We were up at 8:00am and packed and out of the hotel by 9:00. I was feeling fine - dehydration was my biggest issue left over from last night. We went to Cafe Madeline for cafe au lait and viennoise and croissants. Then off to the train station for our 10:45 TGV to Paris Est. First Class again because it was cheaper than coach.
The TGV left on time but stopped short of Paris and sat for 40 minutes. There was an announcement with an explanation that seemed to include something about security. That is all we knew - but we finally got going again and arrived at Paris Est. We headed for the Metro, and as Sharon was in line buying tickets I watched bunches of young people jumping the turnstiles and going through them two at a time. We got on the normal way, changed at Opera and got off at Invalides where we would catch the Air France bus to Orly.
We found the closest lunch option right next to the National Assembly building. We both had salade chevre chaud - this one was quite different and tasty with a poached egg on top! The salads and a two glasses of rose was pricy at 44.80 euro. It was the location and entertainment - watching the police reacting to a little protest and observing people. I am sure we were on camera and under observation while we were there!
After lunch we went back to the bus stop and had a short wait for our bus back to Orly. The flight to Madrid was delayed but uneventful and comfortable. Oddly, when we boarded the gate attendant had a duplicate boarding pass for me for the Madrid to Barcelon flight. I pulled my boarding pass out of my bag and it matched. Odd.
We arrived in Madrid late and tried to board what we thought was our Barcelona flight. Turned out it was not our flight - but leaving at the same time as ours. Off to Iberia customer service! They wrote a new flight number on our boarding passes and sent us to gate J50. There was nothing happening at J50, so we went to the closest flight board - and waited. There was not gate or time associated with our flight. While waiting Sharon started talking to an Italian who was also waiting. He said that Iberia did this all the time, but if we stayed close to J50-54, that is where all the Barcelona flights boarded. He also said that Iberia did not post flight delay times because that would be an admission that they had a problem. We finally boarded - about an hour late. They changed my seat at the gate - one row back. On this flight the seating was tight!
We arrived in Barcelona late and had to walk forever to get our bags - this is a big airport and the baggage area is big - ours came in on the carousel in the far corner. Then we had to walk halfway back through the terminal to locate the buses. We considered taking a taxi, but after checking the monobus schedule we found that we could catch one to Sitges. Taxi - 60 euro. Bus 7 euro.
We made it to Sitges and Katie and Jorge's piso a bit after 11:00, we drank wine, ate olives, cheeses and bread and then went to bed - a very comfortable bed. IT had been a long day.
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