Barcelona Spain

Thursday, April 16, 2009 – BARCELONA, Spain!
Sunny and bright with rain and hail!!! Hail in April!!
65 degrees; Best buys are leather, jewelry, perfume, soap and ceramics
Some of the most interesting and unusual architecture in the world. 3M residents; 70 museums, 3 universities and 16 parks. Euro is the currency. Spanish is the language.

The port shuttle took us to the Christopher Columbus monument marking the harbor he entered when returning to Spain after discovering America. The metro took us to the Plaza Catalunya to the public bus #24 to go right to the top entrance of the Park Guell designed by Antonio Gaudi. Gaudi was a architect ahead of his time, using recycled material long before it was a popular idea. His designs combine stone, iron and ceramics in a rather commanding and certainly irreverent fashion.

We walked through the park enjoying the caves with palm tree shaped entrance pillars, the Room of 100 Hundred Columns, a covered market supported by tilted Doric-style columns and mosaic-encrusted buttresses for musicians/buskers, iron dragon at the gates, gingerbread homes, the patchwork Serpentine lizard and water fountains and the park benches in wave shapes and the Gaudi Casa-Museu, wher eh elived with his niece for 20 years. Beautiful colors and designs in an open park to be enjoyed by all! Born in 1852, his career got the boost it needed when he met Count Eusebio Guell, the heir to a textiles fortune, who would become his benefactor for over 30 years. Gaudi built homes with wavy fronts and roofs that look like icing is dripping down a cake.

We walked a long distance to the metro and found the La Sagrada Familia cathedral, the unfinished church by Gaudi. This is Barcelona’s most unforgettable landmark. It is a magical mid-city massif of needles and peaks left by eons of wind erosion and fungal exuberance. It is still under construction and there is now talk of completion with plans to finish it by 2026, which would be 100 year anniversary of Gaudi’s death. To be completed are the towers, the main façade and the covered apse.

We continued walking down Paseo de la Gracia to view the various Gaudi designs. He was commissioned to build them for wealthy families and they stand out today as designs ahead of his time. The Majestic Hotel is one of preferred hotels so we stopped there to tour and continued on to the Cathedral, which was built between 1298 and 1450. Its highlights are the beautifully carved choir stalls, Santa Eulalia’s tomb in the crypt and the battle-marked crucifix from Don Juan’s galley in the Lepanto Chapel and the cloisters.

We were in the Gothic Quarter with narrow cobblestone streets so we wandered around the curvy streets, eventually ending up at The Ramblas, the walking street to the port. There are vendors and cafes scattered along the cobblestone route.

Other sights: Picasso Museum, Montjuic (hilltop park with castle, gardens and museums), Joan Miro Foundation (art museum with Miro’s works), Olympic Stadium from 1929 and the Tibidabo Mountain, the world’s only museum of automation.

The shuttle bus took us back to the ship and it was very sad to think this is our last time to board the Queen Victoria. Ship looks bigger each time we board her.
In front of us was docked a P&O ship, the Oceana. She left slightly ahead of us and sailed passed us, tooting her horns in song and people were on her decks as we were out on ours waving back.

The Queen Victoria tooted back and I was sad. That big lump in my throat turned into tears streaming down my cheeks. What a moment in time. A lovely day with the brilliant sunshine…standing on the balcony viewing the hilltop fort of Montjuic in Barcelona Spain…waving to passengers on a sister ship…while hearing the QV whistles…a moment I will long remember.

We had a nice dinner with bright sunshine streaming in at our table. The sun sets late now, around 8:30 PM.

Entertainment: Paul Ritchie, Harriet MacKenzie and Christina Lawrie and Vincenzo Gentile, a violinist played Hungarian songs. Also worked on luncheon invitation for Saturday.

We are officially OFF RESTRICTIONS! We can now serve our own tea/coffee, choose our own food in the buffet and lounge areas and not be served absolutely everything by a waiter (there were lines everywhere!). We will see how long it lasts this time…

“To make one hated is more difficult than to make oneself loved.” Pablo Picasso (1881-1973)