Day 2 of our European Adventure began around 9 am after we had a late night the previous night.
Last night we ate dinner at a local restaurant near the Pablo Sec subway station, to the west of our hotel which was located on the l’Hospital road, off La Rambla in the main heart of Barcelona. We met with four other pairs of people who all met via Cruise Critic (online) although the organizer of the dinner couldn’t make it as she had a cold 
It was great to spend time with more seasoned cruise folk and exchange great stories over a drink and nice food.
We ate a nice Spanish meal (I had squid and then grilled lamb for dinner) complete with locally produced red and white wines. We caught the Metro back to our hotel afterwards in lieu of walking back in the cold wind!
Before we get into today’s activities, here’s a HDR tone mapped photo I took yesterday of Gaudi’s famous (unfinished) Segrada Familia.
| Segrada Familia in B & W |
This morning we ate a nice breakfast at the hotel before venturing up to Catalunya Square to the Inglais department store to purchase some power adapters for our batteries (laptop/camera). We then walked south to the Catedral of Barcelona which we had walked past previously (on our last trip) but never entered. This time we walked inside and ventured around – it is quite different from many we’d previously seen with an exposed courtyard and geese!
| Barcelona Cathedral | Inside the Cathedral |
After, we walked south some more, strolling through the side streets and looking into shop windows. We found many different retailers selling al kinds of wares from swords to halal meat! We ended up at Place Real and later back onto La Rambla on our return to the hotel to check out.
We organised a taxi and checked out. The hotel was very convenient and well maintained, and our stay (while brief) was quite satisfactory. The taxi dropped us off at the terminal, and we lined up for an hour to check in. Once on board, we made our way to our stateroom to drop off our hand luggage and then started walking the ship to familiarize ourselves with the layout.
Our first stop was the tour desk to cancel our first shore tour (in the wake of our other cancelled tour). That didn’t go down well, but we’re waiting to hear what is going to happen about that fiasco. We ran into a number of couples from the previous dinner and had some good long conversations.
At 4:45 pm we went to muster for the evacuation drill, and later walked up to the 12th deck with a nice couple we met from Florida as the ship left the dock. We returned to the cabin at 6:30 pm to unpack and unwind.
Tomorrow we are at sea, so I will walk the ship and take lots of photos for you to see!
| Geese keeping guard | Our Stateroom | The Moon Lighting the Mediterranean |
Here’s a HDR tone mapped neighbourhood shot from downtown Barcelona somewhere on a side street somewhere between the Catherdral and La Rambla
| Barcelona side street |