We started our day being sad because we had to leave the Norwegian Spirit. But we are also happy because we have one more day of vacation and we are in Barcelona, Spain. After getting ready, we enjoyed one final breakfast at the back of the ship. We decided to do the self-disembarkation which means that you walk your luggage off of the ship. I think it took us a total of fifteen minutes to get from our cabin to outside the cruise terminal. We thought it would be best to do a half day tour to get a lay of the land and figure out which sites to go back to later in the day. We booked the Barcelona Shore Excursion through Barcelona Day Tours (64 Euros / person). We choose this company for a couple of reasons. The first reason is that they will pick you up anywhere and drop you off anywhere. The second reason is that they take care of finding other people for the tour for that day. When Victor picked us up, he told us that there would be four more people joining us. We arrived at a hotel and picked up James and Tin from San Francisco (who were going to take the cruise we just finished) and Ken and Thurman from Michigan. It did not take too long for all of us to figure out it was going to be a fun day. What happens in the van, stays in the van.
Basilica de la Sagrada Famila was our first stop. It was designed by Antoni Guadi a famous Spanish architect. The construction of the church started in 1882 and it is still going on. When Guadi died in 1926, it was estimated that the project was only 15 to 20 percent complete. It was taken over by various architects using reconstructed versions of the original plans which were destroyed. They are now saying that it will be completed in 2026. We walked around the outside of the entire church and were just marveling at it’s beauty. Victor told us that the life of Christ is depicted on the outside of the building.
We all got back in the really nice Mercedes Benz van and then stopped at Park Guell. This is a park that was also designed by Antoni Guadi. It was originally to be a housing development but the rich of Barcelona did not want to travel so far from the city center to the area where the park is. There are beautiful gardens and structures covered in mosaic tiling. We spent about a half and hour here.
The next three stops on the tour were quick ones … Museu Nacional D’Art de Catalunya, Barcelona Olympic Park where we got to go into the stadium and see the field and finally Mountjuic for it’s great city views and a view of the port. It was already 12:30pm and time for the tour to end. We were the last ones to get dropped off at Barcelona Airport Hotel (120 Euros). We dropped our luggage off in the room and then grabbed a cab (25 Euros) to go to the La Rambla.
La Rambla is a 1.2 kilometer tree lined pedestrian mall with shops, restaurants and hotels. We got dropped off at the start of it and we began walking. First we needed lunch so we found a place called Luisa and had some tapas. After getting fueled up, we walked the entire length all the way to the Christopher Colombus statue. There was lots of yelling and screaming on the streets because I think that Rugby Club Toulon won something over Barcelona.
We knew we wanted to go back and see the interior of Sagrada Familia so we grabbed The Metro. It was a bit confusing at first but we eventually figured it out. We got to the ticket both and they said that the next available tour was for 5:15pm, two hours from now. We spent the time shopping and having dinner … Paella and Sangria.
Once you step inside Sagrada Familia, you are blown away. I can not even begin to explain it. It is tall, there are lots of geometric shapes and beautiful stained glass that shines through and illuminates the church. You could spend an entire day there but we only stayed about an hour.
We know had a decision to make. Should we go and see the Magic Fountain show or a Flamenco show. We choose the Flamenco show. We got a recommendation from Becca’s parents about a show called Flamencura at Tarantos. They had done the exact same cruise two years ago and when in Barcelona they saw this show and said it was awesome. We again took The Metro from Sagrada Familia back to La Rambles and bout our tickets (15 Euros). The show was at 9:30pm but we lined up at 9:00pm. Once the 8:30pm show was let out, we were let in and Karen and I got front row seats. The show starts with four men signing a few songs. One of the men is playing a guitar and another is playing just a box. The singers were so involved with their songs. The Flamenco dancers then came out, a man and a woman, and completely blew us away. The dancing was so intense. The footwork was incredible. From what I could tell, is that the singer was basing his singing on what the dancer was doing. Karen and I were both exhausted just watching them. We took a cab back to the hotel (27 Euros) and called it a night. We are heading home tomorrow.
What a great trip!