THIS LITTLE PIGGY WENT TO MARKET!

Buckle your seatbelts as today is full of surprises and wonderful things. We are finally in Barcelona at long last. We tried to go here two years ago but there was a strike in the port so they wouldn't let us dock there. We had 4 days scheduled there and were going to meet our friend, but that had to be cancelled and it was a big disappointment!

Today, however, is going to be a great day as it is the day that we will be meeting our beautiful friend, Simone Gotz.

We met her parents many years ago and have visited them in Austria and they have come to visit us here in Texas. Simone now lives here in Barcelona and has offered to show us around the city.

She arrived in a taxi at the pier at 9:00 and we headed off to the marketplace called Mercat St. Jose - La Boqueria. It was absolutely wonderful.

She wanted to show us some things that tourists don't usually see and this was the perfect place to start. They had the most beautifully arranged displays of fruit, fish, meat and vegetables as well as candies. The seafood was so fresh that some of it was still wiggling!

I especially liked this beautiful Marzipan.

Then, when I turned around, I saw something that I couldn't believe. These little suckling pigs were all lined up in this meat case just waiting to be roasted. Their little eyes were looking at me and I could not believe my own eyes. I have never seen anything like this before ... not even at Harrods in London! It was fascinating. I'm sure that we would have never gone to the market on our own, but it was one of the highlights of the day.

After we had looked the place over (and it was a huge market), we stopped in a coffee house for a cup of cappuccino and a sweet. Even though the pastries looked delicious, we decided to pass them up and save room for our lunch.

Although most Europeans smoke, for some reason their cigarettes don't seem to smell as bad as ours do. Maybe that's because I won't let it bother me over there. Apparently they haven't taken heed to the Surgeon General's warning. This gentleman was enjoying his early morning coffee, newspaper and cigarette.

From the market we went to La Rambla which is a street in central Barcelona.

A 1.2 kilometer-long tree-lined pedestrian mall between Barri Gòtic and El Raval, it connects Plaça Catalunya in the center with the Christopher Columbus monument at Port Vell. This crowded street is popular with tourists and locals alike.

The middle part of the Rambla is for pedestrians and is bordered by trees as I said before. Kiosks, flower stalls, animal stalls and street artists are everywhere as well as mimes. Traffic passes on either side of the pedestrian area.This street artist was really good.

This one was great fun. Only the boy on the bicycle was the mime.

From there we visited one of the buildings that Gaudi designed. You could get a birds eye view of La Rambla from the top.

I've never been too fond of his work, but if you're in Barcelona you must see some of it. It's a very different style of architecture and is pretty hard to miss.

After we had strolled along the Rambla for a while we stopped at a sidewalk cafe and enjoyed a nice bottle of red wine.

It was called La Venoteca / Torres and was a perfect spot to sit and watch all the beautiful people as they strolled by.

I loved this label with Senor Torres' picture on it.

Barcelona is spotless. While we were sitting there a sidewalk street sweeper came by. You don't see those here in our country, or at least I never have seen one.

From there we went to a restaurant where Simone had made reservations for us called Restaurant 7 Portes. We were told that many generations have come and gone and seen Barcelona blossom into the city it now is - particularly friendly, enchanting and fashionable - with a plethora of attractions and delicious food that you cannot ignore. This place was no exception.

The lovely 7 Portes restaurant opened its doors in the year 1836 and with over a hundred and seventy years of excellence, it is unmistakably one of the city's most classic dining destinations. Barcelona has been home to fishermen and their families since the 18th century, and for nearly 170 years the nearby 7 Portes has been serving their catch to appreciative diners.

The interior has remained the same since the doors were first opened and it is truly charming.

It is one of this cities beloved landmarks and we were so pleased that Simone selected this place for us to have our lunch.

We were both greeted and seated by our waiter who reminded me a little of Keiffer Sutherland and he was charming with a little twinkle in his eye.

I want to add a funny thing that happened. It was warm inside, so Frank hung his jacket over the back of a chair at our table. Our waiter came over, and very discretely placed a white napkin over it so it didn't look out of place. Guess he didn't want the jacket to spoil the decor :-)

Both Simone and the waiter recommended the seafood paella and it was delicious. We had never eaten Paella before and we loved it. What better place to start than in Barcelona! As you can see, even though the portion was huge, we left very little.

It was served with bread and the best olive oil I have ever eaten along with a bottle of very good wine. It was the perfect meal!

After lunch was said our goodbyes to Simone and we came back to the ship. By now it was nearly 4:00 p.m. Frank went back to town a little later in the afternoon to see a few more things on La Rambla. He watched the mimes and also saw part of a filming for a movie with this Senorita dancing.

I decided to go to the spa and have my hair cut. I didn't ask how much it would be, and when they presented the bill to me, the haircut was $85 for a trim. I nearly fainted! I won't do that again any time soon!!! I'm afraid to go to bed tonight for fear that I will mess up my new haircut (it really doesn't look like $85 worth to me!)

We have a half day left in Barcelona tomorrow so we plan on sleeping late in the morning so I can recover from my spa experience!

XOXO, Pcasso