The Port of Barcelona

Good morning friends!  Today we board our Mediterranean cruise in Barcelona.  But before we get on board, we have a little more sight seeing ahead of us.  On this day we wanted to make sure that we got up early enough to walk all the way down Las Ramblas and go to the port area to see the Christopher Columbus statue and then walk back up on another street to look at the buildings.  We still have one more full day in Barcelona after the cruise.  But we already know that it is going to be full.  So there is no time to spare.

The statue of Christopher Columbus is just in front of the port area at the very end of Las Ramblas.  In the statue, Chris is pointing toward America. So, I guess if you ever get turned around like I kept doing in Barcelona you can just find the Christopher Columbus statue and see which way he is pointing to figure out which was is west and go from there.

Before the Barcelona Olympics in 1992, the port area was considered old and obsolete.  A total renovation of the area was done between 1986 and 1992 turning an urban dump yard into the beautiful art filled area that it is now complete with a shopping area, cineplex, IMAX and enormous aquarium that houses 8,000 species of fish.

 The wooden bridge pictured to the right connects the port entertainment area to the city.  This is where all of the entertainment venues are located now. The port area contained the Olympic Village during the games and was the center of much of the 1992 Olympic coverage.  We were there very early in the morning and so we didn't go into the shopping area but it seems to be a great place to spend some time if you are into either shopping or nightlife during vacation.

I like watching rowers.  It looks like such a peaceful and therapeutic sport.  It probably isn't, but still, I enjoyed watching the rowers in the port area of Barcelona.

There were a number of other statues and things to see in the port area that neither Jenny or I photographed.  So, you will need to go for yourself to see it all.  But it is definitely worth the visit.

After leaving the port area, we went a few blocks over and walked back up a different street that contained a lot of

 old buildings.  In this area, we got to see this really cool building with the dragon and umbrellas and fans as well as a number of other interesting buildings.  There are lots of really interesting buildings and landmarks all around Barcelona.  The balance of the photos below are from various areas around Barcelona

 as we made our way back to the hotel to pick up our things and make our way to the ship.

I think the one to the right is of an opera house but I don't remember for sure.  I can tell you that various composers names are etched in the glass.

Jenny had a gelato in a shop right by our hotel that we had been passing all week just before we left to get on the ship.

A little after noon, we took a cab over to the port with all of our luggage, or at least all of the luggage that had made it to Spain and boarded the ship.  The ships terminal in Barcelona was more like an airport terminal than the ships terminals in the US.  There were duty free shops inside seating areas.  We went right through.  It was the easiest ship boarding I have ever experienced.  I kept wondering when we would have to stop and stand in line for an hour, but it never happened.

Our ship for this part of the trip was Royal Caribbean's Voyager of the Seas.  It was my first time on the ship but not my last.  I have been on it as it sailed from Galveston since.  This was Jenny's first cruise.  So we felt like we had a lot to do to make her a "sailor".  After all, she had never had a boat drink ON a ship, she had never played shuffleboard on a ship, she had her first muster drill ahead of her.  So the rest of the day was spent going through all of the rituals of a first afternoon on board ship.

Looking back at Barcelona as we left port

Our itinerary for this cruise was:

Departure:  Barcelona, Spain
-Villefranche, France (Nice)
-Livorno, Italy (Pisa / Florence)
-Civitavecchia, Italy (Rome)
-Naples, Italy (Capri)
-Palermo, Italy (Sicily)
Return:  Barcelona, Spain

There was only one day at sea and it was the last day of the cruise.  So we were busy for the entire cruise.  Many days we were off the ship by 8:00 a.m. and didn't return until 7:00 p.m. with dinner at 8:30.  So it was a busy cruise.  Tomorrow I'll tell you about the day we spent in Nice, France.

Jenny's first muster!

Have a great Tuesday!