The Road Less Traveled » España http://www.zenzoa.com/rick What in the world is Rick Gould up to? Sat, 31 Jan 2009 23:58:30 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 The Long Road to Altea… http://www.zenzoa.com/rick/2008/05/20/the-long-road-to-altea/ http://www.zenzoa.com/rick/2008/05/20/the-long-road-to-altea/#comments Tue, 20 May 2008 13:39:42 +0000 Administrator http://www.zenzoa.com/rick/?p=64 Travel days are expected to be long, and trips are expected to have bumps along the road, but the past week has been exhausting! Here are the highlights:

  • Long travel day#1: Usual exhausting overnight flight, Seattle-to-London, on to Paris (Charles de Gaulle airport), find our way to nearby hotel for the night.
  • Longer travel day #2: Up at 5:30 A.M., back to Charles de Gaulle airport, then transfer to Orly airport by bus in the middle of Paris morning traffic (ugh!). Fly on to Barcelona. Wait 3 hours for Sarah’s flight from Athens. No Sarah. No help from the airline. Getting frantic. Figure out her originating flight was delayed, causing a missed connection. Wait 3 more hours until the next arrival at 11:30 P.M. Make our way by bus and foot to hostel/hotel at ~1:30 A.M.
  • Two less-than-ideal days in Barcelona – Enjoyed the city, but marred by being tired, smoking everywhere, noisy room (over cafe), poor choices in where to eat.
  • Longer travel day #3: To train station early, only to find our original train doesn’t run on Sundays, and have a two hour wait in the train station. All settled for 5-hour train ride from Barcelona to Alicante, when lightning storm knocks out power, and we’re stuck on the tracks for an additional 5 hours. Arrive too late in Alicante to catch train or bus to Altea, so pay for a cab, finally arriving at ~1:30 A.M. Having to wake the neighbors to get the key…

    • By this time, the cough which I thought was just due to all the smoking in Barcelona, has settled into a nagging cough probably more associated with days of exhaustion. The old part of town where we are staying in Altea is the perfect place to recuperate – quaint, quiet, no cars, no smokers nearby. In fact, these first couple days here have been completely lazy recuperating – sleeping, walking, to the open-air market, napping, chatting with the neighbors, working on my blog. Tomorrow I suppose I should actually put some time in on work-related work!

    Tips for next time: Avoid airport transfers. Limit the itinerary (i.e., don’t visit too many places in one trip.) Have backup plans and contact methods for missed/late arrivals. Spend the money to travel as direct as possible (for example, now that we’ve seen Barcelona, next time we could fly directly to Alicante from either London or Paris). Book rooms non-smoking and on the quiet side.

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