Day 10: Barcelona

We awakened around 8am in a Barcelona shrouded in fog and mist, and chilly to boot (48F!). It was not a morning to spur one to action. Instead, I gathered up laundry for the last bag we’ll send out this cruise. We had received a notice in the cabin last night that, to be returned in time to be packed on the final night of this cruise, we needed to turn in laundry by noon today. Since we will be laundry-less for the next two weeks, and packed very lightly to begin with, we sure didn’t want to miss that deadline!

After a quick clean up, I joined G in the Horizon Court Buffet for breakfast. It was definitely a hot breakfast kind of morning, and I enjoyed oatmeal with stewed apple wedges and cup after cup of hot water with lemon. We looked out the windows as the rain, though never heavy, fell relentlessly.  Finally, by 10:30am or so, it started to lighten a bit, and, bundled up in our rain jackets and hats and gloves, we walked off the ship and through the amazing Barcelona port terminal C (fancier than an airport terminal). We were in port with two monster cruise ships, Royal Caribbean’s Symphony of the Seas and Norwegian Cruise Line’s Norwegian Epic. The Sapphire Princess looked quite small in comparison. 

Princess offered a shuttle through the port to the Christopher Columbus statue at the end of La Rambla for €5 all day, but the public port bus was only €4 all day, so you can guess which one we took. Plus we had the pleasure of riding with the port workers who weren’t giving up their seats for anyone, regardless of age. I had watched our bus race through the port to pick us up, and knew we were in for a ride, but, holy smoke, I didn’t imagine it to be quite as death defying as it actually was. I was a child of the 60s, and survived the death traps that used to be called playgrounds. This bus ride was exactly like the playground merry go round that, when pushed by older kids (usually perverse older siblings) would spit out the little ones trying to hold on to the metal bars. I had my gloves on, both hands clutching an overhead bar on the bus as the driver took turns at high speed, and the passengers tried to stay on their feet. 

I don’t think the Princess shuttle could have offered the same sense of adventure. ;-)

Once deposited near the Columbus statue at the Plaça de Colón, we paused for a moment to allow our brains to re-center themselves in our skulls and walked toward the famous La Rambla, the pedestrian boulevard that runs at an angle from the waterfront. I wasn’t sure how far we’d walk - we’ve been in Barcelona several times in the past 20 years and have seen the major sights, and so had no specific goal in mind-  but usually, rambling down La Rambla is a fun couple of hours. Today, though, there were none of the usual buskers, and, though the boulevard was busy (with three cruise ships in town), it wasn’t the kind of lively crowd one finds on warm summer weekends and evenings. 

After about 45 minutes, we grew tired of dodging umbrellas and turned right off La Rambla to walk through the narrow alleyways that lie on either side of the busy street. These were the most fun today, and we walked for over an hour without paying attention to a map; we knew we’d eventually hit the waterfront and could make our way back along it to the Plaça de Colón. About the time we thought we’d stop in one of the tiny restaurants for tapas and sangria (G), it started to rain more ambitiously, and we felt chilled. We decided to head back to the bus and the ship.

Catalunya flags proudly displayed, highlighting the political divide with Spain

Once on board, we ate for the first time this cruise at the Alfredo’s pizzeria on Deck 5 in the Piazza. I enjoyed my veggie pizza without cheese (because they didn’t have vegan cheese), but G thought the pizza available up by the pool was better. As we sat there and ate, we could see the rain stop and the first hint of sunshine appear, and then it was covered once again by a dark cloud. It felt like hot tub weather to us, but instead of using one of the four midship hot tubs, we went up to the two large hot tubs on Deck 16 aft, overlooking the back of the ship. I must say again how impressed we’ve been with the Sapphire Princess. On the Golden Princess we were lucky to find half the hot tubs open and none were actually hot; on the Sapphire, we’ve never seen one closed except at night and they are all very hot. It felt incredible to have that light rain and cold air on our heads while our bodies were toasty in the water. And afterward, I used the Terrace Pool for the first time and I think the water must have been at least 85F. 

I can’t wait to return to this ship on November 28th!

We had just enough time for a quick clean up before dinner at 5:30pm. We watched from our table as the ship pushed away from the pier and maneuvered through the large port of Barcelona into the Mediterranean Sea. 

Polish violinist Michael Bacala performed in the Princess Theater tonight. We’d never before seen his show, and it was really excellent. It was amazing how many songs he played that we had in our wedding ceremony, and I pointed each one out to G (he couldn’t tell you, 35 years later, that we’d even had music at our wedding ceremony, which would have been a great question for that game show we played last night about the differences in how men and women think).

G is still out attending the Mediterranean White Party which was supposed to take place on the open deck, but, due to the weather, is happening in Club Fusion instead. I’m tucked in bed with contacts out and The Big Bang Theory on our on demand TV. The forecast for Toulon tomorrow is rain and a high of 42F.  It’s a brand new port for us, so we’ll brave the the elements, but we may see all we need to see in just a couple of hours. We keep encountering people on board who had no idea the Med could be this cold and didn’t bring warm clothing, but we remember all too well the horrible weather we had here two years ago. We even had a shipwreck to prove it!

Day 57: Barcelona

So much to report about today...so darn tired. I will get this post started, but may need to finish it tomorrow morning. Luckily, this is a rare instance where I can be a little lazy; tomorrow is another sea day!  Yay!!

Backing up a little...we spent part of yesterday remembering past visits to Barcelona, like the year we were here for several days at the end of a cruise and the Formula 1 Grand Prix was in a nearby town at the Circuit de Catalunya. On a whim, we took a taxi to the course and spent the day watching Michael Schumacher race and win (a bittersweet memory, to be sure). Then there was the time we were taking a public bus back to our hotel around midnight and we had to change buses along the way. We were dropped off at what looked like a business park on a Saturday night and waited an hour, wondering what the heck we were going to do next. We had not seen a single car or bus or motorbike go by.  I think that's the closest we've ever felt to being in over our heads while traveling. Then, out of the darkness, came a bus. We were so happy to see it, I could have kissed the driver. And visiting the monestary at Montserrat was a deeply moving experience (and one I highly recommend). But mostly, G said, he remembered me in Nice on October 15 saying over and over again, "We are not going to Barcelona. We have no flight home from Barcelona. We have no reason to go to Barcelona,". Yeah, I guess I was rather emphatic about that. But we realized today that our greatest loss from the Nice incident was not missing Sarande, Albania or not having an extra day in Santorini; rather it was the 2 1/2 days, including two overnights, we lost in Barcelona. We love this city!  Well...shoot.  

Since the Pacific Princess was not scheduled to arrive in Barcelona until noon today, we allowed ourselves a bit of a lie in, and many of the passengers seemed to do the same. We didn't arrive in the Panorama Buffet for breakfast until after 8am, and it still wasn't very busy. We shared a table with Leah and Dick, who, it turns out, are blog readers. They took up scuba diving at 50 and are both master divers and are still going strong and I've decided that I want to be them when I grow up. :-)

We returned to the cabin and G actually napped for about an hour while I pushed Bill Bryson to move faster along that Road to Little Dribbling (he's now 41% of the way there). I looked out our cabin window shortly after 11am and saw a freighter right outside and knew we were approaching the port of Barcelona. Unlike on October 15, when the Pacific Princess was scheduled to dock at the World Trade Centeer (which would have been perfect; it's just a short walk from there to the Columbus Monument at the end of Las Ramblas), we were docking today out in the main port, requiring the purchase of an $8 per person round trip transfer, chargeable to our on board accounts, just to get out of this large port. I do wish Princess would simply roll this into our port fees, where it would never be noticed. 

I stopped by the Shore Excursions Desk on the way to meet G at the British Pub Lunch, which began today at 11am, and purchased the transfers. We grabbed a quick fish and chips lunch (which I seldom eat but I didn't want to take extra time after G finished his to go the the buffet) and left the ship shortly after it was docked and cleared by the local authorities around noon. It was a gloriously beautiful day, with no clouds in the sky and about 61F. The port terminal is very new and ultra modern and looked like an airport terminal (in reality, it looked much nicer than most airport terminals). We boarded the waiting bus and were driven about 10 minutes to outside the port area. From here, G and I started to walk toward Las Ramblas, the main tourist street (actually, a series of streets) that leads from the port to Plaça de Catalunya. We have done this walk several times in the past, both during the day and after sunset, when it is part carnival, part freak show and completely Barcelona. 

 

The Columbus monument

 

Let's go that-a-way!

 

Believe it or not, that beautiful building is home to the offices for the Port of Barcelona

We had a change of plans for today, and decided to walk in search of Barcelona's miles-long beach. We had never seen it during prior visits and we had read good things about it. It was probably about a mile from where the bus dropped us off, and all along the way there was much to see. We had forgotten how beautiful the Barcelona waterfront is (or maybe it didn't used to be so nice) and we enjoyed the yacht harbor with hundreds of sailboats and several mega yachts, and there was a large circus setting up and a local food festival that we passed by on our way to the beach, intending to view it on our return. The beach area reminded me a great deal of the area around Waikiki Beach, with small grocery stores and souvenir shops and even before we reached the beach we could see stand-up paddleboarders wearing wetsuits and carrying their boards walking down the street.

The beach itself was quite impressive and- oh- it was so good to see a beach again!!!! We had walked along the beach in Nice but that beach was all stones. Barcelona's beach is dark brown sand and very nice for a Mediterranean beach. We walked for a long time along the water's edge and enjoyed the crashing waves (we have missed that a lot) and large sand sculptures and mostly the feeling of familiarity despite the fact that it was the first time we'd ever been there. We are definitely beach people at heart!

Eventually we walked back to the boardwalk lining the beach with its many pedestrians and occasional bikes and roller blades and Segways and made our way back to the local food festival. We gathered a few items- bread and cheese and nuts and a liter of Sangria- and sat at a table along the waterfront, people watching and enjoying the view. We finally started to walk back but the sun was at such an angle that we were nearly blinded looking into it. G saw a booth selling 40 minute harbor tours that would bring us back just before sunset and we bought tickets and hopped on the boat as it was leaving. This gave us a close up view of all the new developments in the harbor (it's a bourgeoning area) and especially the beautiful yachts. 

It was the perfect diversion, and, once we returned, it was much easier to walk into the setting sun back to the shuttle bus. We waited just a short time for one and were back on the ship around 5:30pm, having walked another bazillion steps today. We had purchased more Sangria and took it up to the Panorama Buffet where we added a few more things (garlic shrimp for me) and our first persimmon ever (they just put them out in the buffet today) and called it dinner. Dinner in the Club Restaurant was open seating tonight; the Pacific Princess is not sailing until 11pm. 

 

We saw something unexpected taking the harbor cruise past the Pacific Princess...

 

...training was taking place with an inflatable life raft

 

 

 

 U

There is a flamenco folkloric show at 7:45pm (actually, right now) but we are too tired to even attend it. Finally, G is admitting to being worn out (he's already asleep) and it's a good thing that our ports at this point are separated by at least one day at sea. We need that buffer to keep going. 

And, finally, I've been watching and waiting for Christmas to arrive on the Pacific Princess. I kind of expected that we'd see Chrusmtas decorations beginning in Civitavecchia last turnaround day, but we didn't. However, this morning when I walked through the Atrium on the way to breakfast, I saw several large cardboard boxes sitting there and knew exactly what that meant. Sure enough, as soon the the ship docked, two decorators came on board and started decking the halls with boughs of holly. We were told that the decorations had come on board in Civitavecchia but were simply stored until the decorators arrived today. This is the same company that decorates the ships in Fort Lauderdale so I guess they flew to Barcelona just for this one day. 

 

A sure sign of impending holiday decorating 

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas, and I didn't have to lift a finger. Plus, I've finished this blog post before falling asleep and getting hit in the nose by my falling iPad. Life is good!