The plane rides and airport concourses are behind us!! YEAH!!! We're now in Barcelona having arrived around 8pm last night. We went to the lounge on our floor for a glass of cava then settled into our room a little after 9pm. We're spending today in and around the hotel, vegging out, getting ready for the cruise!
Getting from Home to Barcelona:
We had shipped our big bags and a couple of small duffle bags shipped, thus, only had our "drag-a-longs" to watch over during this part of our journey. We had them packed up and ready to go long before our 4pm departure.
Last things to get done were: 1) get the car in, a challenge in itself!, 2) unplug the garage door opener, 3) unplug the golf cart, 4) turn some circuit breakers off and lastly, 5) disconnect the cable (the loop in the ceiling, top center of photo).
Once we saw that "our" car had left Burger King, Tom took the bags out front while I shut down the computer. We locked the door and headed out ourselves.
A neighbor came over for a "so long" and took this pic for us! Thank you Betty!!
Our ride to the airport arrived shortly thereafter. We were super pleased to see our favorite ExecuCar driver, Bill Glenn!
Tom headed for the car, Bill went for the bags. I think he was pleasantly surprised to see so little luggage!
After a very pleasant ride to the airport, we checked in with Edelweiss and headed to the lounge they share with American Airlines. We were only 3-4 gates from "our" gate and had a great view of the runway and tarmacs. When we saw "our" plane arriving, we packed up and headed to the gate.
By the time we got there, the caterers were in place but it wasn't long before we were boarding.
We settled into our seats for our 7+ hour flight and it wasn't long before we were offered, and accepted!, a glass of champagne.
Shortly after takeoff, we were offered dinner menus. Some of the items, we didn't know what they were, then we realized we were looking at the German version!! A page turn and, voila!, English!
A quick look at the screen showed our route, direct from Tampa to Zurich. We like that we can now fly directly to Europe!!!
Next trip we'll do the same!
.
.First came the butter, salt & pepper.
Followed by a starter.
Then dinner. I chose the filet, and Tom chose the Sea Bass.
.
After dessert, we "bedded down" for the long flight!
When we awakened a couple hours before landing, the map showed the progress!
We had a pleasantly uneventful flight and arrived in Zurich a little before before schedule. Fortunately, we didn't have checked bags, thus went straight to passport control and on to our 5 hour wait for the flight on to Barcelona!
Other than having to check my drag along, it was way too heavy for drag along on this smaller plane, the rest of our trip was uneventful.
Update - 15 October 2015:
Just wanted to add a couple of pics from the Zurich to Barcelona flight.
The first is a pic of the airport terminal in Zurich. Inside, a VERY impressive terminal!! Shopaholics would go crazy trying to figure out what you really wanted to buy!! All kinds of shops and LOTS of duty-free!
The second is of the "island" mountains poking out above the clouds. If I'm not mistaken they are in the French Alps, possibly in the Grenoble area.
We were totally fascinated! Folks living below the clouds probably thought it to be a gray and dreary day... little did they know what was up-above it all!
Next post will be from ship!!
rf
Getting from Home to Barcelona:
Last things to get done were: 1) get the car in, a challenge in itself!, 2) unplug the garage door opener, 3) unplug the golf cart, 4) turn some circuit breakers off and lastly, 5) disconnect the cable (the loop in the ceiling, top center of photo).
Once we saw that "our" car had left Burger King, Tom took the bags out front while I shut down the computer. We locked the door and headed out ourselves.A neighbor came over for a "so long" and took this pic for us! Thank you Betty!!
Our ride to the airport arrived shortly thereafter. We were super pleased to see our favorite ExecuCar driver, Bill Glenn!
Tom headed for the car, Bill went for the bags. I think he was pleasantly surprised to see so little luggage!
By the time we got there, the caterers were in place but it wasn't long before we were boarding.
We settled into our seats for our 7+ hour flight and it wasn't long before we were offered, and accepted!, a glass of champagne.
Shortly after takeoff, we were offered dinner menus. Some of the items, we didn't know what they were, then we realized we were looking at the German version!! A page turn and, voila!, English!A quick look at the screen showed our route, direct from Tampa to Zurich. We like that we can now fly directly to Europe!!!
Next trip we'll do the same!.
.First came the butter, salt & pepper.
Followed by a starter.
Then dinner. I chose the filet, and Tom chose the Sea Bass.
.
After dessert, we "bedded down" for the long flight!
When we awakened a couple hours before landing, the map showed the progress!
We had a pleasantly uneventful flight and arrived in Zurich a little before before schedule. Fortunately, we didn't have checked bags, thus went straight to passport control and on to our 5 hour wait for the flight on to Barcelona!
Other than having to check my drag along, it was way too heavy for drag along on this smaller plane, the rest of our trip was uneventful.
Update - 15 October 2015:
Just wanted to add a couple of pics from the Zurich to Barcelona flight. The first is a pic of the airport terminal in Zurich. Inside, a VERY impressive terminal!! Shopaholics would go crazy trying to figure out what you really wanted to buy!! All kinds of shops and LOTS of duty-free!
The second is of the "island" mountains poking out above the clouds. If I'm not mistaken they are in the French Alps, possibly in the Grenoble area.We were totally fascinated! Folks living below the clouds probably thought it to be a gray and dreary day... little did they know what was up-above it all!
Next post will be from ship!!
rf
