Barcelona

We had a rather unusual time slot for our Barcelona visit. We arrived at noon and departed at 10:30 p.m. The timing allowed me to get on the Internet in the morning and find some sights I had not seen. My back-up plan was the hop-on/hop-off bus which is an excellent choice for the first time visitor. It provides a good overview of the city but Barcelona is so large that it is difficult to do the bus and see the sights in any detail.

Pic. 1 is of the modern cruise ship terminal. Barcelona has a racket going where they charge 3 Euros round trip to go to the city and back. This route is about a 5 min. ride through the port. There are empty docks close to the city where you can walk on/walk off the ship but then they wouldn't get to charge the fee so they had us dock further out. Every port we have been in has provided a shuttle bus service for free if it was required.

Pic. 2 is of the port building where the shuttle bus takes passengers. Pic. 3 is of the statue of Christopher Columbus. The hop-on/hop-off bus can be seen in the lower left corner. I was still toying with the idea of taking it but then saw how crowded it was and the long line to get on so decided to take the metro.