Now I Know

You can click on this Barcelona Metro map and see the whole

system or you can go to their website and have fun poking around.

I went with R. to the airport the usual way, which is to catch the FGC train (dark blue, S1, S2, S5, S55) in Sant Cugat (not the Renfe train - which is another post), disembark in Plaça de Catalunya, cross the square, and take an Aerobús, which goes directly to the terminal.  The cost is about 8€ total, give or take a bit depending whether you buy a roundtrip bus ticket (save 0.80€) and how you get to the train station.  We usually allow 90 minutes for this trip.  The taxi is about 50€, but takes about thirty minutes.

Less than a year ago the metro opened a line that goes right to Terminal 2 (not quite true since you have walk through the station and across the parking lot in a raised walkway, but it is pretty close).  If you happen to be leaving from Terminal 1 (which most Schengen Zone flights do) you would take a free shuttle between the two.  The metro costs a little less (0.60€) than the bus, but it involves two extra trains compared to one bus that goes right to the terminal door.

The airport is in the lower-lefthand part of the map and
I was trying to get the Provença stop on the right side.

After seeing R. through security I decided to try the new L9 (orange) to see for myself if it was worth the 0.60€ savings.  The train was very empty and very clean and I took it to Collblanc and had to take five (six?  I lost count!) escalators up to get to the next line.  That was spooky to me.  From there I switched to L5 (kind of sky blue), which goes to Diagonal and I was able to connect to Provença underground.  It is easy to catch one of our regular trains there, but since you aren't getting on at the beginning of the line there is less likelihood of getting a seat in the morning.

It definitely was not worth the savings.  The additional walking and additional train added significant time to the trip, plus lugging stuff around before and after a trip is no joy.  At least I know for myself now.

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Oh, gosh.  I wrote that whole blog post and then found several errors!  The L9 (orange) does go to Terminal 1! Plus the Metro people made me buy this 4.50€ ticket and having read a bit more, I think the Rodalies (Renfe within Catalonia) people require only an additional 0.99€ ticket if a person already had a ten-trip ticket, which I do.

At the time I didn't want to use the Rodalies system because the stop is Sant Cugat is not near where I needed to go that morning, but I realize now I could have changed in Barcelona Sants to a Metro train.  I still wonder what happens when travelling to the airport?  Where does one buy that extra 0.99€ ticket?  Maybe I'll find out when I meet R. at the airport later this week.

I still don't think any of these train options are reasonable when trying to catch a flight since they add significant time and adding additional trains leads to concerns about work on the track or other issues. When dealing with luggage it is also a hassle.  If these are not concerns then it is worth saving a bit of money.