Tag Archives: Barcelona

Parc Guell

We had one full day in Barcelona before the family arrived and we took a bus ride up to Parc Guell to have a look around. It was already toasty when we got on the bus and the walk around a hilly park did seem like it might be a bit challenging. As it turned out, it was very warm, but it wasn’t as bad as we anticipated. We just paced ourselves around things rather than charging around. Plenty of water helped.

The entry point we used from the bus stop was popular but not as busy as the entry down the hill. This meant we had plenty of space and quiet as we walked around even though there were lots of visitors. We were also further up the hill which did mean that, while we did have some climbing to do, we were gradually making our way downhill over time which was welcome. Since this was our first full day, we had not yet got Gaudi overload. It was still a bit of a novelty. It was interesting to see his work, but it isn’t necessarily my thing. A bit too Alice Through the Looking Glass for me. We were certainly going to get a lot more of it in the coming days!

I won’t claim to know a lot about what each of the areas meant (except for the three crosses which were pretty self-explanatory). Instead, I was just bothered about the way it all looked (and how long before I could get in somewhere cool to have a drink). Here is a selection of shots from the park in no particular order.

Strolling Around Barcelona in the Heat

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We made a short trip to Barcelona recently. We had family that were heading there for a cruise from the US, and we went to see them before their boarded their boat. We actually got there a couple of days early to do a little exploring since, with them having visited before, we wanted to have a look at some things that they had already done.

This trip came just after we had moved house so neither of us had really done much planning for it. Normally, when we go somewhere, there has been a lot of research that has gone into what we might want to see and do. Without this, we were winging it a fair bit. As it turned out, that worked pretty well got us. Partly, this was due to the weather. It was ridiculously hot in Barcelona for the first couple of days we were there. That limited the amount of time we wanted to spend wandering around the streets. Without a hard plan, that avoided us being disappointed (or getting heat exhaustion!).

Our hotel was a short walk from the waterfront, so we did head down there one evening. We also got to see the interesting streets close to the hotel without having to trek too far. We did pass up on some things that might otherwise have been a possibility. No bad thing to leave something for another reason to visit.

Royal Jordanian Nose Job

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I have always been a fan of the liveries that Royal Jordanian Airlines adopts for its planes. They provide a welcome change from the variations on white that most airlines use. While at Barcelona, this Airbus landed from Amman. The livery looks great but is a bit disrupted by the radome that has been swapped off a jet that has a different generation of the paint. I wonder whether it will get swapped again or repainted at some point.

Levelling Up

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On our return trip from Barcelona, we gave ourselves plenty of time for the flight back given that there was a lot of discussion about the immigration delays. Things worked out pretty well, so we were through to the gate in plenty of time. What a tragedy that I have extra time at an airport!! Level is a low-cost operation that IAG owns. It was originally set up using Iberia aircraft and crews before it got its own AOC. Now it is a standalone operation.

There were a few Level A330s in view at our part of the terminal. Some were undergoing maintenance before their next flights while others were loading up and departing. I got a variety of shots of them as I walked through the concourse and one of them departed for Los Angeles while we waited to board. While most departures were going off the southerly runway which was the opposite side to us, the long-haul flights that needed longer runways came from the northerly runway which meant we got to see them.

The Ramp Action at Barcelona

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When I made a trip to Spain for work, my route took me through Barcelona. Not a city I have visited before, but I do plan to return. I hadn’t brought a main camera with me since it was a brief work trip, and I was travelling light but I did take my old M6 along with me. Going to a new location can mean some different airlines. However, these days the airlines across Europe are usually the same ones. Ryanair is everywhere of course. There were some converted freighters sitting on the opposite side of the airfield from my terminal. I grabbed a few shots in the brief time I had which wasn’t long given that the schedule was pretty tight.