March 18, 2010. One year later

One year ago, David and I arrived in Barcelona for our 25-day European honeymoon.  We actually flew out of Memphis on March 17th but the multiple flights and were pretty uneventful so there's not too much worth mentioning.  Only thing that was funny was that there were 2 old ladies sitting behind us on our transatlantic flight from NYC to Barcelona who we ended up befriending (and the 4 of us actually got in trouble for being too loud on the plane because others were "trying to sleep".  Who knew they could force you to be quiet just bc a couple of people wanted to take a nap.  But I digress.)  They must've been in their mid to late-60's and from Virginia.  They were meeting a group of their friends for a cruise out of Barcelona...the same cruise we were going to be on!  Small world.

Anyways, we arrived in Barcelona on March 18th.  Our cruise didn't leave out until Friday, March 19th but we sure weren't going to risk missing that boat so we flew in a day early.

We checked into our hotel, took a nap and then started our sightseeing of Barcelona.  We hit the highlights that day but knew we were going to be back to Barcelona for a day between the 2 cruises we were on. (We took a 21-day cruise but it was actually a 12-day plus a 9-day so between the 2, we picked up and dropped people off.)

First off, we quickly realized we looked so "American."  We both had on khakis and tennis shoes.  The locals do NOT wear khakis nor does anyone wear tennis shoes.  Their wardrobes were not chosen for comfort.  They all looked incredibly pretentious in their tight, dark jeans and black boots.  Everyone was dressed in black from head to toe and here we were in our bright white tennis shoes and t-shirts.  Oh well.

We immediately headed to the Underground Metro station to attempt to tackle that transportation system.  It's actually a fairly simple way to get around...assuming you know Spanish.  It's incredible how quickly my 4 semesters of Spanish classes and David's amazingly large Spanish vocabulary came back to us :)

Our first stop was La Sagrada Familia, an enormous church in the heart of Barcelona.  Construction began on this church in 1882 and it is STILL not finished.  They expect it to be completed in like 2026.  The detail on the exterior of this building is just amazing.  It is a must-see for anyone visiting Europe.

This was the view from the top of the church.

 

We took a bus tour of the city which showed some of the incredible architecture.  These are a few Gaudi buildings that stick out like a sore thumb among the other more modern-day stores. (Gaudi started the construction of La Sagrada Familia but obviously died before construction was completed.)

The first night we were there, we walked up and down Las Ramblas (Barcelona's most famous street) attempting to find some authentic Spanish food.  We ended up eating at a little place near our hotel and it was hilariously European.  Our dinner was basically a meat and cheese tray.

We must've walked 20 miles in the day and a half we had to sightsee in Barcelona.  Our feet hurt and we were exceptionally tired.  But we pushed ourselves to the limit because we knew this was the beginning of a once-in-a-lifetime trip for us and we weren't going to let a few blisters stop us from seeing as much as we could.

Next stop...the Norwegian Jade.