Hello Everybody, I know I jumped off the internet and never talked about Barcelona. We were coming in to Lisbon and Jim rushed up to tell me we needed to go see the arrival, so off I went. We spend all our time running from onhe end of this ship to another. Oh, for the HAL days when the ship was 1/2 this size. We are way up in the bow and everything else is in the back or middle except for the theater. Anyway, back to Barcelona and the weather. It has been wonderful. We have not been cold except for a few days. Barcelona was sunny and warm-around 65 degrees. We sat outside and ate paella and enjoyed watching the crowds walk by in the Ramblas. We were entranced with the Sagradia De Familia, Gaudi's amazing work. Many comments were that the outside looks like a kid's project gone wrong, but the inside is inspired. I thought the whole thing was inspired. It spoke to me somehow, and I thought the inside was so spiritual. It is so wonderful and you could spend days in it, just seeing all aspects, but sadly it is not a working church. It was blessed by the Popoe and it is a Basilica, but they only hold special masses there on occasion. It is a tourist attraction only. Too bad! Barcelona was a wonderful city with handsome Catalans and wealthy looking streets and shops.
We went on a day tour with the ship's excursion dept, but we learned a lesson. We do so much better with another couple and taking taxis or the bus. Mike and Janice are willing to go out and about with us, actually Mike is leading the charge, and we have seen so much just on our own (note the ATV ride in Mykonos!). And, we save money. The ship tours are more and you have to stay in the huge group of 48. When we reached Lisbon, we decided to do our own thing. Right outside the terminal building was a taxi driver who spoke excellent English, and for 100 Euros he took us all over the city and gave us the history, political situation, and attitude of the Portugese people. He was as conservative as Mike, and we really laughed about their problems with immigration: the Rumanians. Lisbon is a great city, with wide streets and narrow streets, and neighborhoods. They have wonderful pastries, which we sampled, and lots of places to sit in outdoor cafes. It was a great day, and I can see us coming back to Lisbon, or Lisboa.
Today we were in the Azores. We loved the great terminal and the narrow streets for walking. All the streets are paved with small stone pavers of black and white and have designs in them. The crosswalks are in only white so you know exactly where to walk. They use their lava stone to build buildings and that makes lots of black and white buildings, too. The churches are well covered in gold as are all the churches in Europe. We ate pastries, bought a few more sourvenirs, and went back to the ship for a nap. Another cruise ship is parked in front of us, a FredOlson Cruise Liner. Wow, what a beautiful small ship. The Princess looks like a giant floating hotel and the other one is a yacht.
Tonight we leave for the US and will be at sea for six days. We've had some pitching days on the way to the Azores, and the little pills I take keep me happy and asleep! So, I may nap all the way to Florida. More when we get there. The Whidbey Wagners
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