FINALLY…and A Lookback.

 It sure seemed quiet after everyone we knew had left. We had “probable seats and flts and were just waiting for the next NEGATIVE test results and new paper work. A very pleasant and honest young man arrived in the afternoon to administer yet a another Covid test. I have been sworn to secrecy by the officials in Spain….but I can say there was a glitch, and then everything was OK, and we were issued new papers. We started packing! 

Next am we arrived at the crowded airport to begin our very convoluted flt home with many stops and a completely different airline….. but by then, we just wanted to GO HOME! We weren’t going argue or make waves. More red tape at the airport and yet another form to fill out for the US government saying we actually were tested and agreed to about 12 questions.    We were so relieved when we were handed out boarding passes and checked our luggage, we went to a coffee shop to have breakfast and relax.  It was then that we actually LOOKED at our boarding pass and saw we were booked on our original airline and it was straight thru to SEATAC.  So that is why there are Miracles in Barcelona. Ciao!

Usually I do a recap of the trip, but this Covid story sort of took over everything else …for awhile. Now, I can laugh at the inconvenience of it all….but at the time…frustration, tiredness, confusion, worry and all that put a damper on the last days.

But Greece was a blast, Italy is always great to be in, and we did get to spend unintended
days in the gorgeous city  of Barcelona. We had good friends to share all the good and all the bad. We met some interesting folks along the way. We ate fabulous food and drank many glasses of good wines. We learned and laughed, and and had fun adventures…some planned and some not…. And that’s  what makes traveling an adventure vs just a trip. Covid definitely caused problems and put a damper on many things…. But we somehow got thru all the issues.  Steve and Bruce were still testing positive as they arrived home and for a week or more. I truly was Negative by the time I arrived home, and Nan, who had escaped Covid completely on trip, came down with it after a week of being home. Go figure.

MIRACLE IN BARCELONA

 We were instructed by emails that there would be ANOTHER covid test after breakfast on Sunday morning. There was a special testing room set aside and all of us gathered and started lining up like robots.   It seemed a big chaotic to me, so I went and found a chair and sat down and decided to wait my turn as the  line grew shorter. I started to notice EVERYONE that had been tested was smiling broadly as they left the site…. Everyone.

Finally, our turn and I was literally the last of all the group to be tested. I guess I should have expected good news, because not one of the group was positive any longer. Miracle in Barcelona. My test was brief, only one nostril and within 2 minutes, they told me I was Negative and good to go home.  Maybe because it was Sunday we all had a miraculous recovery.  Within a couple hours we had our “official papers” , signed by a “doctor” slipped under our room door and arrangements were being made in ITALY for flights back.  It seemed like a good day to celebrate, so our travel buddies, Nan and Bruce joined us and we all walked down to the harbor and beaches, where we mingled with the the locals. It was a gorgeous day and there were alot of people out and about, but we had fun looking at more architecture and markets and big Yachts…..and a really nice lunch at a Spanish tapas place. 

After a long day, and excited to get back and see how our flight arrangements were going…..we walked back. Everyone was packing and comparing notes on departures….now that we were all officially Neagtive….with papers to prove it. Except we weren’t. The flight people were having trouble with Steve and my flights, so making a long story short….. we couldn’t leave the next am with everyone else because they couldn't find seats for us

on flights back to Seattle.

And since the “Covid” test papers are only good for 24 hours……we would have to test AGAIN the next day! Just us…as everyone else was boarding EARLY in the am for flights back to the states. Geeze.