Barcelona – day 3 (Nov. 6)

Our third day in Barcelona we took another bus tour which included the Freixenet Winery about 40 minutes outside of the city.

As we waited for the winery tour to begin, we enjoyed the grounds with all the unique vehicles.

After watching a movie on the history of this family vineyard, we were lead down into the catacombs where the barrels and bottles are stored and aged.  We learned the process of making sparkling wine.  The sparkling wine they make here is called Cava.  It is really champagne, but only sparkling wine from Champagne, France, can have that name.  We were able to have a taste, but I’ve never been crazy about champagne, and that day was no different.  :)

 

From the winery, we headed back to the city to view more architecture.  Most of the buildings that were pointed out were designed by Gaudi.  Many of them were striking, but you can’t get very good pictures looking through the window of a moving bus, so I didn’t. 

We also stopped at a park on a hill overlooking the port of Barcelona.  It was another one of those stops where you barely had ten minutes to take a look and snap a pic.  Such is the nature of bus tours.  :(

The 1992 Summer Olympics were held in Barcelona, so we made a very brief stop at the Olympic Stadium.  There was not enough time to go inside, but we did see the track and field area through a set of open doors as the bus drove past.  That was the end of our touring of Barcelona.  We were supposed to visit Park Guell on our way to the ship the next morning, but it was not to be.  The bus company did not send enough buses, and 29 of us were left stranded outside the hotel in the morning with no way to get to the pier, let alone visit a park.  It was a rather stressful morning as we all guarded our suitcases out on the sidewalk.  Barcelona has a very bad reputation for pickpockets and other thieving individuals.  :(  Eventually, another bus was sent, but we only had time to go directly to the pier.

 

Today was another day at sea and rather uneventful.  This will be the third night in a row that we will be setting our clocks back an hour before retiring.  Doing an hour a night is sure a lot better than zipping through seven time zones in one night like we did on the airplane to get to Barcelona!

 

Each evening we also receive a pamphlet on the happenings for the next day of the cruise, including the weather forecast.  Can you believe that each of the last nine evenings we have been told that it will be sunny with calm winds for our travel.  That includes the two days of 50mph winds that we had and this evening which is beginning to rock and roll a bit!  Whoever writes that forecast needs to look out the window.  :)

 

Thanks for stopping by….talk to you later,  Judy