Day 7 Barcelona

We had our last shore day today.  We arrived at the dock in Barcelona around 8.30am, passing Holland America’s Eurodam on the way in.  Later on an MSC and a Costa ship also joined us at the quay so we were 4 in all.

Cunard were once again running shuttle buses to and from the city and we set off about 10am.  We had two aims in mind – to see Gaudi’s Sagrada Famila church/cathedral and to go to the Olympic Park on Mont Juic.

Having been dropped off, we set off up one of Barcelona’s most famous shopping and commercial streets, Las Ramblas and were greeted by an overpowering and abiding aroma of sewers – and we thought Spain had gone beyond that phase of its development many years ago!

We made it to the top without breathing apparatus and had a run round El Corte Ingles but bought nothing!  We then took a deep breath and decided to try out the Barcelona Metro to get us to our two destinations of the day.  Now we’ve ridden quite a few underground systems in foreign cities over the years, but this was by far the most challenging as we struggled to work out our route and which tickets to buy.

Suddenly, from nowhere, a smartly dressed man appeared who sorted our queries and who got us our tickets and route sorted, ending by telling us: “I no work here”.  So that cost us €5, but he had saved us at least that as we were going to buy a ticket each until he pointed out we could share one ticket between us.  It was all a sign that the Metro provided no staff to help travellers and, on the way back, we saw one of the security staff at a station helping out bewildered tourists!

We set off, but on the platform were still not sure if we were on the right route or about to go in the right direction.  It turned out that we were sort of OK and a kind student on the train who spoke English and realised we were struggling, helped us further on our way, this time for no expected payment!

En route we saw buskers, both in the metro subways and on board the trains.  There have also been a lot of beggars everywhere, both here and in Valencia, either on street corners or they come to your table when you’re having a beer or a coffee.  The finest moment in this regard was when we were in the funicular going up to the Olympic Park on Mont Juic.  I realised afterwards that I’ve allowed myself to lower my guard in recent times.  In the past I’ve been very wary of anyone I see with a rucksack on public transport and this guy had one.  No, he wasn’t hiding a bomb, but an accordion and, as soon as the doors closed and the train set off, he whipped it out and started to play at loud volume almost next to us, stopping only as we arrived but giving himself time to go round everyone with his cap held out!

And what about our two target destinations?  Well, we’d worried as to whether Elizabeth would get into the church as her arms weren’t covered.  We needn’t have worried.  When we got to the ticket office there was a notice telling us that all today’s tickets to go in had been sold and to book online for another day! We have to be philosophical.  They’ve been building the place for 134 years with still no estimated completion date in sight, so I suppose there’s always another day.

We moved on to the Olympic Park.  That was more successful, although the top station of the funicular turned out to be quite a walk away from the Olympic Stadium.  We didn’t go in as it’s being used as a summer camp of some kind, but we could peep through metal shutters with small holes in to see the stadium where Sally Gunnell and others had their finest hour.

By now we’d been going for around 4 hours so we set off back to the ship where we arrived just in time for afternoon tea followed by a snack at the Pool Bar on the back of the ship.  We’ve now largely packed up and next stop will be dinner.  We don’t have to leave our cabin till 11am tomorrow, so we can have a leisurely get up and go.  The downside is that we’ll get back home later than we’d like or are used to.

Always work to be done!

Sailing off into the sunset