Day 6 - Cruise Day

We woke up on our first morning in Barcelona, ready to spend a few hours exploring and seeing the city before boarding our ship, but we had a minor "missing wallet" mystery to solve first.  All we had heard and read about Barcelona was "great city, but my purse/wallet was stolen" - and it didn't help that Kristen, whom we were just with in Paris, had been robbed twice when she had visited years before.  So when Michael's wallet was MIA we just assumed someone had taken it from our room and Barcelona was just an evil place.  But, after some mild panicking, checking our cards online and time spent searching, it unearthed itself in a drawer.  I guess we had to have a few travel snafus...at least they all had happy endings. :/

After that, we didn't have quite as much time as we thought we might so we strolled the area around our hotel, grabbed some breakfast (at what was probably the equivalent of a Spanish Dunkin Donuts but all of their restaurants have sidewalk seating under tents so it feels fancier!), and then just walked some more. 

Barcelona has a completely different vibe from Paris but what they do have in common is that they are both culturally and architecturally fascinating.  

We got a much bigger and better taste of Barcelona after the cruise...but that morning definitely left me excited to see more.

Since neither of us had ever been on a cruise before, we played it safe and checked in on the early side.  Which gave us time to settle in to our room (which was much bigger than I expected - I was worried I would be claustrophobic and seasick!) and make our way to the deck for a boat drink and our first real (non-airplane) view of the Mediterranean.  Gorgeous.

View from our room.  If I ever take a cruise again, a balcony will be a must.

The main thoroughfare of the ship...

On deck, Barcelona in the distance...beautiful teal water below...

This day was all about getting on to the ship so a slow picture day...just imagine boat drinks, nice dinner, followed by blackjack in the casino (that was pretty much the routine every evening!).