Barcelona: A Roll Down the Las Ramblas and a Quick Visit to Gaudi's Casa Botlló

Barcelona Skyline

Barcelona:  A Roll Down the Las Ramblas and a Quick Visit to Gaudi's Casa Botlló

The Emerald Princess docked in Barcelona, Spain about 11am this morning.  Mary Alice started her day with a hair appointment at the ship's salon, Lotus Spa.  She looks fabulous.  She says her hair never looked better. 

We returned to the room and started packing for the trip home.  We then decided to go into Barcelona for the afternoon, down the Las Ramblas (1km) pedestrian mall and I wanted to see  Gaudi's Casa Botlló.  We bought two shuttle bus tickets and headed off to Barcelona's World Trade Center.  From there I began pushing Mary Alice's wheelchair across the streets, down the sidewalks, past Columbus pointing to the New World and arriving at the Las Ramblas.

Las Ramblas

Right away we ran across a couple of human statues, people dressed up and representing someone or some fiction character.  We watched "Columbus" entertain three kids as they mimicked him.  Las Ramblas was packed with tourists and locals as they strolled the famous boulevard. 

We basically made our way north up the Las Ramblas and found a restaurant, La Poma, where I parked Mary Alice and ordered her a Sangria.  From there I continued on to the Gaudi house heading north down the Passage de Garcia about 6 blocks and found what I was looking for.

Casa Botlló is the strangest yet most beautiful buildings I have ever seen.  The hardest part about this little side journey was the wait to get a ticket and go inside. The entry fee was 21.50 E but I convinced the sales person I was entitled to a senior discount so I saved 5 Euros!  The most unusual part of the home is the roof, with what appears to be a huge dragon, also the most unusual chimney covers. 

Gaudi designed and built another apartment building down the street, La Pedrera.  It was the chimney caps that Lucas used as a design for the Star Wars troopers.

After photos I decided to get back to Mary Alice.  Instead of walking the six blocks back, (and they are long blocks) I took a chance on a Barcelona bus and rode back almost to the restaurant. 

Gaudi's other building:  La Pedrera

I found Mary Alice (who had sipped the Sangria for almost 2 hours) worried about me.  This is because I had the passports, ship's passenger cards, money, credit cards, etc. 

From there we got into the flow of people on Las Ramblas headed south this time and made our way back to the shuttle bus pickup point.  We bid our farewell to Barcelona tomorrow morning and arrive in Houston same day about 6pm.  All in all it's been a great cruise.  See ya! Thanks for checking out our blog. We love sharing with you.

A Las Ramblas Mime & Mary Alice

The Journey Home:  Saturday

Our journey home began at 5am Barcelona time.  Our checked luggage had been picked up by the ship's crew the night before and would be waiting for us after we walked off Sat morning.  We got off the ship about 7:30 with Mary Alice being assisted by a personal assistant with a wheelchair.  We found our bags, and found our bus to the airport. 

We arrived at the airport and got checked for the flight to Newark, NJ on United.  We boarded the big Boeing 787 and got comfortable for the flight home.  I normally can't sleep on these flights and prefer to watch movies, which is what I did.  We arrived in Newark and Mary Alice was met by a personal assistant with a wheel chair.  She absolutely could not walk the distances from our arrival point to the United gate for the flight to IAH.  We arrived in Houston with another personal assistant waiting for Mary Alice.  He carted us to the baggage claim area.  All four of our checked luggage arrived. (That's always good!) We found our van driver who loaded our bags and we made it home, both of us exhausted.

I feel very blessed to have the ability to travel like we do and for the Lord watching over us all the way.  We had a great cruise and great time together.  We'll go again, just not soon. Adios amigo.

Another Barcelona landmark

Huge statue of Columbus pointing to America (the New World)