You’re getting that itch to travel, so what do you do first? Most likely, step one of any travel plan is to decide where you’re going to go, and how you’ll get there, and then everything else tends to flow along. But, what if somewhere in the process everything comes off the rails and you have to make changes? It doesn’t mean your trip is a disaster even though I’ve been told about some that did go that way, but it does complicate the whole process. But even disasters sometimes provide memories that tend to last.
OK. We had planned a trip to Europe as a two-stage process. Part One: take a cruise from Venice to Barcelona. Spend a few days on the front end touring Venice and a few days at the end touring Barcelona. The rest was just enjoying the cruise and seeing a few sites along the way. Except, we had two things that upset the apple cart or as some might say, “sank the boat.” Number one, we misplaced a passport. OK, you say, apply for a new one. Except, we needed one fast and you can only apply for an emergency replacement 10 days before your departure. The first day we could apply landed on a holiday weekend! So, we had to wait and lose 3 of those 10 days. Luckily, we were able to schedule an appointment quickly but were not guaranteed we would get the passport in time. They would try but no assurances. You also have to show proof you are taking a trip and do require an emergency replacement. It was a long day in downtown Chicago but by the end of the day, we held the new passport. Yeah! That step was complete.
The second problem. Sickness prevented one of us from traveling on our original travel date. No problem. You have travel insurance to cover cancellations, right? But, what about the non-refundable hotel?
Fortunately, the hotel fully understood and we were OK there. The travel insurance company was more difficult. We had to get a letter from our doctor to prove there was a medical reason for canceling the cruise. That took more effort and fortunately, the doctor was more than reasonable. Now what?
No cruise but we still had hotels and flights in other cities. The next step, reschedule the airline. We had extended our trip from Barcelona to include a visit to our granddaughter at college in Madrid. American Airlines was able to change things without any problems so now we’re set to complete the second half of our trip.
Now for the trip itself.
A couple of suggestions. Before leaving for an international trip, you require passports, and I suggest making copies of them. Leave one copy at home and take another with you just in case. A second recommendation is to make copies of any credit cards you might use in case you need to contact the credit card company. You also need to contact the card companies before leaving to let them know you’re going and will be using them overseas. Otherwise, some purchases might be declined. They don’t know you’re there and may assume your card was stolen, so it’s best to have everything approved in advance.
Keep your passports handy when traveling internationally. You may be surprised as to how often you will need them. You will need to show your passport to get your airline boarding tickets, again to get through security, passports to get onto the plane, and also be prepared for biometrics as they take your photo at multiple locations. We needed our passports when we arrived at our destination to enter the country and we had to present them at the hotel to verify our reservation. Wow!
Your travelers, Mike and Eileen Giltner in Barcelona. (Photo by Mike Giltner/My Sun Day News)
Smartphones are almost as much a requirement as passports. Most tickets to museums and tours are now sent via phone and email. If you don’t have one, you may find any trip more difficult. You may need it for directions (Google Maps), for displaying your tickets, and sometimes for paying for items. The translator program comes in handy when you don’t speak the language. In our case, we were able to make free voice calls via the Internet with WhatsApp so we recommend you don’t leave home without one. Also, you will need a charger setup for the international country you’re visiting. Some locations and the airlines allowed us to charge with a USB cable directly to an outlet. Now, we can finally start the trip.
Anytime we travel to a new city, we always recommend a bus tour around the city you’re visiting. You’ll get a good idea of the landscape and sites that you may want to see and some you may want to skip. If you have an itinerary, it may still help. We found out that in Barcelona there were two major, popular tour lines; a red line and a blue line. We picked the “Hop on, Hop Off” red line and if we had another day to spend in the city, we would have gone back and taken the blue line. While there was some overlap, most of the sites visited by the two were different. The red line took us to all the major sites around certain areas of the city and when we got off, we reviewed the map and decided to jump back on. We circled back to take a gondola ride over part of the city. Uh-oh, our first disappointment. We thought the ride went further than it did. It only took us up to the top of this small mountain and once we got there, we realized we weren’t where we thought we would be. The higher gondola ride over the cruise ships in the harbor started at a different place and was run by a separate company. We never could find out where the second ride started so we skipped it.
One thing to note is that taxis in Barcelona were quite inexpensive. The only time it was over 20 euros was when we took a longer trip from our hotel to the Sagrada Familia church. But even then it was only 32 euro and you don’t need to tip.
Our next major hitch came when we did get to the Familia church. We had purchased our tickets online weeks in advance to ‘skip the line,’ which I strongly advise, so I wasn’t concerned but when I pulled them up I was told they were no good. Okay, so what do I do? They said to use your smartphone to access the website and download them again. Sounds simple, right? Except that what was being downloaded was exactly what I already had and they said would not work. Fortunately, there was a very kind and helpful, English-speaking woman in the tourist information booth who was able to direct me to an international phone number where I could get my tickets. I made the call and talked to customer service about my tickets. My real tickets are then instantly emailed to my account again accessible via my phone. So after about an hour of hassling around, I had the tickets I needed and we were able to enter the church. All in all, it was well worth the effort. The church, designed by Gaudi, is unbelievable and its majestic design and stained-glass windows are something to behold. We were both very impressed.
If you want more Gaudi, there is a museum (via the Hop On/Off bus) and other architectural buildings to see around town. Barcelona is the city for you as there are over 20 sites displaying Gaudi’s work; seven of which are World Heritage sites.
After spending several hours in and around the Sagrada Familia church, we walked around the neighborhood and decided it was time to get something to eat. We stopped at a local restaurant, had their paella, and were very happy with their selection. We then walked through the streets and wound up at what we thought was another majestic cathedral but it turned out to be a local hospital! From there we took a taxi back to our hotel. Overall, it was an exciting day in Barcelona. Tomorrow, the train to Madrid.
1 Comment
love this. yall r adorable