Hola!
Good Morning everyone, this is your captain speaking. I hope you all enjoyed last week in Italy and this week on our beautiful ship. After traveling 600 plus nautical miles, we have finally arrived in... Barcelona, Spain! Barcelona has so much to offer and I hope you take this week to see the beauty of it. The weather here looks like it will be sunny and in the high 80’s. That’s all for now and I catch up with you all soon!
Barcelona was founded by the Phoenicians and the Carthaginians. The Romans then arrived to claim this area during the first century B.C. and then named Barcelona, the capital of the region in the third century. However, Barcelona fell into the hands of the Visigoths in the fifth century. It was then captured by the Moors in the eighth century and stayed like that for 100 years until the Franks took it. The entire region was divided into countries and Barcelona was considered the most important. Count Wilfred the Hairy established the Catalan Nation and a hereditary system of succession began.
In 988 Count Borrell II secured Barcelona’s independence from the Carolingian empire; it later became known as Catalonia. Barcelona became a part of the Crown of Aragon because of a marriage between two royal lines. However because of this marriage the city began to lose its power and importance. Catalonia went to war with Spain and declared its independence with a little help from France in the 17th century. When the Industrial Revolution began, Barcelona returned to its status of a great and powerful city. After the death of the dictator, Catalonia regained its complete political authority. And finally Barcelona was free to become one of the most important and elaborate cities in Spain.
Alright, I know what you’re thinking ...why am I reading a whole history chapter? Although it can be boring to some, it’s important to see how this beautiful city came to be. Now we can officially explore Barcelona.
Sights
A lot of the architecture was inspired from all the countries that ruled Barcelona. It shows the diverse cultures that once surrounded Barcelona. Many buildings were built by Gaudi as well.
Port Vell
La Rambla
Sant Pere Santa Caterina i la Ribera
El Born
Placa Antonio Lopez
Catalunya
Placa de la Sagrada Familia
Girona
Food
Many assume that Spanish foods are burritos, tacos, and enchiladas. These would be considered Mexican food, which are quite different from traditional Spanish food. Here in Barcelona, you can find many tapas (small portions of food) places. There are also cafes in every corner, so of course I tried some.
While walking around the city, we ended up being in Eixample. Eixample is a district of Barcelona between the old city and the new city; it has an extremely long, straight street with a grid pattern. There were food stalls every 6 feet, so I had the opportunity of trying a lot of traditional Spanish food. I ended up having some Gazpacho, which is cold tomato soup (shown below), grilled prawns, chorizo street tacos, ham croquettes, Las Patatas Bravas, (shown below) which are potato cubes with sauce, and a lot of tapas. By the time we got to the end of the street, I had never been so full before.
The next day I went to some beach and tried the infamous Paella (shown below). Now if you’ve ever heard of traditional Spanish food, then this has definitely come up! Paella is a rice dish that can have vegetables or seafood. I ended up sharing a vegetable paella with my family since my mom doesn’t eat seafood and the portions were HUGE. We also got Tres Leches (3 layer milk cake) for dessert.
Somehow during the week, I ate one of the best Margherita pizzas. We also found this extremely good Crepe place where I was able to choose to stuff my crepes with ice cream. I ended up going there every night after dinner with my family.
The food was amazing and the sights were beautiful. The week in Spain was definitely one to remember!
Back on board
Good evening everyone, this is your captain speaking. I hope you’ve enjoyed the rich history of Barcelona had to offer and ate all the food you could. We are about to leave the port in 15 minutes, so I hope everyone is back on deck! It will be a while until we reach our next destination, so until then enjoy every aspect of the ship. Adios!