Princess Cruises - The destinations we visited...Barcelona
I have already blogged about life onboard the ship, and now want to pass on my opinions and tips about the destinations visited on the trip. As a family of 4 people excursions can add a lot to the holiday cost as each excursion cost is multiplied by 4. Since we enjoy exploring a place independently we opted not to book the official ship excursions as it is cheaper to do your own exploring. I use cruises to mostly visit destinations I have not been to before so that I can see if I would want to return separately if I think it worthwhile.
Barcelona, Spain:
Barcelona is a big city and there is a lot you can see and do. One drawback with visiting from a cruise ship is that you only have one day to see what you can. Since time was limited we bought tickets for the hop on hop off bus. This gave us a recorded commentary as we went around and allowed us to get to the major attractions fairly quickly.
We took the port bus into the city and joined the hop on hop off bus at the bottom of Las Ramblas - the most famous street in Barcelona. The bus took us along the beach area before heading inland to the city. We got off so we could photograph Casa Battlo - one of Gaudi's famous buildings.
We then took the second hop on hop off bus to get to La Sagrada Familia - the Cathedral designed by Gaudi that is not yet completed. The hop on hop off tour then took us the area of the Olympic Stadium. There are amazing views of the city. Having returned to the city we walked around the gothic quarter as this is the oldest part of the city. We followed a route which we found online.
What did I think about Barcelona? We would want to visit again to be able to spend more time seeing the attractions fully. It is rare to have an attractive city that has a beach and you could easily spend 4-7 days here with plenty to keep you occupied.