| We went to the photo shop then it was time to grab our usual chairs in the Martini Bar! Brian was on so Juanita tried his apple while I had the lemon sorbet. Alex was having her usual white wine. |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| It was back to our my chocolate. It's amazing how different bartenders mix the drinks and do the decoration differently but I liked the chocolate no matter who did it. Togi appeared for but we never had much chance for a photo with him. Meanwhile Peter was doing the eight. |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| We went to bed at 1am after another long day. The next morning was Barcelona. Juanita had a 9am start for her Barcelona & Montserrat with Lunch excursion while I had the only afternoon one, Barcelona & Picasso, at 2.30pm. So I went on deck for our 9am arrival. We would have company, which was another reason I was on deck. At last a hotbed of ships! Well it could have been better but an improvement on one or none anyway. Grand Celebration (formerly Carnival Celebration), Norwegian Gem and Voyager of the Seas were waiting for us. Quite a few people were out and about on deck but disappointingly our debut went unmarked by the port. |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| When I returned to the cabin, Juanita had already left. I decided to wait until all the excursions had gone before finally exploring the ship! I bumped into Frederick on my way down who asked where Juanita was so I told him. He was grateful for any little complaint made because it helped things run smoother. I made a mental note to let her know when she was back. There were a few passengers milling about but generally it was empty. |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| The Ensemble Lounge is fairly tucked away on Deck 5, and it you weren't going to a speciality restaurant, you could easily miss it. Off to the sides were Michael's Club, the piano bar, and Murano's. As I've already used photos of Michael's Club, there's just Murano's on this page. |
 |
 |
 |
| The remaining speciality restaurants were grouped together at the very end. I've already used photos of Silk Harvest so the following are the Tuscan Grille, the Italian and Blu, for Aqua Class guests only. I bumped into our waiter Mervyn en route and we had a little chat. |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Cafe al Bacio was quite a nice walk-through room, as was the Bistro on Five. You need light and airy rooms on ships, not those which are suffocating to squeeze in as many passengers as possible. Galleria Tastings was the bar next to the art gallery we kept meaning to go to. They did liquid nitrogen drinks we wanted to try. |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| I got back to the cabin in time for The Aegean Pearl arriving. Pam had told me I wouldn't see her from where I was and where she was going - WRONG!!!!! I also ordered lunch from room service and Niles pulled the table out, which was a first. The meal itself was classed as sun-dried chicken on the menu. Nowhere did it mention it had a pepper relish smeared across the top! While I have an allergy to them, people also don't like them and this RCCL obsession with putting them almost everywhere without listing it needs to be changed. |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Meanwhile as I was cleaning pepper off my food so I could at least eat something, Juanita was busy in another part of Spain up a mountain. There was a promised choir. The tour info on the TV said they didn't sing during July. It turned out they don't during August either. Now considering RCI have sailed roundtrip from Barcelona for some considerable time as well as called there, this is something they ought to know. The choir had been a major selling point for many, especially considering this excursion was expensive. If you complained upon return, they gave you a partial refund. If you left it until the next day, they didn't, saying you should have gone the day before, even though it was THEIR error. |
 |
 |
| My tour had to meet outside rather than the cinema or theatre so off I headed at 2pm to find the meeting point, since it started fifteen minutes later and all it said was the pier (why can't they say quay or dockside? A pier sticks out in the water). It was boiling in the gangway. As soon as you stepped into it from the cold ship, it was like you were about to be knocked off your feet. |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| It took ages to get outside and there were a crowd of people so I went to ask if they were the tour. Some were but the shuttle also dropped off there so it was a stupid place to wait. When the girl came along, she started letting people on the bus without a sticker. Only one had gone past though when it was pointed out to her. Several Americans didn't seem to understand the concept of queuing and began to push their way towards the bus. I was sat next to a woman originally from Crawley but now working in Saudi Arabia so that was interesting listening to her stories. The elderly Canadian lady with the bright red hair was also on this tour. |
 |
 |
 |
| Although we only saw the Ramblas from a distance, unlike Juanita's tour who had been allowed to step out of the bus briefly, we did slow down to allow photographing through the windows of some sights. Juanita told me her guide would say such and such was so and so but it was miles away so by the time they passed it they didn't realise that was what she'd referred to. |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Our first stop was the popular Sagrada Familia Cathedral, which was an ongoing project of many hundreds of years, paid for by donations. It was still nowhere near finished. We weren't allowed inside and it was very crowded outside with various tours as well as general visitors. |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Then we drove to the Picasso Museum, passing a sister to the Gherkin in the financial district of London, as well as a monument similar to the Arc de Triomphe. |
 |
 |
 |