Leaving Rome to Barcelona

Thursday - We took the hotel recommended car to the airport this morning. It was €10 more than a cab, which was close enough. It was a very pleasant ride though the ridiculous traffic that is Rome. Everyone cutting in front of everyone else with scooters cutting in front of and around everyone. We arrived with plenty of time, which was fortunate, as the check-in line was over an hour long. Security was trivial though you weren’t even allowed to carry your passport through. And like everywhere else, lots of pushing as the trays of stuff didn’t necessarily go through in the same order as people. 

We had lunch while waiting for the gate assignment. I guess the airline we picked, Vueling Airlines, must not have permanent gate assigned. The Rome airport is huge with tons of shopping. I keep wondering who buys all this high-end stuff. The flight itself was fine, no issues. We initially had concerns about Bridget’s carryon being slightly oversized for under the seat but it turns out that our ticket included a bag in the overhead compartment. 

Arriving in Barcelona was a new experience. It took a long time for our checked bags to show up. Then trying to negotiate the taxi system. Yelp has a fixed rate to/from the airport but we just joined the regular taxi queue. The price ended up being about the same. And the cars are the same.

 

For dinner, I had one of the classic dishes of Barcelona. Seafood paella. I must admit that I was a little disappointed. No soccarat, the scorched rice on the bottom. Both DaveS version as well as my own attempts have more vegetables and more flavor. But then again, this is a tourist version made in single serving.