We had two days in Barcelona, but we didn’t spend much time in the city. The two Holland America ships, our Volendam and the Zuiderdam were berthed stern to stern where Holland America staged something called the Grand Reunion. I will deal with that in another post. But most of our time in Barcelona was taken up with those activities.

However, in the late morning and early afternoon the first day Suzi and I got off and just rambled. First through the World trade Center area and the waterfront squares and then down the Rambla, the city’s main center of activity.

My only real goal was to get to the Palau Guell, a mansion built for the Guell family. It is open to the public, but we did not get inside due to long lines and tired feet.

Across the street is the Hotel Gaudi with a tiled staircase and several souvenir shops selling Gaudi themed animals. One was a sea otter.

St George is the patron of Barcelona. His day was the day before we arrived and some of the decorations were still up. The official Catalonian flag is a series of horizontal yellow and red stripes. The flag of those wanting independence has added a blue triangle with a five pointed star to the flag in the fly. It is in homage to Cuba which has its independence.

On our ramble, we enjoyed the artists who stand perfectly still except for some whimsical move. A knight, perhaps St. George, was one of them. When I approached him his lance dropped like a toll gate. I plunked a Euro into a funnel, the dragon at his feet let off steam and the lance rose allowing me to pass. Another of these artists was Gaudi himself.

We passed by the portside buildings twice. I noticed that one of the buildings was topped by several griffins. They all had nets over them. Are they afraid that in the dead of night one of the stone griffins will spread its wings and fly? Suzi suggested the netting was to keep seagulls and pigeons from landing.

It didn’t work