Barcelona is amazing. But first we had to get off the cruise ship.
Ada surprised me with a selfie.
This was the only meal of the whole week-long cruise that we ate in the main dining room. We probably should have tried this place earlier, but... too late!
A few last pictures on the amazing ship.
Waiting for our turn to disembark. We signed up as some of the last to get off the ship.
Lyla didn't want to leave.
Harmony of the Seas.
Once we gathered our luggage we had to wait in an extremely long taxi queue. This would have been a good reason to get off the ship earlier. Oh well.
Also, we had to wait extra for a taxi large enough to carry all 5 of us and our luggage.
We took the cab to the Barcelona-Sants International Train Station. Our hotel shared the building which would make our departure from Barcelona easier.
We dropped off our luggage, then headed out to explore the city.
We took the metro to Park Güell. This was a park designed by the famed architect Antoni Gaudí.
The park sits up on Carmel Hill and provides excellent views of the rest of the city.
Our cruise ship is in the port just next to Alison's left ear.
Lyla and I are on the bridge, the other girls are down below.
The rockwork on the underside and supports for the bridge is amazing.
We were only able to see a portion of the park. A large area of the park requires a limited number of tickets that are released each day to help protect the most susceptible areas from the crowds.
It was such a lovely place.
The girls got a kick out of this guy. He took a liking to the girls as he has three at home (and is supporting them by wearing silly costumes in tourist areas). I tried really hard to be more generous to street performers on this trip.
Chocolate muffins and a baguette. Pan cada día, alegría todo el día.
The charming streets of Barcelona.
Our hotel was space themed, including replica American/NASA spacesuits and a space station console.
After getting settled in the hotel we jumped back on the metro to head down to the famous Barceloneta Beach.
Once again it was a long walk from the Metro, but by this point in our trip we were used to it.
The famous beach was quite lovely, as was the swim in the Mediterranean. Lots of beach pictures below. We bought some hot donuts off of a vendor walking around with a large board of donuts on his head.
This girls very favorite past-time is to play in the sand. I guess we should get a sandbox before she gets much bigger.
The water was pretty much perfect.
After a couple of hours at the beach it was time to return to the hotel. We found a bus that picked us up right at the beach and went straight to the hotel. Way better than walking all the way back to the Metro and having to change trains.
We found some ice cream and a small place for dinner.
Right next to the restaurant (and just a few hundred yards from our hotel) was the strangest street fair. All of the decorations were homemade, with most of them being some sort of paper mache.
Animated movie characters.
Animals hung on strings.
Minions and pigs. There was also a little band playing with a bunch of old folks dancing in the street. It was charming.
A guy puking a rainbow (that's normal, right?).
Clippy.
While Lyla, Kate and Alison went to bed, Ada and I jumped back on the Metro to see the Monjuïc Fountains. The fountains are similar to those at the Bellagio in that they are set to lights and music. The crowds were astounding. Easily the most crowded of anyplace that we've visited on this trip. The fountains were pretty cool and worth seeing.
Tomorrow we spend the morning in Barcelona before catching a train back to Paris.
2 comments:
You forgot to mention the hordes of topless women at the beach.
@alisquire - surprised you had any decent pictures to post here, actually.
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