Barcelona

This was one of those days that you just knew was going to be tight ! For some reason MSC had only sceduled just over 4 hours at port in Barcelona - take away times to disembark and return, add on a delay or two and all of a sudden you found yourself with under 3 hours to tour this expansive and architecturally beautiful city.

We'd elected to take a shuttle bus organised by MSC and advertised as dropping you in the city centre but unless the city was under water dropping us not far from the ship in the waterfront area meant the advertising was "bu....hit. This was not a great way to start with time limited and a fair bit of walking to be had !

On a lovely day (20 c) the pace was on from the start as I led Monika through the busy but delightful Gothic quarter before making our way over distance to within a km or so of the Familia Sagrada - The Gaudi inspired church that has been over 100 years in the making (hopefully to be completed in 2026 the Centenary of Gaudi's death)

Realising that we would't have time to tour inside, the fact that i'd visted before and more importantly that Monika was knackered, we turned back to La Rambla (Barcelonas famed pedestrian mall) stopping at a couple of Gaudi creations en route. Taking photos on the fly we battled the crowds and walked the occassional atmospheric alleyway before making our way back to our cruise bus stop having covered over 10 kms in the short time frame !

Back on board i could complain about the lack of time to see such a beautiful city but there's food to be had and a drink with my name on it coming my way !

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