More Champagne and Barcelona

Wednesday evening was a hectic time for us.  We were invited to two Champagne parties. Firstly with William and Michael (sadly we have no pics!) and secondly with Pam and Geoff.  Here we are with Geoff, Pam, Fran and Glenn.  

Oh - and James was there as well!  After the two Champagne parties we were invited to dine with two of the ships officers.  Without doubt we had a wonderful evening all round. (again forgot to take some pictures)

Thursday saw us in Barcelona (again!) but this lovely city never ceases to entertain us.  We took this panorama pic as we walked over the bridge from the cruise terminal.

A zoom pic from the same bridge shows the magnificent skyline of the city much better.  The “Mirador de Colom” (the Columbus Column) is on the left with the towers of Cathedral (centre) and multiple towers of Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia (right).

The sun shone very brightly on us as we entered the city via the Port Vell area.

The Columbus Column took our fancy this time around and we were soon paying the very reasonable 4 euros to go the 60 meters to the top (in the very thin lift!).

The viewing gallery (we were the only ones up there) is just above the coronet and is nice and cosy being enclosed in glass.

There views are wonderful, as expected, and the Cathedral and Sagrada Familia (behind) are easily picked out.

A bit further round and we had  a great view of the famous tree lined “Las Ramblas” as it snakes off into the distance.  It’s a big city which now stretches virtually to the mountains in the distance.

 

In the other direction is the port – this view is towards Port Vell and the marina.  Sadly QM2 was berthed too far round in the cruise terminal and was hidden behind a building so we couldn’t take a decent photo.  One day we’ll be able to get a proper pic of her.

Here’s Doug in the column viewing gallery, and although it wasn’t that windy, we could feel the column swaying slightly.  The lift operator (who left us alone at the top and told us to ring the bell when we wanted to be fetched back down!) told us that in windy conditions it moves so much that people have to hold on to the rails when they get to the top.  He’s also used to dealing with panic attacks!

We spent the rest of the day roaming around and enjoying the ambience of this lovely place.  Las Ramblas, and the city in general, was much quieter than when we were in Barcelona in early December and consequently much more enjoyable.  (Who’s that bloke with the rucksack?)  The Captain gave us a surprise bonus of a very late sail away so we were able to enjoy some Barcelona night life until almost 11 o’ clock.

We have a sea day ahead of us before we get to Civitavecchia where we’ll use the train and visit Rome for the first time.  Excitement indeed!