31/7 Bumming in Barcelona

Tuesday 31^st Barcelona

I couldn’t get J up in time for the 7.30 stretch but we went up and did a really good one in our own time, followed by a spa and session in the sun. We were the only 2 there for the morning quiz and won pens and rings with flashing multi-coloured lights that grandchildren will love . . unless we decide to keep them lol.

A funny thing – its hard to remember the days of the week when you are cruising because they are all the same. We suddenly noticed this morning that there is a removable panel in the floor of the lifts that says “Tuesday” . . (on Tuesdays). Somebody must have to go round and change them all every day.?

We didn’t get into Barcelona until 10 am today – having spent 9 days here recently we don’t feel compelled to go into town and we have moored a long way out across a bridge. So we had a lazy and indulgent day. There was quite a turn out for the evening trivia and we won with Hannah (and she is now officially upgraded from “scatty” to “manic”). There were a lot of bonus points awarded for dancing and we compensated for lack of knowledge about Motown (or Mootown as the Croatian quizmaster says) and guessing that the mystery song at the end came from . . . Croatia of course.

This is a very exceptional boat. This morning we toured the rock climbing wall, large mini golf course, full basketball court and the padded roller blade track. Tonight we have tickets for the song and dance show ON ICE! There is a large ice rink down in the bowels of the ship. The only thing we don’t have, which is only available on the newest and largest ship (which happens to be Royal Caribbean) is a Flow Rider. Kinda like those pools where you swim against a current . . this one you surf down a ramp that has 30,000 gallons a minute of water being pumped up the slope.

The ice show was very good. If someone had told us that there was a boat with a squad of 10 professional ice skaters and a rink big enough for them all to zoom around at once we would have said they were crazy. They managed to incorporate gymnastics and contortion as well. Very different. We dragged ourselves up to the 11^th where they were holding a white party as the boat slipped out of Barcelona. This was not because we had any white garments or that we had a sudden urge to dance – we had heard that they were going to be giving out the flashing rings . . but they didn’t.