The Cruise 2011 Day 7

Barcelona today. Tracy had indepenently arranged a private tour with a company providing wheelchair accessible taxis. We had agreed to meet them at the ship at 1pm. We had been informed last night that the ship would dock at a different pier from usual (maybe there were oil storage tanks on the usual one). We emailed the company to notify them hoping they weren't insulted by the inferrence that they wouldn't spot a quarter million tonnes of ship was a few hundred yards out of position.


Our taxi was waiting when we got off the ship, it was exactly the same car as ours so it was a promising start but our hearts sank when it was discovered that a minor collision the day before had caused the rear bumper to buckle up, preventing the tailgate opening. While tracy went back to the cabin to get the Barcelona tour guide in preparation for a DIY tour on the bus, three officers from the port authority armed with a hammer managed to reshape the bumper and got the tailgate open.

Our driver and guide, Jordi took us for a 4 hour trip around Barcelona. We started at the Olympic stadium and National Gallery where we had a great view over the city. We then went across town to Temple de la Sagrada familia, a stunning building inside and out. We stopped quickly at Park Guell before returning to the ship via Las Ramblas, a 2km long stretch of pedestrian area which is like a combination of London's Southbank and Covent Garden with markets and street perfomers.

I managed to operate the wheelchair myself throughout including the precariously steep ramp into the car, but I was pretty knackered when we got back.

While Tracy took the boys ice skating and for something to eat, I relaxed in the late afternoon sun on the top deck with views across Barcelona. There was also plenty of activity to watch in the port as other cruise ships arrived or left. Daniel takes great satisfaction from comparing the size of other cruise ships with ours as invariably ours wins by a significant margin every time!

We went to the evening show which was the first of the three big productions. Again we had seen it last year but it was still excellent. After we went out to watch the ship leave port. As we were walking around the section of deck that overhangs the ship, daniel said he didn't like this bit because it might 'snap off' which amused us no end. Having recovered from the excursion, we decided to check out the band in the lounge bar. They were just finishing a line dancing session but said they were returning shortly to play hits from the 50s to 80s. With the audience of predominantly over 70 we expected a typical wedding style playlist, so were pleasantly surprised to have some Thin Lizzy, Rolling Stones and Queen covers. They played until almost 1am, finishing with Another Brick in the Wall! Most of the older audience had already left by then.

So a good day; probably the best so far. I have got around the ship indepenently, including lifts for the first time and even tried lift lottery for the first time - see last year's entry.





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