Can you see the mountains in the distance there? I was all excited, thinking they were part of the great Pyrenees Mountains that separate France from Spain and house tiny Andorra, and they may be. I'm not sure, but I believe the guide we had the following day called them something else (can't remember). I don't know about you, but I find it exciting when I get to see some geographical feature (think Grand Canyon, Great Barrier Reef, or these mountains) that I've heard so much about and finally get to see in person!
Here they are a little bit closer-up... and so, yeah, Spain has highways and buildings just like the US. Who knew?
Sorry about the view here; these pictures were taken from the shuttle bus. We came across this fascinating structure built right into the hills. What is it?
Zoomed out, you can see how massive it is, even though it's well-hidden by the trees...
I grew curiouser and curiouser, the more I saw of it.
Finally, it became clear that this was a cemetary! Built like steps into the hills. I don't know how the bodies were stored, but it certainly was no average cemetary. Very cool.
A really beautiful, ornate old church in downtown Barcelona. Of course, most of the churches in Europe could probably be described thusly, and you will see more from me.
Pulling into the port, our first glimpse of the Mediterranean Sea. Did you hear what I said? The Mediterranean Sea!!!!!!!
And as we pulled up, this was our first glimpse of our home-away-from-home for the next two weeks, the Dutch-based ms Zuiderdam! Isn't she lovely?
The first thing we had to do was check in. Luckily, I had completed the check-in process and printed our boarding passes off at home, so all we needed to do was show them, display our passports (we got to do this a lot, although I forgot to mention previously how exciting it was to have them stamped by Spanish customs at the airport), and get our pictures taken. Then we were given our stateroom number (originally supposed to be 6126, we were suprised to find ourselves assigned to 8132. But no matter, the accomodations turned out to be exactly what we paid for), our ship ID cards, and sent along to board the Zuiderdam. Here we go!
Rob paused for a quick photo-op as we are on our way to boarding the ship. I should have had him step back into the sunlight for a better pic, but we were too excited to get aboard!
Our staterooms (nor anyone else's) were not ready yet, from the previous passengers, so we were unable to go find our cabin at that time. We were sent directly to the Lido deck (the name of one of the top decks, for all four cruises I've taken, where there are pools and an indoor/outdoor restaurant/grill; it takes its name from the Lido area in Venice, we later learned) for lunch while the rooms were being finished. I don't remember what we ate, but the Lido Restaurant served pretty bland, boring food for much of the cruise, and that was probably no different. Edible, but nothing about which to write home. Rob had an upset stomach and disappeared for a long time to find a bathroom, while I picked at my lunch and played at trying to get online with my Palm. I was unsuccessful at that point... I ordered our first sodas of the trip while he was gone, and if you've cruised before, you know that sodas and alcohol are charged to your room, rather than being "free" as part of your fare. I hadn't learned the new stateroom number, and of course for safety reasons it wasn't printed on our ID cards, so that caused a little bit of a ruckus.
By the way, if you ever take a cruise, there is a little known thing called a "soda card," and there are also wine cards and possibly beer/cocktail cards. They are never publicized. You have to buy them, usually, from one of the bars on the ship, but they save you a great deal of money. You buy a certain amount of drinks, and then holes are punched in the card for each one you order. The price goes way down, per beverage, versus buying all your drinks individually. Of course, by the time I remembered this, we were on about day 10, and it was no longer worth it. Rats!! Don't make our mistake. Or just stick to water and the free {icky} juices, and you'll be fine.
One of the Lido pools. We visited this the first day, after lunch, but then I don't think we ever again swam in the polar bear pool! We mostly stuck to the pool "aft," since we our stateroom was "aft" one floor below. This one is the pool at mid-ship. Forward, there was the hydropool (whose name seems redundant to me), but it belonged to the Greenhouse Spa and was only available to Spa guests.
Me, sitting by the Lido mid-ship pool. The water felt so great, after flying for two days and being in the hot Mediterranean sun. And, oh, hell, you already know I'm fat, so I've decided to show you the pictures with me in them, as requested by my friend D who is sick of looking at pictures of just Rob all the time. Hehe!
Speak of the devil! We sat here for as long as we could stand it, and then we snuck down the stairs (people were being ferried to the Lido Deck by elevator, but no one was guarding the stairs!) to find our cabin. We were one of the first folks into our rooms, and we kind of blushed walking by the stateroom stewards, but we had a ready reply if asked: "We were told we could come down now!" But no one stopped us...
My first view of our lovely stateroom, 8132. It had a king-sized bed, which was really two twins pushed together, and this caused a lot of sleeping issues for Rob. We had a tiny "living" area, with a chair, a sofa and coffee table, and a lovely balcony outside. We spent far more time in our room than I had anticipated, so it was worth the extra money.
These are the flowers that we were given as part of the "Romantic Voyage" package I purchased for us. It was to include: flowers, chocolate-dipped strawberries, bottle of champagne, a free couples photo, a silver frame, two 25-minute massages in the Greenhouse Spa, a personal casino lesson and $25 in chips, and dinner at the ship's premium Pinnacle Grill (for which you had to pay extra). I expected a little less daisy and a little more rose, but whatever. I was not too worried about the flowers - bring on the massages!
After that, the flying caught up with us, and we lay down in bed for a "quick" nap that turned into about four or five hours. We got up and went down to the Vista Dining Room for dinner. Usually, aboard ship, there are two "set" dining hours, and you pick one when you book your cruise. Aboard the Zuiderdam, there was that option OR "open seating," when you could go anytime between 5:15 and 9 PM, making reservations earlier in the day or the day before if you wished. We tried for the fixed seating time, but it wasn't granted, so we had open seating for the cruise. We didn't have reservations for that night, so we were seated at a table for six with four Russians-turned-New Yorkers, across from each other. It was kind of uncomfortable, for our first night, when we would have preferred to dine alone, so we tried to make reservations for the other nights.
They did finally end up speaking to us, in English, and it was nice getting to know all about them. That's one of the nice things about cruising: you sit with lots of different people at meal times and get to know your fellow passengers. Nice if you're up for that sort of thing, anyway.
One of the men was extremely Russian, if you know what I mean, and I was entirely too amused by him. He had a thick accent, and he bossed the servers around like he was KGB. "What kind of club soda you have? What brand? Well, not good enough, find other brand. No other brand? Okay for tonight, but I don't know about other nights. What kind of dessert you bring? That's not what I ordered. Okay, leave it, leave it - but bring the other dessert, too. I eat both." I just kept giggling to myself.
After dinner, we took a long time touring around the ship, getting to know where things were. We really only stayed on five decks: Deck 9, the Lido deck, for swimming and eating at the Lido Restaurant. Deck 8, the Navigation deck, where our room was. Deck 2, the Lower Promenade, where almost everything on the ship was (the open-seating dining room, most of the lounges and bars, the art gallery, the casino, the show lounge). Deck 1, the Main deck, where the Front Desk and Shore Excursions Desk were located. Deck A, where the gangway was located.
We forgot that there was a show already that night, so we walked in on the tail end of it. I don't even remember what that show was... so we went upstairs to Deck 3 and watched some old-timers dancing to a heavy-accented Spanish woman's singing. Their dancing was nice; I wish my hubs could spin me 'round the ol' floor like that! BOOZE CRUISE ALERT: We had our first cocktails of the cruise while sitting there. I drank almost entirely piña coladas when I had a drink, but it was always fun to guess what Rob might have. One time he'll have a Colorado Bulldog, another time a 7&7, another a gin & tonic... and we also learned who made stronger drinks and who made wimpier, and when and where to order them!
After drinks, we took our early-disembarkation letter down to the Front Desk to make our arrangements to leave the ship a day early (whimper, whimper) in Venice. It turned out to be more of a hassle than I thought it would be, but things were straightened out before long. We ended up visiting the Front Desk a whole lot during our trip. I made the comment to Rob about them remembering our names, and he said something to the effect of, "We're kind of more of a pain in the ass than most people, so they tend to remember us!" We do like to bother our hotel desk clerks frequently!
We had our first encounter with "70s Dude" at the Front Desk. A fellow passenger, he wore head-to-toe denim, full curly beard, a thick leather belt with turquoise buckle, a gold necklace on his open chest, a gold bracelet, and get this: A CALCULATOR WATCH!!! Classic. He was awesome, and the butt of many of our jokes throughout the trip.
Back in the room, we cracked open our now-chilled bottle of champagne and sipped it on the balcony, toasting ourselves to our long-awaited (7.5 years!) honeymoon. And then... well. *ahem*
Anyway, stay tuned for Day 2 in Barcelona!
Fin.
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