Mediterranean Iconic Shores Ocean Cruise

Day 33: Monday, December 01, 2025 - Barcelona, and Madrid, Spain

The day's statistics:
-  Weather: upper 50s
-  Steps: Linda: 8,267; Steve: 10,788

After arising a little early due to the schedule, showering, and getting ready for the day, we headed to the World Café for our final breakfast - and meal - on the ship.
We did the usually thing with Linda having an egg benedict, a small loaf of bread, and side mushrooms, and I had some scrambled eggs with a couple sides.

We returned to our cabin to assure that we could get our luggage out by 8:00 as requested.
The sun was just rising - not as well timed as it was two days ago in Séte.

It was still a little early for departure, so we headed to the atrium to bide our time before disembarking.
We saw Clair and Ernie, and said farewell.
We also saw Dora, and Linda bid her farewell too, having talked to her extensively about both their families in Italy, and the visits to the towns of their ancesters (Linda) and visiting family (Dora).
(I'd've center-framed the shot, but then again, I wasn't taking the picture.).

At 8:45 we were in the Star Theater for controlled group departure.

After our final disembarkation, we paused in the terminal to identify and confirm all our luggage was present. It was. Then we sat in an area with the rest of the group of about a dozen that were heading to Madrid.
The wait wasn't long, and we instructed to board the shuttle to the station, and met our transfer guide Ruth.
As we departed, one last shot of the Viking Vesta.

If I thought of it, I'd've sat on the other side of the bus to get a different perspective from this direction.










The bus parked in a pull-out, and we debussed. The group headed inside the terminal and, to our surprise - we headed to the first class lounge. Nice. We had about forty-five minutes to wait before we boarded.

What we didn't initially know was HOW we were getting to Madrid, especially because our documentation didn't indicate how. We eventually learned it was via rail. Yay for us!

We had large, reclining seats. Two next to each other, with only one on the other side so the aisle was really wide as well.
Not long after getting underway, we were given a snack of pretzels and wine.

We were given menus to choose what we wanted for lunch too.

The scenery flew past rather quickly as this was a high-speed rail line, similar to what we experienced a couple years ago when we took the high-speed rail from Berlin to Hamburg in 2013 as part of the Elegant Elbe river cruise.



Lunch was served. We primarily had a choice of three options, and since the Crab Sandwich wasn't available, we wound up having a Tuna & Tomato Hot Dog (not an actual "hot dog", but it was the delivery and roll that made them call it that). It was a little spicy and actually pretty good.

Lunch was served about half-way through the ride.




Upon arrival at the terminal, the group deboarded, passed through the terminal, and headed to the bus parked curb-side on the other side of said terminal.


The bus took a route primarily down the "main street" on the way to our hotel.



















The bus driver took a leisurely, slightly indirecct drive to our hotel - the InterContinental.

After arriving at the hotel, we went inside and to a gathering room off to the right where we met our local host Tom.
Tom told us about himself, and provided us with personalized welcome letters, and city maps that highlighted the area and some of the main landmarks in the city, including some city districts.
After a little, we all headed to the front desk to check-in, then headed to our rooms.

It was a decent room, but we had no luggage as the luggage was transported from the ship to the hotel separately and not with us on the train.
At about 3:30 the group met in the lobby for a local orientation walk - it was just a walk around the block. Tom pointed out some highlights in the immediate area, and also some restaurants and a market from one corner.
After returning to the hotel, we were set free what was left of the afternoon and evening.
We returned to the room and awaited the arrival of our luggage which soon followed. I only had to load the carry-on onto the luggage rack and dresser top for access based on the packing we did.

Eventually we decided to head out to the market that Tom mentioned to get a light dinner and some wine - local if we could find it.
Our target was Mercadona [market]. We started with the same route we took with Tom not that much earlier: along the front side of the hotel, and turn right. Instead of turning right again, we went straight and past a restaurant called Restaurante El Yate on our way to the market.



After walking a couple blocks - and being passed by people with what looking like grocery bags - we realized something was awry. I took out my Google device and brought up the map to try to find the market. It was back there. We turned and headed toward the restaurant again. It was... next door. Grrr.
The market was two stories, with the second floor downstairs. We walked around to see what was offered and to get an idea of some of the prices for different items. As the currency was Euro, everything was 1.2-times higher for a USD equivilent.
It had what most larger markets would, including wine, dairy, fresh bakery and fish, and a deli.
The items for sale by weight - primarily meat and fish - were by the kilogram. There are 2.2 pounds per kile, so, for example, a price of €9.25 / KG would really be about $5.05 per pound. For fresh fish, that was pretty good (IMO).





There were ready-to-eat foods too - which is what we were really in search of.
These yummy-looking dishes were €4.75 / ration. We don't know how much (weight-wise) a "ration" is, but that is still a pretty good price (IMO) as the prepared-food salad bar in the market at home is usuall $8.99 or $9.99 per pound.

We took some sliced cheese, bread, a chicken Casaer salad, and a bottle of wine. The whole bill was €______________________________. Not bad for a dinner for two... And it tasted pretty good too. Dessert was the cookies from Manos gave us from Séte.

After dinner we had the TV on a British-version of Antquie Roadshow whie we played some Pinochle. Yes, this is a pretty good hand (and I had already played two cards out of my hand).

While it was a little early, we returned to our room. We did the luggage thing, played some pinochle, watched what little bit of English TV was available, and eventually went to sleep.

 <    Summary    1     2     3     4     5     6     7     8     9     10     11     12     13     14     15     16     17     18     19     20     21     22     23     24     25     26     27     28     29     30     31     32     33     34     35     >