We slept well last night in our quiet cabin. The voyage has been really smooth so far, of course, we are still tied up at the dock!!
I was up about 6:00 AM, ahead of the alarm we had set for 6:30 AM. I wanted to be sure I was dressed and ready for the room service order if it was delivered early.
Promptly at 6:45 AM, room service arrived and rang our doorbell, which I did not hear. Stephanie called out from the bathroom that the doorbell had rung, so I went to the door and let the waiter with the room service order come in and take it over to our small table. We have got to get used to the buzzing sound of the doorbell.
It was a lot of food. We had ordered what we thought was one plate of meats and cheeses, but two were delivered, as well as juices, coffee and some rolls. We also had ordered a side of crispy bacon, but it was not that crisp.
Everything was good, and we were quite full.
We loaded up our gear in our backpacks as well as our two audio guide devices that were on the desk in our room. We had not remembered to ask our room steward Irene about headphones for the audio devices, there were not any with the devices or on the desk by them. We needed to meet our tour off the ship and outside of the terminal at 7:40 AM, so we headed out of the cabin about 7:25 AM.
We thought the headphones might be issued by the tour guide on the bus, but were planning to ask the tour guide when we go to the bus to make sure we had them before the bus departed. We met up with the one of the tour coordinators and were directed to Bus #4. We did not even think to ask the coordinator about the headphones. We arrived at Bus #4 and met our tour guide Gina. She was checking to make sure everyone had their audio device and that prompted us to remember to ask about the headphones. She said she would get us the headphones and bring them to us after we were on the bus.
There were two older couples trying to get onto our bus, and both of the ladies had difficulty walking, one was actually in a wheelchair. We were a little disappointed they were both getting on our bus. This was described as a walking tour and we just did not see how they could walk that much. It actually took several minutes for both of them to board the bus in front of us.
Riding On Our Tour Bus
Since there were not many people on our bus yet, we headed to the first row of seats past the back door, hoping to be able to see better with the extra space in front of us for the exit door. Plus, we hoped we could get off and onto the bus at the stops via the rear door without being behind the two ladies who had such difficulty getting on and off of the bus, who had been seated in the front of the bus.
In the end, the bus was mostly empty, there were only going to be 15 people on the large bus on our tour. We must have been the last bus for our time slot at 7:45 AM, which was the second time slot of the four slots for this tour today. Gina brought us our headphones and we all got a lesson on using the audio guide, and getting it set to the channel of her microphone so we could listen to her information as we walked outside of the bus later on in the tour.
We left on time and headed out into town. We rode down an area in the older part of Barcelona, which was constructed for the World’s Fair in 1888. We had not seen this area before on our previous visits to Barcelona. We rode by some of the houses built and designed by Gaudi before finally arriving at the Sagrada Familia. We had not known until the tour started that we were going there, it was not listed in the detailed description for the tour. The sun had finally come out, it had been mostly dark so far on the tour since the tour had started earlier than the sunrise, or at least the time the sun was above the height of the surrounding buildings.
Sunny Sagrada Familia
We parked several blocks away at a bus stop only for long enough for everyone top get off the bus to walk to the Sagrada Familia. No one was allowed to remain on the bus, so one of the ladies that had difficulty walking was going to have to wait at a nearby cafe with her husband while everyone else walked to the Sagrada Familia for the tour.
The lady in the wheelchair was going with us, and her husband just pushed her in her wheelchair, which was fine, they did not impede anyone on any part of the tour.
Sagrada Familia
The tour of Sagrada Familia was only a walk around the outside as our tour guide Gina told us about some of the decorative façade. It took about 25 minutes for the tour, which was informative, and then were were guided to a store across the street where we could use the restrooms.
We needed to find something inexpensive to purchase and hope they would be able to give us change for our Euro 50.00 bill. We needed smaller bills in anticipation of needing to tip the guide and driver at the end of the tour.
Stephanie found a nice ceramic bowl/candle holder that we liked and that was our purchase for this trip to remember being here in Barcelona. More importantly, we got smaller change for our Euro 50.00 bill. We took advantage of the available restrooms and then it was time to get back into our tour group and walk back to the bus.
Barcelona Cathedral
From here, we walked back to the area where the bus had dropped us off and reboarded. It was about a 15 minute bus ride to our next stop in the old Gothic area of Barcelona. We got off of the bus and walked for about 10 minutes into that part of the city. We saw the old Palace and the building that once housed the Spanish Inquisition. We also saw what had been the tallest buildings in the city for that period of time . It had been used to keep a lookout toward the sea for invaders.
We then arrived at the Barcelona Cathedral, and our guide told us some of the history of that church. This was a poplar part of town and in the square in front to of the church was a large Christmas market. We had about 20 minutes of free time and we walked around the market looking at all of the items for sale.
Christmas Market Near The Barcelona Cathedral
They were also selling a lot of fresh cut Christmas trees at some of the stands and it was interesting to see the types of real trees for sale. Most of them were fairly small in size as compared to what we would normally see at home, but there were some larger trees for sale too. We could not tell the cost, there were no price tags on any of the trees, I guess you find out the price when you are trying to purchase one.
The market was really crowded, so we decided that putting on our masks might be a good idea. There were a lot of people coughing and sneezing as we walked through the market, so we did not want to take any chances.
Christmas Market
The tour group reassembled at the designated time in front of the Basilica and we walked back to the bus and boarded for our ride back to the ship. The tour was nice and it was good that our group was small. We thanked our driver and guide and gave them the Viking recommended tip amounts and headed back onto the ship.
We ate some lunch at the World Cafe once we were back aboard, and then sat on the stern of the ship to enjoy the sunshine until the ship was ready to depart. At about 12:30 PM the ship let loose the dock lines from the pier and we were underway. It was a nice sunny and fairly calm day, so the seas were smooth as we headed out of the port.
We just enjoyed the sunshine until the wind on deck became too strong as we gained speed and it got too cool to be outside.
Enjoying The Sunshine Waiting For Departure
We headed up to the Explorer’s lounge in the bow of the ship and enjoyed the peaceful view of the ocean. There is a coupe onboard from the UK that are whale and dolphin spotters hired by Viking for this crossing, there job is to try and spot the various marine species out in the ocean and let everyone know so we can also try and see them. They also gave us some history and background information on the types of sea life we may see during the cruise.
Leaving Barcelona
Eventually we made it up to dinner in the World Cafe buffet and then spent time at the bar there, the only one with some remaining Seagram’s VO on the ship. We then headed to a bar area called Torshavn which is one of the bars open past 8:00 PM on the ship.
This is also the only bar on the ship that serves Buffalo Trace Bourbon. There was live music there and we sat at the bar and met a couple from Florida who had also been on the ship from the previous cruise. The only issue here was that it was very loud with the live music, and very difficult to have any type of conversation without yelling.
At about 10:30 PM we called it a night and headed back to our cabin. It had been a good day and it was nice to finally be cruising again.