Our boarding of the Regent Seven Seas Voyager was delayed by two days, for the ship had some technical problems, but never really explained.   Barcelona  itself is a fine spot for culture and cuisine, known to be Beautiful, Artistic, Historical, Convenient and Fun.  The Sagrada Familia, the life-work of Antoni Gaudi, in particular, is a sight to remember.  Construction began in 1882, and might well actually be completed a century after his death in 2026.  That this church ever got this far is a miracle in itself, for no religious organization is paying for it, nor any governmental agency.  Ticket sales and private donations have kept it going. We showed up at the ship port site and were shunted off to a remote hotel for two days, which was actually not all that bad, for we were sent to a part of Spain we'll never see again, the lunches were great and the hotel, Eurostars, excellent.  One lunch was beef, and the other was fish. Finally, arrangements were made, we went back to Barc

  Borrowed those above terms from  Laura Viarengo .  Barcelona: Is next to Madrid as the second largest city in Spain, with 1.6 million within the city limits and a metro area of 4.8 million. Founded as a Roman city around the time of Jesus Christ. Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castille were married in 1469.  It was not a love-match, but a highly choreographed political union that united Spain.  They commissioned  Christopher Columbus for his voyage to discover America . Of course,  Asians entering North American nearly 16,000 years ago  formed Indigenous Americans. Further, in 1405 Chinese Muslim eunuch Zheng He launched the first of seven voyags west from China across the Indian Ocean, and over the next 30 years commanded the world's largest fleet funded by the Ming Emperor.   He discovered America in 1421 .  His ships were gigantic compared to that of Columbus. Hosted the 1992 Summer Olympics. Barcelona is the UNESCO-UIA World Capital of Architecture from 2024-2026. 

 Note the title of this posting.  I'll explain why.  Final view of the Cotton Club....our spiral staircase. A few more street scenes as we drove to the Barcelona Port. Cities don't seem to have bus tours anymore.  You now only see these jump-on-off buses. This is the W Hotel we also use. As we approached Terminal B, where the Regent Seven Seas Voyager was supposed to be docked, we saw instead the Oceania Vista. Turned out that our ship had  technical problems and was delayed to another port for fixing.  So we had to be bussed to an overnight hotel. After a ride of 45 minutes to Sitges, we see the Eurostars Hotel above a golf course. Excellent view from our room.  Nice and new hotel. Lunch was extraordinary.  Steak with beer, red wine from this region and sides. A neighboring table ordered fish, so had to take this photo. We finished lunch at 2:30PM, so thought we'd just have salad for dinner in the bar.  Just about the worst Caesar Salad I've ever had. Walked 2188 steps