We were up at 7:30am and Mom put the finishing touches on the packing while I tried to get everything to fit into the extra bags we brought with us. We selected the latest checkout possible from the ship since our hotel wouldn't be ready until later. We went an had a light breakfast, using up our last 30 minutes of wifi time while we ate and watched below as the people boarded buses and taxis, mostly heading for the airport. Leaving Europe on a Saturday is tough since those flights have longer layovers, many stops or just plain too much time in airplanes so we opted to stay in Barcelona overnight to see a bit more of Spain and head out first thing Sunday morning. They called us at 9:30am to disembark so we headed down to the pier with our carry ons. Our checked luggage was already down there, picked up the night before where we placed it outside our stateroom by 11pm.

The line was long and it took about an hour to get a taxi to Las Ramblas and our hotel. The driver spoke no English but I impressed him with my Spanish. We chatted all the way to the Hotel Lloret Ramblas. As always with Al's Tours, we are right in the middle of the action. I know Queenie, Nickole and Min would like that!

We checked in, stored our luggage until 2 when our room would be ready and took off down the Ramblas (creek in Spanish) to check out the people and shops. We went into the Boqueria, a huge market just off Las Ramblas, about a 5 minute walk from the hotel. Check out the pictures. Locals shop here and tourists just watch and take pictures. Lots of weird stuff. We checked out a few stores and stopped at a restaurant for marguerite pizza and drinks. We returned to the hotel just after 1 and our room was ready. Got our luggage out of storage, printed our boarding passes with the desk's help and Mom collapsed on the bed for some rest. I tried out the wifi and it is so much better than that on the ship. Finally.

Late in the afternoon we took a walk to the Plaza Catalunya just down the street, then down the Ramblas a little, over to the Gothic district and back, all without buying anything. Then down a quiet backstreet to an outdoor cafe for dinner. I passed up the gelato tonight and we returned to our hotel to sit out on the balcony and watch the action out on Las Ramblas. Our guide yesterday told us that Las Ramblas starts to get even busier as the night progresses. The tourists bail by 9pm and the young party crowd takes over. He was right. There were so many Tati and Nickole people out there that us old geezers had to get out. We were safe watching from the balcony. Mom checked luggage a once more, made some final adjustments, took our showers and we were done. Tomorrow it's breakfast (it's free) and then to the airport.