Barcelona, Spain

Our first cruise ended today in Barcelona. We could have stayed onboard, but wanted to a least see a bit of Barcelona. There are over 300 people staying on for the second cruise. The ship offered a free shuttle into town. We had prepurchased tickets for a hop on, hop off bus. 

There are at least seven cruise ships in the humongous port today. Once we were on the top deck of a bus, we decided to just do the 2.5 hour trip and not get off. There were long lines at each stop. 

We saw many areas of the huge city.  The city itself is 38 sq. miles with 1.6 million people.  However, the metropolitan area covers 1,249 sq. miles and 5.7 million people. We can attest to it being very crowded, and a traffic nightmare. 

It's hard to get decent pictures because there are many trees and parks. That's great for the residents, but not for photos.

Barcelona hosted the Olympics in 1992. We saw quite a few remaining venues. This is the main stadium and the fire cauldron. It was lit with a flaming arrow being shot at it!

This Communications tower was next to the stadium. It was designed by Calatrava to televise the 1992 Olympics. Our Wisconsin friends will recognize the Calatrava name as he designed the Milwaukee Art Museum. Too bad all communication towers aren't this beautiful!

Picture from the web 

We passed many amazing architectural buildings. I don't know what all of them are, but they were beautiful!

Original Customs building 1896

New architecture, Barcelona's largest bank needs two huge black towers

The red coliseum behind the statue in this plaza was a bull fighting ring. Bull fighting has been banned since the 1970s in Barcelona. 

The other side of the plaza had these two towers where they used to have public hangings. Yikes!

The highlight of the day was most definitely Sagrada Familia, the largest unfinished Catholic church in the world.  Designed by Antonio Gaudi, it was begun in 1882. As you can see by the cranes, they are still working on it. When it is finished, it will be the tallest church in the world. Words can't describe it. I've never seen anything like it!!

Picture from the web 

There are many statues sculpted into the construction on each side, depicting Christ's life. The detail is astounding!

Angel at top

Glass star atop a spire

Gaudi was a famous architect and designer, 1852-1926. He was hit by a tram and died, seeing only a small portion of the construction. He is buried inside.

It is now a Unesco World Heritage site, and was consecrated and declared a minor Basilica by the Pope in 2010. It has been built solely on donations. 

I would have loved to have had time to get off and walk around all sides, and visit the inside. I hear it's equally impressive. But, we didn't want to miss the ship!

One of the city squares has two gas street lamps designed by Gaudi in 1879. This stuff was built to last!

There is a 197 foot tall statue of Christopher Columbus built in 1888. His finger is pointing out to sea, but in the direction of Africa instead of the Americas. 😃 

We passed the stadium for Futbol Club Barcelona.  The stadium was undergoing a massive renovation. The soccer club was founded in 1899. It is the third most valuable in the world at $5.6 billion. It is one of the most widely supported and decorated clubs in the world. 

We spent quite a bit of time in a traffic jam caused by this protest. I wish I could read the sign on the mannequin on the front of the truck. 

There were many interesting and pretty trees and flowers. I've never seen this kind of tree.

On the way we saw these five cruise ships lined up. Ours is the second one with the water slide. There were at least two more at different piers. I've never seen such a busy port!

A view of the city from our top deck. 

There are a lot of cargo ships out there. I'm assuming they're waiting their turn to enter. 

Another interesting day in Spain!

Mallorca, Spain

Today we visited the island of Mallorca, pronounced my-your-ka. It is a very popular tourist destination, known for beautiful beaches. Annually, they have about 13 million visitors. The largest percentage are German, British and Spanish. 

We docked at the capital city, Palma. Here's a view of Palma from the ship.

Originally, I had booked a Flamenco show for this stop. I was extremely disappointed when it ended up being canceled. So, last minute I booked us a tour called Easy Palma. Note to self: tours labeled easy are full of walkers, wheelchairs, and people who are barely mobile. I understand they want to see the sites, too; but we're not in that category yet. No more easy tours!

Our first stop was the Catedral Basilica de Santa Maria de Mallorca, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. I've noticed Spanish historic places have long names. Construction of the Catholic cathedral started in 1229. Work continued into the 17th century. We only saw the outside, but it was magnificent. 

View from the ship 

On the left side of the cathedral is the Royal Palace of La Almudaina for the royal family. Spain still has a king, but similar to England, he is a figurehead. The palace is only used for official functions. The royals don't stay there. 

There are beautiful gardens around the palace.

Many tourist photos of Mallorca feature windmills. At one time, there were 3,300 windmills on the island. There are still some to be seen in the middle of the city in various states of repair.

Mark Zuckerberg's mega yacht named Launchpad is currently parked in the marina. It cost $300 million, and is 387 feet long. To put that in perspective, longer than a football field. Doesn't everyone need one???

But, Mark is conservative compared to Jeff Bezos. His yacht, Koru, left here recently. It was $500 million, is 417 feet long, and is the world's largest sailing yacht. Must be rough. 

Our last stop was Castell de Bellver. It was built on a hill in early 1300s for King James II as one of only a few circular castles in Europe. Originally, it was the residence of the king, then it was a military prison, and is now a museum.

It has four towers. Three are attached to the castle. The fourth is freestanding, with a drawbridge connecting it. It was a last level of escape in case of attack, but the castle was never attacked. 

View of castle from ship

Aerial view from web

Views from up there were incredible!

Today is the last day of this cruise. Tomorrow, we dock in Barcelona. We are planning to take a ride on the hop on, hop off bus before the ship leaves again tomorrow afternoon. 

The next cruise is ten days visiting southern Italy and Greece. More adventures await!

We enjoyed our first visit to Spain. I was surprised how mountainous each city was. The people were friendly, and prices were reasonable even though the dollar is 11% below the Euro.

Cartagena, Spain

Our tour in Cartagena was much more enjoyable as we had a guide we could understand. We did a lot of walking and stair climbing!

Our first stop was the Castillo de la Concepcion. We climbed many steps to get up there. This castle was built by the Moors sometime between the 12th and 13th centuries. Here's an aerial view I found on the web. 

 

Model of castle 

It was hard to get any exterior pictures because of the trees.

Remains of lighthouse 

There were many peacocks on the castle grounds, and they were noisy!

 

There is currently a Leonardo de Vinci exhibit in the castle. I knew he was a painter and inventor, but I didn't realize the extent of his work! Here are a few examples. The paintings are reproductive prints.

Lived 1452 to 1519

There were many different flying inventions

This is a suspension bridge

Multi shooter canon, predecessor to machine gun

diving suit

The famous Mona Lisa was completed when he was 50, although he kept tweaking it until his death. The model was Lisa Gherardini. Mona means lady in ancient Italian. We saw the original in Paris in 2007. I really don't see why it is so famous! 😕 

The views from the top were vast. Here's our ship with some navy vessals in the back. Cartagena has the main Spanish base in the Mediterranean Sea.  It was established in the 18th century as the harbor here is considered to be the best natural harbor. 

We saw this submarine while we were having lunch back on board 

Views of the old city and surrounding areas. Cartagena is 2,200 years old with a population of over 220,000.

We saw this abandoned bull fighting ring. People lost interest, and it closed. It is currently being excavated because its was built on top of a Roman theater.

Our next stop was the Punic Wall built around the city in the 3rd century BC. Ruins were discovered during a building project and have been excavated. A museum has been built over the top. 

The outdoor entrance to the museum replicates the size of the two sections of the original wall. It was 33 feet tall with three levels. The first two levels were store rooms, stables and soldier's living quarters. The third level was a patrol walkway. The Romans were able to breach the wall.

Upon further excavation, a burial room with many bones was discovered. It was determined this had been under a church from the 16th century. 

Our final stop was Old Town. This area saw a surge of development in the late 1800s during an Art Nouveau period. Wealth was coming from the mining industry. 

The entrance from the port has a beautiful plaza overlooking the main road which is pedestrian only. The building on the left is city hall.

There is a beautiful building which used to be the Grand Hotel. In the late 1930s Spain experienced a civil war. At that time, all these luxury buildings were occupied by the elite. They lost their fortunes after the war, and banks took over most of them. Today they are shops, restaurants, bars and, of course, banks!

The main street also had an old catholic church called Iglesia Santo Domingo in existence since the 18th century. 

We stopped at a bar so Kevin could try a Spanish beer. He had this one which was a lager. He said it was okay.

Once again, there were beautiful flowers all over. I loved this purple bougainvillea!

When we returned to our room, we found certificates celebrating our Atlantic Ocean crossing. We got similar ones when we traversed the Panama Canal. 

Tomorrow we explore the Spanish island of Palma De Mallorca.