Travel day dawns cold, rainy and well, just dreary.  Ick.  It is what it is.  We are up and out earlier than planned, which quite frankly is a good thing.  The weather is icky and we have to drive 90 minutes into Zurich to the airport.  Well, it wasn’t unexpected, sadly enough.

So off we go, through the drizzle, then the hard rain, then the Google maps directions!  Geez, you know?  Sometimes I’d like to kill whoever programs these stupid GPS directions in Google.  Because it is Monday morning, and different traffic patterns, of course, the direction send us a completely different way than how we had come on Friday.  We are shunted off to the west of the city instead of east, and, get this – onto these little seriously 1 lane roads through freaking farmland!  I kid you not!  And we don’t have a single picture because we are too busy looking at the f’ing maps and trying to figure out where we are, where we are going and if we are really going to make it to the airport!  I swear!

We do eventually make it – but what a mess!  Dumping the car, we head to the check desk, eventually finding the Swiss Air terminal and the Business class line.  We splurged (it wasn’t that much – it’s only a 2 hour flight) on Business because we figured, why not?

The great thing about the splurge is it gives us access to the Business lounge and since we have plenty of time, i.e., 4 hours, we’ll enjoy the access, even though we do have our Priority club as well.  So we spend the next 4 hours hanging out at the lounge, having breakfast, coffee, then snacks and beer and wine, before proceeding to our gate.

The flight itself is lovely and comfortable – and we get a meal!  It’s more of an appetizer type thing with smoked salmon and beetroot, which is quite good, and some bread and other things – but hey, it’s great and the beer and wine are excellent.

The views are stunning as we leave the vibrant green pastures of Switzerland, head over the Med into Barcelona.  Simple, easy, done!

Cab to the hotel is seamless, although we could have walked from La Rambla, we (meaning me!) decide to let the taxi take us all the way to the front door of the hotel, which is sort of fun because we are driving down essentially pedestrian streets!  It takes us a while (and about 10 Euros additional) but what the heck!  We are here and soon in our quite cute little room and ready to explore.

Of course the first thing we do it hit La Cazalla (El Kiosko) bar for a drink – can’t miss that opportunity – we love that little hole in the wall bar. 

Then we hit Carrefour for supplies for the ship and beer and wine for tonight.  It is the usual zoo there right on La Rambla, but we’re used to it by now, know where everything is, and make quick work of our stock up.  And when we check out they gave us bon bons! That was an unexpected treat.  And they were awesome!

Back at the hotel we map our strategy, then hit the streets looking for some place to eat.  As it turns out, right down the street are 2 little restaurants/bars that have outdoor seating. Perusing the menus, either will work, but the Bar Del Pi has more seating and great fire pits, and even though they charge a surcharge for the food outdoors, we’re hoping it’s worth it.  And boy is it ever!  An excellent meal of tapa ensued.

First are the Mountain Croquettes, filled with cheese, mushrooms and black truffle.  Excellent!  Then we try the Bomba del Pi, which is a fried potato ball stuffed with meat and served with a spicy sauce.  Equally fabulous!  Then the Pan de tomat (or here in Barcelona the Pa amb Tomaquet – which I practice saying with the precious waiter!) – because, well, you have to have whatever the bread with tomato is called when you are here in Barcelona. It is a requirement.  And it does not disappoint. Next up is the Grilled Octopus, which quite frankly is the only disappointment of the meal. It isn’t bad, it just isn’t great – and coming after all the other stellar dishes, it doesn’t really shine.  We finish off with another beer and wine, as well as meatballs with tomato sauce and bread.  Perfect.  We are stuffed, but not too crazily and we are just happy sipping on our drinks, warmed by the fire, watching the world go by us on the square.

After that lovely meal, we head back to our cute corner room with the 2 balconies looking over C. del Pi and hang out for our last night on land for the next, oh, 37 days!