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.<\/p>\n
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\u2014Catalonia in particular\u2014is one of unrest.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n