Sunday, November 6 – Barcelona Redux

In a perfect world, we would have gone to the market and Sagrada Familia today.  We planned to get a taxi to the Gaudi Cathedral which we have not visited since 2011.  We were anxious to see what progress had been made toward its almost-impossible completion.  After all, after 100 years, what’s a decade or two?  The plan was simple – taxi to the cathedral, taxi to La Rambla, walk down La Rambla, taxi home.  Once again, we never left the ship.  Rather, we relaxed and rested for our “big,” non-cancelable trip to Florence on Thursday.

Originally, we were going to take the ship’s transfer to Florence and wander [slowly] through the town.  We have been there several times, so there is no pressure to rush from tourist highlight to historical site, much less any museum. [The giant statue of David in front of the Ufizzi is humbling enough, thank you.]  Yesterday, we decided to splurge and see if we could get Fabrizio, whom we used in 2009 and 2011, to drive us instead of taking the dreaded Big Bus.  For better or worse, he was free but expensive, hence the word splurge.  Since this may be our last visit to Tuscany, we are treating ourselves.  Time will tell if we made a good decision.

As for today, we heard from other passengers that it was cooler and windier than yesterday, so we have no major regrets about staying home.  We did the ubiquitous crossword puzzle, ate lunch and read/wrote some more.  End of story.

New Topic –Whatever happened to class?  We have been astounded, nay, disappointed, at the actions of some of the other passengers.  We didn’t like seeing young people walking around with buckets of beer on NCL, but it is unseemly for the mostly-geriatric set on Holland America.  It is tacky.  Like the fellow who eats dinner at the next table whose definition of smart casual is a plaid sports shirt worn with a windbreaker.  Or the fellow who plants himself in the Crow’s Nest and puts his shoeless feet up on the furniture.  Or another who stretches out on a sofa near our elevator equally unshod.  Ugh!

Shall we talk about elevator etiquette?  We always hold the door for other passengers since no one else does.  Do any of these people hold the door or leave space so we can get on?  Do you need to ask?  Or the ones in the front who seem to take offense at moving so people in the back of the car can exit?  Then there are the “entitled” ones who treat the staff as servants, as if, somehow, they are inferior beings.  Do they know that the ideas behind The Recent Unpleasantness [as our friend Beryl calls the Civil War] have been replaced with courtesy and civility?  And on and on.  It’s getting hard to distinguish the HAL passengers from those on NCL or Carnival, odious comparisons.  End of rant.

TOMORROW – Palma de Mallorca