And on my "long weekend in the sun once the autumn darkness hits" plans.

Day 2 in Sitges and I started it with another run, albeit a bit less than yesterday (just 8k) mainly due to the fact that I slept much longer and thus it was noticeable warmer already - but hey, its a vacation after all, so sleeping in is kind of the purpose here 😉

Breakfast was as nice as always, yet much fuller. The hotel is close to 100% capacity right
now and it shows. After breakfast it was just off to the pool for some sun and a good book.

In the afternoon, I felt like a long walk through Sitges can‘t hurt, so let me take you along.


Sitges Train station - frequent trains run to
Barcelona Sants in about 30-35 mins, its a nice and easy commute from here.
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...8cca1ead4.jpeg

The Old Town of Sitges is made up of many small streets, mostly car-free and many of these are filled with nice shops, little bars and cafes and a lot of crafts stores.
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...eff6cd21d.jpeg
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...c7dddf488.jpeg
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...ee84d5dfa.jpeg


In many of these small streets, you can find beautiful old houses with almost mystical little gardens. And many of them are still home to local residents (and luckily not AirBnB‘s).
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...0ce9a2cec.jpeg

Sitges is also known for its tradition of tiles and you can not just find them as decoration on houses but also as i.e. street signs.

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...37d89a22b.jpeg
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...f6ff6393c.jpeg



The beaches are never far away from the Old Town streets, so thats where I headed to next.

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...60c2f7492.jpeg
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...69876d484.jpeg

On the beach side, the Old Town is kind of separated into an Eastern and a Western side through a hill, on top of which you can find the Church of Sant Bartomeu, which also offers beautiful views across the bay.

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...30f51d50b.jpeg
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...d09124025.jpeg

The beaches continue on the other side of the hill, with a beach boulevard of approx 2.5 kms (this is i.e. part of my daily running track…)

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...a992f5bee.jpeg

Sitges is also know for a lot of art that can be found everywhere around town.

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...9af06d85a.jpeg

The next order of the day was to fuel up on coffee and maybe a cake… Cafe Montroig is always a good choice for that, offering nice seating in a historic atrium as well as a lush garden.

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...6f4b47c2a.jpeg
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...b2e5ab480.jpeg

Since I did not have lunch, some carrot cake seems like the right thing to order right now…
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...a56aa7f7e.jpeg

From here on, it was just back to the hotel and down to the pool… it‘s a vacation, after all 😎

Return trip to Frankfurt

It's time to head back home after 3 really nice days in Sitges. We have some plans for the weekend and on Monday, it's already back in the air: over to Paris for some work and then a visit to the Olympics (including tickets for Beach Volleyball and Tennis.. really looking forward to that!). But first things first...

After the morning run, it's time for breakfast and being so early means that the outdoor space is very empty and quiet - perfect.
Once I am done with all my favourites from the buffet, I feel like a quick nap is the next order of the day - and I wake up 90 mins later. So much for my plans to hang out by the pool :-)

A last view of what I am leaving behind... see you soon again, Sabatic!

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...345136794.jpeg


Around noon, I am leaving the hotel and take the bus back to the hotel. It's onetime, fast and cheap... all good here.


Arriving into the terminal at BCN, you can tell that its high season... the terminal is quite packed by BCN standards and I make a quick detour by the LH checkin desks - they are pretty busy and I can imagine a lot of people are still stranded from yesterday's shuttered FRA ops.

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...9e40a0698.jpeg
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...16201d336.jpeg



Also, my flight will be packed. Even though the seat map on EF shows 5 empty seats in the small J cabin, availability is shown on EF as J0 Y0 etc... so def. some operational upgrades today. But all good, I am in my favourite seat anyways and I am always happy for fellow status passengers when they get treated with an OpUp.

From there, it's over to the Fast Track at BCN, where I have never ever waited for more than 5 minutes in the past. They are really well organised and quick there.

But today is the one exception, yet it's not the fault of the airport: Two passengers are trying to bring a total of 3 large suitcases (each of them too big for the overhead bin alone) plus one huge box onto their flight... noway that's gonna work but there are a lot of debates and even the police has to be called over. After 10 minutes the line finally moves again ad the couple needs to take the walk of shame back to the checkin counter with their household stuff... if they would fly on Vueling today, it will easily cost them 200 EURs in excess luggage that's how much and big the bags were that they tried to bring onboard. People....

Once I am through security, I am heading over to the lounge. LH (as most airlines here) is contracting with the Airport's Pau Casals Lounge, a really nice place given that it's a common user lounge.

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...b6cb5eaed.jpeg


But today, it's a zoo... Summer peak travel brings out the worst in people, I am afraid...

There is garbage left over almost everywhere, tables filled with half-empty plates of food, people with their blank feet on the couches, a group of 20-somethings in flip flops, trying to stuff their Gucci man bags with cookie from the sweets bar and so on... where did all the common sense and good manners go? Call me old (FYI, I am below 50 :-) ), but this is not how I was raised.

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...60a2f55bd.jpeg
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...af4622068.jpeg


When I try to sit down in one of the more quite corners, a young lady starts to videotape for TikTok, Instagram or whatever: sitting in Yoga-style on a couch, making sure her hair is adequate and asking her InstaBoy (Is that what they are called?) to adjust the location of the tripod... that's the moment I leave....

I finally find a really quiet corner near the buffet area and grab a small plate of food plus a water. While the lounge is usually quite pleasant, today I won't stay long.

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...523a3aded.jpeg


Oh, and the staff is really trying their best, they are everywhere to refill the buffet, clean tables etc, but it's a bit of a lost mission. Well, let's head over to the gate then...

Arriving in the gate area, pre-boarding for families with small kids and HON Cirlce members has just started (Group 0/PRE) and I let the families with their kids go first before then joining the line in the end - somebody in the Group 1 and 2 line gives me big look of disbelieve and shakes his head. I ask him in a friendly manner if he is also Group 0 and invite him to go before me… which he refuses.

I settle into my seat and moments later, Mr Shaking-My-Head appears and sits in my row - I congratulate him on the OpUp and have a grin on my face while he quickly hides his new OpUp boarding pass 😂

BCN LH ground staff are one of the best ground staff I've encountered - within the LH network. The lounge is indeed quite good in general, but sadly it's a PP lounge and access can be bought by those flying the LCC, so indeed with access open to all, the variety of behavior we see can be very interesting.

Cheers!

We leave the gate position with a delay of around 15 mins and are quickly in our way to the runway. After a QR A350, its our turn and we on the way to FRA, wirh a flight time of 1hr 40mins.

Once in the air, inflight service starts, but I skip the meal and instead, enjoy the very nice views today.

The city of Marseille (again):

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...ca342aac4.jpeg

We then overfly the Alps, including stunning views of Mont Blanc:

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...da8b4155f.jpeg
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...f0b6a4b85.jpeg
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...4d2ab79c8.jpeg
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...59cf35727.jpeg
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...ecd4bd2ae.jpeg

We then fly by Lake Geneva and cross into German airspace:

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...926a46888.jpeg

It starts to get cloudy after that and I turn to my book until I hear the well-known „bing“ of the seatbelt sign, a reminder that we are on final approach into FRA.

The city of Neu-Isenburg, just breaking through the clouds:

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...c31a33301.jpeg

We come in to land on the northern runway, adding at least an extra 10-12 mins of taxi time until we get to the gate.

FRA T2 and T1 A&B:
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...4ff4353b7.jpeg
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...183b667d8.jpeg

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...bd67f2eef.jpeg


In the end, taxiing took a good 20 mins and thus my train home is gone… well, I guess I „must“ stop in the First Class Lounge now for a coffee, instead of waiting on the boring train tracks… it‘s a tough life, I know.

Thanks for following along on my first trip report. Next up: Paris next week, for work and for the Olympics…

Great Photos! What are you using?

Just my iPhone SE 🙈

Wow! I clearly need to work out how to use my iphone camera properly :D

SE! now that's results.

As a sidenote, I only just recently realized that since I am shooting on an iPhone, and writing on an iPad, I should be able to streamline my process a bit. Planning to test it next weekend, when I also end up in Paris. Flying there, train back.

Hope you write some more TR this was enjoyable to read

Just re-read that, it sounds suspiciously like a promise to write a trip report :D

Mayhaps it were :D