Barcelona, Spain – July 31

Overcast first thing, then sunny, 26 degrees and not too humid

Today Chris and I are on a different tour from the parents. They are doing the must-see Barcelona sights which is a full day and we are doing a morning tour off chocolate and cava tasting. Since Chris and I have been here before, we figured

chocolate shopping

we’d do something a bit of the beaten path and let the parents have some alone time!

The entirety of our tour today was in a town about 45 minutes outside of Barcelona in a town called Roses. The chocolate part of the tour was at the Simón Coll chocolate factory. This tour was very slick in an 18th-century paper mill since 1987. There was a short film followed by a tour of the automated factory. Then we had a chocolate tasting lesson which was very, very cool. This family has been making chocolates here in Spain for over 100 years. We couldn’t possible leave here without buying some, so after some shopping that was surprisingly well priced, we were on our way

in the cellar learning about cava

for some cava. 

cava sampling

The cava vineyard and winery was the opposite of the slickness of the chocolate factory, but in a good and charming way. This place is run and operated by 3 people. We were walked through the cellar and bottling area learning along the way before settling under a huge tree to sample some cavas and munch on some tapas of Spanish meat and cheese.

We were back on board for lunch, a nap and dinner on the pool deck for an outdoor extravagant BBQ accompanied by the ship’s bands.

cava maker