Busy in Barcelona

Bill wanted to get out of bed at 6:30 to get an early start on Barcelona. When he realized that nothing would be open at that hour. 

We slept a bit more, then headed to the Garden Buffet and bumped into Lou and Barry. We made everyone was aware of the “hop on, hop off” bus and the shuttle. Once Lou and Barry were on their way, we began walking toward the city centre to see the Cathedral. Although tickets for the tour of the Sagrada Familia have been sold out for days Norm was able to find a ticket online and headed out to enjoy that

We started on the pedestrian street and our first stop was at the church where an Evanescence video was shot. It turned out to be an interesting historical spot where you can still see shrapnel marks on the walls of the church. It was bombed during the Spanish Revolution during 1938 - 42 were killed and over 100 injured trying to protect themselves in the Saint Felip Neri Church. 

We kept heading into the direction of the cathedral and stopped along the way to buy Bill’s astrological bicycle shirt and my trees growing out of books shirt, a silver ring and a scarf. The shops have unique items and everything is very artistic.  I wish we had more time to shop.

We continued our way to the main cathedral but everywhere we went, we ran into a festival with parades, music, acrobatics, and dance. With everything going on the cathedral was not open to tourists today but all in all the festivities were cool to witness, but caused us to divert and eliminated our bus stop that we were planning on using. So, we started our way to the sagrada famila and poked our head into shops and churches as we went.  One in particular, Sant Pere de las Puelles was very interesting and we spent some time there.  

 As the crowds grew we could tell we were getting closer to Gaudis masterpiece church - It was a stunning site and is unlike any other cathedral we have ever seen. Some of the arches are topped with brightly coloured cornucopias of fruits and vegetables, the entrance is vastly different and more traditional with spires, archways and carvings of religious scenes. It is something we definitely need to come back and see after construction is done in 2026,  if it ever gets completed at all.  

 We hopped on a bus and winded our way through the northern part of the city seeing the very interesting architecture, including an incredibly beautiful hospital grounds and buildings. We ended up back in the city center. While Bill had been napping on and off, I found a restaurant on Eater.com for lunch and then we’d do the Picasso museum before we headed back to the boat.

 It was good that we discovered our lunch at Fismuler online because it was not a typical cafe with outdoor seating. It was located in a hotel and was very modern. They only took reservations, but allowed us to take seats along the bar seats by the window which suited us perfectly. The people watching in Barcelona is quite unique, even for Europe.  The people seem to be more artistic, maybe hippieish and at times downright odd. We also had up to five green parakeets at a time enjoying their lunch in the tree across from us and making a big mess on the ground. 

Our waiter recommended a great white wine  Then we were served us the most incredible calamari with mushrooms, butter and foam. We had an order of the pork shoulder that was also really good.

We were enjoying the food and wine, the people walking by and the parakeets in the tree across from us we abandoned the idea of going to see Picasso and ordered another bottle of the dry and fruity wine along with an order of one of their specialties- pork schnitzel that they cracked a fresh egg on to with scallions and grated fresh black truffles. It was so divine and worth sticking around for. 

We jumped back on the bus And the shuttle to rebound the ship. We had our final premium dinner at the Japanese grill, Teppanyaki. We enjoyed the entertainment and grilled meat compliments of Darius. He did a great job e spatulas and eggs while making the fried rice. The shrimp and steak was really well prepared. We learned that Marlene spent most of her day on the hop on, hop off bus. Lou and Barry did something similar and Norm walked to the cathedral and back.  

We were full after dinner so we return the room and went to bed.