Picasso and Symphony 毕加索与水晶交响号邮轮

July 11, 2024: In the morning, we went to a small bakery near the hotel to grab a couple of pastries for breakfast. Then we visited the Picasso Museum. As an adult, Picasso lived between Barcelona and Paris. He donated a lot of his early work to Barcelona, so the museum we visited exhibits mostly his early works, which allows us to see other sides of his artistic talents before the Cubism period.

Afterward, we picked up our luggage from the hotel and took a taxi to the cruise terminal to start our Mediterranean cruise with Crystal Symphony. Since taxis to the port are one-way business, the driver charged a fixed fee of 30 euro for the ride, probably twice what it should be.

The embarking process was smooth and fast. Ten minutes later, we sat down in the Marketplace to have our first meal. Crystal Symphony is a small ship with a maximum capacity of just over 600 passengers. Usually, the demographic on Crystal cruise ships leans toward an older population. On previous voyages, we always joked about being the youngest group. To our surprise, this time we felt like we belonged to the oldest group. There were a lot of young passengers, from babies to teenagers. We were told there are more than 70 kids on board.

We spent the rest of the afternoon checking out the ship. Although we have cruised on its sister ship Crystal Serenity several times, this is our first time onboard the Crystal Symphony.

Tonight’s dinner was at the Waterside. As always, each dish was done beautifully and tasted delicious. At 8 pm, as the song “What a Wonderful World” was playing, our ship left Barcelona.

2024年7月11日：今天早上，我们去了酒店附近的一家小面包店，买了几块小面包作为早餐。然后赶往我们在巴塞罗那的最后一个景点 - 毕加索博物馆。成年后，毕加索生活在巴塞罗那和巴黎之间。他向巴塞罗那捐赠了很多他早期的作品，所以我们参观的博物馆以他的早期作品为主，让我们看到了毕加索在立体派风格之前的艺术才华。

回酒店拿了行李便打车去了邮轮港口，又一次登上我们最爱的水晶邮轮公司(Crystal Cruises)的船，开始我们欧洲最南端的西班牙和葡萄牙邮轮之旅。由于去港口的出租车是单程业务，司机收了30欧元的固定费用，可能是正常价格的两倍多。到了船码头听到其他乘客抱怨，也有同样的经历。

登船过程顺利而快捷。十分钟后，我们已经在船上的Marketplace自助餐厅坐下，享用我们船上的第一餐。这次我们坐的是水晶邮轮公司的另一艘船 - 水晶交响号（Crystal Symphony), 她比我们之前坐过的水晶尚宁号稍小些，最大载客量刚刚超过600人。通常水晶邮轮上的乘客年龄偏大。在之前的航行中，我们总是开玩笑说自己是船上最年轻的一群。令我们惊讶的是，这次我们感觉自己是最老的一群。这次船上有很多年轻乘客，从婴儿到青少年，且有不少三代同游的。据说船上有近70个孩子，给船上带来巨大的活力。

今天晚餐我们选在主餐厅，每一道菜都做的精致，入味。晚上八点左右我们的船在“What a wonderful world”的歌声中离开巴塞罗那。音乐演出照旧安排在9:45，对我们来说虽有点晚，但还是不能错过的。

一直盼着能来西班牙和葡萄牙，这次终于成行，很兴奋很期待。