What a great choice of hotel. It is situated central, only a ten minute taxi ride to Sagrada Familia Cathedral, designed by world renowned designer and architect Antoni Gaudi.

We would spend three days in this city by the Mediterranean Sea.
Day 1
Our room was on the second floor, great hotel, very modern and stylish. Reminded Phil and me of our hotel in Rome. Our suite was lovely, great king size bed, beautifully appointed bathroom with easy walk-in shower. Our view from three windows looked down on the street below the entrance. Elegant shutters with electronic blinds ensured privacy and a great nights sleep.

After unpacking we took a taxi to the Cathedral to check out the logistics of getting into the Cathedral. It was just after lunch and already there were thousands of tourists all around the precinct, our task looked daunting. We just hoped our actual ticketed visit would be a lot easier than appeared today.
Evening of Day 1 was our booked Cunard excursion.
Day 2
We had a lovely breakfast on tables set on the terrace lined with olives trees to provide shade.
We had one objective today to track down a DHL store and send back ‘excess’ from our bulging cases. Mainly beauty products I had bought on board but also Christmas decorations, reminders of each place we visited, and all the ’after five’ clothing we needed for Gala Nights on board plus oddities.

Having sorted through our belongings and packed them in two cases, it took two taxi rides before we found the store that did transport to Australia. The catch, excluded items, liquor and cosmetics.. We had both.
So we selected the largest size carton we considered appropriate and the store owner viewed all items giving his approval (or otherwise) before they could be packed in the box.
We returned to the hotel with the liquor and cosmetics, repackaged into one full side of my carry-on, not ideal but not a total pointless undertaking.
We did free ourselves of a good deal of clothing and all the little Christmas baubles so our mission was accomplished, sort of!! Our consignment is due home 26/Sept, same day we arrive home!

For dinner we dined in-house, again on the terrace, from a selective menu and very good, wine, not as good as on our tapas excursion but another great Spanish wine.

Day 3
After breakfast we had a few hours before we headed to the Cathedral so I took advantage and with my head in the right space completed two blogs and started this one!

VISIT TO SAGRADA FAMILIA CATHEDRAL
We headed to the Cathedral arrived much earlier than our booked entry time of 11.45am. The taxi dropped us across the road from the entrance point and we cleared security without any hassles or queueing. Within ten minutes we were inside the magnificent structure.

My first impression was that I didn’t get the holy presence feeling. I shared that with Phil and he thought that because we were standing in this main central section with hundreds of people talking and walking, and only a strap separating those wishing to sit in quietness and pray or meditate, just hasn’t been a place of prayer for long enough, perhaps he was right.

We did wander around and found a chapel, Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament, screened from view and with a security guard outside allowing only those who wished to pray entry. No cameras, no speaking was the requirement and here we found what the main body, for me, lacked. I goggled Anglican Morning Prayer liturgy on my mobile and in silence we read together the service for Wednesday. It was just so refreshing and uplifting and we both knew this is what we had come here to find, the presence of our Lord.

We continued walking about in amazement at the structure, the windows, the side recesses housing furniture/articles for Sacrament. The furniture, candle holders, vestment cupboards, all designed by Gaudi were absolutely beautiful and inspiring.
(Footnote in the Cathedral: Liturgical Path.
For Gaudi, the liturgy was always very important. This is why his involvement in the Sagrada Familia wasn’t limited to its architecture. He also designed pieces of furniture and objects for preaching. All the works Gaudi conceived stand out for their unique shapes and the fact that they were designed to be used in religious ceremonies and to make both priests and parishioners more comfortable.)
We departed so happy that we have made the visit, a must if visiting Barcelona.

Ample taxis were ranked just opposite the Cathedral so we were back at the hotel in time to chose a local place for a late lunch. Again we had tapas (small plates of variety of foods to our liking), the traditional Spanish ham on crusty slices of breaad spread with tomato purée and fried calamari serviced the Spanish way with lemon.
Both just great and equally good was the glass of Sangria (very Spanish refreshing drink of red wine, fruit and served in jugs of ice), a simple but enjoyable lunch.

BACK IN TIME
Phillip is taking me out for dinner to a restaurant he booked and last visited in 1975 on his first trip to Barcelona!! Restaurant he has never forgotten, called Los Caracoles, I am so looking forward to this.
The visit was a taxi ride of 20 mins and a walk of about five, and unassuming frontage that we could easily have walked past except it caught Phil’s eye. Entering we followed our host through the kitchen (how that hasn’t changed in 50 years under OHS regulations is a mystery), open hot tops, cooks already in frantic mode not raising the heads from their tasks, up several stairs to our reserved table. Our waiter was from Uruguay, Matteo, welcomed us warmly. The place was almost full in our section but still we received menus and water within a minute of sitting.

We had already mentally selected our meals, Phillip remembered being served a plate with so many caracoles (escargot) that we both wanted that as our entree. He remembered that you didn’t order by the number but rather ‘a plate of caracoles’! Of course the restaurant served paella so that would be our main course. The decor was exactly as Phil had remembered, it appeared nothing had changed in the almost fifty years since his last visit.

Engraved into the timber work was a snail on the end of the balistrade on each set of stairs leading to other levels of dining. The napkins and tablecloths had snail embroidered, the bread was baked in the shape of a snail. The tiles that adorned the walls were authentic Spanish tiles, it was delightful and special because it hadn’t been modernised.

The food was just wonderful. The caracoles were served in a braise, not the French style of garlic butter. It had a distinct flavour of beef/kidney or perhaps oxtail, wonderful rich flavour and the caracoles, extracted from their shells with a tooth pick provided, were a great size. The dish was so flavoursome, we had 20+ on our plate, served with the bread for mopping up the delicious gravy.

We had selected a seafood paella and it followed shortly after. The waiter presented it in a large pan (for presentation) then served it up on plates for us. Wonderful, amazing flavour and so Spanish. The wine we ordered was a Rioja, that too was amazing. The restaurant was full by the time we were leaving and many were waiting in the bar for tables. Seems this was a popular restaurant, even today.

We actually didn’t want the evening to end, Phil was so pleased I had enjoyed it and the passing of the years hadn‘t faded his memory of it. We walked a short distance to the main square and easily picked up a taxi back to our hotel.

Tomorrow we were leaving for Paris by fast train (7 hr trip) and our stay in Barcelona was at an end but our memories of this exciting city will remain for many years. We loved it.
Barcelona Temps: Beautiful days 22?-24?