European On Me!

Day Twelve: Venice, Italy and Madrid, Spain

Venice

On this, our last day on the ship (sniff), we woke up at 8:30 to watch the ship pull through all the canals.


We ate breakfast on our balcony while others on the ship went to the bow to have complimentary Bellinis as we greeted Venice, our final city.


After breakfast, I went back to sleep until 1100, while Rob stayed on the balcony to watch the ship pull in. 


Buongiorno, Venezia!


The Queen of the Seas


The  City of Water


The City of Light, under a veil of  fog


The  City of Bridges  - okay, I'm done with the nicknames!



A manmade island full of buildings and trees


Isn't she beautiful? *sigh*


We finally passed Piazza San Marco (St. Mark's Square)


Little  man on campus


Isn't it cool?  I loved this kind of view.


When we  were both  up, we showered (I'm always finding it necessary to make you aware of this, for some reason), dressed (that too), and went to  catch a waterbus to Piazza San Marco. We tried here to take a gondola ride  - the one and only thing I really wanted to do in Venice, and one of the  main things I was looking forward to on this trip - but the cost was 80 Euros and we just didn't have it on us. Oh, I was so sad.


And so what do you think we did next? Yep. We walked to the café that was right next to the gondolas (don't go there) and had a soda. We paid 7 Euros each for a small one. Of course we sat somewhere with white tablecloths, which should have given us our first clue, but apparently we missed it.


Then we went back over the little bridge and  did a little souvenir shopping.


I just love masks! I had already bought some Venetian glass, in the form of a pen, for a Bunco prize, and we didn't have the packing space for any more. Otherwise, I'd have loved some.


And that, my friends,  was all the time we had left for sightseeing (boohoo) in Venice. We caught the waterbus back to the ship. Thankfully, we made it to the right stazione on the first try.


Arrivederci, Piazza  San  Marco!


Oh, man. What a quintessentially Venetian sight. I wish that were me...


More of the Venetian waterways; surprisingly, we didn't find anyone swimming. Or is that not such a surprise?


Arriving back at our stazione to disembark the waterbus and huff it back to our ship. This was another extremely hot day, and the walk was not short.

When we returned, I was hungry for lunch and went up to the Lido Deck to have  one last yummy Caesar salad.  Rob, however, was very antsy about the time and our need to get to the airport, and he was being a right  pistol about it.  Finally I threw down my fork and stormed out of there. It was our only tiff on the trip, and it was shortlived, but man, I wanted that last  salad!

We went to our stateroom and packed up the rest of our  stuff, and then  without further ado,  we simply walked off the ship for the last time.  I wanted to cry then, and I want to cry thinking about it now. It was a marvelous, wondrous journey, and I've been so glad to share it with you all here. 

However, it's not quite over yet!
It was a long walk in the broiling sun to the taxis, but fortunately a pier worker drove over and picked up our luggage, and delivered it to the taxi station for us, so we only had to carry ourselves around the stazione. We waited about 20 minutes and didn't see a single taxi ready to take passengers. Then Drew and his parents, from dinner the other night, arrived on the scene. Drew is in law school and is doing a monthlong summer course in Austria; he needed a ride to the train station.

When a taxi arrived, I offered for him to share it with us. We would drop him off first and then proceed to the airport. Rob was chomping on the bit about this a little, but I hushed him. After all, we had plenty of time. Also, the driver charged both of us less money than we would have spent alone.

Once at the airport, we were dropped off into a mass of confusion. European airports do not make any sense, from my perspective! Okay, okay, we figured things out a little bit. Here are a few rules: Do not arrive until exactly two hours before your flight time, even to go internationally. No ticket counters will serve you. Since we had arrived three hours early for our flight to Madrid, we had an hour to figure the rest out! Once it's two hours or less from your flight time, then you look on the computer screens for your exact airline and flight number, and it will tell you exactly which counter(s) are open for your needs. So, I hope that helps someone out there. They all (Venice, Madrid, Barcelona) worked the same way.

The flight to Madrid was short and sweet. We had no problems once we got to our gate.

Madrid

However, from there, we had quite a few problems, and it was a lucky thing I spoke Spanish, because I used an awful lot of it there. If you speak a little Spanish, tell them "màs despacio" - "more slowly" and you'll be able to understand them, too. Our problem was that we had a 14-hour (or so I thought) layover, overnight, and we needed somewhere to crash without worrying about being pickpocketed or having anything else done to us. The obvious decision was to get a hotel room. Actually getting to one proved not to be so simple. We asked the información people, we asked multiple taxi drivers, we even hopped on a shuttle bus - all to be told they couldn't take us to a hotel.

Finally, we decided to board the next hotel's shuttle that stopped at the bus stop and get on with it, already.

Well. That turned out to be for the Madrid Airport Hilton. We looked at each other, having an idea what that would cost, and then hopped aboard. Oh, well! We needed to go somewhere. I did, especially; I was about to cry for having a potty emergency!


To call this hotel "swanky" would be a bit of an understatement. It was ultramodern and had a pricetag to match. We spent 200 Euros on the room, for what turned out to be a  ten-hour layover (oops, calculation error with all the mixed up time zones).  Rob kept bemoaning what we spent on basically a nap, a shower, and a snack.  Oh, well. One last hurrah before we buckled down... This was our suite.  It was posh. And I'd asked for the cheapest accommodations possible.


The very cool bathroom sink


The open restaurant, four floors below us.

Every detail of the hotel was really cool, and I wished we could have stayed there longer. I couldn't give you enough details, nor take enough pictures, to do it justice. If you're ever in Madrid, at least spend one night there!

We ate a very expensive dinner at that restaurant, when all we ate were sandwiches and fries.  I paid about 10 Euros to get online for an  hour, but the computer died after half the time because there were no  110V outlets, and they didn't have any more converter sets available.  Maybe if we ever go back, we'll still have a half-hour balance?

Then we went to sleep until 0400. We slept the sleep of the just. The just plain tired. (Edward Abbey)

Because the shuttle didn't begin again until 0600, we had to call for a taxi back to the airport. More Euros down the drain! The Madrid airport was no less confusing than the Venetian one, but I've got it all figured out by now. We finally got ourselves to the correct gate, after some trouble, and away we flew back to our starting city of Barcelona.

In Barcelona, because we were changing airlines, we had to retrieve our luggage, recheck it, and get to our gate in the space of an hour and a half. We made it! The 8-hour flight to New York City was less comfortable for Rob, who couldn't sleep, than for me. I slept the entire flight, except when it was time to eat or drink something. As soon as they took my garbage, bam! I was out like a light again.

It was such a relief to get back on American soil after the discombobulation of the whole trip past two days of travel. I could kiss the first person I heard with an American accent! And I could call home without worrying about roaming charges! And I could spend my American dollars in my crappy American economy! Rob was less excited than I was to be there, but he was a little bit, because it was his first time in the Big Apple.

We went through customs and had to claim and recheck our bags once again. Ugh. Then we went for lunch and had horrible service. Ah, home. We did a little shopping at the airport's Discovery store for the children, since we felt they would expect a little more - and better - than what we'd gotten them in Europe. And we were right, those toys were the biggest hits upon our return.

On the tarmac, we waited two hours (!!!!!) with no air conditioning, drinks, or relative comfort before we were finally given the clearance to take off. That blew. But finally were were in the air for the fourth and final leg home!

Rob was tired and cranky when we arrived in Norfolk, but I was happy and chipper at last to see the children and, of course Stim (Stephanie and Tim, our friends who took care of the children).  The children ran to us, and all of them were in tears. They missed us, too. And Stim missed us - or at least their peace and quiet!

Rob collected our bags while the rest of us caught up, and then we packed into the van and headed to our house. First, Rob went to get a haircut so he could be back 'in regs' for work the following day, while I opened all our packages and showed off all the goodies we'd brought home for the children, ourselves, Bunco, and Stim. Lots of oohs and ahhs - some of them from me. Hehe.

Then, when Rob returned, we had a chance to use all those shot glasses I'd purchased! We'd brought a bottle of Ouzo from Greece and Limoncello from the top of Mt. Etna, Sicily.  I poured a shot of the ouzo first for the four of us, and I counted to three. Steph pounded hers first, then Rob. While I drank mine, Tim swallowed his. I pulled away my cup and asked Tim if he'd drank it. His eyes were red and watering as he choked out, "yeah." It was freaking HILARIOUS. That ouzo was NOT good, on my list of tasty alcoholic things to drink.

Then I poured out shots of the Limoncello. It was much better. More palatable. But still, not a fruity piña colada. I miss those. I miss days of waking up, looking out at the Mediterranean Sea. I miss breakfast in bed. I miss delectable six-course meals. I miss having to speak in Spanish. I miss touring the Tuscan countryside, the lava-covered mountain, the canals, and oh, all those Sprites in all those cafés.

Rob misses not doing dishes! He misses being pampered. Being called "Sir Bob," he says to be funny. He misses being in countries where people realize they don't need a giant freakin' automobile. He misses having me all to himself. Awwww.

Hope you enjoyed it! I did!

Fin.

Day 11: Dubrovnik, Croatia

Our breakfast was late again that morning. It came while Rob was still sleeping, but I was up showering. Normally we used it as our wake-up call, although we didn't always abide by it as you read over the past few days! But we got right up and out this morning, for once.

The beautiful first-look views of Dubrovnik, from our balcony

Because it was early, and there was a tender to shore, we needed to go to the Queen's Lounge to get tickets to ride. They were free, but we had to wait our turn. In the interim, we played trivia with the rest of the loungers.

The tender ride to shore was a long one this time, and ours had a leak at the front that splashed  tons of water all over the passengers in the first rows. Good thing they all had a sense of humor about it, and we all laughed.  Here was our view of the "new town," as we pulled up on the tender.

 
The modern buildings overlooking the marina


But once again, we were headed to the old city, which was also walled-in, like so many we had seen up to this point. We took a taxi ride of 10 Euros  to the old town, which was about the same as the shuttle we could have purchased tickets for from the ship. Why not take the faster route?


The view of the wall as we went through from Old to New


It was early in the morning, but  the crowds were already enormous. Dubrovnik is a popular vacation spot for  Croatians and others in the Northern Adriatic Sea.


Remembering the little pink nymph who performed for Rob in Rome at the Trevi Fountain, we decided to see what would happen when we bought this performer's 1-Euro souvenir. In a word: nothing. It was just a photo op. Oh, well. That little souvie is still floating around this house somewhere. It's a gold heart on a gold string, and the girls love it.


It was very hot, so we tried to stay in the shade as we made our way down the long main street. There were lots of interesting little shops - more than just the standard souvenirs here although we did stop right away and get some -  and places to exchange dollars and  Euros for kunas, the Croatian currency.


Soon, on our left,  we spotted the 'stepped streets' we'd been reading about for a few days!


Here's a better view, as we went in further to investigate. You may be able to read the sign advertising an internet café, on the right. There were many such cafés in the old city of Dubrovnik; it was kind of surprising. I was even able to get online for a minute with my Palm, just to see.


A lot of them weren't open yet, but we found one that was and stopped to have - guess?  That's right, a Coke and a Sprite.


The Sprite was normal enough, but  this time the Coke bottle was all in Croatian. Interesting.


Some Croatian money, the kuna. It was about 5 kuna per USD.


It's not every day you see octopus salad on the menu. Would you eat that? I also like "schrimps."


In the stepped streets, the cafes and sidewalks were very narrow and, this time, that meant they were too narrow even for the tiny European cars. But of course, no cars were allowed in the old city at all, so it didn't matter.

 
We kept browsing around after downing our drinks. We found this embroidery shop and almost bought something, since Croatia is well known for both being the origin of the cravat and its embroidery. We didn't though, because ... it's just not our thing.



A tiny little church tucked in the side of one of the stepped streets



A shop for "natural products" that we would have loved to take home, but we were afraid of being stopped by Customs.  There was fragrant lavender  all over, and it smelled wonderful!


Another church in one of the main squares, as we approached the water front


We decided to take a ride on a glass-bottomed boat that would take us all over Dubrovnik, old and new.  While we waited for them to gain more passengers for the trip, we stopped and had ourselves another drink at an open-air café.

Fishies through the bottom of the boat

  Leaving the  old , walled-in city on the boat



The view out of the boat to the newer buildings in the city



More of the wall; you can see the four teenaged Italian girls we shared the boat with (along with their parents). They were snotty and uninterested. Sound familiar?


 
An island we circled, out in the Adriatic


Can you see the tiny swimmers here? This was a "beach"!


Me on the boat; Rob was standing on the tippy edge of the stern


The  new city of Dubrovnik


The coast was very rocky and irregular


In the distance, a ship approached. It looked to me like a pirate ship!


Another cool, many-masted ship



A grotto where there was a sea kayaking excursion, possibly from our ship. We were supposed to go on that, but we had to cancel it.

Coming back to the old city now


This mansion with the turquoise domed roof really caught our eyes


Another small rocky 'beach'


That  'pirate ship' turned out to be just another  fun ride around  the sea


Another small church, with three bells in the steeple, peeks out over the wall


And a very large one, in in the main  square. Again we were left to wonder who the figures around the roof could be.


More cafés, this time on the wider streets, line the opposite side of the old city than we had come down originally


We asked for water and received these tall glass bottles, at the pizzeria where we stopped in the old city


I ordered a pinapple pizza; I guess the green olive in the center was complimentary


Check out this kooky knife!


On our way back to the taxi stand, we spotted these candy-colored condominiums.



We paid another 10 Euros for a taxi ride back to the tender station. That driver was crazy! He ranted and raved and flung his hands around at the other drivers as he sped through the streets. We waited forEVER in the heat for our turn on the full tenders. Finally we were far enough ahead in line to get those wonderful cold washcloths and lemonade.


Our tender approaches, hurray!

Back on the ship, we changed and went swimming. Ahhh, it was so refreshing this time. We relaxed back in our room for a while before changing and returning to the Queen's Lounge for the lightning art auction. I had missed the first one, and I'd never been to an auction before, so I really wanted to go. We had no plans to buy any more art, although there were plenty by Rembrandt, Joan Mirò and Peter Max that we would have liked to take home. We bid on nothing and won no prizes, but it was a lot of fun. Juliette was an excellent auctioneer, and she ran a really fun show. She was a very giggly girl back in the gallery, but at auction, her bountiful knowledge about art just came streaming out. I was impressed.



It was the last Formal Night - and, sadly, our last night on the ship - so we returned to our stateroom and dressed for dinner. Rob ate escargot for an appetizer, the first time he'd ever had snails. I'd had them on a previous cruise and felt no need to try them again.


My appetizer, the shrimp cocktail


I ate this strawberry bisque; Rob  had chicken and wild rice soup


We both ate the lobster tail entrée, which was delicious. Best lobster I can remember eating in a long time.



Sweets that arrived with Rob's after-dinner coffee



My dessert: raspberry mousse in a meringue crust



Rob ate the peach melba sundae

After dinner, we went down to the Vista Lounge for the last time to watch the show. Oro, a Filipeno bar server who had sung in their show a few nights earlier, talked and joked around with us for a while. He gave me a gift, he said for ordering his first drink of the night: a shell necklace from the Philippines. Of course, my kids have since broken it, and it's long since gone into the trash. Oh well, easy come, easy go.


The show that night was once again the Zuiderdam singers and dancers, and they were great for a third time.  Here are the lead singers. Rob liked the prop car!


I remembered not to use my flash this time!


After the show, we stopped back at the art gallery to admire the masters some more and  talk with Jody and Juliette.   I was thisclose to a Rembrandt!!


Juliette.  She and Jody, who also works in the gallery and auctions,  both want children, and they were asking all about ours. Finally, I burst into tears and ran off before I could sob in earnest. I missed my babies!

We went back to our room and  packed and shoved and  pushed and pulled and packed some more.

For the late-night show, we went to the Queen's Lounge where the Battle of the Sexes was to be chosen. Surprise! Jason, the Cruise Director,  chose me for the girls' team, and I went up on the stage. It was  a little  scary, since I knew nothing  about the game, but it ended up being a lot of fun, and we had tons of laughs. I kept putting down silly answers, and the guys' team came over and wanted to know "who the funny one was"!   We lost, though. 

Then we dropped off our cruise surveys to the Front Desk and got more cash for spending in Venice the next day. We went up to the Lido deck and had a late-night snack of Croatian food,  the names of none of which I can remember, but it was pretty good.

Tomorrow: Stay tuned  for Venice!

Fin.

Day Ten: Corfu, Greece

Once again, we stayed in bed very, very late after eating breakfast: 1:30 PM! We sure wasted that day away. I really wish we hadn't done that. But, I was sick still and needed to catch up on sleep.


There was a long, hot walk to the terminal to catch a cab, after we finally rousted ourselves, showered and dressed.  We paid 25 Euros to get to this beach, just to the north of Corfu (aka Kerkira).


A nice little children's playground at the beach, smartly placed in the shade.


There was no sand on the beach; it was all rocky. That was the only downside; it hurt our feet. It was a really beautiful little beach town that we would have loved to explore if there was more time. See how everyone faced their chairs away from the water? That was unusual. The water was nice enough. It was salty, because we were in the Med, but it was very murky, like a lake. And there was an extremely cold stream coming in from the side. Rob didn't like that so much, but I thought it was great! We saw lots of bare boobs on that beach. It was Europe, after all!
 

When we finally, begrudgingly realized we had to get out of the water and dry off in the sun (having forgotten our towels on the ship), we went to the bar nearby . Rob had a gyro sandwich and I had a tuna.


Me at the "bar," looking oh-so-glamorous


This time, I received an actual Sprite. They were always in green glass bottles. Rob had a beer.


The little bar kitty; can you tell we love animals?



This wasn't the first time Rob received French fries IN his sandwich!


We asked the bar owner to call us a cab, and we ordered a dessert to go  (the same one I showed you yesterday,  we think).  Unfortunately, it melted long before we made it back to the ship, and we had to pitch it.  We ended up paying 20 Euros for lunch and 20 more for the return cab ride.  If I haven't mentioned it a zillion times before, Europe is very expensive!

We had gotten out very late that day, so we caught the very last shuttle from downtown Corfu - which we never did get to walk around and explore, sadly - back to the ship. Whew! We made it. A few times, passengers were left behind in the ports.


 We went back to our room then, to see if there was any word on Jack's condition. There wasn't any, so we relaxed a long while on the balcony. Here's Rob reading the signed Britto book we were given for buying his art. We took showers and dressed for dinner after a while.


A beautiful Greek sunset, from our balcony

 
Our wake, far below


While we were on the balcony, people started shouting about dolphins frolicking next to us, from the Lido Deck just above us. We ran to catch the camera and started snapping!

They were so far away, they look minuscule, but they were definitely full-sized! There had to be at least a half-dozen of them, and they stayed a while. I took umpteen million pictures to try and get a good one, but these were the best I could do.

Finally, dinner. Rob had the salmon "dialogue," whatever  that means, along with lobster bisque, duck a l'orange, and a Grand Marnier soufflé. I had a phyllo dough and baked Brie with cranberry sauce appetizer,  sour cherry soup with creme fraiche, alfredo pasta with chicken and sun-dried tomatoes, and a white chocolate chef's hat  (signed by Chef Rudy) filled with milk chocolate mousse and red berries.

It was the Fourth of July that day, by the way. We didn't get so see any fireworks.  There really wasn't much of anything. I guess it makes sense, though, considering our location!

We went to the Art Gallery afterward to see the art that had newly been put up by the masters. There were Rembrandts, Picassos, Dalís, Chagalls, and more. It was so cool to be right there in front of them.  We settled our auction account for the Britto and picked our framing options for the Bellet Rob won.

Rob went downstairs to get our passports back - the Greek officials had required everyone to give theirs up to be examined while we were there  - while I went to our stateroom to change shoes and check on Jack. He was doing much better by then, and I relaxed knowing he was okay.


We went to the Vista Lounge for the show after that. Here's Jason Venner, our hilarious (and cute!) Cruise Director, opening the show.


I'm surprised this picture came out at all.  Until that night,  I had thought no photography at all was allowed, but I finally realized it was okay, just no flash. Well. I *thought* I had turned off  my flash, but it popped bright as anything when I took this picture of singer Annie Francis from Australia. I was so embarrassed, I practically threw my camera at Rob and buried my face!  Whoops. No more camera for me that night. The singer was okay, but she was kind of of the boring cruise-ship variety.

When Rob ordered drinks that night, and from then on from bar hostess Rebecca, she called him "Sir Bob." We thought that was highly amusing.


We walked through the casino on our way out of the Lounge, where they were trying to get everyone to do red, white, and blue kamikaze shots for a buck. No one was taking them up on it. So of course, we did. While a small crowd watched, we picked our shots and slammed them back. Everyone cheered. We laughed and left!


We made our way up to the Lido  Deck to photograph the big dessert  extravaganza that was going on that  night.

  There were desserts everywhere we looked!


The  Table  O' Breads


This was made of bread!

Everything chocolate that you could imagine!


Yep, still more desserts


That's it!

Phew. By that point, before we even ate anything,  I  had an upset tummy. Rob stayed behind to  get a few things to eat while I went downstairs to yet  again check on Jack.  We ate a few goodies after that, and then we went to bed.

Stay tuned for tomorrow:  Dubrovnik, Croatia!

Fin.

Day Nine: Katakolon, Greece

Once again, we slept in late, this time until our breakfast was cold. Every morning, I ate two blueberry muffins and OJ, and Rob would get a ham and cheese omelet and some coffee. Sometimes we mixed it up and got a few other little things, but mostly that was it. So my muffins were okay, but his eggs were nasty. We finally got up when Aden, the cabin steward,  was banging on our door to find out if the pillows were better.

I kept saying we shouldn't sleep our trip away, but Rob's point was that he should be able to sleep in and not rush around on his vacation if he wanted to. It's a good point; he does work so hard. While he lazed around some more, I checked email to see what was going on with the folks back home.  I also received phone calls from both my dad and my sister, who thought we were back home already. They were both surprised when I said, "No, we're in Greece right now!"  Kind of fun for them, I guess.

We'd also received some text messages from Steph in the middle of the night. Jack was sick and needed to go to the emergency room, because his temp was 105. Oh, no. We called back and forth, and we really worried about our son. But we decided to go out and make the most of it.


This was our first view off the ship. The big duty-free shop in Katakolon. No need for tender today; we were  docked in the port.

 
At the end of the pier was the Greek Coast Guard station


The signs telling us where to go. I really wish we could have gone to the beach, but we had gotten up too early and it was another short day, like in Nàvplion.


What are these, impatiens? I don't know. They were bright fuschia, that's for darn sure!


After  we walked around and did a little souvenir shopping, we came across three horse-and-buggies lined up for rides around the island. (I asked Rob to take a picture of the horse, and this is what I got! Der.)  For five Euros each, we decided to take the ride.

  Me, hot and sweaty and waiting for the ride to begin, obviously not bothering to hide my passport pouch anymore!


The  island in front of us as we headed on out


Starting to enter the little village. It was tiny, and almost everything was a souvenir shop.


A playground among the houses

There's our pretty ship!


Three men walking down to the "marina,'" such as it was


This very Asian-looking house. Except for that, I was always interested on the tours when they pointed out architecture not necessarily from that country. Like, in Spain there was French and Italian and Greek stuff. In Italy, there was French and Spanish and Greek and other influences, etc. You get this perception that they are all discrete little packages, with their own little cultures, but they're not. There is a lot of intermingling. In Croatia, a lot of times I couldn't tell if they were speaking Croatian or Italian! There were a lot of similarities.


More of the beach and marina. Not a lot of swimmers that we could see. Almost back to the starting point. It was a very small, very disappointing port for us.  We maybe should have taken the tour up to  Mt. Olympus, because there really wasn't that much to see or do.  We probably could have done without that one.

Husband parking!  There was a nice bar - a real bar, not just a café although it was that, too - so we decided to go in and see what was what.


The bar was indoor-outdoor, but it was more open-air than other places. We sat in the shade, out of the heat.


Rob, sitting and waiting for our order


We ordered  a small sampler platter, and this is what we received . Those are beans in the sauce, along with some olives, some fries, some yogurt dip, some pita, some gyro  meat, some  grape-leaf-covered somethings that I liked and Rob didn't...

The view of the bar from the front.  When we went to pay,  I was relieved to find we still had enough Euros in our pocket for it, and  I said, "phew!" to Rob about the bill.  The female shopkeep, who was from New Orleans but moved to Greece and runs this bar with her Greek husband, said, "What, what's wrong?" I told her I was worried we wouldn't have enough, and she said she didn't care whether we did or not, as long as we'd had enough to eat! Then she gave us some baklava to take back to the ship. Isn't that SO NICE?! I love these people!

It was damn good baklava, too.

We walked passed these ride-on toys on our way back to the ship. I had to take a picture, because I was thinking how much my little ones would love these colorful rides.

 

One last view of Katakolon, Greece, before we reboarded the ship. It was so hot; I couldn't wait to get my lemonade and cold washcloth!

Once aboard, we changed into our bathing suits and went swimming on the Lido Deck. It was barely cooler than the air, so it wasn't very refreshing, but it was better than nothing! Later, I took a nap while Rob went out drinking at one of the ship's bars with an older Dutch couple. He was there quite a long while, just chatting about stuff, and he came back a little sloshed but happy.

We tried to complete our art auction after that, for the Britto and the other thing, but we had the wrong appointment time.  So we went down to dinner.

This time, we were seated with an American couple from Arizona, another from Texas, and their son Drew, who is in law school and very frat boyish. We later shared a taxi with him in Venice. They were all very nice, and we had lots of fun, lots of laughs, over our meal. Rob ate the salmon ceviche, cream of onion soup, white perch, and baba au rum for dessert. I had crab and spinach quiche, onion soup, white perch, and a phyllo dough with chocolate mousse for dessert. It was delicious! I usually love anything with phyllo dough, though.

Afterward we went to the show, which was "Moscow Magic." We had to stand in the way back, so we didn't have a very good view, but it was still a good show. There were some predictable tricks, but there were also some good and very surprising tricks. Somehow, the female kept changing outfits right in front of us, without doing anything. Her outfit would just change, over and over. I still can't wrap my mind around that one!

We went down to exchange more USD for Euros after that. We did that a lot. The Front Desk people began to know our names, between that and all the postcard stamps we bought!

We went back to the room to check on Jack, and to talk to Chloë and Stephanie. He was doing a little better by then, so we were relieved, but then the girls got sick. Poor Stim. They had plenty to deal with in our absence!  And after that, we went to bed.

Tomorrow, stay tuned for Corfu, Greece!

Fin.

Day Eight: Nàvplion

Or Nafplio, as we also found it spelled, in Greece. But not in Greek, of course. I couldn't begin to show you how they spelled it...

We were in this port from 0800 to 1600, a pretty short day. And yet, we slept in, had our breakfast in bed, and then went back to sleep some more! Too bad; we should have gotten up, toured around town, and gone to the beach for once. As it was, we did cancel the rest of our tours, being so tired and preferring instead to tour on our own.

Finally, I got up and showered and dressed, and eventually Rob woke up and did the same. We mailed off about 3 dozen postcards and then caught the tender into town.


On the tender, which was actually one of the lifeboats. We were anchored out a way, so the only way to town was by taking these smaller boats.  I remember being in one a long time ago, with my grandparents, and it was probably pretty similar to this one. Our trip over was virtually empty, but the tender was packed on the way back.


A castle offshore - can you see the Greek flag waving on top?


Our first view of Nàvplion, Greece - very tropical looking

 
Scooters and bikes parked in the narrow streets between apartment buildings.


 We walked around the brightly-colored buildings, doing a little souvenir shopping and a lot of people-watching. We went into the folk museum and bought a few trinkets at the shop there, one of which was a bird mobile for a Bunco prize that turned out to be from India. They had lots of interesting things in there. If you're ever in Nàvplion, visit the folk museum!


After we bought  a few souvenirs here, the owner stopped us from leaving. He told me he had a gift for me.  He started pulling out postcard after postcard, telling me he had taken the pictures himself of this, his beautiful town, and wanted me to have them.  So nice, these Europeans sharing their talents  as gifts.  So if you received a postcard from me from Nàvplion, it came from that man.

Robert walking around town


While I was stopping to take a picture of this monument, some Greek teenaged boys came out of a building and shouted, "No take picture!" I looked up, surprised, and they ran off laughing.  Pranks are pranks in any country, I guess.


We had worked up quite a thirst, so once again we stopped at a café for a drink. Here's the  wine list, which I can't read. It's all Greek to me! (C'mon, you knew that was coming.)


Rob poring over the menu, trying to figure out what to eat. They had broken English explanations for lots of the items. We ended up eating sandwiches with our sodas, but  they were kind of weird. The bread was thick and crusty, for one thing, but I can't put my finger on what was so strange, exactly.


I ordered a Sprite, and this is what I received. It had a different flavor than Sprite, and there's no telling  from the bottle what it actually was.  'Twas good, though.

 Once again, the check - all greek - came in one of those cuppy things. Really, you're supposed to squish your money down in there?


We were at the Music Cafe, but there was no music. Perhaps because it was time for the afternoon siesta?

  On my right, there were café upon café upon café, as far as the eye could see. The chairs from one butted right up against the chairs of the neighboring restaurant. I found that very curious. It just didn't seem like there was a lot of competition.


Rob's dessert. We don't know what it was called, but  it turned out to be very good.


Then we decided to take the train ride around town, to look at the churches and monuments and stuff. There was a tour voice over the speaker, but the train was so loud, we couldn't hear a word of it.


The rest of the train


Heading through town


Pretty orange lilies, just like at home!

Another side street - the oceanfront buildings were  brightly colored; the side buildings were all the same beigey-yellow, pretty much.


I did not catch what that was - ruins? - atop the hill.


Pretty roses alongside. There were lots of bright, beautiful flowers all over Nàvplion.


Going through the middle of town

The view from Rob's side

Something kept  drawing my eyes up that hill. I really would like to know what that structure was!

Another monument in the square; no one shouted at me this time!


A memorial

  The Greek Orthodox church

Another view of that castle on the water. Oh, that water.  I would love to be back there again, right now, actually swimming in it.

After the train ride, we spotted something that said "toy store." Being the parents of three little ones waiting for us - and goodies - at home, of course we needed to investigate further. But this 'toy store' turned out to be one of those claw grabber game machines! I thought that was hilarious.

We were still very tired from all the trekking around we'd been doing, so we went back to the tender station to get back and take a nap. There was a long line for the tender this time. But fortunately, as at each other port, the crew were passing out ice-cold washcloths with which to clean and cool ourselves, and cups of lemonade. I thought these were nice touches.

  Finally, after eight days of struggling to get comfortable in bed, Rob finally decided to switch the mattress around! Here's a picture of me, not helping.

At 1730, we had a reservation for just the two of us for dinner. Sometimes it was nice to join others, but sometimes it was nice to just be on our own. It was, after all, our long-awaited honeymoon! I had a Caesar salad, chicken breast, and bread pudding with berries. Rob had a seafood cocktail, cream of asparagus soup, chicken stuffed with prosciutto, and chocolate raspberry cake. Have I told you he put on seven pounds during this trip? That's an amazing amount for him. He ate well, to say the least! (Never mind what I gained, I can do it just looking at the food.) (Okay, I found out today, I gained three.)

After dinner, we headed straight to the infirmary. I was having trouble breathing before, but I was having a full-on allergic reaction now, after taking a nap. (Of course, dinner took precedence, are you kidding?!) It turned out, I was allergic to the down in the pillows. The infirmary was actually closing when we made it down there, but as soon as they heard the words "allergic reaction," they ushered us right in. It was a quick examination, and I was given medication, instructions to find new pillows, and sent on my way.

That was easier said than done. An initial search from the Front Desk turned up one foam pillow. Really? I'm the only person, out of thousands, to be allergic to down?  I took my medication, though, and immediately started to feel better.


While Rob went out and about to search the ship for another pillow for our bed, I became giddy about all the tiny, individually-wrapped packages clogging up our loveseat. So I happily unwrapped each little thing, laid it out, and gazed over all our new possessions, prizes, and pieces. Some of you might recognize some of the items - you might actually now be the owner of them! That blue "bowl"(ashtray)  was from Pisa, and I now find myself using it every chance I get. Looking at this picture brings back a lot of memories for me, of all the shopping, visiting, sight-seeing, and thinking about the folks back home that we did. What fun.


Eventually Aden, our wonderfully cheerful and resourceful cabin steward from Indonesia, heard about my visit to the doctor and came to check on me. He was genuinely concerned for my safety and comfort and begged me to let him know if there was anything else we needed. And, he procured three more pillows for us! What a great chap.

So, we ventured back out, to watch the show. That night, it  was a harpist from Uruguay. She was dreadfully boring, and we stayed for only three pieces before ducking out.  We relaxed in our room some more and then went up to the Lido Deck to partake of the Japanese  late-night snack.  We had miso, tofu, lotus balls , green tea, etc. Good stuff.

Then we went down to the Lounge again to watch the Filipino crew members put on a show and tell about their country. They told  stories, sang, danced and greatly entertained us. It was a lot of fun. Much better than that old harpist.

We went back to the room and crashed.

Stay tuned for tomorrow: Katakolon, Greece!

Fin.

Day Six: Messina, Sicily; and Day Seven: Sea Day

Day Six: Messina, Sicily

On this day, there was "scenic cruising" as we entered the port of Messina and glided past the Stromboli Volcano, but we missed taking pictures of it.  We went up to the Lido Deck for a late breakfast, since we still had several hours before we actually got to Messina.

Then it was time for our couples' massage in the Greenhouse Spa! That was part of our "romantic voyage" package. First, because we got there plenty early, we changed into our bathing suits and went swimming in the hydropool. It was hot water, with penetratingly hard streams of water that we used to massage our backs and shoulders. It felt wonderful. We only stayed in for about 15 minutes, before it was time to don our robes and visit the relaxation room. There, we lounged on comfortable chairs and ottomans, filled out our information forms, and ate fruits as the Sicilian waters streamed by the giant windows.

When our masseuses finally arrived, I was ready. I don't know about you, but I am not one to be able to just sit and relax. That doesn't mean I don't know how to loaf and be lazy, but I have to actually be DOING something, not just sitting there chillin'. I have to read, or crochet or knit, or some darn thing. Plus, I was worried about the time factor; we were getting short on it, with our Mt. Etna excursion looming.

Fortunately, I was able to relax and enjoy the massage. Rob was on a table right next to me, and we had a good back, neck and shoulder rub. I don't know what my lady (hee) did to my back, but it felt so amazing for the first day or two after. (I have back trouble.) And I know Rob felt great after his, too.

Afterward, we quickly said adieu and rushed to meet our tour in the Vista Lounge. We were just on time! We got our stickers, met our tour guide (I believe he said his name was John, but I could be completely making that up), and boarded the bus for the two-hour drive up to the top of Mt. Etna. Not the tippy-top, that is, but as far as they allow one to go.

So along this two-hour drive, "John" talked about the capital of Sicily, Palermo, and its one million inhabitants. There are a total of five million on the island, the largest in the Mediterranean. There are only 22 rainy days per year, with a very short water supply. The tap water only runs in their sinks - except for hotel guests - from 6 - 7 AM! If you miss your shower, or whatever, in that time, too bad, so sad. 

More details I remember: The scirocco (sp?) wind from comes from Libya, "where that bloody Moamar Qadafi lives," said John.  St. Francisco's church was built in the 1200s. They call a highway a "motorway." There are 21 bridges and 21 tunnels to get up Mt. Etna.  One can see the Calabria region of Italy from "here," wherever "here" was at that point in the conversation.

Anyway... the picture above is from when he started talking heavily about trees. He was a high school teacher of English and German, but botany was his main hobby. He pointed out every species of tree - giving both its common and scientific names - on the island, I swear. It was impressive, but not altogether interesting for all those of us on the tour. He talked about the citrus plants, the pines, the eucalyptus and oleander.

Here, climbing higher, you can see the lava amongst the flora. The lava contains potassium sulfate, so everything is fertile about 75 years after the eruption, which is why so many different kinds of plants are able to grow. There are three levels up the mountain:

• From sea level to 600 meters, everything grows
• From 600-2000m, it's just woods
• From 2000+ meters, there is no more flora

Here, we're getting near the 2000m point, so the trees are disappearing.

 We're getting there, lots more lava to be found everywhere

Our first few of the top of Mt. Etna!

Ready for its close-up

Our guide, possibly-John

Finally, we reached our limit. You can see almost all of the flora was gone except for some mossy-licheny type stuff. Everything was covered in lava.

  Down into one of the craters

Another crater, the Silvestri canyon. Some of it is red because the lava contains a lot of iron that oxidized (ie, rusted)

Rob in the canyon. He wore his jacket, because we were 2000m above sea level, and it got quite cold compared to the boiling heat down in Messina!


And then he climbed the top of the "lava window" and took a picture of me, way down below...

Another lava hill, heavy with iron

One last view of the lava

After we were done touring around all the lava formations, we went to both of the "bar" cafés at the location. Yes, even up there! At the first one, we each had a piece of pizza and a cannoli. I probably had a soda, and it looks here like Rob was completely smashed! Really, he probably just blinked. He saved his big drinking for the ship. ;)

The best cannoli I've ever had in my entire life. Mmm, mmm, mmm.

Pausing outside before going across to the second bar and seeing what they had to offer

La Capannina, the second bar, where we bought some post cards, a few snacks, and some lava souvenirs. I bought a vase covered in Mt. Etna lava for myself, and a small ashtray - to be used for some other purpose, like holding coins or a small candle - as a Bunco prize.

The hazelnut chocolate sticks we bought for the long, two-hour drive back. I was very glad John didn't talk much on the return trip. His voice was loud and abrasive; it was very harsh on the ears to listen to his rhythm of speaking for so long. For the first time on a tour, I brought out my iPod and zoned out.

We saw a herd of goats on the way back down.

One little straggler

Ah, back home, sweet home, at last.

It was late at that point, so we changed and went right to dinner on the ship. This time, we were seated with one American couple, and another lady from L.A. who was traveling with her teen-aged grandson. For dinner, Rob and I both had the tuna tartar and "grandma's" chicken noodle soup. This soup had nothing on Grandma, I tell you what. Or Rob - his chicken 'n' dumplings are waaay better. He had the mussels and fettucine for a main course, and I had the silk salmon with rice and currants. For dessert, the L.A. granny brought out - surprise! - a box of cannoli she'd purchased in town. It was good, but nowhere near as good as what we'd had up on Mt. Etna. Seriously, that was out-of-this-world. The dinner cannoli, well, we get better at our local pizza joint, I'd say.

We didn't have enough time after dinner to go back out and tour around Messina, so instead we went up to the Observation Deck for the first time, to take pictures from up there. This old church stood out among all the other buildings.

Another pretty building, in the far-off distance


The streets of Messina, Sicily

Ooh, look, one of those little Smart Cars that's like half a regular car! Isn't it so cute? I want one.

Rob looking down at the scene below and pretending to be oblivious to my picture-taking


The other side of the ship. Can't read Latin, something about a city?

Eventually, we put on our bathing suits and went down to the Lido for the Sail-Away piña colada party. We had piña coladas out of pineapples and swam late into the evening.

Makin' coladas

There was a pretty lame ice sculpture contest between two of the crew members who normally make them. The commentary , by "party planner Joy," was beyond lame. And one of the sculptures broke in half  by accident. That part was entertaining, at least.

My piña. They actually kind of tasted like crap. We ended up bringing our drinks down to our room to relax and have a late-night snack. But we forgot about the drinks, and by morning they had leaked all over our coffee table and the papers we had there. So here's your lesson of the day: pineapples aren't leakproof!

Day Seven: At Sea

I have exactly zero pictures of this day.

We lazed around in bed all morning, and then Rob went to the art auction, to see about that Britto on which we bid, while I lazed around in bed for half the afternoon, reading my book and writing tons of postcards. It was just the sort of lazy day we needed, after all the touring around.

And guess what? He won the auction! The Britto is ours!!!!! Whenever it arrives, I will take a picture and show you our lovely new piece of art.

And guess what else? He bid on a second piece of art and won that, too! That was an "Oh, really?" moment, with eyebrows raised, when he shared this upon his return to the cabin. But it's okay. I really wanted about three more of the Brittos - and oh, a Picasso and a Rembrandt - but alas, we are not Warren Buffet here!

Finally, I got up out of bed, and we went up to the Lido Deck for lunch before going down to the Front Desk to spend another fortune in postcard stamps. Each one cost over a Euro, and I must have sent out at least five dozen cards during the trip. Hey, I like it. I like getting them, too, so if you ever go anywhere... ;)

Then we came back to the room to dress up, since it was the second Formal Night of the cruise. We went to the show, which was the Zuiderdam singers and dancers, and again they were very good. Then we got our portraits taken, and oh, wait! Because we received a free portrait with our "romantic voyage" package, I do have a picture to show you after all:

 
Neither of us likes it. Oh, well. You want it?

We went down to the dining room and got a pager for the 20+ minute wait for a table. In the interim, we went into the adjoining study and read some coffee table books that we both wished we owned! For dinner, we were seated with an Australian couple, Dennis and Denise, whom we later saw many times during the remainder of the cruise. Rob ate some greens and feta cheese, chicken and spinach with barley soup, and a feta- and spinach-stuffed breast. I had grilled scallops, pumpkin soup, and the same yummy entrée.

There was a late-night take-off game of the Newlywed Show in the Queen's Lounge after dinner, so we went to that hoping to be picked. We were chosen by the Cruise Director as a "maybe" couple, which the audience then voted on by applause. In the end, we weren't picked, but we stayed for the whole game and it was pretty hilarious. For the next few days, people pointed us out and asked us if, after seeing the bawdy questions and topics discussed during the game, we still wished we had played, our joint response was, "Oh, yeah! We would have knocked it out of the park!"

And we would have.

Tomorrow: Stay tuned for Navplion, Greece!

Fin.

Day Five: Civitavecchia & Rome

On this Sunday - not the best day to be in Rome, by the way, if you have your choice (things are closed for the Sabbath) - we woke up late, around 10. We were pretty worn out from all the tours by then. We didn't have any excursion tickets, so we hadn't quite decided what to do with our day. We were already docked in Civitavecchia, about an hour west of Rome, on the coast (duh).

So, we had our breakfast in bed (and boy, was I spoiled by that; I keep waiting for my food to be delivered when I wake up, and it's NOT happening!), took slow, relaxing showers, and dressed. Then we took the shuttle from the ship to the center of Civitavecchia (pronounced "Chee-VEE-ta-VEH-key-uh") to see our fortune. Well, part with it, anyway.

Immediately after we stepped off the bus, there was a young man asking if anyone needed a taxi. His English was poor, so we negotiated in Italian ("How much?" is "Cuanto costa?"), Spanish, and English for a ride to Rome. For an hours' trip there, back, and sightseeing in the old city, we paid *gulp* 200 Euros. That's a lot, folks. We talked it over for a good five minutes before deciding to go ahead with it. It ended up being worth it, to see all the old and well-known points of interest, but man, it was hard to hand over at the end of the ride!  We didn't have much time, either, so it was a whirlwind tour, for sure.  Here we go:

The scenery on the way from Civitavecchia to Rome

Monuments, monuments everywhere

The price for gas - we stopped twice, once on the way there and once on the way back. It seemed like for just a little bit at a time. Why, I wonder? Why not just fill up? He had our money, anyway.

More of the Mediterranean passing by; I never get tired of seeing it, do you?

Coming into Rome, now

Approaching Vatican City! After the Leaning Tower of Pisa, that had to be my next most anticipated landmark for this trip!

Here we are! Our tour guide, Max (who was from Civitavecchia, by the way), pulled into a parking place (one of the few times he actually did so; they'll just park any old place over there!) and let us out for about 40 minutes to walk around and take things in. We ended up only needing about half that time. See the sights, take the pictures, get in the car, next!

The fountain in Piazza San Pietro (Saint Peter's Square, which is really a circle)

St. Peter's Basilica

This group of folks was chanting something in the square. I have no idea what they were saying, but I either have it or will soon have it on video here - take a listen and let me know if you know what they're saying. Not sure if they were protesting or just happy to be there! Note their parasols...

On top of the wall surrounding the Piazza. We decided these must be the Popes?

More papal types

Ah, a better view of the fountain. Is it filled with Holy Water? ;)

The requisite "Stand There and Let Me Take Your Picture in Front of This Thing" picture

And the obligatory "Now It's Your Turn" photo - before the person next to me kicked me in the stomach? And yeah, I know, you can totally tell where my passport and money pouch was, but it still would have been hard for a pickpocket to get to it there!


Anyone read Latin?


All the people heading in and out of the Piazza

We headed out and cooled off with some gelato at Ye Olde Gastronomy Shak here. Good stuff, and we people-watched while we ate.

More of the sights right outside St. Peter's Square

Some priests waiting in line to tour the Chapel. We didn't get to go because 200€ was all we had on us that day, and it already belonged to Max's pocketbook. Shucks, I really wanted to see the Sistine Chapel. Oh well, we'll just have to go back one day!

We bought some post cards - a pack of 20 for 1€! That was a great deal. Usually, I paid about 0,30€ - 0,50€ for each one! And I also picked up my spoon. None of the other stuff, though. What, no shot glasses in Vatican City?!

Another monument. Every time we passed one, Rob would say, "Didja get that one?" Yeah, maybe, but I don't know who it is!

Everything old was under construction, it seems like. We forgive them. A few millenia is a long time, even for a building.

This is where my memory gets spotty, but I believe this is a Roman government building, where Berlusconi, the President Council of Italy works.

Venetzia Square, built by Mussolini

A better view of Venetzia Square

Very regal-looking

Uh, the view from the back seat? I'm not sure why I included this picture. Perhaps this is the street Max told us housed all the shops for the well-known designers, and sure enough, we did see name upon name upon name that we recognized. Alas, no money, no time, no figure for shopping there!

Another monument!

Max took a picture of us together, here at the Trevi Fountain

The enormous and beautiful backdrop to the fountain

Oh, I remember how inviting that water was, in the oppressive heat. People kept reaching their hands in and getting yelled at by the guards. I wanted to strip naked and dive in!

This little fairy was up on a pedestal until Rob dropped a few coins in her bucket, and then she came to life, dancing all around him.

He certainly didn't seem to mind the attention, eh?

One last kiss before she went back up on her pedestal, until the next person tipped her.

Everywhere in Rome, people had these parasols, to keep the blazing sun off their heads. I inquired about the cost, but was told 6€. "Troppo," I said. Too much. I managed to bargain my way down to 3€. Not bad, and it was very useful until I handed it over to the girls for a nice Roman souvenir.

One last look at that glorious fountain, before we skedaddled to the next stop.

A-ha! We found a van in Europe! Not a minivan, though. More like a microvan. It was no bigger than my thumb.

Guess what this is...?

On our way to the next site, I asked Rob to pause for a picture so I could get one of the view of the Roman apartments, so different from those, say, on the Côte d'Azur. He was exasperated, you can tell!

That was the name of this store. We believed them!

An interesting thing to find, in Rome, no?  See how there were two sets of hours for each day? Everywhere, it was like that, because of the afternoon siesta observed everywhere, from 1 PM to 3 or 4 PM.

The Spanish Steps! And again, more construction.

Rob, about midway up the Steps. People were just sitting around on them, eating, reading, talking. As if it were no big deal to be there. So cool!

And, coming back down the steps...

At the bottom, he was greeted by a jerk of a Roman man, and me, holding three red roses. This man, a flower seller, had come up to me, kissing my cheeks, telling me I was beautiful (yeah, sure), he loved me, my husband was a lucky man, and he wanted to give me these flowers as a gift. That gift was no gift, of course - watch out for that - unlike the true gift I received in Pisa of my embroidered name. He expected payment from Rob when he came back down the steps. When Rob didn't want to pay him that much, he pouted and pointed at my roses. Rob stood firm, and I handed back two roses and walked away. Oh, well. It's another experience for the ol' memory box!

Back out, past Venetzia Square

Marchelo Theatre - an opera house

The Temple of Vesti

Max called this the Church of Mouth, and he pointed to his mouth for clarification.

Driving by the Palatine and Maximum Circle, where gladiators raced back in the day

Or maybe this was where the Gladiators raced. I don't know.

Constantino Arch

I bet you know what this is! The Colosseum!  It was amazing, truly. (Dang underlining. Go away.)

 

Castle San Angel

Can you see that greenish water down there? It's the Tiber River!

Garibaldi Square

Looking out from a scenic overlook at the whole city of Rome

Maximum-Max, our illustrious tour guide, posing for a picture - for which he was laughed at by the other Italians. Oh, well. He was nice.

Driving away, we saw this monument, which I asked Max about. The heads are all the Roman emperors.

We had a quiet drive back to the ship, listening to both Italian and American music. I was surprised to find many of my favorite songs playing on the radios in Europe, many of which you can hear on my main blog. Rob woke me up in the car, as he is wont to do, to "warn" me that I was snoring. Hey, I'm sleeping, I couldn't care less!

Back aboard the ship, once we were scanned in using our keycards, we went for a late lunch of salads on the Lido Deck. That's another thing I got used to, a nice salad in the afternoon. Maybe I'll get some salad fixin's next time I go grocery shopping.

We rested in the room until it was time for dinner, out of the heat. We had reservations to eat by ourselves, early. That night, I had scallops (love me some scallops), and Rob had the chicken; we both had tiramisu for dessert. I am not normally a fan of tiramisu, but it was really excellent.

Afterward, we went to the early show. It was an American comedian from Chicago. Rob laughed hard from the seat next to me, but I really didn't think he was that funny. Surprising; normally we have the same taste in humor.

Then we went to the casino and collected our $25 in "free" gambling money from the Romantic Voyage package. We had cocktails while we played the slots, and it wasn't long before all the coins were gone and I was saying we should have just taken the money and run.

We went to the art gallery, where we had long been admiring a particular piece by Romero Britto, and won a free piece of art for taking a quiz, even though we performed badly. It's nice, I like it. Wait, let me find it...

It's called "Andante" by Charles Lee, and the colors and style are very us. We like it. We'll hang it somewhere.

Finally, after several days of thinking and talking about it, Rob put in a pre-bid for the Britto we liked. The auction was later in the trip, but the pre-bid locked us in at a lower price if no one bid against us. We were excited! Juliette, the art gallery auctioneer, congratulated us a million times, and wished us luck at the auction.  We received another free piece of work for the pre-bid, too:

This one's called "Paysage aux 3 Enfants" by Jean-Claude Picot. It's nice enough, but eh... it's nice enough. Anyone like it?

After we left the art gallery, we went to listen to the cellist in a side lounge, and have some drinks. (booze cruise!) The music was lively yet relaxing, and we enjoyed ourselves for a while before  heading back to our room to read and have a late-night room service snack.

Just another lovely sunset in Civitavecchia.

Tomorrow: Stay tuned for Sicily!

Fin.

Day Four: Livorno, Italy

On this Saturday, I woke up early after dreaming that we'd gone home and missed our tour, and the rest of our trip. I didn't want to miss it for real, so I stayed awake as we pulled into port in Livorno, "the gateway to Florence," in Tuscany.

  We ate breakfast in bed (finally got that system squared away) and watched the ship come into the harbor. Then I wrote postcards from the previous day, before heading down to the Front Desk for another batch of stamps.  My grandfather is a philatelist, so I always bought extra stamps to send to him. It pleased me to think how excited he would be when he received the whole batch upon our return home! I should call him and see how he liked it...

One of the ferries to bring passengers from Livorno to the isles of Corsica and Sardinia

More ships coming to port, in the distant mist

Another ferry. How fun it would have been to hop aboard for the day! But, of course we could not do that. So instead, we waited in the Vista Lounge for our tour to be called. And soon it was.

Today, our tour guide was Lucretzia, a youngish girl from Livorno itself. We were going to visit the old cities of Lucca and - I'm sure you've heard of it - Pisa! On the way, she pointed out these fields of sunflowers and talked about the process of making oil from the seeds. She also discussed the Chianti grapes for wine-making, and the olives and their oil. Did you know that not only are there wine sommeliers, but there are also sommeliers for olive oil, because of the many different Tuscan varieties produced? At a fine restaurant, you will have an olive oil menu for your food, and there will be help for your selection. I found that very interesting.

The beautiful Tuscan countryside

Yep, McDonald's in Tuscany. It wasn't the first we saw in Europe, and it wasn't the last. We found many other popular American brands there, too.

Once we arrived in Lucca, we again separated from our tour so we could wander the streets on our own. Bye, group!

The City of Lucca. Do you see the green area? That represents the old city, which is walled in. Actually, there are lots of cities in Europe where the old part is walled in, and the newer growth spreads out beyond the ancient walls.  For our tour, we stayed in the old walled-in area.

And old quiet street in the early morning, in Lucca

Rob posed in the shade, because even though it was before must Luccans were up and about, the sun was already beating down heavily upon us. I believe the temperature rose to 38*C that day, about 100*F.

A toy store in the old city. You can see High School Musical items, Winnie the Pooh, Teletubbies, Legos and more - along with some Italian toys.

Someone's door knocker; Rob was interested in this.

The apartment buildings were so close, you could reach across to each other without strain.

As soon as the first "bars" began to open, we decided to get ourselves a drink to cool off. This is where we stopped.

They had quite a postcard collection going, from all over the world.

See my Sprite can? All in Italian!

When you order a Sprite in Europe, you never know what you're going to get. Here, I got the real thing, but the can was taller and thinner than the ones to which we're accustomed.

Rob pretending not to be aware that I'm once again taking his picture in a café. You'll see a lot more of those!

We kept moving after our drinks, doing a little shopping, a little window browsing, a little people-watching. That was my favorite thing to do, really. This "Stop Baby" baby gate tickled my funny bone!

In the window of a bakery

Such a cute little barber shop seat for toddlers!

Another old church in another old city!

The streets starting to come alive with vehicle, bicycle and foot traffic.

Another American brand!

Oh! We spied another gorgeous carousel in the old, walled-in city of Lucca.

Standing sentry over the city

Our first gelato in Italy! I ordered the chocolate chip; Rob had chocolate. It came with cute little shovels instead of spoons. Sooo good.  They spoke no English at that shop, so I did my best to speak Italian. Mostly, that meant speaking with our hands.

Heading back out toward the entrance of the city walls, to meet back up with our tour group.

Look at the wee child's bike!

Once at the entrance, I sent Rob up that hill to see what was so interesting that the tour started off there. This is what he saw, one way...

...and the other. Yep. I'm glad we did what we did!

It was pretty up there on that wall, though.

Coming back down the hill - all the buses leading into Lucca

Back at the gelato shop, we'd also purchased these lollipops for our children. They were quick to devour them when we brought them home!

Here were are at the entrance to the old, walled-in city of Pisa. On the way to Pisa, Lucretzia told us that Livorno and Pisa are enemies. She shared all kinds of jokes Livornans tell about Pisans, depicting them as smelly, stupid and ugly!

We all have our MLKs, they have their LDVs.

This was the local tour guide for Pisa. There had been a local guide for Lucca, too. While the rest of the group followed this guide, guess what we did? That's right, we took our own path.

Of course, the first thing we did was find another bar and have another drink! Rob had coke, and I decided on some pear juice.

By that time we worked up quite an appetite, so we each had a slice of pizza, too. No cannoli, though.

Then we started to tour around all the old buildings in Pisa. Can you see what is in the distance there?

It's the Leaning Tower of Pisa!!! Woohoo!! We made it! That had to be the most anticipated part of the trip for me. Very exciting. It was a lot shorter than I expected!

Rob took his turn posing in front of Pisa's famous tower, too.

The other buildings in the Miracle Square - Piazza de Milagros, I think - were no less striking and splendid.

Not quite as crooked, though!

Across from all the buildings, behind the crowds, was a long row of vendors selling their wares. Mostly cheap souvenirs. Right there in the square! Of course, we bought a few things - t-shirts for Stim, a really cool ceramic dish for me, my requisite souvenirs I listed yesterday, a backscratcher to replace the one from Guam that our dog ate when she was a puppy... think that's it.


A wittle Italian puppers inside one shop!


...and his sister standing guard outside. Oh, they looked desperate for some water, poor things.

The wall around the old city of Pisa

Walking out through the gate in the wall around the city. On the left, in all those shops, were Italians. Outside in the heat, hawking fake belts, watches, hats, bags, and what-have-yous, were Africans. Significance? You decide.

Oh, speaking of fast artisans, like the crocheting man yesterday, this woman embroidered faster than a speeding bullet. Rob, who embroiders at work, was very impressed. After we admired her, she told me she was going to give me a gift. She pulled out some blue cardstock, and before I could blink, she'd embroidered my name on it. I tried to pay her a half-Euro or so, but she wouldn't take it! She just smiled and insisted it was a gift.

More and more souvenir shops outside the walls

The Meeting Point Bar, where we were to ... meet!

More of the Tuscan countryside, passing by on our way back to the ship. *sigh* I want to go back.

Back on board, we went up to the Lido Deck and had a late snack of sandwiches and salads. Then we went back to our stateroom and threw on our bathing suits to finally go swimming. It wasn't the Mediterranean Sea, but I didn't care at that point. It was exceedingly hot. Rob wanted to go in the hot tub, so I obliged for a while, but my rightful place was cooling off in the pool. Some young guys had been drinking beers in the pool, so eventually Rob decided to get a beer for him and a piña colada for moi. When my drink spilled as he was handing it to me, everyone in the pool shouted out in dismay, and we got in trouble with the bar staff. Oops-a-daisy!

The next picture is a little, um... risqué, so you may want to avert your eyes or finish here!
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You know the Statue of David? Well, in Pisa, we found these boxer shorts based on the famous sculpture. I could not resist buying them for Rob. A little bit of wishful thinking, maybe? *ahem* Look how impressed he looks with himself!

After the pool, we read books in our room and took a leisurely nap before dinner at the exclusive Pinnacle Grill aboard ship. That was part of the "romantic voyage" package I'd purchased for us; you have to pay extra to eat there. It was worth it! It was very nice, very fancy. The staff was all dressed in white tie, but we went "smart casual" as indicated we should do. We felt very underdressed, but no one made any case about it. Rob had the best clam chowder he's ever eaten - I later tried to see if they would give me some to surprise him with, but there was no way they could oblige. Oh, well. He also had mushroom ravioli with asparagus. I had crab cakes and the best shrimp scampi ever, with a side of yucky potatoes. Can't win 'em all. There was an amuse course of salmon tartar, some mushroom goop, and teeny bitty shrimps on a cracker. I gave Rob my goop. He likes his fungi, you know. For dessert, he had the berry shortcake, and I had the baked Alaska. I shouldn't have. It was my first time, and it will probably be my last. Is it always cherry? I am not a big fan of cherries.

Afterward, we went to a side lounge and listened to the string quartet play until it was time for the evening show. Then we went down to the Vista Lounge to listen to a Romanian pianist perform. He was very good, very entertaining!

Late at night, we went to one of the bars and watched Karaoke night. We drank cocktails, along with everyone else, and laughed our way through the performances. Rob kept trying to convince me to go up, but I would have had to imbibe a whole lot more before that was happening. And even then, no. Maybe if I could stay in my seat and not stand up in front of everyone...


Back in our room, we snacked on these Chipsters from the French grocery store, Casino, in Eze. They were also available in Italy, spelled "cipster" but pronounced the same way. They were puffy chips and tasted yummy. We sat on our balcony and laughed ourselves silly making fun of the old people down the hall with thick New York accents (take no offense, if you're a New Yawka - I am, too!). We kept up that game throughout the entire cruise and are still doing it. Rob's name is Murray or Lenny, depending on our mood, and mine is Gladys. I guess you had to be there!

Tomorrow: Stay tuned for Rome!

Fin.

Day Three: Monaco & France

We woke up sort of latish on this day and found ourselves already in port in Monte Carlo, the capital of tiny Monaco. I looked out through our balcony and saw the most amazing view, so I stepped outside immediately to take some pictures.

The pictures definitely don't do it justice. There were hundreds of edifices built right into the hills, and so many of the biggest, most beautiful yachts you'll ever wish to see!

And do you know what happened to me to bring you these photos? Well, like I said, I was so excited, I stepped right out onto the balcony - without stopping to throw on any clothes! I looked right, I looked left, and I looked down, and there was no one who could see me. So I was happily snapping away, until I heard from above, "Yeah, I see her."  I looked up, and three men were staring from the Lido Deck right down at me!!!! I'm sure I gave a little squeal as I turned heel and scurried back into my stateroom, completely mortified!

It was good for a laugh later, though.

After that, we showered (it was so hot and humid, we were on the two-shower-a-day plan), dressed and went to lunch in the Vista Dining Room. It was our one and only time eating lunch in the dining room, I believe. The hours were very limited. After a few minutes alone at the table for four, a nice, retired (of course) couple from Mexico were seated with us. We chatted throughout the meal and had a good time. I ate a grilled peach with feta for an appetizer and a very messy crab sandwich for the main event. Rob had coconut shrimp and some yummy chicken.

After lunch, we went down to the Front Desk to get some postcard stamps. Between all the postcards I sent (I say "I" because Rob wrote a total of four, which I'd bought in Barcelona, and he didn't write them until near the end of the trip!) and the stamps to send them, we spent a small fortune. Be prepared to have a postcard budget, if you're so inclined. Whew!
 
Then we headed to the Vista Lounge to wait for our tour of Nice and Eze (nice and easy, get it??), in France. All the tours congregated in the Lounge at the meeting time stated on the excursion tickets, and then we rushed out the side door en masse when our tour was called, to get our bus sticker and meet our guides. In the lounge, 70s Dude was back! Today he wore white clothes with black sneakers, and his glasses perched at the front of his head, just above his eyes. What a cool dude. Plus there was a new guy: Knee-Socks Dude! He wore white knee socks with his shorts. It was awesome.

Today's tour guide was Linda, from the Netherlands. We missed getting a picture of her, but here's the bus driver. He was Italian. Which was fine, since in addition to Dutch and English, Linda spoke Italian, Spanish, French and probably 80 other languages. I'm so jealous of, uh, Europeans' multilingualness. I wish I were fluent in 10 languages!

A French street sign, heading into one of many, many tunnels we encountered.

The beautiful homes in hills along the Le Côte d'Azur ("the blue coast", maybe better known to you as the French Riviera?)

I forget which was which, but Linda pointed out the homes of Greta Garbo, Bono from U2, Elton John, and Somerset Maugham!

Just couldn't get enough of the sight of the homes built into the hills and that blue Mediterranean water!

So pretty

More yachts

The beautiful marina

More of the scenery from our bus

Doesn't that just make you want to dive in? Or at least rent a boat and sail the world? Ahh, it was divine.

So picturesque...which was a good thing, because it was a long drive!

Cool French apartment building

One of many such outdoor carousels we found in Europe

Little French children, on their way to the park!

A pretty fountain in Nice

On a gate of an apartment building

I just loved all the pretty colors of the different buildings!

Something about the colors, the shutters open to let in the summer air, just screamed "French Riviera" to me!

Rob must have been taken with the camo painting on this motorcycle.

He probably meant this to share with his auto-crazy buddies, but here it is on the blog, anyway!

A wittle French puppers, at the entrance to the famous Nice Flower Market.

Our guide, Linda, walked us from the drop-off point to the Flower Market, and then she gave us about an hour free time to do as we wished before coming back to the bus. And you MUST come back to the bus right on time, because they will wait no more than five minutes before taking off without you! We had a few tag-alongs on our bus who had miss their own at the pick-up point.

Beautiful orchids greeted us at the beginning of the large, open-air Flower Market. I think the shop-owner must have thought we were nuts, standing there taking pictures of her flowers!

Oh, we were so very hot and sweaty, especially Yours Truly (I have always been a big sweat-er and am so envious of those who are not!), so the first thing we did was sit at a café and have a drink. Rob ordered a Coke, and I asked for juice - not having any clue what I would get. It ended up being a small green bottle of regular orange juice. Which was fine, it served the purpose.

We were outside, under the awning, but the inside was behind Rob. All the cafés, or "bars" as they are known in much of Europe, had an indoor and an outdoor component and were lined up so close right next to each other that sometimes you weren't sure in which restaurant you were dining!

At lots of the "bars," the check was delivered in some kind of small cup or bucket. I guess you were supposed to put your money in the cup, too, but we usually just handed it to the person. Even though, every single time, they looked at us like we were trés stupid Americans! And here, you see what a 5€ looks like. Yes, that is 10€, almost $20 USD for two drinks! It's extremely expensive in Europe, especially coming from a place with such a weak economy right now. They pay roughly $12/gal (about 1,56€ per liter) for gas!

After our drink stop, we roamed in and out of the flower market, looking at the beautiful wares.

Of course later, when I asked Rob why he didn't buy me some of these beautiful roses (because it's not like he had taken me on a European cruise or anything!), he reminded me that I was in possession of all the Euros, and he didn't want to have to ask for money to buy me something. He also had to ask for some money to use the public restroom - they almost always cost about a half-Euro, give or take. Whoops. I made sure, from that day on, that we both had some Euro bills and coins in our pockets.Those darn flowers probably cost too much, anyway!

Another pretty apartment building, at the endof the Flower Market.

We came across this old man on the street, crocheting faster than I could even imagine - he had to be five times faster than I can do it, and I'm not slow! Of course, we paid him for the picture; you must be prepared to do so for any pictures of people you want to take. But he did beautiful work, and it was nice to see a man doing it.

We did a little shopping after that. I had to buy all my prizes for Bunco in Europe, and I wanted to bring back enough prizes for all the ladies. I went way over budget, but I didn't care, because it was fun! The first place we shopped was a jewelry store, where the shopkeeper made all her own jewelry. She had necklaces made from coconut beads strung up thickly on dowels, tension-hung on the walls. Well. I wanted to look at one certain necklace (which Stephanie ended up winning at Bunco!), but when I lifted it up, the whole dowel full of necklaces fell to the floor, clanging on pots she had stacked on the steps below! Oh, my! Everyone in the store stared at me, and I just clapped my hands over my mouth in shock. Yes, I embarrass myself frequently! I started in with, "I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry," but the lady was extremely nice and told me not to worry about it. She wouldn't even let me pick them up, telling me it happens all the time and she needed to find a new system. But still. Wasn't I already mortified once that day?

This picture was from a store also selling its own products, fresh olive oil, lavender sachets, milled soaps, foods, and so on. Rob wanted to call his brother (a chef and owner of his own restaurant in Missouri) and ask him if there was something he'd like for him to bring back, but it was the middle of the night at home. So he skipped it. I bought some French milled soap for another Bunco prize; it was lovely.

Inside the same store. When Rob went to take multiple photos, the cashier called out to him, "Un photo, Monsieur, un photo!" Too late.

Going along the coast, again, on the way to Eze (pronounced "Ez")

Another cool apartment building - apparently I like architecture? This I did not know.

A Russian Orthodox church - built in France!

The European traffic is so different from ours. You just don't see the plethora of SUVs, minivans, and pick-up trucks that you do here in the States. Almost everyone drives a hatchback - if not a scooter or motorcycle - and there are even these "smart cars" that are like a regular sedan, cut in half. Just a front seat and that's it. I think I took a picture of one later in the trip, which you'll see.

Rob was amused by this butcher's sign!

Finally we made it to Eze, where we decided to diverge from the tour that went up the hill to a scenic overlook. Eh, scenic schmenic - we were more interested in seeing how the French lived, and when we spotted a "Casino" grocery store, that was our chance! It was just so cool to wander up and down the aisles and see how French food is packaged and presented, what they eat, and so on. Here, some chicken breast. And mine. Heh.

Lots of crackers on the shelves. Again, the employees must have thought we were nuts. Crazy American tourists!

Eggs are just kept on a regular shelf, unrefrigerated! I guess people must have their own containers in which to bring them home?

In the end, Rob bought a French beer, and I bought a guava-flavored slurpee-type thing to drink, and Rob selected these Lay's brand (yes!) chicken-and-thyme flavored potato chips. We sat on a wall and enjoyed our goodies, waiting for the rest of the tour to come back down the hill, watching the natives walking around their town. And the verdict? The chips were very good! After my first bite, I exclaimed, "Wow! It's like Thanksgiving in a bag!" We don't know why the chicken chips aren't popular in North America, but if you see them, try them!

Oh yes, we also bought this strawberry juice to try. It was good, but it was much too sweet, tasting like liquid strawberry jam. I would have bought a much smaller bottle if I'd known; in the end, we accidentally left it behind in our stateroom fridge, having had barely more than this by the end of the trip. We also bought some chocolate candies, with toys inside, for the children.

Look!  A wee French bug! Hey, it was interesting at the time...

Just before getting on our bus, I spotted another bar that had souvenirs inside. Well, of course I must collect my souvies. Whenever I go anywhere, I try to get a spoon, shot glass, keychain and magnet. I found these for both France and Monaco. I also bought a junior racing team button-down shirt for Jack (since he probably wouldn't have liked a Flamenco dress) and spent about 75 Euros on the lot! Yeah. Crazy expensive.

On the way home back to the ship, we saw the football (soccer) stadium of Monaco, and the race tracks where you can rent a Ferrari for 100Euros - for just one lap!

After the tour, we came back and went to dinner with some very nice but pretty quiet Haitians and Jamaicans. I tell you this because on the other, Western Hemisphere cruises I've been on, you're more likely to ask "What state are you from?" than "What country are you from?" and since we were able to eat with people from different nationalities almost every time, I thought you might find it interesting, too. These folks now also resided in NYC, like the Russians.

I had a Dutch shrimp cocktail (which meant lots of little baby shrimpies instead of large ones), blackberry soup (I had a cold, fruity soup almost every night), and yucky potato-leek pie stuffed to the gills with mushrooms. Blech! Rob had slices of duck for an appetizer, pea and pork soup (ew), and a puff pastry filled with mushrooms and chicken. We have very different tastes, but we know each other pretty well and made a game every night of selecting what the other person was going to have. We were right much of the time!

That night was the one and only night there was a towel animal on our bed. This was the nightly thing on my other cruises, so I was surprised. We did always get chocolates on our pillows.

I crashed after dinner, and slept so long we missed that night's show. But it was okay - it was purported to be a famous Australian woman singing, but the Aussies we met later had never heard of her. So, yeah, your typical cruise ship entertainer, probably. Meanwhile, Rob read his book (we each brought books given to us by his mom), drank some cocktails, and puttered around online. I hesitate to tell you what we paid for internet access. It was not cheap. But it was definitely worth it to be able to keep in constant touch with Steph and the kids!

Tomorrow: Stay tuned for Livorno!

Fin.

Day Two: Barcelona

On that Thursday morning, our wake-up call did not work, nor did we receive our breakfast in our stateroom, as we'd ordered it the night before. We quickly learned not to bother with the wake-up call, and instead relied on the sunshine streaming through our balcony windows to rouse us. As for breakfast, when we wanted it in our room, we just made sure to put the card out early in the evening so it wouldn't be missed. That was annoying, though.

We had signed up for the Barcelona Sights and Flamenco Show excursion for that morning, so we quickly showered and dressed before going down to the Vista Lounge to meet up with the rest of our group at the proper time. We had no idea what to expect, but the tours were so well organized that we quickly caught on to the program. We just had to stay together to make sure we would be on the same bus, because many buses sometimes went to the the same places - but that was no problem. We rarely left each other's sides during the trip.


We soon went out to our bus and met our wonderful, amazing font of information of a tour guide, Eva. She was absolutely incredible, the best tour guide we had on this trip. And away we went! This lobster was created by Javier Marsical for the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, welcoming you to the port.

Here is the Lichtenstein Statue; I can't remember if it was also created for the Olympics or just what. Sorry about the big parking sign in front, I just had a quick view of it from our coach.

A downtown Barcelona street, on our way to the Gothic Quarter of Barcelona. See all the scooters? They were everywhere in Europe, and they don't seem to be restricted to the same driving rules as cars, because they could zip in and out of traffic at will, riding even on the wrong side of the street.


Eva, our wonderful tour guide, who had an incredible memory for names, dates, places and facts. After we drove past the Columbus Monument, saw the Olympic art shown above, the Picasso museum and residence and Via Haietana - the most important street in Barcelona - we got off our bus and followed her into the Gothic Quarter, with its ancient cathedral and its Roman walls.

The spires of the ancient cathedral, now under renovation

The cathedral undergoing renovation, in the Gothic Quarter

Eva stopped in Cathedral Square to give us more information about St. George's Day, and how it coincides with the Fair of the Book and is the day of Love. This day falls on April 23rd for the people of Barcelona, instead of St. Valentine's Day.

Peering into the courtyard of the cathedral, where visitors were not permitted


Looking up the moldy, musty walls of the cathedral

We were warned about the pickpockets being everywhere in Barcelona, but we were not quite prepared when Eva walked right up to the suspects and pointed them out, shouting for all the world to hear, "Pickpocket, pickpocket, pickpocket!" as they scurried away. We all murmured in wonder. Fortunately, we escaped Europe without incident, but others on our ship were not so lucky.


The neighboring apartments of the cathedral. We saw the bishop driving out of his apartment, in the cathedral.

Another inner courtyard of the cathedral


Another tour from HAL coming through the courtyard


I'll be darned if I can remember what's so special about this doorway!!


Right inside the cathedral's courtyard, this professor was teaching his class on the steps. Nearby, yet another street musician played his beautiful music. They were everywhere, but unlike what you  might find in NYC, they played more classical-type music. We loved it and tipped the ones we most enjoyed, a half-Euro or so (about $1US).


Across the way, in St. James' Square - it's just amazing how Europeans live amongst all the old buildings like it's nothing, isn't it?


The buildings in much of Europe are so close to each other, you can practically touch each other from across the street. And yes, cars actually drove through these narrow passageways!


More of St James' Square

A beautifully ornate doorway in the Square

Another view into another lovely courtyard, off St. James' Square

The mailbox at, I believe, the Bishop's residence. The animals signify something to the effect of - the mail is supposed to fly swift as a sparrow but really moves as slow as a turtle!

We made it back out onto Cathedral Square. Here, Eva gave us about 15-20 minutes to use the WC (Water Closet  = bathrooms), shop for souvenirs, or do whatever we wanted with our free time. I made the most of it and bought postcards, Spanish fans, t-shirts for the kids, and a few other small items, while Rob visited the WC (is that really bloggable? Apparently it is). I used my Spanish again, for the first time since arriving at the Barcelona airport, to find out how much it all cost, where I could purchase stamps (on the ship, turns out), etc. Rob was proud of me, and I have to say, given how shy I am about using my Spanish with native speakers, I was too!

Rob was really interested in these little scooter-bike thingies with a roof!

Back on the bus... are you bored yet??

Here's another street lined with those ubiquitous scooters!

Just a really pretty building at an intersection we passed...

Milàs' House

The stone quarry house, which can be rented out for 9 000 Euros per month!

The house of famed artist Antonio Gaudí - that's a dragon on the roof!

More of Gaudí's house, with its characteristic rounded façades and windows

Another Gaudí design - what a shame that there is graffiti on it!

Rob found this museum sign interesting and amusing

We came now to one of the most stunning things I have ever seen in my life, La Sagrada Familia, or the Holy Family Church, designed by Antonio Gaudí. There are three façades to the church: This one, the Christmas façade, which is the only one Gaudí ever actually saw himself; the Passion façade, which was built by a Japanese cubist; and the Glorification façade, which has yet to be built. They represent the birth, crucifixion, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The three towers represent Hope, Faith, and Charity - which we also saw represented elsewhere in our travels. The church is so beautifully detailed, and each thing on it stands for something significant, like the apostles. There are 420 different animal species represented on this, the Christmas façade.

The Christmas facade - you can see the old structure right next to the new. The old is made of sandstone (I think?) and is falling down, so they are rebuilding it now.

 And do you see the "Christmas tree" at the top, in the middle of the four towers? That's actually a Cypress tree, the Catalàn symbol for eternal life.

We found this sign, across the street from La Sagrada Familia, very entertaining.

Can you see the tops of the towers? SO...  ornate. I don't know how many times I'm allowed to use that word, but it applies so well here. Seriously, this church was breathtakingly gorgeous.

A gaggle of nuns files by...

Depiction of the birth of Christ

Mary.... moving around to the Passion Facade now

The beautiful stained glass windows

The neighbors protesting something about the church. I can't remember what, but I think it was the cost of the renovations and/or the building of the third facade, the Glorification?

Just a small part of the Passion Facade, showing the crucifixion of Christ. This was built by the Japanese cubist, who is still there working on it today.

You can see the cubism in this work, especially the head of Jesus. There were protests about this style, which conflicts with Gaudí's, as well as the fact that this was a naked Jesus.

Depiction of The Last Supper

Judas' betrayal kiss

Peter's three denials of Jesus

The condemnation

The whole of the Passion facade

Back on the bus, we passed through Aragon Street in Echampla Quarter, the biggest and one of the most expensive in the city. Barcelona, apparently, is the 3rd most expensive city in Europe. Here, we passed the National Palace.

Here we are walking through a small, quaint village, on our way to Tablao de Carmen to see the flamenco show. The village was very quiet, and then...

... the clapping, singing, stomping, chanting of the flamenco show brought us back to life! It was amazing. I have a video of here.

While we watched the show, we alternately sipped on water and some very strong sangria. We were given a snack of crackers, olives and potato chips.  I was expecting some tapas, but alas, we ate what we received and we were happy and kept quiet! We sat at a table with Patty and Elaine, two sisters from the Florida panhandle on vacation together.

Yeah. This guy was really sexy. I normally don't like sweaty guys, but I would have made an exception. Of course, Rob had all kinds of things to say about him, whispered in my ear!

There were fragrant orange trees in the courtyard when we exited the show.

Of course, I can't remember now the significance, but everyone was fascinated by these chains on the wall. Something to do with lovers... I think?

We passed by the Olympic Village from '92. Here is the stadium.

Rear view of the National Palace

The Joan Mirò Museum - I love his work.

Aside from this guy's fat head, we watched as the three most important botanical gardens in Barcelona flew by the windows, on the climb up Monjuïc Mountain for a breathtaking view of the city.

The city of Barcelona, spread out before us.

Far away, from atop Montjuïc Mountain in the Colcerolla range, you could see La Sagrada Familia poking its way into the sky.

Also in the distance, you could see this phallic building, which has many nicknames - some nice, some not so nice. I'll let you guess what they were.

More of the city of Barcelona spread out below

Another nice way one could tour the city

Of course, this nitwit had to ruin my picture of this cool monument!

Rob was fascinated by this sculpture near the Columbus Monument.

Back at the terminal, after goofball Rob posted with this crazy bull, we did a little duty-free shopping. Very little: I bought some flamenco dresses for the girls. I'm sure you'll see a picture of them together in those in the coming weeks sometime! Again, I had to speak in Spanish. You will have people tell you that everyone in Europe speaks English, but this is simply not true. We would not have gotten by in Spain - especially on the return trip - so easily without my speaking the language, and I had to use a halting Spanish/Italian combination in Italy much of the time, too. In Greece and Croatia, well, we were screwed and relied heavily on hand gestures!

All the sailboats in the Mediterranean - the view from our balcony as we finally set sail

Our chocolate-covered strawberries had arrived in our stateroom during our absence, so we partook of them when we got "home." It was a good thing only two of those were white chocolate, because we both absolutely detest it. Of course, we picked it off and ate the juicy berries anyway.

The bench where I sat many times in the elevator lobby, waiting for a lift

Up on the Lido Deck, Jenny and the HAL Cats sang us into the evening, for the Sail Away party. Personally, I hated her voice...!

We sipped sangrias during the party - oh, you know what? We were supposed to have those glasses as souvenirs, but they must have been taken from our room, because I don't ever remember seeing them again. Whoops! If you get glass souvies on your trip, be sure and pack them away so your room steward doesn't abscond with 'em!

Ah, here we go: Tapas were served on the Lido Deck during the Sail-Away Party. I'm not entirely sure what everything was, but we were starving, so we ate it. Again, Patty and Elaine joined us at our table. I tried to get them to let me take their picture, but they would have none of it. Of course, they immediately asked if they could take ours!

It was formal night, and we had early reservations for a table-for-two, so we left the party early and went to our cabin to dress for dinner. In the dining room, the server insisted on taking our picture. You can see how thrilled we were.

The beautiful Mediterranean water outside our window at the dining room table

It seemed impossibly blue, and I wanted nothing more than to go swimming in it. But that would have to wait. For now.

For dinner, I had crab legs, and Rob had seafood fettucine with shrimp and lobster sauce. He had the chocolate soufflé for dessert. I forget what I had, but I'm sure it was delicious.

After dinner, we went to the Vista Lounge and sipped champagne (booze cruise! I know!) during the Captain's Toast. After that was over, we watched the Zuiderdam singers and dancers perform. They were quite good. I'm always critical of singing and dancing shows like that, being trained in both, but I was mostly very impressed. The male dancers were especially talented.

The rotating seahorse chandelier in the atrium

After the show, we wandered around, doing this and that. We wanted to go swimming, but once up on the deck, it became clear that we were on an old folks' cruise: The pools closed at 8:30 PM every night!!! What?! So we came down, Rob jumped on the bed a little, and changed clothes again. We went back up to the Lido deck for a late-night snack, and then we read our books with some cocktails, by the pool.  

Tomorrow, stay tuned for Monaco and France!

Fin.