After 3 weeks in the UK and Ireland we fly out of Dublin on Ryan Air to Barcelona for a 7 night cruise in the Western Mediterranean. Our ship, the Liberty of the Seas (LotS) will depart at 6pm and we have the day to kill in Barcelona. As we leave the airport the first thing that hits you is the heat. It’s still early but already very warm. Mind you after the mist and drizzle of Scotland and Ireland anything over 20c would feel hot.
We catch the airport link bus which drops us at Place De Catalunya, a beautiful square in the center of the city. We wander and take it in the fountains and the atmosphere. It is still early and there are not many people about. It must be coffee time, we soon find a cafe with free wifi and relax to take it all in.
There is a market opening in an adjoining street and Pam is power browsing. She finds a couple of nice mementos, in particular a very unusual porcelain cat for my Mum, she loves cats. The earthenware bowls and dishes are colourful and very unusual, but we only have room for small bits and pieces.
We have a long lunch in little cafe down a narrow side street full of little cafés. The food is good the coffee even better. The proprietor is friendly and we have an ice cream as well. The sun is now high in the sky and shade becomes a valued item. The narrow lane ways are full of people walking and enjoying the shade. We decide to head for the ship, we would love to do some more exploring but with our bags it’s just too hard, so we put Barcelona on the bucket list and jump a cab to the port.
The boarding process is very efficient and we are soon unpacked and walking about getting to know LotS. We have cruised twice before and consider ourselves old hands. We love a cruise and find it a real break from packing and unpacking as we have been for the last 3 weeks.
