Nov 1 - Barcelona

 Nov 1 - Barcelona

Our last port of call for the Mediterranean part of our cruise is Barcelona. Last night we said good bye to Barb as she heads home to Calgary.

Today Mary and I took a Private tour of the city covering all the main highlights of the city in a half-day. Here is a list of places we saw:

• La Sagrada Familia – world-famous architectural masterpiece
• Passeig de Gràcia – Barcelona’s most luxurious strip
• La Pedrera / Casa Mila – Gaudi’s famous building in Barcelona
• Casa Batllo – Gaudi’s astounding contribution to Modernisimo
• Casa Amatller – part of the famous trio ‘Apple of Discord’
• Casa Morera – part of the famous trio ‘Apple of Discord’
• Plaza Espanya – the most impressive plaza in Barcelona
• National Museum of Art – an impressive site with great views
• The Olympic Ring – see the site of the 1992 Olympic games
• Montjuic – for great city views, history, and a view of the port
• The Columbus Monument – for the world-famous explorer
• Port Olympic – marina, shops, restaurants, galleries, & more
• Plaza Catalunya – the famous plaza at the heart of Barcelona 

 Barcelona is quite a beautiful city.  Joe was our driver guide; he spoke perfect English and gave us lots of information about the city,  its history, the positive impact of having the Olympics here in 1992 etc.   I love the architecture - so different from Italy.  The buildings are more ornate; 5 or 6 storey apartment buildings have cute little balconies.

The highlight was Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia.  It has been under construction for over 140 years and is still not complete!  This is probably the most ornate building in the world!   We stopped to look at it from different vantage points.

 

When we returned to the ship we had to have our passports stamped and there was a long wait for the wheelchair to take us back onboard, so we were ready for a bit of lunch when we got there.

Back to our regular table and servers for dinner.  The menus have started to repeat from the first leg.  I had  Norwegian Salmon and Mary had Short Ribs.

Mary went to the first show in the Arena but Dorothy was so tuckered out she went bck to the room.  I thought if I had a couple of hours sleep I might wake up at 2:00 AM to watch the baseball game (they had special permission to show it on TV)  Alas, I slept right through to 4:30 AM and checked the score! 😢  From the reports it looked like a great game, but with a heartbreaking outcome!