BARCELONA, SPAIN

​We dined last night at Osteria d”Ovidio where we had dined the first night.
 
We had the same waiter Corrado who is from Italy. He took a lot of time to explain each course on the menu. Each time he brought a course to the table he explained each ingredient. The restaurant has cuisine from Northern and Southern Italy and Corrado explained the difference between each region.  The food is delicious. The wine we had was also fantastic and the Head Sommelier and two other Sommelier’s agreed. Keith picked out the wine.

Corrado also explained the tasting menus. There are two tasting menus representing Northern and Southern Italy.  They include the same items which are on the ala carte menu.  There is no charge for the tasting menu but it can be enhanced by pairing each course with wine for $68.00 per person.
 
Afterwards, we attended the Captain’s Welcome and Crystal Society Party. One guest was honored for her 100th cruise and two other guests were recognized for 137 cruises. This is our 118th.

Entertainment included at 10:00 pm showing of Rock, Pop & Mania featuring the Crystal Ensemble of Singers and Dancers and the Crystal Showband under the direction of Raphael Derkson. This was followed by dancing with the Showband, vocalist Karin Kovacova and DJ Emotion.

Later in the night we knew we were back at sea with the fairly strong sea swells.  We were swaying but as she always does Serenity does very well in these situations.

At 8:00 AM Captain Birger gave us an update from the bridge noting that the forecast for last evening called for winds of 35 knots but the actual winds were double this level and at time 20 feet high seas.  He said we should have relatively calm seas in three to four hours. Great news!  Our room is fairly mid-ship.

Not arriving until 5:00 PM the day featured many activities of a typical Crystal day at sea Three lecture topics covering the news business as an anchorman by World Cruise lecturer Stephen Cole and a talk on Barcelona given by Destination Lecturer Dr. George Munno.  and a talk given by Celebrity Speaker Bruce McGill who we have seen speak on Crystal several times.  Bruce has appeared in hundreds of movies and in a television series.  

We won't go through all of the activities but there was enough to keep one busy for several days.  This included a range of activities including fitness and health, movies, team trivia, bridge, a talk on gemstones by the very knowledgeable Huber Gesser, Computer Class with Tim Grey, and Odyssey at Sea by the owner who we know very well Linda Perlmutter.  

In Captain Birger's talk from the bridge he updated those who were not awake this morning and said weather conditions would continue to improve. We will arrive to the port entrance around 5:30 PM and wait for an MSC and believe a couple of Celebrity ships to leave and then make our way to the port. We should be docked and gangway out by 7:00 PM. Originally, we were to depart tomorrow at 5:00 PM but that has been extended to 6:00 pm to allow more time for guests to enjoy Barcelona.

It was too windy to play Paddle Tennis so we walked inside the ship in the afternoon and spoke with fellow guests and members of the extraordinary Crystal Serenity crew.

Cheers
 ​
​Anne Marie & Keith