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Category: Airlines

Wednesday : Poznan to Luton with Wizz Air

And all good things must come to an end, including my near one month stay in Poland (with a few days in the UK in the middle) which has been, as ever, a delight. My Schengen days are though nearly at their maximum, so I couldn’t have remained in the EU for much longer. The journey ended with the 159 bus from Poznan’s main railway station to the airport, a journey that takes around 30 minutes or so.

As an aside, one thing I did notice is how many Ukrainian women there were around the city, it’s noticeable as you can see on screens at ticket machines, ordering machines and the like when they’ve switched the language to Ukrainian. And they’ve been welcomed with such kindness by the Polish, who seem to have coped admirably with a 10% increase in their population. There are lots of places in Poznan where those fleeing their country can get help and support, such a lovely gesture from an entire nation. There’s no shortage of Ukrainian flags flying around the place either, all really rather lovely.

Back at Poznan airport, although I can’t say that I much wanted to leave Poland. They were going to name this airport after Ignacy Jan Paderewski, but then the Polish city of Bydgoszcz did that, so instead it’s named after Henryk Wieniawski, a Polish composer and violinist. British Airways did fly to Poznan in the summer of 2008, which is an idea I think that they should repeat as they don’t have enough Polish cities as destinations. The big three operators here though appear to be Wizz Air, Ryanair and LOT Polish Airlines. It took me precisely one minute to get through security, the Poles have their airports running with great efficiency.

I got to the non-Schengen gate early, but that worked as I got a power supply and a table, so I was sorted for the duration. I was interested to hear the announcement for the Lufthansa flight saying that all passengers must wear masks. This seems unusual as mask wearing in Poland is near zero and I didn’t see anyone in the airport wearing masks, so it felt odd to see an airline still compelling this.

I like having a lot of space to myself. It’s not a great use of resources having this non-Schengen bit of the terminal separated off with border control staff and separate food and drink facilities, but such is politics. I treated myself to a bottle of Fanta which at just over £2.50 was scandalous by Polish prices, but a bargain given the power, free wi-fi and table that were available. Who needs a lounge?

The boarding process humoured me, with a priority and non-priority line that were opened at the same time. As there were far more priority customers than not, I was able to get through and get a seat before most of the priority customers. It’s true they boarded the aircraft slightly earlier than me, but I’d rather have a little sit down than have to stand in a queue for what transpired to be 25 minutes. I had the advantage though of not needing to stow my bag in the overhead lockers, I could get away with dithering.

Firmly at the back of the line, but the random seat Gods had been good to me, I had been given an aisle seat, which is my favourite. All was well with the world. OK, all was well with my flight at least.

Because this is a reminder that all is not well with the world. I’m not sure what the national airline of Ukraine is doing with this aircraft, which had been sent to Spain in February for storage. It returned to Poznan recently and has just flown to Azerbaijan and back, aircraft registration UR-PSF.

The aircraft I was on, G-WUKC, which arrived 70 minutes late, apparently due to ATC difficulties in London. Wizz Air certainly get value for money from their aircraft, this did six sectors during the day, returns to Kaunas, Poznan and Wroclaw. Like much of their fleet, it’s quite a new aircraft, having been used by Wizz Air since it was new in 2018.

Back at Luton airport. There wasn’t much of excitement during the journey, although the aircraft wasn’t as busy as I had thought when boarding, so I switched across the aisle to the other seat so that I had no-one sitting next to me, which meant I had enough space to use my laptop. Ten minutes into the flight the “if there is a medical professional on-board please come to the rear cabin” with a lady getting up and rushing to the back, so I assume she was medically qualified, or just wanted to see what was happening I suppose. I didn’t hear anything more and we didn’t divert, so it couldn’t have been too dramatic. Or, at least, I hope it wasn’t.

The crew were friendly enough, mostly male which is a little unusual for budget airlines. One passenger seemed scared of the barking sound in the aircraft, which is the power transfer unit (I learned that long ago from British Airways) and called one of the crew over to express his concerns. The crew member said “oh, that’s usual, it’s probably the brakes” and wandered off which actually didn’t calm the passenger who didn’t seem to like the “probably” bit of the answer.

The disembarkation process was as chaotic as ever, people rushing to the aisle, trampling on each other and then standing there for ten minutes. A case fell on someone’s head, someone stood on someone’s foot and tensions were rising. The guy in the window seat on my row just kept reading his book, I sat and stared at my phone (I do that a lot) and didn’t move, it’s much less stressful. I find it all odd, as then the same people very often walk slowly to the terminal, so I can overtake them. It took probably eight minutes to get through border control, nothing too bad.

I then had a forty minute to the hotel that I was staying in at Luton, walking past this bastion of journalism. Well, something like that anyway….

It’s been delayed a couple of times, but they’re getting there with this, which is Luton DART. It’ll connect Luton Airport Parkway railway station with the airport, which will involve scrapping the shuttle bus arrangement that currently exists. I’ll probably just still walk between the two rather than pay for this, but it’s a more efficient solution for those who can’t or don’t want to walk the fifteen minutes between the two.

Luton Hoo Memorial Park, which was presented to the town in 1920 by Lady Ludlow, in honour of her son, Alex Piggott Werner, who had died during the First World War.

Bailey Hill Water Tower in the background.

And the park’s war memorial. It’s a really nice space, there’s a playground for children that was well used, with a few people walking dogs, all very calm and sedate.

The final destination was the Linton Hotel, which was cheaper than all of the other chain hotels that I had to walk by to get here. I went for the cheapest compact room, which was indeed compact, but it was clean and functional and everything worked as it should. I was exhausted when I got here as it’s too bloody hot in Luton, certainly compared to Poland at the moment, and I had to climb a hill which was higher than the little diddy ones that Dave Morgan is currently climbing in mainland Europe. I was very brave, but also quite tired at the end of that, but I don’t complain.

July 14, 2022
Wednesday : London Luton to Poznan with Wizz Air

After my quite scintillating story of getting from Norwich to London Luton Airport (that in itself is a bit aspirational, Luton is hardly in London but I won’t go off on that tangent) it starts again in the airport terminal. I had enjoyed a pre-departure nap at home, so was planning to be hugely productive overnight in getting things done, which I’m pleased to say did work out. I know Dave Morgan will be once again surprised and delighted at hearing about these exploits of my very slightly odd travel.

Two points. Firstly, I can’t relax before a flight, I have to keep checking the board. Secondly, note the only flight on the entire board that was showing as delayed.

So, what is there to do at London Luton overnight? Nearly nothing if I’m being honest. There is limited seating in the airport, although fortunately, I did find a space, not least as I got there so early. It’s a terminal which can’t really cope with the number of passengers it gets, and there were in the hundreds of people waiting at the terminal overnight for their morning flights, far more than when I was at Heathrow T3 a couple of weeks ago. I was pleased to note that the Pret landside opened early, so I moved there to enjoy a single can of Coke and three hours of charging my devices with their electricity. I’m not entirely sure they made much from my largesse. It wasn’t that busy though, I didn’t stop someone else from sitting down as it was never full.

Going through security was easy, other than my superglue was spotted in my liquids bag and they went off to test it. I’m not sure if there’s some odd drugs related use for it as that’s the machine they used, to swab it for drugs. The lady at security asked why I had superglue and I replied that it’s because I break a lot of things and want to fix them quickly. She seemed happy at that slightly odd answer. It’s actually because I was worried about my shoe breaking last year, which I’ve since replaced, but I’ve decided the superglue might be useful for all manner of reasons, so I’ve kept it.

After lots of faffing about, and nearly entirely catching up on this bloody blog, gate 30 was announced for the Wizz Air flight to Poznan. I have no sort of priority on this flight and certainly didn’t pay for that benefit, so I meandered slowly around the back of the queueing system, whereas the people in the above photo are rushing to go through the priority line. I got to the front of my queue for unimportant people and a staff member waved me forwards. I mention I’m not priority and she shrugged and said she didn’t mind either way, which ironically meant I ended up ahead of most of the people who had been rushing. This had the exciting benefit and advantage of my being able to stand further ahead on the stairs down to the aircraft.

Here’s the aircraft, which had been slightly delayed on its inbound journey, hence why we were operating around forty minutes late at this point. It’s an A320 aircraft, registration G-WUKD, which Wizz Air have operated since new in 2018.

The boarding process. I had let people get ahead because I kept faffing about taking photos of the aircraft. I think people thought I didn’t get out much, but I just wanted to ensure this blog had some photos that weren’t blurry. Selfless I tell you, absolutely selfless of me.

I could hardly deal with the excitement of being in a middle seat for two hours. But, I paid £8 for this flight, so there’s no way that I have anything to complain about. The aircraft wasn’t particularly comfortable, but it’s a short haul journey that isn’t much longer than some bus journeys, so it was perfectly sufficient. It was also just about full, although the lady in the row behind me was on the phone to someone in the terminal who had somehow missed the flight. She didn’t seem that concerned about the fact that her friend wasn’t going to get on the flight, I had hoped for a little more drama if I’m being honest.

I was quite embarrassed (although I’m not sure why, there’s a limited amount I can ever do about these things) at the British passenger who had a go at a Polish member of cabin crew, as he said he wanted to sit on the back row. The back row is often sealed on Wizz Air flights, sometimes for trim reasons of aircraft safety and sometimes because the crew sit there. Anyway, the helpful member of cabin crew politely told the man three times he couldn’t sit there. He replied “I’m sitting here, that’s the end of it”. It wasn’t the end of it, the crew member suddenly got bored of being polite and replied “Sir, you will need to leave the aircraft” and she clearly meant it. He argued, she stood there and asked him to make his decision. He grumpily moved back to his assigned middle seat further down the aircraft, but only after giving her some more abuse. It’s sad to see to be fair, but I’m pleased the crew member stood her ground, but I get the impression that she’s used to it, which is perhaps an even greater shame. The pilots sounded professional as well, we ended up arriving around thirty minutes later than expected, and they kept everyone updated.

The airport terminal in Poznan is visible in the background, but we needed a bus to take us to the non-Schengen gates at the airport. I just held back, I was in no rush, but once again, fortune favoured me and I joined a queue which for reasons unknown moved so quickly that I was at the border control desk way ahead of those in the other parallel lines who had started queueing up before me. Then I got delayed because the border control lady, who was perfectly amicable and friendly, decided she would count my time in the EU. It seems this can only be done manually, there’s currently no way of them doing this using technology, so she carefully worked through all my passport stamps and it took her a fair while. I didn’t want to undermine this process, she was doing her job carefully, but I knew I was within the limits as I carefully use a Schengen calculator to ensure I’m not spending too much time in the EU. She thanked me for my patience and I was on my way, pleased to be back in Poland.

They were then stopping every traveller and asking if they had food. I clearly didn’t, I rarely keep food in my bag long as I’m too excited to eat it rather than carry it about (my food I mean, not the bag), but another man had his egg taken off him. I have no idea why he had an egg, I assume it was hard-boiled though unless he had been very careful during the flight.

With all that excitement out of the way, I got a ticket for the bus. It’s possible to walk from Poznan airport to the city centre, but it’s a ninety minute walk and, frankly, I couldn’t be bothered, especially since the bus ticket is under £1. Dave Morgan would be horrified, I hope he doesn’t read this. I think he walks all distances of under 40 miles.

The bus went to the central railway station in Poznan, which is a city I’ve visited before I think on three occasions. I do perhaps need to start going to some new places, but I like the reassurance of these reliably excellent Polish cities.

Back in the Ibis Poznan Stare Miasto, which I had forgotten I’d stayed at a couple of years ago. All reliable as ever, friendly staff, a functional room, working air conditioning (although, fortunately, it’s not too hot in Poland, unlike in Krakow a couple of weeks ago) and a window that opens. Just lovely.

My welcome drink of a Żywiec Porter. It’s definitely good to be back.

There’s a Biedronka supermarket next to the hotel and I was sufficiently tired not to have to want to go finding food anywhere else, so this was a handy option. So this little selection, which looks like a kid who likes alcohol has bought it (there’s a reason for that), just had to do. I’ve posted this so I can comment on the price, this came to just over £5. Note the British cheddar cheese at the back, which would have likely cost about £3 on its own in the UK. I probably didn’t need all this, but I hadn’t eaten all day and I felt I deserved a little treat.

July 7, 2022
Tuesday : Nearly Missing the Bloody Train in Krakow, Finn Air to Heathrow and Ibis Budget

After a few days in Krakow eating pizza and complaining about the heat to anyone who would listen, whilst calming my overheated nerves with the large hotel breakfast every day, it was time to return to the UK. The old railway station is visible in the photo above, but they’ve built a new station building which is linked it to the Galeria Krakowska shopping mall. It was also surprisingly busy for a Tuesday morning at just before 09:00.

The new platforms are in this photo, the old railway station is behind me. Like nearly everywhere in Poland, it’s all very clean and organised.

There were no ticket machines to be seen on the platform which seemed odd. I discovered on the way out that passengers could buy tickets on the train, but I wanted to get this sorted in advance and so I bought mine from the PKP web-site. It’s a ticket that doesn’t need validation and is for a specific train, which is the one that should be leaving from the platform I was standing by after the 09:01 to Gdynia got out of the way. Anyway, the train didn’t move and I heard part of an announcement which was only in Polish, stating that my train to the airport was switching to another platform. I was moderately annoyed as that meant I had to rush, but obviously I didn’t want to run in the Krakow heat. Or indeed run at all, it’s exhausting.

I caught the damn train with thirty seconds to go, but I noted some others didn’t and were still on the wrong platform. They didn’t even check the ticket (I mean the ticket inspectors on the train, not the people on the wrong platform). Anyway, I arrived into the airport as expected, but could have done without the rushing about the place. Clean train and on-time, so I can’t really complain.

I was through airport security in under two minutes and so next was the non-Schengen airport lounge at Krakow Airport, which was small, although luckily I had given myself three hours to sit in it. It reached near capacity by the time that I was about to leave the lounge, and it does feel a little under-sized. Very friendly staff and there are toilets and showers within the lounge complex.

Lard and bits of pepper sliced up, it’s not exactly Greggs is it?

Now we’re talking though.

My starter.

The amuse-bouche. They had a couple of different beers, nothing exceptional, but sufficient for me.

In fairness the chicken salad was very lovely, so that proved to be a useful main course. I never had the lard.

There was a ten minute delay, but nothing too bad, for the return flight to Heathrow.

This was as clear as mud, with a Ryanair and British Airways flight departing at the same time, as well as separate queues for Groups 1-3 and Groups 4 and 5. I guessed the queue correctly when the Groups 1-3 were called, but numerous other customers didn’t, finding themselves in the wrong place. Anyone who tried to access the Groups 1-3 queue without having the correct number on their ticket was sent packing, albeit politely.

As with my outward journey, this was a British Airways flight that they’ve wet leased to be operated by Finn Air. It’s the Airbus A321 with registration code OH-LZN, which Finn Air have operated since the aircraft was new in 2017.

This annoyed me, it started to pour with rain just as I boarded. All week I waited for rain and the moment I get on board to come back what happens?

I’ve blurred this (again) by mistake as I was trying to rush, but I was the first to board. The person in the photo is flight crew and they were all exceptional during the journey, again Finn Air should be proud of their professionalism. Someone in my row seemed quite seedy in the way he was talking to the crew member, but she professionally batted him and his attempt to take her for an Indian meal away.

Got my seat with lots of leg room again. The flight was near full, but the boarding was efficient and well managed. At this point we sat there for around 45 minutes, as the rain that I craved all week was now flooding the airport and so they had to temporarily shut down operations.

The chatty and friendly crew came around with the snack before take-off to ensure everyone remained happy. The water was served after we had taken off.

Safely back at Heathrow T3, ready to spend ten minutes walking around their slalom course. You could practice for an LDWA 100 walking around this.

I’m starting to feel that I know Heathrow T3 far too well.

The Central Bus Station, ready for me to pay for a bus to get me to the Ibis Budget on Bath Road since Heathrow have removed the Free Travel Zone. Yes, I will complain about that in every post for some months, there’s nothing like repetition to cheer the soul.

I had pre-paid for this room at a much cheaper rate, but this is a sign of the ridiculous prices in London. For an Ibis Budget which isn’t that well located to be charging £100 is far from ideal.

I stayed here a few weeks ago, it’s the former Travelodge they’ve converted into Ibis Budget. The windows here don’t open and I asked for a fan, which they said they’d bring to the room, but they didn’t bother. However, I decided the air conditioning worked sufficiently well for me to not traipse down again to ask where the fan was. The hotel though is still receiving deluges of negative reviews about the air conditioning not working, but it appears they should have it all fixed soon enough.

Not that I’m one for complaining, but just I got in the room it started to rain again. That weather is just ideal for me, cloudy and rainy, perfect for exploring a city.

July 6, 2022
British Airways : Minimum Connection Time Between Flights at Heathrow

A scenario I haven’t had before, BA have changed my flight to New York in September from T5 to T3. That’s normally good as I prefer that terminal, but it’s not relevant here since I’m connecting with little time to spare. I’m flying from Dublin and the original flight got in to T5 at 10:50 and the US flight departed T5 at 12:20, which is thirty minutes longer than the one hour minimum connecting time at Heathrow T5. Now BA have shunted my departing flight to T3 and they’ve also changed the departure time to 12:15, which would have been enough at T5, but it means it’s five minutes too short to meet the minimum connecting time between Heathrow Terminals which is 90 minutes. I think I just have to wait for BA to realise and change my flight, which I’m going to guess will mean getting into New York two hours later.

Not that anyone cares, but I will carefully edit this post when I find out what actually happens with this and how long it takes them to realise…. I don’t much mind, I like the excitement, although I suspect the only option is for BA to move me to the flight I mentioned which is two hours later, but that’s departing from T5 which would at least mean I could pop into the BA lounge….

July 4, 2022
Thursday : Heathrow T3 to Krakow with British Airways (operated by Finn Air)

After the excitement of being at Heathrow T3 through the night started to become marginally less exciting, I decided to walk through the bright lights of the walkways to get to the main terminal. It’s surprising how quiet Heathrow is at 03:00…..

I was ready. I was ready around 835 minutes before the flight to be fair.

They could probably do with some more seats on the first floor, but it was starting to get a little busier before the security lines opened at 04:30. I was confused why around 40 people were standing in what I thought was an odd place for the security line, at an overflow area. I decided these savvy travellers must know what they were doing, but I was hardly in a rush, so I stood in the normal place. Fortunately, I managed to find myself at the front of the queue and so was the second person (or second non-staff member to be more accurate) to enter airside.

Peace and quiet at duty free.

I’ve never really understood who buys all this stuff, it’s a huge retail area and nothing seems particularly good value to me. I don’t know whether it’s a mix of people buying presents and those who just get excited when they see alcohol for sale. Now, if they had a decent craft beer selection then I might be interested.

Slightly blurry, but there’s no shortage of seating if you go to the airport early. Who needs a hotel? An unnecessary decadence.

I have no idea how I’ve managed to take such blurry photos, but there’s the very quiet oyster and champagne bar or whatever it is. It’s not somewhere I’ve felt the need to spend much time. Actually, as an aside, I don’t really understand it, it’s expensive and I’d have thought if you can afford to go there, you’d likely have airline status to go to a lounge. And it’s a very open place to sit. But there we go, perhaps people like being seen when they’re being decadent.

I’d arrived before any of the shops had opened as well.

The BA lounge opened at 05:00. Well, it’s meant to, the bouncy and happy staff member went to open the First Class section at 05:00 and then she realised there was no-one at the main entrance. At 05:05 an harassed member of staff turns up and the lounge whirs into action. Fair play to her, what a time to get to the airport and the staff have to go through security every day, it must be tiring. Anyway, the First entrance is to the left and the Club entrance is to the right. Two of the customers in front of me were entirely the wrong place, they were going to the Aspire Lounge or whatever it was, and seemed annoyed at BA that they hadn’t made clear it was the BA lounge. The signage on the wall is a clue.

I must have been tired, these photos are dreadful. Anyway, the BA lounge main seating area.

Looking towards the rear, the little business section is to the right. No beer again in the lounge, just Heineken.

The BA order to the table app seems to have been removed, everything is on display again and it’s fair to say that’s it’s beautifully presented when no customer has mauled it all about.

The sausage and bacon rolls, which seem to be a waste of food if I’m being honest. A fair number of people ditch the rolls, including myself, to eat the bacon and sausage. The muffins were soggy and the rolls were hard and inedible, it just seems a waste of BA’s money. They must be able to deliver something better than this. I’m not specifically complaining, well no more than usual, for me, just that they’re spending all this money and delivering a product which is evidently inferior to the lounges around them (although I’d add the First section of the lounge is better, but I haven’t had access to that for years).

I asked a couple of times when the showers would be opening with no-one being sure, and the lovely lady on the First desk (not that I had access to that lounge, it’s just next to where the showers are) was confused why they were shut. She went off to find out and came back very apologetic to say the showers were closed for the week, but she hadn’t been told. I appreciated her help and assistance, but fortunately, there was a solution to this, the Cathay Pacific lounge which opened at 05:30. The staff try so hard in the BA lounge, but the airline doesn’t always seem to want to help them.

Cathay Pacific had showers which were immaculate, so that was that solved. The staff try so hard in the Cathay Pacific lounge and the airline does seem to want to help them. It wasn’t busy, and indeed I was the only person in the lounge for a few minutes, this is the part of the self-service breakfast selection. Spotless as ever.

And the other bit. There’s a selection of sausages, bacon and the like for those who want hot items.

But, yet again, I decided I wanted to order from the chefs at the Asian food counter and got my standard order of Thai coconut and vegetable soup, the Mix Dim sum basket, Fanta and beer. What a time to be alive…. And compare and contrast to the BA lounge. The flight time meant I didn’t really enough time to visit the Qantas lounge for some calamari as it opens a little later, but I was refreshed and ready for the new day after leaving the Cathay Pacific lounge. I’m disappointed to say I won’t be back in T3 for a while, as the flights I had departing from the terminal have been moved to T5.

It was unclear whether there was a priority line at the gate, but I wasn’t going to go hunting for it. The man behind me didn’t have the same restraint, I heard a series of “I will go and look”, “no, we’re entitled to use it” and the like, as his what I assume was wife tried to calm him. He stomped over in the end and asked where the priority line was, before shouting back to wife “we can enter the priority line here”. I admire his determination to sit in the gate slightly quicker than the others, although I have to confess to them following him. I tried to look as embarrassed as the guy’s wife.

The flight was booked with British Airways, but they’ve run out of aircraft, so they’re using Finn Air on a wet lease arrangement. So the pilots and cabin crew are all from Finn Air, whilst the service standard is British Airways. This has the advantage of this seat with lots of leg room, which as far as I’m concerned is the best in the economy part of the aircraft. I think I dozed off for a chunk of the flight and there was no-one sitting next to me, so this felt very spacious.

The mid-flight snack, a smaller bottle of water and a Nutrigrain bar. There was a man in the aisle seat, and we must have both dozed off, as the crew had just left them on the seat for us. The crew were excellent, friendly, personable and engaging, Finn Air should be very proud. Apparently they spend five days in London being put up at hotels, which must be costing BA a fortune, before returning to Helsinki for a few days.

Oh good, a bus to the terminal. Not that it matters, I’m hardly ever in a rush. I noticed that it was too hot.

Although getting a bus did give me time to take a photo of the aircraft, which is OH-LZU, an A321 which Finn Air have operated since it was manufactured in 2018.

It didn’t take long to get through border control, and I decided to use my limited Polish to the border guard. He replied, in Polish, asking if I was Polish as I would have then been in the wrong queue. He soon realised from my garbled answer that I wasn’t. Here’s the front of the terminal and it was evident to me that it was already too hot. I may have mentioned that.

The train from the airport to the city centre, which is over twice the price of the one from Warsaw. That’s the problem with these tourist cities.

I bought a ticket from the machine and then waited excitedly to board. The train was quite busy and unusually, you can buy tickets on board despite there being ticket facilities on the platform. One person showed their bus ticket, but the train guard was having none of it, they had to buy a rail ticket.

I’ve visited Krakow numerous times before, but here’s a quick photo from the city centre as I walked to the hotel in the searing heat. Krakow is a beautiful city, but it is very touristy, so I prefer visiting other cities in Poland, but it’s nonetheless a delight to be back.

Grrrrr, I didn’t entirely like the room, it’s one of these damn Ibis changes to make it feel like a nursing home. I’ve stayed at Ibis Krakow Centrum before, and they had better rooms with a desk and chair. I did query with reception if they had any of the older rooms, but they said they didn’t. Their answer was “we don’t put chairs in rooms any more”. I’m not entirely sure how that is seen as a good idea, as although I understand not everyone has the same requirements as me, a chair isn’t beyond Ibis Budget, let alone Ibis. This is, I think, an upgraded room, as there’s a coffee machine. I didn’t understand the point of that as they gave me two coffees for a five night stay, but those two were delicious I suppose. There’s also water provided, which I appreciated as it’s too hot. The window opened so that was positive, but the air conditioning in the room sort of worked, not to make the room as freezing as I’d like, but sufficient to be comfortable.

I appreciated the note though, that was kind. I’m not really into red wine, but it was a gift and that was very nice of them, so I did drink it as I didn’t want to be rude. I’m selfless like that.

Wwith that, I was back in Poland, although I had some sleep to catch up on.

July 4, 2022
British Airways : Random Post – Change to Check-In for Bronze

I found this quite odd at Heathrow T3. I’ve reached the giddy heights of silver (after spending hours finding the cheapest possible way of doing it, since I’m not very decadent with my airline spending, or indeed any spending other than on craft beer which is one of life’s essentials) but BA did allow bronze and silver to use their priority check-in desk. There’s now signage saying this.

And this. It’s a bit confusing since priority check-in is a stated benefit of Bronze statue. I mentioned this as my friend Richard is a bronze member (and spends decadently to reach that) so I will report back any tales if he’s refused a priority service at check-in. How exciting! It’s quality content like this that keeps this blog reaching its dizzying height of two readers.

July 4, 2022
Wednesday : Warsaw to Heathrow T3 with Finn Air (via Helsinki)

Yet another breakfast photo, woooo….. I posted this one as there’s a bay leaf on it and I enjoy it when people complain at Chipotle because they think part of a tree has landed into their food. For anyone who wants to see irate people on Twitter, just Google “chipotle bay leaf”. Another cheap and cheerful breakfast, which was suitably filling. I’m not sure why they’re providing biscuits for breakfast, but I didn’t quibble with what I thought was an innovative idea.

I’ll miss Warsaw, but I’ve gone on about that before. Note how bloody hot it was. That made it easier for me to leave the city, so I could escape the rampantly high temperatures that I had endured.

My journey to the airport was far from ideal, I had intended to walk to Warszawa Powiśle railway station to get the train. Unfortunately, this ticket machine en route didn’t supply the ticket I wanted, entirely because the sun was so bright that I couldn’t see the screen properly. There’s no good comes from this extreme weather I’ll say, no good at all.

There’s the railway station I need, but I was on the hunt for a ticket machine. The railway station ticket machine wouldn’t sell me the ticket that I wanted and I couldn’t remember whether the train itself had a ticket machine on it as I always pre-purchase them to avoid any little issues with the guard.

I swore quietly at the situation, then decided to instead walk one stop along to Warszawa Śródmieście as there’s an S2 train to the airport around every thirty minutes. There’s the Palace of Science and Culture in the boiling hot temperature. I was pleased to note that a lot of Polish people seemed to be struggling with the heat. Although I mean that in the way that I’m pleased I wasn’t the only person who was uncomfortable, not that I was pleased Poles were struggling with something.

This wasn’t the train I needed, I just like taking photos of double-decker trains. I should probably get out more….

I was slightly annoyed generally that there were indeed ticket machines on the trains, as can be seen by everyone else buying their tickets on them. I’d mention I was more annoyed that I hadn’t just risked it, but I like to live in a low-risk public transport world.

And that was that, after 20 minutes I was at the railway station saying goodbye to Warsaw for the last time in what will likely be for some months. My journey today was to fly back to Heathrow, but due to problems with British Airways, they were flying me back via Helsinki. This isn’t ideal in many ways and is the second time that they’ve had to do this. One day the rail service will be fast and cheap enough to do this journey back to London without needing to fly, but we’re nowhere near there that stage yet.

That gave me time to visit the Preludium Executive Lounge in Warsaw Airport, again which I’ve written about before. As an aside, the security process was extremely efficient, once again in Warsaw I was through into the lounge area within ten minutes of disembarking the train. Polish efficiency that is.

It wasn’t particularly busy, so I sat near to the food (at the counter behind, not literally this near) with my laptop being productive.

The lounge has finally got rid of the pre-packaged food that it has for some time, replacing it with help yourself food items so that guests can make their own salads or whatever they’d like. There’s also hot food and most importantly, big tubs of chocolates. What a time to be alive….

Chicken wrap with olives, what more could anyone want from their brunch? I say brunch, it was still breakfast time, but I’d already had breakfast at the hotel and it’s bad luck to have two breakfasts.

One quick beer before leaving. I’m not sure I needed that, but it’s another one for Untappd.

The flight was already boarding when I got there. It’s rare that I cut things so fine, although I don’t want anyone thinking I had been unusually reckless, they were just boarding a little early.

Down the airbridge, this is Finn Air’s Embraer E190, registration OH-LKM, an aircraft they’ve operated since it was brought into service in 2008. For anyone wondering why there are so many photos on air bridges, it’s usually so I can get the aircraft registration number, such is the level of detail that I demand for my two readers.

This was a nearly full service, so no photos of the interior. I was pleased to get my free blueberry juice and the service was all efficient and felt a little more professional than my outbound flight. There was a bigger business class section than on the way out, they had the delights of a salad and bread for their morning meal.

A little cloudier than Warsaw, I enjoy knowing that I’m unlikely to get heatstroke in Helsinki. These short stops in Helsinki are slightly sad from the point of view that I’m not leaving the airport to see the actual city.

Back in the non-Schengen lounge at Helsinki Airport and the staff were as friendly as before, with everything being just as ordered and welcoming as I remembered. They have the same self-scanning desks to get into the lounge as their Schengen one elsewhere in the terminal, but they don’t seem to use them here.

The pods and I went to investigate the showers here for the first time. They’re all self-service, you just type in the keypad on the door and if they’ve been cleaned with more towels put in, then they’ll open. When leaving, press a button on the keypad and it alerts the staff that the shower needs cleaning and restocking.

This is much better than the food selection at the Finn Air Schengen lounge. I noted that they were unlikely to run out of plates as well.

Meatballs in pepper sauce and these were delicious. There was also a broad bean tikka masala, which sounded a bit too vegetable orientated in its design to me.

Self-pour beer, meatballs, rice and I even got some roasted vegetables for reasons I can’t remember. I probably got muddled up.

I hadn’t noticed this before, but the text of what they’re doing is readable by clicking on the image, effectively they want some rye spirit ready in 2023 to mark Finn Air reaching 100. A rather lovely idea and not long left now, they thought ahead by starting this process in 2017.

After a quick dessert and some more meatballs, back in the open space of the airport terminal. I wonder if this international terminal ever feels busy and cluttered, it’s hard to imagine that.

The flight was showing a slight delay, but nothing frightening.

Having this much space makes the whole boarding environment feel much more relaxed. Note power points everywhere, no-one is leaving Helsinki without their devices being fully charged.

The airbridge photo again. Finn Air have two separate parts of the waiting area in the gate, so priority passengers were able to board first. A couple of people, whether through accident or design, tried to board in a lane they shouldn’t have done, with the Finn Air staff politely sending them back to the end of the queue, thereby forcing a little walk of shame.

It’s Airbus A319, registration OH-LVL, which Finn Air have operated since new in 2004. I can also confirm that I didn’t overheat in Helsinki Airport.

I’d deliberately put myself on an aisle seat towards the back of the aircraft and this was another flight, with just about every seat taken. If a flight is looking busy, I’d rather just sit at the back and stay out of the way of people trying to navigate their way around the crew with their trolleys.

The drop-down screens showed a variety of television programming throughout the journey, including Tom & Jerry. This reminds me that British Airways has taken screens out of all of their short-haul aircraft, although I recall they only displayed the live map, never anything as exciting as Tom & Jerry cartoons.

I wasn’t tempted as I had just been in the lounge, although I did think from the photo how small the cheese platter was. They didn’t seem to sell much, a few items here and there, but in the main customers just requested the free water or blueberry juice.

And that leads me neatly into the now obligatory photo of blueberry juice.

Back into Heathrow T3, nearly every time I use a Travelator I remember Liam’s children being endlessly excited by this exciting “it’s like an escalator but flat” device. To be fair, they’re not wrong.

I had a fair amount of time at Heathrow Terminal 3, but more about overnight stay there in the next exciting post in this series.

July 3, 2022
Wednesday : Sleeping at Heathrow T3

For complex reasons relating to flight cancellations, I was at Heathrow T3 overnight, although in my case I wasn’t planning to sleep, just sit with my laptop and sleep on the aircraft the next day on my early morning flight. Hotel prices are ridiculous in London at the moment and it would have cost the best part of £100 in the cheapest hotel near Heathrow, which hardly seemed worth it for a few hours.

One of the quietest areas, at least overnight, is the central bus terminal. There were police around talking to a few people, but that seemed to relate to those they considered to be non-travellers, although they didn’t approach me so I wasn’t entirely sure what was being said. I think the rule here is that they’ll tolerate travellers waiting for a bus or plane, but not much else. The police floating about for most of the night made it all feel safer to me as well.

There were a few people sleeping on the seats, which I’m sure the bus terminal isn’t thrilled about, although it is possible. The seats at least have some padding and the lighting isn’t too harsh in this area, so it’s probably the best place to go. The main Heathrow T3 terminal doesn’t throw people out, but it’s got bright and harsh lighting alongside lots of noise from the cleaning and maintenance teams who have to use the overnight period to get things done.

There’s a Costa near security on the upper level which claims to be open 24 hours, although I’m not sure how many hours they’ll allow people to stay for. Probably for as long as it looks like it might be full. The Pret shuts relatively early, although that means their external seats are accessible overnight.

From my wanderings around T3, this is usually the quietest place if in need of power, on the ground floor near Zone G. There’s some seating around here as well, although it’s not overly comfortable as it’s firm metal chairs. Free Heathrow wi-fi is available throughout the entirety of T3, including the central bus terminal.

July 3, 2022
Wednesday : London to Warsaw via Helsinki

Today’s adventure wasn’t an ideal situation, but British Airways needed to change my flight from London Heathrow to Warsaw and the only way that they could get me there was via Helsinki. These are challenging times for airlines at the moment, but I hope that these schedules start to settle down over the next few months, it’s not really a routing that I would have thought the most cost effective to arrange.

I was starting at the Ibis Styles at Heathrow, not my first time in the hotel, but my first time in the separate accommodation bloc. It’s really not apparent, but there’s a floor above what is visible here which is reset a little, which is where my room was.

Not that it’s particularly interesting, but that additional floor is visible behind Esso, with the main part of the hotel on the right.

A bus journey to Heathrow T3 central bus station and my complaint, yet again, that Heathrow have blocked off the pedestrian and cyclist entrance to the airport and so people are forced to use cars or go on public transport. In the past, the airport themselves paid for that public transport, but they don’t now. There’s an element of greed here and I find it a little sinister who is benefiting from these changes, but I had better not meander down that path for too long. So a little ride on the Travelator from the central bus station to get me to Heathrow T3.

And here it is again in all its glory, my favourite of the terminals at Heathrow. This is solely because of the lounges where I can get the most free food, T5 is a much better designed and interesting terminal architecturally (including the bits that my friend Liam built).

I can use the premium security line at Heathrow T3 because of my silver card (I have to mention every time that I got this through judicious use of Flyertalk tips, my spend on flights is very low and wouldn’t normally get me such decadence). A member of staff came over and said that the premium security line was longer than the standard line if anyone wanted to move over. I was by that point near the front and didn’t take the risk, but I was amused when someone just behind me said “you’re the one who just sent me over here”. I laughed just a little inside because the man seemed to want an argue but the staff member walked off. Security at T3 always seems quite quick and I got fortunate with my choice of queue, I think I was through within five minutes including the waiting time in the queue.

Lounge hopping at T3, I decided to start with Qantas to get a Salmon Eggs Benedict and delicious it was too. The service in the lounge was as impeccable as ever, efficient, informal and professional.

Part of the cold food selection, but I’ve written about this Qantas lounge before and won’t bore readers unnecessarily. It was though quiet, comfortable and as lovely as ever. I can’t decide which lounge I prefer, Qantas or Cathay Pacific, so I just visit them both.

I thought some exercise would be in order and so I walked to the Cathay Pacific Lounge to get food there, with this being the menu of the day.

Delicious, that Dim Sum selection is always quite beautiful. There was some spicy kick to that Thai coconut and vegetable soup, which complemented the Asahi beer nicely. I didn’t bother visiting the British Airways lounge, it’s just not as decadent and they don’t have any beer there. Well, they have Heineken, but I mean proper beer. The barman mentioned that I had the last bottle of beer he had left, so I hope he had access to some more stock from somewhere. Service here, just as in the Qantas lounge, is professional and although more formal, it always feels welcoming. It’s a comfortable space as well, there are plenty of different seating types as well as lots of power points to charge devices. I mention that frequently as it is quite important to me, just imagine having a phone without any charge. It’s too much to even contemplate, I shall move on and away from that horrible thought.

My flights to Warsaw were with Finn Air, although it was a little difficult to work out when to board as the neighbouring gate spilled over and they had the wrong passengers in each queue for a short whilst. I think the other flight was going to Africa, so it would have been quite some distance if someone landed in Helsinki by mistake. I had a little problem when boarding as the staff member said “since you’re going to Warsaw as your final destination, I need to see your Covid pass”. I’m not actually sure that was right, as Poland doesn’t need the pass any more, so I spent about three minutes (that feels a long time when you know you’re holding up the queue) trying to find my older one, which he said would be sufficient. He was very helpful and after a few seconds of panic that I had forgotten to do something I should have done, I was ready to board.

I don’t know why they were using such a large aircraft, the Airbus A350-900, as the flight wasn’t that busy and it isn’t the usual aircraft that I’ve been on when shunted onto this service before. I was very pleased with it though, as it’s also a long-haul aircraft and I haven’t been on such a large aircraft since 2019.

I rarely get to see these sort of images, as British Airways opted out of the camera installation which isn’t relatively that expensive, they just claimed their passengers wouldn’t want it. I do, I like watching the plane from above and below, it’s quite surreal as it’s not the sort of image I’m used to seeing.

I had the entire row of three seats to myself, so I could lounge out and enjoy my free blueberry juice.

There was in-flight entertainment, so I watched an episode of Bear Grylls doing something adventurous with Alex Honnold, who I watched on board a BA flight a few years ago climbing with ropes in the film Free Solo (I mean I watched him on the BA in-flight entertainment, he wasn’t on the aircraft climbing things, although that would have been exciting). The series is Running Wild with Bear Grylls, it’s the sort of thing that my friend Liam would be excited to be on, it’s full of adventure and danger. I’d rather be in the pub than jumping out of aircraft or eating rattlesnakes.

We landed and I was transfixed watching the servicing of the aircraft underneath me. I hope British Airways change their minds and install these in the future, they’re very informative about how aircraft are serviced after landing, it’s all precisely timed.

I wasn’t in business class as I’m not that decadent, that’s the sort of thing my friend Richard does as he spends a lot of money on things he doesn’t need, but it looked really rather comfortable.

And there’s the aircraft.

I very much enjoyed visiting the non-Schengen Finn Air airport lounge a few weeks ago, but the Schengen one was much smaller and it was at near capacity when I went to it. The staff were friendly, although it’s the first time I’ve gone into a lounge and the check-in process has been via a scanner checking my boarding pass rather than a human inspecting it. The food wasn’t very exciting, a tray of pasta and a tray of cooked vegetables. It’s not exactly Michelin cuisine, nor actually is it even Greggs cuisine.

They had some feta salad with cooked vegetables, but I’d rather have had something cold and crisp with it, it was all very bland. I greedily got two slices of cheesecake as they looked delicious, but they weren’t very nice either. I can’t complain as this was all free, but I just got my hopes up from how good my experience had been before.

I had a couple of hours in the lounge and it got much quieter during the second half of my visit.

Wine and biscuits. I don’t know anything about wine to comment on the quality of that, but they needed some custard creams I thought. Or Jaffa Cakes, that would have been very good.

My laptop and I moved to the window to watch the aircraft. There were lots of power points in the lounge which was handy, so that I could get everything charged ready for the second flight.

All much more sedate when most people had left.

The self-pour selection.

I left the Finn Air lounge a little disappointed it wasn’t as good as their other one in the same airport, but I enjoyed the friendly service, the clean environment and indeed the entire airport felt relaxed and comfortable.

The flight to Warsaw was on a smaller aircraft.

The aircraft was at near capacity, so no empty row for me this time. The curtain between business class and economy is right at the front on this flight, there were just two people in business class. One of the debates on FlyerTalk is whether customers in economy should be able to use the washrooms in business class. usually it’s preferred not to, but on this flight, I saw the crew turning back three customers and sending them to the back of the aircraft to wait. I thought that was petty and it caused them service problems as then customers were trapped behind trolleys in the aisles and the crew had to reverse back up to let them pass. I don’t know how many washrooms they had on this aircraft, probably two at the rear and one at the front. Having one washroom for two customers and the other two for eighty customers doesn’t really make sense, however much you want to offer a differentiated service for business customers.

The crew member made an announcement at the end saying “please let business class passengers off first” which caused amusement as there were only two of them, and she looked annoyed people had laughed. I just thought it was all a bit odd, although it didn’t impact me.

Finn Air offer free blueberry juice and water, with other items being chargeable. I was quite happy with my blueberry juice.

The flight landed on time and I was through Warsaw airport security quickly enough, even though I (and others from the UK, it’s not just me) now have to wait in a queue separate to everyone else as I was from the UK and not in Schengen. I love being back here, it’s the railway station underneath Warsaw airport, which means I’m back in what is now my favourite city.

Warsaw landmarks on the seats, the train spotlessly clean and it cost me 74p for my ticket to the hotel. Bargain.

I was staying at the Warsaw Airport Mercure hotel again, one of my favourites and I’ve stayed there ten or so times I think now. It’s the smallest room I’ve been given in this particular hotel, but they said I might enjoy the tea theme of the room, so I thought that sounded interesting.

I wasn’t going to run out of tea.

My welcome gift and I always appreciate the gesture, even if it is mostly fruit. Indeed, as fruit goes, it was rather nice.

Pictures, all part of the tea theming of the room.

I liked it, there’s something quite fun about hotels having these individually designed rooms, it seems to be something that a few Accor hotels in the city are doing. Having quirky little elements like this makes things just a little more interesting, especially when it’s a room that I haven’t had before.

That’s the end of today’s little instalment. It was good to be back in Warsaw, I very much like it here.

June 25, 2022
Saturday : Leaving Bev, the Barcelona Airport Lounge, BA into Heathrow and Bus to Hotel

Saturday was the day that we were all returning back to the UK, Bev on Ryanair as she likes the jeopardy, with Ross and I departing with British Airways a little later on during the day. Without a huge desire to traipse heavy bags around for the day, we thought that we’d walk slowly around the city and then get onto the Metro to the airport. And that day started with a delicious goat’s cheese roll with doughnut and coffee at Cafe Bazar, with the advantage of people watching as the cafe windows overlooked the busy nearby market. I can’t recall a city with so many cafes, this was my sort of city….

It was a bit hot, but these narrow streets do a very decent job of shading walkers from the overheat sun pounding down on them.

Pub one and needs must… This was a sheltered terrace so that I wasn’t sitting in the sun itself, but it allowed Bev to feel free in the outdoors. We pondered whether we might have been better with the pub next door as their food looked quite exciting, but I got beer of sorts and that sufficed me. I know my loyal readers (or reader might be nearer the mark) might comment that this sounds very relaxed of me, but I had already accepted I wouldn’t be getting craft beer on this day.

Free olives, I was sold on this pub after that.

Bev, busy looking at the football scores, she was a nightmare doing that, always wanting to see how her favourite teams were getting on and getting the latest news on the transfer markets.

After the pub we had a little walk through the nearby park, which offered views over the city.

The second pub and more free olives. Bev ordered some dumplings as well, Ross gave up on beer and I just had to tolerate what they had. Such a trooper….

I’m glad I have a new phone now, as my old one didn’t produce the quality of the photos I’d like (obviously it can’t possibly be my fault that this photo is blurred). This was us waving goodbye to Bev as she was departing from a different terminal. I’m pleased to report that she got back safely with Ryanair and National Express, but that’s the end of Bev’s story on this blog. She was marvellous company as usual, glad that she’s out and about again.

That meant just one more stop on the Metro to get to Terminal 1, where we were departing from. As I mentioned earlier on in the week, I was impressed with the Metro system, it was clean, reliable and we rarely had to wait for more than a couple of minutes. Other than when Bev posted her ticket into the machine itself, we had no issues with the tickets either.

Safely at the airport with its grand sweeping spaces which felt rather under-used. Think of the number of craft beer bars that they could fit in there.

Ross wanted to go to Burger King, it says one minute but it took us about half an hour to find the bloody thing.

Not that I’ve ever tried smoking, and it’s not exactly likely I ever will, but this is a good idea for an airport, having an external outdoors area which is embedded within the airside section of the building. Smokers can then do what they want in this area, away from sensible non-smokers.

The lounge was easier to find than Burger King and we were welcomed in by a friendly member of staff and it’s fair to say that I was surprised at just how large it was. There were also plenty of power points which transpired to be useful.

More of the spacious lounge and I noticed that the staff were obsessively cleaning, always reassuring.

The food and drinks area, with a range of high and low seating. I prefer high seating and so we perched about three metres from the food for about three hours. What a time to be alive….

Cold meats and cheeses, some of my favourite food and quite a lot of this disappeared quite quickly as I needed to test its quality on numerous occasions.

Light bites. Ross had already gone to Burger King as the reviews of the lounge that we had already read didn’t make it sound very decadent, but I’m glad I didn’t get anything as I was surprised and delighted with the food options here. I took the risk that food would be available as I was hungry (again) and the lounge didn’t let me down.

There was a selection of pre-made rolls, or customers could make their own.

Pastries and biscuits.

It wasn’t busy at this time in the late afternoon, but it got much busier later on, but it was never going to be anywhere near capacity. This is the non-Schengen lounge, there’s another one for those boarding Schengen flights. I won’t mention that I’m quite jealous of them, as that might suggest how much I quite like the border-free arrangement of most of the EU.

They had three different beers which at least gave me some variety, although there was nothing that surprised and delighted me in that regard. There were plenty of different soft drinks though, so no shortage of choice and there were some spirit options as well.

The hot food only came out a little later on in the day, I’m not entirely sure why they couldn’t have been more generous with the hours that this was served. The portions were small, but the food had a depth of taste, and it was easy to just get another portion. This was the chicken curry, which wasn’t overly hot in terms of spice, but the chicken was tender and flavourful. The pasta was perhaps a little bland though.

Off we go, we were the 19:10 flight to London Heathrow.

This isn’t the plane we were getting, but I liked the view out of the window over the tarmac. The airport itself was spacious with plenty of seating and nowhere felt particularly busy, although it was clearly a well-used terminal.

The boarding gate and everything was neat and organised here, with plenty of seating. There was boarding by group number, which meant we could get on to board early on, giving me sufficient space to put my bag over my seat. I mention this as one group of three people put their bags in the overheads by the exit row seat before walking about twenty rows back, which gave the crew later on at the empty gaps for bags were at the back of the aircraft. I’m not sure why passengers do this, they’re in danger of the crew moving the bags into the hold if no-one in the vicinity identifies them as theirs.

Our aircraft, and again I’m writing this too far after the event to work out what the registration number was to see if I’d flown on this before. A pointless hobby of mine I accept, but it occupies me for a few minutes.

Boarding the aircraft, with the crew being friendly and personable. I wore my mask out of habit on the aircraft and only noticed mid-way through the flight that nearly no-one else was, namely because they weren’t required. It occurred to me that unless there’s another outbreak then this might have been the last time that I had to wear a face mask, so that’s the end of an era. Or, at least, I hope it’s the end of an era.

I had an exit row seat and there was no-one else in the row. Given that, during the flight I went to find Ross who was stuck at a middle seat somewhere near the back and suggested he moved forwards, which he did.

The usual snack on-board, so I can’t write anything different to what I usually do, which is it’s basic but I appreciate having something provided. Perhaps British Airways could though at some point rotate the snacks, as those customers who fly weekly deserve a little change. Maybe they could offer Hula Hoops, or something just that bit more decadent such as Roast Beef Monster Munch.

We sailed through security into T5 without any delays, always a relief when getting late at night. It was a quick walk to the bus stop at T5 to get the first of our two buses.

Waiting at the bus stop for the second bus to get us to the hotel and this is the Longford Pump, a Victorian water pump.

The accommodation situation wasn’t ideal, but the cheapest hotel in the area was the Holiday Inn Express and Ross and I can’t afford the luxury of the Sofitel that Richard always goes for. We got to the hotel just before midnight and I, as usual, had worried that they would have given our rooms away, but my concern was unnecessary. Although, that reminds me, they didn’t bother to reply to my email saying we’d be arriving late, so I’m now post-annoyed as I had forgotten I had sent that. Our hotel was the Holiday Inn Express T5, although it’s not hugely convenient for T5 if I’m being honest, as it requires two buses or taking the over-priced Hoppa Bus which I haven’t used for the best part of a decade.

I’ll take this opportunity to write a little about Barcelona, although I’ve alluded already to my thoughts about this rather really marvellous Spanish city. I was very much of the opinion that this was a city at ease with itself, as although Barcelona has problems with so much accommodation turned into holiday lets, the heart remains. The markets are vibrant, there are endless cafes, the food is of a decent quality, the people were friendly and the streets were clean. The beach area contrasted with the bustling city centre, the suburbs maintained their own identity and last, but definitely not least, there was decadent craft beer. I look forwards to going back, this was a city that felt on-trend, modern and well-run, I liked and enjoyed it very much. And thanks to Ross and Bev for keeping me company.

May 24, 2022