Barcelona and Transatlantic Cruise 2008 – Day 4 – Barcelona

Today was our last full day in Barcelona as tourists. We planned to sleep in again if necessary and then tour Montjuic, a coastal mountain fortress with spectacular views and wind up the night at the Magic Fountain, a water and light show near the Museum of Modern Art.

As usual, I awoke earlier than the rest, about 8. It was 10:00 before everyone else was up. Savannah and Suzanne decided to go shopping while Sean and I enjoyed another movie. This time, Savannah got the coat she was wanting.

Both kids had worked fairly hard throughout the year to earn money for the trip. We had told them after the Alaska cruise last June that we were not going to buy them a single thing on this vacation/cruise. We gave them plenty of opportunities to earn allowances and additional money for chores and tasks. Both kids earned and saved almost $200 to bring with them for souvenirs.

A bit after noon, we headed out for Montjuic and lunch. After wandering around aimlessly for a couple of hours, we ended up another Tapas restaurant that her cruising friends had recommended. It was a decent lunch, but generally I have been underwhelmed with the food here compared to Germany and Italy (more on that in a later post).

We then grabbed a taxi and headed up to Montjuic. The cab took us to the cable car to complete the ride up the mini-mountain. It was a nice little scenic ride, but a bit short for my liking for $40. The time spent at the fort was fabulous. The views were absolutely stunning. On one side, you could see the Barcelona harbor and the Mediterranean. On a couple of other sides, you had the most scenic views of Barcelona that you could imagine. Still yet, on the fourth side you could see the foothills of the Pyrenees Mountains. The views were quite breathtaking and the couple of hours spent up there were the best of the trip thus far.

We had planned to spend the evening at the magic fountains. They are at the bottom of the mountain/hill that Montjuic is on. We decided to walk on down and end up at the fountain show. However, we again ended up again walking around aimlessly without really seeing anything of interest. It was Suzanne’s first failure as tour guide though not nearly as bad as it probably sounds here.

We ended up at the fountains about 90 minutes prior to the show. Both Suzanne and the kids were feeling pretty cold as this was the coldest day for us in Barcelona. Both kids voted to head back to the apartment and forego the magic fountain display. So, we grabbed a cab and headed back.

After getting home, everyone except me was feeling pretty puny. They all decided to forego dinner and hang in the apartment. I decided to venture out and get some food. I returned back to the apartment about 2 hours later after a nice, long walk and dinner in a local establishment. After returning home about 9:30 pm, we enjoyed another movie and a couple of glasses of Catalunya white wine to close out the day.

Tomorrow, we board the Celebrity Summit to start our cruise.