Day One: Tampa to Philly to Madrid to Barcelona...

Despite the long plane rides, we had short stops in between and arrived in Barcelona surprisingly refreshed. I am an Ambien girl due to my sleep problems...all age related I am sure so took one at take off in Philly and slept for six hours straight.
Here is the aerial view of Barcelona as we flew in.




Jo had booked us at a darling 'boutique' hotel right on La Rambla in the center of town. This is a boulevard that runs between two streets through most of Barcelona and this is the view from our balcony on to the boulevard which is lined with small outdoor dining venues.

E and I walked around while we waited for Bill and Jo to get up from their nap. And then we all shared a glass of wine, toasting to the days ahead. We ate at one of these little places too for dinner after walking down to the market...I think E was going through grocery shopping with drawl. It had been 3 days since he had last shopped you know...lol. Poor guy, he was like a kid in a candy store without a penny to his name. He could look at all the great meats, cheeses and veggies but could not buy a single item...none of these were allowed on the ship!





We all retired fairly early so we would be rested for Day Two of our adventure. We had 3/4 of a day yet to explore Barcelona with Bill and Jo as our guides and then on to the cruise boat. I love love love Barcelona and all the windy streets in the Gothic Quarter and made my first purchase of the trip at a tiny dress shop there.

More tomorrow and, while the trip was simply amazing, it is good to be home! I will pick five only of my favorite pics of each place we visited so as not to turn this into a boring slide show by a dottie auntie if you know what I mean.