Barcelona - 18 September 2011 (1)

Despite my concerns, things seemed to go to plan.  The train from Tonbridge was on time and we made the connection at Redhill with no problems.  As usual, we arrived at Gatwick long before the allocated check in time.  There were no queues – and at times no passengers – at the Easyjet counter and, despite the signs to the contrary, the Easyjet staff were happy to check us in.  To my huge relief, there was no problem with our bookings and our suitcase weighed exactly 20kg – the maximum permitted – so we were soon walking away with our boarding cards.

We picked the wrong queue for the security scan.  We were behind a large party of Indians, who all set off the alarm.  They had to call an extra female security guard to frisk the women.  As we waited, the security guard with the trays said that it was because they couldn’t take off their bracelets, which were put on when they were young.  When it was eventually our turn, we walked through with no alarms.

Despite the hold up, there was still a long wait before our flight, so we had lunch, bought some duty free and found a row of empty seats facing an information screen.  My mum noticed a Boots bag under the seat at the end of the row.  Inevitably, we asked ourselves whether it was left accidentally or whether there was something more sinister inside.  We suspected the former, so did nothing.  The cleaners came by and ignored it completely, so my mum took a look – it contained bottles of flavoured water.

Twenty minutes before the gate was due to open, the screen told us to proceed to gate 102.  Our walk there was quite interesting and included taking a very high up escalator, waking over the taxiway and then taking a steep down escalator down to the gates.

As we went through into the gate, an Italian girl was desperately trying to prove that her hand luggage was small enough to fit into the measuring guide.  The check in guy was not to be persuaded and insisted that she had to check it in.  With Easyjet charging for checked in luggage, it was not surprising that people were pushing the boundaries with the size of their hand luggage, much of which resembled suitcases.

We found a seat and were happy to see our case being loaded onto the plane.  Then there came a garbled announcement about speedy boarding and children under five, which provoked a rush.  Everyone stood up and started queuing to get on the plane.  I thought that boarding would be in waves like the last time I flew Easyjet and that we would be called early as we were checked in third and fourth.  No such luck, though they did hold back the people who arrived at the gate after the announcement.

Boarding was a slow process, probably because people found it difficult to get their large pieces of hand luggage in the overhead lockers.  After a false start, we found two seats near the back of the plane.

We didn’t talk to our neighbour until we were approaching the Pyrenees.  He was called Graham, lived in Cornwall and was a regular visitor to Barcelona.  We met up with him again as we were looking for the best exit from the terminal to catch the airport bus.  He took over as guide and led the way, although a sign pointing to the bus gave us a clue.  The stop included a machine to buy the ticket.  Graham started to use it, but stopped when it gave him no choice but to put in a credit card.  No one was able to use it after that.  Luckily we were able to pay on the bus - €5.30 each.  Graham pointed out terminal C as we drove past.  This is the stop for the Easyjet check in, which was useful to know for the return journey.

The drive into town was pleasant and quick.  Before we hit town, we saw a flock of cattle egrets enjoying a marshy patch of land.  The bus terminated at Plaça de Catalunya, where we said our goodbyes and got off.