J. C. Petty
Happily, and luckily, married to a cute, younger spanish-born lady, now an American citizen. Computer Programmer by day and carpenter wannabe by night.Zpet
Travel Blog Posts
June 28th 2011
We had breakfast, then checked out and left even earlier than necessary. Before 10am we were at the Barcelona El Prat Airport, Terminal 2, for our flight to Sevilla. Check in didn't start until 2 hours before our 13:20 flight, so we chilled. By the time we got to the checkin counter, there were at least 12 or so folks in front of us. We watched as it seemed every other passenger had to reorganize their luggage to meet the 10 or 20 kilos limit. We also found out another reason why some people in front of us didn't finish their checkin. When we finally got to the counter, the rep told us we had to go to another window and present our boarding pass and passport to get a stamp! I still don't understand why ... read more
Day 19 - Andorra to Barcelona (Again)
Published: June 27th 2011Europe » Spain » Catalonia » Barcelona » La Rambla
June 27th 2011
We woke up a bit earlier than necessary so we would have time after breakfast and before our bus down, so Manoli could take photos from the housing area above us. The night before we had taken a stroll up there, without her camera, and the view of the town in the valley below was awesome. You could also see the whole hostal grounds. After taking a number of photos, we returned to the hostal to await our bus trip down to Andorra La Vela to catch our bus back to Barcelona. Novatel may not be as cheap as some bus services, but they took us up the mountain to our hostal and picked us up there again to take us down to the bus terminal. I don't think any of the other bus companies do ... read more
June 26th 2011
We woke up in plenty of time for breakfast before catching the first bus down to Andorra La Vela at 9:40. Breakfast was the usual coffee, juice, cereal, toast and spreads, and some fruit. Although the driver was a bit reckless, the ride down was nearly as scary as the ride up had been yesterday. We spent most of the morning shopping for gifts to bring to Manoli's brothers and nephew. For lunch, we almost ate at the same place in the Pyrenees store, but changed our minds when we saw the buffet style layout in another store called Escale. Although most of the restaurants and cafes we'd seen wanted what seemed like ridiculous prices (from 9 Euros and up for a single plate!), this store also had food at much more reasonable prices. We all ... read more
June 24th 2011
We had thought originally of going to Montserrat, a pretty much all day affair, but we hadn't seen the key sights in Barcelona yet, except for La Rambla. So, out we went, by about 9am, and first headed for the Parc Guell, a showcase of Antoni Gaudi's work. We took the metro from Paral-lel to Villcarca on the L3 towards Triniat Nova (For you folks who might like an idea of how to get to Parc Guell from La Rival area). The metros cost about 1.45 Euros for a one-time 90 minute ride. we got off at the right station, and after a brief moment of lostness, rectified by a nice old Spanish lady (the park is off the top of our map, so...), we saw the stairs/escalators up to the park. You have to ride ... read more
Day 15 - Venice to Barcelona
Published: June 23rd 2011Europe » Spain » Catalonia » Barcelona » La Rambla
June 23rd 2011
We left the hostel early, like 8:30am, but still no WiFi! I'm still not totally sure if the 24-hour ticket we bought was supposed to be good for the bus to Marco Polo Airport, but we were able to take the vaporetto to the bus station, and then the bus to the airport without incident. Since we arrived several hours before our flight (It wasn't even listed yet!), we chilled for a while and waited for it to show on the list so we'd know where to check in. Marco Polo Airport is pretty good sized, with over 60 check-in counters for dozens or airlines from Qatar to AliItalia to RyanAir. Finally, we check with a flight information desk and they told us the counter should open soon and be like number 82 or 83, so ... read more
June 22nd 2011
***Obviously, I was unable to post this before we left Venice, as the WiFi was still down when we left. We purposely took our time getting up and ready this morning because we wanted to buy 24-hour transit cards that would last us until tomorrow morning when we leave for the airport. We boarded a vaporetto to Murano via San Marco, but when the guy on the boat told us he couldn't sell the 24-hour tickets, we got off at San Marco to buy one. We were fortunate that the guy on the boat didn't make us pay the 6.50 Euros for the trip from Guidecca. I read a sign on the vaporetto terminal that said that the 24-hour passes were good for all boat trips and the busses to Messe and Lido, but did not ... read more
June 21st 2011
***I have to apologize for the delay, again, but the hostel's WiFi has been down. I'm posting this one and the next from Barcelona, Spain. With another reasonably early start, we bought a 3-person, one-hour ticket to get to the main island of Venice. So far, that has been the only bummer, having to pay for each trip between the hostel on Guidecca Island and Venice proper. You can pay 6.50 Euros for an hour (which would seldom allow you more than one trip), or you can buy a 12-hour, 24-hour, 48-hour, etc. pass that lets you go wherever, whenever for that period of time. Since we were doing the Muran/Buran/Torcello Tour, we just bought single-trip tickets. Arriving on Venice, we strolled around St. Marcos Square, but since we already had a tour booked for 2:30pm ... read more
June 20th 2011
Sorry about the delay again, but last night just as I was going to post this, the wifi stopped working. After 30 minutes of trying, at 12:30am, I gave up. Another travel day for the three of us. We checked out of the hostel around 7:30am to take the bus down to the train station for our 3-stage trip to Venice. The trian from Genoa to Milano Centrale was on one of the better trains, the EuroStar City, so we had extra room and foldup tables between our inward facing seats, even though we were only second class. After arriving at Milano, we had to change trains to a Regionale that would take us to Verona. After a bit of confusion as to which train and track, we got on the right train, this time a ... read more
June 19th 2011
We got a fairly early start and took the bus down to the center of Genoa. We still had most of the day on our 24 hour/4 people transit ticket. I had thought of going on a quaint train ride from Genoa into the countryside, but we decided instead to check out the museums downtown. We bought a pass for about 8 Euros each that was good for 3 of the main museums, Palazzo Rosso. Palazzo Bianco, and Palazzo Turtis. We wanted to eat lunch first, and we needed to straighten out our train tickets to Verona and Venice tomorrow, so we first went to the Palazzo Principe train station. After checking with customer service on available trains and connections, we decided to be brave and try to use the ticket vending machines. It took a ... read more
June 18th 2011
Although it wasn't a bad day, my wife didn't take any photos, so text only today. We packed up, checked out of the hostel, and hiked down the road to the train station. Our train to Siestri Levanti was a few minutes late, but otherwise no problem. When we got off in Siestri Levanti, we had about 40 minutes to wait for our train to Genoa, so I got my ration of capuccino and we all used the restroom... well, I think I did, but not so sure about the girls. Public restrooms tend to be a bit awkward and/or dirty for the ladies, like no seat! Anyways, we caught our next train and arrived in Genoa Bragnole Station. From the directions provided by the hostel, we decided that was better than the Piazza Principe Station, ... read more
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