Today was a wonderful day from start to finish, even if my feet hurt.
We woke up at 6:30, and I went downstairs to get our coffee. I stepped outside on the deck to see if we had docked yet, and I couldn't see a thing, thanks to fog as thick as pea soup. Yuck, I thought. It's going to be a wet and nasty day.
We drank our coffee and went up to Deck 11 for our breakfast and to see how awful the weather was, and to our delight, the sky was blue and the ship had reached the harbor in Barcelona. Hooray! We watched as the captain turned the ship 360 degrees inside the relatively small space of the harbor. Nothing like flipping a u-ey with a cruise ship! It really is fascinating to watch them park a cruise ship the size of the Navigator of the Seas.
They finally let us disembark around 9, and we high-tailed it to our shuttle bus that took us the few blocks into the city, and to the foot of Las Ramblas, the main pedestrian street in Barcelona. We had walked up and down that same street dozens of time when we were in Barcelona two years ago, and it was fun to see some of the familiar sights.
We stopped in the large market to look at the displays of fruits and vegetables, fish and seafood, and unusual meats. We laughed out loud at the whole pigs that were in the display case. Wouldn't the grandkids love it if Nana brought one of those pigs out of the oven for Easter dinner.
We worked our way all the way down the Ramblas to a huge (and I really mean huge) department store near the other end. After wandering around that store for a bit, we began walking again. Many, many steps later, Bill asked me if I wanted to go see the Sagrada de Familia, which is the amazing church designed by Gaudi with the intricate sculptures all over the outside of the church. It is one of my favorite things of everything we've ever seen in Europe. HoweverI said no, that I thought it was too far. Bill pointed ahead, and I saw that we had walked so far that we were actually within a few blocks of the unique church.
By this time, my feet were starting to hurt and I was getting hungry, but I thought that we couldn't be that close and not see the church. The last time we had visited the church, it had been Mother's Day in 2008. It was very quiet that day. Today was not quiet. There was an unbelievable number of people – many school-aged. Perhaps they were on school trips.
We made our way back to the big department store, which had a supermercado in the basement. We bought a couple of sandwiches – good Spanish serrano ham on croissants, and two Coca Cola Lights. We ate them in a plaza outside the store, where the pigeons eyed our sandwiches with hungry looks.
After lunch, we made our way back to the shuttle bus, but this time we walked through the old part of the city – the Gothic section – where our apartment had been located when we spent four days here in 2008. We were not able to find the narrow street where the apartment was located, but we knew we were in the vicinity. We did find a little grocery store where we bought a half bottle of wine, which we enjoyed in another nearby plaza.
We woke up at 6:30, and I went downstairs to get our coffee. I stepped outside on the deck to see if we had docked yet, and I couldn't see a thing, thanks to fog as thick as pea soup. Yuck, I thought. It's going to be a wet and nasty day.
We drank our coffee and went up to Deck 11 for our breakfast and to see how awful the weather was, and to our delight, the sky was blue and the ship had reached the harbor in Barcelona. Hooray! We watched as the captain turned the ship 360 degrees inside the relatively small space of the harbor. Nothing like flipping a u-ey with a cruise ship! It really is fascinating to watch them park a cruise ship the size of the Navigator of the Seas.
They finally let us disembark around 9, and we high-tailed it to our shuttle bus that took us the few blocks into the city, and to the foot of Las Ramblas, the main pedestrian street in Barcelona. We had walked up and down that same street dozens of time when we were in Barcelona two years ago, and it was fun to see some of the familiar sights.
We stopped in the large market to look at the displays of fruits and vegetables, fish and seafood, and unusual meats. We laughed out loud at the whole pigs that were in the display case. Wouldn't the grandkids love it if Nana brought one of those pigs out of the oven for Easter dinner.We worked our way all the way down the Ramblas to a huge (and I really mean huge) department store near the other end. After wandering around that store for a bit, we began walking again. Many, many steps later, Bill asked me if I wanted to go see the Sagrada de Familia, which is the amazing church designed by Gaudi with the intricate sculptures all over the outside of the church. It is one of my favorite things of everything we've ever seen in Europe. HoweverI said no, that I thought it was too far. Bill pointed ahead, and I saw that we had walked so far that we were actually within a few blocks of the unique church.
By this time, my feet were starting to hurt and I was getting hungry, but I thought that we couldn't be that close and not see the church. The last time we had visited the church, it had been Mother's Day in 2008. It was very quiet that day. Today was not quiet. There was an unbelievable number of people – many school-aged. Perhaps they were on school trips.
We made our way back to the big department store, which had a supermercado in the basement. We bought a couple of sandwiches – good Spanish serrano ham on croissants, and two Coca Cola Lights. We ate them in a plaza outside the store, where the pigeons eyed our sandwiches with hungry looks.
After lunch, we made our way back to the shuttle bus, but this time we walked through the old part of the city – the Gothic section – where our apartment had been located when we spent four days here in 2008. We were not able to find the narrow street where the apartment was located, but we knew we were in the vicinity. We did find a little grocery store where we bought a half bottle of wine, which we enjoyed in another nearby plaza.
By time we got back to the ship, we were tired and our hips and feet were sore. I got into the hot tub and let the jets sooth my aching body.
At dinner, we all compared stories. Everyone enjoyed Barcelona. And almost as good – an unexpected second lobster night!
1 comment:
Oh my...I am loving this blog. Imagine my shock to see pigs in the display case. Poor little guys...
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