World Cruise Day 127/152 - Barcelona, Spain - Gaudi, Waffles, and Diana

Cruise day: 127/152

Ports days: 62
Sea days: 65
Countries: 22
Continents: 5
Ports: 46

Friday finds us docked in Barcelona, Spain.  Today is an interesting day for several reasons.  The port was busy this morning with two other cruise ships in port plus a bunch of small container ships moving in and out.

We ate breakfast and headed out on the included tour, Iconic Barcelona, a combination bus and walking tour.

As we disembarked, this was the sight - I guess a whole bunch of folks got new mattresses

We started our tour, taking in some of the sights of Barcelona.

 

The W Hotel is designed to mimic one in Dubai

Columbus Monument

Hard to see, but this is a huge lobster

There are more stoplights in Barcelona than just about anywhere we've been

Arco de Triunfo de Barcelona - the main access gate for the 1888 Barcelona World's Fair

We started our walking tour.  A little rant here.  This tour was described as moderate effort, meaning that it would involve walking, possibly stairs, uneven surfaces, and so on.  Like on every moderate or demanding tour we've been on, several folks with mobility issues were on the tour.  This caused a several-minute delay at our first stop so the one person unable to do this walking portion could be accommodated.  This simply is not fair to every other person on the tour who has to wait.  There are two culpable parties here.  First is the passenger that booked an excursion that they are simply not physically capable of completing.  This isn't a criticism of the person's abilities.  It is a criticism of their action of booking a tour too strenuous for them to participate in.  The other culpable party is Viking.  They have four courses of action that they should follow.  

• The first is that they should provide much better descriptions of the effort involved in specific tours.  Case in point, the Krka Waterfall tours in Croatia where they mentioned some stairs - there were 200!  
• Second, Viking needs to look at its target demographic (it isn't 20-something marathon runners) and offer specific tours for mobility-challenged passengers.  We have spoken to several passengers with mobility issues who all said they would love an option that would allow them to see highlights without slowing down other passengers.  
• Third, Viking needs to advise their passengers with mobility issues when they book moderate or demanding tours.  
• Finally, Viking needs to broaden their tour ratings because moderate might mean a little uphill walking or five miles of walking.  It is a huge range.

We all want tours.  Viking should offer tours that accommodate all passengers that they book on cruises.  Passengers should book tours that fit their physical capabilities.

On with the tour...

Barcelona is an architecturally interesting city - this is just one of the interesting buildings we passed

It might just be me, but I would think about rebranding

This was a stop at The Sagrada Família.  This temple has been under continuous construction since 1883 and due to COVID delays, has a new, and unlikely target completion date of 2030, or so.  It was initially conceived by Francisco de Paula del Villar in 1882, but his material choices and technical difference with the project sponsors resulted in his firing.  Renowned architect Antoni Gaudí was hired and construction started in 1883. Since his death, others have continued the project based on his designs and the project continues today.

The temple has three facades.  The Nativity facade was constructed first followed by the Passion facade.  The final Glory facade is not yet built.

The Nativity Facade.  Features: three kings, shepherds, coronation, Herod soldier killing children,  Joseph as a carpenter, spring fruits, life, hope, charity. Everywhere you look at the facade, there is something else to see.

The unbuilt Glory facade.  Both the Nativity and Passion Facades have green spaces across from them.  There is no room for that for the Glory facade as businesses are there.  The plan is to raze the buildings and reclaim the space for parks.  As you can imagine, there is some opposition from the business owners.

The Passion facade.  Features: last supper, Judas' kiss with the snake, cryptogram where all ways add up to 33, the life of Christ.  Alpha and Omega, Jesus with the cross. Jesus on the cross (center) naked which was reality - the only such sculpture in the world, the moment before the resurrection, Pontious Pilate washing his hands. The gold statue up high represents the Holy Spirit. The architect is buried in a crypt in the temple.

That round structure is the cathedral

A school inside the grounds

The highest part of the Basilica has been limited to 172.5m by the designer as that is the height of the highest hill in the area and they didn't want to build higher than God did.  When completed, it will be the tallest church building in the world.

In a really strange turn of events, our guide showed us a business that is directly across the street from the Basilica.

The name says it all - waffles shaped like...well, you get the idea

I'm going to go with the fact that a phallus was a symbol of good luck in Pompeii and these will bring a lot of good luck to the area

The Torre Glòries, formerly known as Torre Agbar, is a 38-story skyscraper

We passed a home designed by Antoni Gaudí.

Even the H&M gets special treatment in Barcelona - what a facade

We entered the Gothic area of Barcelona for the remainder of our walking tour.

The pavement is stamped with a symbol of Barcelona - a gothic flower

Part of the ancient Roman walls

More of the Roman walls

We saw a Tesla taxi

The Catalan government building

The Barcelona City Hall

Street art making a statement

I thought it was pretty cool that they designed drains right into the pavement without the need for grates

This Latin inscription indicated, Here, you will find water

This was the Barcelona Bishop's assistant's house

The courtyard

Remnants of an aqueduct that delivered water to the house

The outside portion of the aqueduct

The mail slot on the house - touching the turtle is supposed to bring good luck - we touched it

The Cathedral

While the decorations on this building look like drawings, they were etched

We need these chairs

There was an art display next to the cathedral.

This wall was built in part with reclaimed stones from a Jewish settlement

Note the Hebrew

Gargoyles were placed on buildings to ward off evil and to inform people that they can find peace inside as the Devil is outside

Columns from a temple from the first century B.C. were in incredible condition.

St. George, killing the dragon

We completed our tour and headed back to the port.

Waves - a better picture coming...

One of two tram lines in Barcelona

The bridge to the port

We enjoyed a nice lunch on the ship before heading out again.  A few days ago, we were contacted by our friend, Diana, from our home, The Villages, Florida.  She is traveling and realized that she would be in Barcelona the same day.  We headed out to meet her by the Columbus Monument.

A better shot of the Barcelona Face

Here we are with Diana and the Barcelona Face

We spent the rest of the afternoon walking and showing Diana some of the sights we had seen in the Gothic area.  Eventually, we decided it was time for dinner so we headed over to the Barceloneta area for dinner.  We wound up at Cal Pinxo Palau de Mar and had a wonderful Paella dinner.

The evening was drawing to a close, so we had to say goodbye and return to the ship as Diana continued on her Spanish adventure for a few more days.

As promised, a better photo of Waves.

The 42-meter high Onades (Waves) sculpture is made up of seven stainless steel arches and designed to evoke the feeling of waves crashing and bubbling on Barcelona's beaches

We made our way back to the ship via the shuttle bus.  Today was our biggest walking day yet with 20,000 steps in the books.  The last several port days have had 10,000, 12,000, 13,000, 15,000, & 20,000 steps counted.  We are in Barcelona tomorrow morning with an onboard time of 1:30PM.  We will determine tomorrow what, if anything we will do.