Days 19 - Barcelona

Barcelona I

This morning I had to wake up early so I could be down at the spa on board by 8 AM. I started my day off with a nice deep tissue massage and then followed that up with a long overdue manicure courtesy of Shelby. He booked my “surprises” a while back when he was planning the trip. So sweet! After my pampering I met back up with the guys and we had lunch while the ship docked in Barcelona. What an incredible city, the architecture and buildings are amazing! No wonder so many famous artists made this their home or were inspired while visiting here. We wandered down La Rambla doing a little people watching and checking out some of the wild street performers. The streets were packed and because we got in to port midday and it was already afternoon a lot of the museums, markets and things already had very long lines or were super crowded. We walked along and got some nice views of La Pedrera and Casa Batlló, two of Antoni Gaudí’s masterpieces. We accidentally discovered a Starbucks and it felt like we had won the lottery. Since Italy does not believe in Starbucks we had somewhat forgotten about them while we were there. Two iced white mochas later we were on our way to the Cathedral. We bought tickets for a hop on hop off bus so we could get around a little faster and get to some of the farther out places. We drove by La Sagrada Familia, a huge church that was started in 1882 and still to this day remains unfinished. The line to get in was insanely long so we decided to stay on the bus and come back to that one earlier in the morning tomorrow. We took the bus to Park Güell, a park designed by Gaudí back in 1900-1914, and walked around there for a bit. I LOVE the architectural style of Gaudí. It’s so whimsical and fun to look at, then when you remember that he lived in the late 1800’s and designed all his masterpieces before his death in 1926…WOW. So ahead of his time!
Next we headed over to the Barcelona Futból Club stadium to check it out. Shelby has a friend in Iraq who is a big Barcelona fan so we got some pictures for him and then boarded the bus again. About that time were hungry and ready for tapas so we found a restaurant in the Gothic Quarter and ordered about 5 different plates of tapas, paella, and a big pitcher of sangria…yum! Another stop at Starbucks on the way to catch a cab back to the port and it was good night Barcelona. The ship is docked here all day tomorrow as well, so we’ll have another full day to get out and explore.