August 10, 2016- Checking Out of the Grand Hotel Central Barcelona, Private Car Service from the Hotel to BCN, Duty Free, Air Canada Rouge Premium BCN to YYZ, Air Canada Premium YYZ to YYJ

This morning we woke up exhausted after not enough of a sleep. We packed.

When we checked out of the Grand Central Hotel Barcelona, we asked about their private car which was advertised in our room. They said that it could take us to the airport for 30 EU (a taxi is 35 to 40 EU normally the front desk woman said). We hired it and were whisked out the door with our bags by several staff.

As we drove to BCN, the lovely driver, Alex, told us about his time in the Spanish Navy and the many countries that he had lived in. At the airport, he took us to the right terminal and then left his vehicle and carried April’s bags and took us to a screen, determined where we had to check in, and then took us to the check in place. We’ve never had service like this before. The hotel may have rough spots like its room service, mattresses (at least in our room), the weird perfume, and street noise, but the service and location make it probably almost impossible to beat.

We had checked into our Air Canada flight online the night before, but we had to show our passports for verification and hand over our two checked bags to an agent. The lineup was not long. The woman took our two bags and put a priority tag on them (we think it’s because we ended up in Air Canada Rouge Premium, either through some upgrade because of Bill’s status, or because that was what was left).

We went to the VAT office to get the receipt for the scarf that April bought stamped to get the tax back (it was put on her credit card at the department store in their duty free office, but if you don’t get the receipt stamped at the airport and then send that to them, they reverse the credit card refund). There was quite a long lineup to get this stamp and we contemplated whether or not it was worth it in the future. We think that unless you're spending a lot of money or you don't mind standing in long lineups, it's probably not really worth it. We didn't spend that much money, so we don't really think that it was worth it. After the form from the department store which resembled a receipt was stamped, we were directed to put it, in the envelope provided, in the box at the end of the line.

We then had to go through the exit visa line. We asked the airport employee directing the lineups which would be faster, EU or non-EU, since sometimes non-EU moves faster. She said it was a gamble, but probably EU, so we took that lineup with April’s Irish passport. The lineup moved quickly and after we were out we went to the duty free shop to spend our last few Euros.

We then found the area where our gate was located, had a late breakfast at a café, and then went straight into the priority boarding lineup for zones 1 and 2 (there is no zone 1 on this flight and we were in zone 2 at the front- shi shi shi baby).

Only two seats side by side in the premium section of Air Canada Rouge. And the seats are bigger with more leg room.

Neither of us has ever been in priority before. In Air Canada Rouge Priority premium it is only two seats at each window and two seats in the middle. They are larger seats and have more legroom. You are given a welcome bottle of water and a drink before take off. We also were given a pack that contained an eye shade, earplugs, and socks.

We left almost 30 minutes late from Barcelona, heading for Toronto first (almost a 9 hour flight). We would have a layover of about four hours, before catching our second flight to Victoria in Air Canada Premium seats (so since it's Air Canada and not Rouge, there would be a business class in front of us, then the premium section, then coach). The second flight, YYZ to YYJ, is about 5 hours.

After takeoff, for the first snack with a drink, we were given a drink in a real glass or mug. The meal was served on porcelain with metal cutlery and a drink in a real glass. The food seems somewhat fancier, though still an airline meal.

The view out the window leaving Barcelona.

Real glass and porcelain.

Our main meal.

Silverware with the Air Canada logo on it.

We were given an iPad each for entertainment. April watched a couple of episodes of a TV show. Bill played some video games on the iPad.

For the duration of the flight, Bill and April fought to stay awake to try to get back on Pacific Standard Time. Bill dozed once for about 20 minutes, while April worked on the blog on Bill's laptop. We worked on choosing pictures for the blog to post later. We listened to a Harry Potter audiobook on Bill's computer, sharing a set of microphones.

Towards the end of the flight, we ate a "sandwich" which was more like a burrito in a cardboard box heated up. All in all the food on this flight wasn't that bad (certainly better than Delta last year).

The flight was actually quite rough at many points and we were both glad that we're not nervous flyers. The seat belt sign kept going on as turbulence made the plane bounce through the air high in the sky. But we arrived safely.

In YYZ (Toronto's Pearson International Airport), we did not have to meet our bags, as they would go through to Victoria themselves, but we did have to clear customs (paper forms still). At  one of the kiosks, April's passport would scan (N.B. her Canadian passport- Canadians are supposed to enter and exit Canada on their Canadian passport even if they are dual citizen of some other country), but Bill's brand new 10 year one wouldn't.  We tried again. And again. We asked for an airport employee. She tried it at several other self serve kiosks. It didn't work. We were not impressed as Bill's passport is one of the new 10 year passports that cost more, while April's is an older five year passport. The airport employee finally routed us into the Nexus lineup (Bill has a Nexus card). An agent said it was fine that Bill's passport didn't scan (it seems to be not unheard of). He marked up our customs form and sent us on our way. We then had to clear another lineup to hand in our marked customs form.

After, we walked towards the connecting flights signs, branching off from those meeting baggage. We followed the confusing signs to find our gate area (others were lost and asking for directions, not  good signage). When we left an elevator, in our gate area, we discovered that we had to clear security again (we did this in Barcelona already and had been stuck inside two airports and a plane ever since).The airport employee told us that the next floor up had more doors so it was better, so we went up another level. We were able to use the Nexus lineup (Bill has a Nexus card, but April doesn't, nonetheless they allowed it). The Nexus lineup took quite a while (not as long as non-Nexus though, those lineups were massive). April went through screening first and of course set off the alarm that indicates that extra screening is needed. The agent ran off to grab the special paper to rub on April's hands and her belly to check for explosive making trace residue (ah is good to be back in Canada where April is targeted at almost every single airport screening she goes goes through). Not unsurprisingly, no traces of explosive making were found and we moved on to find our gate.

By the time we found our gate, we were feeling sick. It was far past bedtime back in Spain and we had been up a long time already. There wasn't much to choose from to eat in the area, so we had sandwiches from Tim Horton's and a couple of huge cups of steeped tea (stay awake!!!!!!!). We also had some chips (the salt is so much more pronounced in Canada than Europe. We really do have a love of salt here). We worked on the blog and fought to stay awake.

We boarded our flight from YYZ to YYJ (Victoria, BC). We were a little late leaving. When the plane took off the noise was very strange and Bill and April cast several nervous glances at each other, wondering if the plane was going to make it (when we had boarded the flight, the technician was telling the flight attendant that it was an old plane that was very fragile, great).

Let's get this flight over with. We're tired.

This flight was about five hours. We were in the first row of the premium economy section, behind the poorly drawn mini curtain over the top of the business seats in front of us. We were assigned to aisle and middle. No one showed up for the window seat which we were pleased about. It's three people across in the premium economy section on an Air Canada flight. In the first row of premium where we were seated, the middle person has no pocket in front of them (there are only two seats in the business class rows, but three in premium) and their screen is a pull out one from the seat arm. We don't really understand how Air Canada can charge more for these seats. Yes you get a free sandwich and snack, yes there's a bit more leg room, yes you're almost first on and first off, but for the amount more that they charge (when you're not assigned or upgraded for free), it seems kind of disappointing (or at least it is especially for the person in the middle of the first premium row who doesn't get a normal tray table, entertainment screen, or seat pocket).

Plus, there were only two bathrooms at the back and one at the front of the plane. We were screened off from business class by a curtain, so we had to walk all the way to the very back of the plane from almost the front to go to the bathroom. Unfortunately, the flight attendants were blocking the aisle most of the time on the flight, so eventually they just sent April up to business class, where the flight attendant there warned her that the seat belt sign was on and she would have to use the bathroom at her own risk. Don't worry about it, buddy, I can handle myself in a bucking airplane toilet. Better that than having an "accident." And it was a very rough flight. One of the roughest we've ever felt in a bigger plane (besides that previous flight, which was also really turbulent).

We fought to stay awake, listening to Harry Potter for a while, but then both drifting out and missing most of the chapter, drool dripping out of our slacked jaws. We tried to drink more caffeinated beverages and lots of water, but it was no good. It was nearing our normal wake up time in Spain and we had still not slept. We had almost been up 24 hours by the time we neared home (other than Bill's 20 minute nap and the few stolen moments on that flight).

The views coming into Victoria were gorgeous and we were relieved that we would be in bed soon with our kitty, Lamont.

Mount Baker was visible above the clouds.

Mt. Baker with the faint outline of Ranier in the background

North Saanich at sunset.

We met our bags at the Victoria Airport (they were priority tagged, so they were some of the first out). Both of our bags arrived, which we were very happy about (better than our honeymoon night where we arrived at our destination, but neither of our suitcases did. Funnily enough, the exact same thing happened to April's sister on her honeymoon night).

We took a taxi home, then took our car and drove to April's cousin's place to pick up Lamont. Lamont was very pleased to see us and we drove home with him yowling his displeasure at the car ride.

Lamont knows how to show his displeasure.

We were home, with our kitty, and the trip had all in all been good. Success. Oh, and we won't be taking a cruise ever again.

And now we sleep. . . . 

July 20-21, 2016- YYJ to YYZ to AMS

We dropped our beloved cat, Lamont, off at my cousin's place, before heading to the airport. He was not thrilled by us leaving, the cat carrier, or the car ride, and popped his head out of the carrier while in the car, leading to an awesome selfie.

#catcarselfie

We left YYJ (Victoria, BC) late, headed for YYZ (Toronto) on July 20th. We found out that on a 4.5 hour Air Canada flight you no longer get a meal, just a drink. So we bought a chicken wrap, pepperoni pizza, vegetable sticks, and cheese and crackers to share. Definitely not Michelin rated.

Waiting to board our flight to Toronto

On the plane to Toronto on Air Canada...logo behind us.

We talked to the guy beside us for half the flight about the real estate market and when this is all going to come crashing down. He mentioned a good saying "flying and falling feel very similar, you can only tell the difference when you see the ground." How true.

We had dinner in the Toronto airport. We shared a mediocre chicken Caesar salad and lox and cream cheese on a slice of a half of a bagel. Well what can you expect in an airport?

We boarded our Amsterdam bound flight just before 8:30 pm EST. The flight was about 7 hours and 20 minutes. It was of course difficult to get comfortable, but, being tough Canadians, we survived. They gave us a dinner late in the evening, some water and other drinks throughout, and then a "continental breakfast" which consisted of a piece of very sweet banana bread, a tea or coffee, and a juice or water.

On the flight to Amsterdam...logo much closer.

We landed in AMS (Amsterdam) at 10:20 AM local time, July 21st.

Final Countdown

As the trip draws nearer, we check more and more things off of our task lists and packing lists and grow more and more excited. We keep remembering things that would be useful to have and then we debate how we can pack even lighter than we did last year.

Last year, we worked on taking things with us that we could abandon along the way, like hotel bottles of shampoo and conditioner, etc., counting out vitamins so we can abandon vitamin bottles over there, etc. leaving lighter luggage as we go and room for souvenirs. It worked really well, so we're doing it again this year. Also, we've tried to figure out what clothes can do double or triple duty so we have less unnecessary or single use clothes. It's a challenge to no over pack, but we improve each time, our suitcases get smaller, and we love a good challenge. Europe, get ready, you're about to have some of Bill's old underwear!

Since we're flying over U.S. airspace, Air Canada required further information from us. Bill dealt with that yesterday, as I was flitting around the house throwing items into various random piles. The cat wore a look of great suspicion as he traversed the house, regarding the suitcases and piles of stuff in various rooms with evident displeasure. He definitely knows what's happening. He just doesn't know when it's happening.

I wonder who the cat is on the phone with? He doesn't look pleased.

We called our credit card companies and banks to tell them we'd be away. Strangely, one of the banks didn't even want to know if a customer was travelling (that's what the website said). We both thought this odd, so I called to make sure and they said that they use different fraud monitoring now, so they don't need to know when someone travels. We thought that this was strange, but I guess it's up to them what kind of risks they want to take, since they're insuring our accounts. They assured me that the cards wouldn't suddenly be cut off in Europe. But who knows (the recovering lawyer inside me can't help but come up with catastrophic scenarios).

Tomorrow is our final day in Canada, as we fly out on Wednesday to Amsterdam. Stay tuned for our next post.

This cashmere blanket is mine. Do not dare try to take it away from me.

Hammering Out the Last Few Details

We spent some days checking various hotel prices in Amsterdam and Barcelona, as well as debating what area we wanted to stay in both of those cities, and if a hotel or an Airbnb situation would suit us better. With Barcelona, we will have two different stays, one before our Costa Cruise, and one after.

In Amsterdam, we settled for the Bilderberg Garden Hotel, which is on the edge of the Museumkwartier or Museum Quarter. It's about a five minute walk from the beautiful Vondel Park, which I stayed near to last time I was in Amsterdam 18 years ago. I can't wait to show Bill the Rijksmuseum, Van Gogh Museum, walk the canals again, eat the gorgeous and varied food, and almost more than anything listen to the language again. We'll be there eight nights.

After a Lufthansa flight to Frankfurt, a short layover there, then another Lufthansa flight to Barcelona, we'll be finishing our European vacation down in the south/ Western Mediterranean. For the first stay in Barcelona, we are staying at the W Barcelona, which is on the beach. We booked this room for two nights using Starwood Points.

The evening of July 31st, we ship out of Barcelona on the Costa Fascinosa, heading for Ibiza, etc.  It should be noted that Costa has improved its entire pre-boarding online customer experience. This includes an updated online  check-in system  that is far less clunky and time consuming to complete and process. As part of this, Costa has increased its automated communications to its customers and increased the level of self service, such as pre-filling out printable boarding passes and baggage tags. Bill hopes that this transformation (which he says is like moving from PeopleSoft 8 to Workday) is indicative of an all-around improved customer experience from embarkation to disembarkation- we can hope.

We couldn't wait to get off the Costa Magica last year. Let's hope the Costa Fascinosa is a better experience.

We decided to risk Costa's excursions again and will be taking an excursions from Naples to Pompeii, which Bill and I have always wanted to see. The next day, when we arrive in Savona we will again endeavor to take that excursion to Monaco that we tried to take last year. We hope that it's not cancelled at the last minute again, because we really want to see Monaco! Other than those two excursions, we will be exploring Ibiza, Palma de Majorca, and Palermo alone.

Looking forward to more Costa stickers to put on our shirts.

For our second stay in Barcelona, we looked around to try to find something in the Gothic Quarter or at least near to the older parts of the city and museums that we want to see, including the Picasso Museum, Gaudi's amazing Basilica i Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Familia, and just the architecture in general around Barcelona including other works by Gaudi.  We booked the Grand Hotel Central (by Design Hotels, another Starwood entity) for three nights. This hotel is right in the Gothic Quarter and has a rooftop infinity pool that overlooks the skyline of Barcelona. That will be the end of our latest European tour.

Another matter we looked into was travel insurance. There was an article in the newspaper a while ago about a person who had travel insurance having their lifetime allotment of extended medical wiped out after a claim on their travel insurance policy (N.B. it was a major claim). This was because the travel insurance company subrogated, seeking out whatever other insurance that the insured had to pay for the claim before they had to. This turned out to be the insured's extended medical and their extended medical had a lifetime maximum, so once it was used up on the travel insurance claim, the insured would not have any extended medical coverage anymore. Bill found out that BCCA will seek subrogation from your credit card company if they have any travel coverage and from your extended medical, but will not wipe out your whole coverage forever and will leave at least $100,000 depending on the size of your claim. Also, he found out that you can buy pre-existing medical condition coverage before you go on your trip and it's not as expensive an add on as we would have thought, so that's good to know.

Now it's just a matter of packing (our little place is an explosion of various piles of stuff we're taking, books, bags, suitcases, lists, and general chaos), researching where else we want to see in all the places we're going, perhaps picking up a Museumkaart in Amsterdam at one of the participating museums (like the Paris Museum Pass, etc. gets you into all the museums pretty much in the Netherlands for a month, or a whole year if you're a local, for one fee), and relaxing and enjoying our trip.

The cat is seriously suspicious of all the piles of stuff around the house and the suitcases . . .

Here We Go Again

Last year we took a Costa cruise. This year we'll also be taking a Costa cruise.

Today, I called Costa's customer service line to book our second cruise with them. I had our cruise credits to apply. The service agent was very, very nice and we chose a mini suite on the Costa Fascinosa on a seven night cruise leaving from Barcelona on July 31st. There was no problem applying the credit notes after Bill and I signed them and PDFed them and emailed them to customer service. As a result we hardly had to pay anything for our entire cruise.

This is our cruise itinerary:

July 31	Barcelona (Spain)	-	7:30 PM (leave)
Aug 1	Ibiza (Spain)	9:00 AM (arrive)	-
2	Ibiza (Spain)	-	3:00 AM
2	Palma De Mallorca (Spain)	9:00 AM	6:30 PM
3	...cruising...	-	-
4	Palermo (Sicily)	9:00 AM	6:00 PM
5	Naples (Italy)	7:30 AM	2:00 PM
6	Savona (Italy)	9:00 AM	5:00 PM
7	Barcelona (Spain)	2:00 PM	-

Then my husband booked us flights from YYJ (Victoria, BC) to AMS (Amsterdam) to BCN (Barcelona) and then home to YYJ. Last minute meant a good price, but not a great selection of seats. We are flying Star Alliance (Air Canada and Lufthansa).

So, we'll start be leaving Victoria on July 20th. We arrive in Amsterdam on July 21st. We will explore Amsterdam (it's my husband's first time there and my second time). I can't wait to show him around one of my favourite cities in the world and to compare how it is now to when I was exactly half my current age.

Then on the 29th of July we fly to Barcelona. We will stay there, exploring the city till the evening of the 31st of July when our Costa cruise departs.

On the Costa Cruise, we will probably just explore the ports of call by ourselves as we didn't really enjoy the tours last time (if they offer a tour to Monaco in Savona that actually goes this time instead of being cancelled like ours was last year, we might go). We do know that on August 1st, we'll be on Ibiza and we have tickets to an EDM event featuring David Guetta, Robin Schulz, Klingande, and Kimotion at Ushuaia Ibiza Beach Hotel on Playa d'en Bossa. The event goes from 5:00 p.m. to midnight. Then we'll ghost out of Ibiza at 3:00 a.m. and find our other adventures along the way in both Spain and Italy (there are two ports of call in Italy that will be new to both of us in addition to two ports of call in Spain which are new to both of us).

When we arrive back in Barcelona on August 7th, we'll further explore a city that I grew to love when I was there twenty years ago. It is the first time for Bill in Barcelona.

Now we have to figure out our accommodations in Amsterdam and Barcelona . . . Stay tuned.

We can only hope that this cruise is better than the last one. At least our server, Amit, was superb.

-April

Second Time the Charm?

We contacted Costa Crociere and had extended conversations with them about our last Costa cruise experience and they decided to make things right by offering us an equivalent cruise credit which must be used within one year. So we must use it by early 2017.

Guess we'll be going on another Costa cruise this year. We're not sure when we will be partaking, but it will likely be in the late summer or early autumn of 2016, so stay tuned. . . .