When my daughter and I were planning this trip and I saw Barcelona, Spain on the cruise port list, I thought it would be a nice place to visit but I have to admit that  it wasn’t on my bucket list of places to see.  Let me just go on record as saying “put Barcelona on your bucket list.”

When people ask me what the biggest surprise was of the trip, I tell them that I didn’t expect to love Barcelona.  I knew I  would love Italy and France but I really didn’t have any expectations about Spain.  My daughter, on the other hand, had a huge list of places she wanted to see.  She had so many that we didn’t get to see them all.

We decided that we do Barcelona on our on and not pay for a tour through the ship.  Not only was this a huge savings but we had the opportunity to go where we wanted to go, when we wanted to go.  Barcelona has an awesome bus system and I recommend that you take advantage of it.  They will give you a booklet with all of the stop locations and you can choose where you want to “hop on and hop off”.

The first place on my daughters list to visit was the Gothic Quarters.  As we exited the bus we looked around to see where we need to start.  I noticed a crowd of people in what looked to be a town square almost directly in front of the bus stop so my daughter and I headed that direction.  She reached the area before I did and suddenly stopped.  She turned to me and with a big grin on her face telling me to hurry.  As I reached the square, I looked to my left and saw this church.  I think my mouth just fell open.  It was breathtaking, stunning, and any other word you can think of that means it just took my breath away.

The Barcelona Cathedral (Catedral de la Santa Cruz y Santa Eulalia) also known as La Seu dates back to 1450, but it’s not its age that is most impressive. The immense cathedral is a testament to architectural achievement, and its roof is famous for being peppered with numerous ornate gargoyles. It is one of the best examples of Gothic architecture in Europe, and the cathedral is a mecca for historians, architects or people who just love to look at beautiful things. Santa Eulalia’s body is also here, entombed in the crypt.

The Cathedral is a lot more than it’s Gothic facade.  We thought we were exiting the cathedral and ended up with an unexpected surprise.  This lovely courtyard complete with orange trees and geese.

I just had to snap a picture of this little girl peeking through the fence.  The geese swam right up to her and seemed to be enjoying her as much as she was enjoying them.

We came out of the church and wandered up and down a labyrinth of narrow winding streets.  It didn’t take us long to get lost.

I have to admit that this was breathtaking and I would have loved the opportunity to spend the entire day there.  There was so much to see and we only made it around a small area.