Barcelona – Capital of Catalonia

Whilst the main purpose of my trip was to visit and tick off Andorra, for practicality I was staying in Barcelona, Spain’s second largest city and the capital of Catalonia. Whilst the bulk of my full day would be taken up with my trip across the border to Europe’s sixth smallest country, I had chosen flights that would allow me time to explore some of the city on my arrival and departure days, given the last time I visited Barcelona was over nine years earlier in Feb 2017. And so, having arrived in Barcelona mid-afternoon, I made my way to Plaza Espanya to check into my hotel, have a rest and then head out to explore some of the city.

Andorra – A Microstate in the Pyrenees

Having arrived in the capital of Catalonia on a British Airways flight from Heathrow, I had two nights in Barcelona before returning to the UK. However, whilst I would be spending plenty of time exploring the city, the main purpose of my trip was to leave the city, and in fact the country, to visit the one remaining European mainland microstate that I needed to tick off. That country, nestled in the Pyrenees between Spain and France, is Andorra. Without a car, the best way to reach the country and its capital, Andorra la Vella, is to take a coach from Barcelona and so, at a slightly too early time in the morning, I was at Barcelona Sants Coach Station, ready to head to another new country.

Heathrow to Barcelona – British Airways in Club Europe

Back in March, with a few days off work, it was time for another trip. This one would be starting as many do, with a flight from London Heathrow, however, would be slightly different as I was fortunate enough to be flying with British Airways (BA) in Club Europe. Having used some Avios points to upgrade myself to BA’s European business class product, it would be interesting to see how my experience differed compared to my various flights recently with the airline in their economy class Euro Traveller cabin. And so, on a Monday in March, I was at Heathrow once again, ready to fly to Barcelona.

Paris Charles de Gaulle to Luton – easyJet in Economy

After a fun day of avgeekery and tourism in Paris, it was time to head home and, as with our flight to Paris earlier in the day, we’d be flying back from Charles De Gaulle to Luton with easyJet. Having had an early start and a full-on day, we were both knackered and so got to the airport around 1820, some 3 hours and 15 minutes before our flight. This gave us plenty of time to get through security and passport control without having to stress, and hopefully some time to relax and grab some food before departure.

Paris – AvGeek and Tourist for a Day

Having arrived at Paris’ Charles De Gaulle Airport (CDG) onboard an easyJet flight from Luton, we had made our way to the Terminal 2/3 RER station ready to head to our first stop of the day. With just over 12 hours in Paris on this extreme day trip, we had plans to tick something off my AvGeek bucket list, before heading into the city itself to get a late lunch and see some of the sights. Unfortunately, whilst our first destination was less than 12km from the airport, it is not the easiest place to get to.

Luton to Paris Charles De Gaulle – easyJet in Economy

Having been back from my Meander to Moldova for about a month, I was getting Wanderlust and so on a random Wednesday in February I headed to London Luton Airport ready to catch a short flight across the English Channel to Paris. Unusually I’d have some company for this extreme day trip, as my dad was joining me for the day, with a plan of seeing both some of the city and ticking off an item from my AvGeek bucket list. We had planned on doing this trip via Eurostar, allowing us both to avoid a late night drive back from Luton, however the cost was extortionate by the time we went to book and so instead, we had a flight to catch, and easyJet were doing the honours from their home airport as we headed to Paris Charles de Gaulle.