John Edward Cooper’s Notes
Friday 30 August 2013
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[2013] [Thursday 29 August 2013] 09:00–18:00 Barcelona Day 242 Friday 30 August Ezekiel 13-15 This was the Cruise News for today:     And this was the Explore Ashore:   Janet wrote: “[Got] up [at] 7.15am.… Whilst [John] was showering, I decided to book a “late check-out” cabin for tomorrow for our comfort… So I went to Reception and organised that. Now we don’t have to vacate our cabin at 8.00am tomorrow morning. ([We] still have to put cases out before [we go to] bed [tonight], though.) We can stay [in our present cabin] until 9am [before we move to the “late check-out” cabin]. Pick-up time for our Majorca tour is 9.20am so that’s perfect. If we’re lucky enough to have our current cabin we can stay in it until 4.00pm tomorrow, so can leave our hand-luggage, etc., in there, and hopefully use the safe — and [John] keep that chair — until we go. If we can’t, we just need to transfer our final bits to the other cabin at 9am — [we] can still stay in this one until then — and have the use of it until 4.00pm tomorrow. I feel a lot happier about tomorrow now and can enjoy the rest of the holiday.” When we went for breakfast, again I wasn’t troubled by any loss of appetite. Ca.9.10am we went off the ship to join the coach for the “Barcelona City Highlights” tour. It was sunny and hot.  Friday 30 August 2013 — 09:12:24 Leaving the ship to join the coach  Friday 30 August 2013 — 09:13:10 Leaving the ship to join the coach  Friday 30 August 2013 — 09:31:20 Views from the coach: Aduana (customs building)  Friday 30 August 2013 — 09:34:12 Views from the coach: Columbus Monument  Friday 30 August 2013 — 09:37:02 Views from the coach: Columbus Monument (right) and Gobierno Militar (military government) building (left) The coach took us up Montjuïc, which afforded a good view over the city; indeed, there was a photo-stop there.  Friday 30 August 2013 — 09:52:38 View of the city from the Jardins del Mirador, Montjuïc  Friday 30 August 2013 — 09:53:00 View of the city from the Jardins del Mirador, Montjuïc  Friday 30 August 2013 — 09:53:14 Sagrada Família seen from the Jardins del Mirador  Friday 30 August 2013 — 09:54:56 Jardins del Mirador, Montjuïc Then we stopped at “El Poble Espanyol” (Catalan for “the Spanish Town”), not far from there, still on Montjuïc. It was constructed in 1929 for the International Exhibition held in Barcelona that year. Architectural styles from all over Spain were recreated street by street and square by square. It was only needed for the period of the exhibition (six months), then it was going to be demolished, but it was kept open by public demand as a museum. It rather reminded us of Portmeirion.  Friday 30 August 2013 — 10:10:38 Entrance to the Poble Espanyol (Spanish: Pueblo español, “Spanish Town”), Montjuïc  Friday 30 August 2013 — 10:13:46 Poble Espanyol  Friday 30 August 2013 — 10:14:48 Poble Espanyol  Friday 30 August 2013 — 10:15:58 Poble Espanyol  Friday 30 August 2013 — 10:16:18 Poble Espanyol  Friday 30 August 2013 — 10:18:46 Poble Espanyol  Friday 30 August 2013 — 10:19:28 Poble Espanyol  Friday 30 August 2013 — 10:21:00 Poble Espanyol  Friday 30 August 2013 — 10:21:10 Poble Espanyol  Friday 30 August 2013 — 10:21:36 Poble Espanyol  Friday 30 August 2013 — 10:22:16 Poble Espanyol: coat of arms of Spain  Friday 30 August 2013 — 10:23:14 Poble Espanyol  Friday 30 August 2013 — 10:23:48 Poble Espanyol  Friday 30 August 2013 — 10:26:30 Poble Espanyol Then we proceeded to the Gothic Quarter.  Friday 30 August 2013 — 10:38:54 The Palau Nacional (National Palace) and Four Columns, Montjuïc  Friday 30 August 2013 — 10:40:40 Former bullring, Arenas de Barcelona, Plaça d’Espanya  Friday 30 August 2013 — 10:41:20 Central monument, Plaça d’Espanya (The following was written on 18 Sep. 2013, trying to follow the route in Google Street View, sometimes spending much time trying to locate the photos, especially two in Plaça Sant Felip Neri.) The coach stopped in Via Laietana and deposited us in the square, Plaça de Ramon Berenguer el Gran, for a walk through the Gothic Quarter. Facing away from the street, at the far left corner of the square we turned left into Carrer de la Tapineria, right into Baixada de la Llibreteria, and right again into Carrer del Veguer.  Friday 30 August 2013 — 10:55:12 In Carrer del Veguer, approaching Plaça del Rei (“King’s Square”) After stopping in Plaça del Rei (“King’s Square”) to look around,—  Friday 30 August 2013 — 10:58:08 Looking around in Plaça del Rei: extreme left, Palau del Lloctinent; upper left, Mirador del Rei Martí; ahead, Palau Reial Major (royal palace); right, Capilla de Santa Ágata  Friday 30 August 2013 — 10:58:20 Looking around in Plaça del Rei: Capilla de Santa Ágata  Friday 30 August 2013 — 10:58:30 Looking around in Plaça del Rei: Capilla de Santa Ágata  Friday 30 August 2013 — 10:59:00 Looking around in Plaça del Rei  Friday 30 August 2013 — 10:59:06 Looking around in Plaça del Rei —and going briefly into one of the buildings on the square, Palacio del Lloctinent (“viceroy’s palace”), which houses the General Archive of the Crown of Aragon,—  Friday 30 August 2013 — 11:01:22 Gallery of Palacio del Lloctinent (viceroy’s palace) —we left the square by way of Baixada de Santa Clara, passing the apse of Barcelona Cathedral to our right, as we continued along Carrer de la Pietat. This way wound right and left, till it came to Carrer del Bisbe, into which we turned right.  Friday 30 August 2013 — 11:02:36 Catedral de la Santa Creu i Santa Eulàlia (Cathedral of the Holy Cross and Saint Eulalia)  Friday 30 August 2013 — 11:03:20 Carrer de la Pietat  Friday 30 August 2013 — 11:04:10 Carrer de la Pietat  Friday 30 August 2013 — 11:04:22 Bell-tower of the Cathedral seen from Carrer de la Pietat  Friday 30 August 2013 — 11:04:42 A door of the Cathedral seen from Carrer de la Pietat  Friday 30 August 2013 — 11:06:00 At the end of Carrer de la Pietat, looking left down Carrer del Bisbe Nearby, to the left, was Plaça Sant Felip Neri, where we went, before going back and entering the cloistered garden of the Cathedral. Janet recalls that the guide told us that they kept 13 white geese there; I must have dropped behind at this point, taking photos.  Friday 30 August 2013 — 11:09:10 Església de Sant Felip Neri  Friday 30 August 2013 — 11:09:34 Plaça Sant Felip Neri  Friday 30 August 2013 — 11:12:26 Cloistered garden of the Cathedral  Friday 30 August 2013 — 11:12:40 Cloister of the Cathedral  Friday 30 August 2013 — 11:13:16 One of the numerous side chapels lining the cloister of the Cathedral  Friday 30 August 2013 — 11:13:46 Another of the numerous side chapels lining the cloister of the Cathedral  Friday 30 August 2013 — 11:14:18 Relief seen in the cloister wall  Friday 30 August 2013 — 11:15:34 Cloister of the Cathedral  Friday 30 August 2013 — 11:15:40 Cloister of the Cathedral  Friday 30 August 2013 — 11:15:50 Craft-guild symbol in the paving  Friday 30 August 2013 — 11:17:52 Fountain in the corner of the garden: Sant Jordi slaying the dragon  Friday 30 August 2013 — 11:18:10 Fountain in the corner of the garden  Friday 30 August 2013 — 11:19:00 Catedral de la Santa Creu i Santa Eulàlia: looking towards the apse  Friday 30 August 2013 — 11:19:36 Catedral de la Santa Creu i Santa Eulàlia  Friday 30 August 2013 — 11:19:58 Catedral de la Santa Creu i Santa Eulàlia: apse  Friday 30 August 2013 — 11:20:46 Catedral de la Santa Creu i Santa Eulàlia: opposite end (north-west)  Friday 30 August 2013 — 11:21:18 Catedral de la Santa Creu i Santa Eulàlia  Friday 30 August 2013 — 11:22:02 Catedral de la Santa Creu i Santa Eulàlia: central choir stalls  Friday 30 August 2013 — 11:22:28 Catedral de la Santa Creu i Santa Eulàlia  Friday 30 August 2013 — 11:23:56 Catedral de la Santa Creu i Santa Eulàlia: central choir stalls  Friday 30 August 2013 — 11:24:30 Catedral de la Santa Creu i Santa Eulàlia: north-west end  Friday 30 August 2013 — 11:25:54 Catedral de la Santa Creu i Santa Eulàlia: tower at the north-west end  Friday 30 August 2013 — 11:26:52 Catedral de la Santa Creu i Santa Eulàlia: three of the many side-chapels  Friday 30 August 2013 — 11:29:20 Catedral de la Santa Creu i Santa Eulàlia: north-west façade  Friday 30 August 2013 — 11:31:00 Catedral de la Santa Creu i Santa Eulàlia: north-west façade Coming out of the cathedral, we were given some free time, so Janet and I went to a nearby café for refreshments. I was pleased, when I asked for “cerveza”, that the waiter’s pronunciation was indistinguishable from mine! We met up back in the square, then proceeded on foot by a more direct route than the outward one to the square where we’d left the coach, and where it was back waiting for us.  Friday 30 August 2013 — 11:40:52 Refreshments  Friday 30 August 2013 — 11:40:52 Refreshments — detail  Friday 30 August 2013 — 11:56:22 Passing the same café, on Avinguda de la Catedral, on the way to the coach  Friday 30 August 2013 — 11:58:18 Capilla de Santa Ágata (Chapel of St. Agatha), seen from Plaça de Ramon Berenguer el Gran where the coach both dropped us off and picked us up We had a bit of a tour of the city, seeing buildings by Gaudi and the like, then were deposited some blocks away from Gaudi’s masterpiece: “Basílica i Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Família” (Catalan for “Basilica and Expiatory Church of the Holy Family”). The guide led us around for the best views of the two completed façades: the Passion Façade and the Nativity Façade. It’s hoped to complete the other two for 2026, the centenary of Gaudi’s death. We’ll have to revisit, and go inside, then, God willing.  Friday 30 August 2013 — 12:10:16 Views from the coach: Gaudi’s “Casa Batlló”  Friday 30 August 2013 — 12:11:16 Views from the coach: “Casa Amatller” designed by Josep Puig i Cadafalch  Friday 30 August 2013 — 12:11:32 Views from the coach: “Casa Amatller” and “Casa Batlló”  Friday 30 August 2013 — 12:12:54 Views from the coach  Friday 30 August 2013 — 12:14:40 Views from the coach: Gaudi’s “Casa Milà”  Friday 30 August 2013 — 12:17:16 Views from the coach: Lápiz (“pencil”) Obelisk  Friday 30 August 2013 — 12:18:10 Views from the coach: “Casa de les Punxes” designed by Josep Puig i Cadafalch  Friday 30 August 2013 — 12:20:34 Views from the coach: Plaça de Mossèn Jacint Verdaguer  Friday 30 August 2013 — 12:24:20 Views from the coach  Friday 30 August 2013 — 12:34:06 Basílica i Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Família (“Basilica and Expiatory Church of the Holy Family”): Passion Façade  Friday 30 August 2013 — 12:34:28 Sagrada Família: Passion Façade  Friday 30 August 2013 — 12:34:28 Sagrada Família: Passion Façade — detail  Friday 30 August 2013 — 12:35:20 Sagrada Família: Passion Façade  Friday 30 August 2013 — 12:36:18 Sagrada Família: Passion Façade  Friday 30 August 2013 — 12:36:24 Sagrada Família: Passion Façade  Friday 30 August 2013 — 12:36:38 Sagrada Família: Passion Façade  Friday 30 August 2013 — 12:36:46 Sagrada Família: Passion Façade  Friday 30 August 2013 — 12:37:28 Sagrada Família: Passion Façade  Friday 30 August 2013 — 12:44:36 Sagrada Família: Nativity Façade  Friday 30 August 2013 — 12:45:54 Sagrada Família: Nativity Façade  Friday 30 August 2013 — 12:46:08 Sagrada Família: Nativity Façade  Friday 30 August 2013 — 12:46:24 Sagrada Família: Nativity Façade  Friday 30 August 2013 — 12:47:02 Hint of stained glass within  Friday 30 August 2013 — 12:49:18 Basílica i Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Família  Friday 30 August 2013 — 12:50:12 Basílica i Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Família Then, back to the coach to resume and conclude the tour.  Friday 30 August 2013 — 13:08:22 Views from the coach: Arc de Triomf  Friday 30 August 2013 — 13:09:48 Views from the coach: Palau de Justícia  Friday 30 August 2013 — 13:18:48 Views from the coach: Columbus monument and Aduana (customs building)  Friday 30 August 2013 — 13:20:12 Views from the coach: Aduana We were deposited back outside the port terminal ca.1.30pm. We were both feeling weary, and I was feeling footsore (not nearly as bad, though, as, say, when traipsing round Pompeii), so we had no intention of going ashore again or exploring a city of many, many identical-looking street-grids alone. In the terminal building was a souvenir shop; we wanted an item to put on the cabinet at the top of the stairs at home, to go with the Jerusalem menorah, the alabaster Tutankhamun, etc., and chose a little, multicoloured ceramic mosaic frog for €12. We went back to the cabin, then a little later went for lunch. We sat outside on the pool deck till ca.2.30pm — “then [Janet wrote] I decided I should no longer put off ‘the evil hour’” — i.e. put off doing the packing — “and we returned to our cabin. [John] sorted photos — had a brief kip — and I packed. I hate packing.” Copied today’s photos (96) from the camera (13:42–13:45 — i.e. 14:42–14:45). Edited many of them with Photoshop (two, 13:48–13:49 — i.e. 14:48–14:49; seventy-six (including one cropped duplicate), 14:30–16:43 — i.e. 15:30–17:43). Presumably, the gap — 14:49–15:30 — was the time when I “had a brief kip”. “I was done by ca.4pm,” Janet wrote: “the cases were all ready to be put out before bed, so I was able to relax and chill out.” Ca.6pm we went out on deck for some photos of the city before departure.  Friday 30 August 2013 — 17:59:18 Views from the ship  Friday 30 August 2013 — 17:59:38 Views from the ship  Friday 30 August 2013 — 18:00:00 Views from the ship  Friday 30 August 2013 — 18:00:26 Views from the ship  Friday 30 August 2013 — 18:00:34 Views from the ship  Friday 30 August 2013 — 18:00:44 Views from the ship  Friday 30 August 2013 — 18:00:52 Views from the ship  Friday 30 August 2013 — 18:01:26 Views from the ship  Friday 30 August 2013 — 18:01:36 Views from the ship  Friday 30 August 2013 — 18:01:44 Views from the ship  Friday 30 August 2013 — 18:01:50 Views from the ship: White trash melanoma-seeker (Homo stultus)  Friday 30 August 2013 — 18:01:58 Views from the ship  Friday 30 August 2013 — 18:02:06 Views from the ship  Friday 30 August 2013 — 18:02:14 Views from the ship  Friday 30 August 2013 — 18:02:24 Views from the ship Then we went to the Lido Restaurant for dinner. We went in the Argo bar hoping to catch the end of the performance by the piano-and-violin duo Boros Art that started at 6.15pm, but they’d finished. “[John] returned to the cabin,” Janet wrote, “and I looked round the shops and bought myself a bracelet…” There was a letter telling us that the “Sóller Train” tour tomorrow had been cancelled because only 15 people had expressed an interest. That’s the problem when you have a shipload of obese morons whose only interests seemingly are gross gluttony and sunburnt sloth. I really loathe and despise “homo stultus”. Atheroma and melanoma take them all! I went out to take last photos as the ship left Barcelona.  Friday 30 August 2013 — 18:46:18 Views from the ship leaving Barcelona  Friday 30 August 2013 — 18:46:38 Views from the ship leaving Barcelona  Friday 30 August 2013 — 18:46:46 Views from the ship leaving Barcelona  Friday 30 August 2013 — 18:47:16 Views from the ship leaving Barcelona  Friday 30 August 2013 — 18:47:46 Views from the ship leaving Barcelona  Friday 30 August 2013 — 18:51:26 Views from the ship leaving Barcelona  Friday 30 August 2013 — 18:51:58 Views from the ship leaving Barcelona  Friday 30 August 2013 — 18:57:52 Views from the ship leaving Barcelona  Friday 30 August 2013 — 18:58:00 Views from the ship leaving Barcelona  Friday 30 August 2013 — 18:59:00 Views from the ship leaving Barcelona Copied the rest of today’s photos (25) from the camera (18:35 — i.e. 19:35). At 7.45pm we went to the Broadway Show Lounge, early so that we’d get good seats again for the 8.15pm performance. At 8pm a number of children went on stage and did a dance routine they’d been taught. One girl was better than the others, but none of them had any cause for embarrassment. Then at 8.15pm it was “Dance Hall Daze”, music from the 1960s, then 1950s, then 1940s. Very enjoyable! Back in the cabin, continued and completed editing today’s photos (forty-five (including one cropped duplicate), 20:28–21:54 — i.e. 21:28–22:54).[i] Janet had a shower, did this and that, and updated her journal. There was a letter pushed under the door telling us which “late check-out” cabin we’d been assigned (not the present cabin — 5075 — but one not far along the corridor — 5099), with instructions for vacating our present one and occupying this one. “It’s now 11pm,” Janet wrote. “I’ve set the alarm for 7am as we want to make the best use of our last day, and I’ll get my head down now. It has been another wonderful day.” Judging by my final photo-edit time, 22:54, I “got my head down” not long after Janet did.
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