Barcelona Day 3: Boarding the Ship

First a bus tour of the city this morning. Some random facts without pictures:

  • There were 3 Bull-fighting rings in Barcelona. The last bull fight was held in 2010 when citizens revolted and voted it down (cruelty to animals or humans, I’m not sure which). One of the rings is now a shopping mall — way to repurpose!
  • People gather in Spanish Square (Plaza Espania) on New Years Eve where they eat 12 grapes for luck.
  • Streets in the old city were very narrow (below) and it was easy to catch diseases because of the close quarters. Today there are many wider streets and boulevards in Barcelona. Artists, musicians and creative people now live in the older part of the city. (Not sure what that says about diseases in the current climate!). 


The Triumphant Arch below was built by the same architect that built the Eiffel Tower. That was the proposed plan for Barcelona but the city council nixed that and voted for the Arch. So that guy took his plan to Paris, and voila!

This is the guys’ version of sight-seeing….


Parrots and pigeons are big here! People are not supposed to feed the pigeons, but in some parks people are selling bird seed. They are a problem because many of the buildings have coverings because the pigeon poop is eroding the sandstone. 


The parrots build nests in the palm trees as fast as the Gardeners can remove them. Lori has the newest iPhone that captured a great shot of a hard-to-see parrot.


Now for all you readers who think I hate nature:



This guy convinced me to let 🦜 eat out of my hand! 🤮

Our son Brad has been to Barcelona with skater boys🛹. I was joking when I said his “sweet skate spots” were on our itinerary…but he said he skated in this exact spot!

There are a lot of areas from the 1929 Worlds Fair and the 1992 Olympics. These were apartments used during the Olympics. They now rent for approx €3000/mo. 


Part of the larger Olympic Village included this beach, marina, Casino and Arts Hotel. If you’re thinking of buying a yacht and keeping it here…the marinas are full. 🥲



Our bus took us up here to what was used for the Olympics but is now a venue for weddings and events and also houses an art museum. Stunning views!




They thought including the statue with pigeons in our photo would add some extra nature. 


Everywhere we go younger people are posing big time and practically doing complicated photo shoots for what must be Instagram posts. Here’s Mike’s version. (Can’t even follow him because he’s not on Insta!!🤯)


There was a guy playing a lovely Spanish guitar in the area. I didn’t notice at the time but apparently the guy behind him is not interested in the opinions of others.


Next: boarding the ship! We are sailing on Mars. Here’s our room:

I forgot to take pictures at the time but a beautiful plate of chocolate straws waiting in each of our rooms from our travel planner, Ms Max Patterson





There are a lot of lovely areas on the ship that we’ll show later but while we were exploring, we ran across this 3,000 pc community jigsaw puzzle. We will not be contributing! (We’re not Brian and Rachel!)


So this afternoon, just getting settled and exploring the ship. Tomorrow Viking will show us more of Barcelona before we sail.










Comments

  1. SisterTripsApril 9, 2025 at 11:11 PM

    Ok, this is fun. Looking forward to following your adventure. Have a great trip.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. SisterTripsApril 9, 2025 at 11:12 PM

      Its me, Linda Miller. Not sure why the sister's trip thing came up. That is really, really old.

      Delete

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