5:40pm. Flying there could have created a time crunch since the airport queues are unpredictable these days. The slower route insured we would get through bag check and security with time to spare. A strong southwesterly was blowing and consequently the ferry was rocking and rolling. These are b-i-g ferries and it takes a lot of wave height to make them rock! Luckily, the ferry was not cancelled as can sometimes happen.

The ferry was rocking as we entered the Georgia Strait. Staff were scanning the seated passengers and handing out b--f bags! I have never seen that before on a BC Ferry.

The weather in Vancouver was simply awful, pouring rain and about 8 or 9 degrees. It didn't help that we were dressed for sunny Spain. The airport was not actually that busy and everyone seemed downright calm. We spent about 30 minutes in line to check our bags (Bike Fridays) and then another 20 minutes for the security check. There was no mention of covid documentation which I had uploaded to KLM while checking in online.

The Vancouver airport has a fabulous aquarium in the International Departures area.

We set off on a KLM flight to AMS after a short delay. The flight was fully booked.

Behind that thick layer of cloud is a beautiful mountain backdrop. Time to get out of Denver.

At best, I usually manage three hours of some semblance of sleep while David manages just one to two hours. The rest of the time was filled with watching movies. It was Bond for him and I watched Belfast which starred a little boy growing up in Northern Ireland. Had David's parents not emigrated to Canada, he could have been that little boy. It hit me, quite unexpectedly.

The flight was smooth sailing except for a very bumpy patch over northern Manitoba, and we landed at AMS smack on twelve noon, as scheduled. One more trip through security here (no mention of covid passports) and we were off to the nether region of the airport. Our departure gate was the very last gate, number 86. I'll leave you to imagine how long the walk was. But, again we had adequate time before the departure, so were un-rushed. Schiphol airport was busy but again, most people were quite chilled and no one looked stressed out. Funny aside here: I won't mention names to protect the innocent but we can no longer call it Schiphol after our neighbour, a young teen with Dutch lineage exclaimed...oh, you're going through Shithole! See? Now you won't be able to call it Schiphol, either. 🫣

I said that people were chilled out, but there was one passenger raising his voice in frustration at the security agent as about 100 other travellers watched the spectacle. Yeah, you should avoid this when going through international security. They led him to a special immigration booth.

We were curious about covid prior to leaving on the trip, so I will pass along that a good 50% of the people ignored the announcements that masks were required in the terminal. Even the KLM crew were maskless in the airport, though they would have worn masks for their flights.

At 2:30pm, our next leg of the journey departed, this one to Barcelona. The skies were blue and Holland was looking very green. Before long, we were flyng over the Costa Brava and cruising in to land at BCN.

we were excited to see blue sky... that meant warmth was ahead.

This flight will drop us in Barcelona airport at 4:15pm local time, which coincides with 6:15am according to our body clocks and almost time for breakfast. But first, we shuttled to the hotel and had a good snooze. Two hours later, we wandered out to find food.

It was 8pm local time by the time we were ready to eat. It was pinchos hour, so we did as the Spanish were doing.

The evening promenade is alive and well. Families empty out of their homes (apartments) and spill out into the streets and squares. Children bring their soccer balls and hone their ball handling skills while mom and dad settle in for a beer and a smoke. Grandma and gramps join in and the new babes and wee ones are part of the action, too. It's all very lively and refreshing (cough, cough.. those cigarettes are strong) to see people out and about. What a contrast to the small world we have inhabited for the past two years.

Tomorrow, we head for Mallorca, a 50 minute flight from here.

The Ciutat del Prat has a rooftop bar, so we went up to catch the view.

Rate this entry's writing	Heart	10
Comment on this entry	Comment	0