The view of angels

These days, we take it for granted - it seems so normal to catch a plane somewhere.

But it is completely unnatural.
This is the source of my anxiety. But these aerial views of the world are breathtaking.

Our flight from London to Barcelona was smooth and beautiful. To be able to see almost the whole of the Isle of Wight just by looking out of the window was remarkable. 

There were four of us travelling in one group, sitting in different parts of the plane. 

On arrival it was noticeable that the automated scrutiny lines moved about 10 times faster than the old-fashioned man-in-a-booth queues.

We collected our luggage, got a taxi into the city and found our apartment. 

It’s on the level called Principal 2, long and spacious with a courtyard at the back and all the bedrooms leading off the long corridor. Everything is spotlessly clean and the wifi very fast. 

Taking advice from the landlady we found a Tapas bar called Lolita. It seemed very bright and noisy and there were no tables available but the waiter sat us at the bar where we had a fine view of everything.

We had a fabulous meal - sharing tastes of the tapas - corn salad and bean salad, olives, deep fried squid, inspirational patatas bravas, iberian ham, mussels and pork ribs. It was like being at the theatre watching the team preparing the food. 

On the way home we called into a small deli and bought fruit and milk to go in the fridge. And then retired. During the night the rain came and I have been serenaded by the sound of drips and drops of water falling down a kind of vertical shaft outside my window. I have been thinking of the extraordinaire revisions I saw on the aeroplane: the sea as smooth as class (apparently), the clouds spread out like a massive white blanket and then the sun’s hocus-pocus red and grey artwork settling itself towards night as we arrived. Today we’ll go out to explore the city.