Spain Trip #3: Our Adventures in Traveling to and from Barcelona

Tom and Rob's Adventures in Travel

It's no secret that the worst part of a vacation is traveling there. The anticipation to get where you're supposed to be is always high. The travel we endured to get to Barcelona, Spain, was time consuming and exhausting. In this blog we'll tell you about it, and other things we had to think about! 
  
TAKING CARE OF OUR DOGS - First, a huge thanks to our friend Jeff, who stayed at our house for our 12 day Spain vacation, and took excellent care of our dogs, Dolly, Franklin and Tyler. If you can get a live in house sitter (who bakes dessert for your return as Jeff did for ours), do it. It's better for the dogs. (Since 2 of our dogs are elderly and on several medications, this was important). 

We also hired a local pet sitter business called "Quality Time Pet Sitters" in Maryland to come in during the middle of the day when Jeff was at work. They let our kids, and Jeff's dog Myrtle out in the fenced in yard. They cleaned up after the dogs and gave them fresh water and treats. They also left daily notes. 

L to R: Franklin, Tyler, Dolly and Myrtle (Jeff's dog)

WE'RE "LYFT" OFF - We hired a LYFT driver to take us to the airport instead of parking. It's a good thing we did because when we returned, we had been wide awake for 24 hours and were really way too tired to drive... so we had LYFT pick us up, too. Highly recommend it.

DELTA and AIR FRANCE - Our tickets were out of BWI  (Baltimore/Washington Airport) and through Delta, who is the only one that works with Air France. Although the crews on ALL of our flights were great, the seats on a couple of the Delta flights and the Air France flight flying to Europe, were uncomfortable because they had been tamped down by heavy passengers. In fact, some felt like sitting on cardboard on a concrete floor. Not good for the tailbone!

3 FLIGHTS EACH WAY - Why Delta decided to fly us to Atlanta, then Paris, then Barcelona, we don't know. Regardless, both going and coming it took 23 and 24 hours respectively. And because the seats in "Premium Economy" were not comfortable enough to sleep, we didn't for an entire DAY each way. *The airline told us that if we flew out of Dulles we could fly direct to Paris and change. However, if you live in Maryland, it's closer to drive to Philadelphia than to Dulles, Virginia because of the intense traffic on the Washington, DC Beltway (so we hate Dulles). 

On the ground in Barcelona

BAG CHECK NOTE: Going from the Baltimore to Atlanta to Paris to Barcelona, our luggage went all the way through. Of course we had to go through customs and back through security. Coming back, however, we had to get our luggage in Atlanta, go through customs and security and re-check the bags. 

GATES ALWAYS THE FARTHEST- It's always the way. The connecting gate is always the farthest it can be from where you land. That's how it was in Atlanta. We arrived from Baltimore at the "A" gate and flew out of the "F" gate, so we had to ride the airport subway.  Coming back, same thing. Arrived at the "F" gate, had to go through customs, and dash all the way to the "A" gate, AND the gate we needed was down at the VERY END of the terminals. 

NEXT: Catching up on Flight Movies