To Barcelona

The early sun woke me but I stayed in bed until 0730 to get more rest. I retraced yesterday's route to the airport. There was plenty of time to make my Thalys reservation at the international counter for when I returned from the Canaries.

This leg was a "freebie"; my ticket was a return to Barcelona with a stopover in Amsterdam. It was KLM's way of attracting customers—throw in a roundtrip from Amsterdam to another European city. So strictly speaking I hadn't yet reached my "ultimate" destination in Europe after having been on the road for 6 weeks.

The electronic check-in was slick. I gawked at the goods in the duty-free stores, then had a pre-flight lunch at Sbarro of a pizza slice with lots of garlic and oregano. This section of the airport was not passport controlled because it was an intra-Schengen flight. There were insufficient seats in the departure lounge. The plane was full of Dutch tourists. Did they get a cheap fare for this leg? Did they know that there was a Forum going on in Barcelona and that accommodation was in short supply? But accommodation is often scarce in Barcelona; it's a popular destination.

My first glimpse of Barcelona after 11 years of absence was not encouraging. The outdoors was dusty and the ugly apartments by the train line were still there. But it was better in the centre. The city had become even more glitzy. The restaurants were tempting. While I had been away, Spain had adopted the Euro so I didn't have to think in hundreds of pesetas for a meal. But what I ate wasn't worth 21€, but the ice cream afterwards was good.


My residencia room was small but adequate. I read myself to sleep with 3 chapters from David Lodge's Thinks, a paperback I found in the reception's collection.