Life's Journey

This morning was the last of the cruise, we had to be off the ship by 9:00am. I am not ready to leave this paradise. I'ts been such a great escape from reality, such a great adventure, and so relaxing. But, we had the day in Barcelona to explore. We booked a hotel for the night so we could spend the day here.

We packed up and carried our bags off the ship. We purchased many treasures at each of our destinations so we had an extra duffle bag to deal with on the way home This port was the most organized of all the ports we visited. They had a system for the taxis, the busses, the cars, etc. We easily got a taxi to take us to our hotel, Hotel Monte Carlo on Las Ramblas. I had a difficult time finding a hotel that had any availability but found this one in the heart of the city with a few rooms. It wasn’t cheap, but it also wasn’t the most expensive - although you would've thought it was when walking through the front doors. It was a very simple and clean hotel. The staff was attentive and very friendly. They took care of our luggage for us and gave us maps and ideas for what to do with our day in Barcelona. We decided to get tickets to the double decker hop on/ hop off bus. They had a few different options, one bus toured the north side, one toured the south side, and one toured the Olympic area. We started on the blue line which took us through the north part of the city. One stop was at the Sangra Familia church. This is such an amazing structure and a must see when in Barcelona. Unfortunately I was feeling absolutely awful so we didn’t get off the bus here. We discussed possibly circling around again later to check it out, but for now sitting on the top open air level of the bus and enjoying the sights was the best option for me. I say I was feeling awful, here's what that means… basically I think my body has progressively been asking me to stop for the past few days. I have been getting more and more sore. I have nausea. I have headaches. My body is tired. I think hauling all the luggage around didn’t help at all. So enjoying the fresh air and riding past the sites was the perfect way to spend the morning.

We went all through the north side and ended up jumping off at a few sites. The first was Paso Robles, it was recommended by the hotel staff and looked pretty cool. It looked like a big castle from the outside. As we approached we realized we had to buy tickets to get in - sigh. Well we were here so we figured might as well. We were told it was broken in to sections inside, each showcased its own region of Spain. As we walked through the architecture, food, drink, music, and retail items would vary from one region to the next. It was like the Epcot of Spain. It was like a rip off! Basically we bought tickets to shop. It didn’t really make sense and I would never recommend this if you visit the area. The second stop we made was for the Telerific (Cable Car). We took a cable car up a mountain the size of South Mountain in our backyard. At the very top was a large castle. Yes, we had to buy tickets for the ride, but this one was worth the entrance fee. The view of the city is awesome. I didn’t realize how big Barcelona really is. It's like the Los Angeles of Spain. It was beautiful from the top. The castle was pretty neat, there were still canons and other weaponry intact. We enjoyed walking through and enjoying the scenery.

We jumped lines and took the bus that toured the South part of the city next. There was so much to see. We drove past all the Guadi architecture - that guy is amazing. The building have no corners or straight lines, everything just kind of flows. There are amazing fountains throughout the city and various castles and churches. It was a beautiful drive through the city. We got back to Las Ramblas just in time to head to our hotel for official check in (our room should be available). The room was quite large which I think is rare here. We had views of a garden patio area. The room was very clean, the bathroom was spacious, and the bed was quite comfortable. We freshened up a little and rested before heading out.

Las Ramblas is definitely the heart of the city. It’s a very busy street that has vendors, souvenirs, cafes, and bars all along the center island. It was packed with people. We went towards the water as we walked the street. We were both a little disappointed. We were expecting artists painting and selling their art, but instead we were finding over priced cheesy souvenirs. Finally I said let's stop at one of the restaurant seating areas and have a beer and some tapas - we really hadn't eaten today. We found a little table available right along the strip which was perfect people watching. We order beers and tapas. The beers were ginormous and the tapas were tasty. We sat here for a while watching the people go by. A group of street performers stopped right in front of us. Our first thought was "crap" - lol - we didn’t want to be bothered by beggars. But, they got started and they were damn good. They performed feats of strength and acrobatics. They brought in a big crowd and we really enjoyed it. That was a perfect intro to Las Ramblas. When we finally finished our ginormous beers we kept walking towards the water. The vendors started to change the closer we got to the water. There were fewer cheesy shops and more artists. We found a fantastic artist that we talked to for a few minutes before purchasing one of his paintings of Las Ramblas. Another perfect treasure to take home. We also started to see more street performers. These were the cool ones that look like statues but they are actually people painted and still. This was a very cool area. We walked around for a while before heading back to our hotel (we had to pee all that beer we drank lol). We asked the hotel staff for a dinner recommendation. They sent us to a tapas restaurant a few blocks north of Las Ramblas. When we went to leave they said it was starting to rain and gave us a large umbrella to use for the night. So grateful they took care of us because it was raining pretty hard. I actually enjoyed cuddling up under the one umbrella with Roy while walking through Barcelona in the rain. We found our restaurant and were lucky enough to get a table right away. This was a great recommendation - the tapas were fantastic and they had great beer options.

We spent a lovely day and evening in Barcelona. I'm glad we decided to tack on an extra night here to explore.

Hugs and Smiles,

Sarah