We started with a Cafe 85 visit for a Grande Americano Coffee and a pastry. A fun place to people watch. Then the next event was a 1pm taxi to the other side of town……..
What came next was happy accidental surprise.
So many pastries!!! And so good too!! Glad I lost a few pounds before the trip.Large charactersAnd the little people
We stepped outside the hotel and headed to the taxi stand…… and we were surprised by the music and the parade of “Giants and Dwarfs”. This is a celebration held every September over the last 150 years. The figures tell the story of the Poblenou history. The community began as a strict, deeply religious community then transformed to the present day vibrant cultural hub.
Then it was time for lunch and a little ice creamA guided tour of the Sagrada Família was next on our agenda. Construction began in 1882 and it’s still under construction. It is the tallest church in the world at 566 feet. The original architect, Antoni Gaudi, is buried in the Crypt. Current work is being done using CAD design work and CNC machining. The Catholic Church made it a Basilica in 2010.Interior is spectacular The windows….. fabulous!!Sculptures on the oldest part of the cathedral were from the Spanish Gothic and Nouveau school.of art.The newest sculptures are from the Cubism period.
Our hotel, a great location. 5 minute walk to a beautiful tree lined street with shops, bars, cafes, and restaurants.So many pastries and deli sandwiches. Cafe 85, our breakfast stop for our first two mornings.Waiting for our train to Figueres. It was a little over an hour late. We found a nice young man from Montreal that could explain what was happening to the train. Very few people we tried to talk to spoke English. I guess they expect us to speak Spanish!The Salvador Dali museum. A surrealist of world wide fame. He was a rare artist in that he was wealthy and famous during his lifetime. Born in 1904, died in 1989. His wife, Gala, was his business manager and promoter. She gets credit for his economic success. Seafood Paella, very good first Spanish dinner! Wineglasses were large with a “healthy pour” of a nice house table wine…. half the price of a glass of wine at home!
It was a long flight with very little sleep, arrived in Barcelona at 8 am Spain time (2am Detroit time). We got to the hotel via the black and yellow recommended taxi… very good experience!!! Cab was spotless , fare was less than expected from the estimate. Unlike. Our Uber ride from home to the Detroit airport, it was filthy. We arrived at our hotel at 9:30am and couldn’t get in our room until 3pm. We stored our bags and went down the street and caught the “Hop on, hop off bus tour of Barcelona.” It was a good 3 hour ride around the city.
Nice clean taxi to ur Barcelona hotelHop on bus tour, it quit raining as we got on the busBeautiful tree lined streetsSome interesting graffiti Lots of cool old buildingsSome interesting modern buildingsLast Barcelona bull fight held here in 2011Nice quick lunch at a cafe on one of those tree lined streets. Great people watching!
Uber to the airport was on time, check in was no problem….. now we have a 40 minute delay for our flight to Boston. This leaves us a 2 hour connection to get from domestic terminal to the international terminal for our flight to Barcelona. No problem…. yet🤣
In two days we will fly to Barcelona, Spain. We will meet our friends Greg and Marianne and start a 9 day adventure exploring Spain using their rail system. Then we will fly to Lisbon, Portugal to join a Viking River trip.
Hong Kong, since 1997 is a special administrative region(SAR) of the People’s Republic of China, under the one country, two systems principle. Hong Kong has separate legal, economic , and customs systems. Its sovereignty belongs to China, which handles its foreign affairs and defense. We had a very short visit, 2 nights but only one day of touring.
View from in front of our hotel. Very clean, modern downtown.We enjoyed a pizza, Caesar salad and wine from South America!!!A sampan boat ride around the harbor. Our experienced captain ran a smooth boat!The captain had hands of experience!A sister ship passing nearby.Our dim sum lunch was quite good!!Some things didn’t look so good…. but tasted ok🤣Last stop was a new museum that contained lots of objects from the Forbidden City In Beijing.
A very interesting journey!! I’m looking forward to following news of China in the future. This trip provided some context about China and its people.
We’re glad to be home. 4 weeks is a long time to be gone. Especially when Patty’s phone was messed up (probably my fault ). WiFi was good in most hotels and on the ship. However. I couldn’t send emails , Patty could not send or receive emails. We could occasionally text and we could occasionally make phone calls using WiFi. We FaceTimed with Meg, Oliver and Cecilia a couple of times. Once home it took two Comcast visits before I could find a person that helped us get our email working again.
It was a 30 hour journey to get home and we are almost back to normal after being home 5 days. Time to rest up for our next adventure!!!
A high speed train took us to Guilin for a short two night visit. The train ride itself was very impressive…. fast, quiet, and smooth. The Li River is a beautiful river in mountainous terrain. We also visited the Reed Flute Cave.
The train station in Shenzen was a zoo! Never seen a crowd like this waiting to get on a train. Waiting for our train306km/h equals 190 miles per hour!! It was smooth and quiet. No seat belts required and people were walking around without any difficulty!!The sensation of speed was noticed!! A blur when bushes and trees were close to the track.Comfortable seats on the train. Our ride took 3 hours. It would have been 11 hours by bus!Inside the Reed Flute Cave. The colored lights and music made it look more like a Disney Land ride.Some interesting stalactites and stalagmites. Big problem for us seniors….. no handrails, wet steps, steps cut in the rock and they were uneven, slanted, and not standard height. At times it was so dark it was hard to see the steps. We persevered and nobody fell!🤣🤞We took a 3 hour boat ride on the Li River. Beautiful scenery and a nice lunch. It was great that it was air conditioned as the air temp was 93 degrees!!It was a nice ride on the river and we were one of many boats in a conga line going downstream. It felt a little like a Disney ride. Very comfortable air conditioned cabinBig boats and little boats!!! Lots of boats!!
Another big beautiful city with most of the city built in the last 30 years. City population is 17.5 million, greater metro are has 23.5 million people. It trails only Shanghai and Beijing in economic output. It has the 5th highest numbers of billionaires in the world. Its four main industries are finance, high tech, logistics, and culture. It’s the world’s 4th busiest container shipping port.
I took an excursion to Daren, a village one and a half hours outside of Shenzen. It’s famous for its 10,000 artists that have been painting “original” copies of old world masters works and selling them to many countries around the world. It was nice to get away from the glitz and glamour of the big cities. Daren also has lots of art studios teaching art to students of all ages.Our excursion only had 5 of us tourists, a nice change from other excursions that had 20 in a group. We all got to do some painting and here I am, hard at work.Results of my effort. The studio owner showed me how to write my name in Chinese on the left side of the painting.
A high light for me was the Huihe Stone culture park. Some great old sculptures dating back to 1300 and a studio where artists today practice old world skills. And they teach various art skills. They also have a stage for hand puppet shows and demonstrated old world musical instruments.
Classic Buddha statueArtist “shadow carving” on a polished black slate.Shadow carving looks something I could do!I got to try my hand at shadow carving.I got this!!! However, Patty says no new hobbies Rod!Puppetry is also an old Chinese art form. I think I can do this!!! I’m bringing two of these puppets home and grandkids and I will have some fun!!
The largest island in Fijian province, 5th largest in China. it’s where the East China Sea changes name to the South China Sea. The tour director calls our itinerary thee String of Pearls”, I feel we are seeing the best of China. Slums/ghetto housing has been nonexistent on our tour. We haven’t seen a homeless person. The boat is staffed by all China crew and the trip leaders/guides have been trained in China. So….., I’m guessing that we are getting a sanitized view of China. The guides all seem very proud of what China has accomplished since 1995, and they should be. What we see is big cities that are spotless, fairly quiet, and air quality is much improved from my one trip to Canton/Guangshou back in 2005.
The touristy beach of 68 mile point. The closest mainland China is to Taiwan… 68 nautical milesKind of like a touristy little beach town. Looks like fun! There isn’t any sand, just big and bigger rocks. We saw a young family and the two children , about two years old, had their buckets and shovels and were trying to “dig” in the solid rocks. This old vw bus used to be a coffee/tea shop. Now it’s just part of the ambiance 🤣A small sandy beach but no one was on the beach, appears off limits to the public. Red buildings on the hilltop are a Buddhist temple.One of many street sweepers. We were told that old people could volunteer to do this a few hours per day and earn a little money. ???
