Ah, Barcelona!
Gaudi's Sagrada Familia Cathedral
May 7, and at 8 am we docked in Barcelona, Spain where great painters such as Joan Miro, Salvador Dali, and Pablo Picasso spent their formative years. It is also the birthplace of Pablo Casals, Montserrat Caballe, and Jose Carreras. And it was the home of Antoni Gaudi, who was either a genius or a madman. Testaments to his architectural style are everywhere in the central city. Some people stand in awe while gaping at his buildings. To me, they look as if they are melting in the hot Spanish sun.
Barcelona at night
To each his own. I could write several pages on Gaudi, but suggest you check him out on the internet or your library and see for yourself. We took the city highlights tour and quickly realized that one must spend several days here to see all there is to see.
The Las Ramblas market
One of Europe's greatest boulevards, the tree-lined Las Ramblas, offers a 24-hour performance of vendors selling birds and flowers, open-air cafés, and enticing shops. I bought a wonderful little "authentic reproduction" of a Picasso saucer. It now graces our dining room table as a platform for our olive oil cruet (and the olive oil is Spanish). The last stop on the tour is a walk around Gaudi's unfinished masterpiece, the Sagrada Familia Cathedral. It is a surrealistic creation of twists, towers, and turns in endless cascades of soaring turrets and twisting sculptures. You have to see it to believe it.
We have a full day of cruising the Mediterranean tomorrow. It's a good thing, too, as we are all tired from tramping around the past several days. It's often referred to as the "museumed-out sydrome." A day aboard ship offers all sorts of things to do, the first of which is eating. There is a fine little game room for card and board games (we played a lot of Rummikub), the casino, bridge lessons, and every afternoon a trivia game in the Polo Lounge. We teamed up with four Brits and won a few games during our time aboard ship. Our prizes were key chains, very nice ballpoint pens, travel clocks, and small Orient Lines duffle bags. I believe our team won more games than any other. There is also a health club..(to work off all that food), and an internet center.
Return To The Index
May 7, and at 8 am we docked in Barcelona, Spain where great painters such as Joan Miro, Salvador Dali, and Pablo Picasso spent their formative years. It is also the birthplace of Pablo Casals, Montserrat Caballe, and Jose Carreras. And it was the home of Antoni Gaudi, who was either a genius or a madman. Testaments to his architectural style are everywhere in the central city. Some people stand in awe while gaping at his buildings. To me, they look as if they are melting in the hot Spanish sun.
Barcelona at night
To each his own. I could write several pages on Gaudi, but suggest you check him out on the internet or your library and see for yourself. We took the city highlights tour and quickly realized that one must spend several days here to see all there is to see.
The Las Ramblas market
One of Europe's greatest boulevards, the tree-lined Las Ramblas, offers a 24-hour performance of vendors selling birds and flowers, open-air cafés, and enticing shops. I bought a wonderful little "authentic reproduction" of a Picasso saucer. It now graces our dining room table as a platform for our olive oil cruet (and the olive oil is Spanish). The last stop on the tour is a walk around Gaudi's unfinished masterpiece, the Sagrada Familia Cathedral. It is a surrealistic creation of twists, towers, and turns in endless cascades of soaring turrets and twisting sculptures. You have to see it to believe it.
We have a full day of cruising the Mediterranean tomorrow. It's a good thing, too, as we are all tired from tramping around the past several days. It's often referred to as the "museumed-out sydrome." A day aboard ship offers all sorts of things to do, the first of which is eating. There is a fine little game room for card and board games (we played a lot of Rummikub), the casino, bridge lessons, and every afternoon a trivia game in the Polo Lounge. We teamed up with four Brits and won a few games during our time aboard ship. Our prizes were key chains, very nice ballpoint pens, travel clocks, and small Orient Lines duffle bags. I believe our team won more games than any other. There is also a health club..(to work off all that food), and an internet center.
Return To The Index
To each his own. I could write several pages on Gaudi, but suggest you check him out on the internet or your library and see for yourself. We took the city highlights tour and quickly realized that one must spend several days here to see all there is to see.
The Las Ramblas market
One of Europe's greatest boulevards, the tree-lined Las Ramblas, offers a 24-hour performance of vendors selling birds and flowers, open-air cafés, and enticing shops. I bought a wonderful little "authentic reproduction" of a Picasso saucer. It now graces our dining room table as a platform for our olive oil cruet (and the olive oil is Spanish). The last stop on the tour is a walk around Gaudi's unfinished masterpiece, the Sagrada Familia Cathedral. It is a surrealistic creation of twists, towers, and turns in endless cascades of soaring turrets and twisting sculptures. You have to see it to believe it.
We have a full day of cruising the Mediterranean tomorrow. It's a good thing, too, as we are all tired from tramping around the past several days. It's often referred to as the "museumed-out sydrome." A day aboard ship offers all sorts of things to do, the first of which is eating. There is a fine little game room for card and board games (we played a lot of Rummikub), the casino, bridge lessons, and every afternoon a trivia game in the Polo Lounge. We teamed up with four Brits and won a few games during our time aboard ship. Our prizes were key chains, very nice ballpoint pens, travel clocks, and small Orient Lines duffle bags. I believe our team won more games than any other. There is also a health club..(to work off all that food), and an internet center.
Return To The Index
One of Europe's greatest boulevards, the tree-lined Las Ramblas, offers a 24-hour performance of vendors selling birds and flowers, open-air cafés, and enticing shops. I bought a wonderful little "authentic reproduction" of a Picasso saucer. It now graces our dining room table as a platform for our olive oil cruet (and the olive oil is Spanish). The last stop on the tour is a walk around Gaudi's unfinished masterpiece, the Sagrada Familia Cathedral. It is a surrealistic creation of twists, towers, and turns in endless cascades of soaring turrets and twisting sculptures. You have to see it to believe it.
We have a full day of cruising the Mediterranean tomorrow. It's a good thing, too, as we are all tired from tramping around the past several days. It's often referred to as the "museumed-out sydrome." A day aboard ship offers all sorts of things to do, the first of which is eating. There is a fine little game room for card and board games (we played a lot of Rummikub), the casino, bridge lessons, and every afternoon a trivia game in the Polo Lounge. We teamed up with four Brits and won a few games during our time aboard ship. Our prizes were key chains, very nice ballpoint pens, travel clocks, and small Orient Lines duffle bags. I believe our team won more games than any other. There is also a health club..(to work off all that food), and an internet center.
Return To The Index