We’re in day two—or is it day three—of our Alaska Cruise aboard the Royal Caribbean Explorer of the Seas, and today we spent a few hours whale watching.
This tour is one of the Royal Caribbean approved and sponsored tours with a local company in Juneau. The name of the tour company is Allen Marine. They sail from Auke Bay just north of Juneau. We were particularly pleased with the boat they used since it was big; bigger than most whale watching boats we saw on the water. You might think that the experience would be less “intimate” using a big boat, but the real result was that we were afforded a better view, perched atop the tallest thing on the water to observe the wildlife.
Our trip took us north from Juneau, past the Eagle Glacier and into Favorite Channel and Lynn Channel where the naturalist aboard knew that whales were likely to be feeding.
We only saw three Humpback whales up close and personal, but we stayed with each of the animals for a reasonable bit of time and saw quite a lot with just the three whales. And of course, on our way to and from looking for whales, we took in more wildlife. We saw a Bald Eagle, a Bob of Harbor Seals, and a Pod of Sea Lions.
We would love to show you the ship we’re on, and we’ll do just that in an upcoming post, but first, take a look at some of the images from our day on the water whale watching.
Not long ago we spent a morning walking through Cadiz, Spain. We were in port aboard the Royal Caribbean Freedom of the Seas; one of our favorite cruise lines, and certainly one of our favorite ships.
We’ve been to Cadiz before. It’s one of the more popular stops along the western Mediterranean cruise ship route, or at least it seems that way. What we found was a lazy little town full of shops, restaurants, bars, and coffee houses.
It was definitely worth a bit of time to explore, and definitely worth coming back. So please, take a moment and have a look at the video we prepared showing Cadiz, Spain.
Cadiz, Spain was a peaceful and tranquil town. At least, that’s the way it looked to us. We spent just a brief amount of time here one morning, away from our cruise ship, the Royal Caribbean Freedom of the Seas.
Not long ago we stopped in at Villefranche, a little French town along the Mediterranean coast. We were aboard the Royal Caribbean Freedom of the Seas for a western Mediterranean cruise, then an Atlantic crossing back to Florida.
Villefranche is situated about 25 miles east of Cannes, and about an hour and twenty minutes travel time by train. And of course, it’s literally next door to Nice.
Here are some still images we stitched together into a short video to show what we discovered just walking around this picturesque town.
Villefranche is a small seaside town along the French Rivera near the cities of Nice and Cannes. It has no docks big enough to accommodate cruise ships but it’s a popular stop nonetheless, with cruisers going ashore on tenders.
Not long ago, we boarded the Royal Caribbean’s Freedom of the Seas in Barcelona. We made a seven night tour around the Mediterranean, stopping in several places along the way. Some of our stops included Marseille, France, Villefranche, France, Florence, the Amalfi Coast and Pompeii, in Italy, and back to Barcelona.
We stayed on the ship and used it as our transportation back to Florida, with stops at Cadiz, Spain, Tenerife, Canary Islands, Las Palmas, Grand Canary Island, and La Palma, Canary Island. We then made our way across to Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
We’ve made several Atlantic crossings, and it’s our favorite part of cruising, but it’s not necessarily for everyone. The good thing about an Atlantic crossing for us is that we spend several days at sea. The bad about an Atlantic crossing is that you spend several days at sea, and for some people, it might be a bit much.
Cruising aboard the Royal Caribbean Freedom of the Seas. Take a few minutes to see what this great ship has to offer. Photos and Video by Don and Bonnie Fink.
It’s always fun to cruise on a new ship, and in a lot of ways, even more fun to cruise on a new cruise line. This time we boarded the Celebrity Silhouette in Miami for a seven night trip around the eastern Caribbean. Silhouette is owned by Royal Caribbean, so were we Wowed? Was it better, the same, or a disappointment from our former experiences? Take a look at what we found:
The Boarding Process
One of the things that instantly impressed us was the fact that, since we have a certain status aboard Royal Caribbean, and since Royal Caribbean owns Celebrity, our status was transferred over to Celebrity. For us, we didn’t get much out of the deal, but then again, our status isn’t all that impressive to begin with. But it was fun to be able to board a little early. For some of our cruising friends out there, this could be important since the higher you go, the more you’re recognized. Unfortunately, our stay aboard the Celebrity ship did not increase our status with Royal Caribbean, but did count toward Celebrity. Confusing right?
What We Found
The Hideaway is a quiet spot to relax. If you need a book, there’s a wide selection to choose from. Photo by Bonnie Fink.
We’re used to big ships. If you’ve read any of our other posts, you might remember that we go in for the Wow factor of the Royal Caribbean Oasis, Anthem, and Freedom class ships. We like the big interior promenade.
The Celebrity Silhouette is much smaller. Instead of up to 6,000 guests like some of the monster sized boats, Silhouette carries something closer to 2700. Not small by any reasonable standard, but still much smaller than the huge new ships from Royal Caribbean.
We found the Silhouette to be a classy, well maintained and modern ship with all the amenities we needed. Our room was as big and comfortable as most ships we’ve been on, and even better than some. There were adequate power plugs in the room and we were able to spread out and get things put away the way we like with ample stowage and storage. We were not able to score a kettle for heating water like we usually do on Royal Caribbean, but we were able to use the TV to watch our shows that we brought along on our hard drive.
The ship is reasonably new too. First cruise was in 2012 and she continues to be in good repair and modern in design. We especially liked the design of the buffet restaurant, the Oceanview Café, but more on that later.
Dining
The two deck Grand Cuvee Dining Room. Photo by Donald Fink.
Celebrity uses a dining plan similar to most other cruise ships. You can elect to have an assigned dining table at a specific time each night, or you can reserve a time, even different each night if you want. You can also just walk in to the dining room and get the first available table. You set these options up when you lock in your cruise reservations.
In the classic dining plan, you are assigned a table, along with other cruisers. You may or may not know these folks, depending on your circumstance.
Excursions
As you enter the harbor in San Juan, Puerto Rico, you’ll see the famous fort, Castillo San Felipe del Morro on your left. If you’re on a cruise and happen to stop in Puerto Rico, this is a must-see shore excursion. Photo by Donald Fink.
At the risk of sounding a bit jaded, we usually don’t go on shore excursions when we’re in the Caribbean. It’s not that we have anything against the Caribbean, it’s just that we’ve been travelling in the region for literally decades. There aren’t many things we haven’t seen.
The exception is that when there’s an excuse to scuba dive, we’re there. On this trip we made a shore excursion in St. Thomas to dive a local spot, and while the area has recently been through a major hurricane, we found it to be a good choice. The dive operators were professional and attentive and provided a good diving experience.
This cruise stopped in San Juan, Puerto Rico. One of the classic day tours for this stop is the fort, Castillo San Felipe del Morro. This is an interesting stop, and it’s also a National Park under the US Park Service, so things are a bit familiar in terms of signage, rules, and so forth. It’s also rumored that this fort served as an inspiration for the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disney.
In this video you can enjoy a few minutes of our impression of the Celebrity Silhouette. Video and Stills by Don and Bonnie Fink.
As we mentioned before, this was our first time cruising aboard a ship from the Celebrity fleet. We have seen the ships many times before as they docked in ports next to other cruises we were on, but we’d never been aboard one.
In a lot of ways, the experience was what we expected because, while cruise lines differ, they are really more alike than they are different. The room was the high quality we expect for a cruise line of this type, the food was better than most, and the amenities aboard the ship seems to be comparable to any modern ship of this size. If this one ship is any judge of the total Celebrity line, they are staying relevant in the 21st century of cruising.
The final question is, will we cruise on Celebrity again? The simple answer is, of course we will. When we find a cruise that goes where we want, when we want, and it happens to be a Celebrity line ship, we won’t hesitate.
Not long ago we ventured out on Royal Caribbean’s Oasis of the Seas for a seven-night tour of the Western Caribbean. We made only three stops along the way at Labadee in Haiti, Jamaica, and Cozumel, Mexico.
An Oasis Class ship is huge. It can accommodate 6,780 guests. But the funny thing is, you really don’t feel crowded. We’ve read countless posts from potential cruisers saying that they absolutely hate sailing on these “monster” sized ships, citing long lines and big wait times because of the overcrowding. Truthfully, we don’t see it. A ship like the Oasis of the seas has 24 guest elevators, 9 complimentary restaurants and 8 specialty restaurants. There are 11 bars and lounges on board, many of which have entertainment at night or even in the afternoon. When you think about it, a town that size wouldn’t have all of these services. There are even 3 doctors and 5 nurses aboard.
Service is generally good aboard this and other Oasis class ships, and the entertainment is what we consider to be above average in the cruise business. The great thing about Royal Caribbean is that they have so many ships, they employ a large number of entertainers. If you make several voyages, you’re likely to see different shows each time. With the exception of the main stage shows and ice performances, you’ll even see different performers each time you sail on the same ship since they tend to rotate through the fleet. The ice performances and main stage shows, of course, are often specific to one particular ship because the sets are complex.
So, what makes an Oasis class ship so much more than other ships? Let’s take a look:
Royal Promenade
The Royal Promenade aboard the Oasis of the Seas is located on Deck 5. It’s the central part of the ship where you find many of the shops, pubs, and cafés. Photo by Donald Fink.
When you enter the Oasis of the seas for the first time, you enter on deck five and are presented with the Royal promenade. This is like the Freedom class ships in that it’s a central area designed to look like a street; maybe a typical small town in western Europe, or so it seems to us. There are shops and cafes, bars, just about everything you could need if you were visiting a small town on vacation.
Our favorite haunt was the Café Promenade. It’s a small café centrally located in the Royal Promenade that we used for our daily “people watching.” We would usually head down to the Café Promenade in the mornings after breakfast for another cup of coffee and a bran muffin. They serve up complimentary muffins and pastries, with sandwiches at lunch and dinner. Coffee and tea are also on the house, but you can buy specialty coffee drinks too. It made for some good competition for the local Starbucks that was located towards the forward end of the Royal Promenade.
Boardwalk
Closeup of one of the horses on the Boardwalk Carousel. Photo by Bonnie Fink.
Johnny Rockets is a hamburger chain that also has restaurants aboard the Oasis class and Freedom class ships. There’s an extra fee for lunch or dinner here, but aboard the Oasis of the Seas, breakfast is complimentary. We recommend Johnny Rockets if you’re looking for a burger that takes you back to mid-twentieth century America. They’re pretty close to the real deal as we remember them. Try the Peanut Butter Milkshake. If it’s not on the menu, ask for it anyway.
At the very back of the ship is the Aquatheatre. This is a pool that is close to thirty feet deep. You can take SCUBA lessons in this pool, and yes, there’s a five-star PADI dive center aboard the ship for this purpose. But the real reason for the Aquatheatre is for the show.
The Aquatheater presents one of those kinds of shows that you should plan to see early in your cruise, because you’re probably going to want to see it again. It’s hard to categorize, but the show you’ll see here involves water, high-divers, acrobats, and arial performances. Think of a circus-like stage show with a large swimming pool that is sometimes a pool and sometimes a stage, and even both. The stage raises above the water to provide dry land for performers, then lowers into the water for swimmers and divers.
There are also two rock climbing walls aboard the Oasis of the Seas, and they’re located at the Boardwalk.
Central Park
You can find several very quiet and private areas to sit at Central Park, on Deck 8. Photo by Bonnie Fink.
Up on deck 8 is Central Park. This area is also open to the outside, but is located in the central part of the ship. In other words, it’s open to the sky with stateroom balconies along each side, but the front and back are closed. The unique thing about Central Park is that it’s what you might expect by the name. it’s a park, complete with lush greenery and trees with walkways. And yes, the plants are real. Along the walkways, you can encounter a number of shops and restaurants, including the Royal Caribbean signature steakhouse, Chops Grille. There is also a restaurant called 150 Central Park that is elevated even above Chops Grille. For a complimentary lunch or dinner, there’s the Park Café, which is very popular.
There are three and a half bars in Central Park. We say three and a half because the rising Tide Bar is on a hydraulic platform. Part of the time it’s in Central Park on Deck 8, and part of the time it’s on the Royal Promenade on Deck 5. When it’s in the Central Park location, there are fountains below it in the Royal Promenade.
Deck 15 and 16
Looking down on the swimming pools and 4 of the hot tubs on Deck 15. Photo by Bonnie Fink.
Decks 15 and 16 are where you might expect all the regular outdoor activities to be on a cruise ship. The pools, golf course, zip line, and the two Flowriders for our surfer friends are located up top. There are four pools and six whirlpools aboard this ship.
There’s one pool designed primarily for the youngsters with bright colors and water features, but there’s also an area set aside for the more mature crowd, meaning guests sixteen and older. This is called the solarium and is located in the front of the ship on Decks 15 and 16. There’s a couple of whirlpools, a café, bar, and plenty of areas for sunbathing and relaxing. It’s a quite oasis on an otherwise lively ship.
Deck 16 is also where the main buffet style dining area is located. It’s called the Windjammer Marketplace and it’s located towards the aft part of the ship, with views of either side of the ship, the basketball court and golf course and the zip line that spans the Boardwalk below.
Normally, Decks 15 and 16 would be the main attraction on a smaller ship. And if this was a normal ship except with over 6,000 guests, this would be an overcrowding situation without a doubt. What makes the Oasis class ships different is the other areas mentioned above. The Promenade, Boardwalk, and Central Park and significant areas of interest by themselves, and they certainly draw a large number of guests away from the usual sun-bathing by the swimming pool activity that seems to be the standard on smaller ships. The existence of these other areas is how we can justify saying that crowds are not really an issue aboard these massive ships.
Studio B
Several times during your cruise the show Frozen in Time will be offered in Studio B, Deck 4. Photo by Donald Fink.
The Oasis Class and Freedom Class ships have an ice rink. It’s called Studio B. This is another of those shows that you’ll want to see early on in the cruise if at all possible, because each time we’ve seen the show, we wanted to see it again.
If you want to try your hand on the ice while at sea, there are times when guests can take to the rink too. On our last cruise, there were two distinctive times for skating; one set aside for skaters who needed skates, and one for guests who brought their own ice skates onboard with them. Normally we’d think that bringing ice skates along on a Caribbean cruise might be a classic case for overpacking, but not aboard the Oasis of the Seas.
View of the Aquatheater and back of the ship. This is also the view you have if you have a boardwalk balcany. Photo by Bonnie Fink.
This is not close to a complete guide to all the Oasis of the Seas has to offer. We didn’t mention the theater, the gym, the great walk and running path on Deck 5, or even the three level main dining facility.
There’s no question that one of our favorite cruise lines is Royal Caribbean, and it’s no secret that of their massive fleet of ships, our favorite class of ship so far is the Oasis class. We’ve been sailing on Royal Caribbean since the 1990’s and they’ve always presented interesting ships with the “right” design. We must be in the middle of their target demographics, because they always have just the right amount of bling, the right amount of opulence, with surroundings that both wow us yet make us feel comfortable while we’re on-board.
On our recent cruise in the Mediterranean, our ship stopped at La Spezia, a small port along the western coast of Italy. It was in close proximity to Pisa and Florence, and having been to Pisa once before, we elected to take a ship’s tour to Florence. The bus ride was about two hours through the northwestern parts of the Tuscany Region of Italy and we had the opportunity to see a good deal of the Tuscan landscape. Florence, of course, plays a big part in a great deal of our modern world, but it’s almost staggering how big that part really is. It’s said that the Renaissance began there, and with great minds like Leonardo DaVinci, Michelangelo, Dante, and Galileo all hailing from this one place, it’s hard to argue to the contrary.
Florence is the capital of Tuscany, which is a Region of Italy. A Region, in case you need a refresher, is like a state, or a province. Of course, just to confuse things, a province is an administrative area inside a region, sort of like a county in the U.S. Cities are referred to as Communes for Italian administrative purposes. Got that? We’ll move on then.
The countryside in Tuscany, based on our trip from La Spezia to Florence, is not unlike California. Sort of a southern California meets the Napa Valley kind of place. With Marble Rock quarries located in the hills in the backdrop. The climate looks to be kinda dry, and there was evidence that Italy suffers the same forest fire problems that much of the western United States does. The trees tend to be smaller, but the fire danger seems to be very real. This was even more evident on our visit of Pompeii, but we’ll talk about that more in a future article.
The History
Florence goes way back. More so than many European cities, but it got its start to stardom with the Romans. When Rome took responsibility for the area, they brought in roads, aqueducts, sewers, and constructed a number of public and private buildings. The city was established in 59 AD by Julius Caesar as a military post for the Tuscan area. With the improvements from the Romans for largely military reasons, it didn’t take much time until the city began to flourish as a major commercial area too.
Rome fell in the Florence area around the 5th Century, and Tuscany reverted back to Kingdoms, but Florence continued to thrive, serving a growing travel business as a major stopover point for people traveling from Rome to France.
More or less concurrent with the Renaissance—which began in Florence—was the rise of the House of Medici, also from Florence. The Medicis were a family of bankers that, while considering themselves “citizens” rather than royalty, were far from ordinary. They were responsible for much of the progress in Europe from the 15th century, when Giovanni di Bicci de Medici (c. 1360-1429) founded the Medici Bank. The family has a colorful and convoluted history as they intertwined their family into the most important circles in Europe along their rise to power. They managed to produce three popes, two queens, and a number of other local royal figures. Also, the family, through their bank, financed much of the progress from the Dark Ages through the Renaissance in Italy and a great deal of Europe in general.
What to see in Florence
Where do we start? First, the idea that we could come to Florence and see any significant part of the sights in an afternoon from a cruise ship was just plain silly. Florence was ground zero for the entire Renaissance. Much of what we hold as important in terms of art, music, literature, and especially science, originated here in Florence at the end of the Dark Ages. Some really important stuff happened here. And if the whole Renaissanceidea isn’t important enough, some of the most influential ideas in banking and commerce originated here in Florence with the rise of the Medici family and their world bank.
A statue to Dante who also lived in Florence sits in front of the Basilica of Santa Croce. Photo by Bonnie Fink.
Some of the important sights include the Uffizi Gallery where several important paintings of the Renaissance are displayed, or the Accademia Museum where you can see Michelangelo’s David. We enjoyed the Museo Galileo, a science museum near the Ponte Vecchio (old bridge) in the heart of Florence. It wasn’t the most popular museum in town judging by the fact that there was no line to get in, but science is our interest above art, so it was a good fit. And it was very interesting to learn that of the scientific discoveries being made as the world emerged from the Dark Ages, Florence was in the middle of the action.
Did you know that when the Church placed Galileo under house arrest for life for claiming that the universe did not revolve around the earth, he chose his home in Florence to spend the rest of his life? That’s because he had his main observatory at his Florence home, and since he was going to be under house arrest, he wanted to spend his time continuing his studies in astronomy.
You can see more about Florence in the images we have below. But the problem is, how do you prioritize your time in Florence and see the things that are the most important to you? For many people, any number of museums displaying art from the Renaissance might be important. In our afternoon of free time from our ship’s tour, we found lunch, then made our way to the Museo Galileo because we had heard that Galileo’s original telescope was there. If it was, we didn’t find it, but we found nearly every other notable astronomer’s telescope from the period in the museum. We also found a number of other scientific instruments whose purpose escaped us. We’ll need to return to spend a bit more time just to ponder the things in this one museum.
Ponte Vecchio is a medieval stone arch bridge over the Arno River, built in 1345. When it was built it housed fish and meat markets. Today it consists of jewelry vendors. There’s an interesting story about the bridges over the Arno River in Florence. There are several versions of exactly why the Ponte Vicchio was spared destruction by the retreating German army in world War II, but the fact remains that it was the only medieval bridge to be left standing after the war. Photo by Donald Fink.
One way to see Florence might be to consider a private guide. We had a guide that took us from the ship and around Florence. Her name was Valentina Bassi, and we learned that she also has a private tour business, giving custom designed individual or small group tours of Florence and Pisa. Her web site is at www.florenceandpisatours.com. We plan to re-visit Florence one day in the future, and we think an ideal plan, at least for us, would be to contact Valentina and tell her what we want to see, and arrange for our first day as a private tour with her. We could then plan subsequent visits by ourselves as follow-ups.
The point in using a tour guide to show you the sights is not that we think we need someone to hold our hand as we make our way through the city, but rather, the fact is that a competent guide—as Ms. Valentina most certainly is—has literally years of experience seeing the sights. She has knowledge that would take us time to uncover, and she possess anecdotal stories that we might not ever discover on our own.
Florence today continues to be an interesting center for art, architecture, engineering, or just about any emerging field of study, but for us, that’s not the reason we want to visit again. The history is so full of colorful stories, and so many of the things we’ve heard about all our lives originated in this historical city, it’s rewarding and fun to be able to come here and see where many of them started.
If you have a chance to visit Florence, whether it’s a destination or just a day visit from a passing cruise ship, this is one stop not to miss.
We’ve completed our travels in Germany for this year. We’ve even made a trip to France to visit Disneyland Paris, and there’ll be more articles on all this shortly. But for the moment, we’re in Barcelona, Spain, waiting for our ship to come in. Literally. We’re due to board the Royal Caribbean Freedom of the Seas on Sunday, October 15th. We’ll make a seven day trip around the Mediterranean, then head across the Atlantic for a re-positioning cruise back to Fort Lauderdale.
We planned to spend time seeing as much of the sights in Barcelona as we could, but two factors have kept us closer to the hotel this trip. First, the city is a bit turbulent at the moment. There was a terrorist attack just over a month ago, which has everyone on edge. Second, the political scope of Spain right now—Catalonia in particular—is one of unrest.
Barcelona is part of a region in Spain called Catalonia. Many Catalonians consider themselves apart from Spain and want independence from the Spanish government. In fact, the issue has been around since before Franco took power in 1939, going all the back to Franco-Spanish War 1635. But what’s been happening lately? Well, many of the Catalonians are still wanting independence, and the politics are heating up. Recently there have been demonstrations, mostly in the city of Barcelona, with tensions rising, causing these demonstration to be almost riots, but not quite.
From what we understand, the President of Catalonia has signed a declaration of independence, but has asked the Catalan Parliament to not vote on it, just yet. Apparently there are still negotiations in play behind the scenes that we, the foreign tourists, don’t have the sophistication politically to understand. Certainly there are issues on all sides that would take a far better understanding of Spanish political life in general, and Catalonian life in particular, for us to fully embrace. For that reason, we’ve decided that an opinion by us on the subject is pretty much worthless, so we won’t render one.
Hotel Continental
For now, we’re staying close to our hotel. We’re in our favorite haunt, the Hotel Continental, on La Rambla, near the famous Caltalan Square in downtown Barcelona. We’ve been here before and even posted about it here. The hotel is still eclectic. It comprises 40 rooms, 11 of which are balconies overlooking La Rambla. So far, we’ve only been able to book interior rooms. Never a balcony. So instead of the busy street life outside our window, we get the peace and quiet of an interior court.
Around La Rambla
La RAmbla as it appeared in 1905. By Montse liz – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=23260921
We’ve ventured just around the immediate area, strolling La Rambla from the Square down a few blocks toward the ship terminals. By the way, you may see La Rambla referred to as Las Rambles because it is actually made up of several different named streets. we went with “La Rambla” because that’s what it says on the street signs. Nothing like being there to verify.
La Rambla is a famous street in the Heart of Barcelona. It’s where all the tourists go first, and then spread out to see the rest of the city. There’s an underground train running down the length of La Rambla, so it’s easy to think that the street was made as it is in recent years because of the construction of the subway. In fact, the street used to be a combination seasonal stream and full time sewer in the 14th century. In 1377, construction of new city walls began, and in 1440, the stream was diverted around the new walls. From then on, Las Rambles has been evolving as a popular street.
This is how La Rambla looks today. From a distance, not much has changed. Photo by Donald Fink.
The town actually looks quiet to us, for a busy European city. We see folks from all walks of life. Certainly the Spanish are about, but the streets are full of tourists from all over too. Remember that this is a major Mediterranean port. Folks come here to catch cruise ships as well as ferries to and from nearby cities in Northern Africa. As the weekend approaches, we see more folks from outside the area, possibly from Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia. It reminds us of shopping areas in San Diego, when the weekend approaches and folks come up from nearby Mexican cities to shop. It appears to be the same thing here in Barcelona. At least, that’s our view of what’s happening.
Barcelona is notorious for pickpocketing, but so is nearly every city along the Mediterranean. At least, that’s what we’ve read. We haven’t personally witnessed a single incident of any kind in this town. Of course, that might be in part because we’re in a big city, and as a result, we take precautions. Precautions in this case mostly amounts to not going places we shouldn’t go, not looking like victims, and paying attention to our surroundings.
La Rambla didn’t get our full attention on this trip, but we’ll certainly be back. Barcelona is quickly turning into a favorite town for us, partly because it’s where we tend to catch a ship for a cruise, but also in part because it’s just a fun town to visit. The weather is good and the streets are lively but still reasonably safe. What’s not to like?
Here are a few images of La Rambla from this visit:
