We have been to Barcelona several times, but each time we seem to be spending most of our time in the Sagrada Familia Cathedral. The first time we visited Barcelona was in 1998. It was on the Vistafjord, and a cold, blustery, November day. The kind when you really would rather stay on board.

We visited what was then the cathedral, it seemed to just be columns towering above us, and no roof to keep the wind and the rain out. I remember thinking, this will never come to anything much. It just looked unsafe, and in ruins already.

Boy was I wrong. Over the past few years, we have stopped in in Barcelona on our travels and have gradually seen the cathedral rise out of what looked like ruins, into what I think is the most beautiful building in the world.

I could spend hours just looking at the sculptures involved in the entrance façade, and marveling at the work that has been done. It is so incredibly beautiful. But I know what’s to come next, and when I can draw myself away from façade gazing I enter the cathedral, and am always totally overwhelmed by what I see. I know I have been there before, but it is still an overwhelming sight. I feel like I’m seeing it for the first time.

It’s a smallish building compared to many European churches, it is it’s openness and height that gets me each time. There is nothing like it.

The story it tells, the color of the stained glass, the beauty of the tall tree columns, the light that shines through. It is all enveloping, and I just want to stand there and stare and absorb. That tends to annoy the crowds around me trying to speed view the cathedral. I want to tell them to stop and relax.

I had downloaded the cathedral tour on to my phone, but I simply couldn’t listen to it. It was distracting me, and making it difficult to feel the emotion of simply being there. There was organ music filling the space, and that’s what I wanted to hear. I put my phone away, and found a place away from the masses of selfie taking intrusive people. I was totally in my happy place. No need to move anywhere.

I could see Brian taking photos and listening intently to the phone tour. He was taking it very seriously. He was also having a good time. That made me happy too.

Our time in the cathedral was time well spent, and when Brian had had his fill of education, and I could bear to extract myself from my surroundings we headed out back into the sunlight of the real world to find our way back to the ship.

We had missed out on lunch, but made do with a gelato on our walk down La Rambla towards the port. I was sincerely hoping our bags had arrived. It was hot and I was longing to plunge into the pool to cool off.

We got back to our cabin. No suitcases were there. However, there was a phone message saying that they would be delivered between 3:30 and 6:00 PM. We sat on our balcony eagerly awaiting their arrival.

By 7:30 I was considering that we should start to think about getting ready for dinner, when there was the knock on the door. Reggie our cabin steward was there with the 3 suitcases. Yay!

My red one was indeed damaged, and the locks had been broken, but it was there. I was sure that we could find someone to make it useable again. Reunited, and it feels so good.

We eagerly unpacked, and put away the contents. We knew that they had removed Brian’s whisky, but were unsure what suspicious items I could possibly have in my suitcase.

Well it turned out that there were loads of suspicious items that were now missing. They had clearly removed ALL liquids and powders, so gone were my cosmetics and hair products, sunscreens (including my special facial sunscreen), Brian’s contact lens solutions, over the counter travel medications, and Brian’s toiletries. More annoying was that the packing cube where I keep my cruise essentials was also missing, and my 2 novels which I had been looking forward to reading by the pool as I haven’t mastered the art of using a Kindle or similar contraption.

However, I do have my swimsuit and sun dresses. And my red dress for the Red and Gold Gala. I have sandals and a sun hat. A flapper dress and non-shedding boa. So, all in all life is good.

They also left Brian’s collection of weird things to use on board on the cruise, including super glue, alone. He has already used the duct tape. He is happy to see them all again.

We made a list of all of the missing articles that we could remember, and sent it off to Cunard. Hopefully they are all in storage somewhere safely in Southampton and have not been discarded by the customs folks in Barcelona.

I can understand why we couldn’t have the whisky, and that is easily replaced, but the rest of the missing items are really annoying. Especially the novels (which trust me were not at all inflammatory, badly written maybe, but not worthy of such treatment), and my cruise packing cube contents which are harmless and boring to all but me.

We will check out the onboard shops tomorrow to see what treasures we can find, and hope that there is somewhere in La Spezia where missing items can be replaced. All in all, I am not too hopeful.

I know they didn’t want our suitcases to blow up the plane, but if Cunard had managed to deliver them to the ship on time in Southampton, we would not have had to surrender anything. I did try to point out to the pursers desk that they were missing when we were still in Southampton, and someone could have gone looking for them before we set sail. But enough of my rant. We had a splendid day in Barcelona, we are back safely on our beautiful ship, I have my clothes now, and we are off to the Commodore Club to watch our late-night sail away from Barcelona.

Life continues to be good!