Day-6 (Oct 25) Arriving in Barcelona Spain

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Buenos Dias from Spain.

Well the smooth sailing ended with a bang, but fortunately not with a splash. During the night, a storm came up which the captain reported this morning as having gusts reaching Force-12 winds (that’s 70 knots or about 82 mph, or hurricane level-1). It was kind of bumpy and the wind whistled past the balcony and you could hear it bang against the hull, but everything was fine again in the morning. It is doubtful we will run into anything worse than that the rest of the trip. But maybe the lifeboat drill wasn’t such a bad idea after all.

However we were more than an hour late arriving in Barcelona, so all the tours were late starting. Since ours was a full-day tour, everything was rushed to get through the whole schedule and get back to the ship before it sailed. Actually, David was the next-to-last person up the gangway before they pulled it in and closed the hatch. Good thing he didn’t dawdle outside to take any pictures of the ship.

Our coach took us through the streets of Barcelona and the guide pointed out lots of different architectures. We stopped at the Sagrada Familia and got to see the church which is still under construction but is scheduled to receive the Pope for an official blessing. Their king of architects was Gaudi and we saw many of his architectural masterpieces on the Casa Mila (or know by Barcelonans as “La Pedrera House” and Casa Batlo) while the bus zipped between the cars. Some day we will try to find words to describe the European drivers, but there are children reading these blogs too.

Then we were off for an hour’s drive to Montserrat, the mountain and the Benedictine Monastery. Montserrat translates into serrated mountain because it has many jagged peaks and ridges and looks kind of like a serrated knife.

The Benedictine Order was founded in the 11th century and currently has about 80 monks in the monastery high on this mountain. It has served as a shrine for almost 1000 years since a special statue of the Virgin Mary was found in the mountains in the year 880. No one knows who created the statue but it has been associated with many miracles. We had to really rush up the path from the bus park to get to the main church by 1:00 where the boy’s choir performs for 10 minutes each day. It was packed inside so we could not walk around touring the building, but we saw and heard the choir performance from the back of the church. Strangely, we could not understand any of the words to the songs.

After that, we had a delicious lunch in their restaurant (Cannelloni appetizers, ¼ roasted chicken with french fries, and an ice cream desert, with plenty of red wine which even Janet and Kathy liked - and we have witnesses that Jim polished off three 1-liter bottles of wine). Then we had some free time so the girls went to the gift shops and went off to try their famous Benedictine liquors (4 samples for 1 euro).

Then it was back on the bus to Barcelona and a visit to another cathedral in the Gothic district. Not surprising, quite a few people took naps on the way back to Barcelona. In fact, only about half the riders went on that part of the tour (including Jim, Kathy, and Rich), while the others (including Janet and David) stayed on the bus to continue their rest. The report is that it was interesting, but a real sprint up and down the streets so they could get back to the bus to return to the dock in time for sailing.

We changed quickly into clean clothes and had another delicious dinner. We will give more detail about the dinners in the future, but so far we have had Prime Rib, Salmon, Veal, Shrimp and Crab Meat, an almost limitless variety of deserts and a lot more. The question was asked if Kathy intends to keep serving these kinds of meals when they get home, and the answer was Yes, if Jim has learned to cook while on this cruise.

Then we all went to the Metropolis Lounge for a show of show tunes. It was highlights of 5 different Broadway shows. All in all the day got off to a shaky start but was a good day anyway. The forecast for tonight is supposed to be windy again but not as much as last night.

Sad news - when we got back to the cabin today our bunny rabbit had run away. However Kathy said she had a bull dog in her cabin.

PS - In response to Abby’s question about Kathy and her Centurion friend in Rome, his name is “Romano”. Thanks for asking the question.

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Photos

Cathedral
started by Gaudi before he died

Boy's Choir
at Montserrat Abby

Jim, Kathy, & Rich
at Montserrat

David
at Montserrat

Gothic Architecture
on church in Barcelona