Day 3: Exploring Barcelona

We all woke up around 9 and headed up to the lounge to get some breakfast. I was so glad to see that they has both European style (rolls, cheese, and more rolls) and American style (cereal, fruit, and yogurt) breakfast. We talked with several other people that were cruising out of Barcelona, and then headed out to explore the city.

Since it was a cold, rainy day in Barcelona, we decided to take the Bus Turistic around to explore the city. We headed across the street to a stop for the gren route, which is a connector for the hotel district to the main routes. The bus was sitting there waiting, and three stops later we got off at a transfer point to the red route. When we were unable to board the first red bus that came and were barely squeezed onto the second bus, we quickly realized that the Bus Turstic doesn't work well when it's raining out. Almost two-thirds of the seating is on the upper deck, which was closed due to the rain. So if you are going to Barcelona, just use the metro.

Back on the bus, we were on the red route which runs through the old town and the Olympic grounds. When you get on the Bus they give you ear buds which allow you to listen to a prerecorded tour of the sites in your choice of 10 languages. We started heading through the Ciutat Vella (Old Town) and it was incredible. Barcelona really looks better then the pictures. Having wanted to go to Spain for a long time, I was in heaven.

We got off at Plaza Catalunya planning on switching to the blue route to view the Gaudi architecture and then come back to explore the Ciutat Vella. When we walked up to the stop for the blue route, there was at least a 45 minute line to get on the "hop on, hop off" bus. Seemed like you could get off but not on. We decided to try and get on the bus later, instead of standing in the rain, so I checked the map and we started heading down La Rambla. Then we turned around and found the correct La Rambla. Stupid Spanish maps, at least that is my excuse. We checked out Plaza Catalunya which is the core of the city along with La Rambla, the promenade running from the Plaza to the waterfront.

Once we were actually on La Rambla we stopped to buy umbrellas since we couldn't take the rain anymore. We headed a ways down La Rambla and then headed into the Barri Gotic (Medieval Part of Barcelona).

Taking a break from Barcelona for a moment, something really awesome just happened. I am currently sitting in the Promenade Lounge on the Magic on formal night (our second night onboard) enjoying a beautiful view of the Mediterranean. The band is playing Ring of Fire by Johnny Cash and I just looked up and Pluto was standing on the dance floor all dressed up for formal night dancing with everyone. You gotta love cruising with Disney. Now back to Barcelona,

After heading into the Barri Gotic, we decided to explore on our way to the Barcelona Cathedral. The area is really cool, with very narrow streets, small plazas, and tons of shops and cafes. However, the streets are also very confusing. Twice we ended up going in a circle back to La Rambla, and then we ended up by the waterfront. We hit a major road and decided to follow it up to the cathedral, which we were able to easily find. The cathedral costs five euro, but it is well worth it. After using their bathrooms (aka a hole in the ground in a small outhouse like building) we explored the beautiful building. The artwork and windows were beyond belief. The church was built with 18 side chapels (all lined with gold), a huge tabernacle under the altar decorated with gold, and a naive with palm trees, a pond, and geese (lined with gold)(not really, but that would be cool).

After checking out the cathedral, we started heading toward Ciudad Condal, a restaurant that our concierge had recommended for lunch. On the way, we found a really cool restaurant in the Barri Gotic that seemed to be popular with locals, so we decided to give it a shot. We got a fantastic Spanish fixed course lunch for just over 10 euro. I had a melon salad, chicken, and Catalan cream for dessert. Absolutely fantastic.

After lunch we headed back to La Rambla and checked out the local market which was very cool. Tons of fresh food and of course the famous churros con chocolate. Too bad we were so full from lunch. We started heading back to Plaza Catalunya before I decided that we were going the wrong way and turned around. It turned out that I had been right the first time as we ended up at the waterfront and the Mirador de Colom. The Mirador is a giant tribute to Christopher Colombus as he returned from the new world to Barcelona. I had read that you could go up to an observation deck to get a great view of the city. As we were walking up, I thought to myself, it doesn't look big enough to have an elevator, but it must be bigger then it looks. WRONG! The elevator barely held the three of us and the operator. The observation deck was barely one person wide and you had to shuffle along. It was deffinitely an interesting experience. Most interesting was our observation that they did not send the elevator back up until someone bought a ticket. Our question: what happens to the people who are in the tower at closing?

Having finally escaped the elevator, we walked across the street to a stop for the Bus Turistic hoping it was quiet. We were able to squeeze our way onto the second bus. We were also able to transfer to the blue route and we started heading past some of the incredible Gaudi houses. Shortly, we arrived at his most famous work of all, the Sagrada Familia. It is indescribable. The pictures really don't do it justice. It has been under construction for over 100 years and they are still going. Just incredible.

We headed down to the metro since we were very sick of the Bus Turistic. We bought tickets from one of the machines and headed down to our station. Barcelona has an awesome metro system with very nice, new trains. One train change and a few stops later and we were back at the hotel. We headed up to the lounge for snacks and drinks, and chatted with several fellow cruisers. After a while we went across the street and grabbed dinner in a an awesome Mediterranean restaurant in the mall. We sat next to a family that was also going on our cruise. They were surprising their kids with a cruise, and we were in on the secret. It was very hard at times to not let it slip. After dinner we headed back to the hotel, grabbed some tea, and went to bed.