Our epic journey has drawn to an end. I have mixed feelings. Sad that it has come to an end, but happy when I think about all the places that we have seen. What a tremendous experience it has been. I think we will both be pleased to be home and get back some form of routine. Exercise, exercise, and more exercise hahahahaha. I am not looking forward to the washing though….
Last night we had our last dinner with the friends that we met very early in our voyage, and whose company we have consistently enjoyed. Tina has set us all up on a WhatsApp group so I'm sure we will stay in touch and hopefully, sometime down the track, we may all get together again. Who knows.
This morning we had to be off the ship by 8.45am and it was perfect timing for us as our driver arrived at 9am. It was then an easy transfer to our hotel - The Serras. It is a beautiful hotel and is just a 10 minute walk to the Gothic area and Los Ramblas, the famous avenue in Barcelona. Our room was not ready when we arrived, that was not a surprise, so we left our luggage in storage and went for a long stroll. I think I mentioned in an earlier post that our Aussie friends, Tina and Russ, are also staying here. Pure luck that we chose the same accomodation, and we will catch up tonight for tapas and drinks.
I love the architecture of Barcelona with its heavy Gaudi influence and we went looking for the two buildings, close by, that Antoni Gaudi built before his death almost one hundred years ago. The first is Casa Barliò with its beautiful mosaic facade, and this building is considered one of his masterpieces.


The next is Casa Mià built between 1906 and 1912. It is a controversial building with its undulating stone facade and the twisting wrought iron balconies. It was the last private residence that Antoni Gaudi built.

We continued our walk and I can't stop looking upwards at the lovely architecture. It doesn't make for the greatest photography but I love it so much.






We are now starting to feel hungry as we had a very light breakfast quite early this morning. Philip has spotted a Hard Rock Cafe and as it's been ages since we have been inside one, that's where we head. Certainly not the healthiest food, but we enjoyed it very much and devoured the whole lot! Mind you, by this stage we had walked almost 10 kms, but I don't think calories in equaled calories out…...

It's now time to find our way back to our hotel. We followed a different path back to our hotel that lead us down some very narrow streets. These streets are used by both vehicles and pedestrians and when a large cement truck came down the street towards us we had to duck into a shop to give it room to pass! I wish I had taken a photo. When we arrived back our room was still half an hour away from being ready so it was suggested that we head to the rooftop bar and eating area and make ourselves comfortable while we waited. The views from up here are lovely and tomorrow we will go and explore the harbour area.
This is a very short post that make for a change - hahahaha… But it's time to shower and change before we head out for dinner. Until tomorrow….