BARCELONA!

Good Day Everyone,

Welcome to Barcelona! It is one of my favourite cities in the whole wide world. It is so lively and vibrant and so so stylish.

Even the Cruise Terminal is very stylish - you would think you were in a modern Hotel Foyer.

The gangway configuration today. As you can see it was a clear sunny day - great for November!

Having a terminal building means that you are leaving the ship much higher and this gives you the chance to study the ARCADIA and see things you would not normally look at like our Fast Rescue Craft, which we would use if there was a 'man overboard' or the likes.

The building above is the impressive Naval Academy, not to be confused with the 'Cusick Academy of Cruising' which many of my staff have graduated from!!!!!

We had a busy morning with arrival formalities and Crew Drills followed by Crew Rounds. This is where the Ship's Company are exercised in their Emergency Duties. Today we had everyone in The Palladium Theatre for Refit Safety Awareness. Then I inspected a section of crew accommodation on the forward end of deck A. We have a Hilton below decks that only we see, 500 crew cabins.

Once all the morning business was cleared up the Blog Luncheon Associates met on the quayside to go in one of my favourite restaurants - Los Caracoles for the best Garlic Prawns and Roast Chicken in town!

I always like to check the table - it is a 'Hotel Trait'.........! There are plenty of private rooms for functions as well...you can see the chickens cooking, and the kitchen staff are very welcoming! I can see my chickens on the top shelf.....

In 1835, the Bofarull family founded one of the most charismatic restaurants in the City. Can Bofarull, in the most emblematic part of the Gothic District, near Las Ramblas. Over time, the restaurant was renamed in honour of its most famous dishes, LOS CARACLOES (Snails). Since then, four more generations of the Bofaurull family have managed to maintain the excellent standard of high quality traditional cooking.

Check out their website -

http://www.loscarracoles.es/

So much to look at in the interior of the Los Caracoles.

I enjoyed the the show last evening and managed a dance in the Electra doing my ship walk, I love dancing, fell in with some good company and, before I knew it I was 'On that midnight train to Georgia'!!!

Must go and see what is going on in the Hotel. Arcadia is now sailing for Ajaccio where we will be at anchor and run a boating operation between the ship and shore.

Best wishes,

James

'No one can know the pleasure of sailing free over the great oceans save those who have had the experience'

Joshua Slocum