Wednesday, November 8 – Gala Night Since we were at sea and have stopped playing trivia, there is little to say abput the day, but the night was memorable. Several days ago, we struck up a conversation with the couple at the next table during breakfast in the MDR. Costa and Ann are currently Canadians but he, at least, has lived all over the world. Greek by birth [hence his real name of Constantine], he has lived in Germany, Italy and Great Britain at least. He has a larger than life persona to match his larger than life physique. He is irrepressible and a great story teller; most of them, naturally, are about himself. He takes pride in his modesty. We have seen them several times around the ship and decided to invite them to dinner in the Pinnacle Grill, HAL’s extra-cost steak house. As 5-Star Mariners, we are given 2 meals apiece in Pineapple, as we call it, but don’t always use them because MA is not fond of beef. However, she ha...
Posts
Tuesday, November 7 – Another Sea Day in Port We were in Palma de Mallorca in 2001 when we took a ship’s tour on The Big Bus. We saw a cathedral, a castle and a fort. The castle was closed for repairs and the others had lots of steps. Everything might be open today, but the steps will still be there. We could see the antiquities across the harbor as we ate breakfast this morning. Even if we were interested, neither they nor anything else is within walking distance. Like Barcelona, we are parked far away from everything. Speaking of Barcelona, there was a reference here the other day about the city of art and arguments. As so often happens, what is referenced one day disappears with the realities of the next. However, Barcelona is definitely a city of art. Best known for the Sagrada Familia, Gaudi has left his imprint all over town in such buildings as La Padrera, [an apartment building], private houses and the Parc Guell w...
Sunday, November 6 – Barcelona Redux In a perfect world, we would have gone to the market and Sagrada Familia today. We planned to get a taxi to the Gaudi Cathedral which we have not visited since 2011. We were anxious to see what progress had been made toward its almost-impossible completion. After all, after 100 years, what’s a decade or two? The plan was simple – taxi to the cathedral, taxi to La Rambla, walk down La Rambla, taxi home. Once again, we never left the ship. Rather, we relaxed and rested for our “big,” non-cancelable trip to Florence on Thursday. Originally, we were going to take the ship’s transfer to Florence and wander [slowly] through the town. We have been there several times, so there is no pressure to rush from tourist highlight to historical site, much less any museum. [The giant statue of David in front of the Ufizzi is humbling enough, thank you.] Yesterday, we decided to splurge and see if we could get F...
Saturday, November 4 – Cartagena Capers Cartagena is another in the Gump Chocolate C ollection. We have found a flavor we like, so to speak, and always pick it. And we are never disappointed. Things were a bit different on this visit, but it had nothing to do with our plan. In the past 4 visits, we have walked off the ship, turned left at the model submarine, right at the Burger King and straight up Calle Mayor, Main Street. Calle Mayor is filled with shops of all kinds from groceries to clothing to real estate offices. And cafes too numerous to count. There are parallel and intersecting streets also filled with shops and cafes. Everywhere one looks, there are locals going about their business or relaxing with a drink [or two]. In 2009, we discovered a bakery-café less than 50 feet off the calle. We were enticed by the aroma and enchanted by the displays, but we were brave. We were brave again in 2011 when we returned...
November 3 – The Griswold’s Malaga If, as Forrest Gump says, life is like a box of chocolates, we always pick the same one. We seem to follow the same routine in some of what have become our favorite ports. Malaga is a fine example. This is the third time in three years that we have stopped here. We take a shuttle to the center of town, walk on the pedestrian mall, get something to eat and return to the ship. It is a good place to walk and watch people. On the previous two trips, we found our way to the central market which was filled with produce, proteins and spices as well as lunch counters and flowers. In 2015, the market was so crowded that we could barely move, so we left after about five minutes. It was not as bad last year and we were able to purchase saffron at the first stall we saw. We skipped the market today. The weather was starting to threaten and the extra walking would have posed a problem for MA. Al...
Thursday, November 2 – Nothing Doing As noted yesterday, today was another sea day. We had no place to go and nothing we had to do. It’s a good life. We spent the day wrestling with the NYT crossword, reading and relaxing. While we ate lunch on the Lido yesterday, we watched a whole flotilla of sailboats float by. There were more than two dozen of them, most with brightly colored sails, others with plain white. We wondered how folks could just take off in the middle of the day to sail when MA remembered that November 1 is a national holiday in predominantly Catholic Portugal. Hallowe’en/All Hallow’s Eve is not celebrated but All Saints’ Day is. Tomorrow is All Souls’ Day but we will be at sea so it doesn’t matter. Tonight is the third of a proposed 10 formal nights. Shrimp cocktails and surf-and-turf for the traditionalists, but will probably opt for the fish entrée. We have stopped getting the tempura vegetables as an appetiz...
Monday, October 30 – A Really Lazy Day How lazy was it, you ask? There was a morning nap, a SCAN and an early lights-out. We have an excursion planned for tomorrow and need to be up earlier than usual. It seems that all we did today was sleep. Noth that there’s anything wrong with that. TOMORROW – On the Road from Lisbon Tuesday, October 31 – Three Small Towns We are docked in Lisbon, Portugal, today and will be here overnight as well. We were up early [for us] and off the ship around 8:20. We had hooked up with a tour organized by another Cruise Critic member although he had simply contacted an agency and let others join in. It was not as individualized as we are used to, but when in Lisbon… [Lisbon’s metro area has about 3.5 million people only 500,000 of whom live in the city. The rest were on the roads this morning trying to get into town, or so it seemed. We have always found the city to be dilapidated, as if ...