Home with most of what we left with......

Loose women didn't seem to be a problem in Barcelona but the pickpockets were true to their reputation. Despite our precautions, they found a vulnerable area and took immediate advantage and P's iPhone has a new home. He noticed it quickly and
we were able to make fast contact with Jon via texting on the iPAD (somehow it can be done without using expensive data) and he was able to disable the phone remotely (did we raise a HACKER?) He also changed some passwords and such very quickly. He thinks they don't want the phone data, just the phone and it is quickly swiped, a new SIM card put in and on the market ASAP. We do have password locks on our phones to slow access somewhat...... We feel very supported by our smart sons and could have gone to anyone of them and they would have accomplished the same thing but we had been discussing with Jon the texting on the iPad so that was our first call for help. We did access the ATT website to try and disable the phone but that was a useless and inexplicably difficult website to deal with and we never did succeed. Maybe a phone call to ATT would have worked but being in another country complicates that access point.

P will now have to replace the phone with the NEW iPhone 4S and will get to have SIRI at his beck and call.... as an aside......I was reading a blog written by a Morman woman and she refers to her husband's iPhone as her "Sister-wife".....!!

Despite the pocket 'snatch and grab' episode, the trip was great. It happened on Thurs evening at the height of the downtown Christmas shopping crowds near the big department store. Think of being in front of Macy's windows in NYC this time of year and this was the throng of crowds we were in...all pushing and squeezing togetherness.

Barcelona is clean, friendly, easy to get around and I didn't see one guy in a BASEBALL cap until we landed in Newark....!
The flight across the pond was over 9 hours. There was one First Class seat available and I know that P was seriously weighing the comfort of that vs. leaving his wife in steerage....he chose the right path. Because the plane was only half full, we got an entire row.....that's 3 seats for each of us with an aisle in the middle......and with lots of blankets and pillows, it made for a nice long nap after a really good lasagna meal. Later, I watched " A Fish Called Wanda"....probably one of the best and funniest movies ever....

And , once we arrived in Newark, we found that Jon was there on his way to Miami......kind of serendipitous that he should be there to see us off and vice versa..... We got to thank him in person for his hacking abilities......

Our flying- standby- luck took a hit a bit later when the full plane left without us but the 8 o'clock flight had a couple of middle row seats and we got home about midnight. (You can always count on the Disney express to have its share of rambunctious children and crying babies).

It is good to be home to the familiar bed, the morning newspaper in English and the K cup coffee maker. It's the little things...............