Day 1: Barcelona Arrived in Barcelona around 9 am. Arrived at our Hotel, Le Meridian, in Ramblas around 11.15am. We would recommend Le Meridian for your stay in Barcelona as it is very well located in the main boulevard, Ramblas and near the central square. Many visitors spend majority of their time walking Ramblas. First visit was to La Boqueria Market, lively place is an explosion of Spanish delicacies. Had to eat famous Spanish Sandwich Bacadillos as we were all hungry. Generally, a bocadillo is a 6 to 8-inch long portion of baguette, sliced in half and filled with chorizo sausage or another kind of cold cut of sausage, but can get with variety of other fillings. Next stop was Palau Guell, first of Gaudi’s innovative buildings. Afterwards, walked to the bottom of the Ramblas to ... read more

Cruise #1: Carnival Inspiration from Tampa to Cozumel First of all, let me start out by saying I had little interest in going on a cruise. I thought it would be boring to just spend time doing nothing but eating and stuck in a confined space with total strangers. Not only I had no interest, in fact I was concerned somewhat of being forced into a rigid schedule. However, a family friend of ours convinced we do a cruise together and we thought to give it a try. Another family joined us (amazingly the timing was perfect for all 3 families), so we cruised together as a party of 8 adults and 6 kids (ages 7-13yrs). Things went so well, the experience definitely exceeded my expectations. Here is some useful info if you plan on taking ... read more