So the last day and the one city I had wanted to see on this cruise, although I had enjoyed most of the ports we called at one way or another. Today we were just going for a ride round the town sights and then we would wander around ourselves as we had quite a bit of time here.  The big attractions of course were the cathedral and Gaudi park.

The first stop was at the park and there were already hundreds of tourists doing the rounds, most like us had a mere 20 minutes to wander around, barely time to focus the camera.  As the coach park is at the back end of the park it proved impossible to get down to see the main attraction the salamander We asked several people and nobody actually found the damn thing, but with so little time it was hardly surprising. Nevertheless, the art deco or whatever it was, was quite impressive but, I was less impressed with his house. Fortunately we had more time round the cathedral even though the place was swarming with tourists it was still impressive. The queues to enter were enormously long and life was too short, so we contented ourselves with a good wander round and lots of photos.

The front end, the oldest part is most definitely impressive although most of the rest fits in I thought the newer part fail to keep in with the spirit of the project. The newest parts being reinforced concrete and modern style sculptures, I felt very much that they had given up on the whole thing. I can understand it has taken a long while to get so far and that Spain is broke (thanks to the damn euro) but, it would be like finishing off St Paul’s cathedral with a fibre glass roof.

We took the option to jump the tour now as it was only going to drive down the main street to the docks. The guide took us to the top of the main street, La Rambla, and told us it was a twenty minute straight walk back to the dock.  We were in what I can only assume was the main square as it had a huge fountain surrounded with impressive statues, so we did the camera job and started on down La Rambla where we were assured the street artist all hang out.  Annette got all excited because they had a C & A store and we had to have a look round as they no longer exist in UK. Cannot think why! ten minutes later we were back out on the street and heading back down to the docks.  There were plenty of souvenir stalls but, once again there was little that we had not already seen on Bilston market for half the price.

The human statue street performers did live up to expectations, although most of them turned out to be drag queens. Pictures of most of these are already on facebook if anyone can be interested. Unlike the British counterparts, who I have rarely seen move, they were quite happy to break character especially when a child made a donation and I think it was all the more entertaining to see the child’s reaction. After getting on for a forty minute walk, we came to the end of the street and a massive statue of Christopher Columbus perched on a huge column.

As we crossed over the road I saw to wooden ships tied up and as we had plenty of time left we had a walk over there. The first was a reconstructed full size Spanish Galleon, not the mighty ship I had come to expect from the history books and only armed with fifteen guns to boot. The other was a smaller ship that they claimed was the first to sail round the world and the third was their equivalent of a clipper. You could board the galleon for a couple of euros but, as you had to walk up a gangplank and were not allowed to swing aboard with a knife between your teeth, I didn’t bother.

Last night on board and there was a late cabaret with an entertainer comedian as the star turn. He proved to be quite good unlike the one we had seen the day before billed as a UK guest artist. He was one of the Grumbleweeds and was using material that used to be funny in the 1970s but, failed to crack a smile on my face. He should have stuck to singing comedy songs and give stand up a miss.

It turns out the reason we had been delayed leaving port was the fact that two people had failed to return. That is quite a big deal really as all the passports and travel documents would normally be on board and if you miss the sailing deadline it is p to you to catch up with the ship or return to UK out of your own pocket. There had also been a mugging and one guy had his camera stolen. We were warned at just about every port to beware of pick pockets but, we never had any problems, mainly I think to the fact that I dress like a tramp (according to Annette) 🙂

We had to be out of the cabin early in the morning and the luggage had to be tagged up ready for the next part of the trip; green flying home, purple on to hotel. We of course had the wrong colour labels but, it was such an easy exchange of labels the like of which you can only dream of in Blighty. Ten out of Ten for customer service on the ship. We had a late breakfast as the transfer to the hotel in Mallorca wasn’t until high noon. Almost as soon as we left the ship the smooth organisation we had become accustom to started to fall apart. The wheels off my case were smashed and the coaches were late and the Thompson reps were useless.

We finally got transferred to the hotel in Cala Millor a quiet part of the island on the East Coast. The hotel was pretty good and we had a sea view room balcony but, this proved to be a noisy location as the nosiest place on this part of the Island was our hotel disco. Found out there was a hefty  fire door in the corridor which we could close to keep the noise out.  The food was good too but, fell short of the nosh on the boat. After dinner we had a walk along the sea front and found a bar that was doing two for 6 euro cocktails and cheap San Miguel pints. Went there most nights after as it was the best value for miles around.

It turned out the guy who owned the bar, David, was from Dudley originally and had lived and worked in South Africa for a number of years and then moved to Germany ( end of apartheid?) and married a Kraut. They came over to the island for their honeymoon and decided to stay. It must be said his bar served the best pint of San Miguel I had had all holiday and he claimed that was because most bars are serving a local beer and not the genuine article, I think this was true of the beer on the ship, it was pleasant enough to drink but, lacked something. So reader, if you find yourself in Cala Millor, head left along the sea front and get a drink at the Sunset bar. Having drank our fill we went back for some shut eye it had been a long day.