Continuing the Uddstrom's European Adventure (2026): On the Way… The First Challenges

Barcelona

08-10 Feb 2026

The day finally came – 08-Feb-2026, our departure date for this “adventure” – for old(er) folks.

Our very first Challenge was being allowed to leave. At check in, in Christchurch,
the “system” duly noted that our stay in the Schengen Zone was a little long – if we didn’t have a Visa to stay more than 90 days in the Zone. Some discussion followed, including review of the message from the Spanish Embassy in Wellington… and the suggestion that we would leave Spain after about 4 weeks, then re-enter again… on the same day… via a side trip to Gibraltar (that British enclave that continues to buck a Spanish take over – perhaps the Spanish will take some guidance from Donald when it comes to matters of hegemony?). This should ensure that our 90-day visa for Spain is “good”, and our time here in Spain does not get counted against our 90-day limit in the Schengen Zone. I trust you followed those manoeuvrings.

The second Challenge – getting an aisle seat on the Auckland to Singapore flight. On approaching the gate agent in Auckland the answer was – the flight is full. But after being passed up the chain of command – an aisle and middle seat were released – and all was well in the world. Which in this case was an Airbus 380 with around 470 souls on board plus a staff of 23 and 3 pilots. We slept fitfully… at 12.125km altitude (that’s 40,000 ft in the old units) but after 8.5 hours, and two meals (one of which had the appearance of a David Seymour school lunch – but it “tasted OK”… just like the school lunches, apparently) arrived in Singapore.

The flight from Singapore to Frankfurt was not a challenge! The Economy Class cabin was probably less than 40% full – so we were able to take turns to lie down across 3 seats… and sleep – quite reasonably. Although it turns out that sleeping on the floor at the front of cabin, adjacent to the bulkhead is frowned upon… because, as the flight attendant noted… the Oxygen Mask won’t reach that far, madam! Nothing about the absence of a seat belt at that level! Clearly a case where Economy Class was as good as Business Class (apart from the food) at a fraction of the cost – which was just as well as it was a 12h 56m flight, which on the initial flight path plan took us straight over Ukraine… but the real one took us over the Black Sea just off the coast of Turkey. It was hard not to think of the devastation being wrought by Russia – just a few hundred km to the north of our flight path.

The third Challenge was passing through the border control to the Schengen Zone, in Frankfurt. As the Policeman asked – so how long are you planning to stay in the European Union? About 120 days… But you visa only allows you to stay 90 days… Sir, I have this message from the Spanish Embassy saying our time in Spain doesn’t count etc etc… and we’ll visit Gibraltar so that we can enter Spain for 90 days … He smiled, wondered if we were retired, noted that he could see we had been here before (when we overstayed for 90 days, in 2019…) stamped our passports and we were “in”.

To celebrate – we bought 2 croissants, a Cappuccino and a Hot chocolate - €24 (call that $50!) – but they were nice…

The flight to Barcelona was a doddle at just under 2h – in a Lufthansa Airbus 320 – that was like a Jetstar flight… no video monitors, no reclining seats, no food and nor much room! Karilyn got to talk with her seat neighbour, a German who works for Mercedes as a software engineer ,the very fast ones. The flight along the coast of northern Spain was illuminating… wall to wall cities... and behind them – high mountains covered with snow. And Barcelona looks “vast” – but has a population of only 1.7 million… only a little larger than Auckland – but with a large public transport network (below and above ground)… indeed – when changing lines on coming in from the airport we ascended 7 escalators (+ stairs) at one station. Which brings us to one other point: our plan for 2 backpacks and a suitcase evolved into 2 backpacks, a suitcase and a small carryon equivalent suitcase… which further evolved into 2 backpacks (around 7kg each), and 2 suitcases (around 20kg each)… and the latter are unpleasant on stairs!

And so we arrived at our Hotel (Apartment), just a few hundred metres from the main Sants Railway station for Barcelona,42 hours after departing our house. We are on the 7^th floor, and have a lovely view of Montjuic – which we will travel up this morning – for views of the city etc. But back to yesterday, our Apartment is lovely… but “bare”… just 2 toilet rolls, 2 dishwasher tabs, no tea towel, and extra charges if we want additional “Services”. But there is a “large supermarket” nearby we are told – so off we went to buy some supplies… Large meant about 50% of the size of the NW in Rangiora – but the prices were good – only €37 bought us breakfast for 4 days, bread, fruit, fruit juice, coffee (yes the Bialetti has been operated this morning), tea, and last night's dinner (a potato “quiche” + pork sausage) and 6 rolls of TP! And a walk in the streets was lovely – as is the outside temperature 10-17.