Where in the World?

We landed in Barcelona through wind and rain in the early afternoon. The forecast is rainy for several days. Oh well. Plans have to be adjusted. It shouldn’t really be a problem as there are plenty of things to do in this wonderful city.

My co-worker and I had a somewhat of a challenge obtaining our luggage after getting off the Lufthansa flight. There are two terminals at the Barcelona airport; A and B. We landed at a gate right in the juncture of the two. As we exited the gate, we both saw a sign with an arrow pointing to Baggage Claim – B. So, we followed.

After walking about a half mile to the end of terminal B, we walk down the stairs to baggage claim only to realize that Lufthansa bags are located in Baggage Claim - A. We ask someone how to get there and he points up and back the way we came. We tried to return up the stairs, but that way was blocked; no entrance to the gate area from here.

So, we walk on the ground floor all the way back to Terminal A which was at least a 1/2 mile or more. We find baggage claim A, but the doors are exit only and the guard will not let us in even though we showed him our ticket stubs and luggage tags. He tells us we have to go back up the stairs and through security again.

Argh!

Another 15 minutes and we are through security and down the stairs to baggage claim where our bags were just rounding the baggage belt when we walked up. We grab our bags and head outside to find a cab in the rain.

We quickly find one, explain that we need to be taken to two hotels; one a Marriott near the airport and the other in central Barcelona. The taxi driver takes off and after about 10 minutes, I realize he has passed up the Marriott. I show him the address and he starts getting very angry since he has passed the exit already. He had misunderstood us and thought we wanted a Marriott in central Barcelona, but there isn’t a Marriott in central Barelcona.

Once we straighten out the confusion, he angrily turns around and starts driving “wildly” through the traffic in the wind and heavy rain. He keeps repeating, in Spanish, how we messed up the directions. I keep nodding my head as I don’t want him to get any angrier than he already is.

Finally, after much swerving and high speed driving, we arrive at the correct hotel.

Welcome to Barcelona!

I know things will be much better, so I’m not worried at all.

Michael