20 Feb

Day 15 – Disembark and Barcelona

 

After a crazy long cruise, they were finally making us get off the ship today. 

We were up at 7 today and went upstairs for breakfast in Topsiders around 8. 

We walked by a family trying to get into their main dining room for breakfast and were very unhappy when they were told it was too late.  “But no one said we couldn’t come late!”

Oops.

Ally wasn’t ready for pictures yet –

After breakfast, we walked off and said goodbye to the Magic as we know her. Goodbye Magic! We’d booked a shuttle to our hotel today to avoid long taxi lines, although they didn’t look bad from what we saw.

Our hotel was close, right on Las Ramblas, the beautiful walking area near the port. We checked in and left all of our bags with the bellman. Everyone sat for a moment:

We had a plan today! The first stop was Camp Nou, the home of FC Barcelona. Stephen and his family are all big soccer fans. Stephen grew up playing soccer and is a blogger for the fan site of DC United, our (formerly) local team. There was no way Chase and Stephen were going to Barcelona without a stop at Camp Nou.

My parents were more just there for social reasons.

We had already bought the tickets, we just needed to find where to print them! There are little printing stations all over, and it didn’t take too long to locate one. Figuring out how to use it took longer! But we did and we were off to the subway. On Las Ramblas:

Camp Nou was about a 15 minute walk from the subway.

Here we are!

The store was GI-normous. I think Chase heard a chorus of angels singing when he walked in.

After a little shopping we went into the stadium:

I decided it was a tribute to all of FC Barcelona, but mostly Lionel Messi.

Obama had a jersey!

Unfortunately they were setting up for a concert and we couldn’t walk onto the pitch, but we could sit in the seats:

Back inside:

Here’s the visiting team’s locker room:

Hot tub!

Press room:

There’s the pitch! So close and yet so far:

Up in the press box!

Back inside again:

Looking back at the store:

After our tour we were starving! We ate at the little café next to the stadium.

The tour was great by the way. One of the highlights of the trip for Stephen and Chase.

Afterwards we walked back to the metro stop. Our next destination was La Sagrada Familia. I’d been before but we didn’t go inside last time. This time, we were going in!

We bypassed a very long line because we had purchased our tickets already. Buy your tickets online before you go!

Inside. W.O.W.

The ceiling:

We had a great app (free!) that we used inside. It was like having our own tour:

The outside was just as amazing:

After we finished, we took the metro back to the hotel.

We decided to meet in two hours for dinner.

I spent the two hours looking for a hotel room in London for the next night. Yes. You read that right. We were going to London the next day and had no hotel yet. Oops.

I still couldn’t decide on one, so that didn’t really work. Everyone was waiting in the lobby. We took a poll to see where we should eat dinner. Most of us didn’t care. 3 people had an opinion and guess what it was? Kentucky Fried Chicken. Say what?

This one was not my fault people.

After dinner we said goodbye to the in-laws who were catching a very early shuttle to the airport with Stephen, and walked La Ramblas.

It’s Casa Joan! Mom’s name is Joan! Get it?

The name of this hotel cracked me up:

We browsed in the farmers market for a while.

Giant Chuppa Chupps for the win!!

We stopped at Nike and stopped in our hotel for a few minutes. Stephen decided to stay since he was getting up in just a few hours and we said goodnight to him and left.

Here’s the ceiling in our hotel:

Tonight we were going to the Magic Fountains.

There was a series of escalators to take us to the top:

The fountains were beautiful:

There was quite a crowd:

When we got back to the hotel, Stephen was sound asleep and there was a big soccer game on. So Chase went to the lobby and watched soccer with a bunch of rowdy locals. That’s immersing yourself in the culture there!

I waited up to make sure he came back safely and finally went to bed! London tomorrow! Hotel or no!

 

Our 19-Day Mediterranean Adventure – Greece, Turkey and the Search for Free Wifi

Day 0 – Crazy Days Before Departure! 
Day 1 – On Our Way! 
Day 2 – London Layover 
Day 3 – Embarkation!  
Day 4 – The Beauty That is Monaco 
Day 5 – La Spezia aka the Road to Pisa or Florence 
Day 6 – Rome Baby!
Day 7 – Sea Day Fun! 
Day 8 – Introducing The Pneumonia 
Day 9 – Athens and the Inside of the Hospital Onboard!
Day 10 – Turkey 
Day 11 – Mykonos and the Start of a Countdown to Get Back to Mykonos 
Day 12 – Sea Day and Palo Dinner 
Day 13 – Segways in Malta! 
Day 14 – Last Day Onboard 
Day 15 – Disembark and Barcelona 
Day 16 – Travel to London
Day 17 – London Baby! 
Day 18 – Harry Potter Heaven