Cartagena, Funchal & La Palma

Cartagena, Spain

Cartagena is one of those quintessentially Spanish coastal towns. Cobbled windy streets, wrought iron balconies and hidden little plazas. The ship docks right in town and we walked below the old castle walls to the ornate town hall which led straight to the main shopping street. The atmosphere here is much more casual than Rome or Paris, but sitting in an outside café having a beer and pizza and watching the people go by is just as delightful.

Funchal, Madeira, Portugal

Madeira is a volcanic island that rises immediately and insistently from the ocean. The tiny roads were built well before the population was the current 250,000 and before the introduction of huge tour buses. Riding around this island in a tour bus makes the Amalfi coast seem like child’s play. We rode up to a town call Monte to go tobogganing. This activity, which is now a major tourist attraction, was invented by an English family as a way to get from their high village down to Funchal at sea level.

To go tobogganing Madeira style, you sit on a thin quilted cushion on a bench in a large wicker basket on metal runners. Your “drivers” are two guys, some young, some old,  wearing white pants and shirts and jaunty little straw boaters. They have on special shoes—which just means that their shoes have tire treads to the bottom of them. They start you off by pulling on a couple of ratty pieces of rope attached to the front corners of the basket. You then build momentum and go flying down the regular traffic roads---snaking your way for 10 minutes from the top of the hill (about 500 hundred meters above sea level) to the bottom.

Let me just tell you that much of our ride was done sideways, and some of it partially off the road over the drainage ditches (they get a lot of rain and have big floods). It was the wildest ride ever and sooo much fun. We had to stop part way down because the couple in the basket behind us (Bellinghamsters from our dinner table) were crashed into by a motor scooter who ran a stop sign. Luckily Lynn was only bruised on the shoulder, and the scooter driver was hauled to his feet and placed back on his scooter and went on his way.

The rest of our tour of Madeira consisted of driving up to a lookout at 1,000 meters above the town. We traveled up one lane roads, some of which went along ridges so it was straight down both sides. These one lane roads were used simultaneously by two tour buses going opposite directions. It meant that we had to back up around curves and do all kinds of dare devil moves. I can’t tell you much about them as I had my eyes shut for most of it, but there was lots of oohing and aahing and clapping from the other passengers.

Santa Cruz, La Palma, Canary Islands

This is our last port of call before crossing the Atlantic. We have just arrived at the dock, but I am writing this before we do our visit today.  I have to find an internet café to post this today or none of these posts will happen until we get back to the US.

I am reading in our port guide that the island of La Palma  “rises dramatically from the sea and has the greatest altitude to surface ratio on the entire planet”. After yesterday I will be staying at sea level!

It is supposed to be 73 degrees today and Fritz says that there are people swimming in the ocean just a short distance from the ship—so, perhaps we will make it to the beach.

Buenos Dias from Santa Cruz

Florence, Nice & Toulon

Florence, Italy

Not having time to deal with trains in this port we took the ship’s bus to town—about an hour and a half, and then we had the day to explore on our own. Having been to Florence before, we sought out our old haunts. The market--where we touched the boar’s nose for good luck. The plaza, where there was some sort of military gathering going on and lots of official looking guys in a variety of very snazzy uniforms. We sashayed through the produce market and negotiated a few purchases from the myriad of vendors selling everything from leather to silk to jewelry. Lunch was delicious bruschetta and pasta with truffle oil at a trattoria just off the Ponte De Vecchio. A quick stroll past the Duomo and half a dozen lesser churches—waved hello to the replica of David, and back on the bus. All in all a very successful day.

Villefranche, France

We tendered into the beautiful little fishing port of Villefranche and took the bus into Nice, three miles away.  As the sun was warm and bright we walked down to the Promenade de Anglais rather than taking their snazzy new ultra-modern tram system. As one would do on a promenade, we promenaded with the best of them, and then wandered through the pedestrian shopping mall and into the flower market, where we stopped for lunch.

As it was the last time we were in Nice in 2004, there was a Presidential visit going on, which caused all of the security forces to be on the scene. This time it was the President of China and there were police vans and roadblocks and motorcycle police galore. Most of whom were guzzling beer at the next table to us in the market—we felt so secure!

 At least we got back to Villefranche on the bus before they blocked all of the roads—some of the tour buses got caught in the middle of it all and had to drive into town and turn around and go back to the ship.

Toulon, France

This town is the base of the French Navy and we were going to go to the Naval Museum, but it was closed because today was a strike day in France. In fact, while the ship all-aboard wasn’t until 4:00 we had to take the bus back to the ship no later than 1:30 because the bus drivers were going to join the protests in the afternoon and wouldn’t work any later. I guess we should be grateful for small mercies—that they drove that day at all.

Toulon was a more middle-class community than any that we’ve visited (apart from Naples) and we were there on a Saturday, so the large street market was very busy. The town also had a large Muslim community, so there were lots of ladies in headscarves and we noticed a lot of cafes with groups of men smoking and drinking their espressos.

As this was our last port of call in France, we made sure to have a farewell crepe—and a Magnum ice cream because you never know…

On board after Toulon came the highlight of the trip for me. Royal Caribbean supports the Make a Wish Foundation and earlier in the cruise I had won at auction the right to blow the ship’s horn as we left Toulon. So, just as we were leaving the harbor Fritz and I were escorted to the Bridge. We got to stand just behind the control panels as the Captain and the Pilot maneuvered the ship out of the harbor. Then, after we’d cleared some boats that he didn’t want to startle, I got to sound three long blasts on the horn---and three shorts (as we were turning to Starboard). Then I got to do whatever I wanted so it was da, da, da, daaaaa. Plus, as the Captain was in a generous mood, Fritz got to do three blasts too. How much fun was that!!!

Naples & Rome

Our visit to Naples started off a bit rocky—we took the bus to the train station and on our 10 minute bus ride Fritz was pick-pocketed. Luckily they only got his cruise card as he had heeded all the warnings and had his wallet in the inside pocket of his European Man Bag (really an Eddie Bauer nylon shoulder bag) which he had firmly held by his side. He was wedged up against the wall so he couldn’t move his other arm and we were wedged in like sardines. The guy was good—while face to face with Fritz he managed to reach inside his windbreaker and get the card out of his shirt pocket. 

It didn’t stop us enjoying the day. We took the train to Pompeii where we joined a small group of English speakers on a private tour. Our guide, Pasquale, was excellent (he’s been doing it 42 years) and we learned more about the Romans (they were only 5 feet tall while their slaves were over 6 feet) than we ever could have imagined. Did you know that the wine bottles had pointed bottoms because they used to stick them in the sand in the hold of the ship that was used for ballast.

After Pompeii, we got back on the train and headed south to Sorrento. We were really struck by the graffiti. It’s such a shame that beautiful historic buildings, along with every other surface, including most train station signs and all of the train cars, are covered. There doesn’t seem to be any effort to cover any of it up.

Sorrento was lovely. Our new best friend, Enrico, made us fabulous pizzas in his fancy pizza oven and we trekked down the little windy side streets down to the harbor to catch our hydrofoil back to Naples. Very conveniently the hydrofoil dropped us just across the pier from our ship. Security is very laissez-faire on the dock in Naples, so we were able to get Fritz back to the ship to report his lost card. 

After Naples it was on to Rome. The ship docked in Civitavecchia which is about an hour and a half from Rome by train. We bought our all day train, bus and metro passes for 9 Euros and hopped the first train. Here’s the “it’s a small world” story for this trip. The people sitting across the aisle from us were from Seward Park in Seattle. When I said that I had lived there when we first came from England in 1966 they asked us where. I described the house and location and she said “well that’s 5403 and that’s my sister’s house”. Amazing! (and, they weren’t from the ship—just random travelers).

What’s not to love about Rome? The weather was gorgeous, about 70 degrees, and the sun was shining, and the sky was blue. We wandered around and threw our coins in the Trevi Fountain and meandered by the Pantheon. We had a great birthday lunch for Barbara on the Piazza Navonne. Sipping wine, while eating our caprese salads and spaghetti carbonara-- the music playing and the waiters humming in the background—it doesn’t get much better!

We completed our loop walking tour by going past the Vittorio Emmanuel memorial and back up to the train station. We topped off our day with gelato—just a little snack before a 5 course dinner.  Next port—new clothes with spandex!

Barcelona, Voyager of the Seas

We took the bus from the airport to downtown Barcelona and walked the couple of blocks to our hotel, the Hotel Continental Palacete, just off Plaza Catalunya, which was actually once a Palace. We were going to take a taxi, but the taxi warden at the airport wanted to cram all four of us and our luggage into a Toyota Corolla and we wanted a mini-van. She refused to let the guy with the mini-van jump to the front of the lengthy queue, so we took the bus. As we drove off she was having to contend with about six angry drivers who thought she was as ridiculous as we did. Our motto—always have a Plan B.

First stop in Barcelona—a Tapas bar, where we loaded up on little sandwiches and nibblies and some liquid refreshments—oh, and Fritz had the requisite chunk of chocolate cake! Once restored we walked the length of the Ramblas to the port. With one hand on our wallets (the Ramblas is notorious for pickpockets) we strolled through the market and marveled at the varieties of fish, vegetables, cheeses,hams, eggs (including Ostrich) and other delights. The temperature at 6:00pm was a delightful 60+ degrees—quite the change from Paris.

Sunday we boarded the Voyager of the Seas and were pleasantly surprised to have been upgraded to a “Junior Suite”. It’s certainly the fanciest cabin we’ve ever had—coffee maker, couch and chairs in a little sitting area, nice big bathtub, but the envy of all—a walk-in closet (really). We are enjoying it as we have it for just this week, and next week we go back to our original balcony cabin amongst the peasants.

This ship is really cool. It has a three-tiered dining room, reminscent of something you would see in New Orleans or Paris—ornate columns, wrought iron railings, long sweeping staircases and huge chandeliers. The ship also has a central promenade with an English pub nestled among the shops—it’s on our list to try out. Barbara and I are thinking of taking up roller-blading so that we can try out the course on board. Also, there’s an ice rink, but we think we’ll just watch on that one—and we’ll just watch at the rock climbing wall. We were going to do ballroom dancing today, but we’ve discovered that it’s Belly Dancing—so I’m thinking we’ll give that one a pass—at least until we’ve been to the gym.