Time for some reflection on this tour. It’s my first trip with this group— Gate 1. I will say it’s pretty similar to Road Scholar. One difference is that there’s a wider range of ages. We have some folks in young 20s or 30s; marrieds in 30-40 range. Then others who are retired. We’ve met several folks who have taken multiple trips with them. Quality of hotels, guides are very good. Bags are moved for us. ( OMG many people brought Huge Bags!!). I am pleased that I brought a small bag & had all I needed.
This company —like Rick Steves & unlike road Scholar— sends you on your own for many meals. It has been ok. One Thing that has driven me crazy is we are expected to give a tip to each local tour guide we see. I hate that! I wish it were included in the original price. And we are expected to give a large tip to driver & guide at the end. This all requires us to have plenty of cash I don’t like that.
It has been good to put current events out of our minds for awhile. The pace has been fast —late nights ( dinners starting a 8 pm— early for the Spanish) and wake up calls at 6:15 I could use more sleep.
We arrived in Barcelona about noon timeBut could not go to our hotel yet. So we were dropped off near a big shopping center and side streets with many different restaurants to choose from for lunch. Merle and I went to a Japanese restaurant where it was odd to speak to the Japanese servers in Spanish! After that she and I went to the top of the big shopping center where there was a beautiful view of the entire city. The air quality was excellent, and we could see everywhere.
We then joined our group and a local guide, who drove us around to see the city. We first went up on the hilltop where Joan, Jolene and I had visited our one day in Barcelona previously. There were multiple athletic facilities, built for the 92 Olympics here. And there were again beautiful views of the city. Our guide, then took us to Sagrada Família— A very famous church built by Gaudi (we also saw several other of his buildings). An amazing structure. I will post several pictures, but I have many more for anyone who is interested.
Dinner again was on our own so we walked to a street near our hotel and had a nice local dinner.
Tomorrow is another 6:15 wake up call to go to MontSerrât.
As usual, please forgive any typos, as it is late, and I’m very tired! 😀
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