Cinque Terre - A Must See

Manarola

   Our last stop of the cruise was in Livorno.  We had been to

Boat Launch

the Tuscany region a number of times and decided on this trip to visit Cinque Terre - a world historic site.  The location in along the coast just south of Portfolio.  Actually it is not in the Tuscany region.  A 2 hour bus ride was needed to get us to La Spezia, from which you travel to the coast.  The 5 Terre had been hit by flooding a few months ago and they are still trying to recover.  Tourism has been down but you could not tell that from the almost 300 people from our ship.  Of course there were many other visitors there.  We could not imagine what it would be like in the summer time!

Wandering

   Our first stop was Manarola, actually the second of the 5

Via dell'Amore

towns.  It is perched on a rock outcrop.  As we walked down from where the bus left us you could see the many colourful buildings that dot the cliffs. From there we strolled the romantic Via dell'Amore.  It is part of a walkway between all the towns but some of the paths are now closed because of the flooding.  As we headed to Riomaggiore,  we enjoyed the sheer cliff foot path of this designated National Park and UNESCO area.  You can not begin to appreciate these small towns and the beauty of their location.  After spending some time in Riomaggione, we boarded the ferry and cruised to

Vernazza for a short stop.  They are working on restoring this town but the mud from the flooding has kept many of the shops empty. From there another short boat ride found us in the last town.  We had seen Corniglia another town from the sea but did not stop there!

Flood Damage

          Monterossa is the last and biggest of the Cinque Terre towns.  It was here that we really had some "free time" for lunch.  We found a nice Italian (what else) cafe overlooking the ocean.  2 other couples joined us ( our table partners from the ship).  We had just a delightful time eating Italian food, drinking wine and beer and people watching.  After some wandering through the town, we took the train to the next town where our bus was waiting.
           On our way back to the ship our Australian guide filled us in on some of the other interesting points along the way, including a brief distant look at the Leaning Tower of Pisa.   A long but rewarding day.  Judy has already declared that "we are going back there!"

A VISIT TO PROVENCE FRANCE

    Our second to last stop on the cruise was in Marseilles France.  We had been there before and had been ashore to see the local sites.   This time we decided to actually take a ship sponsored tour.  Hard to believe since we usually avoid those but we had some specific things in mind.  Provence is hard to get to on you own so we took the tour.  It was the one stop and then a drop off do your own thing type.

    I have always heard of the Roman aqueduct that was built

Roman Aqueduct

in Provence and that was the first of the 2 stops.  It was an impressive site with the three tier arches.  The water came from a spring and the entire system was about 50 kilometers to the fields and towns where it was used.  The entire change in elevation for the aqueduct was 12 meters.  How they could slope the thing so perfectly still boggles the mind.  This location with the tiers actually took the water over a river.  It was another one of those you need to see the photos to really understand it.
     The second stop was in Avignon, and the bridge from that

Avignon "Pope's" Fortress

Sur La Pont

old French song "Sur le pont .. ."  The other main thing was the palace that the Popes used for about 50 years.  Their was civil unrest in Rome and the newly elected French pope decided to stop here.  It was a long time before they returned to Rome.  The palace was more like a fortress that had been added to.  This was one well done self tour.  The audio guide provided so much information that it was almost hard to listen to it.  That and the stone steps up and down and up and down was all we could take after the 2 hour bus ride.   Very well done but we hit the information overload point.  I think part of it was that it was a very barren place with just stone walls, floors, etc.  All the furnishings went back to Rome.  It was totally devoid of artwork.  A very interesting place and we are glad we went.  Back to the ship to prepare for an even longer day at Cinque Terra.

ASHORE IN BARCELONA

    Since I have a few minutes I wanted to try to catch up on our port stops.  This is my record of what we did and I want to complete it.  It may take a few days to catch up.  Actually the last 2 cruise stops need some record.

The Market

       We have been to Barcelona about 4 times so there is

La Ramblas

nothing that really stands out anymore.  That is a good thing as we can just go ashore and have a good time without needing to see lots.   We took a cab to La Rambla with Rick and Patti.  It was quick and easy rather than wait for the more expensive Princess bus.  We started up La Rambla but soon parted company.  They were on their way to the hop on/hop off bus.  We stopped at the local market, something we had never really done before.   It is always interesting to see where local people shop for fresh produce, meats, fish, etc.  We always find something strange in those places. 

Saudi Church

Then with no real plan we headed for the Gaudi church - Sagrada

Old Cathederal

Familia.  It was a bit of a walk but we wanted to see how far they had gotten with the construction.  It has been years since they started it.  It seems that it is really taking shape but still a few years? from being completed.  We were going to go inside but the long line ups prevented this.
      Our next and only real destination was the Picasso museum in the old Gothic part of town.  It was interesting to see many of the things that he did in life - ceramics, post cards, cartoons as well as paintings.  It seems that he is most famous for his late in life work.  Actually for much of the body of work that we saw, it was quite different.  Some would call it almost normal!  That took  up most of the afternoon. There was just enough time for a cold beer and a glass of wine in one of the many small cafes that are along the waterfront.  Although we had been to Barcelona before, we still enjoyed the day.

Alicante Spain

From The Fort

Castillo Santa Barbara

  Although this is a few days late and I just posted about today in Pordenone, I wanted to go back and try to remember some of the other great things we have done on this trip.  Alicante was the stop we made while on the ship the day after Gibraltar.

   We had planned to just wander all day but the hop on hop off bus was offered at a very good price and we decided not to limb the stairs to the fort. We teamed up with Rick and Patti from Highland Lakes Florida for this day.
   The bus saved a lot of energy.  The fort is called Santa Barbara and has been there for eons.  The original site goes back to Roman times and perhaps before.  The sites from the top were very impressive.  The fort was unlike others that we have visited in that there were many forts within forts all protected by the necessary slopes and high walls.  They currently use the well kept part or special exhibits.  There was one on pirates but we decided to move on to other things.

Harbour

     Our next stop was the local market where we were able to

Beach Walk

get some fresh pastry and a fine Valencia orange grown in that region of Spain.  That provided us with enough of a lunch to keep us going for a little bit.After boarding the bus again, we decided to get off at the waterfront and just walk.  Rick and Patti went to the local museum but we strolled along the marina and eventually found ourself at the beautiful waterfront park.  It was a year warm sunny day and there were plenty of the Spanish population enjoying the warm sun.
    We followed the beach almost to the end where we found a place called "Rampoelas" where we sat and had a Sangria and some tapas. In this case it was some fried fish and green olives.  We did spend a bit of time just sipping and doing some people watching.  Then back to the ship for our sail to the next stop which was Barcelona.
 

Enjoying A Cool One

 They did have a sail away party that day so we decided to go.  The cruise staff stayed for about 30 minutes with the usual dances but then left.  However the band played on.  So the 4 of us stayed and did line dancing to the music they were playing.  Between Patti who knows lots of dances and myself we were able to entertain ourselves and the people watching until the band finished.  Needless to say it was a good way to end the visit to end our visit to a very nice and welcoming port of call.

Finally After 8 Sea Days

Lazy Day AT Sea

  We are finally able to post to the blog.  The internet has not

Me Too

worked since we left Fort Lauderdale . Perhaps Princess is saving money to fix their other ship that sunk.   Althrough we are already in Spain,   I decided to try to make up what we have done in a few blogs.
     The crossing was great.  8 Days at sea and the ship did not so much as roll a bit.  The highest waves that we had were about 4 feet or so - classed as moderate.  However we must have been travelling with the waves because there was nothing!  Most days and night we had "wavelets" as the reported heights.  In fact some days we had to go to the balcony (which we used plenty as we were on sunny side of the ship) to see if we were alongside.

Formal Night

        One interesting thing did happend to the ship - well 2. 

Pub Lnch

The first was that the dredded Norwark hit the ship a few days out and of course that means servers at all food stations and extra precautions all over the place.  Yesterday there were 8 new cases so it is still around.  This ship was "turned around" 3 weeks ago for an outbreak while in the south.  Fortunately Judy and I don't touch anything ( railings, etc) so we are still safe.  One of our table mates was sick and just "returned" to service.
      The other thing is that the ship lost power in the Atlantic.  We were "dead" in the for about an hour but the emergency generators keps the plumbing system working.  Someone asked if there were pirates around! Very peaceful in the Atlantic when no one was around.  We have had plenty for whale sightings along this course.  Probably more than when we were in the Alaska.

Table For 8

     Our days were full and we only made it for lunch once (sit down that is).  They had zoomba at 9 every morning and Judy wanted to go.  I went the first day but found it hard.  After that it did get easier!   So breakfast was delayed until after that but the first lecture was about 15 minutes after that!  So a quick breakfast at the International cafe was in order.  Then the port lectures started.  Just after 11 were the history lectures on explorers from Spain and Portugal.  Interesting but a bit dry.  That was followed by a series on the history of Spain and Italy.  So that hour was taken up.    Since line dancing came around noon and we had just eaten, we waited until 1 for the lectures of cruising.  Graham (we had heard him before) has written extensively on cruising.  He was excellent!  He did 2  - 1 hour talks on the Titanic but it was from a personal point of view!  Survivors in the lifeboats, rescue stories, etc.   He packed them in every day!   By the time 2:30 came around we weere already a bit tired.  Pub lunches helped with the mid day hungers.

YES Dessert!

     On top of all this were the 6 time changes.  Every day an hour!   Since we eat late (8:15) and attend the late show we were getting to bed close to 1 am (new time).  No wonder we were tired in the afternoon.   
    Our table mates (Calgary, South Caroline, Tenn) are really great.  They are among the best we have ever had.  Some nights we are still at the table when everyone else is gone.  Everyone get along very well.
     Rick and Patti from Florida are along on this trip and we have done plenty together.  They like the same things as we do so we saw them at Zoomb the lectures and especially line dancing.  Patti is the instructor from Highland Lakes in Florida.  We evey found a spot to do some new stuff together.  She is an excellent line dance teacher so it is easy to put on music and dance.

Ashore In Gibraltar

   After 8 days at sea we finally landed in Gibraltar.  On past

Pat, Rick Judy

Throught The Gate

crossings we have always stopped in the Azores (or Canary) Islands but this time we sailed right by.  In any case we were ready for shore by 9:30.   Having been to Gibraltar twice before we had already done all the "must dos" like see the Monkeys, the caves, the view from the top as well as the Great Seige Tunnels and the 100 ton gun.  This time we just decided to wander with Pat and Rick.  We did not have any real destination.  After passing throught the main gate and wall, we just walked down the main street trying to find interesting things to photograph.  We stopped at  the "Trafalgar Cemetary on our way to the lift to the top.  When we got there the line ups were too long so we decided to go to Europa Point - the site of the Gibraltar lighthouse.  We were going to walk but decided it was too far so we hopped on a local bus.  It was a good decision because it was quite far and the  road was hilly and narrow.

Lighthouse for the Straits

   The area of the lighthouse (and mosque) are quite well kept and you get nice views of Africa although there was a yellow hew in the air.  I suspect the wind was blowing from the Sahara out to sea.  We spent a bit of time there just enjoying the sunny weather and the time ashore.  There were plenty of picture opportunities there as well.
     We were going to walk back but opted for the bus again, getting off about where we started earlier in the day.  From there we just wandered along some of the back streets and then decided to walk up the rock to the old Moorish Castle.  We were on the main stairway up but it was still quite a climb.  After a short visit we made our way down to the main street where we both decided to go our own way. 

Judy and I opted for the Catherine of Aragon pub, a place that

Moor Castle

Europa Point

we had stopped at in the past.  It is in an alleyway off the main street.  We could sit and have a beer and watch the people wandering down the main street as well as the side street.   Afterwards it was the 2 mile walk back to the ship.
      They had a sailaway party at night so we did go up and joined the fun.  There was some line dancing type dances for about 20 minutes, then the cruise staff left.  However the band kept playing so we stuck around.  Patti knows a lot of dances

Gibraltar At Sunset

so we spent the next while dancing.  A few other people tried to join us but most just watched and drank!   It was a good time.
        Dinner was good as always with a healthy discussion about the day's activities.  A production show was the last thing for the night.  We were pretty tired after all the wandering!  Next post will be for Alacante!