Barcelona

Tuesday June 5

We drove to Houston after school and work.  Sidney is missing two days of school.  The last day plus an extra day to make up for the day school was cancelled while we were in Antarctica.  We spent the night at a hotel where we could leave our car while we were gone and we could get a shuttle to the airport.  It was a very good deal, only a few dollars more than just spending the night.  However, upon our arrival I was informed we had no reservation.  As it turned out, the reservation was for the next night.  The very nice person at the desk got us straightened out and we got a barely adequate nights sleep before a very early morning. 

Snail in the grocer

Barcelona Gas Station

Wednesday June 6

As I said, it was a very early flight after not much sleep.  We got to the airport and checked in.  This was the first time I ever tried to board the wrong plane.  I just got in the first line available but it wasn’t the line for our flight.  Oops.  Once we boarded we were both fast asleep most of the way to New York.  

We did arrive safely to New York and had to take a shuttle from La Guardia to JFK (or maybe it was the reverse....).  We had tons of time and had slept some on the plane so we

actually enjoyed the ride.  While we were picking up other passengers for the shuttle at the first airport we saw the coolest little robot.  I think it was part of security.  Later that evening we boarded the longer flight to Barcelona. 

Thursday June 7

Conure Apartment

We arrived in Barcelona at the same time as our friends, Kevin, Dawn and William.  We were able to hire a private van from the airport for the five of us. Our friend Aaron was arriving later so Sidney and I went exploring after we checked in.  We had a great time wandering around.  We walked down to the ocean, played in a park, and just took in the sites. Barcelona is a lovely sitting. We wandered into shops on the walking street.  We love to look at local foods and we went into an organic grocery.  They had fun stuff including a rather larger snail wandering around on the broccoli. Sidney felt that he needed to be rescued so she took him outside to a tiny patch of grass.  We got a great giggle out of that.  When Aaron arrived he came to the hotel on public transportation. Very brave for a guy who had never been to Europe.  We met him at the metro stop and walked to the hotel with him.   We all got together dinner later which was the first time Aaron and Kevin’s, Dawn and William met.  When we met for dinner I discovered Aaron didn’t know how to turn on. The electricity in his room. I had forgotten to tell him that you have to put your key card in a slot to turn on the power in your room.  I got a good giggle but also felt bad. 

There are lots of dogs in Barcelona and although not are all on leashes we don’t think we saw a stray.  They all seemed well fed and loved. I am thinking there are strong spay and neuter laws. 

I don’t entirely remember what we had for dinner but we ate outside on the walking street.  We were starting to turn into zombies since leaving so early the previous morning.  After dinner we crashed. 

Friday June 8

On Friday morning we went to a shop for breakfast and ordered cake thinking it was like coffee cake. It wasn’t, it was cake.  It was good but sweet. The coffee was amazing.  

Our first real adventure and tourist destination was Sagrada Familia.  You had to buy tickets well in advance and we did so on line.  I however made another mistake and had purchased tickets for the previous day.  After much, a lot much, consternation, and apologies on my part to Aaron and Sidney, I was able to purchase more tickets to enter just an hour after Kevin, Dawn and William. 

Sagrada Familia is a large unfinished Roman Catholic Church designed by architect Antoni Gaudi. Groundbreaking was in 1882 and it should be finished in 2032. It will have 18 spires.  Because the project is funded solely on private donations it has progressed in fits and spurts and impacted by wars.  The church is very unique with unending character and meaning behind every amazing detail.

With the delay in getting into the church, the time fir the tour and free exploring, and the warm temperatures, I was at a near crash when we left to find lunch. I was way past hungry to the point of nearly passed out. 

After we had lunch we took the hop on hop off tour. We saw wild conures in the trees, much of Barcelona and stopped at Park Güell.  It’s a lovely active park with gardens and architectural elements and also designed by Gaudi.  It’s filled with colorful mosaic walls and animals.  It was lovely to walk through although steep.

After a short rest, we went to dinner of tapas and sangria. My friend Kevin got tricked into buying a dozen roses by a street vendor so he started giving them out to random ladies who walked by much to his wife’s chagrin.  It was very entertaining.  Some ladies were gracious and easily excepted the rose.  Others crossed to the other side of the walkway.  After a fun evening of talking, catching up and getting to know each other we retired to get some sleep. 

Saturday June 9

We made our way to the cruise port and boarded the ship. Being that we had been on the sister ship and Aron hadn’t, we spent a lot of time dragging him around from the top to the bottom and end to end.  It was fun to be back on the ship.  We also got settled and had our lifeboat drill before getting dressed for dinner.  

We lucked out and had our first dinner of seven nights at Animators Palate, our favorite restaurant.  We had a table with just the six of us but there were nice families around us that were fun to talk to and watch their kids. 

After dinner we went to a Disney Cruise original musical, Twice Charmed.  The musical is a twist on Cinderella and a little two complicated to try to explain.  It was very good though. 

Sunday June 10

Sunday was a day at sea to just relax and enjoy the amenities of the ship.   It also was a chance to rest before a busy four days although we didn’t know it.  

I started the day at an indoor cycle class.  I struggled at the class for a few reasons.  One it was hot and humid and second even the slightest movement of the boat gave me vertigo.  Finally I was uncomfortably close to my neighbors and slightly nauseated.  It wiped me out. 

However I did get a break later with a three hour spa, massage and facial.  Such things make me almost go into a comma.  After dinner at the restaurant themed from Rapunzel, we went to a shoe called Junk.  It was excellent.  The instruments were all junk and the artists were very entertaining.