Barcelona is Spain’s second largest city with a population of nearly 2 million. It is one of the busiest ports in the Mediterranean and the capital of Catalonia. It is a beautiful and vibrant place, full of outdoor markets, restaurants, shops, museums and churches. The architecture is a marriage of Gothic spikes and modern curves - Antonio Gaudi was Barcelona's most famous and unique architect. His most famous work is the Cathedral Sagrada Familia – he worked on it for 40 years up to his death in 1926 and it is not expected to be completed until around 2026.We were in Barcelona for two days, including an overnight, which is quite rare. All the crew were happy as they got to go out in town – a few bleary eyes the next mornings as many of them had been out until 3am. It was a turn around day, with a lot of people leaving the ship (including Charlotte’s friend Charlie and her family) and new ones coming on.
Jimmy flew back from New York, with Lisa and Haley, who were also coming for the next leg of the cruise. They were lucky to have flown in just before all the airports closed in NY, due to hurricane Irene. A few people missed the ship due to flight cancelations. Charlotte was very excited to see Haley.
We toured all the sights on the open top tourist bus, including the Cathedral Sagrada Familia.
They had 3 different routes, which would have taken over 4 hours to complete non stop.
They had 3 different routes, which would have taken over 4 hours to complete non stop.
On the Sunday, we took the girls to Aquarium, where we saw many fish including sharks and stingrays.
Then we all boarded the ship and sailed out of Barcelona.
Charlotte won a prize at the Spa Raffle – a hot stone massage (which I got to enjoy the following day! (At the start of the previous cruise, Jimmy won a facial and Charlotte a personal training session – so I did very well out of it all!! Our success might have had something to do with the number of cards we filled in to enter the draw!!)
