Barcelona Tour and Board Ship

14 November 2007-
Barcelona tour- Board ship

Full night's sleep- better living through chemistry. Feel rested at 6 am and head for restaurant at 7. Elevators have been designed so you push your required floor outside the elevator and it tells you which bank of elevators to take. First saw this in the Accord Hotel next to the Eiffel tower, second at the Marriott in New Orleans, but theirs didn't work. Arrive at restaurant to find it pretty full considering they only open at 7. We seniors do have an appetite. A bruiser of a fellow sits down at our table of 8 He eats 3 hard rolls with jelly and has a cup of coffee and leaves. He must be Hungarian.
Bags out at 8, check out and board the bus at 830 for an included tour of Barcelona before depositing us at the ship. Guides have been excellent- lots of facts and good English.
Barcelona city of 1.4 million- few really tall buildings. We start at the Holy Family Cathedral that has been being built since 1898- started by one architect and followed by Gaudi who took everything from nature so the place looks like melting ice cream. He was run over by a tram and his plans were destroyed by the communists but enough models remained so they are continuing the work. They have mass in the crypt under the church where Gaudi is buried and the roof will be completed in 2 years so they can move upstairs. See other interesting buildings- drive bys. then go up to the Olympic areas on Montjuic (named for an old Jewish cemetery) and arrive at the ship at noon. Being an old hand on the ship I go directly to my cabin- 645 on the promenade deck. Not as big as the main deck cabin but lot more convenient to the deck and rest of ship.
Pig out at lunch, but I can see I'll have to slow down for the rest of the trip. Found a scale in the workout area- may have to do daily checks. Shipboard mandatory lifeboat drill and captain announces delayed sailing because reprovisioning not complete. Ready for dinner at 6 and run into Bill and Rosemary from the last cruise but I'm not at their table. Am at a table with a Canadian couple, a Welsh couple, a couple from Tucson, a couple of Americans living in Mexico and an Australian woman who just arrived in Barcelona 37 hours after leaving her home in Brisbane. Meal was excellent- 5 courses and coffee. Ran into Bill and R. after dinner and they asked to move their table to the location we had on the last cruise because there was too much noise for them. They again asked if I wanted to join them, but I'll see plenty of them on the ship.
Went up to the theater where the paid dance partners were scouring the sparse audience for dance partners. When one of the gentlemen asked a 250 pounder (I'm being generous) to dance I had to leave and skip the movie. On deck for sailing at 8 pm. There's something about a ships departure that captures the imagination. As the lights of Barcelona fall behind, I go back to the cabin to complete my blog to upload tomorrow. by 10 pm throw in the towel because I'm bleary eyed and realize my bad typing has gotten worse.