Monday 13 June 2011

Barcelona Aquarium

Wednesday, 17 May 2011. Our last port of call on the cruise is Barcelona. Having been a few times and walked our feet off, we had decided not to go into town this time but to walk along the harbour and try to find the aquarium.

The ship had it on as an excursion, but at thirty pounds each we thought that sounded a bit steep and a look at the map seemed to place it quite close to the port anyway. It was a gorgeous day and we came to the aquarium after an easy 20 minute walk. In fact for a while we ignored it and carried on to stretch our legs a bit.

We came back to it about an hour later and bought tickets from the building opposite - a rather strange arrangement, but I suppose there's more room in the courtyard between the two buildings for queueing. It was still quiet at this time though so we joined the queue behind the people currently buying tickets. The young lady in red was perhaps away from her mother for the first time - or maybe she just hadn't got the hang of buttons, I'm not sure...

The tunnel through the shark tank had a moving walkway to deter people from blocking it entirely and this fella was easily a couple of feet longer than I am.

A quick spat between octopussy and her pal... How do you tell a male octopus from a female? I've no idea, but as I've never really fancied an octopus, it's not been an issue so far...

One to make you go "Ahhhhh". A sea horse surrounded by tiny offspring, itself only a couple of inches long, curls around a branch and drifts to and fro in the current from the bubble filter.

The rather startling looking Sunfish. Adults average a length of 6 feet and can be over 8 feet from fin to fin. The largest ever found was over ten feet long with a measurement of 14 feet fin to fin.

We came back out of the aquarium onto wooden decking leading to a swing bridge to get back to the ship. Three hours have passed since leaving the ship and it's time for our last afternoon lazing on deck with a book and a drink

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