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.