It’s an incredibly beautiful day! 70 degrees, cool breeze, not a cloud in the sky. Makes up for the rough and tumble night we had last night with with winds so strong we were listing to port at a very disturbing angle, 10 foot seas that made incredible noise against the hull and the bow slap at 2 or 3 AM that woke the entire ship and had things falling over in the cabin. Wow! That was obviously a cold front!
But today, all is forgotten as it is such a picture perfect day. We lazed around in the morning, hitting the gym and then grabbing cappuccino at the International Café downstairs on the ship. Finally headed out around 10:30. We have nothing planned but wandering La Rambla and having lunch at Caracoles - the restaurant famous for its snails where we ate on our very first trip to Barcelona some 11 years ago.
We eschew the $5US each way shuttle from the ship and head off over the bridge out of the port area on foot. The walk from the ship to La Rambla doesn’t take us as long as we though – only about 40 minutes – and it’s such a great day – its refreshing to be out and walking and enjoying the weather.
La Rambla is – well – La Rambla. Not as busy as usual, but it’s early, and it’s still filled with sidewalk artists selling there wares, mimes and “statues” making their living, as stalls of flower and trinket vendors. It’s as vibrant and alive as ever, and terribly fun to stroll along people watching and soaking up the atmosphere.
As usual, we head to the Bocquaria market and stroll through that madness of meat, fish, vegetable and candy stall morass. Everything looks so good and fresh and it’s a shame we can’t just buy tons of sausage and meat and bring it home! The restaurants all look so great too – just little bar stools up against the side of the food stall with tapas menus. Hmmmm…maybe we’ll just eat here!
Or not –back out on the street we head down La Rambla to the little side street that leads to Caracoles. They are not open yet (it’s only a little past noon), but they are already roasting their chickens on the corner of the building. We stand at the corner for a while, debating our next move. Do we wait? Do we go back to the market? Eventually we decide to just wander around, look at other places and make a decision when Caracoles opens.
We actually never get that far! On the Placa Reial, one block away, are several restaurants, all with interesting menus, but one, Mariscco, catches our eye because of the seafood tapas. We can both get everything we want – sea snails, octopus and sepia! Perfect. Plus the tables are outside, in the sun, and as a bonus – there is some TV production going on in the Placa where two guys are playing the piano and a guitar with great rock tunes. We can’t go wrong!
And we don’t – the food is fantastic, as is the beer and wine. It’s warm and sunny on the terrace, and we couldn’t be happier. Caracoles was great 11 years ago, and its probably still good now - but its all inside and dark and oddly decorated – and here we’re basking in the Catalonian sun eating exactly what we wanted in the first place!
We finish our delicacies, but it is still too early to go back to the ship so we head back to the market. A lot of the stalls have this new thing…we are calling it Antipasto to go! Little paper cones filled with jamon or salami or cheese for about 4 Euro. 
We figure that will be an excellent dessert! So we grab a cone and happily munch our way back through the market stalls, inspecting the incredible array of foods. We also splurge on some chocolate covered almonds (although I read the price wrong and thought it was 5 euro per kilo, when in fact it was 55 euros. Oops! well, let’s not get 1/2 kilo then, let’s get – oh – say 5 euro’s worth!).
Finally, it is time to head back to the ship. Boo hoo. I so love this city. Off we troop, down La Rambla, stopping to buy a really cool little painting of Sagrada Familia (all bas relief with little dots of color, very avant garde, very different), then onto the supermercado for supplies and then off to the ship. Gazing at all the cool architecture along the way…this great “chinese” building with the umbrellas and dragon!
As we round the Christopher Columbus monument, we notice one of the port buses picking up passengers and we figure – what the heck! We can walk – but why? Especially with the added weight of our supplies in our back packs! So we hop a ride (half price from the Ship shuttle), our wonderful restaurant Maitre d Jelanda and her beau get on as well, so we spend the next few minutes chatting and talking about our day, while we’re whisked away to the ship. Good call on the bus!
Back aboard, we dump our purchases in the room, then hang out on the balcony watching everyone come back aboard. Ed stays outside, while I nap (this darn cold/allergy/infection thing we both have just knocked me out!). I awake for sailaway, and we begin our nightly routine as always!
Tomorrow – a relaxing sea day – with all day blog writing session!
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