Day 4 - Air show

Sunday 4 Oct 2009

Day 4 started of very similar to Day 2 (see below). No worries we're on vacation. :)

Turns out today is the finals of the Red Bull Air Race event which is a few blocks from the condo.

Britain’s Paul Bonhomme won the 2009 Red Bull Air Race World Championship on Sunday with a thrilling victory in the final race of the season in Barcelona in front of a record crowd of 800,000 spectators.

So we walked down to the beach to check it out....




Next is lunch at Port Von Pelle.... Supreme disappointment. Nothing more to add about that.



After that we walked over to the Christopher Columbus Monument.



Dinner has to be better then lunch. We decided to venture out to Las Ramblas. Tonight's selection is highly recommended tapas restaurant named, Bilbao Berria.

Day 3 - Traveling

Saturday 3 Oct 2009

So day 3 started the way day 2 was supposed to, with breakfast. Recap: we slept right through breakfast and lunch yesterday. Whoops! Anyway, we got up around 9 went down to a corner cafe to have a breakfast pastry and coffee. After that it was time to pack up our hotel room and get moving towards the airport.

We got to the airport right now schedule. Everything was looking great for the day but then Ryan Air happened. This is where hopefully other people will gleam some knowledge about traveling on the cheap in Europe. The flight was supposed to cost:

*********4.65 EUR Total Fare

*********0.33 EUR Taxes, Fees & Charges

********10.70 EUR Passenger Fee: Checked Bag(s)

*********3.21 EUR Passenger Fee: Priority Boarding

*********5.35 EUR Passenger Fee: Spanish Domestic Handling Fee

********24.24 EUR Total Paid

Well, lets discuss these fees.

Fare and Taxes are fine.

Checked bag fee... Here is where the fine print got Frank. Apparently in the terms and conditions it say that your carry-on luggage has a weight limit of 10 Kg and your checked bags have a limit of 15 Kg. In the case that your carry-on is heavier then allowed then you need to check it and pay an additional checked bag fee. In the case of your checked bag, if you are over 15 Kg then there is a charge of 20 EUR for EVERY Kg over. Frank initially weighted his checked bag in at 25 Kg which if you do the math ends up being an up charge of 200 EUR (roughly $300). After some creative clothing adjustment between his carry-on, checked bag, my carry-on and his person. Franks got it down to 18.9 Kg which the nice guy at the desk rounded down to 18 flat. So Frank ended up shelling out 85 EUR for a 5 EUR flight. Lesson learned.... Also the option "Priority Boarding fee", that's the biggest scam in the world. First come first server in the queue regardless if you pay for that or not.

Total flight time 1 hour which is great but we flew into a secondary airport not Barcelona's main airport (BCN). It turns out that Girona (GRO) is some 90 km from the city center. So now we have to take a bus for an 65 minute ride to the bus station in the city (12 EUR). Then grab your luggage and hike 7 blocks to the light rail station. Remember the amount of luggage frank had to lug around.

The apartment is gorgeous! Check it out...




View from the deck...



We did a little shopping for supplies in the apartment. Just the basics, water, soda, chip, beer and sangria.

After a shower it was dinner time. We found a really nice restaurant in the shopping center across the street. The restaurant was Sagardi Euskal Taberna. Dinner included bottle of wine, salad, peppers of the season and a 950 grams T-bone steak. Steak was prepared rare (we didn't have any other option) over Holm oak burners. A dinner like that combined with the day that we had required deserved which was quickly followed by an after dinner drink or two on the balcony of the apartment.

Thanks to Frank's sling box we were able to watch college football and enjoy beers/sangria on the deck. All in all a great first in Barcelona!



The main ingredient for tonight's sangria is:

Day 2 - Madrid (culture)

Friday 2 Oct 2009

Ok, lets not sugar coat this.... last night was a long night. This morning was not something I was looking forward to. Thank god I slept right through the morning. :)

I woke up at 2pm feeling great or at least good enough to pretend to be interested in all the culture in Madrid.

First things first, LUNCH... How about the Museum of Ham?



Now we are ready to take on some culture. In europe culture starts and ends with a church(s).

Just as I thought I was gonna be bored out of my mind with reading about things from hundreds of years ago. A fight breaks out....

Evil spanish guy versus a slightly out of shape super hero. Now I don't feel so bad if I come home a little heavy then usual. :)



On to culture....

First, Plaza Mayor.



Now, its time for all the churches...



Royal Palace time....



Moving on. Check this out. This is not a statue but a real life person...



Other random picture from the day:



Dinner was at I'levn with considerably less alcohol then last night...

Tomorrow, BARCELONA!

Day 1 in Madrid

Thursday 1 Oct 2009

Getting to the hotel from the airport via the metro was surprisingly simple. The metro system is very extensive and its 2 euro flat rate to go anywhere on it. I got to the hotel prior to the room being ready, so I dropped off my luggage and went for a walk. On my way back I came across a very small local bar called Alanzo's. I stopped in for a couple and then went back to the room to pass out.

Frank showed up around 3pm. After he got settled in, we went out for a tapas run. Thanks to google we found Taberna Alhambra where we had some tapas and sangria.



From there we walked around for a bit until we decided to have a drink at Alonzo's. Initially the language barrier made it tough to talk to anyone in the bar including the bar tender but that soon changed. We met Eva who took a special kind of interest in trying to communicate with us. She spoke German, French and Spanish but absolutely no English. To the left of Eva is Luis who really didn't say much.



After several beers it was time for dinner. We found a very large courtyard which was almost entirely surrounded by restaurants. We finally settled on a place but I can't remember the name. However our waitress's name is Tatiana. She was very sweet and spoke a little english. We made a new friend. :)



Right next to us at dinner was a very large dinner party. At one point in the night 3 guys stood up and started to sarinate the diners with "She's lost that loving feeling".

Flight in...

Wednesday 30 Sept 2009

My flight to ATL was pretty cool. I made friends with the guy sitting next to me. I asked him what he does, he replied "custom home builder". He asked what I did, after telling him, the classic question comes back, "do you know (insert name) at IBM?" Only this time the name was Niels Jensen, my boss. The rest of the flight was spent telling stories about Niels' idiosyncrasies :)

Flight from Atlanta to Madrid was very long and the seat was very cramped. Not much sleep and the movie selection was not the best. Probably managed to get about an hour and half of sleep total. Oh well...