Tuesday, November 7 – Another Sea Day in Port

We were in Palma de Mallorca in 2001 when we took a ship’s tour on The Big Bus.  We saw a cathedral, a castle and a fort.  The castle was closed for repairs and the others had lots of steps.  Everything might be open today, but the steps will still be there.  We could see the antiquities across the harbor as we ate breakfast this morning.  Even if we were interested, neither they nor anything else is within walking distance.  Like Barcelona, we are parked far away from everything.

Speaking of Barcelona, there was a reference here the other day about the city of art and arguments.  As so often happens, what is referenced one day disappears with the realities of the next.  However, Barcelona is definitely a city of art.  Best known for the Sagrada Familia, Gaudi has left his imprint all over town in such buildings as La Padrera, [an apartment building], private houses and the Parc Guell which overlooks the city.  All are filled with the shapes of nature albeit a bit stylized.  From a distance, the Sagrada Familia’s towers – and there will be six eventually – look like melting candles; picture candles in chianti bottles from a 1960s Italian restaurant. 

The city is also filled with parks large and small including at Catalunya Square, the crossroads of Barcelona.  At the top of the Ramblas, the park is surrounded by retail establishments and restaurants.  Cortes Ingles is one of Spain’s largest department store chains and it sits cater-corner to the local Hard Rock where one can buy souvenir shot glass written in Spanish and Catalan, the local dialect/language.

And that brings us to the second point, that Barcelona is also a city of arguments.  Frankly, we were unsure of our arrival in Barcelona because it is the capital of Catalonia, the semi-autonomous region of Spain which is trying to secede from Spain.  Barcelona has been the center of the fight.  The newspapers in the US have been filled with stories of the protests, the police violence during the election last month and the attempt to arrest the Catalan political leaders.  Not associated with any of the politics of the area was the massacre of pedestrians in La Rambla’s center island [where we walked and ate lunch last year].  Despite all of the concerns, we made port on time, stayed our two days and had no reported incidents. 

Our biggest disappointment?  No WiFi in either the Barcelona or Palma terminals.  Oh, the inhumanity!

TOMORROW – A Sea Day at Sea


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