A “mixed” day today – after a good overnight and decent meal at the Golden Jubilee hotel in Clydebank (where I stayed before my CT Angiogram last October) we checked out early, made the the short trip to Glasgow Airport, got checked in quickly, through security equally quickly and boarded our plane pretty much on time we expected a wobble or two.
Wobble one was a delayed take-off (about 50 minutes in the end) that was announced while on the plane. Wobble two was the long ‘UK Passport’ queue at Barcelona due to (a) the B word and (b) 10 (of 10) biometric scanners being out of action. Wobble three was the failure (now resolved) of our advance purchase public transport for the Airport to City Centre bit of the journey.
Wobble four gets more complicated in that the arrangements for getting in to our apartment weren’t ideal due to last minute changes, the host’s insistence on using WhatsApp as athe main means for communication and, well, I’ll be honest, an incompetent (not the host) carrying out the check in procedure. I won’t refer to the “violent” (yes I mean that) weather that greeted us (hail stones the size of a small planet, etc.) as a wobble. It has been very clear for a few days that nobody had any idea what the weather would be like s the weather decided to prove everybody right and/or wrong by throwing everything at us!
So – moan over (for now) – we are in Barcelona. Tired – yes, hungry – yes and (given the afternoon so far) not a little grumpy. We decided, during a lull in the rain, to head out for a wander with the ulterior motive of food & drink.
Thus we found ourselves turning the corner to find the Sagrada Familia looking more complete than ever (but still not finished). A staggering sight at any time but especially cheering this evening. Having scouted a few nearby restaurants we did our usual trick of following our instinct and going for what we liked to look of. Step forward Paisano Bistro – a curious mix of tapas bar and pizza parlour. Hugely friendly & helpful staff, great food, lovely wine and, to start, a killer Negroni! Simple things done well is the key here and we will very likely return in the next week.
Tomorrow is an open book but breakfast at a place round the corner is a definite, as is a quick trip to local shops (mostly closed today) on the way back here to get some supplies in.
I leave you with the only photo taken today – it is a bit of a good one
Retired Software Testing expert. Archetypal Grumpy Old Man with the potential to be irritated by just about anything under the sun
Assorted ramblings 
Leave a comment