Today, the MSC Lirica docked at Barcelona.

Barcelona, Spain.

The trip I booked to visit Montserrat today had been cancelled. I was offered different trips to take a walking tour around Barcelona, but after seeing a lot of it on a previous journey and having a lot of bad luck in prior visits I decided to stay on board.

I had a cooked English breakfast with orange juice and coffee. I followed it up with a plate of sliced salmon, lemon and capers. Today was spent remembering my previous visit here. I ended up in an intensive care unit at the Barcelona University Hospital, and my mum died back in England. It was a time I do not look back on fondly but I am happy that I did make it through that difficult time to be able to take this trip nine years later.

I decided to take it easy and stayed on board today making the most of the complimentary cocktails whilst reading my Kindle. At dinner time I met with Helen and joined Jean for dinner. I had carrot and ginger soup for my starter, turkey for my main and cinnamon rice pudding for my dessert. After dinner, we went to the ship's theatre to watch tonight's entertainment and then back to the Beverley Hills Boulevard Bar to be entertained and have a few cocktails.