OFF AND CRUISING

January 12

To be sure we are were on time for our cruise we booked our flight to Barcelona, a day early. With the snow in Great Britain and the floods in Germany it was making us a little uneasy. As it turns out there were no problems. We left Calgary about 1 hour late on Lufthansa Air due to added security in Frankfurt. About an hour into our flight it started to get dark as we were on a great circle route to Frankfurt. It was interesting to see the Northern Lights from the air. They lasted about for quite a long period of time. We were over Greenland when the switch was turned off. Our flight took us over the Hudson Bay, Greenland, Iceland, North Sea just east of Scotland and England and into Frankfurt. After landing and docking at terminal 1 wing A, they put us on a bus and transported us to the B wing to clear thru customs. This was very quick not like going into the USA. We then had to walk back to the A wing ( a very long walk) to catch our flight to Barcelona. This flight was also delay (1.5 hrs) due to a fight controllers strike in Paris.

We arrived in Barcelona to sunny skys and warm temperatures. We checked into our hotel Silken Rambalas and headed out to the streets to walk for about 2 hours. Carrier Rambalas is one of the main streets in the center of Barcelona and very much a tourist area. Many of the historic sights are within walking distance of our hotel. We finished the evening with a quick bite to eat at MacDonalds ( had too much food on the airplane). Off to bed for a early night as it had been a long day.

January 14

Thursday had us up moving by about 9 and off down Ramblas to find a breakfast. We followed that with another walk down to the water front area. The most interesting sight on this walk was the Mirador Calom (Statue of Columbus). With tired feed we headed back to the hotel for a rest that lasted till 1:30 pm. Off we went again this time to the Gothic Quarter which is the core of the Medieval city which was bounded by walls until the middle of the XIX century. Through the mas of old streets we came to the Cathedral (which we started out to find) the origins of which date back to the XIII century. The district is the historical and political center of Barcelona. By 4:30 our feet were now very sore, so back to the hotel and a cool one to cool us down. The day was cloudy with a few showers but we still worked up a sweat.

January 15

Today was uneventful, we got up late, had breakfast then took a cab to the ship. Our rooms were not ready till late afternoon as NCL is very concerned about virus's about the ship. All rooms are sanitized prior to new occupants. All we had to do was sit around and eat and people watch.



January 16



Today will be spent relaxing as we have a day of cruising on our way to Casablanca, Morocco . The sun is shinning and the temperature is about 15 degrees when we got up.