Dreams do come true – our Med cruise! **Updated 6/30** THREAD 1 *COMPLETE* About This Page:

[chezp]

Friday 26 May – part eight: sangria and whirlpools, this is the life!

We walked towards the Palau Nacional, as I wanted to see the Magic Fountains there. I knew that they were set to light on certainly evenings in the summer and I wasn’t that worried about seeing the light show, but I did want to see them. As we got closer though, it was obvious that they were turned off.



It was clear that to get to the Palau Nacional, we would have to climb a fair few more steps and neither of us really felt up to that, so we decided to call it a day and got a cab back to the hotel instead. We found one almost at once – as Mark said, nothing like that infamous afternoon in San Francisco with Maureen (statelady01) and Kevan!

The taxi driver was excellent and did his best in broken English to act as a tourist guide, as our ride took us round Montjuic. We went past some lovely buildings and were soon back at the hotel at a cost of only €6 (about $8.40) – not bad at all!

We spent an hour or so back at the room just unwinding, which gave me a chance to try out the whirlpool bath and boy, it was good! It really helped to relax my aching feet after all the walking we had done today. I wished I could enjoy a whirlpool bath every day – that would be the life! Isn’t a shame that Disney doesn’t have them on its ships?

Refreshed, it was time to go and find dinner. Boy, that was not such an easy task. We thought that we’d go to the hotel restaurant and dressed up, as it looked quite posh, but when we got down there, it wasn’t open and there was no sign of it opening soon.

I remembered that my trusty PassPorter had mentioned that there were cafés out behind the hotel, so we went to explore them, but only two appeared to be open and all the others were closed. It looked like they were both young places and not our sort of place, so we decided to walk up to La Rambla and see what we could find there.

My goodness, if this place is buzzing during the day, then it’s even more alive at night. The street entertainers certainly attract more crowds and no doubt that’s when they really make their money. It was quite hard to get past some of the crowds.



We walked a little way along and came across a restaurant, Amaya, that seemed to have items for both of us and at a reasonable price, so we opted to eat there. We shared a side dish of asparagus, while I had the battered squid and croquettes and Mark had the chicken. Mine was fine, but I left the croquettes, as I wasn’t convinced that they were vegetarian, as they seemed to have something in them that looked like bacon and I didn’t want to take the risk on that.

For dessert, I had the pears in red wine, a dessert that my grandmother used to make for me when I was a child. Mark had melon. Along with a pitcher of sangria, which left us feeling very happy, shall we say, the bill came to €54 (about $75). We both figured that was pretty reasonable, as there was no way that we’d be able to get that much food for that amount of money somewhere like London.

Amaya:

Main course 6½ 6½
Dessert 8 7
Service 7½ 7
Atmosphere 8½ 7
Value for money 8½ 7

Average score: 7.35


Enjoying dinner

No, your eyes are not deceiving you – this is a wavy pattern on La Rambla, very odd!

A hidden Mickey? A sign maybe?

We walked, or should I say staggered, back to the hotel, where we got a few more photos of the view from our window in the twilight.



After uploading the photos, it was time for bed.

Today we walked 4.80 miles
The best thing today was the Casa Battlo and La Sagrada Famiglia.
[b]The worse thing today was[b] how awful I felt when I woke up this morning.
The funniest thing today was
Today we tried walking up La Rambla
And the result was it’s a very vibrant and lively place and well worth a visit.
The most magical moment today was walking into Casa Battlo and see the interior.

Next: the challenge of finding breakfast in Barcelona

[DrDolphin]

Wonderful update Cheryl!!! Your photos are fabulous!

[JaimeandChad]

A hidden Mickey? A sign maybe?


It must be! Can't wait for more!

[bonphil]

Stunning photos of the church! I always learn something from your TR.

[mestitch]

A whirlpool bath everyday would be the life wouldn't it?? I love that you can see the ship from your window! Great update!!!

[Colexis Mom]

What a great finish to the day Cheryl! Can't wait to hear all about tomorrow

[mattnkatsmum]

Cheryl, you've manaaged three updates in the time it's taken me to check the Boards. What can I say?

Barcelona looks stunning. Your photos are amazing.

[lauren-roxy]

Great update Cheryl!! Stunning photos!!

[mrsmac2001]

Those pictures are nothing short of stunning!

[Jillybean]

What amazing photographs! You captured the beauty of Barcelona perfectly.

And to end the day with a whirlpool bath and a pitcher of Sangria -- dreaming of waking up to the Magic!

Jill

[chezp]

Saturday 27 May – part one: the challenge of finding breakfast in Barcelona

Although we’d arranged a wake up call for 7.00 as we had to leave out our cases for Disney to pick up by 8.00, we were awake before that. Having said that, the bed was probably one of the most comfortable that I’ve slept in for a long time and I slept like a log. Again, I could live like this every day!


Talking of luxury, look at all these toiletries!

The view from the room was better this morning, as the sky seemed clearer. In this photo, you can see the four spires of La Sagrada Famiglia, which we hadn’t noticed yesterday

I really enjoyed our one night at the Grand Marina Hotel and I wish we could’ve spent longer there, as it really was a five star hotel, with some great facilities and a beautiful setting. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this place, although we did both agree that if we come back to Barcelona (and we’re thinking about it, as we’d like to see Montjuic properly and visit places outside the city centre, such as Park Guell and Montserrat), we’d stay somewhere more central to getting to those areas.

We left our cases outside our room somewhat reluctantly and couldn’t help but think of the security implications of doing so. At home, if you take any international flight, you’re always asked if anyone could’ve interfered with your bags. Well, here’s a perfect opportunity for anyone, either in the hotel, or anyone who walks in from the street, to do that. Not the smartest way of doing things, surely?

We set off towards La Rambla and realised that there weren’t many places open and those that were generally sold papers and not food.


We were starting to think that breakfast would have to be in McDonald’s, when Mark spotted a side street that seemed to lead to a square and we headed down there. Sure enough, we found a café serving breakfast.

I had asparagus omelette (white too for the Disneyland girls! ) and Mark got bacon and eggs. I really enjoyed mine and Mark described his as being a traditional Spanish dish, as “the bacon isn’t like at home”. OK, fair enough. It only cost us €22, including tip, which was much cheaper than if we had eaten at the hotel, where they were charging €15 each for breakfast!

My asparagus omelette


Mark with another silly photo opportunity!

From there, we wandered through the old town, with me taking lots of photos. It was fascinating to see the place start coming to life.



Next: a taste of Roman life in Barcelona

[Colexis Mom]

More great pictures Cheryl! Glad you found something open for breakfast

[DrDolphin]

Glad to hear you found a breakfast option other than at the hotel - and I agree with you about the suitcases being left in the hall at a hotel. There is a certain amount of discomfort with that idea.

[disneydani]

Wow, just getting caught up with your last few installments of Barcelona. Really, looks like you had a wonderful day and enjoyed some of its very rich history!
Glad you had a wonderful night's sleep and woke up Day 2 without sinus issues.

danielle

[LizardCop]

Finally caught up Great report and fantastic photos (as usual).. More Please????