Atlantic Adventurer Cruise: Day 17, Barcelona, Spain Day 2

Monday, November 6, 2017
Day 17, Barcelona Day 2

For our second day in Barcelona, Val and I decided to go out on our own and walk La Ramblas, the famous boulevard running through the heart of Barcelona.  It starts at the Christopher Columbus Statue near the waterfront and goes to Plaça de Catalunya (Catalonia Square) in the center of the city.

Since we were in no rush and the shops and restaurants didn’t open until 10:00, we slept in again today, which felt really good after all of our walking yesterday.  It was another beautiful day outside, a perfect day for walking around town.  There is a shuttle that runs from the ship to near the Christopher Columbus Statue so after a quick breakfast in the Neptune Lounge, we caught the shuttle and were on our way.

We were a little surprised at how far we were dropped off from the statue, but considering the number of pedestrians and vehicles in the area, maybe that was the only place they could safely stop and let people off.  After getting off the bus, we made the walk to the start La Ramblas and started our walk.  La Ramblas is a wide boulevard with a large pedestrian walkway down the middle with vendors selling various wares, artists and outdoor cafes.  There are lanes for traffic on both sides of the center walkway which were lined with shops, restaurants and entertainment.  There are also many narrow pedestrian streets going off from either side with more shops and restaurants lining those.

La Ramblas has a wide pedestrian plaza in the middle with traffic lanes on both sides.

 

There were many interesting, narrow side streets to explore.

 

Val tutors people learning English and her current student is a big fan of the Barcelona Football (soccer to us) team so her main goal today is to find a shop that sells jerseys for him, his son and wife.  After a few stops, Val found what she wanted and completed that quest.  We continued our walk up La Ramblas stopping at various shops and sometimes meandering off on some of the interesting side streets.  We were soon surprised to find ourselves at the center of the city at Plaça de Catalunya where some of the protests have been held.  We turned around and walked back down the other side of La Ramblas once again looking at shops and enjoying the ambiance.  We soon came upon La Boqueria Food Market. It was huge and they were selling everything from fruits and vegetables to fish and meats.  It was very crowded and a bit chaotic, but very interesting.  We spent quite a bit of time walking through it and Val found some things for Christmas presents.

The entrance to La Boqueria Food Market.

 

After the market, we continued our walk on La Ramblas.  Most of the restaurants and cafes had covered eating areas on the plaza and even McDonald's and Burger King had eating areas, which seemed a little strange.  We started to get hungry and decided to pick a place to eat and have tapas.

It’s hard to decide just where to eat as we had no idea where the best food was so we picked one that looked good and had our lunch.  We selected a plate of tapas for two and unlike last night, these were wonderful.  There was plenty for both of us and though we managed to finish everything off, we were very full.  I was trying to remember everything we had, but I think you can just look at the picture below and try and figure it out for yourself.  It was a very pleasant lunch eating excellent food and watching the crowds go by.  What a great way to have lunch.

Cafes lined La Ramblas.

There were also artists and street musicians.

 

Our lunch was delicious.

 

After lunch we decided it was time to move on and make our way back to the shuttle bus and the ship.  We were back to the ship by 2:30 and although our feet and legs were once again tired from walking, we had a great day in Barcelona.

The Christopher Columbus statue ahead as we neared the harbor.

We loved our stay in Barcelona.  The city is beautiful, very vibrant and full of energy.  The people we met were all friendly and even the drivers seem to be patient and polite.  All in all, Barcelona really exceeded our expectations and we wouldn’t hesitate to visit again.

After getting back to the ship, we relaxed for a bit and then I decided I had better catch up on the blog and write about Barcelona before I forgot some of the details.  Val went off to trivia and I finished my writing and decided to download the pictures we took today.  We have taken a lot of pictures in Barcelona, but probably won’t even have time to look at them until our next sea day.

In every port we've been in, we've seen these huge ocean going ferries that travel from country to country.

We say our good-byes to Barcelona as we sail out of the harbor and on to our next port.

Val returned from her team trivia and we spent the time before dinner reading and relaxing.  We went to trivia and dinner tonight, but broke our regular routine and skipped the casino. Tomorrow we visit the island of Mallorca, our last stop in Spain until we leave the Mediterranean.