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Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Ryanair, Cheap but STRICT!
OK, here are the rules plain and simple:
ONE carry-on bag per passenger with a maximum weight of 10 kilos. Ladies, your purse IS your carry-on, CONSOLIDATE!
If you declare that you have a bag to stow (maximum 15 kilos) at the time that you buy your ticket it will cost you an additional ten Euros. If you do not declare your luggage to be stowed online, it will cost you 20 Euros at check-in time.
We got to the airport early by yet another bus ride in order to weigh-in our two carry-ons and our two declared bags to be stowed away.
We were overweight on all four bags. Time for some hard decisions!
The results?
Ryanair Rubbish
These items were left behind. Other items were stuffed into all the pockets of our cargo pants' pockets and my new vest. Laurie wore two pair of pants with a shirt and a dress and sweater over that!
On checking in the two stowed bags were cheerfully accepted and we were on our way!
Sort of.
Laurie took all of this VERY HARD!
We've all seen these racks that serve as guidelines for carry-on size. Nobody ever pays attention to them EXCEPT Ryanair! They have two workers with two of these racks making you put your carry-on into these racks to see if they fit. If not, you've got a problem.
And we did.
Laurie's carry-on is a Brighton travel bag that I bought her for Christmas a couple of years ago. She has used it as her carry-on on numerous flights all over the U.S., Mexico and Europe.
Not today. The wheel base of her bag is about two inches too big to fit so it was a NO GO!
We had to check it at a cost of 20 Euros, DAMN THE IRISH!!!
I will say this, Ryanair's overhead compartments are built so that NOTHING bigger than a carry-on the size of their rack could possibly fit!
Ryanair's Spacious Leg Room
Girona, Spain?
Did I fail to mention that Ryanair doesn't really fly into Barcelona but into Girona about an hour north of Barcelona?
Another bus trip was in order in a rainstorm.
Barcelona's Torre Agbar
Batteries NOT included.
Barcelona's Main Bus Station
Barcelona's Arc di Triomf
Las Ramblas
Barcelona's Exciting Night Life Center
From the bus station, we rode Barcelona's clean and efficient Metro to within two blocks of our hotel.
Not so efficient if you a lugging half of Europe's art treasures in your bags! Something DRASTIC will have to be done about this situation!!!
Taverna Basca Irati
After settling into our hotel room we made a beeline to this GREAT tapas bar. We found it with Joe Mollica last year, loved it, and had to return since we were starved!
Main Dish AND Dessert Tapas
Honor System
Every tapas is skewered with a toothpick. They cost 1.80 Euros each and when you are finished you just turn your empty plate with the toothpicks and they figure out what you owe.
We had 20 toothpicks on our plate.
We were hungry.
So ended a very busy two days of travel.
Laurie Says: It was bad enough to leave at least half of my clothes, shoes, and toiletries, etc. in Sicily in order to make the low 15 kilo weight limit, but then to have to reduce my stuff by about another quarter was excruiating!
2 comments:
I thought that tapas bar looked familiar. I can still taste the food. AWESOME! Thanks for the shout George
Laurie: I am so proud of you! I don't know if I would have been able to do what you did. I guess I should work another year just to pay the extra weight charges when I eventually get to Europe. What an adventure you will be one these next couple of week. See you both soon!!
Koreen
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