Gracias from Barcelona

The Old Gothic quarter of the city

The Barcelona Cathedral - spectacular!!

I am so excited - today we are leaving the ship for a few days for a side trip. My birthday is on the same day as Bastille Day in France. When I was a child in a small country town,  my world didn’t extend much past a drive to Toowoomba, about 100 kms. My grade 3 teacher at school told me that my birthday was very important in France, and showed me pictures of Paris, so of course, I always wanted to go there on my birthday - not that I even knew where Paris was. I had forgotten that about twenty years ago, I told Arnold about this childhood dream. Luckily for me, he didn’t forget, and he has surprised me by arranging for us to leave the ship in Barcelona, stay here for two nights and then fly to Paris for four nights before rejoining the ship at Le Havre next Saturday - what a fabulous present - my birthday at the Bastille Day parade on the Champs Elysee - I am so spoiled! 

A hot day in Barcelona

We decided to have a relaxed day today, so after packing and getting our passports approved by the Spanish officials we got a taxi  to our hotel just off the famous Las Ramblas. We checked in and were shown to our room. I never thought that the sight of a bath would set my heart fluttering - but we have been on a ship for almost six weeks in a stateroom - with an energy saving bathroom - you can reach everything without taking a step - so when I walked into the room and saw the large marble bath in the bathroom - well , I am in heaven - it is funny the things that you miss when you are away from home......

Heavenly!!

We took a leisurely walk around downtown Barcelona and decided to leave our sightseeing till tomorrow - today there is a convention of 20,000 Harley Davidson riders - as well as three or four cruise ships in port - so Sunday afternoon was very busy in Las Ramblas - great for the pick pockets. We love the street theatre of Las Ramblas and strolled around the area stopping to watch the Catalunan dancers, jazz bands and a strange breed of painted, silent, still life characters, buskers, and jugglers. 

Appreciative audience

The rabbits in the centre are real - not sure about all the toys

Dancing in the square

A front row seat - look at the size of the drinks!

Lunch was in a typical restaurant facing a square so we could watch the entertainment - there is a 15% surcharge for sitting outside - but it was a small price to pay for tickets for a ringside seat to the best free entertainment in town.

At about 5.00pm, we met Joanne and Garry at the seaside end of Las Ramblas - and shared some tapas and enormous glasses of sangria, before farewelling them as they went back to the ship.

Wonderful Spanish sangria

We have been in five countries in the past week or so and the different languages are catching up with Arnold  - as soon as he learns to say ‘thank you’ in the local language - we move on and the language changes - he spent the day yesterday in France saying ‘Grazie’ (Italian) to everyone and today he has been thanking them with ‘Merci’ - so yesterday!! Hopefully tomorrow he will have caught up and Gracias will be the thanks of the day!!

All I can say is gracias, gracias, gracias - what a wonderful week ahead - I hope I can sleep tonight without the gentle rocking of the ship.

Thanks to everyone who is following this blog and emailing and texting us - we love it - one of the best things today was being able to have free wifi after the ship’s expensive and slow service - we spent more time on the internet and were able to skype Rob and Ruth - love you both and miss you so much so it was great to be able to see you today.

Tomorrow we plan to explore the sights of Barcelona from the Hop-on, hop-off bus.

Cheers