Bob and Tracy's big adventure - Barcelona, Spain and Canary Islands
Barcelona, Spain and Canary Islands
Day 1 -CHICAGO - First stop on the journey. Dinner with friends Bob & Maureen. Rode the elevated train into The Loop. Wandered around Grant Park. Good start to the trip. Staying right downtown on Michigan Avenue across from Buckingham Fountain in historic hotel built in 1893 for the Columbian Exposition. I have wanted to stay here since I was a little kid. Day 2 - Chicago - A lot of fun, but HOT with the temperature around 95. The Architectural cruise on the Chicago River was amazing. We were joined by Skip and Lesley for the day. We managed to just miss a heavy, windy downpour with lots of lightened when we had dinner. It was dry and much more comfortable after dinner. Day 3 - Chicago - It was a relaxing day with some shopping, strolling, and too much food. Much nicer temperature for wandering around. State Street, Subway rides, Navy Pier, dinner with friends and the Jazz Fest. Great way to wrap up our trip to Chicago. Day 4 - BOSTON - Nice day. We missed the rain earlier in the day. We walked a little of The Freedom Trail, had dinner in a great Irish Pub and wandered around the downtown area. Day 5 - Boston - History day - Walked The Freedom Trail all around downtown. Finished the day with a nice dinner overlooking Boston Harbor. It was fun walking through Little Italy and all the narrow streets. A sudden downpour made dragging the umbrellas along a very smart move. Wouldn't you know it, not a pub in sight to wait out the rain. It didn't last long though. Day 6 - BOSTON TO ICELAND - Arrived about 11:30 pm. Didn't get to bed until 2 am. Day 7 - ICELAND - The vistas are on a large scale. Wish we had more time here. No chance that we could pronounce just about any street names. Luckily everyone seems to speak English everywhere we went. Day 8 - LONDON - Perfect weather, 81 and sunny. Started out by taking the underground to St. Paul's Cathedral. Huge, magnificent, too big to comprehend in just a few hours. Then the British Museum. Amazing collection. Surprising that Egypt and Greece have anything in their museums, because England has it all. Then Piccadilly Circus, Buckingham Palace before dinner at a pub. Outstanding Steak Pie, but still miss COLD beer. After dinner we took a ride on the London Eye, which blew us away. Then strolled down to The Globe Theatre along The Thames River. We walked across the Millennium Bridge at sunset before taking the underground back to the hotel. 20,797 steps, 10 miles of walking today. We also took the underground 7 times today. We have that down. People were out all over town this evening because of the perfect weather. All the pubs and cafes were overflowing. We timed our stops perfectly and always had a table. Hard to pick just a few photos out of the 147 I took today. Day 9 - London - We managed to get a traditional London drizzle most of the morning, but then it cleared and was a glorious afternoon and evening. We managed to do everything on our London list. For those of you studying for the exams to come, we went to: London Tower, Tower Bridge, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Churchill War Room, Boat Ride on the Thames, Trafalgar Square, Wellington Arch and Harrods. We took it easy today and only walked 19,561 steps, 9.42 miles. Last night in London. Went to another pub for dinner. Had to get Fish and Mashers. Leaving London in the morning. Day 10 - DOVER - We took the Underground to St. Pancras Station and then took a high speed train out to Dover. Great train ride, very smooth, quiet and comfortable. Once in Dover we boarded the Ocean Princess Ship. We had a great view of the White Cliffs of Dover from our balcony. We had a smooth crossing of the English Channel overnight. Day 11 - NORMANDY - We arrived in Le Havre, France at 6:15am. We took an excursion to Juno and Omaha Beaches and Point du Hoc with a stop at the American cemetery at Omaha Beach. It was incredible and very much worth seeing. If you have seen the movie The Longest Day, then you can imagine what was going on in the places we were standing. Lunch was at a very nice French Chateau. Day 12 - OCEAN PRINCESS - Day at Sea. Kicking back and regrouping today. Rough Seas in the morning are giving way a bit as we cruise south around France. Very good food. Smallest ship we have been on, but quite nice. Day 13 - Ocean Princess - Day at Sea. Still heading south around Spain and Portugal. The sea was much calmer this morning. Beautiful day at sea. It's amazing how badly we needed these two days at sea to relax and recover after 11 days of travel. Yesterday the ship looked like it was empty, nobody was out and about. Today everyone is out. We spent the day reading by the pool. Well, reading and eating. Did I mention how good the food is? Possibly the best cruise food we have had. Day 14 - Cadiz, Spain - This was a surprise stop. We were supposed to be in Portimao, Portugal today, however, there is a national labor strike and last night the captain announced that we could not enter the port and were going to Cadiz instead. We were looking forward to the ocean kayaking we had planned in Lagos, Portugal and knew nothing about Cadiz. It is 70 miles south of Seville. As it turned out, we loved Cadiz! What a beautiful, fun city with miles of wide beaches and miles and miles of narrow cobblestone streets. We wandered around and stopped for lunch at one sidewalk cafe, had ice cream cones at another and beer at yet another. It turned out to be a better stop than Portimao. Day 15 - Gibraltar - The country is 3 miles long and 1 mile wide. The airport has the main hwy running right across the runway. The Rock of Gibraltar has the most incredible natural cave we have ever seen. It is used for concerts. We took the tram to the top of the Rock and walked back and forth across it as we descended stopping at gun emplacements, tunnels dug into it, site of a fort and a Moorish castle built in 1333. There are tailless monkeys on the Rock that are not scared of tourists. One had to be chased out of the cafe near the top. The Crown Princess docked right next to us. It was like seeing an old friend. We have cruised on her twice. It gave us a perfect opportunity to compare ships. Our current one is about 1/3rd the size. Day 16 - Ocean Princess - Day at Sea - Lounged around and recovered from the 10 mile hike on The Rock of Gibraltar yesterday. Everyone was talking about how great Gibraltar was. It was lobster tail night in the dining room. A crowd pleaser. Very good stage show in the Cabaret Room. All in all a very nice day at sea. This may be our last day of rest for awhile. Day 17 - Barcelona - Wow, we could have easily spent a few days here. We got lost, well, temporarily headed in the wrong direction, and it worked out great. We wandered through the botanical garden, down to the zoo, found a huge fountain that blew us away and then got back on track. We had to jump on the subway to make up for lost time, but we managed to see everything we planned on seeing. We only walked about 9 1/2 miles today, but there were some very steep stretches. We loved Barcelona!