Back From Barcelona – Spanish Waters

On our last full day in Barcelona, before returning home, we hit the waters. First we took a catamaran cruise around the Bay of Barcelona. We saw the city from yet a different point of view yet again. It was very relaxing and we met a very nice family from Portugal.

Sagrada Familia from a distance.

This big statue of Christopher Columbus stands proudly at the harbor entrance, overlooking the sea.

After our catamaran tour, we went to the Aquarium. They did a good job with it. There were lots of rays and sharks, as well as smaller sea creatures, including a lot of seahorses. We have seen many of these creatures on our many dive excursions, from all over. None of our shark pictures really came out well, but we see and dive with sharks all the time. 🙂 Whenever we go to an aquarium, we always point out all the critters we have seen in person, in their natural habitats, through our diving experiences. We dive a lot and we dive all over the world, which means we have seen A LOT!!!!!

The aquarium even had a penguin display. And yes, we have even seen penguins in their natural habitat too, at Phillip Island, outside of Melbourne, Australia. They were the very cute and adorable Little Penguins, that stand about 1 foot high and are blue and white, rather than black and white. They were so cute. I just fell in love with the Little Penguins. 🙂

It was feeding time for the rays.

We don’t see a lot of Seahorses, and we don’t see them often, but we have seen quite a few.

We see Lionfish everywhere, though in the Caribbean waters, where we dive mostly, they are the invaders. They are trying to eradicate these invaders from the warmer Caribbean waters because they are so destructive to the reef and ecosystems. They are very pretty to look at and are very tasty to eat too.

From the Aquarium, we headed over to the Maritime Museum. The Spanish have a very long relationship with the seas and ships. They have been sailing the seven seas for 1000’s of years. This had very special meaning to me, even more so than the Aquarium, because it reminded me of my dad. My dad was in the Merchant Marines his whole life, once he immigrated over to the States from Australia. In fact, it was through the Merchant marines that he was able to emigrate over to the States. So I have always had a very special affinity towards boats, ships and of course, the oceans.

This is a model of one of the big Spanish Galleons. They usually had a crew of about 400 people, with most of the crewsman living their lives chained to their rowing stations for the duration of their days at sea, regardless of the conditions.

This is an actual replica of one of the Galleons, that was made in 1973. I just love all the attention to detail.

Poseidon riding his dolphin on the bow.

Can you imagine living every second of your sea life chained to one of these oars? Everything you did was at the end of one of these oars until you were released from your servitude.

Other than our travel adventures getting back to the airport, this was our last Spanish adventure for this trip. I hope you have enjoyed my Spanish Adventures series from Barcelona, Mallorca and Andorra. At the moment, we have no new adventures on the books, but I know that will soon change. We love to travel and we love our adventures, and we never have too long in between travels and adventures. 🙂

Life is an adventure. Be adventurous and make the most of it. Stay safe and stay well. ‘Til next time.