Another Sunny Sunday this time Barcelona

6:05 PM

We are still in Barcelona, a bigger cruise ship than us just passed beside us exiting the busiest cruise ship port in Europe. We are sitting on the Veranda, again me with my shirt off as the sun is hot and the temp read 26 degrees centigrade at the Columbus statute about an hour ago.

By 10AM this morning we were going ashore. Lyle elected to stay on the boat so it was just the three of us. We had a bit of a hassle getting on the port shuttle bus as there were two lines and the bus pulled to ours and the other line had formed earlier(not all cruise ship passengers are genteel). The quick bus ride to the end of the piers was about 5 minutes and I think I counted five cruise ships docked.

We formulated a plan to take the hop-on hop-off tourist bus for 21 euros each. It was also crowded and we started seated on the lower deck instead of the open air second deck. We hopped off a couple of times to check out a Cantaylan museum and Picasso’s art museum but quickly decided that we needed to stay on the bus…for two reasons. First because there was always a line to re board and seats on second deck were hard to get and secondly, because it is a huge city and to finish the bus routes would take several hours. So we rode both the blue and the red lines (skipped the green) for about 5 hours. We considered the highlight the unfinished Cathedral started in the last century worked on by the famous architect Gaudi until his death in 1956 and is still going up. It is called Sagrada Famlia. It will have 17 towers one for each disciple plus the gospel writers and the Virgin Mary with a huge center devoted to Jesus. All donations for entry go to fund the construction and the lines were around the very extensive block. We have lots of pictures and a couple of postcards but we stayed on the bus.

Many other highlights including churches, significant architectural buildings, and beautiful residential areas and sports complexes like the two Olympic sites. Midway of the tour we stopped for a refreshments and a toilet stop which was fun I tried Spanish beer this time but it was draft so I am not sure of the brand. The major mishap early was a severe knee jam by Charlotte when she was told she was going down the up stairs to the second deck on the bus. She turned too quickly and hit it on a sharp corner. She is now sitting along side me on the deck drinking a little Merlot with an ice bag cutting the pain.

We are in Barcelona until 11 and the city of 3,000,000 should be beautiful under the lights but I think we have had enough so it will probably be an early evening since the casino does not open until we are at sea.

Tomorrow is Mallorca…