Aucilla (AO 56) - Naval Cruise Book

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N?r. Christmas 1955

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Barcelona is our alleged home port, we say, and it is rumored that sooner or later we may put in there for a visit. What with the routine crises which periodically inflame the Near East, our Barcelona visits are too few and too brief, but what they lack in duration they com- pensate for in fun. Because to us Barcey is the Queen City of the Med, the best of liberty ports, and, in its way, our hometown. The focus of our social life - and life there is exceedingly sociable - is the Ramblas and Plaza Real, the locale of Brindis and Cosmos and the Cadiz Bar and the girls there who wait for us during those long absences. TTie tall Columbus Monument with the figure of the old mariner pointing eternally west, the wild traffic down Via Layetana, the luxurious Paseo de Gracia, the Baviera, the tree lined Ramblas, are the familiar features of life in our town which we remember when away. For the culture minded (though most of us save our cultural instincts for other Med towns which are less enticing socially) there are many things to see. There is the great Gothic Cathedral, the Barrio Gotico, excursions to the monastery of Montserrat, trips up the rugged and beautiful Costa Brava, and occasional tours to the white and golden and less energetically Spanish towns of Andalusia, Seville and Granada and Ronda. But however far we may go, we ' ll never be too far to return occasionally, in our thoughts, to the fun and the fights, the dancing and the drinking, the bullfights and the parties - all of which made Barcelona truly our home away from home. M ■ ai 1 r pf Flamenco Dancer Mt. Tibidabo from Montjuich Park

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Gothic Quarter Columbus Statue OLE! OLE! n BARCELONA Fountain at Montjuich Park