We landed in Barcelona around lunchtime, and after an incident with people who hadn't moved their luggage and trolley out of the way of a descending escalator (nearly causing a baggage and human pile up), we made it out of the airport.
With our 6 day cruise on the Norwegian Epic departing Barcelona on the afternoon of Monday 28th, we were only spending less than two half days here. This meant that the Penning's were going to get the express highlight reel of our previous visit.
Once checked in to our apartment, we went down La Rambla for a late lunch/early dinner of tapas, sangria and "pay-ay-ah" (paella). We ended up at the same restaurant as where we'd had our final lunch in Barcelona weeks prior, with the same flamboyant host flaunting the same delicious menu.
With limited time and light remaining of the day, the squad moved on to the huge Sagrada Familia. We made our way around the sides, to better appreciate the size and different facades of this soaring structure, detouring so Adam could purchase up a Barcelona football jersey.
As a city with a significant number of tourists, Barcelona is well known as a city of pick pockets. While on the metro platform heading back to the apartment, someone attempted to unsuccessfully pick pocket Brad's backpack. Unluckily for him, the only goodies he would have likely discovered was a jumper and maybe an old snotty tissue.
The next morning we headed to the cablecar for the scenic ride up to Montjuic Castle. Reaching the top, we walked over to the eastern side facing the sea and saw our cruise ship docked at port.
If you include our week spent in Croatia, this was Brendan's second cruise but this time the vessel was like a huge floating 5 star hotel. Once aboard, we did a lap of the ship to explore its many onboard facilities and then hit the buffet for lunch.
After our first night at sea, we started the next day with a couples massage to really get into holiday mode. Between the onboard activities and all-inclusive restaurants, we were kept busy for the rest of our sea day cruising between Barcelona and Rome. We returned to the buffet a shameful number of times as well...
We had a go at bingo, where the prize on offer was an upgrade to a Haven suite (the ship's version of a penthouse) and Brendan got within 2 numbers of winning. For dinner we went to the onboard Teppanyaki bar, returning to our room to be greeted with a towel elephant.
Highlights:
- Tapas, sangria and paella
- Sagrada Familia
- Attempted pick pocketing of Brad
- Cablecar up to Montjuic Castle
- Boarded the Norwegian Epic
- Onboard massages
- Cruise day from Barcelona to Rome
- Buffet
- Folded towel elephant
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