Italy Trip 2011

Day 1 & 2, June 9 & 10

This will be very boring for anyone reading it. It is mainly so that I can remember those things that stood out and were important to me. It may take me weeks to get it done but that's okay. I am at the mercy of others for pictures because the memory card that is used in the camera we took is no longer made. The camera is only a couple of years old but, by the time we realized we could not get another one in the stores it was to late to order one from the internet. I will do that now so I will have it for the next time. So I have a few pictures on the small memory card I took but will have to wait to get copies from others.

We started our adventure very early on Thursday, June 9. At 3:30 am our alarm went off and we left for the airport at 5:00 am. Everything seemed to be going great until we found out that our flight to Chicago was being delayed due to weather. Weather, it's June what kind of weather could they be having that would stop planes from landing and taking off? Apparently thunder storms with lightning stop planes. Knowing that we would miss our connecting flight from Chicago to Toronto we, along with all the others with connecting flights in Chicago, got in line to try and get re-routed. Actually the men did it and the women sat and watched. It took an hour just to get our group of ten re-routed. Six of us went from Chicago to Franfurt then Barcelona and the other four went from Chicago to Brussels then Barcelona. About six hours later we boarded the flight in SLC and started for Chicago. When arriving in Chicago is was so crowded due to all the flight delays it was hard to manuever. We ate and waited for our next flights finding out we would be served dinner. Oh well.

Instead of a 16 hour flight it took 24 1/2 hours which left us one day short in Barcelona. We were supposed to arrive Friday at 7:30 am and instead arrived Friday at 4:00 pm. After hooking up with the other four from Brussels we proceded to get our luggage. We waited, and waited, and waited. Three of the couples did not get all their luggage, Wade and I included. We were short one piece, another one piece, the other all their checked luggage. Not a good feeling. The airport was able to locate ours and it was still in Chicago. The others, they were not sure of. Hoping for the best we headed to the Hotel Fira. We waited, and waited, and waited for the shuttle to come and take us to the Hotel. It took 1 1/2 hours for the shuttle to finally arrive. Not sure why it took so long. Here we are waiting for the shuttle.

Once we got to the Hotel and checked in it was a surprise to see what we did and did not have in our suitcase. We always split everything in our bags so we knew we each had clothes but toiletries and curling iron and items like that we had no clue what would be there. What an adventure.

We stayed at the Hotel Fira in Barcelona. It was very sleek with a modern feel to it. It took us a while to figure out how the lights and air conditioning worked in the room but once we did all was good. That evening we chose a Mexican Restaurant for dinner. The watiress was terrible but the food was delicious. After a short shopping trip to the Carefour store to pick up a few essentials it was off to bed and a close of our first two days. It actually wasn't two days but with the time change it was.

The bathroom, hard to see