Some time ago my friend Rosa, now located in Girona, and I agreed it would be nice to meet up and that the next weekend when we were both available was 19/20 September. Shortly after fixing this, the Guardian Escapes promo offered me seven nights with flights and a hire car for £900 in Lloret de Mar which is less than an hour from Girona.
Just before my departure I transpired that the only day I could meet Daisy and Jerry visiting London from Boston was Tuesday 15. We had a lovely catch up over lunch at the Union Club which Jerry was amazed to find not filled with ancient men with monocles and moustaches – what a disservice films have done to us! We then strolled through Covent Garden to the Sir John Soane Museum to see an exhibition by a Dutch artist I didn’t know. I still don’t as it was closed. However the Hunterian Museum on the opposite side of Lincolns Inn Fields was open and proved fascinating and among the many amazing specimens the Hunter brothers collected, it had a modern day area with a film about knee replacement surgery, highly recommended by a former train driver who had had both hips and knees replaced – one down three to go for me! We then went the the Bridge Theatre to see The Orestaia Simon Stone’s riff on Aeschylus. What a piece of theatre. The obligatory glass box set here worked well to contain the pent-up familial emotions on display. Much of the script is produced during rehearsals which the actors interviewed on the Bridge website found equally confusing, stimulating and liberating. How quickly can three and a half hours pass? Very, when the acting, staging and concepts are this good. Brilliant theatre.
Now to the next day. Up early, walk to Lee Station with carry on suitcase and rucksack, bus from London Bridge to Liverpool Street, Stansted Express to the airport all went swimmingly. Except that the toll on my arthritic knee with added burden was considerable such that I asked Ryanair staff if they could arrange for assistance for me at Barcelona and on my return. A wheelchair, while denting my pride, might get me through the labyrinth more quickly. Part one of day highly satisfactory.
The flight arrived slightly early but no assistance was waiting at the airport. Kind passengers helped my with my cases up the ladder at Stansted and on the ramp at Barcelona. We enter passport control where the content of about a dozen simultaneous flights must have been congregated I use the word carefully – literally thousands. I accosted an agent, showed him my assistance confirmation email and he jumped me up the queue with a few askance glances but because I was accompanied by a hi-viz jacket wearer it was generally accepted. So my expedited passage through the passport control hall only took ONE HOUR AND THIRTY minutes.Chaos doesn’t describe it. Then the instructions for getting my hire car were incorrect but the dispatchers were immensely sympathetic and helpful. RecordGo rental strong recommend. Sadly I need a double USB C cable to use my phone through the car display, but I set off along the Ronda Littoral through seafront Barcelona with fond memories of many past visits and the happy prospect of some restorative sun on my knee. Part two mostly bad with an uptick at the end.
Short lived. As I reach Barcelonetta the heavens open and the remainder of my ninety minute journey are with wipers at full blast and there is flooding in the many tunnels along the route north to Lloret. We got lucky up here as this morning’s TV images from Valencia demonstrated. I found the hotel first go and luckily it is right opposite a Parking so no more stress there. As it is a hotel largely used by package tours like mine despite its misleading name of The Fifteenth Boutique Hotel it is not what I would normally have chosen. It has a lift, and complete miracle 358 is the first on the right out of the lift. Dee and I used to joke that receptionists had been persuaded always to situate us in the room furthest from the lift. Room 358 is spacious and comfortable with a balcony looking over the pool. After a fairly onerous day, I decide to eat at the hotel rather than exploring in the dark with a few spots of rain still falling. Dinner is a buffet with cuisine from all over the world – none of it done with any finesse. The upside was that they had a bottle of Ramon Bilbao Rioja with which I am perhaps too familiar, but it rounded the day off well. Hasta mañana!
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