The lead up to the beginning of our exciting voyage back to Australia flew by as we were frantically doing all the last minute jobs to winterise Sunday, plus packing for our trip.
On our last night in Montenegro we returned to the lovely little garden restaurant called Leut that we had been to with our recent family visitors and which is just down the road from the marina.
We had a really great evening with some of our lovely neighbours on F dock at Lazure Marina. There were four couples and three of the guys were called John or Jon. The fourth guy’s second name was John! There were so many Johns that our friendly waiter decided that we should call him John too!
That night we stayed in a nearby hotel as we had a very early start and Jonathan and John didn’t want to be flushing the toilets through with fresh water and shutting them down at the crack of dawn!
Our car was booked for 6.15 am and we were at Lazure Hotel – where we had left our suitcases – by 6 am. The night porter was so helpful and even put the cases on a trolley and pushed them out for for us.
We had good reason for being very thankful towards him as at 6.15 our car and driver were nowhere to be seen! No sign at 6.20 and none at 6.25!
By 6.30 we were starting to panic – we had to get the bus station in Dubrovnik by 7.45 to catch the 8 am bus to Split. It was going to be tight even if the car turned up straight away.
The young night porter very kindly offered to call taxis for us (we needed two vehicles as we had quite a bit of luggage between us). If he hadn’t been there we would have been stuffed as we didn’t have the local taxi number to hand, can’t speak a word of Montenegrin or Serbian and none of our phones appeared to be working that well.
Very soon the first taxi had arrived and we told Sue and John to get in and we would take the second. Then the first taxi driver realised he had forgotten his passport and another cab had to be called so Jonathan and I ended up leaving first.
We arrived in Dubrovnik bus station just on 7.45 and as soon as we had checked in I queued up to buy drinks and sandwiches for us all while Jonathan waited at the bus to look out for Sue and John who arrived rather frazzled but just in time to clamber breathlessly aboard the bus!
After a a pleasant drive to Split through some pretty countryside we arrived in plenty of time to catch our flight to Barcelona.
Following an uneventful flight to Barcelona (except for a truly horrendous Spanish omelette!) we collected our bags and met up with our driver. This time the pick up went smoothly and Jonathan and I headed for our apartment in Les Corts while Sue and John caught another short flight to Palma to meet up with one of their sons who was unexpectedly there through his work.
Our small flat turned out to be very comfortable and close to restaurants and the metro. After settling in we had a lovely wander round the local area and had dinner.
The following day we decided to go into the centre of Barcelona via the Metro. We have visited Barcelona at least twice together and several other times separately so we had seen all the main sites. Plus we were both feeling quite tired after our busy time so we decided to hop onto an open top bus and see the sights that way.
What a gorgeous city Barcelona is! And what better way to see the stately apartment buildings, the shady plane trees, the Gaudi masterpieces, the artworks by Joan Miro and others, the former bull ring (now a music venue) and all the other wonderful sights – including some amazing Christmas decorations sparkling like shards of ice in the sun.
We hopped off the bus at the Poble Espanyol – a “mock” Spanish village with a total of 117 recreated buildings from various regions of the country.
This project was created as part of the 1929 World’s Fair. You can stroll around the extensive grounds and view the replicas of typical houses from all over Spain. In some of them there were people working on arts and crafts.
Within the village is the Museum Fran Daurel which contains over 300 works by famous artists such as Picasso, Salvador Dalí and Joan Moro.
We hopped on the bus again and after a short ride jumped off again right on top of hill of Montjuic – home to the renaissance inspired National Art Museum of Catalonia – another piece of architecture originally built for the 1929 International Exhibition.
There were some interesting sculptures outside the museum and after wandering through the exhibits we took the escalator down to the park below. The views over Barcelona were spectacular!
We had a very enjoyable lunch and glass of wine (we love the way they just slosh it into the glass in Spain!)
After lunch we walked to the Plaça d’Espanya where we hopped aboard the open top bus once again and enjoy few more of the sights before catching the metro back to our apartment.
The following day Sue and John flew in from Palma and joined us at the apartment. Fortunately we were generously given late check out which was good as we weren’t due to board the Queen Elizabeth until 4pm.
We went and had coffee (and maybe a cake!) at the very nice bakery just around the corner from our apartment and then hung out until we had to check out at 2 pm.
With two hours to wait before boarding the cruise ship we decided to go for a Japanese meal just down the road.
The food was great and the service excellent – because it was supplied by a robot! After we had placed our orders the robot collected the dishes and stopped at our table, opened up the tray and we took our plates! All very efficient.
At long last it was time to board the Queen Elizabeth for our 28 day voyage from Barcelona to Perth, Australia.
For Jonathan and I it was our first experience of going on a cruise and we really didn’t known what to expect. We were excited but apprehensive!
The boarding process was very efficient and speedy and soon we were on board and settling into to our very comfortable and well appointed state room waiting for our suitcases to be delivered so we could unpack.
importance to us
Salty tales from Bali Hai on Sunday 
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