Spain Day 1

Arrived in Barcelona after a very long night, with very little sleep on the plane.  I say it again, LOVE Europe for getting through immigration/customs, no forms to fill out, no questions, scanned our passports and we were off.   The airport was very quiet and security took about 2 minutes.

We actually arrived about an hour early so were out of the airport by around 8:30 with our rental car to start the approx. 5 hour drive to our apartment rental in Javea.  The agent offered us an upgrade to diesel something for an extra 5 euros a day.  He said he would save on fuel compare to the gas car we had rented.  We said no but ended up with a diesel anyway.  Not sure if it was the car he was trying to up-sell or not.

 First problem, how to open the trunk to put our luggage in?  Had to go back to the rental place, and of course our car is parked furthest from the rental place. First lesson, the picture of the unlock trunk button on the remote does not actually open the trunk, just unlocks it. Next you need to pull up on the the car decal thing (like the S looking thing on the front grill) on the trunk which is the latch to open the trunk, no idea why we didn’t figure that out!  We are driving an Ibiza something or other, it is white, and we fit, that is all we need to know.  It is diesel, 5 speed, just need to make sure we put diesel and not gas in. 

 

 So we’re off.  Uneventful trip here, switched drivers often as we were both really tired, but it was quite an easy drive.  We passed through many tunnels on the way cut through the mountains, some as long as 1 KM long.  The road we followed was not right near the shore but at times you could see the Mediterranean sea. Spain is the land of tolls we discovered, we spent about 40 Euros on tolls yesterday just to get here.  Could have taken the old highway but that would have taken another 1 to 1.5 hour.  Just too tired to do that.

One of the many tunnels we passed through on the drive

 

Eventually found our apartment, had to phone for help and the landlord biked basically around the block and met us to escort us to the apartment.  They also volunteered to show us the way to groceries, so off we went in their car with a little bag on wheels thing to walk home.  Next lesson of the day, when purchasing fresh vegetables you get a plastic bag, and a plastic glove, choose what you want, look at the number on the price list, put your stuff on a scale, enter the number, and it prints of the price tag for you to stick on your bag.  Helps the cashier go faster because they do not need to weigh things and look up the price code which some of them do not know. This will take some getting used to!

The apartment is fine, small but it will do for a month.  Wireless is working great so far, very happy with everything.  

 Went for our first walk last night.  Heard very little English, but lots of people out walking along the beautiful waterfront they have here.  We are in a part of town that is very residential, and not too Spanish looking.   Andre was so tired he did not even take a camera with him, so no pictures of tonight but I am sure there will be many more evening walk along the promenade which is full of restaurants, bars and ice cream places.

Tomorrow we will head out for a walk to Old Town, which is not along the water for further exploring. Worked on our blog from the cruise, then off to bed early.