04-11-2024 Entry

I got up at 7:00 from a sound sleep, when Ann's alarm went off. Packed up most of my stuff and grabbed a shower after Ann. Then I finished packing and took the dogs out for their morning constitutional, while putting my bags in the car. Mark and Karmi got up to see us off. Once we were in the car, there was a moment when it wasn't clear if we could get a cell data signal to map out directions to the airport. We did, once we got into La Bisbol,and we were off. As we were nearing the outskirts of Barcelona, we heard about an accident that caused us to change our route and slowed us down. Successfully navigated and a little stressful. Stopped near the airport for gas, which was also a little stressful due to confusing navigation instructions. But we made it, the car, an Opel Corsa, turned out to be a diesel. To the airport, where we headed to Terminal 1 but didn't see OK Mobility on the rental car return sign, and the terminal didn't look familiar. So we drove over to Terminal 2, and the adventure began. The signs for car rental return were non-existent, so we followed Google Maps directions that got us back to the office in the terminal where I rented the car. But we couldn't figure out how to get into the car rental lot. I talked to an employee who didn't peak much English, and I thought I understood his directions. But when I tried to follow them, they took me to an entrance that was partly blocked by a barricade. I squeezed through but then found myself in a paid parking lot with no way to get out. I walked back to the desk in the terminal, since the lady in the lot didn't speak English. They sent out a guy, David, who turned out to be a lifesaver. He walked with me over to the parking lot and got some instructions from the attendant there on how to get into the rental car lot. The way we got in there was definitely dodgy, not the normal way, but it worked. However, it was quite stressful there for a while. We dropped off the car, and the rest of the process for getting on the plane went smoothly, no problems with bringing our backpacks on board. The flight had a slight delay on the ground but landed in Amsterdam on time. We knew the drill for getting the train into the city, it was crowded and we had to stand for the trip. Not super bad. Ann had the instructions to take the ferry to the north and walk several minutes. It went fine, and we met Guchan at the Airbnb. It's his personal place, functional but smelling of cigarette smoke and in a run-down area, albeit right by the water, which is nice. I think we can make it work. We walked to the discount supermarket nearby and got stuff for dinner, rice with masala sauce. I was hungry because I skipped lunch. I caught up on blogging in the evening.