Cruisin'

Ready to go!

Typical. :)

Susan arranged to have Stu pick us up. He arrived promptly at 12:15 and away we went. Our flights went smoothly. We got to Toronto, ate dinner and our passports worked this time!! HOORAY! The flight from Toronto to Barcelona went pretty quickly (even though they didn't have wifi or in-seat screens #FirstWorldProblem) and soon we were grabbing our luggage and heading for our Airbnb in the city's center.

Does this look like an active door to you?!

We grabbed a taxi and marveled as the driver navigated through the confusion of the city streets. Their roundabouts make Carmel's look tiny. We got to the Airbnb's address and were so confused. The door appeared to be boarded up. CRAP! We made it all this way just to get duped by someone on the internet. Fear not, we finally knocked on what appeared to be a construction site and the tiniest door opened in the boarding. It turns out that the mouse door lead into our place. It was a very interesting place. I've posted a link to a video of it below for your viewing pleasure. :)

Our place was still being cleaned when we arrived so we dropped our luggage and headed out to grab some breakfast and do some exploring. We had a pretty excellent breakfast at a little cafe and then, upon recommendation of one of Susie's friends, we went to a scheduled tour to see a place called the Palau de la Musica. It was a really impressive music hall...if you're into those kinds of things. This friend acted like it was something you just could not miss. 15 minutes into our visit I asked Susie to unfriend this woman as soon as we got home. :) Turns out I'm STILL not cultured. Darn. We suffered through the whole lame hour tour before heading back to take a power nap. (Note: I wanted to sneak out early but the other Petefishes wouldn't do it. Grumble.)

Quick breakfast

Palau.

"Look impressed"

Fresh fish at the market

Arc.

Date night selfie.

Kathy and Gracie arrived later that afternoon and they went to explore the city with Susan. We continued our naps (I did not sleep a wink on the flight over) until it was time to meet our friends for dinner. In a funny coincidence our good friends Derrik and Jess (Note for my Mom who cannot ever remember my friend's names: Derrik Heinzen went to Eastbrook with me so we've been friends forever and we really like his gf, Jessica) were also in Barcelona finishing up their European summer vacation so we met up for dinner and gelato. It was so fun to see them and hear about their adventures. We went for Mexican as they were tired of Spanish food and we did' really have a burning desire for it, either. This girl will always eat chips and guacamole and tacos! We also tried fried plantains (which we admittedly mistook for potatoes originally) and loved them dipped in a spicy mayo. They don't do ranch in these parts (my friend Kortnee says world peace would be achieved if we just introduced everyone to ranch dressing and I think she may be onto something...), but the spicy mayo was a nice departure from the standard. We walked along the waterfront and noticed the increased police and military presence for the first time. There were quite a few men holding machine guns. It was a little disconcerting and we did not know what was going on. It turns out terror threats and activities are on the rise. Bummer. We grabbed gelato and then said goodbye to our friends. They were headed for Paris in the morning and then back home. 

Jess and Heinz

Lovin' the gelato

Early the next morning the whole gang (for ease I'll be referring to Susie, Kathy and Gracie as "the girls") headed for a tour of the Sagrada Familia. It is a massive, still under-construction cathedral in the heart of Barcelona. We arrived a few minutes early for our entry time so the girls went to a cafe and we went to a McDonald's. Typical. :) The McDonald's in Europe, like the ones in New Zealand, use automated ordering. This makes life so easy because you can pick the English option (by selecting Union Jack as your flag...the Queen is still sticking it to us) and then you know exactly what you're ordering. Well, so you think. We got ham and cheese toasted sandwiches that were actually served on inside out hamburger buns-ha! Then we got an egg and potato sandwich that turned out to be just horrible. Eh, live and learn. McDonald's doesn't usually disappoint abroad so I'm giving them an out this one time.

McDonald's for breakfast...

Sagrada

Amazing.

Listening to the tour

Views from the top

Brave face.

Tight stairwells 

S.O.S. we're up too high

More views...

Headed down

The door said "Gracies" so we MADE her pose

It was finally time for our tour so we headed on over to the church. I got our audio guides and my Spanish in asking for five was so great that he programmed them for Spanish. Whoops! Who knew high school Spanish would actually be helpful one day?! Anyway, he changed them to English and off we went to tour the massive cathedral. To say that it was magnificent is grossly understating its beauty. I've not ever been to a more beautiful place. It really felt like the building itself was an act of worship. You (well, at least I did) actually FELT God in the structure. It was just so open, airy and gorgeous. Everywhere you looked there as a mural or something telling stories from the Bible. It was by far and away the most wonderful building I have ever been in. Ever. Since Susie was sponsoring this part of the trip, we splurged for the passes to go up in the spires. We rode the elevators up about 30 stories and looked over the sprawling city below us. It was both magical and terrifying. We had to climb down and our legs were jelly after that! 

City living groceries

Mom's HRC pin

Waiting on the girls...

Our street in Barcelona

We bid the girls farewell and headed ALL THE WAY ACROSS TOWN ON FOOT to get my Mom her Hard Rock Cafe pin. We were able to get one that featured the cathedral on it so I was quite pleased. We really enjoyed strolling through the city and soaking in the culture. They LOVE dogs in Barcelona so naturally I was in Heaven. I even got to pet a little schnauzer. Life was good! 

We finally made it back to our Airbnb (I swear we walked through that entire city in one morning) to meet the girls to head to the cruise ship. Our taxi driver was born and raised in Barcelona so he hated it. I told him it was lovely. He countered that it was great for holiday and I let him have the last word. We had absolutely beautiful weather and I could not have asked for a better experience in his hometown (except for skipping the stupid Palau, of course). We easily boarded the ship and were off to explore more of Europe before landing in Italy. 

Susan booked us a balcony room (happy birthday to Jackson!!) and we were in Heaven. It was only 900 times nicer than the porthole room we'd booked ourselves on our first cruise leaving from New Orleans a few years ago. This was only our second cruise and after our first we were not convinced that we were cruisers. Princess, though, is much higher end than the Norwegian one we previously cruised and it showed. Our bed was bigger, our room was bigger, you could actually get clean in the shower. AMAZING! We settled in quickly (getting to unpack because you'll be on for a week is SO NICE) and then headed up for the sail away party. We found Susie up there drinking with new friends so we joined her party. It was so fun. We even walked on the glass-floored sky bridge! I almost peed, but it held up. Whew. Shortly after that we cleaned up and went for dinner. We were supposed to meet K&G, too, but there was a mix-up so it ended up being just the three of us. The one thing you forget when cruising is that your phone is pretty much useless so you have to really plan well if you ever want to see someone again. HA! After that little issue we all signed up for the Princess messenger website so the rest of the week would be smoother. After dinner we explored the ship and returned to the room to see that our steward, Alex, had decorated our door for Jackson's birthday as I requested. Hooray. He was so excited. Jackson may be 40, but he will always be a kid at heart! 

The boat was showing "A Dog's Purpose" on the outdoor theater so the three of us headed up to watch it. Susan and I just recently read the book so we knew what to expect. Jackson doesn't read so he had no idea. He was crying harder than me at a dog movie. That's impressive, honestly. It was SO neat to be out on the deck chairs under the open sky watching the movie. We really enjoyed it. By the time the movie ended it was nearly midnight and we'd had a full day so we finally retired to our stateroom. We had such a nice time in Barcelona and a great first day on the ship. What a great way to kick off Jackson's birthday celebration!