Catching the 2.00am Coach from Belfast to Dublin Airport for the 6.40am flight to Barcelona was perhaps not the greatest way to start a cruise but the plus side of the coin was that we would be some of the earlier arrivals in Barcelona and hopefully get on board for an early lunch on Deck 14 and then off to see around the city.

Sadly the Rabbie Burns factor ("best laid plans") kicked in and although we arrived at El Prat de Llobregat as planned we were greeted with the news that the dreaded Norovirus had struck the previous cruise and that the Equinox was undergoing a deep-clean and boarding would not therefore be possible until late afternoon. Thankfully thoughts of hours spent stuck in the airport or the departure area of the docks were quickly dispelled as Celebrity had arranged for everyone to be taken by coach to Poble Espanyol - the Spanish village in Barcelona at the top of Montjuic beside the Olympic Stadium.

The Poble Espanyol is primarily an open-air museum, it shows replicas of characteristic houses from all regions of Spain, such as from Castile, Andalusion, Aragon, the Basque Country, Extremadura and of course from Catalonia. In some buildings craftsmen show their skills, such as in the Andalusian quarter in the glass blowers. Poble Espanyol was built in 1929 for the World Exhibition and then fell into disrepair before being revitalised in the 1990's as a major tourist attraction. Read more