Day One: Our Airline and Apartment Fiasco

Our Spanish honeymoon was a fantastic series of adventures without a dull moment to spare.  While road tripping from Barcelona we stopped at Tarragona, Valencia, Tabernas, Granada, La Zubia, Ronda, Zahara, Bolonia, Sevilla, Cordoba, Toledo, and finally landed in Madrid.  On our way we saw Roman, Phoenician, Carthaginian, Greek, and Spanish ruins dating back to the 1st century, we practically got lost trekking through the Sierra Nevada, took a detour through the Spanish desert of Tabernas to travel back in time to the Wild Wild West, and experienced Spanish hospitality at its best!

Our honeymoon started a bit bumpy... with American Airlines delaying and then cancelling our flight to JFK airport.  We had to rebook our flights to Barcelona twice and eventually reroute them through Madrid.  We went from having premium economy seats with the honeymoon meal to being placed right in the middle of the plane with two crying kids seated nearby.  Not ideal, but we made it work.  In fact, we were lucky to be landing only about 8 hours later than our original flight, largely due to a "That's not good enough," attitude that I took on when they almost booked us on a flight for the following day.

After just under 24 hours of travel, we had finally made it to Barcelona!  *Sigh… Spain!  Yes!  Let’s get this party started!

One thing was missing.... our luggage.  Yup, our luggage was lost.  

Would you believe after all of this our suitcases, tagged as “priority” luggage, never even made it across the pond to Europe.  We were told that luggage usually arrives within 72 hours.  Great.  I guess a maximum of three days isn't so bad.  So let’s get on with our honeymoon, right?

Now I’m quite the googler when it comes to checking up on hotels and citing reviews.  So prior to booking our Barcelona apartment, I was sure that it would be a good fit… eh...not so much. 

We arrived at a dimly lit apartment, and all seemed decent until I entered the bathroom.  With yellow grime dripping down the side of the faucet into the tub and a toilet bowl that had obviously not been touched in months, I was not the happiest camper.  The person showing us the apartment was clearly embarrassed, and offered to send a maid that day.  Once he left, I meandered around the apartment to check on other surprises I may find.  In my search, I discovered a very well used sponge sitting next to the kitchen sink, and you’re not going to believe this…I found a t-shirt in the microwave!   **Exactly.  SAY WHAT?!

Luckily, we hadn't paid for the establishment just yet.  And after a night full of hammering and sawing from 3 o'clock in the morning forward, we decided to get our butts out of that joint!  You wouldn’t believe how hard it was to get out of paying for three nights in that crummy place!  After tackling this issue with a “That’s not good enough attitude (again),”  we managed to get out of our reservation with only paying for a single night, and found a much nicer establishment just a few blocks away.  We were so happy to be in a clean, nicely lit new home to nest ourselves in for the next few days while we ventured through one of our favorite cities to-date!

**We stayed at Hotel Ciudad.  Highly recommend, clean comfortable, free water bottles, and great foodie neighborhood, El Born.