Day 10 :: Back to Beautiful Barcelona

There were tons of street side food and merchandise vendors

On our walking tour

The last day of our cruise was bitter sweet.  I had so much fun on the ship but was really looking forward to getting off and continuing onto the next part of our vacation.  It was so nice to have already had an 8 day cruise and know that we still had a 2nd vacation ahead of us.  We got off the ship around 9am Saturday morning after eating breakfast in the dining room.  From the port we took the Blue Bus to the Columbus Monument.  We had a pretty short walk to the Drassanes metro station and then once we got off the Metro another short walk to our hotel.  They say you better pack what you can carry and that's what I did...but just barely.  I had one large rolling luggage and a backpack for 15 days so I think I did pretty good but you never know what you are going to encounter at train stations.  You can't always find an elevator and very often we had to go down a set of stairs and then right back up another, sometimes twice.  It was rough but I did it.  I strategically planned for all of our hotels to be near metros so we could save money on cab fare and make it there with luggage.

Such a sight to behold.  This one was massive!

In the Gothic Quarter

The buildings there are so beautiful

Another beautiful Cathedral

We had the hotel hold our baggage and then we went off to explore Barcelona.  I heard about the free Runner Bean walking tour from another blogger so we checked out a few shops and then met up for the 11:00am tour.  The tour was 2 1/2 hours through the sites of the Gothic Quarter.  Our guide told us some great stories about the history of Barcelona and the buildings.  At the end you donate whatever you think the tour is worth.  After that we were on our own so we backtracked and stopped at different places along the way that we didn't have time to stop in during the tour.  On the way to our hotel we'd passed a Top Shop, which is UK based and I knew immediately I had to go there.  I always here about Top Shop but had never actually seen one so I was really excited.  I found a cute top for 22 € Euro.

I loved our hotel room

Paella and the wine trend continues :: Chocolate Waffle

We got our luggage and checked into Hotel #2, Hotel Jazz.  It was really nice.  It had a bidet in the bathroom.  I tried to use it just to see what it was like but bidet's don't have an actual seat like toilets and I really think they should.  How am I supposed to hang in mid air and reach the faucet which is behind me? Maybe I was doing it wrong, but I just found it awkward!  We rested a bit then went back out for dinner.  I found us a restaurant with outdoor seating at a place called El Cafe D'En Victor.  The menu prices are about 10% higher if you sit outside but it was worth it to be outside amidst the energy of Barcelona.  We split a bottle of white wine.  I ordered Paella.  It was sooo good!!  It was this giant pan of delicious rice, chicken and Peas.  I don't even like Peas but it sure tasted good in Paella.  Mj got boring grilled chicken.  After that we walked the streets a bit more.  There was so much good shopping.  Every single town we'd been in so far had a Zara and an H & M and we saw two here.  I was pretty satisfied with the shopping I'd done so far so I held back.  There were so many people!  We bought a chocolate covered waffle which was really good and then headed back to our hotel around 6:30pm.  I really wanted to stay up and enjoy the city for longer but I was just too tired.  We'd been on our feet for 9 hours already and you can only be up and out for so long.  I was the most tired I had ever been so far if that was even possible.  We planned to take a nap and then go back out for a drink but that never happened.  By the time we woke up it was pretty late so we were in for the night.  I'm so glad we stayed an extra night after the cruise so that we could get a chance to see this beautiful city.

Day 11-13:  Paris, France