The Trying Travel Day

Last Friday was a very trying travel day! It has taken until now to recover enough to write about it (well, we've also been busy :-D ).

This was always going to be the most hectic of our Parents-in-France days - it was our "move" from Barcelona (where we flew in to Europe, and spent a few days getting over the worst of our jetlag) to Sète (our base for most of our visit).

The plan involved getting *all* SIX of our suitcases on and off the high-speed train, then transferring them to a regional train, then picking up our rental car, splitting up (can't all fit in the car, so some would take the bus) and then all  meeting up at "home." The reality beat the pants off the plan...

Getting to the train - I had Uber, and had been able to practice with it, but found out we couldn't order a big enough car. I tried Cabify, but couldn't get the app to recognize my payment method. I then tried MyTaxi, and could order a minivan. So far, so good! I set it up the night before, and we were ready for our pick-up. Everyone and everything fit, and the ride to the station went well. Until... time to pay! Unlike Uber, MyTaxi requires a handshake via the app at the end - my app was waiting for the driver, and the driver's app was waiting for me 🙄. I ended up paying cash...

Mom and Dad reading the Shopper while waiting for the taxi handshake

Getting on the train - This was really not too bad. We could relax in a café while we waited for our platform to open, and when it did, the line moved fast. We had lower-level seats, and the three smallest suitcases fit behind our seats (but, surprisingly, not in the space above). One of the huge bags made it into the rack on our level, but I had to take the other two upstairs 😡.

The first big hiccup - Everything was going along just fine on our train until we got to Perpignan. Apparently, there was a problem, and everyone had to get off and move over to another train. Which wasn't there yet. Once it got there, it was full of people who had to get off. And move onto *our* train. Hmmm - ok, we're just going with it. Beyond the hassle of getting ourselves and all our bags situated (and, by the way, carefully ignoring the "looks" when I'm maneuvering "too many" "big" bags), this switcheroo cost us quite a bit of time - we knew there was no way we would get to the car rental agency before it closed. So, we called - and got a message tree, that eventually dumped us into headquarters (not the branch whose number we called); headquarters said they would send an email (?!?!?) to the Sète office, notifying them of our change. Well, we did what we could, but remained suspicious that it would help. Meanwhile, we got to enjoy looking at the Perpignan rainbow-colored train station 🙂

Changing trains - The nice thing about our Perpignan switch is that all our suitcases ended up together! So when we had to change to the regional train, getting off the high-speed train was pretty quick. But not quick enough, as it turned out. Even though our train was delayed, and we missed our original transfer, we could catch the next regional train - but we had to change platforms, which meant an elevator. But only one was operational (and not the one near us). So Rick and my parents took some bags on the first trip, and I got the next one. As I got off the elevator, dragging two big cases, I watched my train pull away... A quick search confirmed that my travel companions had caught it. Pretty much everyone had a good trip to Sète! Mom and Dad sat next to a friendly family, and chatted about all sorts of things - when the train pulled into Sète, Mom said "oh, that's us!" And the family jumped into action! One ran to hold the doors open, another started tossing suitcases out, and Mom and Dad ended up on the platform! :-) Rick had gotten on the same train, but in a different car, so missed all the excitement. I waited in Montpellier for the next train with a fellow whose wife had caught the earlier train, and he (yep, because of the elevator situation) had missed it too. We had a very nice chat, and helped a newbie train-rider get onto the right train. Some 20 minutes behind, I finally got to Sète - a group of young men grabbed my two suitcases, and got them downstairs and back up (whew!), laughing all the way about how strong they were :-D

Getting home - we all connected back up at the Sète train station, and, as it was well past closing time at the car rental place, we looked for a bus. Well, the gare (train station) is still a construction zone, so the town buses are all across the canal. Luckily, Mom's back is getting better, and we were all able to go the distance :-) We caught our bus, got a nice tour of the island, and dropped Mom and Rick to get checked in - Dad and I continued on to our apartment, getting three of the big suitcases settled. We walked back, with everyone meeting for dinner.

Driving - we had intended to get groceries, but getting in so late, and not having the car meant that breakfast was a little weird... We eventually got to the rental car agency, and (you know it), they had no clue about what happened. They looked for us last night, I said we called, but... Luckily, someone returned a car just as we were there - so, we actually got a car!

A week later, we're settled in, sightseeing, visiting, and moving on!

Picasso Museum Barcelona

Picasso Museum Barcelona

The Picasso museum was high on our list for Barcelona, so after a relaxing afternoon, we headed that way.

This is the only place where an entire series of Picasso paintings are all on display together. His versions of Velasquez's Las Meninas formed part of this series of more than 50 works; other elements were Jacqueline portraits and his pigeon cote. These were all from his later period. It was interesting to see how he kept the focus while still shifting elements around.

Las Meninas

We expected to see a lot from his blue period, but there were only perhaps half a dozen. There were a number of paintings by Cézanne and others - from what I read, it seemed that these were on loan from the Musée d'Orsay in exchange for some blue period paintings.

There were some ceramics, but (for me), not as nice a collection as that in Céret (see my post on that here)

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logistics:
- the ticket line is difficult to find - we wandered in and out, then found the place to borrow lockers, audio-guides, and wheelchairs - they finally directed us to the ticket line.
- after you buy your ticket, you have to get in another line to scan it :-\ We missed that part, but the very nice fellow at the elevator did it for us!
- the ticket line was non-existent at 6 pm - when we left (~7:15), the line was about half a block long (I'm sure we would have seen this one!)
- wheelchairs are first-come, first-served; no ID (or anything except a museum ticket) to borrow it.
- no photos!!! The one above is from the museum map 🙄

Howdy Gaudí

Howdy Gaudí

We decided to do a quick self-tour of a couple of Gaudí sites! We knew we couldn't walk much and so would be satisfied with a quick look.

We arranged for an Uber ride with a first stop at La Sagrada Familia - we jumped out at a light, and walked across the street.

After a few minutes to gawk, we headed back to our light, and called our driver for the next leg - Park Güell! We wandered around the park (a bit too much for us!)

We left the park at the tour bus exit, since it was close. But when I tried to get a cell connection to order another Uber, it didn't work! Well, we were sitting at a city bus stop, and in the space of just a few minutes, *several* buses went by - hmmm. We caught the next one, with a terminus at Plaça de Catalunya (a name we recognized, and knew it was in the center of town) - AND, we got seats!

A short walk later, we were sitting in a restaurant, waiting for our lunch (paëlla) :-)

We decided to rest at home for a while, so grabbed an Uber for the short ride.

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Details: we didn't have a map of the park, nor did we have a route planned. We knew it would not be worth it for us to buy a ticket for "the monument" area, but more planning would have been good.
This was our first attempt using Uber, and it worked pretty well. We tried Cabify, but couldn't add our payment method :-(. We also tried mytaxi, but couldn't get it to complete the payment at the end of our trip - had to use cash :-(
Our stop at La Sagrada didn't add very much to the cost of our ride - given that each Uber ride starts at 5.50€, this was a good option for us.
Google maps shows the metro system, but not the bus system (nor the hop-on-hop-off tour bus routes). We got lucky falling into the city #24 route.

Barcelona Arc de Triunf

We took a short jaunt back to the park today, and got some photos without the demonstrators :-)

Closer on the Arc de Triunf

Nice backed off a bit too

The obelisk at the other end of the park

Interesting statue (read more here)

This lake isn't even half way through the Parc de la Ciutadella

Statue at the roundpoint

Saw this fountain statue again, from the other side

And this government building

Everyone is still pretty tired from the trip, so that's it for the day!

National Day of Catalonia

Today is the National Day of Catalonia*, a holiday here in Barcelona. A large pro-independance protest was scheduled; normally, we would go and check it out. But given the recent unrest, it didn't seem prudent. Turned out, there was just no escaping it! And it was pretty festive!

We walked to the Arc de Triunf, where there was live music and lots of vendors

Plenty of pro-independance flags (the ones with the blue triangle and white star)

And people selling them

There had been a reenactment with these folks in period costumes

Then a giant parade of motorcycles going around the park

We crossed into the Parc de la Ciutadella

It was getting on to lunchtime, so we wandered down a couple of streets - there were a lot of restaurants, but they all had long lines :-(

We ended up walking back to the festival area (in stages), where we actually found a table! So we had festival food (yum!) - sorry, no pictures, it was gone just that fast!

When we got home, we found out that there had been a pro-union protest/demonstration on Sunday; pro-independance got their turn today.

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* read more about the history of the day here
Read more about the current unrest related to Catalonia independance here
See all Barcelona photos in the album here (and in the right-hand column).