La Rambla Barcelona

Monday October 12, 1992 Barcelona, Spain

God has answered my prayers once again. I feel so much better. And the agent has arrived with our tickets for the tour and our trip to the airport on Tuesday. I hurry to get ready. Frank goes down for the continental breakfast in our hotel. He brings me 2 rolls. I'm off with little make-up and a damp head. We take a cab a few blocks to catch our bus at 9:15. It's a great tour. Some we already saw yesterday and the Olympic area we saw Saturday. We go to a Spanish village which is a recreation of other parts of Spain. Great!

Our tour is finished at 12:30. We take a cab back because of light rain. We rest and go out on La Rambla to a cafe for a sandwich lunch. We walk alot. I feel good. We buy a pastry in a pastry shop and stroll the boulevards, watch a carousel in a park, return to rest before dinner. It starts to serve at 8:00. We eat at our hotel. My salmon dinner is terrible. Frank likes his pork dinner.

So glad that Mom is feeling better, and that they got to take a better tour. This one sounds like fun. The summer Olympics were held in Barcelona just a few months before Mom and Frank visited, so I'm sure the city was spruced up nicely. Perhaps seeing the Olympics in Barcelona on TV is what inspired them to take a Mediterranean cruise.

Sunday La Sadana Folk Dance In Barcelona

Sunday October 11, 1992 Barcelona, Depart ship

Up early and ordered off the ship at 8:10. We were in no hurry, but that was our assigned time. No problem with customs, but had to fight for a cab. It cost us $7 or 650 pisada. We were lucky they let us into our room so early in the morning when we reached our Hotel Regina. It's a nice hotel, three star. Our room is spacious with 2 twins pushed together. Bath has a bidea.

We rest until 11:30. I don't feel well but we go walking down the La Ramble, a broad street where everyone goes for a walk. There are cafes, 2 McDonalds, Burger King and Kentucky Colonel. There are stands of fresh flowers and birds and pets for sale.

We find the square in front of the cathedral where peple gather to dance in huge circles to a live band. It's wonderful to watch. We have a great hamburger and fries at Burger King and return. I feel full of pain and sick all over. I sleep off and on all evening and all night. I pray alot.

La Sardana is a traditional and patriotic folk dance of Catalonia. You can see La Sardana dancing every Sunday on the Plaza Plà de la Seu in front of Barcelona's La Seu cathedral in the Barrio Gotico area. I can't tell from Mom's post if they knew about it in advance or they just stumbled upon the dancers, but it sounds like a wonderful thing to see, and their timing was perfect, arriving at noon on Sunday. Too bad Mom and Frank chose Burger King for lunch. It sounds like the greasy fries and burger upset her stomach. At least they had a nice spacious hotel room to enjoy instead of the tiny cabin they had on the ship.

Barcelona, Spain

Saturday October 10, 1992 Barcelona, Spain

Up at 7 a.m. to leave on a bus at 9:15 for a tour of the wine country, a wine museum, and the beach city of Sitges. The town with the wine museum is very interesting, but we don't have time to visit there, only the museum which is OK. There are outside market stalls selling everything and everyone comes to shop on Saturday.

I am not feeling well. I'm taking the pain pills yesterday and today to get by. I am stiff and sore. I still have the chest pain and the tumor pain persists and seems worse when I walk alot, and we have walked alot.

On our tour we went to the beach city of Sitges for lunch and a 4-hour stroll on the beach. All the shops were closed on Saturdays. Our lunch was in a lovely hotel.

We arrived back at 5:45. At 6:30 we were at our last dinner together. We said our final goodbyes. We have all their addresses so hope to keep in touch.

Barcelona is the capital of Catalonia and the second largest city in Spain, after Madrid, with a population of 1,621,537. It is home to some beautiful churches and cathedrals, but it sounds like their excursion did not show them much of Barcelona. Instead they got to stroll on the beach for 4 hours! Wow, I hope they didn't pay much for this excursion.