Emerald Princess Rome to Barcelona September 26 -October 3 2015 in photos and video

[perfect match]

I'm almost caught up! I'm finished reading your Gaudi tour and hotel check in, food, and nap in Barcelona. At this point I just want to stop for a bit so I can appreciate the photos I've just seen. They are absolutely spectacular!

 

Please write slowly for the next day or so because that may allow me to finally catch up! :D :eek:

[Bimmer09]

On the roof of Batilo and this is the back of the "dragon" crest you see from down on the street. There are about 40 people milling around up here so I had to stand by and wait my chance for a clean shot.

 

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There are skylights in the roof, surrounded by a fence to stop people falling through them

 

 

 

You will not be alone...

 

 

One thing that came through the headphones made Carol and I smile- they use some Wagner music (Prelude from Lohengrin) to set the mood for some of the narration segments.

[Bimmer09]

We'll leave the roof soon and take the stairs down below

 

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The stairs are narrow, not designed for hordes of people with cameras but what is worth seeing involves looking up and that way you can get shots without heads in the way as people pass you in both directions.

 

Here you see the skylights as I go down

 

 

 



 



 

[Bimmer09]

As I suggested there is not as much to see in this house as in Casa Mila.

The few rooms you will see are not furnished.

 

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That's basically it. The room was full of people milling around and to get that first shot took 5 minutes of waiting for the bodies to clear out. The big window though is the most striking feature.

 

I told Carol I was going to the gift shop and would leave after that.

 

The gift shop was a zoo, wall to wall bodies and of course the Fridge magnets were in the furthest corner. People were so packed in I couldn't take a photo without it being a close up of the person a foot away from me. I got my magnets, paid for them and went back downstairs to the entrance to hand in my headset.

 

 

Once out and past those waiting to get in and those gathered near the entrance as onlookers I found a bench by the street and texted Carol to let her know where I was.

 

OK, that's 4 Gaudi creations seen in two days. Months before when we booked the tour we thought we'd see them all on one tour. When we looked at the location of our hotel and saw two Gaudi's right next to it we understood why Jose from Pepito said that Sagrada and Guell were the only ones doable in 4 hours with a guide. A guide for Batilo and Mila would be pointless.

 

No more crowds ahead until we get to the airport in the morning in just over 12 hours from now. Once Carol emerges from the scrum it's back to the hotel rooftop bar to hopefully see a sunset.

 

Fingers crossed!

[Bimmer09]

After Batilo we take the short walk back to our hotel as the light is fading.

 

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We are coming near the end of two magical days in this wonderful city. It has been warm but cloudy overcast weather.

 

 

We have seen some of Gaudi's genius up close

 

 

 

 

and enjoyed walking along some of the most beautiful wide streets filled with peaceful happy people

 

 

We have been on a dizzying, inspiring, never to be forgotten and hopefully repeated odyssey of pleasure and discovery for 11 days and knew that after today we would be slapped in the face with the Giant Anchovy of Reality.

 

I need a drink and that can only mean the rooftop bar!

 

Norris

[MJSailors]

Hello Norris

I have been reading your posts from day one.

As usual, your writing and photography make your posts read like a book.

I especially enjoyed your account of Florence.

It is a beautiful city,which I was fortunate to visit many years ago as a college student.

Your descriptions of places in Europe are inspiring, but ,because of health issues and finances -retired,fixed income and all that- I do not think my husband and I will ever see some of these beautiful,interesting places.

Nevertheless , I am certainly a cheerleader for those who are able to travel far and wide.

Thank you for bringing places in Italy and Barcelona to life for those following your recent journey!

I must say that I was very interested in the photos of Casa Mila.

Architectural details have always interested me and Gaudi certainly put a lot of those in his works.

I was imaging living in that building.

What enjoyment in finding all the nooks and crannies both in the interior and exterior

of that building!

I wish you and Carol a bon voyage on your upcoming cruise for the Caribbean sunshine.

There will be many people looking forward to your posts of that cruise.

We are booked on the Ruby cruising from LA to Hawaii in March. A bit of a splurge, but

once in awhile a splurge is good!

Fingers crossed we will be able to enjoy this relaxing cruise to another beautiful place.

My husband has suggested that I write a post about that cruise.

I am considering it,but I do not think I could come up to your standards of travel writing!

Continue your travels with Carol and enjoy your days!

[Bimmer09]

Hello Norris

I have been reading your posts from day one.

As usual, your writing and photography make your posts read like a book.

I especially enjoyed your account of Florence.

It is a beautiful city,which I was fortunate to visit many years ago as a college student.

Your descriptions of places in Europe are inspiring, but ,because of health issues and finances -retired,fixed income and all that- I do not think my husband and I will ever see some of these beautiful,interesting places.

Nevertheless , I am certainly a cheerleader for those who are able to travel far and wide.

Thank you for bringing places in Italy and Barcelona to life for those following your recent journey!

I must say that I was very interested in the photos of Casa Mila.

Architectural details have always interested me and Gaudi certainly put a lot of those in his works.

I was imaging living in that building.

What enjoyment in finding all the nooks and crannies both in the interior and exterior

of that building!

I wish you and Carol a bon voyage on your upcoming cruise for the Caribbean sunshine.

There will be many people looking forward to your posts of that cruise.

We are booked on the Ruby cruising from LA to Hawaii in March. A bit of a splurge, but

once in awhile a splurge is good!

Fingers crossed we will be able to enjoy this relaxing cruise to another beautiful place.

My husband has suggested that I write a post about that cruise.

I am considering it,but I do not think I could come up to your standards of travel writing!

Continue your travels with Carol and enjoy your days!

 

MJ thanks so much for following this from day 1 and for the kind things you say.

 

I read most photo reviews on CC and am always surfing from board to board.

 

I'm currently reading two Far East reviews on Royal's board and I don't know at this point whether we will ever be in Malaysia or Cambodia but reading those reviews and seeing the pics will help sway us one way or the other. So I also live vicariously. Reviews without photos don't usually get me interested unless the writer is Charles Dickens, George Bernard Shaw or someone who can really

write. It's not easy to make those places pop off the page without photos or video.

 

Yes we are lucky health-wise that we are able to do a cruise like this which involved a lot of walking and 5 a.m wake ups. There were days with 12 hours between meals which don't happen on land. Running on adrenalin.

 

Casa Mila was a highlight for me. Adventurous architecture, the like of which had never been seen before and the fact that the architect also designed furniture to compliment the structure impressed me even more. Anyone could draw fantastic shapes on draught paper but to have them built and still be standing and livable a 100 years later....

 

By the way there is a TV series filmed in 2011 I think on the Travel Channel (Google it) called Globetrekker where the young host Megan McCormick visits Barcelona for 8 days and part of it is in Casa Mila in the apartment of a lady who has been living there for 50 years. She also visits Sagrada Familia when the interior was being built and closed to the public. Great show. Available on Youtube but for a fee.

 

Also on my DVR is a program called 36 Hours (on Bravo?) which is mainly about the great restaurants of Barcelona with a lot of local color too including Boqueria market.

 

I hope you and your DH enjoy the Ruby to Hawaii! We have been on the Ruby twice which must say something.

 

I am looking forward to Celebrity Silhouette in January and hope you can visit the X board and say Hi during my review.

 

Thanks again for the response!

 

Norris

[Witsend1]

Hi Norris finally caught up with your incredible review. Love your sense of humour as well as your photographs. What a wonderful journey. I have been lucky enough to to visit some of the places you have written about but you have shown me there is much more to see in each of them.

 

I will read some of your old reviews and will look out for the upcoming January one in due course.

 

Thank you so much for entertaining me for the last few weeks and for the time and effort you have put into this, much appreciated.

 

Linda

[Bimmer09]

Hi Norris finally caught up with your incredible review. Love your sense of humour as well as your photographs. What a wonderful journey. I have been lucky enough to to visit some of the places you have written about but you have shown me there is much more to see in each of them.

 

I will read some of your old reviews and will look out for the upcoming January one in due course.

 

Thank you so much for entertaining me for the last few weeks and for the time and effort you have put into this, much appreciated.

 

Linda

 

Linda, thanks for joining us here and for the kind comments.

 

I'm glad you took the time to read the whole thing.Much appreciated!

 

If you read the Celebrity one pop in and say hello.

 

Norris

[MJSailors]

Thank you again, Norris-

I will check out the Globetrekker series.

Interesting to see the Casa Mila apartment and other scenes of Barcelona. Your post on the X board should be interesting. We took the Celebrity Summit to Bermuda a few years ago. It was fine,but we returned to Princess.

Just a matter of personal taste.

[Bimmer09]

Well the cloudy sky once again thwarted the sunset from delighting us.

No matter-a cold glass of Estrella and some olives helped us overcome the disappointment.

 

The floodlights shine on Casa Batilo

 

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** Some of these pics I may have shown before to tell the story-I didn't take rooftop pics until the last night.

 

 

We've done a lot of traveling. I have 31,000 photos on my Mac from all our adventures and I only started to really enjoy taking photos when I got the Canon camera in December 2012. Prior to that I took mostly video while Carol took most of the photos. We have visited many wonderful towns and cities and we always have that last night when everything winds down and we realize that we are looking at the things around us maybe for the last time.

It's not the same feeling as when you are on a cruise ship leaving Malta where you just spent 8 hours. You're looking back on Valetta but forward to the next port of call. Here we are looking forward to airports and long flights and baggage claim and taxis back to from where we came. We look forward to seeing our two cats though. The sitting service had sent us e mails each day with photos of them holding up that day's Newspaper so we know it's not stock footage.

 

A sip of beer and an inward sigh as I look around up here trying to burn the image into my brain and remember the warm breeze and the smell from the kitchen, the smile from our waitress, the excited babble of the Brits who just sat down having flown in today, chatting about their plans for tomorrow.

 

We've said goodbye to Munich in 2003 and have been back there 6 times since.

 

We already knew on the rooftop that we'd get another chance to say hello and goodbye to Barcelona in the future. It had been love at first sight. We know we will stay in this hotel again, no question about that.

 

 

We give ourselves silent high-fives and fist bumps for adding two extra days onto our vacation to see Barcelona. We've never gone straight from a ship to an airport and never will. That would be too depressing to leave the magical world of ship life and be dumped into the stress of an airport half an hour later-a rude awakening. Even when coming back into Ft Lauderdale we are staying one more day to decompress and keep that vacation vibe alive.

 

There eventually comes that time, especially when you plan on being up by 5 a.m

that you have to take one last look around, thank the waitress and ask for the check. No more closing the bar for me. Those days are gone. One last sleep in that fine hotel bed is a better idea than another round.

 

I take one last look

 

 

Back down to the room....

[DJVKN]

Norris, I followed along since the beginning and really enjoyed your photos but more importantly your gift of story telling. Thank you for sharing yours and Carol's journey and I look forward to your Celebrity review.

 

Diana

[Bimmer09]

Norris, I followed along since the beginning and really enjoyed your photos but more importantly your gift of story telling. Thank you for sharing yours and Carol's journey and I look forward to your Celebrity review.

 

Diana

 

Diana, thanks for the compliments and for sticking the course!

 

I just have BCN airport in the can and then some kind of Final Thoughts wrap-up.

 

Hope to see you in my X review!

 

Norris

[Bimmer09]

Norris,

 

Wonderful trip, wonderful memories, wonderful pictures....thank you so much for sharing your travel adventures with us. As I said when we left Paris recently -

 

A la prochaine fois!

 

Ron

 

Ron- I have yet to set foot (mon pied!) in Paris and there's no one more France-leaning than me.

 

I have only spent 3 days of my life on French soil but I lapped it up as it gave me a chance to speak a language I enjoyed in High School. I remembered my one on one French oral exam where I was going way over the top with shrugging shoulders and waving arms doing a Maurice Chevalier impression and the teacher saying to me, laughing-"now don't get carried away!". I passed anyway. I was a bit of a comedian in school and was asked to stand outside some classes as I was disruptive but not in a mean way. They weren't important classes for me, I guess.

 

Paris will happen at some point and we will be ready for it.

 

Glad you liked the review-just a couple more posts needed to clean it up and put a bow on it before Thursday when we go to New York.

 

Cheers, Ron. Salut!

 

Norris

[Bimmer09]

With a 5 a.m wake-up planned it was time to pack. I took a couple of last looks from out on the balcony using the iPhone.

 

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Cue sleep

 

Up bright and early for our date with reality. There's no place open for coffee that early but at 5.30 when I went down to the street the Hotel had the Nespresso machine up and running and a batch of those mini croissants keeping warm in a basket. Two of the croissants can be fit into your mouth at once, in case you were wondering what size mini is.

 

With a double espresso I enjoyed my first cigarette of the day out on the Gaudi bench on Passeig de Gracia with the street pretty much to myself. It was still dark. I asked the front desk to have a taxi that takes credit cards pick us up at 7 a.m. I was out here until just after 6 and enjoyed another double espresso and the quietness.

 

The last of the packing complete we checked out and were out on the street with a bellman and our luggage and getting into a taxi at 7. The driver didn't speak English but we were fine with not chatting as we drove through parts of Barcelona

that were unfamiliar to us.

After maybe 25 minutes of no traffic with a careful driver we were at BCN. The taxi fare was 31E before tip

 

 

 

The procedure for check in was not what we are used to:normally we go in and there are long counters with the airlines names emblazoned, in our case United but here there was a board where you had to find your flight and there would be a number or numbers for the desk you had to go to. This board just shows us to the appropriate gate clusters. We had gate 600 something.

 

 

We found our check in desk for our flight to Newark en route to Chicago. It wasn't open yet and a sign said it would open at 7.50 a.m, two hours before our flight. There were already Americans with bags standing in a line but we elected to sit on a bench and wait. At 7.40 the uniformed crew of half a dozen arrived and stood chatting for 10 minutes. An electric sign lit up with the United flight number and destination and they opened at 7.50 on the dot. We joined the end of the line and began the shuffling forward a foot at a time process. As we do security officers come around asking to see Passports so we have ours out and ready.

 

When it came our turn Carol was fine but I needed to be grilled on where I had been and why I was here. I came to Barcelona on a cruise ship sir. Do you have anything that shows that? I searched my carryon for my cruise card but not needing it anymore it was stuffed in a pocket somewhere. I did come across the little ship map that they give you on embarking and that helped. When he asked about the bazooka sticking out of my bag I told him I was a duck hunter. They must have big ducks in America senor he said. I said Yes-everything in America is bigger and the ducks are no exception.

 

Once security was satisfied that I wasn't a big liar we were able to check in.

 

Then my favorite part-the security screening of our bodies and bags. We have TSA pre in the USA but it doesn't apply here so we joined a big line to take off the jackets, belts,empty pockets, computer out and cameras out. I ended up with 3 trays worth of stuff and a bag to roll through the X Ray.

 

Then I had to repack all the electronics, refill my pockets and lastly put on my belt. Where's my belt? I didn't know the Spanish word for it so did a mime of a man putting on his belt but people were too busy screening. I did find an officer nearby and asked him if he spoke English. I was in luck. It was already in lost property (that was fast!)and so he walked me a hundred yards or so to a desk where I had to sign a release form for it. I don't know how it got out of the tray that my jacket and money was in.

 

I rejoined Carol who had waited for me and we proceeded to our gate area as there is no United Club here.

 

More to follow

[twiggycat]

 

Thanks so much for this review.

 

We are now booked into the Majestic and have paid Pepito. :D

 

Tipping in Spain-- Can figure most out but what about Pepito guide and driver?

 

Your photos are outstanding.

[March Babe]

Say it isn't over. It can't be. Thanks for letting me tag along.

[Bimmer09]

 

Thanks so much for this review.

 

We are now booked into the Majestic and have paid Pepito. :D

 

Tipping in Spain-- Can figure most out but what about Pepito guide and driver?

 

Your photos are outstanding.

 

Thanks for following along so intently and for complimenting the photos.

 

You will love the Majestic- it lives up to it's name.

 

For Anna and Luis on a 400E excursion morning we gave 50 E total and Anna was very happy with that. No hints were ever dropped. If you can request them you'll be in good hands. Jose is easy to deal with via email.

 

When will you be in BCN?

 

Norris

[Bimmer09]

Say it isn't over. It can't be. Thanks for letting me tag along.

 

Ok- it ain't over as I have a few photos more and some parting words.

 

I started it 42 days ago and have written everyday during every spare moment I have had. After today when I finish it, it will slowly sink into obscurity like Jack in the movie Titanic and drop down a page a day to the sea bed.

 

Thanks for being one of the people who contributed comments along the way and kept me coming back to the computer.

 

Pop in and say hi in my X review late January (26th probably). We don't have any cruises planned beyond that as there is a chance we might go to Germany in the summer. We'll know better on Feb 1.

 

Cheers!

 

Norris

[twiggycat]

 

We will be on the Royal when it stops May 7. Then 3 days in bcn.

Was surprised United didn't have a lounge. AA has one - AENA Miro (what ever that means).

 

Was not excited about the trip until we saw your photos .D

 

Hope to meet up someday on a cruise. We cruise 3 or 4 times a year.

 

DH would love to talk photos with you. He has a lot of published photos mostly train magazines and perfume books (go figure, long story). He travels with 2 or 3 cameras but his favorite is an (antique) Canon.

[Bimmer09]

 

We will be on the Royal when it stops May 7. Then 3 days in bcn.

Was surprised United didn't have a lounge. AA has one - AENA Miro (what ever that means).

 

Was not excited about the trip until we saw your photos .D

 

Hope to meet up someday on a cruise. We cruise 3 or 4 times a year.

 

DH would love to talk photos with you. He has a lot of published photos mostly train magazines and perfume books (go figure, long story). He travels with 2 or 3 cameras but his favorite is an (antique) Canon.

 

I checked just now and United has a partner lounge called Sala Miro but on the day we didn't know that. We are firm believers in those lounges especially when they have a "Quiet Room" where no business men are talking about their core competencies so all can hear. Note to business men-get over yourselves.

 

Royal docks May 7....3 days in BCN will be three of the best days ever! We are not easily excitable people-towel animals leave us cold-but Barcelona was a pleasure to spend time in.

 

We only cruise a max of twice a year but we always book well in advance, so you never know...

 

If your husband has photos published then he is way more advanced than me. I haven't gotten the "bug" yet and I have a lot to learn. I shouldn't be using auto focus but with Lightroom I can fix most of my photos. I learn from youtube as there is so much camera technique shown on video there. I used to favor video more than stills until I got a good camera. We have a state of the amateur art video camera now and I will use it more on the Silhouette in January as we have minimal excursions that require stills.

 

By the way we are both train lovers and have taken several steam train rides.

Trains don't mean much in the USA but in Europe and especially Britain where I am from they are the passions of many a hobbyist. Train spotting...

 

Thanks for all your contributions to this review!

 

Norris

[midwestchick]

I have truly enjoyed your review and learned some very essential tips for our 2 upcoming cruises to Europe. Let's just pray those trips become a reality with all of the latest acts by ISIS. So sad.

I ended up booking Hotel Artemide in Rome for next August....I hard a hard time deciding between your hotel and Artemide, but Artemide won out and it also has a rooftop terrace.

Hopefully, I will remember to watch for your Silhouette review.

[Bimmer09]

BCN is the code for Barcelona Airport and we are flying to EWR (Newark NJ) then a 3 hour wait for a flight to ORD (Chicago O'Hare)

 

Once through the usual security bottleneck and with a belt holding up my pants we were in a huge wide-open world that is terminal E.

 

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The duty free shop didn't have the cigs I smoke nor the British candies we usually stock up on in such shops (Smarties, Aero bars, Walnut Whips-names that resound across the land in the UK, the home of chocolate. Forget Belgium.)

The bad British teeth stem from the Excellent British candy. Fact.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The airport, like the city, is a beautiful wide-open relaxing space. The 1992 Olympics were a shot in the arm for the City. They spent some money to spruce it up and invest in the infrastructure needed to handle crowds.

 

We had over an hour to spend, waiting for the call to board. I went to a cafe and bought sandwiches for the plane even though lunch would be served. We started on them in the waiting area.

 

We're looking forward to getting home to the cats-Lucia (newly adopted) and Little Snowy a big white cat, despite the name whose owner sadly passed away.

 

We are resigned to leaving Europe and Barcelona behind but looking forward to seeing both again. We have another cruise planned for January 17th as our vacation motto is ABP- Always Be Planning. That takes all the sting out of leaving a beautiful city behind-always something to anticipate!!

 

The flight to Newark passed in broad daylight so no sleeping. I watched a great Pixar movie called UP and surfed a few others. Carol, the movie buff, enjoyed a movie called "Clouds of Maria Sils" which got two thumbs up.

 

After 7 hours or so of flight we were on the ground in Newark and having fun going this way and that through a rabbit warren of an airport.

 

At Passport Control we went through the Global Entry line like VIPs at a

nightclub. What a great investment that was! Just breeze through using a machine. We had to claim our bags and then re-check them for our Chicago flight. At this point we went outside so I could have a cigarette and decompress from the airport stress (and I'm not even talking Heathrow here!!!)

 

A brief respite then it's up two floors to catch a monorail, then down over and up past the regular security line to reach TSA pre. Through there painlessly and then a very long walk to our gate. Endless walking in airports. Find the gate where of course they have CNN blasting on TVs- a 24 hour fluff news service of scrolling texts and multiple images hoping to make us believe we are getting up to date coverage as there's so much going on, on screen. I tune them out in favor of NPR news or BBC news coverage.

 

We're aboard another flight now to Chicago. Mercifully short at 2 hours and we arrive safely (priority #1) something like 12 hours after we left BCN and 17 hours since we woke up.

 

We arrived in a completely different place than that which we left over 12 hours ago.

 

As I walked to the baggage claim an airport worker stopped me and asked if I had just arrived from Barcelona. Why yes! I said. Welcome home, he said and slapped me in the face with a Giant Anchovy of Reality.

 

Next up- the last word. The last word is the segment where I get to express my feelings on the trip in general and Princess in particular.

 

Norris

[love2cruisegal]

Norris,

 

I have been following along and posted a couple times, can't believe this review is almost over. I knew Barcelona would be a great post cruise stay for two days, but after seeing all your pictures, we can hardly wait. But then I'm wishing our cruise away and it hasn't started!

 

We want to see Gaudi's houses, but wasn't planning to go inside, now think maybe we will at least one. Did you book the tickets online? Your hotel in Barcelona was beautiful and what a great view. We plan to do some walking there and also Las Ramblas. Our hotel has a rooftop deck and bar and hopefully we have the wonderful views you had.

 

 

My last post #920 or so (?) you asked about ship tours in St. Maarten. We have been twice and loved it both times. Anxious to hear about St. Kitts in your X review as it is one pace we would like to go.

 

You are about finished with your wonderful comments on this trip and I really enjoyed reading them. Look forward to reading your X review in January and how you enjoy their ship.

 

Ruth

[jlf1]

Norris,

 

Just catching up after several days away. Each review that you do surpasses the one before. Superb pix and your writing style is the best. You are up there with Sailor Jack but different style.

 

I'm sorry that this review is ending but I will be watching for your next one.

 

regards,

 

Judy