Wednesday, October 6, 2010

More details

Good afternoon!!  We have had an exciting trip.  First of all I would like to share this with you.  I was rather nervous about the whole trip after the terrorist alert.  I did not consider NOT going, but I was worried.  I have a devotional that I read every night.  Tuesday, I read it in the morning, as I would not be home that evening.  It is an annual and is hard cover, so I was not going to bring it along.  Imagine my surprise that the Bible verse was Isaiah 7:4  "Be careful, keep calm and don't be afraid.  Do not lose heart..." 

The lady talked about how when she gets in a panic, she has to remind herself to trust in God.  The prayer ending it was, "Lord, when fear knocks, help me to keep still and let you answer."  So you see ADAM, God does not always speak through burning bushes and angelic messengers.  Some times He uses other methods to communicate with those who are willing to listen.

Dawn drove us to O'Hare and did a fine job in spite of the traffic tie ups.  We arrived in plenty of time to check in, go through security and find our gate.  The plane pulled away from the terminal only a few minutes late.  All right!!  We were on our way.  NOT!!  We taxied about 10 minutes then stopped.  The captain came on and said there was a back up in Philly and we had been delayed from taking off for 45 minutes.  This was my first experience with being delayed ON the plane, instead of in the terminal.

About 25 minutes later, the captain was back on the intercom.  Bad news, it was now an additional hour delay.  [sigh]  I took a nap and we all waited patiently.  About 55 minutes later the captain was on the intercom and said that "they" wanted to delay us another hour but a miracle occurred and we were now cleared for take off.  We taxied on out and took off for Philly.

In Philly we found our gate, did an additional check in due to it being an international flight and grabbed something to eat at a bistro near our gate.  About 50 minutes prior to our scheduled departure time, I went to the bathroom and Danielle went to get a beer...for medicinal purpose.  Seriously, to help her sleep.

Kristina came for both of us because they had already started preboarding!!!  Luckily I was on the way back.  Danielle inhaled her beer and we got in line to board the plane. 

This plane had 2 seats, 3 seats, 2 seats.  Danielle, Kristina and I were in the three middle seats, Lori was just behind us on an aisle.  When we were  about to take off, Lori pointed out to Danielle that there were two empty seats beside her, so Danielle switched to those seats.  Therefore, Kristina and I both had aisle seats with an empty seat between us.  This airplane had a bit more leg room than the one we took to Greece.  So we were a bit more comfortable.  Then the captain announced that we had a strong tail wind and the flight would be 6.5 hours.  We were expecting 8 hours, so we were all very happy!!

Upon arriving {Oh wait--this is too funny-Lori just plugged in her hair dryer using the converter and blew the lights, not only in our room, but also in Kristina and Danielle's room.  I don't know why the computer is still working!!}

So, with our strong tail wind, we arrived in Barcelona an hour earlier than expected.  This was great--except that the customs people were expecting us an hour later and the line was really long.  Finally, they opened several more lines and we proceeded through there and on to the baggage claim.

We were beginning to get a bit worried, but FINALLY our bags appeared.  We gathered them and set off to find the guy who was supposed to pick us up and deliver us to the hotel.  No sign of him.  We checked out all of the people holding signs and none of them had our names or our tour company.  We waited and waited and waited.  Finally, Lori and I went to find the restroom.  That usually works.  If you are waiting for someone and you go to the bathroom, they always arrive.  Not this time.  Danielle and Kristina also tried it to no avail.

After an hour, Kristina went to find a phone to see if she could call the number that she had in our paperwork.  She was coming back to get some money from one of us so that she could call, when the guy showed up.  He said, "The plane was...." and Kristina said, "early?"  I guess he didn't bother to call to see if we were on time, early or late, he just showed up when we SHOULD have been arriving.

Off we went, into the sunny and warm Barcelona morning.  The drive in was fun.  If you have never ridden in a car in another country and had motorcycles sharing your lane or people cutting into your lane right in front of you, then you can't know how much fun it is.

The driver delivered us to the hotel and we were able to check into one room.  The other room was not ready yet.  About that time Kristina realized that she had left her purse on the back seat of the car.  :-o

The desk clerk was very helpful and called the tour company number and told them.  They must have called the guy and just a few minutes after we were in our room, the bell hop appeared at our door with Kristina's purse.

A couple of interesting things about the hotel.  First, the four of us JUST fit into the elevator!! Then, we could NOT get the lights to come on in the room.  When the bell hop-his name is Geordi- showed us that you have to put your key card into a slot before the room lights would work.  Duh!!  Also, our rooms have door bells.  None of us have ever been in a hotel that had door bells.

We all took a nap while waiting for the other room to be ready.  About 12:45 (local time) we decided to think about going out for lunch.  But we could NOT get the lights to come back on.  We all tried the card trick, but nada.  Finally we called and the maintenance guy came up.  We had flipped a breaker.  The breaker box is right in our room.  He flipped it back and we were in business.

About that time the phone rang and it was the front desk telling us that the other room was ready.  Lori and I checked in and moved our stuff over.  We all decided to take showers and then go out in search of food. 

I went first and managed to flood the bathroom floor.  The shower does not have a curtain or door, just a partial wall.  By the time I figured out how to adjust the hand held shower, I had water all over the place.  Then Lori took her shower.

We are now sitting in the dark waiting for the maintenance guy to come and fix the lights!!   Poor Danielle was just about to get into her shower.

Well here we are, and by the time we leave, the guys at the front desk and the maintenance guy will all know us by name!!  :-D

2 comments:

  1. Am enjoying the updates but can't believe that Visa wouldn't work there. I laughed wig familiarity at all the lights, drivers etc problems. This happened go be in Italy many times hahaha. At least you made it uneventfully. Nice that you had a good flight and that has to be a record time to Spain! Lucky you guys! You can count on a longer one home since you'll be flying against the jet stream ;) take lots of pics. And feel lucky you made it out if Ohare as my flight to Paris was delayed five hrs and i had to actually take a different one through London to get to Abu Dhabi a few weeks ago, there was a problem with the engine in that case. Oh yeah, if you want to experience more fun withe driving why not extend your trip to Abu Dhabi and I can show you some driving fun for real!! LoL.

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  2. It's lucky I wasn't along. I would have been hysterical with all the happenings. I don't "adapt" well, although i do much better than George.

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