Bienvenidos!!

any resemblance to Queen Mary II as seen in Vigo, Spain, is coincidental
Bienvenidos! Welcome to Barcelona! the second largest city in Spain and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1.6 million people. The place I have been calling home for the past 13 years. It is located on the Mediterranean coast between the mouths of the rivers Llobregat and Besòs, limited to the west by the Serra de Collserola ridge (512 m). Click here if you would like to listen to Freddie Mercury and Montserrat Caballe performing live and singing "Barcelona" to get started (it is awsome! it was part of the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games '92). And here is a "Welcome to Barcelona" (short) video from You Tube you also might enjoy .





I see our Captain is already loudly slurping so we'd better get going! Look for the amiga (friend) wearing this badge AND carrying a digital camera, she's the official photographer while you visit this port and she is the person to talk to in case you need any information/help/glass(es) of sangria.
She apologizes for the poor quality of the following pictures but Spain's main actor - the sun- wasn't playing along that day the photographer happened to have the chance of some aerial views. Below is the Olympic Port, built for the summer olympics 1992.


Next you can see the port for the ferry services: Balearic Islands and Mediterranean ports. Separated by the new Trade Center Office Building from the old port (Port Vell - the city's old harbor , which you see on the right.

And below you see the pier where the large cruises stop:

Visual exercise: see if you can find the white communications tower (as pictured below) on the above picture. Hint: it's at about 9:50! we will of course visit the Olympic stadium, for you to see the wonderful communications tower , one of the landmarks of the Olympic Games 1992, designed by the Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava.

But first we will first go for a walk through the ramblas (Las Ramblas in Barcelona is a 1.2 Km walkway through the very heart of the city centre. Here you will see all sorts of stalls, restaurants, bars and street performers along with the many thousands of people that promenade up and down the Ramblas until the early hours of the morning) and maybe sit at a cafe just to watch people go by! one of my favorites passtimes.

For your information you won't find flamenco music in Catalonia, you'll have to book another cruise including Seville, in Southern Spain for that!

A special parade has been extra organized for the cruise

On our way we will stop here: La Boqueria's Market, located in the emblematic Ramblas of the city. It's the biggest market of Europe and, probably of the whole Occidental world. Read more about it here

for the hungry tourists there are fruit plates ready to eat!



If you are not counting calories (and you really shouldn't while you are on this cruise!) you'd love to try the local tapas, available any time, any place, always a delicious little something! particularly appealing since there is no clear sign of the cruise chef and we don't want to be hungry.

After that there will be free time to do some shopping at "El Corte Ingles", the department store found all over Spain. There is no competition, only the new shopping malls which are found in the suburbs.

There are of course many, many chic boutiques and chain stores where you can spend your money! When we are done shopping or if you don't feel like going inside on a beautiful day like this one, we can walk around the Catalunya Square right across the street from the store. Here are different views from the surrounding buildings.

Some are very new like the one pictured below. It used to be an empty lot , just an ugly spot right in Barcelona center. There was a big discussion afterwards because the new building is a modern one and didn't follow the classical lines of the existing buildings... at least it looks a lot better than before and it hosts two of my favorite French stores: Habitat (for home decoration) and fnac (audio, media, books, lots of books, I could spend days in that store!)

Some 5 blocks away from the square you can find one of Gaudi's famous buildings: La Pedrera on Passeig de Gracia.

Afterwards we will go to for a swim or a lazy afternoon, your choice, but I am sure you will enjoy the Mediterranean , Barcelona has many beaches to offer. Just because somebody was asking I found out this information from the net: Although this (Mar Bella beach, metro stop Poblenou in Barcelona)is unofficially a nudist beach there are many people that go here that are not nude. In fact Spanish law says that it is permissible to be nude anywhere as long as it does not cause a disturbance. But this is not recommended. So there is no such thing as an official nudist beach in Spain only one's where people unofficially elect as nudist.

The one you see below is "my beach" as seen from "my" hill during one of my walks. It's a quiet place during the week and 5 km/ 3 miles long but forget the peaceful atmosphere on weekends! That's why we stay home on summer weekends and watch the crowd from the distance. Don't forget sunscreen and a hat. You might want to ask Melli for suggestion on the most fashionable hat. If you lost your shoes while partying in Oslo and Waterloo, I am sure Sanni can find something for you to wear among her 400++ pairs of shoes she brought along!.

While we wait until the sunset we'll have the chance to drink some cava, the Spanish sparkling wine made by the champagne method, 95% of the national production is actually produced in Catalonia with main producers being Codorniu and Freixenet, salud! (can't let those Vikings go home thirsty!!). Before the stretched limo takes us back on board for fine dining and dancing (and I am not forgetting drinking! the three Dimensions) we will quickly stop downtown to take a look at another Gaudi building, which looks fascinating either way, night or day, the Casa_Batllo.

And here is a small album I found for you to look at while you plan the next visit to this friendly city, which has much more to offer than what one can cover in one day. Buenas noches! Hope you enjoyed the quick and tiny tour and that you still have lots of energy to party and to continue with Mrs. Lifecruiser's cyber cruise! Check the schedule here!! There is a mystery tour tomorrow at our charming ICL's !! does it have anything to do with the missing chef? I guess after a few Salud on board we can all start singing as preparation for tomorrow's mystery destination. Here we go:

Roll up, roll up for the mystery tour.
Roll up, roll up for the mystery tour.
Roll up AND THAT'S AN INVITATION, roll up for the mystery tour.
Roll up TO MAKE A RESERVATION, roll up for the mystery tour.
The magical mystery tour is coming to take you away,
Coming to take you away.
The

magical mystery tour
Lifecruiser cyber cruise
is dying to take you away,
Dying to take you away, take you away.

Importante!
The Cyber Cruise Scheduled ports
Lifecruiser Cyber Cruise in Technorati
Captain is slurping loudy
ICL's: in celebration of cyber cruise
Melli's flamenco experience

The cruise:

Day 1: Stockholm
Day 2: Oslo RennyBA's shopping,RennyBA's party,TorAa's
Day 3: Waterloo, Belgium, Gattina
Day 4: yours truly
Day 5:ICL's pirate attack
Day 6:Berlin, Sanni
Day 7: