Day 2: Barcelona
Well, I am glad I am an over planner. It paid off, once again. We spent the day on a private tour with Hannosmom and Grayfal. Our tour guide, Jose Soler of Pepito Tours, was awesome. We learned about Barcelona history and saw some pretty awesome architecture. We managed to see a couple of Antoni Gaudi’s works of art such as Casa Batllo .
We actually toured the Casa Mila (unofficially known as La Pedrera) and La Sagrada Familia Church.
Here is view of the roof
Here is a few pictures of the La Sagrada Familia Church.. It has been under construction for about 125 years. It is doubtful that it will be completed in my life time. Funding for the construction comes from tourists touring the structure.
A close up view of some of the statues
As you can it is very ornate.
We are thinking about buying a place here. The cost for a two bedroom apartment is only 400,000 Euros. This will no doubt happen after we win the lottery. The exchange rate was $1.41 to 1 Euro. Now you do the math. I am from New York, but my last name is not Rockefeller or Clinton (not that they are from there, but that is a different thread). LOL There are no houses here. Everyone lives in an apartment, even after you die (wish my picture came out of the glass window wall that was a crypt).
It was interesting riding through the city. They also drive crazy here. As you can see from this photo. LOL
Oh, I almost forgot to tell you all about how my planning payed off. I packed those throw away ponchos. You know the ones you get at
Walmart for buck. I have been hauling them on every cruise and this one was no different, except that we finally used them. It poured on and off all day. Finally! they got used. Our feet were soaked, but our tops, head and butts were dry. How is that for being prepared? LOL Never thought to bring those small umbrellas. Ahh, just one more thing to haul around and store. No doubt DH will be ecstatic. He already feels like he is the mule, and is kind enough to make those lovely “eeh aw” sound when he is lugging the luggage. What a smart allack
Our tour guide, Jose, took us to a Tapas bar for lunch. I had decided prior to leaving for this cruise that I was going to try whatever they put in front of me. I did not care if it looked back at me or moved on the plate. I may never get back here and I wanted to really experience the food and culture. Jose ordered several pitchers of Sangria. Remember we are not drinkers. Dh , Dn and I drank a pitcher of Sangria. Yummy! I knew there was definitely a siesta in my near future.
Yes that is raw octopus and fish. Yummy, I even ate very pink beef.
As soon as I got back on the bus, the lids closed and it was sweet dreams. In fact I did not get off to see the Park Guell. I guess you know why there are no photos of this gated garden and houses. oops!
From there we made our way to the Gothic area. Where Hannosmom was pick pocketed. Yup, they got here TP right out of her back pack.
As you can see it is raining and here is where we got really drenched. Thank goodness it was the end of the excursion and we returned to the ship to prepare for our sailing.
When we arrived at the port, some folks were checking in. Talk about cutting it close! I am certain that there was some stress in their life in the past couple of days.
We also watched the shore crew as they we disassembling the area where we checked in. It was sad to see them taking apart all the back drops and loading everything up. This had been the Magic’s home away from home for a few months and it was going to be missed by the locals. Some of them stayed to wave good-bye. Because of the rain the sail away party was held inside on deck 3 mid ship. It did not dampen my excitement or anyone around me.
We can officially say we are on a cruise! We were finally underway and heading toward home.
We prepared for dinner. The food onboard has been different and very good. Most food is European as well as ingredients. Some felt it made the food not as good as they remembered. My palate is not that sensitive, especially after a pitcher of Sangria!
DGD (who is very shy) was having good and bad moments in her life. She become a little more out going, but not always by choice (okay we did prod her a bit). Tonight she and three other Nintendo DS packing mamas went to the theatre to see a show. Her social calendar is far to hectic for me. She was wanting to have the freedom bestowed upon her by her parents on previous cruises. Sorry, Nana is not that comfortable. We were trying small amounts of letting her run free and I was certain that I was going to need nitro patches for the remainder of this cruise. I am not sure how much of this growing up she is doing my heart can handle. She had not been to the club yet and I suspect she will go there tomorrow, assuming the other three DS Divas go as well.
We are at sea tomorrow and have a quite a bit of things to do. It appears from the navigator that I have several conflicts in my schedule with a cooking show (Art of Entertaining Series), ice cream social, DIS meet and Fools Meet, paper plane making and a ventriloquism workshop. Not to mention a conflict between napkin folding and a digital camera seminar. I can here my son saying “Take the camera one so you can learn what to do and stop bugging me.”
Did I mention that DH is napping behind me on the couch, Oh wait you guys are shocked, right? You are not, well at least you know some things never change.
We were over weight, but DH and DN assured me to not stress as they do not weigh carry on. So, I figure maybe they are right. I do switch some stuff around, but I am determined to make this a stress less trip and try not to give it another thought. 
The ticket agent was all to happy to tell me that as well. I quickly pull my camera out and it puts me within a pound. Must be all those lanyards I was hand carrying. He decides to let it go and tags it. I knew I should not have listened to DH and DN.
