My first trip to Europe on Freedom of the Seas 9/3/17 with many pictures and video!

We did get to see MANY of the top artworks displayed here, so I do think we did pretty good with the time constraints we had

We got to see Edouard Manet,Luncheon on the Grass, which I remember writing many Art History papers about. There is just something surreal about seeing all these important pieces of artwork in such a small space of time, I didn't get time to appropriately freak out in the museums, which might have been a good thing haha!

This room was pretty cool!

My husband really liked this one, Gustave Courbet, Origins of the World

And last, but certainly not least, we found the Van Gogh section!

It was pretty crazy seeing his work up close, and all of his famous swirly brush strokes

d'Orsay in Paris Continued

More Van Gogh

One of the Starry Nights

And another one of his Self-Portraits. There of course were many more Van Gogh pictures in the room, but there are only so many pictures I can take of paintings :)

After this, we left the d'Orsay, stopped at our bnb drop some stuff off, I grabbed a coffee for a much needed energy boost, and we headed by train to the Eiffel Tower

The Eiffel Tower, Paris

I didn't book tickets to climb the Eiffel Tower and didn't plan to stand in line to get them either. I figured that would be for a different trip. I had planned for us to eat around the Eiffel Tower, but couldn't really find a place to eat around there. Most restaurants must be farther back a bit for a better view. There were a couple quick eat type of places but nothing really sit down. Plus, it had started to rain and all these places only had outdoor seating.

Instead of eating in the rain, we decided to do a Seine river cruise in the rain! It was really only a light sprinkle, but the temperature did drop to about 50 degrees F.

I forgot to take a picture of the name of the company we took for the Seine cruise, but we picked Vedettes

http://www.vedettesdeparis.fr/

The cost for both of us was 36.00 USD, and the cruise was 1 hr long, with commentary/guide. There are lots of boat companies along the Seine you can pick from, but to me they all looked very similar. It might be a little cheaper to book in advance, but I decided before leaving for Paris I would just wing it and decide if I wanted to do the Seine cruise when we got to Paris, since it was only a few Euros cheaper to book in advance.

I was very cold during the cruise, and sat on the bottom for the first 10 minutes to keep warm and dry. However, I am hard of hearing and couldn't hear the audio guide well down below, and it is extremely difficult to see the things they are talking about on the audio guide on the bottom, so we moved up to the top and we just dealt with it being cold and wet!

I was unsure beforehand if a Seine cruise would really be worth the money, and it really was! It showed us things we wouldn't have been able to see otherwise and from a perspective you can't get by walking and was really neat at night time!

I love all the bridges and Paris. Each one is unique and ornate!

Isn't Paris lovely at night?!?!

After the cruise was over, we headed back to the train station in the rain to go back to our bnb. By the time we got back to the neighborhood our bnb was in, the restaurants were PACKED and we were tired...so we grabbed another sandwich to split! One thing that we found incredible in Paris is how well lit all the streets are at night! Even in the small narrow streets, you feel safe and it is easy to see when walking at night.

Our flight to Barcelona departed ORY airport at 6am, which meant we had to get up at 3am to head to the airport :eek: So as soon as we got back to the bnb, we showered and went to bed.

We both were nervous we would oversleep, so it wasn't a peaceful short rest. When we woke up at 3am, we scheduled an Uber to pick us up, because the train to the airport wasn't running at that time. On the Uber app, it said it was 40 Euros, which is expensive, but as we like to say, "Vacation Tax" and there really wasn't any other options at 3am, since we were a little unsure about how to call a cab and thought calling a cab would be more expensive than an Uber.

The WORST thing about our bnb was the stairs/stairwell. Not only were the staircase spiral and narrow, but there was no light in the stairwell that we could find. At 3am, this was the ONLY part of Paris that wasn't well lit and we had to go down the stairs separately, each using our phones as flashlights to help each other down the stairs. Maybe this wouldn't have been a big deal to me normally, but at 3am, I was just not feeling like climbing down 3 flights of stairs in the dark.

Once we got to the street corner, I got a notification from Uber that there was surge pricing, and that my ride would be a little bit more than estimated. So I was thinking, ok probably 5-10Euros more. Our ride arrived 2 seconds after we got the notification, so we just said OK and got in. There was absolutely no traffic to ORY airport, and we were there within 20 minutes and only went 11 miles. Once we got out, I got a notification that they charged me 1.9% surge for the ride, which made the ride about 79euros, which is 91.00 USD! YES, I was like are you KIDDING me? It was the biggest joke ever and if there is one thing you take away from my review, let it be this: DO NOT USE UBER IN EUROPE! There is an app called MyTaxi. Download that, it is MUCH cheaper to call a taxi via this app than to use Uber and it works practically the same!

Next up, pictures of my flight on Transavia airlines and my experience at ORY airport to Barcelona (BCN) airport

There are 3 stations in the Les Halles area: Chatelet, Chatelet-Les Halles & Les Halles. They are all connected by underground walkways so you can technically get on or off at each one but the train lines are all different. Pretty much every metro and RER line connects at 1 of the 3 stations. We always stay near a line 1 stop (Hotel de Ville or Saint Paul). I find it the easiest to get around on even when having to switch lines.

Looking forward to more! Thanks for posting!

Loving your review and pictures.

There are 3 stations in the Les Halles area: Chatelet, Chatelet-Les Halles & Les Halles. They are all connected by underground walkways so you can technically get on or off at each one but the train lines are all different. Pretty much every metro and RER line connects at 1 of the 3 stations. We always stay near a line 1 stop (Hotel de Ville or Saint Paul). I find it the easiest to get around on even when having to switch lines.

That makes a lot of sense, thank you! I figured that at least Chatelet and Chatelet-Les Halles were connected, and I was just exiting on the wrong street

Barcelona

We flew from ORY (Paris) airport to BCN (Barcelona) airport with Transavia airlines. When my husband booked it, he didn't realize it was a budget airline. So a couple weeks before our cruise, as I was planning on what to take, I got a really helpful tip from a Rick Steves video that said to check the baggage rules on ALL of your airlines. We were planning on taking two carry on roller bags and 2 backpacks, which is fine for American Airlines. However, Transavia has baggage rules that are similar to Spirit Airlines.

On Transavia, you can take 1 piece of hand luggage (carry on with you onto the plane) that can weigh up to 10kg (22lbs) The rest you HAVE to check, you can't even pay to take extra hand luggage on with you on the airplane. So my husband and I weighed every suitcase before our trip and decided we would put one backpack in one of our roller bags, and then pay to check that roller bag on the Transavia flight. That way, we would be carrying on only 1 pc of hand luggage per person. The checked luggage on Transavia has weight limits as well, here is their website where you can look at the chart.

https://www.transavia.com/

We did the smallest allotment for a checked bag, which was 15kg (33lbs) and I believe we paid around 25.00 USD for checking it.

So this Transavia budget flight was really adding up, with the 91.00 uber ride to the airport and the 25.00 checked bag. I now wonder if it would have been better just to fly a major airline to Barcelona from CDG airport, but at least now we know about not to take Uber anywhere in Europe and to pay extra attention to airline baggage rules.

The CDG airport is WAY different than ORY. ORY was much more confusing and there was way less English spoken and written on signs in ORY. We waited in line to check our 1 bag, which wasn't a long line. We prebought the checked bag, to get a discount on the fee. While waiting in line for something, a guy was putting some stickers on some hand luggage, and not putting stickers on others. My husband and I were worried that we were supposed to have a sticker, and were talking about why we didn't have one, but we just kept on going and hoped we would get let on the plane with our hand luggage. I would have not been happy to have to pay 50.00 to check the rest of our bags.

Once we got to our gate, we waited around 1 hr for our flight to board. They didn't board in zones, but you simply get in a line waiting to get on the plane. All announcements were in French, so we just kind of followed the people in front of us. They check your ticket and your passport before you board.

The plane boarded on both ends, which definitely gets the plane boarded faster, but is a little annoying if you have to pass someone boarding the opposite way you are.

Once in the airplane, I immediately notice its like a "Green" Spirit airlines. Spirit usually is all about their yellow and Transavia is all about the green. Inside the plane, it is identical to a Spirit airlines experience.

I fly Spirit a lot, which some people cannot believe, but I really don't mind it for shorter flights. Some people complain about the legroom, but I don't think Spirit has any less legroom than on American or Delta. I really like only paying for the things you need, and saving some money because of that. Spirit's seats can be a little less cushy than other non budget airlines, and this was the same with Transavia. Legroom was adequate, but the seats were definitely harder. I felt like on our international flight with American, we had similar legroom as on this Transavia flight. I am 5'2", with short legs, so maybe this is why I feel ok with less legroom, but my husband (Who has normal length legs) even said he was surprised at the amount of legroom we got on the Transavia flight and said it was only slightly less than what we had on the AA flight to Paris

Interior of the plane

Legroom

Transavia also doesn't give free snacks or drinks, which is another similarity the airline has with Spirit. I think the prices Spirit charges for their onboard drinks and snacks are affordable, and Transavia's menu was affordable as well. I didn't get anything, because I just wanted to sleep, but I did take two pictures of the menu.

Our flight left at 6:10AM, and we were scheduled to arrive in Barcelona at 8AM, so about a 2 hour flight - piece of cake!

Next up, taking the train from the airport to Barcelona and our hotel in Gothic Quarter

Barcelona

 

Next up, taking the train from the airport to Barcelona and our hotel in Gothic Quarter

Getting very excited for the next posts, as we are also staying in the Gothic Quarter in 2 weeks!

Barcelona

After our plane landed in Barcelona, we made our way to pick up our Barcelona Cards at a kiosk in the airport.

Here is the link for the Barcelona Card.

http://www.barcelonacard.com/

We purchased the express one, for 20Euros each. It doesn't include the Sagrada Familia, but does include several other museums, like the Picasso one. It also includes transportation via transit to and from the airport, as well as any of the metro or buses in Barcelona. So I felt like the 20 Euros each definitely was worth the price.

There isn't any metros in the Gothic Quarter, but we find several that were near it. The metro was MUCH easier to use than the Paris metro

As you can see, the orange line from the Airport, T1 and T2, do not go anywhere near the gothic quarter, so you will have to transfer to another color line. We were heading to Jaume I, so we switched lines a couple times I think. But the Barcelona transit is easy to navigate, so I highly recommend it as a mode of transport.

Here was my PACKED Visitacity agenda for the day

I picked all my duration times based upon what Visitacity said the average time spent at the attraction was. Our first stop was our hotel, Hotel Colonial Barcelona.

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g187497-d1485476-Reviews-Hotel_Colonial_Barcelona-Barcelona_Catalonia.html

I will do a review for the hotel now before going on about the rest of the attractions we saw in Barcelona. The location was pretty good, at least I think it was as a first timer in Barcelona. It was central, so most things you could get to in under 10 minutes, besides the Sagrada Familia. There are lots of bars and restaurants around this hotel.

Many booking websites have this as a 4 star hotel, which by American standards it is NOT. At best, I would say it is a 3 star. The bed was comfortable, and the bathroom was big, but the toiletries they gave you were just bars of soap and PACKETS of shampoo (no conditioner). To me, if you are going to say you are a 4 star hotel, you really could include some better toiletries, at least some lotion! Some people said there is a rooftop pool, but I never saw it or any signs for it in the hotel, so I can't tell you for sure if there is one. The website and other booking websites are super deceiving as to what kind of room you are booking. I was sort of led to believe most, if not all of their rooms had a balcony, which our room did not. So take that into consideration if having a balcony is a must for you. The room is modern and somewhat updated, more so than many other hotels I was looking at booking. I didn't get any pictures of the room, totally forgot to snap some!

I paid around 167 Euros for one night, so about 200.00 USD. For the location, really was a good deal I think. No breakfast was included, but there are lots of better places to eat breakfast than in a hotel, so an included breakfast is not a must for me. The staff was really friendly and helpful! The hotel is considered to be right on the edge of Gothic Quarter, but when you are there, it's not like that matters, as everything is super close.

Barcelona

After dropping off our bags with the hotel, off we went to Santa Maria Del Mar, which was close to our hotel. Here are some pictures we snapped on our way.

We had great weather in Barcelona that day. It was hot in the sun, but comfortable in the shade. The week before our trip, when we looked at the weather, the temperatures were much hotter.

And here is Santa Maria Del Mar. This church has been there since August of 1384, and the history behind it, while not as magnificent of the Sagrada Familia, is amazing and it's definitely worth checking out, especially because it's free (No reason not to) Of course, the audio guides there cost money, but you can always read up on it before you go or find a free audio guide!

Barcelona

It's very dark inside this church, so I apologize that my phone pictures are not great. Believe me, it is a very spectacular church, you definitely get spoiled seeing so many of these in Europe.

Barcelona

After Santa Maria Del Mar, we headed to the Picasso Museum, which for some reason I have no photos of the outside, and you are not allowed to take photos inside. My husband and I are big Picasso fans, and to see such an extensive body of his work was really extraordinary! Even those of you who are not Picasso fans, I encourage you to go to the museum as he was a very talented and varied artist, you may be surprised and find that you like some periods of his work.

Here are some screenshots of how far it was for us to walk to Santa Maria Del Mar, Picasso Museum, La Rambla, and to the Port. Of course, to get to a lot of the Gaudi architectural buildings and Sagrada Familia, you have to take the train unless you are staying in that neighborhood. I just thought sharing these might help those who are trying to pick a neighborhood to stay in. I chose this one because it was walking distance to MOST of the attractions we were seeing, therefore maximizing our time in Barcelona. I also wanted to be closer to the port than farther away because I figured I wouldn't be able to take the train directly to the port and would have to take a taxi into the port. I didn't want an expensive cab ride there, so I tried finding hotels within a 5-6 min drive of the port. I already had one too many expensive cab rides and am really glad I planned it this way!

Santa Maria Del Mar

La Rambla

To the port

And here are some more random photos we took while walking around :hearteyes:

Next up, the Sagrada Familia!

I can't tell you how great this is! We stay at the same hotel Oct 3-5! I am screen shotting all your maps!

And now I know to bring conditioner for my hair!

I can't tell you how great this is! We stay at the same hotel Oct 3-5! I am screen shotting all your maps!

 

And now I know to bring conditioner for my hair!

How exciting! Try to get a coveted room with a balcony!

Make sure you bring conditioner! I forgot my travel one, and just thought I could rough it, but the water was SO HARD everywhere! Even on the cruise ship, so my hair was always super dry and I just ended wearing it up because of that! I thought about buying some mid trip, but by mid cruise, I bet you won't even put on makeup anymore lol

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Following along, we are on the Symphony of the Seas out of Barcelona Sept 16, 2018. You have some great tips! Thanks!

Barcelona

We ate lunch at Taller Tapas (See the last photo in the last post) It was good, but it was pretty pricey. We each got one tapa and one beer/cider each, and it was about 40.00 USD. The tapas there were about three bites. It was enough to tide us over as we got on the metro to go to Sagrada Familia.

So with the Barcelona Card, you get a discount of 2 Euros off entrance to the Sagrada Familia. However, this only applies if you go stand in line at Sagrada Familia for tickets. Before our trip, I was told by numerous people to buy tickets in advance even though it meant not getting the discount, so I did. I didn't buy the entrance tickets to the tower, just to the Sagrada Familia. It is timed entry, and our time was for 3:15pm

Here is what our online purchase receipt looked like

And what our ticket looked like

To get to Sagrada Familia by Metro, it is *REALLY* easy. Just go to your nearest metro station and take the train that says Sagrada Familia at the very end of the line. If you go to the Sagrada Familia and start at a smaller station, like Liceu, you will have to change trains, but if you go to a bigger one you can get one ones that take you straight there. As long as you eventually get on the train that say Sagrada Familia, you will be taken RIGHT to the Sagrada. Literally, when you exit the metro, you are RIGHT there. There might be other ways to get there, but we just took this most obvious route and it was fine.

And here we are! We got there right at 3:15, showed a guy our tickets, and passed a long line and got in immediately!

When you first see the Sagrada, the sheer detail of the outside is a lot to take in. We just took outside for about 10-15 minutes looking at different things.

And now, the next several posts are just going to be pictures we took inside. The pictures we took do not do it justice, so I encourage everyone to book tickets to go inside to see it for yourself. The inside was WAY different than I expected it to be, judging from the outside I thought it would be darker, with more darker woods and you know, a typical extravagant cathedral. I didn't look at any pictures of the inside of the Sagrada before my trip, so I was really blown away and speechless. It was definitely one of the top 10 attractions we saw this whole trip and it was my favorite church we visited.

To get great pictures of the inside, you really need a really good lens and a tripod, which we didn't have either of these things, so take that into consideration when you are looking at these photos.

Sagrada Familia

Sagrada Familia

So as you can see, a pretty spectacular basilica. The way every detail was thought out is extraordinary and the acoustics inside are amazing. There were hundreds of people inside at a time, yet it didn't seem loud at all.

I did use the bathrooms here, which are located at another building outside the Sagrada. They were nice, but the stalls are SUPER small and it was probably 120 degrees in the bathroom building, so it was kind of miserable. Plus, there are only a few stalls so plan to wait in line.

Up next, Casa Milà, La Rambla, La Boqueria Market, Dinner and walking around in the Gothic Quarter area

Thank you for this info, my overnight hotel before the cruise is in the gothic area too :)