Med Cruise Day 10: Back in Barcelona

Ray's Journal

The ship pulled into Barcelona before 5AM. We woke up to the announcement that everyone needs to disembark. Such a sad day for us.

We took cabs to the apartment hotel. The hotel was actually ready for us [surprise]! Its always nice when things work out well. After check in we all kind of just chilled in the apartment for a few hours. Then we walked a few blocks to the shopping mall for entertainment. We found a dunkin donuts!! We also found a chinese buffet for spaniards. Angie and I were the only ones brave enough to partake (everyone else had Burger King) and the word Angie came up with afterwards was “interesting”. It was a culturally thought provoking exchange. They had hardly any of the same “Chinese Buffet” items we Americans are used to. For instance they had what appeared to be onion rings - they we round fried cod. They had what looked like fried chocolate - it was fried sushi. All of their shrimp foods had the shrimp cooked whole (shell and all with eyeballs etc). Their “postre” or desert bar was fresh fruit , nuts rolled in sugar, and flan.

The rest of the day was spent in the hotel trying to wait out the rain (so we could swim in the outdoor pool) and listening to the tuberculosis ward that lived in “Grandma’s room” of the cruise ship (everyone who had stayed in that room came home coughing). We all had to leave to go home tomorrow so it was a subdued day.

Angie's Journal

The cruise was over. We got dropped back off in Barcelona. I booked us an apartment which we all crashed at for awhile. I took a nap (gasp!) for a few hours. We went to the mall/grocery store and stocked up on the things we would need for the day and evening until our flights left in the morning. It was cheaper for us to stay the night in Barcelona for the night rather than fly out on Sunday. Anyways, the apartment we got was quite comical, esp. the bathroom. The place looked very new and fresh, but cheap as if everything was build from IKEA grade building materials. The bathroom was the worst as I think everything broke in there at one point during our overnight stay. 

The day was rather uneventful, but the evening was very LOUD. The Spaniards are a loud group of people, which we learned from our earlier stay in Barcelona at the beginning of the trip. Unfortunately for us we happened to be trying to sleep during the big Spain vs. Italy in Euro 2012. Every goal the whole town either shouted loudly (and these are some loud people), honked their horns, or shot off fireworks. Then when the game ended it was complete chaos. It is a surprise we got any sleep that night, but we had a complete understanding and appreciation for their siestas. 

Med Cruise Day 2: Barcelona

Angie's Journal
This was our first full day of vacation. It was a lot of fun, but we had some kinks in the day. I like to think of it as our dry run for our port calls on the cruise. Misty had some trouble adjusting to vacation with the different foods and schedules. We stopped at a quaint cafe for breakfast. Ray and Lexi tried the hot chocolate which is so thick your spoon can sit on top of...yum. The idea is to have a bunch of things to dip into the chocolate, so they got one of everything to dip into their chocolate for breakfast.


After breakfast we did the Hop On Hop Off Bus (HOHO bus as I like to call it) route through Barcelona's upper city. The route was a lot longer than we thought, and the heat started to get to us. Lexi was really looking forward to seeing the works from Gaudi around Barcelona. Unfortunately so was everybody else, so the lines were too long to get in. So we just rode the HOHO bus which got hot and uncomfortable.

Once we got back to our apartment we rested a bit and went out for dinner. That night was a big festival for the Spanish culture so we heard fireworks and shouting all night. As much as I love Barcelona, they are LOUD people. Ray seems quite comparatively.

Ray's Journal

Slept in until almost 9 AM. What a relief as we all seemed to need the extra rest. Misty even slept in - this of course after nearly kicking Lexi and Grandma out of the bed at night with all her kick/stretches.

Walked around the block to a place Kathy had seen yesterday as having served breakfast. It was not so good, but it filled our bellies (except for poor Misty who refused to eat anything that wasn’t a Pop-Tart - I think it may have also been in part because of her allergies).

The whole family decided to try the Hop-On Hop-Off bus as it has worked so well for us in the past. There were 3 routes to take in this really cool city - The red which was  all the museums, the Green which was the beach and city attractions, and the Blue which was the sports and Gaudi works of art. We took the blue line so we could see his park and Familia Sagrado. These were double decker open topped buses like in London. Unfortunately the line for these was so long and the buses so packed that we did not all get to sit together.

The tour had so much area to cover and so many different sites to see that we were all a little tired of sitting by the time we got to the Sagrado Familia. It was massive enough, however, that we soon forgot ourselves and just stood in awe. the line to get tickets to gain entry was over two hours long (and was advertised as such verbally). The line to get in was less lengthy, but not by much. Lexi, the one who had begged to go to this, asked to not wait in line. With those kind of lines, none of us questioned her decision. We did, however, decide to try to book tickets online once we got to the boat later that week - something we were told was not allowed, but which definitely had the option of at the ticket booth. We are hoping it will save us a significant amount of time waiting in line.

So we all hopped back on the bus. We didn’t realize that this tour was as long as it was, so none of had eaten anything in over 4 hours by the time we got to Gaudi’s park. This meant that we were all tired of riding a cramped bus, hungry, and very warm as once again the weather god was being so very nice to us (Beeeeautiful skies with 80 degree temps and just a little humidity). The humidity and sunshine seemed to be taking a toll on our bodies, so with nothing to eat we were all getting cranky. The decision was made to not get off the bus at Gaudi’s park, but to ride it back to the Ramblas (street name of where we “lived” with lots of food vendors and restaurants).

We ate at a restaurant near the stop based it’s prices and deals. The food was lousy! It was quite possibly the blandest tasting paella I have ever eaten. We all decided to skip desert and go to a Gelato place nearby. That was some good tasting stuff. And it was very needed. We were all still tired, so we opted to go back the apartment and take a siesta. None of us took an actual nap, but we all crashed hard. No one wanted to move the rest of the day. So we didn’t. We packed our bags in anticipation of departing early for the cruise ship and we relaxed.

Med Cruise Day 1: Travel to Barcelona

Happy Birthday Misty! We traveled to Barcelona on Misty's birthday. We didn't plan our trip around Misty's birthday; it just happened that the best time to leave was on her special day.

Ray's Journal

Friday started off the wrong way - we got to the airport 3 hours ahead of our flight instead of two (bad email communications on my side). Then our flight was delayed by over a half hour. Once we boarded we sat on the Tarmac for an additional half hour.

Misty, the cutest little birthday girl, got pretty cranky waiting all that time for the promised rocket ship ride to the moon. Okay, so we fibbed a little because she said she didn’t know what an airplane was; but she saw the airplanes at the airport and instantly knew what they were (by then it was too late to correct the charade). Sitting on the Tarmac, she got even more cranky and started saying she didn’t want to be on an airplane or that she wanted to go home. Once we actually got to take off, she figured it out and started beaming and giggling and repeating that she was going to the moon. All the adults around us looked and “awwwwwhhhhh’d” at her happiness. From then on, things started going right.

We got to Barcelona and we all instantly felt better as the weather was exactly what we all needed. The geographic area looked exactly like southern Italy and most other Mediterranean areas. Angie really likes it.

We met up with Grandma who was chillin’ at a cafe outside our apartment, and went to dinner. The adults had some Paella Senorito and loved it! The birthday girl had some small fried chicken balls which were wonderful. Then we all had some great ice cream based deserts. At that point we all sang the Happy Birthday song to Misty - who absolutely lit up and beamed as we sang. After dinner we walked around for a while, eventually stumbling into the famous Mercado Rialta (city center square). The kids went home with Grandma and Angie and myself went on our date.

Angie and I walked around aimlessly for over an hour, mostly just following our “shiny” instincts. We came across the Gothic Cathedral and the museum for Gaudi (both closed but cool looking). The we found a Flamenco bar. The main dancer for one song grabbed a young man from the audience and brought him onstage to teach him a very short lesson in Flamenco dance. The next song the main singer sang a song all the younger ladies seem to know. He then went around putting the microphone in front of several of them to have them sing into. That went well enough that he brought the mike to yours truly (who most definitely did not know the song) and had me try to repeat the words as he most rapidly said them. To say the least I failed. Angie was laughing so it might be cool.

Lastly, we walked around the cool night life of Barcelona and saw the city. I rather enjoyed it, and Angie seems to have also liked it.

Angie's Journal

Today was a travel day, but it was nice that it was a short flight. Unfortunately the flight was delayed and there was a long wait on the tarmac, which made Misty a bit cranky. However, once we were in the air she was fine. We made Misty a special Birthday Girl t-shirt to try and make her birthday a bit special. She was very excited to see Grandma, which made my mom happy that she remembered her. 

The apartment my mom picked out was really nice. It lacked some amenities that a hotel might have had, but being in the historic area in an apartment that slept 6 with A/C and a lift was enough for us. Since we got in mid-afternoon, we were able to walk around a bit. 

After dinner my mom took the kids and Ray and I got to roam on our own. It was so fun walking down all the alleys and streets discovering what was around the next turn. Eventually we stumbled upon a Flamenco show which was fun. It wasn't a commercial show, just a small gig at a local restaurant. I kind of liked that more because it had a more lively atmosphere.