Port Intensive and Picture Intensive Trip Report for Jewel's E Mediterranean cruise

[Destaw71835]

I’m really enjoying your review. The pictures are beautiful!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[PhilNDebbieAtSea]

I’m really enjoying your review. The pictures are beautiful!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

 

 

Thank you so much!

[PhilNDebbieAtSea]

Sunday,10/30/17, Day 10, Day 5 of the cruise – Barcelona, Spain, 1st day

 

Barcelona! We had an overnight here. Very delightful and exciting! This was our first cruise with an overnight visit. Barcelona had a great, easy, and attractive port. I’ll be honest and say that Spain was our biggest surprise. It had never been on my bucket list of places to go, but I was so very pleasantly surprised at how much I loved all of the Spanish ports. Very beautiful!

 

We had booked a Barcelona City 4 hour half day tour with Barcelona Day Tours (300 euros plus 28 euros for skip the line tickets for Park Guell), which seem to be very popular on cruise critic and trip advisor. We were very glad for a half day!

 

 

 

 

 

 

[PhilNDebbieAtSea]

Our driver was Giuseppe and he picked us up at 8:30 am. He was very nice. He had a lovely, melodious voice and Spanish accent. He explained a lot of the history and architecture. What a beautiful city Barcelona is – so open and clean and lovely. Such architecture! We saw a lot of Gaudi – gorgeous and strange. We had been “worried” about maybe not making this port due to the protests that had been in the news at the time. Catalonia, which is this part of Spain, had declared its independence from Spain, while Spain had suspended all autonomy in the area. Very scary situation! Our driver said no fears, it will be like a big party. And what we saw was very easygoing…

 

 

 

 

[PhilNDebbieAtSea]

They had stands set up for music and people were carrying and wearing flags. The protest today was for those that supported Spain. They were selling flags on the streets and we bought one. It was the Spanish flag, and I assured our driver that we were not taking sides. When we saw a Catalonia flag, we would also buy that! He was pro-independence and was very heartfelt, but soft spoken, about it.

 

 

 

 

 

[PhilNDebbieAtSea]

We noticed a lot of police presence and television vans.

 

 

 

 

[PhilNDebbieAtSea]

 

[PhilNDebbieAtSea]

We saw a beautiful church, the Avinguda de la Cathedral.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[PhilNDebbieAtSea]

 

 

 

 

 

[PhilNDebbieAtSea]

 

 

 

 

[PhilNDebbieAtSea]

Beautiful architecture and sights.

 

 

 

 

 

[PhilNDebbieAtSea]

 

 

 

[PhilNDebbieAtSea]

 

 

[PhilNDebbieAtSea]

We saw the famous Basilica de la Sagrada Família, Gaudi’s masterpiece. This should be finally completed in 2026. We didn’t go inside, but we walked completely around to see all 4 sides, which told different stories.

 

 

 

 

 

[PhilNDebbieAtSea]

 

 

 

 

[PhilNDebbieAtSea]

 

 

 

 

[PhilNDebbieAtSea]

 

 

 

[PhilNDebbieAtSea]

We stopped halfway around to get a coffee. P&F went in while M&I sat outside table at a nice café. Surprisingly, they came out with coffee from the McDonald’s next door to the café. It took forever for them to get the employees to understand they wanted plain coffee. Yes, coffee was an issue on this trip as many of the countries’ definition of coffee was not Phil’s… LOL!

 

 

We also went to Park Guell, another famous landmark. It was supposed to be residences, but they were never finished. Guess no one wanted to live in gingerbread houses.

 

 

 

 

[PhilNDebbieAtSea]

 

 

 

 

 

[PhilNDebbieAtSea]

 

 

 

 

[PhilNDebbieAtSea]

We went to the seaside area. They also had 2 tall buildings, one with the framework on the inside and one with it on the outside. Very cutting-edge they are…

 

 

 

[PhilNDebbieAtSea]

There was a nice beach area.

 

 

 

 

 

[PhilNDebbieAtSea]

 

 

 

 

[PhilNDebbieAtSea]

We were back on the ship by 1 pm. I stopped at the ATM in the port area to get some more euros. I felt very secure and safe there. We went to the Windjammer for lunch. I saw the assistant waiter from the first night’s dinner. Sadly, he was as clueless in the WJ as in the MDR. We actually saw another server roll her eyes at him.

 

Understanding that we could have explored Barcelona a little more and had dinner in the city, we opted instead to relax on the balcony the rest of the day. With the unrest, we did not feel like “risking” walking around at night. We did not hear of any problems, though.

 

 

 

 

[PhilNDebbieAtSea]

F called and said hurry over, the Norwegian Epic was leaving. Very cool – she did a K turn.

 

 

 

 

 

The rest of Chop’s steaks from the night before. It was his spare snack.