Barcelona Day 4

Last Full Day In Barcelona

Emily it was a great tour.  You are correct. The sainthood process has begun for Antoni Gaudi. The path to sainthood is a four-step process and Gaudi is currently on the second step. He was a very religious man and very low key and humble. He might not like all the attention that has been bestowed to him.

We wanted to give a shout-out to the New York Knicks for winning the National Basketball Association Championship. Although a Boston Celtics Fan, Keith was a fan of the Knicks when they won in 1970 and 1973. We were in High School at the time just getting ready to graduate Senior High School in 1973. Keith remembers the team rosters from both teams as if it was yesterday. 

We hadn't mentioned what a busy week this is for Barcelona. In addition to the Pope's visit which we had visited, we also wanted to mention that today is the Formula 1 Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix race. We were in Amsterdam last year on a tour when they held the Formula 1 Dutch Grand Prix. In both cases the races are held outside of the cities and many people get there by train.

Let's continue with yesterday's tour. After our tour of La Sagrada Familia, we visited:



- Gothic Quarter 

- Port Vell & Columbus Monument 

- Passeig de Gràcia & Block of Discord 

- Casa Batlló (exterior only) 

- Casa Milà/La Pedrera (exterior only) 

And more. We walked the Gothic Quarter for about an hour and while we have visited this area before we saw so much more this time and learned a lot.  

In addition to discussing history, we covered other topics including the economy of Spain and some of the major drivers of this area of Spain and contrasts to other areas of this country We covered other areas including education.

Another topic we covered was dinner time. Many still have late dinners or should be say dinner time that we would consider late. Dani said he, his wife and daughter normally eat between 7:30 PM and 8:00 PM but many are eating at 10:00 PM. Lunch is the larger of the three meals. We asked about siesta time and Dani said this is no longer the norm in modern Spain during the weekday, but people are more likely to take a siesta on the weekend to try and catchup on sleep that they missed during the weekday.


We'll let the photos do some of the talking.

Last evening we dined at El Tros de La Rambla. The restaurant serves seasonal Catalin and Mediterranean cuisine. The menu includes an extensive variety of tapas to share, fresh salads and vegetables, main courses featuring traditional seafood, pasta, beef, pork, chicken and a wide selection of desserts.


We shared Tapas and Grilled Vegetables, and we each enjoyed Corvina as our entree.  It was another restaurant that we could enjoy dining outside and the weather was perfect. Lots of people out and about including many locals since this was a Saturday and even though school is in session tests are over for the students

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Since today is our last full day in Barcelona we wanted to start the day with some Barcelona trivia.

Supposedly Barcelona was offered to be home for the Eiffel Tower but rejected the idea as the structure seemed to look too industrial.

Beaches were made for the Olympics. Before the 1992 Summer Olympics, Barcelona beaches along its coastline were industrial. The beaches of today were created artificially for the Olympics and remain in place.

The iconic Christopher Columbus Statue faces the wrong way as many people think it is pointing to the Americas which is not the case. It actually points to different areas including India which Columbus wanted to sail to. He ended up with a better choice.

Las Ramblas which is a famous street of Barcelona is names plural for a reason as it is collection of five streets strung together.

Construction of Gaudi's iconic basilica began in 1882. While the exterior is now complete, the grand Glory Facade and some interior detailing are still under construction. This means it has been in construction much longer than the ancient Pyramids of Egypt which took far less time to complete.

Finally, while the United States has the Statue of Liberty as does Paris, Barcelona is home to the third and lesser known cast of the statue which stands about two meters tall and located in the Arus Public Library.

We took a couple of more walks this morning and afternoon as we enjoyed our last full day in Barcelona. This is a beautiful city with lots to see and do for those who live and visit. 

Tomorrow, we return home to Crystal Serenity which has been our home for the equivalent of close to four full years since our first Serenity sailing of twenty-four days in September of 2005. It was on this cruise that we firmed up plans to take the first of what turned out to be many World Cruises and other voyages on Serenity. If you told us many years ago we would travel as much as we have and do a lot of it on this amazing cruise line with the best crews afloat who we have sailed with on all of the Crystal vessels we would have said you were crazy. This is why we pinch ourselves (figuratively) each time we cruise and we remind ourselves how lucky and fortunate we are and what a wonderful world this is in spite of some of its day-to-day challenges. 

Our travels have allowed us to see first hand and through our own eyes the significant challenges many people face in their daily lives and remind us how fortunate and lucky we are to be able to cruise and do it in a very special manner.
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In closing for today, this is a reminder that no matter how much liquid is in the glass, it is always half-full and how important it is to appreciate each minute of everyday. We are reminded that life is like a book and none of us know when the last chapter will be written.

Cheers,

​Anne Marie & Keith