We’re on holiday this week, cruising in the western Mediterranean.
We flew from Gatwick at 6am Sunday to Palma, in Majorca. In the airport at Palma, the following poem came to me.
“The Traveller’s Prayer”
We hail you, airport baggage carousel.
We crowd around you and to you we pray.
“Deliver all our luggage safe and well,
And pref-erably some time soon, today.”
We had a tour of Palma before being taken to our ship The Grandeur of the Seas.
Bellver Castle is very impressive. It is a circular castle, built by the Knights Templar in the early 14th Century, overlooking Palma.
It was originally built with one surrounding moat, then a second moat was added later to protect it from these new-fangled cannon things.
Here is a picture of the Cathedral of Palma. It has beautiful stained-glass windows which survived a major earthquake intact. It took about 300 years to build, and by the time they’d finished, the original Gothic style was now out of fashion so it was given a Baroque fascade.
On board ship, we were shown to our cabin, and then had to attend lifeboat muster drill.
Here is a poem I composed about that.
Lifeboat Drill
“It’s lifeboat drill, but no-one is flustered.
All hands are on deck, ‘cos we’re keen to be mustered.”
We arrived in Barcelona on Monday morning. It was Feast of the Assumption, so all the museums were closed, (boo!) , likewise most of the shops (hurray!).
We took a bus tour round the city, which took s past the Olympic Park from 1992, the Nou Camp stadium, the beaches, the Segrada de Familia Church designed by Gaudi but still unfinished when he died several decades ago [What is it about Spanish builders and Churches? It makes British road-building programmes look positively dynamic.], and we ended the trip by strolling down the famous pedestrian market La Rambla,
The Olympic Flame thingy.
A view from near the harbour.
Torre AGBAR – Barcelona’s version of the Gherkin building. I’m not sure whether it’s pickled.
The front of la Segrada de la Familia
A street performer in La Rambla.
(This is what happens if you don’t use sun-screen).
Today (Tuesday), Ruth had a reflexology treatment, so both my wife and my son have an “ology”. The ship docked in Ibiza and we walked around the old town for a while 
Here are a few photos
Tonight, there was a party in the Windjammer cafe on the ship, where there was a late-night buffet, and various ice sculptures and food sculptures were on display. I explained to Ruth that when the Captain announces “Take in the main course”, he means “pull down one of the sails”, not “have another dinner”.
Here are a few of them..
A parrot made from a pineapple…
What breed of dog? Clearly it’s a caulie..
Tomorrow, we’re at sea all day.
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