August 6 – Barcelona, Spain to Calgary

Weather – 23º and rain this morning in Barcelona – I’m thankful today is a travel day and not a wander around Barcelona day. It was warmer when we arrived in Calgary than when we left Barcelona. I have to say how great the weather has been over the past 18 days. I anticipated a bit of weather-related suffering, but there’s been little, and some of what there was, was because of chilliness.

Steps – 6,227

Westjet long haul - pretty OK

Not much to report. Thankful for a 2PM flight, didn’t have to get up too early.
Everything was on time, and we made it home by 5PM

Still August 6 – today a 32-hour day, I think. I feel like I make this exact same post every time we return home after vacation…vacation was great, glad to be home.

Thanks to everyone who came along with us by reading and commenting. I love having blog audience!

August 5 – Barcelona, Girona, and Figueres Spain

Dali Day

Weather – another lovely start the day,

Gerona gate

nice to spend a few minutes on our room’s courtyard (21º), 30º in Girona and Figueres later, but not humid

Steps – 12,469

Dali! Today was all about Salvadore Dali. Before today I knew very little about Salvadore Dali. Today’s guide could not have been more knowledgeable.

Unfortunately, getting to Girona (a small medieval town on the way to Figueres) and Figueres (Dali’s birthplace) was a commitment…a 90-minute drive there and

Jewish museum

back. The Spanish countryside was interesting for a bit, but after 90 min I had had my fill.

so thirsty!

Today was a group of 8, just like our Montserrat tour. However, today’s tour was 10 hours long…pick up at 8:30 and drop off around 6:45…it was worth it!

We stopped for a cappuccino just outside of Barcelona before embarking on the to Girona, a small medieval town an hour away. During a short walking tour, we learned about

GOT passageway

Gerona’s defensive Roman walls, about Gerona’s Jewish history, Catholic history, and Game of Thrones history – at least 4 scenes from GOT were filmed in Gerona - I didn't watch GOT, but apparently it was a big deal. During our free time, Chris and I visited the Jewish Museum and saved time for a refreshment. We also saw

lunch!!

an iron bridge designed by Gustave Eiffel in the 19th-century. Girona is very

Dali - can you see the skulls?

charming. I’d be happy to spend a few days here sometime. Not a ton to do, but charming and a nice place to hang for a bit.

Next was lunch in Figueres – super close to the French border. We were on our own for lunch. The guide recommended an Italian place and although not authentically Spanish…he said it’d be a good bet…it was. They had sangria, so that was Spanish!

Dali

We didn’t see a lot of the town, because we were focused on the highlight of the

didn't look like this with the naked eye

day…the Dali Museum. Salvador Dali designed the museum itself. Luis our guide, seemed to know everything there was to know about Dali and was extremely passionate about him…perfect. This place was crowded, but we managed. Being a small group let us snake through the crowds. There were 2 little kids on the tour, who weren’t exactly interested, they eventually got on Luis’ nerves, can’t really blame the kids…it wasn’t exactly kid friendly.

Dali museum

Visiting the museum on our own, or even

Dali

with an audio guide (like was always do) would have been a cool experience, but with Luis it was pretty amazing! He showed us things in some of the pieces that we would never have noticed

Dali's pieta

or known on our own. He also connected Dali’s life to his art, which was super interesting. We were in the museum for 2 hours. 

Dali

Today was the first and only day of museums on this trip. I love a museum, especially an art museum, but any museum. Typically, they are chill, quiet, little

Dali

Dali

talking places...glorious. The Jewish museum was all of those things, the Dali museum not-so-much, but "you take the good you take the bad."

Dali

Dali

August 4 – Barcelona, Spain

random park sculpture

Weather – 25º, sunny, a bit breezy, not too

ancient Barcelona, Roman ruins

moist…nice for wandering

Steps – 23,101 (15/9Km)

Somehow, I don’t wake up in the middle of the night like I do at home - WHY? It’s not like I’m not drinking and most days visit naptown, so what gives? I need to figure it out, so I can make it happen at home.

Anyway…after a solid lie-in, we headed downstairs for a hotel breakfast. This hotel and our last Barcelona hotel (same chain) told us later rather than earlier

where to next??

was better…we go when it’s convenient for us, depending on our plans and until today didn’t notice a difference in business…until today…it presented no real problem, but was PACKED! This hotel and the first one we stayed in in Barcelona are Ibis Styles hotels, we’ve stayed at them before and know what they’re like…basic, nothing fancy, include breakfast (basic) and include a welcome drink.

music venue

Everything is exactly as advertised and as expected, except for the AC. When we arrived it seemed like our room hadn’t been occupied for a while as it was

beer tasting

afternoon sangria

HOT! Hotels here require the power to be turned on in the room with your room card…actually any card will do…like an old Starbucks card. They intend for you to use your room key, so that when you are gone the power goes, because you need your key, I’m normally fine with this approach…not this time, good thing I still had my ship key card! It took a loooong time for the room to cool off and since then it’s been OK, not

fruity beer to start

great, but fine. We’ve stayed in European hotels that ‘claim’ to have AC, but it’s minimal…this is
rare, but it happens. Most of the time the AC has to be turned down or off it’s so good. That was a looooong story about AC, but it’s important!

The day’s activity was shopping…Chris’ shopping at the Barcelona football club store. Our goal was to find the main store (not at their stadium) which was about 20 minutes from the hotel, but it took us longer once we stopped to check this monument out and that interesting thing.

old beer boiler in a playground

We took a detour through a park, found Greek columns to look at, admired Barcelona’s cathedral, people watched, stepped over something awful spilled (or barffed) on some stairs and finally bought Chris a new shirt! Post-retail-therapy we wandered through the Santa Catalina market…I love a market even though I never buy anything…I don’t think I need any fresh fish…I marveled at the cheese and the low process compared to our Canadian prices.

Sagrada Familia - again

Behind the market was a tiny bar with 4 tables, and
random dogs milling about where we had to sit for a sangria. We’ve had our fair share of sangria in Spain this trip, they are all similar, but different…never super boozy which is good.

We headed back to the hotel for a quick refresh before the Estrella Damm brewery tour. It wasn’t actually a brewery tour because the actual brewing has been moved out of town – this was more of a history of the brewery and tasting. It was super interesting and at the end we tasted 5 beers – fun.

looking at the "grasshopper"

Although it was only 6:30 at this point, but we found

Frankfurter

a small place (this time 5 tables) for a “Frankfurt” and pedron peppers. We weren’t exactly sure what the Frankfurt would be like, but it was a hot dog…a very nice hot dog, but a hot dog. This is the first place we couldn’t speak English to the server. We managed, but despite trying in other places we’ve never really HAD to speak Spanish.

street art

We finished the night at the hotel bar for our welcome drink 3

history of beer kegs

days later.

August 3 – Barcelona, Spain

abbey

Monserrat cable car

Weather – 21º when we stepped out first
thing in the morning, overcast, even a bit of rain! – lovely, 26º later in the day and blazing sun

Steps – 20,884

Today was all about Monserrat. Montserrat is a 9th century Benedictine abbey about 45 minutes out

very hard to see Black Madonna

of about 720 meters above sea level. We were taken there with a guide and 6 other people. We drove to the base of a cable car, then climbed 5 minutes climb to the base of the monastery. We’ve visited a few monasteries, and this is by far the most ‘developed’ we’ve ever seen. This was almost like a tiny resort town with a hotel, hostel, museum,
restaurant, and gift shop, in addition to the abbey.

first sight of Monserrat

We visited the church with it’s famed Black Madonna – black because of the wood it is carved from that has blackened over time. You can visit the Madonna close up for €5 – we didn’t. You can see her from a distance while visiting the church.

Almost what impressed me most about this church is how respectful people were to be quiet. We’ve been in plenty of places were this is requested, but people ignore…here, everyone was super respectful.

Monserrat

Being that this place is on a mountain, there are some hiking trails around. We take one of these trails to a lookout point…it was a significant hike. We rewarded ourselves after with a beverage
of course.

altar

Back in town, the tour over, we wandered a bit. We chose hotel we are at this time because it is in a new part of Barcelona to us. It is a bit of a residential area, with a university and hospital. We found ourselves at the sea and thought some tapas and wine would be a good idea…it was. We had calamari, pedron
peppers, and pan con tomate washed down with some wine…all was delicious! The setting was terrific too, right on the beach.

interesting chapel

 

The evening was similar to last night…a bit of a wander, a bit of food and bit of drink. We headed out around 9:30 and places were PACKED! Finally we found a place that seemed underwhelming, but in the en

church

d was grea

lunch setting

t…mostly because of the guy who ran the place…super interactive and funny. We didn’t get back until after

seaside lunch

midnight, but have nothing on the go in the morning, so can sleep in.

goal of our hike

August 2 – Lisbon, Portugal to Barcelona, Spain

bags made it!

Portuguese specialties

Weather – 21º first thing in the morning when we left Lisbon…lovely, 30º and moist when we arrived in Barcelona mid afternoon

Steps – 12,381

Just when I think I’m done with the ship, it sucks me back in. As the end of a vacation approaches my mind gets around being done with it – last night after we had our last drink and meal on the boat (until Christmas) we realized how much we enjoy it…mostly because of the staff.

Anyway…we’re not staying, some people were staying on for the next 12 days back to Rome – that would been great, but nope.

Today, the Pope’s arrival for the start of World Youth Day had us in a bit of a

pre-siesta snacks

tizzy. The ship advised that we get to the airport even earlier than normal, so did the airline. We planned to take a taxi or Uber to the airport, but with the Pope frenzy we looked into a confirmed private transfer – as time went on, these got booked up which tizzied us a bit more. We were leaving at 8, the airport is only a 15 min drive from the port and didn’t require driving through the city centre where the Pope action would be, so we figured we should be fine, but we didn’t know. We talked to someone from the ship who actually confirmed that we should be fine and guess what…we were! When we woke up and saw that there were a handful of Ubers hanging around the port I relaxed even more. 

moonlit Mediterranean

Sure enough, 15 minutes after getting in the Uber (the usual trouble of the Uber knowing where we actually are happens in Europe too), we were at the airport. If we hadn’t read about and been told about World Youth Day we’d never have known. There were certainly groups of 18, 19, and 20 year olds around, but probably not a lot more than usual. 

Anyway…security was a breeze and soon we were settled in the premium lounge thanks to Chris’ credit card with some refreshments. I hoped to try Pastel de nata in Portugal and I as able to here, just before leaving. Pastel de nata is a traditional Portuguese pastry - kind of like a custard tart. The crust is a flaky pastry almost like a croissant with a custard filling, some are sprinkled with cinnamon before baking (this one was)…very good, I’ll have  another some day. This was washed down with a white port – something I’ve had before, but not this trip. 

After a 90 min flight were back in Barcelona, unpacked, found our neighborhood Piggley-Wiggley for some snacks and had a siesta. Jamon flavoured chips were meh...they were chips, so I ate plenty, but they are no oyster omelet chips from Taiwan!

A late evening dinner followed by a walk along the moon lit Mediterranean and that was the day!

August 1 – Lisbon, Portugal

hello Lisbon!!

Weather – 25º, 21º and misty rain in Sintra, in apparently it was over 40º in July…I’m glad I missed that!

Steps – 10,102

replica Golden Gate in SF

It’s another lazy morning sailing for Lisbon. We should have been able to get here earlier than our originally planned afternoon time as we didn’t come as far as Morocco, but the ship’s docking time can’t be changed. I suppose it wasn’t entirely lazy as we had to confirm and finalize some travel plans as tomorrow we are off to Barcelona for the last leg of this trip.

Queluz Palace

Having been to Lisbon before, we opted to visit 2 towns outside the city. This was a good choice as tours in Lisbon were cancelled due to World Youth Day.

Palace ceiling

First, we visit the 18th-century Queluz Palace. The best thing about this place was how uncrowded it was. It was beautiful and interesting, but there were only a few other people there other than our tour group. The gardens are very beautiful as well – not surprising as they were inspired by Versailles in France.

Next we had about 40 minutes to explore Sintra, which was too short to have a drink, but too long to only wander. Sintra is a very quaint, but touristy place.

cool Sintra gate

Lastly, we stopped in Cascais, another touristy town, but this time it is a bit more than just tourists. It is on the Atlantic Ocean with lots of fishing boats and a beach. We and follow the Tagus River, the longest waterway in the Iberian Peninsula, back to Lisbon.

We didn’t get back until after 7:30, so a quick shower, some last minute packing, a drink, dinner and we’re in bed!

Cascais fishing boats