Barcelona and Transatlantic Cruise 2008 – Day 4 – Barcelona
November 29, 2008
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.
Barcelona and Transatlantic Cruise 2008 – Day 3 – Barcelona
November 29, 2008
Day two of our 2008 family vacation finds us still in Barcelona. After a forced long day and lots of walking yesterday, we found ourselves in excellent condition today feeling no jet lag effects.
I awoke about 8:30 and went on a little walk to see if I could find a local store open to get some olive oil or butter. The night before, we had bought some eggs, potatoes, veggies and ham/bacon and I planned to cook a nice breakfast. However, I didn’t want everything to stick to the pans. There was only a few bakeries open despite the late morning for us Americans. In fact, the streets were pretty much deserted save for a few parents starting their kids towards school. It’s definitely a different culture.
Failing to find a place to get butter or oil, I went back and cooked the breakfast anyways. It came out very good and just added to the fun we are having here. After breakfast we all took turns and showered prepping for another fun filled day.
We decided to spend the morning relaxing around the apartment until after lunch. Savannah and Suzanne also decided to do a bit of girl shopping. Savannah bought a pair of genuine Spanish walking boots. Meanwhile, Sean and I relaxed in the apartment and enjoyed a movie. We all grabbed lunch at a local eatery about 2:00 pm. We ate at a local restaurant enjoying one of the Menu del Dia. Basically, it’s a fixed price menu with several choices of starters and main courses, plus a glass of wine. The meal was enjoyable but not quite as good as the very memorable dinner last night.
After lunch we headed out for another days walking and touristy things. First stop was the Sagrada Familia. It’s a huge church in Barcelona that is still under construction. It’s been under construction since the late 1800’s and has another 50 – 100 years planned in its construction. The church is/was the brainstorm of Antonio Gaudi. Despite the construction, the completed parts of the church were pretty amazing.
After walking around the ground floor, we took an elevator up about 20+ stories to areas where you could look out over the town or down into the inside of the church. You were also able to look at various parts of the exterior of the giant church.
Upon finishing our tour up on top, we took the stairs down. That was something I hadn’t experienced before and may have a hard time explaining. The stairwell down was a very narrow, tight circular stairwell. However, the handrail of the stairwell was on the outside on the wall. There was no handrail, wall or anything on the inside. Parts of the stairwell were also fairly dark and hard to see the steps. It all made for a strange descent – not one were you were necessarily afraid, but just a hard to explain feeling as you looked downward in the center of the stairwell.
Afterwards, we head downtown again and walked along the Passeig de Gracia, kind of the Rodeo Drive of Barcelona. The shops were pretty amazing and there were many other very odd architectural designs of Gaudi – one resembling a dragon slain with a sword. It was around 7:00 pm and the streets were bustling as if it was lunch time in a big city in the US.
As we turned for home, we stopped and enjoyed dinner in a nice pizzeria. Again, we had a wonderful dinner and great company with the employees of the restaurant. Along the way home, we stopped at a local bakery and grabbed some breakfast rolls and cakes for the morning.
We returned to the apartment about 9:00 pm, opened a bottle of wine and enjoyed another movie as we plotted our plans for the next day Friday, our last full day in Barcelona before boarding the Celebrity Summit on Saturday.
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