05 November 2017 – City Tour of Barcelona

We started our day with a quiet breakfast and then Sunday worship service onboard. We are now 6 hours ahead of the eastern US with their time change today.

We arrived at port at 10:00am under clear, sunny skies.  In fact, if we haven’t mentioned it, we’ve enjoyed very nice weather with temps in the 70s and very calm seas since entering the Mediterranean.

The port of Barcelona is a bustling place and there were many cruise ships from all over.  We took a shuttle bus out of the port terminal area and arrived at the center of the city and the statute of Columbus.  We took a leisurely stroll up La Rambla, a beautiful tree-lined wide avenue that was full of street vendors, outdoor dining, and people of all countries, enjoying a wonderful Sunday.  There was a large police presence as you can expect based on recent political issues in Catalonia.

We took the time to find where our tour to Montserrat will depart from tomorrow, at the end of La Rambla at the Placa de la Catalunya.

Our tour started promptly at 2:00pm and we went through a lot of the old parts of the city,

from the Gothic Cathedral of Barcelona;

to the old Jewish Center and its long history and the oldest building in Barcelona;

to the Cathedral of St. Mary of the Sea that has a 1913 dated façade on a 1258 cathedral;

to the Street of Ladies which was were returning sailors in the 13th C. would walk through with "ladies of the night" on the balconies.  Also at the end of teh street was the start of teh sea, showing how much lad

to the more recent history depicted by the eternal flame monument to the 1974 revolution in Catalonia; Also shows the old part of the Cathedral of St. Mary of the Seas

to El Born, the stylish in-place to live, like the SOHO of Barcelona.

Barcelona is a huge, bustling city and a challenge to navigate, even with a map. A city full of beauty, and we only saw a small portion of it.