Last week I reviewed Royal Caribbean’s Oasis Class ship Harmony of the Seas. You may recall that I mentioned we took Harmony on a transatlantic cruise out of Barcelona starting at the end of October 2021. What I didn’t mention is that we spent three nights in Barcelona before boarding Harmony. So, over the next four weeks I’ll be presenting to you images of that trip to Barcelona, culminating with a Fun Food Friday restaurant review on February 11 of a tapas place so impressive that we returned to it all three nights we were there.
It was a bright, sunny day when we finally arrived at our wonderful hotel, the amazingly located Catalonia Portal de l’Àngel. You’d be hard pressed to find affordable accommodations at a comparable location. Catalonia Portal de l’Àngel is on a pedestrian street just minutes away from the bustling Plaça de Catalunya.
Alas, the weather was not expected to hold, and rain was forecast for Day 2. Ursula had prepaid for us a two-day pass on City Sightseeing’s Barcelona Hop-On Hop-Off Bus Tour, so we wasted no time taking advantage as soon as we dropped off our luggage at the hotel. We hustled over to the east side of Plaça de Catalunya, picked up our passes, then strolled over to the west side of the plaza to catch a Red Line tour. City Sightseeing offers a Red and a Blue tour, and a third Green tour operates during the summer. Here’s the route map for all three:
My recommendation for the Hop-On/Hop-Off is to take the upper deck, as in most cities the views above beats the views below.
I’m going to stop here for today, as we have much to cover over the next four weeks. Until Wednesday, I’ll just leave you with the photo gallery/slide show taken on Day 1 while cruising the Red Line:
Decisions — Murder in Paradise
The Globe — Murder in Luxury
R. Doug Wicker — Author 