I Am A Celebrity!

Sunday, August 23, 2026

2019 - Barcelona

Port of Barcelona - Barcelona, Spain
Copyright Andy Richards 2019 - All Rights Reserved

BARCELONA! SURELY one of my favorite places in the world. Fun. Lots to do. Lots to see. On this cruise, we had an overnight stay there. Even better. In 2015, we spent several days in Barcelona. We got to see and do almost everything we wanted to. Our only negative on that visit was Parc Guell. We had tickets and on the day we went, within minutes of our entering the grounds, we got absolutely hammered with a rainstorm. Not just a short one. After attempting to wait it out for while, we gave up.

Parc Guell - Barcelona, Spain
Copyright Andy Richards 2019 - All Rights Reserved

SO, ONE of our primary planned events on this trip was a "re-do" of the Parc Guell excursion. This time, we booked a guide to take us around as part of a small group. Ironically, I took a few more "meaningful" shots of the park on the "rain-soaked" occasion than on this one. The "park" is kind of unique architecturally, but the parts that are remarkable and photogenic are somewhat limited - mainly to the buildings at the entrance. Eusebi Guell was a wealthy Catalan industrialist and patron of the arts in Barcelona. A contemporary of Antoni Gaudi, he contracted with Gaudi to develop a private housing development on a hill overlooking Barcelona. Originally, 60 housing lots were planned. Aside from a pre-existing home (which Guell purchased and moved into), only 2 other homes were ever completed. The idea (and rationale for calling it "Park") was the English Garden City urban planning movement, which included parks and gardens as part of the planned ("utopian"?) urban environment. Park Guell incorporated a library, park, sporting event facilities, interspersed with gardens and landscaping elements.

Architectural artistic elements in the design of one of the main building in Parc Guell - Barcelona, Spain
Copyright Andy Richards 2019 - All Rights Reserved

WHILE THE first glance reveals an almost "smurfish" look to the buildings, in my view, it is often in the fine details that Gaudi's genious comes out. All of Parc Guell - much like a substantial part of Barcelona - was designed and created in Gaudi's unique style incorporating the shapes and materials of nature, sprinkled with bold colors. It was only when I started looking more closely at some of those details, that an image like the one above revealed itself to me. Today, Parc Guell is a municipal park/garden and is designated as a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Port of Barcelona
Copyright Andy Richards 2019 - All Rights Reserved

FOLLOWING OUR afternoon at Parc Guell, we headed back to the cities old Gothic Quarter, just a short walk from the cruise shuttle drop off point (all within easy view of the our cruise port/ship). We had scheduled a walking/food tour of the quarter, which involved our guide taking us through 500 years of history and ending at a couple local spots to try some of the local tapas foods. Lots of fun, and kind of cool to walk around the almost eerie lamplit narrow streets and alleyways. Being a night, walking event, I didn't really make many photographs of this one. I did, however, find some time to dig out the travel tripod, and make some night images of the Barcelona Cruise port from the deck of the ship after we returned from the day's events.

Magic Carpet - Celebrity Edge - Barcelona, Spain
Copyright Andy Richards 2019 - All Rights Reserved

I WAS up and out on deck before sunrise the following morning, too, to make an image or two that I had imagined the night before.

Sunrise, Port of Barcelona
Copyright Andy Richards 2019 - All Rights Reserved

THINKING THAT we had seen an awful lot of the city, my wife found - and booked - an excursion that would take us out of the city some 30 miles north and into the mountains: Montserrat. Montserrat is a mountain range ("Montserrat" meaning "serrated mountain"). All by itself it is a popular climbing and hiking destination.

Montserrat - Barcelona, Spain
Copyright Andy Richards 2019 - All Rights Reserved

BUT PERHAPS the real attraction for some 2 million annual visitors is the Santa Maria de Montserrat Abbey, a renowned Benedictine Abbey and mountaintop sanctuary surrounded by the gorgeous Montserrat Natural Park.

Basillica - Santa Maria de Montserrat Abbey
Copyright Andy Richards 2019 - All Rights Reserved

THE SETTING for the Abbey could not be more dramatic. On the grounds there is a beautiful basilica, that houses one of only a very few rare black madonnas in Europe. Visitors line up to see it. The other attraction is Escolania de Montserrat one of the oldest (and very talented) boy's choirs in Europe.

Santa Maria de Montserrat
Copyright Andy Richards 2019 - All Rights Reserved

OUR EXCURSION that day was planned to include a visit to a nearby Catalan vineyard for some wine tasting. Unfortunately for us, that didn't happen. Spain is unofficially divided into several of what they denominate: "autonomous regions." A couple of them, for lack of a better word, I will call "ethnic" regions. The two perhaps best known are the Basques and the Catalonians. Barcelona is the main city of the Catalonian (once the separate kingdom of Catalan) region, probably the most economically powerful of them. Over the years they (like the Basques) have fiercely maintained their individualism, including having Catalonian one of two "official" languages of the region (the other being Spanish, of course). During the two-day period we were in Barcelona, as they do periodically, the Catalonians were staging a demonstration in the central part of Barcelona, which is also immediately adjacent to the cruise port. This demonstration involved Catalonian separarist supporters walking into the city from far and wide (in some cases a multiple day walk), and it was planned to culminate in the afternoon of our second day there. It was making our tour guide (understandably) nervous, as our ship was to leave the port that day and we had an all-aboard time. He had been watching traffic and communicating with his company and other guides all day. As we boarded our vehicle for the next stop, he informed us that he had made the difficult decision to cancel the rest of the tour and make our way back to the port as fast as possible. A lot of us thought he was being hasty. It turns out his judgment was spot on. We did get back - in heavy traffic - to the port in the early afternoon. These demonstrations have always been peaceful, so he had no concern for our saftey. His concern was that the roads and streets would eventually be so clogged with demonstrators that traffic would be at a standstill. His prediction was correct. We headed back to our favorite Sunset Bar smoking area and were joined by some of our new "friends." But not all of them. As we sat and watched, we saw the streets become mobbed with people and realized we were fortunate. A couple of folks who showed up much later, told us they had to abandon their transport and walk back to the ship - in some instances a couple miles or so. The ship was late to leave port that evening. For us - safely back aboard - it was fascinating and almost kind of a party. Certainly a memory.

Sunday, August 16, 2026

2019 - Mallorca

Early Morning Dawn - Palma de Mallorca, Spain
Copyright Andy Richards 2019 - All Rights Reserved

MALLORCA IS, as the crow flies, some 500 miles across the sea from Naples. The crow can fly right over the center of Sardenia. A cruise ship cannot. 😊 We had to jog south and then back north to miss Sardenia. So a couple of "at sea" days were in order. By the time we arrived in the early morning 2 days later, we were rested and ready for another port adventure. We had signed up for an excursion that would take us first to a short tour around Palma, stopping at the uniquely circular, Castell de Bellver, high above the cruise port. I made the opening image here from up at Castel Bellver. The Gothic Style castle was built for King James II (son of King James I of Aragon), of Mallorca in the 14th Century. It was later used for a Military Prison. Today it serves as the history museum for Palma.

Castell de Bellver - Palma de Mallorca, Spain
Copyright Andy Richards 2019 - All Rights Reserved

AFTER SPENDING some time walking around the Castle, we headed up into the mountains, to the very old village of Valdemossa, and The Royal Carthusian Monastery. Valdemossa is about 10 miles north from the cruise port, nearly to the northern edge of Mallorca. Originally settled by the Moors, the Monastery and the village came about after the Romans re-captured the island from the Moors in the early 13th Century. Mallorca was thereafter ruled by the Kingdom of Aragon and later Aragon and Castile. The Monastery was originally a Royal Palace, but was donated to the Carthusian Order in 1399.

Valdemossa - Mallorca, Spain
Copyright Andy Richards 2019 - All Rights Reserved

THE BUILDINGS in Valldamossa range from Medieval Gothic to Gothic Revival during and after the Rennaissance.

Monastery at Valldemossa - Mallorca, Spain
Copyright Andy Richards 2019 - All Rights Reserved

MALLORCA, AND especially Valldemossa is also known for its unique pastry: a Potato-flour sweet bun known as Coca de Patata. There are a couple cafes in Valldemossa that are famous for the pastry, and our tour guide took us to the one below, where we tried them, along with a cup of coffee. Pretty good.

Sa Foganya Cafe, where we tried the Coca de Patata
Valldemossa - Mallorca, Spain
Copyright Andy Richards 2019 - All Rights Reserved

PERHAPS THE most famous thing about Valldemossa is the residency of George Sand, one of the world's earliest celebrated feminists. The French citizen Sand was a prolific writer and critic of the institution of marriage, among other things. She was an early adopter of "non-binary" pronouns. But it wasn't even really her that is what is famous about Valldemossa. It is her perhaps more famous partner and presumed lover: composer Frederic Chopin. The Polish born Chopin was a celebrated composer and pianist. He suffered from a chronic respiratory condition (at one time misdiagnosed as Tuberculosis - it is historically probable that he never had TB). Physicians of the time strongly suggested that he reside in the temperate climate offered by Mallorca - particularly during the harsh winter months. He spent several years living and composing at the Monastery. While we were there, we were treated to a 15 minute concert using Chopin's piano and a pianist in period costume.

Inside the Monastery - Valldemossa - Mallorca, Spain
Copyright Andy Richards 2019 - All Rights Reserved

BACK IN Palma, our tour dropped us off near the huge, statuesque Cathedral of Santa Maria of Palma, and we walked around the grounds and inside. The cathedral faces the ocean, adjacent to the Port of Palma. Fronting the massive church is a rather large reflecting pool, making for a majestic view from and around the church grounds. Originally built around the early 13th century, the Cathedral was renovated in the early 1900's, resulting in the impressive, modern-day, neo-Gothic facade.

The Cathedral of Santa Maria de Palma - Palma de Mallorca, Spain
Copyright Andy Richards 2019 - All Rights Reserved

THE INTERIOR of the Cathedral is very ornate. At some point during the reconstruction of the church the original architect hired for it found himself at odds with the church and ultimately, they hired famed Catalon architect from Barcelona: Antoni Gaudi to finish. We learned a lot about Gaudi on our "Gaudi" tour in 2015 and you can really see his nature mixed with Art Deco and Neo-Gothic touches in the churches interior spaces.

NOT KNOWING much about Mallorca, I didn't expect much from this stop. But it turned out to be one of the more interesting ones. That evening, we would make the short cruise over to Barcelona, where we would have one of the relatively rare overnight stays.

Sunday, August 9, 2026

2019 - The Isle of Capri

Capri, Italy

THE PORT of Naples is one we have become quite familiar with. Ironically, we have never really explored the city of Naples. I am confident that we will land there again one day, and maybe we will make it a point to explore Naples then. But in the meantime, Naples is downcoast from Rome/Civitavecchia about 150 miles, and is one of the ports along the Italian coast that offers the most alternative excursion and exploration opportunities. The Amalfi Coast, the ancient ruins of Pompei and Herculaneum, the Isle of Capri, are all popular points of interest that are easily reached from Naples.

OUR FIRST time in Naples was in 2013. It was a planned stop on our Royal Princess Cruise that was aborted just before that stop because of serious mechanical issues. We had a private driver/tour of the Amalfi Coast scheduled. As a photographer, having done my research, I was really looking forward to that day! As things turned out we instead, limped into Naples at midnight a day late, and our tour operators could not accomodate us the next day on such short notice. However, we did get find a way to get down the coast, hiring a taxi for the day. Perhaps not as good as we had hoped, but nonetheless a memorable experience. Then, in 2017, we made it back (with our good friends, Paul and Linda on the Celebrity Reflection) and got that guided tour. So we had already seen the Amalfi Coast two times. For some (inexplicable) reason, I had never been warm to the whole Pompei thing. So, hearing that Capri was beautiful and a destination for the "rich and famous," we bought a ferry ticket and headed over there.

IN SOME ways, Capri reminded me a bit of Santorini, in the sense that the port was at sea level and the main part of the island was high about the port. You take a funicular up to the main "funicular piazza," which serves as the main center of Capri, housing, among other things, its municipal headquarters.

FROM THERE, there are many footpaths (there did not appear to be any private vehicles) to different spots. All are beautiful. All are "ritzy." There are hotels and cafes and shops and none of them were the cheap souvenir shops you often see at these kinds of places. It was also tranquil. We spent a nice day walking around, had a nice light lunch at a sidewalk cafe, took a whole bunch of photos, and eventually made our way back to the funicular plaza.

ONE OF the consistent facets of cruising is that when you land in a port, there is an "all aboard" time that is pretty firm. If you don't make it back to the ship (unless you are on a cruiseline sponsored excursion), they will not wait for you. We have had a couple what felt like to us at the time, "close calls." The first one was one I mentioned with our Celebrity Reflection cruise with Paul and Linda at Malta. This time it was a bit more nerve wracking. It is generally pretty easy to get ferry tickets in these Mediterranean spots. We just walked up and purchased tickets for the trip over to Capri. The tickets were timed, and knowing we had the whole day ashore, and not knowing how long we might want to stay, we did not purchase a return ticket. The boats left for the mainland (Naples) at regular intervals (every 30 minutes or so). We got off the Funicular with 20 - 25 minutes to spare before the next ferry and I got in line to get our tickets. As I reached the front of the line, they put up the sold out sign. We would have to wait 45 minutes or so for the next one. Add the approximately 1 hour ride back to the mainland and we were cutting it awfully close to the all aboard time. Like within minutes. All we could do was wait and hope the next one was on time and there were no delays. As it turned out, things ran on time and we landed and were walking toward our ship with about 10 minutes left. Fortunately, the ship was only about 5 minutes away from the ferry landing. As we walked toward our ship we could see we weren't the only ones in that predicament. Those times have taught us to be a bit more aware of the timing of things that may or may not be within our control. It simply hadn't occured to us that the later ferries would begin to sell out.

ALL WORKED out in the end and we were back aboard in time to join our newest friends, Rob and Carol for dinner. The next couple days would be relaxing days at sea, with the warm, Mediterranean sunshine keeping us comfortable. Next stop: Mallorca.