Port 63 Barcelona, Spain

by Ed · May 6, 2022

Buenos dias!

We arrived in Spain on May 1st, 2022!

Before I get started, Barcelona (properly pronounced bar-theh-lo-nuh) is the end of a segment. We lose some passengers and gain some on May 2nd. I believe we are now at 255 passengers and 410-ish crew = 0.62 p/c! Quite the percentage, eh? We’re so spoiled! We’ll never see this level in any future cruise!

Here is the itinerary for this next segment, Barcelona to Copenhagen.

We had partly cloudy skies with a promise of rain showers later in the day.

This is an interesting port! Four ships were already in ahead of us, and three had to go through this drawbridge to get to their berths!

Our berth is ahead! Really close to town again! Our sister ship, the Oceania Nautica, is one of the four already in. That’s her on the far right with her stern toward us.

In the cruise terminal I saw this neat sign!

I forgot to mention that we didn’t book any excursions in Barcelona! We’ve been here before and didn’t want to spend hours on a bus going somewhere. This is also and overnight port, so we have two pretty full days to enjoy here!

Walking out toward town, this soaring sculpture takes up almost the entire plaza with its footprint!

This stunning building is in our path! This is the Tax Agency (Agency Tributaria)!

This monument to Christopher Columbus is at the center of the traffic circle leading to La Rambla, the major road for shopping and strolling!

La Rambla has a huge median filled with vendor huts and lots of room to walk! Traffic flows on either side, and shops line the streets as well!

You may recall there was a terrorist attack on this road a few years ago – in 2017 a man drove a truck right through the middle of here, killing 24 and injuring an other 152 people.

This statue is of Frederich Soler. He was a poet and playwright, supporting Catalan theater.

Looking toward the Gothic Quarter that La Rambla borders, it is easy to see the rise in elevation toward the east.

We found this amusing umbrella factory! What you don’t see well in this angle is…

…the dragon that is on the corner! Not me. The dragon!

We find this beautiful church, the Church of Betlem (Iglesia de Betlem).

The interior is equally beautiful, light and inspiring!

There is actually a service that started shortly after our arrival. The yellow screen on the lower right displays the lyrics to the hymns so everyone can sing along!

Leaving the church we walk along its side and see the green roofs and then the interesting gargoyles. These aren’t classic gargoyles, rather they are spouts with heads underneath! Gargoyles are among Joy’s favorite finds!

Then we hear a clamor and bullhorns and chanting! Coming up the street is a demonstration! We learn this is a group wanting a communist government to take over!

After the demonstration passes we continue on to find this immense plaza! This is the central square, Placa de Catalunya! There are statues surrounding this plaza, too numerous to try to capture here, although I tried!

This intriguing building is visible from the Placa de Catalunya, and is just to the north off of the Passieg de Gracia side.

This funny building has eyeballs sticking three to five feet out from the walls! Hundreds of them!

Then we spy this little gem in the distance! We will get closer on day 1, but I will save those pictures for later when we actually go inside (day 2)!

I am thankful for all of the Barcelona business who express their support of Ukraine!

Leaving the mystery church above to head back to the ship on day 1 we found this bizarre sculpture! It is the Monument als Castellers. It took over part of a playground area! Man, if I were a kid with this in my backyard I would absolutely be trying to climb to the top! I might not be alive today, but I would have tried!

This is the Placa del Duc du Medinaceli. Apparently Duke Luis de la Cerda y de la Vega, the Duke of Medinaceli, gave away this land to the Franciscans and is honored in this monument.

The Maritime Museum is very close to the pier. We didn’t go in, but from outside it appears to have full-size boats in its collection! The one we see here is what I consider to be a catboat – a small lateen-rigged sailboat. Better than most museums with just models of ships! Take a look if you get to Barcelona and have a few free hours!

OK, any guess what this art is? I wish they would have plaques for all of the art standing in plazas… I like this, don’t get me wrong!

We saw many buildings like this! This is not paint. This is not sculpture. This is relief work that is fabulous and painstaking work on building facades this large! Beautiful!

Look at the detail in these works! I am very impressed by them!

OK, back to something I better comprehend. This is the church of Saint Just.

Another lovely interior! Dark and heavy on the bottom, while light above! A little confining for me. But it certainly pushes the eye to the altar. This place was interesting because the pews stopped and single chairs occupied the front. I’m not sure I understand why after decades of pews this is something an ancient church had?

OK, time to resolve the teaser! This is the cathedral in the Gothic Quarter, the Cathedral de Barthelona, and is dedicated to Eulalia of Barcelona, a martyr. This is a 13th century cathedral!

The main entrance detail is FABULOUS! Yes, I intended all caps there!

Now we swith to day 2 photos – less blue sky. Even the back side of the cathedral is WOW! All of the gargoyles are different animals! Even a unicorn (seen to the right) and an elephant (hidden in this shot)!

Back to the main entrance, the statues, the monks ascending the arches, the gargoyles…I am in awe at the artistry that went into this! God bless the artisans whose hard work has endured for centuries! Let’s go inside…

This is absolutely beautiful! The overall sanctuary is immense, soaring and beautiful!

The Chior, in the center, is stunning in the artwork that goes into every seat! Each knight’s seat is a full representation of the knight’s home and heart!

Every knight represented in the choir has pledged their loyalty to the Order of the Fleece, as represented by the gold chain around their shield and the hanging sheep underneath.

In the crypt below the altar lies the body of Saint Eulalia who was martyred by the Romans. She was placed in a barrel with knives sticking into the sides, then rolled down a hill. This church is named after her.

From the roof we get a closer look at the main spire. The detail continues to awe me! Joy notices the angels appear to have bronze wings – it seems anything else would have broken by now. And the gargoyles at these heights continue to demonstrate the creativity of the designer!

The tower is also amazing! The detail of the ironworks that support the upper bell and weather vane are spectacular! You can even see the hammer mechanism that rings the bell, and the ladder in place for maintenance from this viewpoint!

And we also have an excellent view of La Sagrada Familia from here! This is as close as I will get to this fabulous Gaudi contribution to mankind this time, but maybe later I’ll be able to visit that magical cathedral again!

I am still astounded at the variety of architecture that created the wall of the city! This isn’t your ordinary walled city wall!

This statue of Ramon Berenguer III, Count of Barcelona in the 11th century AD (CE). Catalonia reached its summit of greatness under his rule. This statue brings to mind a rule we learned about equestrian statues. A statue with a horse with one leg raised means the rider was injured in battle but survived and died later of natural causes.

This beauitful stainless steel sculpture is on display outside the wall, along with a few others. But this one caught my fancy!

We went in search of the Mercado – the Market – and found this where the map said it should be.

Sure enough, this has the flavor of a modern market, but isn’t what we thought we were looking for. Most of the stalls were closed at this time.

A short while later we stumbled on this – this used the be the market, and is what we thought we were looking for. But the market clearly moved to that place we just visited, and this place is closed.

Then we found this sculpture. This is a living flame – you can’t see the flame that is near the top of the red arch – dedicated to those who fought and died for liberty in 1714.

Our energy is running low. We find the Basilica of Saint Maria del Mar. Beautiful! But closed. Move on.

We find the Basilica de la Merced. Oddly elegant exterior. Difficult to see and appreciate the dome and angel!

But the interior was stunning! Two pulpits, gold leaf againt taupe backgrounds, blue accents over the altar and in the dome. Who wouldn’t love this?

The ceilings were ornate but each center was unique, and the pipe organ was a work of art in its own right!

Back outside we found this gent wielding a trident! There was no name or attribution other than a legacy of park names given to this location, carved onto the place where it appears a piece of a fountain broke off.

PLA DE PALAU 1826
PARC DE MONTJUIC 1919
PLACA DE LA MERCE 1983