Family Photos & Seafood Dinner

Our starting point, Barcelona Cathedral

We thought we'd take the opportunity for some casual family photos as we'd seen all the main sights. We found a reasonably priced photo taking walk on viator. Note that this is a group tour with a maximum number of 10. As our original travelling group was one of 9, we were happy to take a single stray tag-along. As it turned out, we were lucky enough to be a private tour as no one else booked it today. It is worth noting that they were very flexible and understanding when we had to cancel Mal's parents, and then to reschedule when we had to pivot and change cruises. 

Our photographer was Lola from Argentina! Young and friendly, she made the session fun. We walked around the Gothic quarter, El Born area and finished up at the Ciutadella Park. We had time along the way to buy and eat cinnamon rolls as well as for my mother to do some shopping...

Pont del Bisbe, a favourite for instagrammers. Strut your stuff Oma!

Umm...how can you not stop when you see this?!

One of each thanks!

I wonder why I'm never hungry

Pistachio latter

Very happy children

Our last stop - Gaudi's fountain at Parc Ciutadella

Empanadas for dinner. They had so many flavours! One of each please!

We had to be careful not to eat too much as dinner was at Botafumeiro, a high end seafood restaurant. This was another of the Amex fine dining promotions. The children put on their newly purchased "nice" clothes, which also had the honour of double duties for photos earlier in the day. The restaurant was in a beautiful building and the interior was a warm oldy worldly setting. The waiters were surprising super friendly and spoke English very well! The food was tasty and the servings generous. I would say the meal was more "hearty" then "refined" but didn't really matter as it was delicious especially the sauces which were all cleaned up by the end of the evening.

Tackling Barcelona's buses today

The beautiful Christmas street lights during sunset

Botafumeiro. How dare the car park there and ruin my photo!

It truly felt like studying. There were too many options!!

The sangria didn't last long. We had to order 2 pitchers

Spicy calamari. Amazing sauce

Clams fisherman style. Again great sauce!

White shrimp with garlic

Free dessert on the house!

Barcelona

 

Gaudi's Casa Batlló - I guess we're in Barcelona!

Everyone was relieved to be rid of the cramped quarters of the ship. The disembarkation process at Barcelona was super quick and we were in our private transfer heading towards our hotel, Alexandra Barcelona Hotel, Curio Collection by Hilton, in a jiffy. The hotel was new and in an excellent location just off Passeig de Gracia in the Eixample area. We were filled with glee looking at all the extra space we suddenly have! Not to mention an extra bathroom! Most of our day was spent shopping and strolling the grand avenue before returning for an afternoon nap. I did have to veto Malcolm wanting to rent bicycles...

I did love looking out at the ocean, but I was to get off the ship!

Our minivan dropping us off

May not look like much but all that space is premium! Somewhere to sit even!!

View from our room

Umm no. Just no Malcolm

I'm surprised it took us this long...but we finally ventured into McDonald's. Biscoff donuts were calling us and besides, how could one turn down a McExtreme cheesy risketos?! Mal always loves the fact that European Mcdonald's offers beer as a beverage. We're not quite sure about gazpacho as a side but it was worth a try! Interestingly, one of the coffee options here was a flat white. Yup you read that right! It was pretty close to those you got back home in Australia except it seemed like the default was to include a pump of syrup. It was better than ship coffee so we drank it with gusto.

Entering the golden arches

This was calling us...

Yes please

Gazpacho, beer and a flat white (yes they called it that!)

biscoff mini mcflurry

biscoff donut

Up next for us was a Catalonian paella cooking experience with Travel Brilliant in the La Rambla area booked through Viator. Our chef was a young Venezuelan named Laury, and our group of 8 was rounded off by a lovely Colombian girl. It was a fun afternoon with a resulting excellent paella, one of the best I've tasted. We started by visiting the famous  La Boqueria market to get fresh seafood. The key ingredient was cuttlefish because of its high fat content.

Once at the kitchen, Laury set about preparing the important sangria, a sangria so good Elliot had 4 glasses and my mother 2! Or maybe more. We certainly left happy. This was paired with tapas while we prepared the ingredients for our paella. Laury explained the history, cooking methods and choice of ingredients for a good paella. She had a fun and exuberant personality, but sometimes she spoke so passionately we couldn't understand her! The whole family had so much fun and it was a great thing to do if you've been to Barcelona and have seen the main sights!

First up market

Carmen the fishmonger preparing our seafood

Both cuttlefish and squid was used, as was prawns and mussels

We had about 10 minutes to buy some goodies as we waited

The most gigantic strawberries we've ever seen...and they were supersweet!

More gigantic fruit. Cherries. Again super sweet

The kitchen

Laury sharing the secrets of a good sangria

Looks so simple but everything was so good. That cheese was ADDICTIVE!

The stirring man. Was told off for not being more energetic

Onion woman

Capsicum boy

prawn girl

chopping boys

The tradition of blessing the paella

Nearly there, pouring all the broth in unlike a risotto

The children loved the cooking classes and have voiced a desire to do more in the future when we travel. 

The final product. Amazing taste

Such a great family experience

Happy New Year from Valencia

NYE family selfie. Everyone looking at the camera with an expression that can pass as a smile. Pass!

It was a quiet New Year's Eve and an even quieter New Year's Day. I should be ashamed to admit that I did not even stay awake past 9pm. At home even that would have been a fail for the family fireworks. 

New Year's Day saw us arrive at our last port of Valencia. We had not booked a tour and were forewarned that everything would be closed on account of New Year's Day. We got off the ship regardless regardless to wander around the very dead port area. We refused to pay the extortion of 10 euros per person for a shuttle bus to get to the old town centre! Sadly there were no taxis in sight. 

It probably was not a bad thing. Everyone took the opportunity to enjoy the last of our down time before disembarking tomorrow for our next leg. It is rare that I NOT recommend something. Celebrity Infinity, however, ticked that box. The ship is old and dated, and it really showed. We also didn't fit the demographic, at least not for cruises for this region. Although the staff were friendly and tried hard to please, we felt that they haven't really received the appropriate training to deliver service that is top notch. The service felt forced and lacked finesse. The food was meant to be a drawcard, and the buffet certainly delivered. However, in general, everything was too salty or too sweet, and if you order meat, there was a good chance that it would come out looking like a nursing home meal. The activities were sorely lacking, and the quality of entertainment was generally poor (with the exception of the juggler!). We believed Celebrity to be a more "refined" brand in RCCL's portfolio and we were somewhat disappointed.

What did save the cruise was the itinerary (being port intensive, as well as having interesting stops), and cruising as an extended family unit. We had a lot of fun on our port days, and it would have been logistically difficult to visit those ports with elderly parents in tow. We would be willing to give Celebrity another chance but I'd be looking more closely at the age of the ship...

The dessert bar looked fabulous!

Time for our celebratory New Year's Eve dinner

A competition to see who would be the prettiest princess....

Jan 1 was to be the start of eating well. Oh well I guess it would have to wait until tomorrow!

Family photo in Valencia. Tick!

We found an open coffee shop!

We could not hold back any longer....we paid for Japanese food

We had very low expectations but it wasn't too bad

Sushi

Water views while relaxing. Never mind the oil refinery in the background (at least I think that's what they are)

Happy New Year from us to you! May 2024 see you fulfill your travel bucket list dreams!