10 August Barcelona

We are now in Spain, in Barcelona to be exact. This is a city we would have liked to spend more time in. Today we had to be back on the ship by 2 PM as we are off to Tunisia at the top of Africa, 493 nautical miles. This is the longest leg of the cruise, which will take till tomorrow afternoon to reach. We realise today that we English speakers are definitely in the minority with 8 Languages being represented on the ship. We are running into the same English-speaking people on each excursion, which is quite nice. We understand that another New Zealand couple have just embarked on the ship, but the chance of us meeting unless they are in the Yacht club or on an excursion are fairly slim.
Our excursion was a bit different today. It was called “Gaudi’s Experience “ We did a tour showing the finest works of the city’s most famous architect Gaudi. Very controversial man as his designs are very off the wall. Heather and Bev, you would have loved this tour. We viewed the exteriors of a couple of his houses he designed and is now owned by private families. His influence is Neo-Gothic and Naturalist. We looked inside one of his unfinished works; this amazing church called “Sagrada Familia”. It was started in the late 1800s and is still unfinished. Gaudi was very visionary but not that practical. When he died the church was only 12% finished. Fortunately, with modern technology, they have been working on completing the church. It is now 60% finished a great achievement. When it is complete it will have 16 towers. (8 are built now) What has been done is amazing. 120 workmen are working full-time on the project. They believe that it will be finished in about 20-30 years and that is using modern technology. It could possibly be classed as one of the wonders of the world on completion. The photos give you a taste. We also viewed the “Park Guell” that Gaudi designed. Capitalising on his unique style he has constructed both stone and mosaic work into the landscape blending art with nature. Very cool.
Back to the ship, enjoying relaxing in the spa till our toes wrinkle and consuming “Dirty Bananas” which I will attempt to produce when we get home. I can’t believe how long we have been out of New Zealand. Seems like forever. Had a funny dream last night where on returning home I had forgotten where the back door of my house was. I put it down to consuming Dirty Bananas. Bill is affected in other ways like losing his way on the ship. He has become too reliant on his GPS ( Garmin and Me) It could also be a side effect of turning 50.