How to see two European cities for less than £10 an hour, on the ultimate day trip | The Independent

Pity the summer season traveller. Britain’s aviation business is designed on the premise that airways will commerce at a loss for a lot of the time. However in July and August fares soar, permitting airways to make hay and presumably even flip a revenue whereas the solar shines.

Take the preferred route from Gatwick to Barcelona. On Saturdays in July, even the delinquent first flight of the day on British Airways will price you £135 one-way or extra. Most midweek days this winter, make that £35.

Even these unable to take a lot break day can seize the day and splice collectively a world journey.

Overlook your toothbrush: from London, Birmingham, Manchester and lots of different main airports, you possibly can feast on sunshine, tradition and delicacies for lower than the price of a one-way Anytime practice ticket from Watford to Warrington (at present £169). And in the event you’re cautious with scheduling, you possibly can discover two nice cities, whereas having a significant period of time in every and attaining some “firsts”. Right here’s how I mixed Barcelona and Lisbon – extra alluring than Watford. And Warrington.

I travelled from London, not on the costly Gatwick Specific (£19.90), however the cheaper Thameslink practice from St Pancras by way of Blackfriars (£10.70). Airport safety is helpfully swift, which is simply as properly as a result of the screens are warning the Barcelona flight, BA2706, will shut at 6.37am. Gate 38 appears a great distance.

Departure time on British Airways from Gatwick to Barcelona, for which I paid £35.10 every week earlier. Annoyingly, a kerfuffle over cabin baggage and the necessity to transfer a few of it to the maintain causes a delay. On a day journey, you don’t want a lot baggage: guidebooks, maps, units of your alternative. And, optimistically, sun shades.

The pilots made up a lot of the misplaced time. Contemplating it’s the seventh-busiest airport in Europe, getting from the arrival gate to the Metro station in 16 minutes, together with shopping for a €4.50 ticket, is sweet going. It’s my first time utilizing the airport Metro, which unhelpfully runs tangentially to the town centre.

The opening glory of Antoni Gaudi opened in November 2017 and that is my first likelihood to see it (admission €16). The architect made his title with this fee for a stockbroker, Manuel Vicens. The home has since change into a Unesco World Heritage Website, and because of an Andorran financial institution has been splendidly replenished as a vacationer attraction. Moorish design meets Modernism in a homage to Catalonia. As I go away, tattoo parlour reverse, Katarsis, gives one other potential first, however I decline the chance and hop on the Metro (€2.15) to Liceu.

Liceu is the Metro cease midway alongside Barcelona’s prime artery, adjoining to the colors, cacophony and flavours of La Boqueria market. However despite the fact that it’s a very long time since my in-flight picnic somehere above the Massif Central, I preserve strolling by means of the engrossing Raval district to expertise my first meal on the metropolis’s best-value restaurant. On Carrer L’Hospital, a good three-course lunch (together with bread, a drink and a 50 cent tip) at La Monyos will set you again €7.50 because it fills you up on Caribbean-influenced delicacies (the homeowners are from the Dominican Republic).

Conveniently the bus turns up at 1.30pm. In return for €5.90, I’m on the airport in 25 minutes, with over an hour to spare earlier than the second flight of the day. The subsequent two phases of my journey are on TAP Portugal. It offered me a Barcelona-Lisbon and a Lisbon-Heathrow flight as a by means of ticket €78.85 (£72), with virtually 5 hours between them to spend within the Portuguese capital. Assuming flight TP1039 is on time at 3.05pm.

Annoyingly, once more it’s late leaving, costing 13 minutes. Nevertheless it was a cheerful flight. From my self-allocated (the aircraft was solely half-full) window seat on the proper, I skilled for the primary time the fun of flying south-west alongside the Mediterranean coast. Above Tarragona the pilot turned inland, over the rugged crumple of mountains that defines inland Spain, offering a tremendous backdrop for a most agreeable lunch.

By way of frills for passengers who pay solely a pittance, TAP Portugal is high of the European league, which is why I selected the airline for two-thirds of my flying. Quaintly, it nonetheless supplies meals for economic system passengers, and serves them with tumblers crammed with wine poured generously from full bottles.

Regardless of the late departure, we arrive 10 minutes early – and I declare again the hour I misplaced flying from the UK to Spain; Portugal is on GMT. With no passport management (the journey was intra-Schengen), I’m out in good time for the 4pm bus into city (€4 return).

I arrive on the waterfront simply as P&O’s Ventura chooses to set sail alongside the broad Tagus estuary. I’m completely happy for the cruise passengers that they are going to arrive subsequent morning someplace beautiful – Cadiz in south-west Spain – however unhappy that they miss out on the enjoyment of a night in Lisbon. I received’t.

It’s 12 hours since I boarded a practice to Gatwick, so I want a espresso; it’s been 18 months since I final visited this grand cafe at Rua Garrett 120. The value of an espresso (“um bica”) has now declined from €1 to simply 70 cents – nevertheless it stays as convivial and atmospheric as ever, with tobacco-stained woodwork and pale mirrors, and a tremendous beginning gate for a ramble throughout the excessive and once-mighty streets of Chiado.

A ultimate first: the most cost effective bar in a western European capital. The client turnover at this raucous, no-sign tavern is speedy, as staff swig swiftly on their manner dwelling. The wine is surprisingly good contemplating the value: 55 cents. Sure, even with a pathetic pound, there may be someplace in western Europe the place you will get two very beneficiant drinks in an fascinating bar for beneath a pound.

My exuberance at a heavenly day begins to erode because the airport bus obtained caught in unaccountably heavy visitors. The Heathrow flight leaves in 35 minutes. A bit tight, however certainly no drawback? I proceed at strolling tempo to the indicators for the safety examine which appears to be staffed by work experiencers extra desirous about gossiping than processing.

After quarter-hour, I’ve to ask to queue bounce. Having cleared safety, my issues are solely simply starting. Indicators say that Gate 41 is a minimal of quarter-hour away. As I begin to dash, it turns into clear that Lisbon Terminal 1 is a advertising and marketing maze set as much as extract money from passengers with extreme “dwell time” – the other of my drawback proper now.

I’m not fairly final to board. My seat, 9D, is purple, which suggests I get three inches of additional legroom plus mains electrical energy for my laptop computer and a USB charger for my telephone. Folks in “inexperienced” seats get nothing.

A 3rd delayed departure of the day and, after landing at a quiet Heathrow, an absurdly protracted look ahead to a gate at Terminal 2. However the Tube into central London continues to be operating (£3.10 off-peak) and I really feel I’ve packed an extended weekend of nice journey experiences right into a day. Time to do the accounts. The flights totalled £107; all the things else added one other £50. That provides as much as rather a lot lower than the Watford-Warrington practice, and represents lower than £10 per hour for the time between leaving Gatwick and returning to Heathrow.