Marianne & I got there and went our various ways to our check-ins, hoping to meet up afterwards.
My check-in was not yet open when I got there.So I waited patiently (second in line). Eventually they changed the check-in counter by simply opening one that was different to the one advertised. A few people took advantage of this to jump the queue but to their credit it was only a handful.
By the time I got through that I must have missed Marianne and she is now on her way back home.
While waiting at the gate I was surprised at how many of the announcements were for changes to the advertised (and ticketed) gate numbers. Heaps.
People finally started to gather around the gate where I was waiting so I sauntered over. Just as I was going over one of the guys from the check-in queue (an Italian who spoke no English) recognised me as he walked past and informed me (correctly) that the gate was now for a Lufthansa flight and we had been moved to another gate. I must have missed that particular announcement.
Just for good measure, as I got to the newly assigned gate I heard the following announcement (in Italian of course) - "will passenger Agius travelling to Barcelona please report immediately to the gate for more information". My heart sank even before the English version of the announcement. What now?
No biggie in the end, they apparently had double booked the seat and had decided to move me from 7F to 25A. Thank goodness that's all it was.
What a mess! I'm back in Barca now and just recovering from the shock of Germany smashing England 4 - 1. Wow. While at the airport in Barcelona I went to the Tourist Information office. The woman in the queue behind me rang someone and spoke in heavily accented English. :I'm in deep sh*t. I am not booked on the flight. The man showed me my booking was for July, not June. Swiss had a spare seat but they want E450 and I don't have E450:.
Ouch.
Important tip. When booking online, always make sure you click the correct month and year, then double check it.
Marianne sent me an email from Singapore. This is what it said:-
I was probably still in the queue. I got through at close to 11am. The flight was delayed, they were taking 5 to 10 minutes to process each person. Service was appalling, no information, people trying to jump the queue and people getting angry. Had to get an extra train to the gate, then signs pointed you the long way around to go past all the shops. I think we passed your plane on the tarmac
While in the subject of Rome & Organisation, here are a couple more things to be aware of:
- We bought a 3 day Roma Pass for (I think) E26. This gave us unlimited travel on public transport within Rome excluding the airport, plus entry into 2 museums (excluding the Vatican which is another country and therefore not in Rome). Entry to the Colosseum is E12 so you can see it is actually good value and we used the buses and Metro quite a lot. The Roma Pass comes in this beautifully presented pack (almost a gift box actally) but is very short on information about public transport! The included tourist map is reasonable but Marianne had to use my telescope to read the railway & Metro schematic (we decided it is printed in 4-point!). The schematic itself is not very clear, confusing. And buses? Not a mention of them anywhere.
- Buying food and drink involves using a system I haven't seen in a long time, where you pay at a separate counter from where you order. In some cases you pay first, other times you pay on the way out.
Don't get me wrong, we had a great time in Rome, just it's a bit more quirky than the other places we've been to. But hey, even they have completely separated lanes for bicycles (see attached photo) and an express train to the airport, concepts that Melbourne still can't get its head around!
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