Over There

The trip actually began in October of 2008. Planning sequed into reservations, and then became actual airline seats with embryonic boarding passes slowly beginning to form in the great internet womb.

The day before departure we were completely packed and ready to go before we even got out of bed that day, but it still spun out of control. Our youngest grandaughter celebrated her second birthday. Our old dog racked up his fifteenth birthday - and celebrated by going to the kennel. Our youngest son opened a large photo exhibition in a nearby town and we attended, then went to dinner - already late. By the time we were finally home that night it was after 10 p.m. Tiny details remained to be taken care of, and they were generally lost and left behind.

Quick drive to Charlotte early in the next morning. Park the car. Make the flight to New York. Our little commuter airplane let us off way out on the flightline somewhere up there and we rode in to the terminal on a bus. JFK was dingy, loud, confusing. Four hours later we ate a New York pizza (they claimed - and it was good), then we were airborne for Barcelona.

We landed as the sun was rising. Whisked through a shining and scintilating airport, on to our hotel near the center of town. Left the bags there and strolled down the Ramblas to the port. Later back to the hotel when our room was available to check in and crawl into bed about 1500 hours. Up again around 1800, with three hours of sleep not so much for today, but to make the six-hour time shift in one day.
It worked OK - not perfectly perhaps, but we looked no worse than some of the mimes on the Ramblas.

(Most pictures will enlarge if clicked on.)