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Mediterranean - 18 May 30 2023 Barcelona, Antonio Gaudi's wild designs

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 Our last day in Barcelona was spent touring with an independent company, Barcelona Day Tours,  with two important new goals visiting Gaudi's Park Guell, and revisiting the Sagrada Familia to see the inside. There was some overlap with the last two days, I plan to only include new info/photos here. Motel One continues to be an excellent place to stay.  The rooms are small, modern, clean.  The staff is very helpful ordering taxis, suggesting restaurants.  Wifi is fast. The common areas are spacious and fun, and we sill love the roof top views. Our ride picked us up from the hotel at exactly 8:40  to take us to the general meeting place where we met Marc, the tour guide for the morning and 8 other guests.  Tour started at 9am. We loaded into a 12 passenger van a started with a general tour of Barcelona. Barcelona hosted the 1992 Olympics. Many of the sporting venues were held at Parc de Montjuic, a small mountain that overlooked the city of Barcelona and on the other side to our surp
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Mediterranean - 17 - May 29 2023 - Disembark Viking Star, to visit Barcelona

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 We've left our room on Viking 5087, it seemed empty.  Today we'll tour Barcelona on our own.  We had arranged a private car through Vikiing to get to our hotel, but that fell through.  We aren't worried.  There were a lot of taxis outside the terminal yesterday. Last night we attended a local Catalan show. Energetic, heavy on rhythm and flashy dancing. We listened to Enrico on the piano one last time.  He had company as one of the Viking singers sang three arias (opera).  We aren't opera people, but her voice was amazing with so much emotion.  We could be converted. This morning the fishing boats were returning.  There were swarms of birds with each boat.   We guessed that the fisherman were cleaning their boat of unwanted catch. Having seen the Sagrada up close yesterday, Phil recognized it from a distance - from our ship! It is 8:30 am. We wait quietly in the Explorer Lounge enjoying a cup of tea.  We packed up last night, the checked luggage was picked up outside th
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