14th October 2009- Barcelona, Spain
During the early morning hours we transited the remaining distance of the Gulf of Lions and continued to track towards the southwest, shortly before sunrise we turned north and entered the Traffic Separation Scheme for Barcelona; this scheme separates the inbound and outbound traffic to the busy port. With our Pilot onboard, the ship then slowly navigated through the breakwater and turned to starboard and headed towards the cruise terminal. From derarture Livorno to our early morning arrival in Barcelona, Ruby Princess steamed 544 nautical miles.
We hadn't signed up for any excursions, having planned to be a bit tired from the Marseille excursions, which didn't happen. Soooo... we just bought shuttle tickets for a bus into town.
Busy place! Some gorgeous buildings though. Without a guide, it's hard to know the nature of some of the buildings. Puts me in mind of visiting a museum with Dad. He would stand in a doorway, or just inside, and turn his head, scanning the exhibits. I said something to the effect that a person ought to read the material to know what he/she was looking at. "I can see what I'm looking at," came the reply. Well, I could see what I was looking at, architecture-wise, but still felt that I was missing something. I guess if it bothered me I could research...doesn't bother me that much. Anyway, I liked this building with its griffons and the tribute to Christopher Columbus (read the base of the tribute).
I later used the griffon as the subject of a pastel class effort.
So far, my adventures in Europe have taught me that balconies and shutters are everywhere in the older sections of town.
To be continued.....
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