Mitzi-César-Barcelona

Yes, it is true, Mitzi and César met once more, this time in Barcelona for another exciting, though horribly short, world adventure.

I left Denver, flew to Atlanta, had a 2 hour layover and then boarded the plane to fly directly to Barcelona. I was expecting a 7 hour flight, but was suprised to learn that it would be almost 9 hours! I sat next to a kind special education teacher from from Atlanta and although he slept most of the time I was only able to sleep a short time. I arrived on time and it took almost an hour to get my luggage and at that time César was supposed to be arriving in the same terminal. If he would have had luggage he would have appeared right where I was, but I knew he was traveling without any. I was expecting a great reunion, but time passed and he never appeared! I was thinking he was not going to be joining me and it was no surprise that the longer I waited, the sadder I got. Finally I figured out how to use my cell phone and called him and he told me he was out of the baggage area and by a Relay store, so I immediately exited the baggage area and went to the store and no César. I was accompanied by the Princess representative because it was time for us to board the shuttle to the hotel. We couldn't find each other so he told me to put my hand in the air. So there I stood, waving my hand in the air, along with the Princess rep waving her Princess sign in the air and he said he couldn't see us, so we kept waving. I still laugh at the thought of what we must have looked like to everyone! (Reminiscent of door 18 in Paris)Finally he found a sign and he was in the wrong terminal at the furtherest point away from us, in front of a different Relay store!!! So his trek to where I was continued and the shuttle left without us. There were a few more lost moments and finally, probably an hour later, we met on the sidewalk, near the taxi stand!

Not the grand welcoming reunion I had anticipated! But he was in Barcelona and we were finally together!! He had quite the story of his journey and may have just been more exhausted than I was! But that is another story. We were together and the wonderful Princess rep called a taxi for us and we had a very nice taxi ride to our hotel, enjoying the time we had to be together, not with the big group. We arrived at the hotel, about 2 blocks from Catalanya Plaza, settled in and then headed out. We were both exhausted and enjoyed a short walk on Las Ramblas, watching all the people watching all the people! Such activity and what a fun place to be! So different from anywhere else I've been! We walked for a while and ate some fruit and pastry from the Bocadaro. We stopped at an outside table and ordered tapas from a busy restaurant. They were not very good and we decided we didn't like tapas!! We then returned to the hotel for a nice long nap! I think we could have both slept all night, but we had places to go and sights to see!! We showered, and headed out, our first stop, the magic fountain in the Plaza de Espana. What a beautiful, incredible experience!! We both loved the water and light show we witnessed, along with the hundreds of otherpeople there! What a sight, I highly recommend this stop, which only functions from 8-11PM!

After seeing most of the 1/2 hr. show we had a very hard time finding a taxi to get to our flamenco show and dinner which began at 10PM...when in Spain, live like the Spaniards!! Dinner was good, however it was all cold so it was hard to enjoy the dishes that should have been served warm. I had a sangria with dinner, it was good, but didn't come close to the Sangria César's father made for me in Portugal. And then came the flamenco show...I chose the club that was #1 on tripadvisor.com and was expecting something quite different than we saw! Flamenco appeared to be a combination of a very loud yelling sound with some very serious looking dancers that lasts for a very long time!! I am sure there had to be a story we didn't understand, but after 2 hours of the yelling and entertainment we were happy to return to our quiet room about 2AM! I wanted to go out but César insisted I was exhausted and we needed to sleep. I think I probably fell asleep midsentence saying I wasn't tired and we should have gone out and that was about 3AM. Guess I was exhausted!

We woke up and were still exhausted but it was our last day in Barcelona, already! We hadn't had a lot of luck with traditional Spanish food so we decided to have a continental room service breakfast before venturing out. We waited a while but quite a feast was finally delivered. There was fruit I'd never seen before, but thoroughly enjoyed it all, along with a wide variety of rolls and pastries. After finishing that we headed out to see Barcelona! We took a taxi to Sagrada Familia and enjoyed the tour of that famous landmark and then toured the city on a red line tour bus. What a beautiful city it is!! We had a late lunch at a small restaurant on Las Ramblas and I had paella and it was delicious!! We took our last walk down the famous street to return to the hotel and then collected our luggage. Having César take care of us was really nice, the taxi drivers and other service people didn't speak much English and his spanish was invaluable!! We took a taxi to his bus, where he would catch the bus to the airport and he made sure that the driver knew exactly where to take me to get the ship and we said another goodbye. It doesn't get easier because who knows when we will meet again. So we drove away and my heart was very sad...

Now I am on the ship, I've seen a wonderful spanish folklore show and am heading to dinner, alone. I will miss the company of my personal tour guide, but the excitement starts tomorrow morning early when we arrive in Marseilles, France. I will be taking a whole day tour of the Provence region, my first time there!

So Jenny, you are right, Barcelona rocks!!! And now my solitary adventure begins...