Our flight today isn’t until 11:20 am, so it’s not a “killer” morning. We had a nice breakfast in the lounge, made the last check of the luggage, and called the front desk to come get it. We have six suitcases, and we’re also carrying a backpack each. Packing it all into one taxi was tricky, but we’ve figured out how to do it (lots of practice), even giving the taxi driver some tips. The drive to the airport is quick. Check-in, immigration, and security are very smooth, just slow.
This is a long British Airways flight, almost 11 hours. Ugh! It leaves a little late, but we’ve got a long layover in London, at Heathrow, so it shouldn’t be a problem. Heathrow was interesting. The signage was clear and we were able negotiate the transition from Terminal 5 to Terminal 3 without confusion. The trip was long, beginning with a train ride, then we moved to a bus after immigration and security. We finally arrived at the terminal with mostly British Airways flights. The layover is 4 hours, so we have lots of time to kill.
It’s a little odd that they don’t have the gates posted on the board until 45 minutes before departure. Everyone sits in one large area with food and shopping, and then when you’re departure gate is posted, the scramble to get to the specific gate begins.
Boarding was smooth for the Barcelona flight. It’s a 2:00 hour flight and it was nearly 11:00 pm when we arrive. I changed our money into Euros while Judy waited on the luggage. I tried to exchange the currency in London, but they wanted me to change it to British pounds first, then make the change to Euros. Too many fees involved for all that changing. Getting a taxi was easy compared to many of places we’ve been. There was no gauntlet of drivers to run through to get to the taxi queue, and there were lots of taxis in line.
Our new hotel, Renaissance Barcelona Fira, by the light of Wednesday morning, as we walk to the train.
Courtney is already at the hotel when we arrived. It’s been almost 24 hours since we woke up in Beijing and started this trip, so we’re beat, and ready for sleep. We make breakfast plans with Courtney, and prepare for the next day.