Travel Adventures of Mike & Traci

  Mike and Traci Jones are an
  adventurous thirty-something
  professional couple from Philadelphia.
  They have traveled extensively and bring
  a fresh, honest perspective on the
  places they've visited. Mike is an
  aspiring travel writer and his style
  makes you feel as if you're right there.
  Traci is the photographer of the two and
  together they vividly share their unique
  experiences.


To read all their reviews Click Here!

Barcelona, Spain Review

April 23 - 25, 2010

ASHES, ASHES. THEY ALL FALL DOWN!

Traci and I spent two nights in the marvelous city of Barcelona before embarking on a 7-day Mediterranean cruise on the Azamara Journey . We crammed in as much sightseeing as we could while bumbling our way through several of mishaps. It was a great time. We could have used a few more days to hit all the major tourist attractions we wanted to see..

With our flight to Spain less than a week away, you would have thought Traci and I would be giddy with excitement like we normally are before vacation. This was not the case this time. We were not even sure this trip would happen. The Eyjafjallajökull (Eh-ya-fyat-la-yuh-cullt-k) volcano in Iceland had been erupting for several weeks and was now sending ash as far as five miles into the sky. The ash cloud had drifted over much of Europe grounding flights at hundreds of airports. This was a flight safety issue since debris from the ash could cause airplane engines to stop working. Although the airports in Spain remained mostly unaffected by closures, our flight was in jeopardy because we were booked on British Airways which connects through London Heathrow Airport. That airport had already been shut down for almost a week with no reopen date in sight. There were news stories everyday of stranded passengers trying to figure out a way to get back home.

Traci and I had booked our flight through the cruise line's ChoiceAir program. They had very reasonable airfare and I knew the cruise line would work with us to get us to the ship if problems arose. Who would have thought a volcano would have threatened our trip? Our situation was not as drastic as the thousands of stranded passengers around the world but we had prepaid our hotel stay in Barcelona to take advantage of a great weekend rate Hilton was offering at the time. The money we paid was non-refundable.

Finally, London Heathrow Airport reopened the day before our flight. Whew! As we were boarding our flight in Philadelphia, Traci ran into Andrienne, one of her UK co-workers, who was finally on her way home after being stranded in the U.S. for four days after her business trip should have ended. Our pilot made an announcement that he was thrilled to be flying again. All was good.

FINDING OUR WAY

Our overnight flight with a connection in London got us to Barcelona around noon the next day. I had planned to take a taxi from the airport to our hotel. I knew this would be expensive because of the distance but I wasn't sure I was ready to figure out public transportation in a foreign country where we don't speak the language. Traci, on the other hand, was up for the challenge. After using the ATM machine in the airport to get some euros, we went to the tourist information desk to find out how to get to our hotel, Hilton Barcelona. We were told to take the Aerobus for 5 euros per person (approximately $7/person at the time) to Placa d'Espanya in downtown Barcelona and then take the metro to the Maria Christina stop. From there, the Hilton Barcelona is a few blocks away on Avenida Diagonal.

                  Traci rejoicing upon arrival in Barcelona

HOP TO IT!

Jet lag was really tugging at us by the time we checked into our room but we knew we should not take a nap if we wanted adjust to the time difference (6 hours ahead of east coast US). Instead, we dropped off our luggage and immediately hit the streets. We had a craving for pizza. After a nice lunch at a pizza place, we set off on our mission. We planned to tour the city via one of the hop-on hop-off sightseeing bus companies (Bus Turistic in our case). These are pretty popular in cities throughout the world. You buy (cash only) a pass (1 or 2-day) on the bus and are given ear buds. These can be plugged into the seats to hear narration in the language of your choice as the double-decker tour bus rides around the city making stops at several major attractions. You can get off at any of these stops for further exploration and then wait for the next bus when you are ready to move on. The buses arrive every 20-minutes or so.

Traci and I were sitting in the open-air upper deck of the bus fighting sleep. The narration was great but the background music was too soothing to aid us in our fight against jet lag.

                  Streets of Barcelona

  THE BLACK VIRGIN                     

 The Black Virgin is a statue of the Virgin Mary holding the Baby Jesus in her lap. It was made in the 12th century and was protected by the Benedictine monks of Montserrat during Spain's turbulent times. The statue is encased in glass but her right hand contains a sphere and is extended through an opening in the glass. As people approached the statue, they would touch the sphere and then make the sign of the cross. Traci snapped some pictures of the statue. It was not until we picked up a brochure later that we found out we were not supposed to take pictures of the Black Virgin. Oops!

 

                  The Black Virgin

                  

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