Barcelona, Spain Day 1

Thursday, July 20

The vibrant city of Barcelona is the capital of Spain's autonomous region of Catalonia.  It is home to the amazing La Sagrada Familia Church which has been under construction since 1882 and due for completion around 2026.  It is considered the masterpiece of Catalan architect Antoni Gaudi.

Las Ramblas is the main promenade where people hangout.... there are many shops and restaurants which makes it good for people watching and pick pockets!

Founded: About 300 BC

Region: rests on the NE shores of Spain in Catalonia and on the Iberian Sea.

Population: 1.6 million

Climate: Perfect summers and mild winters

Language: Spanish and Catalan

Currency: Euro

We arrived early in the morning... around 6ish and I woke with a sore throat and a headache so finally succumbing to the lurgy that everyone on board has been trying to give me for the last 6 weeks!  This is going to be a long day as we have a full day private tour organised to take us north of Barcelona.  Another beautiful sunny day with temperatures predicted around 30 degrees.

Our guide Danae was there to meet us at the port at 8.30am in a very comfortable 16 seater Mercedes van.  It was our first van that had a microphone which is preferred but there wasn't much to talk about as we were on the freeway most of the time or walking around villages.

Our first stop was at the beautiful town of Girona which is about a 90 minute drive from the Port.  We walked through the narrow streets exploring this wonderful place and learning about it's fascinating history that dates back to 100 BC.  After about two hours we ventured on to our next stop Tossa del Mar, which is about a 45 minute drive from Girona and would be our lunch break.

Tossa a del Mar is a beautiful seaside village on the Costa Brava coast, which was very busy with tourists and people on holidays as it has a beautiful beach which was very crowded!  It was a very hot day (again) so the beach was very popular and looked very inviting if you had the energy to walk to the water.... we didn't!

We had three hours of free time to walk through the narrow streets, checkout the ruins of the castle on the hill overlooking the beach and to have lunch.  This is the only tour so far that we have had so much free time where there have been real shops but typically just when we had time to hit the shops they were closing for their siesta.... another opportunity gone begging!!

At 3.30pm we met back up with our guide and drove back down the freeway to Barcelona and the beautiful Sea Princess (so the Commodore keeps telling us).

The plan was to go out later in the night for a typically Spanish dinner which for me would have been paella but as I wasn't feeling the best opted for the comfort of my bed.... but Peter still went with our friends....

As we overnight in Barcelona our plan tomorrow is to take it easy.... get the port shuttle for 4 euros return to Las Ramblas (instead of 20 euros each offered by Princess.... what a rip off!!).  Interestingly the last Port shuttle is at 11pm whereas the ship's shuttle was late afternoon... no use if you wanted to go out at night.  It pays to do your research!

Hope I wake feeling better in the morning.....

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