We’re back! It seems like we’ve never left. Well that’s not really true, but still! We use our H Card this morning and have I Made take us down in the crew elevator to get off the ship. This works well today, and we are out and through the terminal in no time, waiting for the blue bus to take us out of the port. Even though we love to walk, we’ve learned our lesson by not walking over that darn bridge to get into…or out of….the port!
There is a little bit of a wait, but we are in absolutely no hurry. The only thing on our agenda is shopping – literally! We have a list of things we want to get for a couple of crew members, and we need a new mouse for the computer. Seriously. What else can we do in Barcelona? We’ve pretty much done it all. I really wanted to go back to Casa Batllo again – but holy cow! We looked up the prices, and it’s 45 euros each for a cancelable ticket. No way! I mean, it’s an awesome display of Gaudi’s work, but we’re not paying over $100 US to see it again. Sheesh.
So, off we go on our shopping excursion! The blue bus stop is now at the World Trade Center, which is much easier to find than the old bus stop on the side of the building – and it is a straight shot right up La Rambla.
It is still early (and cold) so there aren’t too many people out and about. We wander up the street, debating what to do first. There is a museum that looks sort of interesting, the Barcelona History Museum, but it doesn’t open until 10a (if at all – today is the Feast of the Assumption – and it might be a holiday….we’re not too sure), so we have time to fill.
We end up hitting Carrefour for a quick look around to see if there is anything we want to come back for later, then head up to Placa Catalunya for a cappuccino at a café in the sun. We end up at Cafe Zurich (thinking of you Gaby and Sigis the entire time!) which has a perfect table right in the sun, where we can watch the hordes of people wander by.
After our caffeine (and bathroom stop), we head to Corte Ingles to see if they have a mouse. Oh my God! I don’t think we’ve ever been in this particular store – it is monstrous! I think it is even bigger than the one in Valencia. It is something like 9 floors and we end up wandering all over until we finally ask where we can find a computer mouse and end up on level 7 – where fortunately, we find the perfect mouse at a really good price. Yay – success! And more time burned.
So now we go wander – through the Gothic Quarter, past the cathedral and the St. Catherine’s market we figure we can hit later in search of lunch. We actually stumble on the Football Club Barcelona store that we have on our list – for a little something for Kasi, one of our fav servers who loves FCB. We end up with a little keychain (because everything else is very pricey!!) but at least it has the stadium on it, which he wants to visit. Then its off around the corner to the Barcelona History museum…which turns out to be an amazing find!
After navigating the slightly confusing entrance and ticket booth, we arrive into a very small (too small, really) area where the history of Barcelona is laid out on very interesting and very detailed displays. Unfortunately, there are enough people here in this small space to make us a little uncomfortable. Plus, there is a couple who is obviously reading EVERY word on EVERY placard. So, you can’t get around them, you can’t read over their shoulders (they take up all the space) and we’ll be here until Christmas if we follow along behind them. Geez.
Oh well. We end up skipping a bunch of displays, but the history is still totally intriguing and something I’d like to research more when we are home (if I remember!). Once through this little display, we walk out onto one of the ramparts around the building with birdseye views of part of the cathedral, one of the king’s look out towers and a great view of the square with all the surrounding gothic style buildings.
After enjoying the sunshine – and music from a band of buskers, we troop back downstairs for the remainder of the museum, not really knowing what to expect – and oh wow! What a fantastic surprise. Down below the museum is a huge excavation of the Roman ruins that were some of the first settlements of Barcelona. It is amazing! And huge – it goes on forever. We start off inside one of the 78 original towers of the Roman wall, built in the 4th Century AD. It is amazing how it has been preserved and reconstructed using original materials.
Continuing on downward we get to the floor of the excavation with a great model of the old walled city, and tons and tons and tons of scaffolding walkways all around the ruin site. There are the main roads, the defensive ring road, the Salted Fish and Garum (a macerated fish mix that was used in those times) Factory with the vessels in which the Garum was stored. There is a “dyeing trough” where there used to be the Dyeing Works – and you can still see traces of Egyptian blue inside the trough. There are rooms that were probably shops, open to the street, old carved columns, and a huge wine making facility with vats still embedded in the ground, from the 3rd and 4th Century. It is just amazing what they have found here – and that we just stumbled on this as something to take up time.
Totally fabulous find! Now though, it is time for lunch, so off we go in search of food. We walk back up to the market – but it is locked up tight – totally closed. Hmmmm….we are guessing it is a COVID thing, because this used to be one of the main markets in city – but then again – it could also be Feast of the Assumption, because, now that it is later in the day, oh, the people! From here we wandered to the Christmas market on the square in front of the Cathedral. Oh no. That didn’t last but a minute, it is jam packed. I mean thousands of people – and kids – and every little restaurant is totally jammed, not a seat to be had. Abort!
Obviously a huge holiday! So, we head back to La Rambla – where it is touristy and locals aren’t going to go! We end up at a Middle-Eastern restaurant, the Pita House, but only because we saw they had Tapas and calamari. As it turns out, that’s about all we want – we’d rather have been at a true Spanish tapa restaurant, but this was a quick way to sit, get warm and out of the wind – which has totally picked up at this point in time! So, we order beer and wine and calamari – and it is fine. Something to munch on and an opportunity to rest for a bit.
Back out into the wind, we head to the Boqueria – which is also jam packed, but a little easier to navigate, especially if we stick to the outside rings of the market. As we walk around salivating over all the great food – we spy a stall with prepared seafood – and well, we can’t resist! We get the marinated octopus and the fried squid – but I also want to try the crab croquettes, so we splurge on those too. It’s totally cheap – like 8 Euro – and what a great snack! We wander out to the side of the market and sit on some stairs to dig into our feast. The octopus and squid are delicious! The crab croquettes, sadly, were not as good as expected. I end up feeding them to the pigeons who have congregated around our feet. What the heck.
From here it is back to Carrefour, stocking up on more esparragus blanco (our bags will be SO heavy), dried sausages, aioli, and as we are standing in line, these cute little boxes of chocolates with Barcelona scenes on them. Perfect! We pick up 4 to give to our chocolate loving girls aboard!
Then it is the trek down La Rambla in the brutal wind, past La Kioska, which is just opening (bummer – she’s just setting the chairs out and we’re not going to wait for a drink) and around the circle to the World Trade bus stop. It’s still fairly early – but we’ve done everything we planned to do and really don’t see any reason to stay outside any longer. We can have a drink on the ship (and pay the stupid Spanish tax, but still) and relax a bit before sailaway.
Once again this evening, we pull the H Card and get escorted to Headliners for front row seats to the Black Light show. Worth the price of the suite (well, not really, but a great benefit!). This show is just fantastic, how they make everything appear as if it projected on a black curtain, but in actuality it is real people behind the curtain and dressed all in black with reflective props. It is so good. And I could actually see the whole thing! Which made it even better.
Then it is off to bed and getting ready for our, sigh, next ship’s tour in Valencia.
Andiamo 