7 may the Sagrada Familia and the cruise begins

We woke up and made sure we had packed all of our things for the cruise ship. We were each traveling with only a carry on that expanded, Margie had borrowed Rosemary's, so it was pretty easy for the hotel to hang on to our cases until our tour was over.
We went for a quick breakfast at our little coffee shop around the corner, came back, checked out and caught a cab to the meeting point at the plaza Catalunya.

It was raining out quite hard and so we waited  under the overhang of the large office building we were supposed to wait by and looked for our tour guide. Margie's trusty souvenir umbrella. was one of many being used that morning.  There were several groups meeting there and we had to find the right one.the one with the orange umbrella. there are a lot of orange umbrellas out there it seems. We did of course find them as they were looking for their people too and eventually all the people for our little group of about 10 were ready to depart.

We hopped onto a bus which drove us to about two blocks away from the church. The tour buses used to be able to go to the road right beside the basilica but someone got ran over a year previous snd so now no buses were allowed to drop off or pick up with in two blocks of the church.it was a pleasant enough walk as the rain had slowed to a sprinkle and the pace was not too fast.

Our tour guide was a lovely young woman with lots of great information about Gaudi and the cathedral.  Margie and I had been to the cathedral the day before and had taken quite a few photos outside the church but now that things were explained to us it made the whole outside facade far more interesting. It also had words on it , all over the place.  On the facades, and the doors, one door was all words and very beautiful.
Each facade told a story about a different part of Jesus life, his birth on one side, his life and on another side the story of his death done in the cubist style which was very interesting but not a style one sees in a church very often.

The animals  and insects around the outside were each in their own way representing a different aspect or quality of religious life.  Apostles, saints and those characters involved with Jesus life were all there. Fascinating that the church was still being built and would be done by 2026 hopefully barring any unforeseen happenings.
Wikipedia says"The Basílica i Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Família (English: Basilica and Expiatory Church of the Holy Family) is a large Roman Catholic church designed by Spanish architect Antoni Gaudi. Although incomplete, the church is a UNESCO world Heritage Site and in November 2010 Pope Benedict XVI consecrated and proclaimed it a minor basilica as distinct from a cathedral, which must be the seat of a bishop.

Construction of Sagrada Família commenced in  1882 and Gaudí became involved in 1883, taking over the project and transforming it with his architectural and engineering style, combining Gothic and curvilinear Art Nouveau forms. Gaudí devoted his last years to the project, and at the time of his death at age 73 in 1926, less than a quarter of the project was complete.

Sagrada Família's construction progressed slowly, as it relied on private donations and was interrupted by the Spanish Civil War only to resume intermittent progress in the 1950s. Construction passed the midpoint in 2010 with some of the project's greatest challenges remaining and an anticipated completion date of 2026, the centenary of Gaudí's death.

The basílica has a long history of dividing the citizens of Barcelona: over the initial possibility it might compete with Barcelona's cathedral, over Gaudí's design itself, over the possibility that work after Gaudí's death disregarded his design, and the 2007 proposal to build an underground tunnel of Spain's high-speed rail link to France which could disturb its stability.

Chief architect Jordi Fauli announced in October 2015 that construction is 70 percent complete and has entered its final phase of raising six immense towers. The towers and most of the church's structure are to be completed by 2026, the centennial of Gaudí's death; decorative elements should be complete by 2030 or 2032. Visitor entrance fees of 15-20 euros ($17–22) finance the annual construction budget of 25 million euros ($28.38 million).

The inside the church was other worldly, not like any other cathedral or church I had been in. Yes there were columns and stained glass windows and statues of saints, but the whole interior was like a honey comb of activity very gothic and I thought very reminiscent of some of the architecture of the Alhambra, very moorish. I had heard one person say it would be at home in Elrond the elfish kingdom in the lord of the rings and that I thought  was very true.

After our tour we popped into the gift shop and purchased a few souvenirs for ourselves and family and headed back to the hotel to grab our things. we asked the taxi driver to wait and take us to the ship and h said he would. The hotel is on a one way street which at that time, for some unknown reason was very full. so he backed into the street to get a parking spot and said he would wait for us there. It was a short street so was not an inconvenience to us, but how odd, to back into a one way street. we grabbed our luggage from the lovely hotel Ofelias and headed off to the ship .

We arrived at the port and when we went to enter the building they asked to see our passports. I could not find mine. Panic mode set in. I tore through my suitcase. I thought on no I will have to go back to the hotel to see if I left it there. the Agents looked on. I went through my purse and the agents started to ignore me. I went through my suitcase again. Then my purse again. Then I found it! With a loud sigh of relief and the panic mode changed into one of lets go on a holiday and I sure hope I never go through that again! Margie was very concerned thinking that she might have tho go on the cruise by herself. no, not really. Margie- I was concerned. I wouldn't have ever gone on without dennie! Talk about stress!

 We entered the terminal and waited in a fairly short line. I asked one young man how long a wait and he said one half hour. I understood One and a half hours and was sad to think that it would take that long. He tried to explain it to me that it would not take that long, and I wanted to believe him. the line went very quickly and before we knew it we were at the counter being signed in for our room.

there was a small problem printing our room cards but that was cleared up and then we were  on to the next step. passing the different tables for the drink packages , dining packages and the spa packages. we stopped at the spa package table. Signed up for the three for a deal on our days  at sea and continued onto our ship. the Norwegian Spirit. W e were on the ship in no time found a map and found our room. no luggage yet so went exploring the ship.

Lunch was the first order of things and then a little exploring . We found the pool with the 4 hot tubs, the pool for the kids with 1 hot tub, the excersise deck and the library with the internet. then it was time for our life boat drill. we were boat 22.
we found the art gallery and I won a bottle of Champagne for being the most enthusiastic person in the room. we brought it with us to dinner and shared with the couple at the next table. for the rest of the trip he called us Champagne.

then a nice after dinner show and back to our room. we had luggage. yea! unpacked got organised, read the daily newspaper for the next days activities, down loaded pictures. charged our batteries for our cameras and went to bed.

Saying goodbye to Mazatlan again friday 20 January

Notes from Diane after i left
7 Feb

Tis la Carnival time, and the place is hoppin'...parade is tonight, same time as "some game"!!!! or soon after.   Very colourful and musical...streets and beaches are full of happy people and colourful costumes.   Such fun.   This goes on for a few days....I might have to hide out.    I will take some pictures and send them, yep, yep, good times.   Hear you guys are having great weather....good on ya.  

Sheri, how are the renovations....Kelsey, good luck with your new job, tell me all about it....Brad, enjoy the "superbowl"  and the "beaver tail"?????? in the big City!

Hugs to everyone....miss you all!   Di

the parade Feb 8th

Wow   

the pre parade dinner

then floats and fishy floats

 floats and bright coloured floats

and half naked floats  and horses

Rene from northern Toronto, now lives Stone Island, wanted to remember why he moved to sunny Mexico.....too much fun!

Diane

Mazatlan - day 2 - Saturday - Jan 23 - beaches and beads

Slept like the dead until 5ish and then read my book had a cup of tea took some lovely photos of the full moon on the ocean. I love holidays. The sound of the gentle surf helped me to sleep so well I think.

A return to Mazatlan - Day one - Friday Jan 22

Sleeping the night before a trip where you have to leave early is always awful. I woke up at 1127 pm and thought well I have lots of time to get back to sleep as I did not have to get up till 330  so I fell asleep again.  I had a long dream. I woke up and it was 1128 pm. oh my god.  I went to sleep again and repeated the above procedure one more time waking at 1129pm .  Good grief!
When I woke up the next time it was 345 and i jumped up and got ready to go. I walked to the Varscona, so glad it was not cold out, and waited the 10 minutes for the sky shuttle which I had pre booked two days before. While waiting in the hotel i met a nice lady who was going to Ottawa. she was a consultant and travelled a lot so we chatted about our favourite places. the shuttle was already loaded with people that as I listened to them they seemed to be Inuit ,although when I first got in I thought 'oh a bus full of asian tourists?' t when we got to the airport I checked in got to my gate and grabbed some water and an egg salad sandwich for breakfast. The flight to Vancouver was uneventful. Read my book '15 Dogs.' by Andre Alexis. It is very good. Vancouver Airport is very nice and I did not have a long wait till the next flight . I did pick up some fruit and cheese to smnack on thinking that they would give us something on the plane. Continued to Mazatlan and there I sat next to a couple from Winnipeg. We all took turns napping and reading and watching various things on tv. I watched 'The man from UNCLE' and had a nap for 45 minutes, two separate snacks and some gingerale. Customs was easy and getting my bag (although it seemed to take a long time) was painless. Getting out to the buses was another story. As I exited the customs area there was a lady holding a sign Money Exchange and yes I wanted to do that so I exchanged 500 canadian dollars for 5440 pesos. I then tried to locate the bus that was arranged to take me into town. I asked a gentleman for the prona tours and he said he would show me where to go and took me to another gentleman in the same area behind a little desk who proceeded to tell me about different tours in the area and that he would give me tickets to go on theses tours plus 150 dollars US . I was rather confused and told him so. that was when he told me he would give me the money and free tickets for coming to listen to the talk at the time share hotels for just an hour.
 NO thanks and I departed through the second set of doors to find my bus. when I did they told me the gentlemen inside are called sharks by the regular bus and taxi drivers. so finally onto the right bus to go to Mazatlan. Except that we were delivering people to all kinds of hotels along the beach and so I did not get to my hotel until 5 by which time I was so hungry as I did not have lunch.Diane was there waiting for me since 4 and so we immediately went to supper at the hotel . well right after I checked in and dropped my things into my room and odd and aaawwwwd over the view from my little balcony. supper was soon good. might have been the fact that I was soon hungry. then we went to her apartment which is just a little bit farther away than i thought but not by much. we then came back and went shopping to a few little stores and picked some dolphin earrings for my grand daughter Mary, my daughter Shauna will get the dolphin necklace and earrings for me to lizards. that move. how fun. listened to the band play old tunes from the 70's and then went to the hotel said good night around 8 and fell asleep pretty fast.

6 May Barcelona flamenco and fountains

we got a taxi from Guell park and headed off to our flamenco show and dinner.

He knew exactly where to take us and it did not take long

getting our tickets was easy

there was a pre show with instruction on Flamenco clapping and drumming.
Margie- Dennie was a really good sport and participated in learning the beat of
flamenco.

I did take part in both and the clapping is of course much easier than the drumming

the dinner was very good
the show was very good.
Margie- I enjoyed very much  you first taste of flamenco and all the fancy footwork!

the wine was very good

the evening was very good

we took the metro back to the hotel

We got back to the hotel and she arranged a tour for us of the sagrada familia the next morning , lovely lady, and told us about the fountains just up the street at the park we were at earlier in the day.

we headed off past the traffic circle that was still very busy.

Past the venetian towers and the conference centre.
Now the pools were fountains and there were hundreds of people walking around. There were street vendors with blankets on the ground selling all kinds of little souvenirs. castanets, musical frogs. t hirts. selfie sticks.
we walked on over the little bridge and it was getting very crowded now.

working our way through the crowd we came to the stairs which I almost fell down, dark and crowded is my only excuse although I could also say I was distracted by the fountains.
The big fountain was on with music and lights and hundreds of people taking pictures of either other people the fountains or themselves. I have heard of selfie addicts.
Margie- it was a fantastic show! Half of Barcelona must have been there! A lot of young people.  I got a few souvenirs from  the street vendors.


We enjoyed the fountains very much and there were literally over 50 fountains going besides the large musical one.the crowd was a nice mix of all ages with tourists and locals and probably a few pick pockets for the unwary.

We followed our route from our walk in the morning going up the escalators to each level to see the different fountains lit up with different colours and the night views. I love outdoor escalators! then we wandered back to our hotel and said thanks to the night clerk who had told us to go and see the fountains and had arranged for our tour of the Sagrada Familia the next day.  Sleep came very quickly that night with magic fountains still playing in my minds eye.

6 may morning and afternoon in Barcelona parks, funiculars,castles and Gaudi

Woke up early and went looking for a restaurant. The hotel had a breakfast room which looked very nice but at 18 euros we thought we might be able to do better. the restaurant across the street which advertised breakfast was not open and we were early.  We continued around the block and found a little coffee shop/ restaurant that was open and had some very nice breakfast sandwiches and coffee for 5 euros each. Much better price for breakfast.

Went to find the ho ho bus (Hop on Hop off) and we were too early by 45 minutes so went for a walk through the Venetian Towers and down the lovely Avinguda de la Reina Maria Cristina lane towards the park. We passed some people lined up outside a large conventions center like building. Maybe it was a comic book convention. There was a large robotic spider like crab machine in the parking lot which we thought might be part of the convention. A Robotics convention? Margie- I think it                                                           was a comic con or anime convention.

We passed lots of pools that when they were turned on might be fountains. We were early. They probably don't get turned on till 10 or eleven maybe. Across  little pedestrian foot bridge and into the park with more turned off fountains and gardens and out door escalators.  Great! I love Barcelona! Outdoor escalators!
Margie- the tile work on the stairs was wonderfully done and very beautiful!

A pause for photos of each other and the stairs we would not have to walk at each level as the escalator phenomenom continued for a few more levels. Then we were at the end of the escalators by a large building which I believe was the art gallery or a museum of some sort. (one of Catalonia's finest museums, the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya (MNAC). which of course .... was not open.... we were too early. there was however a Great view of Barcelona.

 The park continued and we found our way to the Olympic stadium which we had seen on the HO Ho bus yesterday. If the weather was not clear at least it as not hot or crowded.  there was odd art installations although they also may have been lighting for the evening we were not sure. the stadium itself was impressive but smaller that I would have thought. We picked up a few souvenirs at the gift shop which was open (Finally something was open) and continued on to find the ho ho bus stop.

After wandering through a few more small but interesting gardens named after famous people we found the stop for the ho ho bus.
We hopped on but only stayed on for a few stops as we wanted to go to the fernicular to ride up to the castle Montjuic. We found the vernacular and there was no line so we just went right up  and Margie was not even worried a little as the ride was assmooth as silk

 " Wikipedia says "Barcelona's Montjuïc is a broad shallow hill with a relatively flat top overlooking the harbour, to the southwest of the city centre. The eastern side of the hill is almost a sheer cliff, giving it a commanding view over the city's harbour immediately below. The top of the hill (a height of 184,8 m) was the site of several fortifications, the latest of which (the Castle of Montjuïc) remains today. 

The fortress largely dates from the 17th century, with 18th-century additions. In 1842, the garrison (loyal to the Madrid government) shelled parts of the city. It served as a prison, often holding political prisoners, until the time of General Franco. The castle was also the site of numerous executions. In 1897, an incident popularly known as Els processos de Montjuïc prompted the execution of anarchist  supporters, which then led to a severe repression of the workers' struggle for their rights. On different occasions during the Spanish Civil War both Nationalists and Republicans were executed there, each at the time when the site was held by their opponents. The Catalan nationalist leader Luis Comanys i Jover was also executed there in 1940, having been extradited to the Franco government by the Nazis"

 Of course we did not know all that we we went there. It was just a lovely castle on a hill with an exceptional view of Barcelona.

During the course of my reading about Mountjuic I discovered that things that happened there that affect my life and most people on the planet every day. In June 1792 the French astronomers  Jean Delambre and Pierre Mechain began their attempt to measure the distance between Dunkirk and Barcelona with the fortress on Montjuïc chosen as the reference point in Barcelona. After much ado since France and Spain were technically at war Méchain made his measurements from the  fortress on 16 March 1794.

Using this measurement and the latitudes of the two cities they could calculate the distance between the North Pole and the Equator Equator in units of length and hence produce the first prototype  metre which was defined as being one ten millionth of that distance. The the origin of the Metre.  Who knew? Marvellous what those people of old times accomplished was truly amazing. I love learning things this way.

After the castle we took the vernicular down and just missed the HOHO bus so walked down through the park to what we thought would be the next stop. We did in fact go on an adventure through areas most tourists do not see. they were nice areas though with lots of steps down and then this one hill we had to walk back up which reminded us both of a hill  in our youth we used to call the devil's dip which was so steep who would even think to build on it. Really tuckered us out. 

We ended up back in the garden but a new one this time and then down through some schools, cooking and music I think and then to the plaza Espana where we grabbed some lunch from our little coffee shop restaurant and then caught the HO Ho bus to the Sagrada Familia the church that Gaudi is still building even though he is dead.

Wikipedia says "The Basílica i Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Família  (or in english the Basilica and Expiatory Church of the Holy Family ) is a large  Roman Catholic Church designed by Spanish architect Antoni Gaudi (1852–1926). Although incomplete, the church is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and in November 2010 Pope Benedict XVI consecrated and proclaimed it a minor basilica as distinct from a cathedral which must be the seat of a bishop.

Construction of Sagrada Família commenced in 1882 and Gaudí became involved in 1883 , taking over the project and transforming it with his architectural and engineering style, combining Gothic and curvilinear Art Nouveau forms. Gaudí devoted his last years to the project, and at the time of his death at age 73 in 1926, less than a quarter of the project was complete.

Sagrada Família's construction relied on private donations and was interrupted by the Spanish Civil War only to resume intermittent progress in the 1950s. Construction passed the midpoint in 2010 with some of the project's greatest challenges remaining and an anticipated completion date of 2026, the centenary of Gaudí's death.

The basílica has a long history of dividing the citizens of Barcelona: over the initial possibility it might compete with Barcelona's Cathedral over Gaudí's design itself, over the possibility that work after Gaudí's death disregarded his design, and the 2007 proposal to build an underground tunnel of Spain's  high speed rail link to France which could disturb its stability. Describing Sagrada Família, art critic Rainer Zerbst said, "It is probably impossible to find a church building anything like it in the entire history of art" and Paul Goldberger called it, "The most extraordinary personal interpretation of Gothic architecture since the Middle Ages."

We thought that it being a church we could just go in but no the tickets were all sold out for that day. how many tickets do they sell a day? We walked around the outside and took a few photos and then decided to go to the Guell park which is Gaudi's park.  while we waited for the ho ho bus I sprinkled Mom and Dad in the park across the street from the Sagrada. A nice park with a great view.

We caught the ho ho and ended up walking a good distance up another hillbefore finding out that quell park was also sold out of tickets until 830 that night and since we had plans already for the eying we decided t just wander around the park that was open.It was very cool and we saw lots of his things that he designed. My Mom would have loved Gaudi for all I know she did knew about him  and did love him. his claim to fame is mosaics. crazy mosaics.