Barcelona (2024 Europe)

Earlier this summer, we took a 3 week trip to Europe. This was our first big trip since COVID. The trip started with a 10 day cruise with Norwegian Cruise Lines, which was a re-do from our trip originally scheduled for last year. The starting point was to be Barcelona and originally we were scheduled to arrive about 1.5 days early. Having been to Barcelona before, we didn’t feel the need/rush to try to see all the big things (La Sagrada Familia, Park Güell, Casa Batlló) since we had seen it before. There were a few places that we missed out on previously.

Our trip didn’t start off quite as planned. I woke up the morning of our flight only to see an email from the airline (LEVEL) that our flight had been cancelled. As soon as I saw this, I contacted customer services only to be told that the next flight they could get me on was for 2 days (meaning we would arrive AFTER our cruise departed). I had even checked their web site which indicated they had a few seats available for a flight the next day but the service representative said that wasn’t available. My only recourse was to have them refund me and then scramble to find a last minute flight with any airline. Luckily Aer Lingus had a flight that same evening (also an overnight flight but with a stop in Dublin). Having never flow on Aer Lingus, I have to say that it was a comfortable flight although a pig of a trip with the overnight. We arrived late on Friday evening and took the bus to Plaça de Catalunya, which is kind of a central meeting point in Barcelona but also very close to our hotel. We checked in and passed out for 10 hours and then had about 24 hours of sightseeing before needing to board the boat.

The next morning we walked over to a popular brunch spot, Picnic, after passing the Arc de Triomf in Passeig de Lluís Companys.

With brunch complete, we walked over to the Picasso museum and checked out the art. It ended up being a lot smaller than I thought so we managed to get through it relatively quickly.

Since we were near the Ramblas and the Mercat de Sant Josep de la Boqueria, we walked through the market and took in all the various goods that were sale from fresh fruit, juices to the vegetables and meat and seafood.

NOLA baby!

Back in December my wife had a work conference in New Orleans. She had previously visited for work and had a great time. I had never been so figured this would be a fun little trip for us. I flew down a few days after she did and arrived in the late afternoon after making a connecting flight through Salt Lake City.

I caught a cab into the French Quarter to our hotel, Hyatt Centric French Quarter. After getting squared away in the hotel room, we met up with my wife’s coworker for some drinks and grub

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Bora Bora (French Polynesia 2019)

Finally the last installment of our French Tahiti trip (previous islands here & here). It almost feels like a lifetime ago that we were lounging in the paradise. It’s been busy (mostly work) since returning from the trip.

(Links to the other islands: Tahiti & Moorea)

Day 6

We arrived at the Moorea airport from the Intercontinental Moorea. I don’t think I’ve ever been a smaller airport. There was no security. We literally walked up to the desk, gave our passports, checked our bag (which involved throwing all the luggage onto carts to manually take out to the plane) and got our tickets. The waiting area could maybe hold 50 people comfortably. D had done some research and said we should sit on the left side of the plane because then you get views of the islands (including Bora Bora) as you’re approaching. We boarded a 2 prop plane that probably held 100 people for the 45 minute flight.

They served some pineapple juice on the short flight. The highlight of course was seeing Bora Bora from the air.

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Moorea (French Polynesia 2019)

(Links to the other islands: Tahiti & Bora Bora)

The morning of our third day in paradise started with a buffet breakfast at the hotel. Our checkout time didn’t correspond to when our shuttle was to transfer us from the hotel to the pier for our boat ride to our next island so again we had to sit and wait in the lobby area. Thankfully this was much shorter than before. Our shuttle driver turned out to originally be from Cali and had been in French Polynesia over 18 years but his daughter is currently going to school in Cali. The boat ride from Tahiti to Moorea took about 45 minutes. It was a smooth trip over and gave great views of both Moorea (ahead) and Tahiti (behind).

We were picked up by another shuttle bus and taken to our hotel (another Intercontinental) with a brief stop at the Hotel Manava to drop off the majority of folks. The trip took about 45 minutes overall. The day turned out to be very clear and beautiful but also meant the sun was very intense. At check-in I was just standing there and just dripping sweat. What I learned about all the resorts is that the main areas (reception, lobby, etc) are all open buildings (meaning there’s a roof to shield from rain but there are no walls/doors creating an open feeling overall but meaning there was minimal ventilation – ceiling fans).

IMG_20190517_131459 — *View from our lanai*

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Tahiti (French Polynesia 2019)

***This is a very image heavy post***

(Links to the other two islands: Moorea & Bora Bora)

A few months ago my wife emailed me about a deal to French Polynesia. Admittedly I had no idea where geographically this was. I of course had heard of Tahiti and Bora Bora before. We actually had been watching a show that was based out of French Polynesia and I thought how gorgeous it was. On a whim, I though “why not?” and we booked the trip.

After doing some research, I learned this set of islands was in the south Pacific (essentially directly south of Hawaii) and only an 8 hour flight from LA (not bad!). So a few months later in the middle of May we made our way to these tiny islands by way of LAX (stopped to see some family before).

Unfortunately our trip there (and back) were both redeye flights and I’m terrible at sleeping on airplanes. We had moved seats to the bulkhead thinking we’d have more legspace but in reality I couldn’t extend my legs fully and it was uncomfortable. I ended up sleeping maybe 30-60 minutes total and arrived exhausted. We landed around 5 am when it was still dark out. Luckily going through customs was smooth and our baggage came out quickly. They did have a small band set up as you walked to customs (they were just setting up when we deplaned).