The Greatest Summer European Vacation – Barcelona Part 2

Editor’s note: I’ve had this post sitting in my que for over a week but I felt really selfish posting given the horrific events last week. I do get political on this blog and of course Black Lives Matter, but I’m mentally and emotionally exhausted. I’m not sure what’s best, addressing an issue or choosing not to write about it to keep some piece of mind? While I won’t be writing anything about the tragic events in the upcoming days, I will be speaking about it on my podcast, “Oh, But Wait!” You can listen live every Tuesday at 7pm on Podcast Detroit or subscribe on iTunes.  

We headed back to Barcelona after Cannes, France. This is where we boarded the ship. The cruise was fun. The food was pretty good. But the service was less than stellar. Will I travel via Norwegian Cruise line again? Probably not. Unless it’s a deal that I can’t refuse. The lack of service alone will keep me from booking. I’ve done them all – Carnival, Norwegian, Royal Caribbean and Celebrity. The latter two are the best ones. I’m looking forward to going on one of the exclusive cruise lines overseas.

We decided to stay in Novotel Hotel again. It made total sense because we already knew the lay of the land.  We said ahead of time if we didn’t like the hotel we would cancel and book someplace else. But we loved the hotel. The staff was great. The location was near public transportation and it was easy to get around the city. We were only in Barcelona less than 24 hours before we headed back over to the United States. We literally got off the boat, checked into the hotel and left out to explore. I kept my mom and nieces on the go. They were so tired when the day was done.

I sort of outlined where we wanted to go before we got to Barcelona the second time. The girls really wanted to go on the gondola, so I made that the highlight of the day. It was something we could do in a few hours and come home in time to have a good night’s sleep because we headed out really early the next morning. We took the Telefèric de Montjuïc which is a cable car that rides up Montjuic hill to the Castell de Montjuic (Monjcuic Castle). Montjuic Park is the largest park in Spain. We were able to see the beautiful Barcelona skyline.