I'm finally back in Europe for a decent ride.
I'm here from today, Monday Dec. 28th until Wednesday January 6th.
I rented a 2015 BMW R1200RT (wasserboxer) from IMTbike.com's Barcelona location. I haven't ridden it much yet, but thus far, holy cow it is nice.
I've had a couple adventures already this trip.
When I tried to check-in online for my AC1914 Rouge flight yesterday from YYZ to BCN, the system suddenly spit me out and said I had to get Check-In Assistance at the airport. Hrmph. Note, before I got punted, I had asked for a $241 upgrade to "Premium Rouge" and apparently that "was no longer available as an option".
When I got to the airport, things were bonkers there. I tried checking in at an automated booth, only to be told immediately that I needed a human. Looking at the check-in assistance lineup, I tried 2 other automated booths in a panic. And that's before I discovered that the lineup actually looped around into another isle beyond another row of airline booths. Bonkers.
Eventually, due to my flight's check-in limits, employees came and fetched everyone on the Barcelona flight for a faster line. The attendant wasn't sure why my check-in failed, but she did say that the charge for the seat upgrade had gone through already, though the system told me the option wasn't available anymore. Hrmph. Ahh well, got a nice comfy window seat.
The customs line at BCN was insane, but the officers were doing little more than stamping passports and waving people through. The guy never said even a word to me.
Then BCN had a problem, but in retrospect, I'm REALLY lucky. Imagine hundreds of people standing around our empty and unmoving baggage claim island for 40 minutes when someone happens to turn around and see their bag on another island across from ours. I was a bit miffed because I was looking forward to my "priority" tag on my luggage getting me in and out of baggage claim and into a taxi before the main crush, only to have all our luggage spinning around this distant island. However, when I grabbed my bag, I discovered that something had gotten caught on my bag, torn off the priority tag, and by only like 1mm, nearly completely removed my actual baggage tag. I have to imagine if the baggage tag had been completely removed, I would have been waiting around for a lost bag and my vacation would have been .. compromised.
And then the next adventure.
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And I gotta say, the Apple SIM saved me tonight. I just ripped through 4.5GB over LTE, and it only cost me essentially USD 75. This would not have been an option over KnowRoaming's slow 3G partners (like, all night for the download perhaps), and the hotel wifi was utterly abysmal.
