Tampa to Barcelona April - May 2019

Carol was a stewardess in the early 1970s for Pan American Airlines. Pan Am, was the principal and largest international air carrier of the United States from 1927 until its collapse on December 4, 1991. It was founded in 1927 as a scheduled air mail and passenger service operating between Key West, Florida and Havana, Cuba. Early this year Carol learned of a Pan Am employees reunion cruise from Tampa to Barcelona. This sounded like a nice event and had the bonus of departing from Tampa where we could visit Reta and Joe.

Reta and Joe have a lovely property with an extensive lawn and nice trees with a pond.

Reta and Joe stocked the refrigerator with breakfast stuff but took us out for all the other meals.


There is a semi-tame stork that Reta enjoys feeding
When the news gets out that Reta has food, more birds appear. I count 12 in this picture. Most are Ibis, several Muscovy ducks and a seagull.

Being from a desert state, we were interested in going to the beach. Carol waded in a bit to check the water.


Howard Park beach at Tarpon Springs



I looked at some of Reta's paintings on display in their house and photographed this nice rose.


Reta had a nice gardenia bush that we borrowed a few blossoms from to sweeten our cabin.

 
Here we are boarding Royal Caribbean for our cruise to Spain. Notice all the cartons of food waiting to be loaded aboard.

This is the imposing view seen immediately upon boarding. A band was playing in the atrium and the glass elevators were taking passengers to their cabins on the upper decks.
Here is where Carol put the gardenia blossems. It gave our bathroom a nice scent

Pulling out of Tampa Bay and heading under the Sunshine Skyway Bridge

Taking a selfie out on our cabin's balcony
View of the ship's top deck with hot tubs, pool and big movie screen

We arrived in Key West behind another cruise ship. It looked like all the damage from hurricane Irma of 2 years ago has been repaired. Click picture for a larger image. Click your browser back arrow to return here.


In Sept. 2017 when we were in Key West on our way to Cuba, we saw these small boat docks that had been ruined by hurricane Irma.

Looking down from our balcony, we decided we would go sightseeing on one of these Conch Trains


We saw this marker on our Conch Train tour but it did not stop for a picture so I copied this from a post card.

 


Birthplace of Pan Am. Click picture for a larger image. Click your browser back arrow to return here.

 
Back on the ship, we enjoyed walking on deck under the life boats (1 screw) and ship's tenders (2 screws). Click picture for a larger image.


Our cabin TV could be tuned to a channel that displayed the ship's progress from Florida through the Bahamas and out into the middle of the ocean.

 
Half way to the Canary Islands


Here we are out in the middle of the Atlantic and it is as calm as a pond. We are motoring at about 20 knots (23 MPH) We have been looking for fish or dolphins but have only seen about half a dozen flying fish.

 
This is part of our group of former Pan Am employees up in the lounge having a few drinks. The fellow in the white shirt standing in the center is Stuart Archer a former pilot and the organizer of this reunion. He was full of flying stories, some funny some not.

 

 Posed picture of the Pan Am group. Stu on the left end, Maryann on the right end, June 3rd from Maryann in black and JT took the picture.
This is the main dining room on formal night. The service was great and the food was reasonably good. Carol let me wear her Pan Am wings.

 

As an extra nice occasion one night, some of us decided to eat in a specialty small dining room. We were served multiple courses and each course came with its own wine as you can see from all the glasses. The surprise event was the chocolate sphere desert pictured at the right.


Click on the desert for the action video that will open in a new YouTube tab.

After 6 days at sea, this was our first sighting of the Canary Islands. We docked at La Palma.

I am a volcano enthusiast and since the Carnary Islands were all formed by volcanos, I was off to visit the most recent one.

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In places the trail at the rim was only single file
I picked up a piece of lava as a souvenir. The hot magma contains dissolved gases and when it reaches the surface these gases expand and leave this porus lava.

After the volcano, we visited a winery


The wine was interesting but not my preference

 

Next we visited a pottery shop
Their pots were not painted, only adorned with impressions
Their kiln

They called this a dragon tree
A banana plant with a purple flower and green bananas

The trees in the banana plantations were densely planted. Bananas are a major export of La Palma. Click picture for a larger image.

We departed La Palma and arrived the next day in Tenerife. A tanker came along side to refuel us.
On March 27, 1977, two Boeing 747 passenger jets, KLM Flight 4805 and Pan Am Flight 1736, collided on the runway on the Spanish island of Tenerife. 583 people were killed, making it the deadliest accident in aviation history.

The monument was inaugurated on March 27, 2007 (the 30th anniversary of the disaster), in the presence of many relatives of those killed in the accident. It is shaped like a spiral staircase, with steps that connect the earth and sky.

 

The large white slabs in the right forground are Bacalao, salted dried codfish. It is the defining ingredient in traditional fish stew. Salt cod requires overnight soaking and several rinses in cool water before it can be used. Click picture for a larger image.
More familiar are these fresh fish


In addition to the normal tourist thing of visiting cathedrals, we also enjoy visiting the local markets. Click picture for a larger image.
Approximately 9 miles wide at its narrowest point, the Strait of Gibraltar is the entry point into the Mediterranean Sea from the Atlantic Ocean. It is bordered by the continents of Africa and Europe, and the countries of Morocco, Spain, and the British colony ofGibraltar.

The starboard side of the ship had a view of Morocco, Africa. We passed through the strait at 7:30 AM so I am taking these pictures before breakfast :-)

 

 

The port side of the ship had a view of the rock of Gibraltar. Even though it is attached to the bottom of Spain, Gibraltar remains a British colony.

Historyically Gibraltar had military importance and had numberous artillary installations. For example, the 9.2 inch guns had a range of 18 miles, which is more that the width of the strait.

Pulling into the port of Malaga with 2 other cruise ships. Carol and I sat on the upper deck of this tour bus to see the city.

 
We enjoyed strolling along a pleasant street and taking some refreshment at an outdoor cafe in front of this church.

We came to the end of our cruise in Barcelona and had a taxi take us to the Barcelona Cathedral.

Click the picture for another view at full size.
(Your browser will shrink the big image to fit but clicking on it will make it display at full resolution)


 

 

We checked in to our wonderful room in the hotel Colon directly in front of the cathedral. From the balcony we could watch the many events going on in the plaza. Click here for a 200 second YouTube video that will open in a new browser window.

We enjoyed the included breakfasts with great coffee, fresh squeezed OJ and flaky croissant that somehow Albuquerque hasn't mastered.

The next day was Mother's Day Sunday. The plaza was filled with people performing Catalan dancing; where circles of people join their hands together and with them raised; dance with small, precise steps, slowly round and round whilst people join to make the circle bigger. This is the Sardana: the traditional national dance of Catalunya.

Click here for a 90 second YouTube video that will open in a new browser window.

Everywhere we looked we saw some kind of activity. Here is a short video of a wizard on a keyboard.

We were met by Daniel and Paquita the parents of Javier, an exchange student that had lived with us for a semester years ago. Daniel was a very capable tour guide. The first day we went on a walking tour of the city's original site, which was surrounded by walls in the Roman period and is today the Gothic Quarter. We walked along narrow streets and through hidden squares seeing impressive churches and mansions. Barcelona is a vibrant city, as one of Europe's most densely populated, it is full of energy and enthusiasm.
Daniel took us to the waterfront CanMajo restaurant for lunch.

 

 They treated us to anchovies, mussels, scallops and razor clams.
Javier Skyped Daniel while we were having lunch

 

After lunch we strolled along the beach. Many people but almost no one in the water.
Click picture for a close up of the head. Click your browser back arrow to return here.

Lots of big fancy boats in the marina

After a day of walking on narrow, winding streets, I was completely lost. Daniel and Paquita lead us back to our hotel.
Carol and I had a modest dinner on the plaza. It was chilly and we were glad to have jackets and the propane heater just behind me.

The next day Daniel and Paquita picked us up in their car for a drive to the city of Girona. On the way out of Barcelona we passed Sagrada Familia and I snapped a quick picture out the car window.

The Basilica of the Sagrada Familia is a monumental church devoted to the Holy Family: Jesus, Mary and Joseph. Construction began in 1882, based on plans drawn up by the architect Francisco de Paula del Villar, and Antoni Gaudi was commissioned to continue the project in 1883. It continues to be a work in progress.

 

After arriving in Girona we began walking up hill toward the church
This was flower day and we were beginning to see some decorations
The walkways became narrower and soon we were climbing many steps.

Finally the church came into view but turning the corner to the right we were faced with another long flight of steps.
If we look warm and a bit disheveled it is because we were. In the background, you can see how high we are above the rest of the city.

Looking down, these were some of the steps we climbed
The front of the church and some of the people gathered to see the flower display


I thought the flower display was a little bit beautiful and a lot creepy!

 
Leaving Girona, we drove to Sant Sebastia for lunch in the restaurant at the top of this cliff.

 


The table in the forground is where we enjoyed a terrific lunch. Carol and I shared a big sea bass. After lunch we walked around the area and saw the foundations of some old ruins.

 

Before driving back to Barcelona, we took a side trip to Pals.

Pals is known as one of the most charming villages you can visit. Perched on a hilltop, it was built around a fortress and has kept its medieval look so well that a visit to Pals is like travelling back in time.

Before leaving Barcelona we went inside the cathedral to take some pictues

 

If you wanted to heat this place in the winter, huge ceiling fans would be needed to bring the heat down to floor level :-)

 
 

Look at that air temperature!
Interesting that our flight from Spain took us right over South Haven

Hail and thanks to new Pan Am friends especially Stu and June, Carmen, Maryanne and JT with special abrazos to Paquita and Daniel for a great time in BCN!