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Showing posts from May, 2024

Last Day in Barcelona

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We didn’t have a long walk to dinner last night, returning to Rambla 92 for a nice salad, along with their pan de tomate, and Charlie also enjoyed their calamari.  The people-watching provides plenty of entertainment—like dinner and a show! We dined early by Catalan standards, and most of the others nearby were only drinking at that hour.   One aspect of Barcelona, and the other parts of Spain we’ve seen, are all the sycamore trees.  They line most streets and are much taller and older than any I’ve seen in the U.S.  I’m sure they’re pretty in the fall, too, but it must be a huge job, cleaning up all those big leaves! This morning, after another good breakfast, we packed up our things in preparation for tomorrow’s flight to Heathrow. We’ll check our bags, so fingers crossed they all make it.  I think we’ll be able to cram our purchases in, but our backpacks may be heavy. We’re spending tomorrow night in the airport hotel, then a car is taking us to Southampton. ...

A Lazy Day So Far

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Late yesterday we repeated our light supper from our previous visit to Barcelona, enjoying a salad (all too scarce on Catalan menus), calamari, and potatoes brava.  (See previous post for photos!). We were really tired, after over 15,000 steps for Charlie and over 12,000 for me, so we were ready for bed soon thereafter. This morning we had the hotel breakfast, and I really should photograph the buffet options. Maybe tomorrow!  I must confess, we usually split a chocolate croissant as “dessert.”   We walked up the Passeig de Gracia to the Tumi store, where I found a smaller crossbody purse I like. Yes, I already own enough small crossbody bags to open at least a kiosk, but still!  But then it took forever to complete the purchase—almost as long as buying a car takes! I guess it was due to all the EU paperwork involved in getting the tax back. I also browsed in a huge bookstore, hoping to find a magazine in Spanish to practice my decoding skills, but I guess they’re s...

Lots of Walking (and Eating) in Barcelona

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After yesterday’s late and epic lunch, neither of us wanted another bite the rest of the day.  I’m not sure WHEN we last skipped supper! But we did observe Happy Hour, of course. This morning we had the hotel’s lovely breakfast again, and shortly afterwards we headed out walking. We went back to Uniqlo and each bought thin merino sweaters, as it looks like it will be chilly in Southampton and on the first two sea days next week. I also found Sydney something cute in a different store. For lunch, Charlie found a place with good reviews on Trip Advisor. Google Maps claimed it was a 19-minute walk, which sounded doable, though it also warned,”Gently uphill.” The street our hotel is on was mobbed with tourists and locals, including three big groups of children, apparently on field trips. We walked steadily, until Charlie realized we were off-track. Sigh. So we doubled back and went down a sketchy-looking alley to the spot Google Maps claimed the restaurant was. Nope! We walked a bit do...

More Barcelona Adventures

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Last evening, we walked back to one of the places we visited with our tapas guide Carolina, Ciutat Comtal. It’s a beautiful place. Alas, we forgot to take pics of what we ordered, though there were some repeats from our previous visit.  The eggplant chips with honey were again excellent! They had a special offering of a slice of Beef Wellington, so we had to try that—also delicious, especially with patatas Brava.   We had a leisurely morning today, with a light breakfast in the hotel, then headed down the Passeig de Gracia to shop a bit.  I’d seen a Uniqlo store from a taxi, as well as a few other shops that looked interesting  I bought a great linen shirt at Uniqlo for a very low price, then found something cute for Emily at Mango Kids.  We also enjoyed browsing in a home furnishing store. Wish we had room to shop more! We are just back from a lovely lunch at 7 Portes , a restaurant recommended by our tapas tour guide when we asked about good paella.  We t...

Barcelona Time

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We’re off the ship and ensconced in Hotel Sixty-Two, where we stayed before.  We had time this morning for a nice Coastal Kitchen breakfast before our concierge led us down via a non-stop elevator to the gangway.  Our bags were waiting for us, so we went out to wait for our driver.  Since it’s Sunday, traffic was light, and we were at the hotel in no time.  Our room wasn’t ready yet, of course, but we dropped our luggage and went out to explore a bit.   There are several pedestrian walkways that are nice and shady, many with beautiful flowers. The flowerbed below attracted lots of butterflies! We stopped for café con leche and chocolate croissants after a while.  I did my daily Duolingo lessons as we sat there.  Nice!  The people-watching was also entertaining. Unfortunately, a road crew was working along the street we know best, where we like to eat, but we made the best of it.  We returned to Rambla 92, which we found had the best pan con t...

Sea Day

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Last night’s dinner at Coastal Kitchen was very nice. We both started with the roasted beet salad, and we also tried the truffle risotto.  Both were delicious! Charlie chose seared scallops with cauliflower purée and brussels sprouts with caviar butter for his entree. I had the roasted pork loin with potato purée and caramelized apples. Delicious, too!  After dinner we went to the theater to see CATS.  Here’s the description of the performance: “A 90-minute bespoke version of one of the most famous musicals in the world created especially for Royal Caribbean.”  It was very well done, with a cool set (alas, it was too dark for good photos), elaborate costumes, and amazingly talented singers and dancers. Although it was late (for us) when it ended, we were glad we’d seen it. When we awoke this morning, our ship was passing between Sardinia and Corsica, on our way back to Barcelona. We wish we could have stopped at a port there, but this ship may be too big.  We pa...

Naples

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Dear readers, I led you astray yesterday, saying we’d dock in Sorrento. But it’s Naples! We’re right at the “ankle” of Italy.  Here’s a photo as we glided into the port at 6:00 a.m. (two minutes after I got up).   To back up a bit, we had some post-dinner excitement last evening when an Italian navy aircraft carrier docked near our ship. We first used binoculars, then Charlie headed to an outside deck to get a better look. He also caught the sunset. For the foodies among you, I confess that we failed to take pics of our salads or entrees (grilled barramundi with beurre Blanc sauce and basmati rice and roasted lamb loin), but here are our desserts. Carrot cake Olive oil chocolate cake  Here are a few pics of the city that I took from the top outside deck this morning.   Castel Nuovo on the left Mt. Vesuvius  We originally had booked an excursion, “Leisurely Sorrento,” but after reading that it required over three hours on a bus, we cancelled it. Charlie’s knee co...

Civitavecchia

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At dinner last night, I was entertained watching a big crane loading shipping crates onto a boat. What a fun, if exacting, job! (Yes, I’m easily amused.) We ordered the lobster fritters, which were just okay.  But my sesame-crusted tuna with bok choy and coconut rice was delicious, and Charlie enjoyed his saffron seafood linguine.   After dinner we went to see the show One Sky, billed as “a masterpiece of modern movement and dance with an eclectic, wide-ranging music collection performed and interpreted by some of our most talented Royal Theater cast members.” I hadn’t read that since booking it long ago, so I went vaguely expecting a documentary about the sky. Um, no! But it was very entertaining, and like most of the ship’s shows, I’m always amazed at the energy levels of the young performers.   As we were heading to bed, Charlie snapped this photo of the full moon.   We had a pretty leisurely morning, deciding to have breakfast in Coastal Kitchen before venturing ...

La Spezia, Italy

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Good morning from La Spezia!  Charlie captured this photo as we were coming into port about 7:30. Here’s our location, if (like me) you’ve never heard of La Spezia—near the top of the “boot” of Italy. It’s the port closest to Florence. We opted out of all the excursions to Florence, because they all involve long bus rides and last a minimum of nine hours. We’d like to visit Florence when there’s sufficient time to really see it, so not this trip.  We will go into La Spezia if the rain stops. For those of you playing along at home (and possibly gasping in horror at our food consumption rate), here are the photos from last night’s dinner in Coastal Kitchen. Angelo, our server, is getting to know our preferences—pretzel rolls, please! Everything pictured was delicious! Spinach salad Grilled octopus  Poached lobster Braised short ribs over polenta Bittersweet chocolate praline tart with red wine sorbet Now it’s the afternoon, and the rain did stop, so we made our way into La ...