Day One Hundred Sixteen - May 1

I am suffering the man's cold today and have stayed on the ship. Janice is out and about and will need to provide information on her wonderful day out exploring.

A check of cruise mapper for Barcelona (May 1) reveals that the following ships are in port:- Oceania Nautica, Oceania Insignia, Costa Magica, Costa Luminosa, Viking Star, Norwegian Epic, AIDAbella, ms Nieuw Statendam.

Janice decided on the hop on and hop off bus to explore the city. There are two routes that an individual can take to see the amazing sites of this city.

As Martin said I decided to take the hop on for about an hour. We went by the site of the 1992 olympics where all the housing has now been converted to affordable and upscale condos due to its location close to the water. Then I hopped off and walked for a couple of hours through the park with my goal to go to the Casa Batllo, one of Gaudi's commissions for the very wealthy Batllo Family in 1904. The park was filled with locals doing pilates and couples dancing. It reminded me of a smaller version of central park.

I finally made it to the Casa Batllo which is a Unesco World Heritage Site and opted for the audio version tour which was very fascinating. I also saw an immersive light show that was to demonstrate how Gaudi's brain worked as nothing for him was ever straight or even. He always saw curves and liked light so the beauty of this creation was that it was based on a Sea theme so the house was filled with many shades of white and blue. It is described as a proclamation of joy, a canvas of marine inspirtion, a dream that evokes nature and fantasy. Of course no visit to Barcelona is complete without seeing The Sagrada familia, another Unesco World Heritage Site. Construction was started on this Church in 1882 - 140 years ago and there is no completion date planned although 2026 has been suggested. I then hopped back on the bus after a delicious baguette and glass of wine and completed the route.

Our ship was docked very close to the La Rambla so Janice and I decided to visit it that evening. I needed to at least go out and explore a little. La Rambla has many shops and restaurants and we dined on chicken paella.

Day One Hundred Seventeen - May 2

The man cold is still here and so I am remaining on the ship. Janice is off today again by herself to visit Montseratt and its monastery.

To get to the Abbey of Montsaratt I had to take a subway and then a train as it's an hour out of the city. Very beautiful area despite the rain and next time I would like to take a guided tour with Martin. The Montserrat community is formed of around 80 monks who live according to the Rule of Saint Benedict.

Actually, can I just say that Martin has more than the man cold, his chest is quite congested. We definitely did not want to go to the Doctor on board as they would quarantine him as they did for me so a friend we met just happened to have his prescription pad with him. So thanks to Dr Ron I was able to get Martin some antibiotics. The first pharmacy said no they needed a local prescription but I had success with the second one. I have to say that I am happy to be in Spain so that I can practice my Spanish although there is alot of Catalan spoken in parts of Barcelona which is a completely different dialect.

That evening we had room service and then my second steam of the day before retiring to bed.

Tomorrow we are off to Valencia 164 nautical miles away.