We had an early morning flight out of Toulouse.  I had a window seat, so I could see the sunrise and photograph.  The flight to Munich was uneventful, as were the flights to Milan and to Barcelona.

Our fun starts in Barcelona.  What started as a frustrating event turned into a meeting with two amazing Malaysian women.

Arriving in Barcelona, we followed all the signs, or so we thought, to baggage claim.  Our luggage was due in on carousel 12.  We arrive at baggage claim, where the carousel numbers start at 20.  After realizing we simply couldn’t retrace our steps as we were locked out of the terminal, we resorted to a map, or I should say, Hugh resorted to a map.

While studying the map, two ladies approached us.  I recognized them from our flight.  They had been checking in at Milan when I noticed their unusual passports and stood around long enough to figure out where they were from.  We got to talking, as they too could not find their luggage.

We sent Hugh off to sort it out while we got acquainted.  They were sisters, and the older sister, 78, was starting a restaurant in Milan and had come to Barcelona for an undetermined period.  She encouraged me to visit Kuala Lumpur. During the chat, we exchanged contact information, and she put me to shame with her comfort and knowledge of WhatsApp.  In my defense, I did get to teach Julianna her trick.

Anyway, Hugh returned with our luggage and showed Frieda and her sister Maznah to the correct entrance to reclaim it.

After safely landing in a cab with our luggage, we presumed our adventure for the day was over.  

Barcelona was packed with traffic, to be expected at rush hour, and then we encountered barricades.  The cab driver spoke in Spanish to a policeman and explained he couldn’t get us close to our hotel.  His English didn’t extend to explaining why or what we were to do.  But he pointed in a direction, unloaded our suitcases at a chaotic street corner, took our money, and left.  We walked in the direction he pointed and arrived at our hotel in a few minutes.  We learned there was a demonstration going on.  Thankfully, the hotel reception sold us a bottle of wine, and that was our dinner for the night.