Category: Cruise

Jul
06
The cruise
TJ No Comments

Ellen and I have talked about doing a Mediterranean cruise, with or without friends and family, since we found out we were moving to Spain. Ted and Joelle thought it sounded like a great idea, and in the summer of 2002 we started looking at our options. We wanted to have a Spain departure so that they could come visit our house first, which really narrowed down the cruise options. Royal Caribbean has a 7-day cruise that starts and ends in Barcelona, but we were having trouble finding a good price. In November 2002, Joelle went to a travel agent […]

Jul
05
Before we move on
TJ No Comments

It doesn’t fit in anywhere chronologically, so before going any further I wanted to mention Fodor’s website at www.fodors.com. That site is full of information, and I consulted it about every destination on the trip. I found the forums very helpful, and usually received a reply within hours of posting. Check it out! Next: BED!

Jul
05
Welcome to the Hotel Alexandra
TJ 1 Comment

I’m not even going to try to cover all of the places I looked for a hotel in Barcelona–there are just too many of them! Being from the US, I started with one of my favorites, Expedia, but believe me you don’t want to stop there. If you’re using the web to shop for hotels then you probably have more time than money; put it to good use by searching all over creation. In our case, just when I was about fed-up with the myriad of choices for what will be less than a 12-hour stay in Barcelona Joelle emailed […]

Jul
05
Barcelona-Hotel
TJ 1 Comment

Anyone travelling to Barcelona needs to check out their official transport site at www.tmb.net. This site, which also can be viewed in English, allows you to type in starting and ending points, and it will calculate for you how to get from A-B using public transportation. We were able to find all of the hotels we considered, which allowed us to factor in travel time from the airport or train station. After settling on the Alexandra hotel (more to follow on it), we found that it was 12 minutes by Metro from the train station, but when we switched to […]

Jul
05
Home-Barcelona
TJ 2 Comments

When we first decided on the cruise, we thought we’d be driving to Barcelona, but after talking with some friends we decided it wasn’t worth it. Apparently the tolls and the parking fees in Barcelona are high enough that it’s cheaper to leave the car at home. Our first choice was to fly from our local airport, the Murcia/San Javier Regional Airport (MJV), but it’s such a small place that almost all of the Iberia flights just go to Madrid. The website www.iberia.com wouldn’t even give me a price on a trip from MJV to BCN. Having already ruled out […]