We arrived about 8 am at our hotel, Rivoli Las Ramblas, but had to wait until 10 am to check in. So we walked down the Las Ramblas to see the sights and get the lay of the land. We got to the Columbus memorial at the port area and went into the Tourist Office to book a Hop-On Hop-Off bus tour for the next day. When we came out the rain had just started. It took us about 20 minutes to get back to the hotel and fortunately our room was ready. So we took a nice long cat nap to beat the jet lag.
   On Friday we took the bus tour around the city to see the highlights. We chose two places to come back to.
   Saturday we visited the Picasso Museum and Sadgrada Familia, the Gaudi designed cathedral that will take at least 100 more years to complete. The highlight of the day was when I fended off three pickpockets on the Metro. The leader jostled me while I was getting on the car. He pulled my wallet out of the front pocket of my jeans but dropped it when I struggled with him. I pushed him away and picked up the wallet. I pushed him out of the car and the other two got off with him. Nancy said she saw them getting set up before we boarded, but really didn't get it figured out until after the fact. We were really lucky. They just messed with the wrong old man!!
Upon our return from the cruise we spent an extra day here trying to catch a flight on American to JFK.  I can recommend the Renaissance Hotel at the airport for comfort and and airline discount (100 Euros).  But a hamburger, club sandwich and two beers comes close to 50 USD.  We found Barcelona prices to the highest of all the places we went to on this trip.