European Adventure Italy+ 2023

One of the few fountains with water as a result of water conservation efforts during the drought in Spain Ugly cat statue in the plaza outside our hotel Just a few folks on the street in Barcelona on October!    We have not expired despite not having blogged while in Barcelona! We arrived on Saturday (very early off the ship, sadly) to our hotel in Barcelona. With 5 hours until we could check in, we stored our luggage and got the lay of the land here. We were very close to the famous Las Ramblas avenue so we joined the 1000s of tourists there. I can’t imagine what this would be like in the peak months of June and July because it was CRAZY BUSY in October. We managed to see the Arc de Triumph (yes, they have one too) that marked the entrance to the 1888 World’s Fair. We strolled through a beautiful park and through the Ramblas market which was a kaleidoscope of colour and aromas. Then it was back to the hotel to check in, have an early dinner and bedtime after a long day. We ne...

  Today is our final day on our cruise ship and it is hard to say goodbye to such a fun week!  Yesterday was our day at sea and we finally got to have a little sleep in and no crazy travel objectives to meet. We just relaxed in the shade with a good book, enjoyed some dips in the pool to mitigate the heat of the day and tried a couple new beverages for fun. There was a pool volleyball tournament for passengers with the winning team playing against the ship’s officers in the afternoon. The officers were identifiable in their uniform shirts. It was good for a lot of laughing and cheering and I still don’t know who won.  We had dinner with a lovely couple from Ocean Park (what are the odds).  Today, we got our first taste of Spain. We docked in Palma, Mallorca and promptly boarded a tour bus to traverse the island to Porto Cristo and the Drach caves. The Drach caves are massive and awe inspiring! We walked down through stalactites and stalagmites and crystal clear water...

  Life is grand!  We are being blessed with stellar weather here is the calm and glassy Mediterranean Sea. Yesterday was overcast for the first part of the day which coincided with our hiking (read: climbing) commitment. The rest of the day heated up to 26C and it couldn’t have been better.  We started the day anchored in Cannes, France. After tendering ashore with our tour group we headed for Nice where we went on a short walking tour and then got an hour to ourselves to wander about. The French Riviera (Cote d’Azur) is beautiful! I watched a school of what I believe were flying fish jump out of the sea to avoid a swimmer at one point. Pretty cool! Our next stop was a medieval village of Eze at the top of a cliff. It was absolutely beautiful and a cardio workout to boot. Up the cliff we went to admire the village, cliff-side church, and an absolutely spectacular exotic garden. I have to say that we were a bit disappointed with the lack of imagination of the French, who c...

We left Portofino last night for La Spezia which is less than 50 nautical miles away. The captain laughed when he announced our cruising speed would be 2-3 knots! We think he dispatched a tender boat to tow us rather than use fuel. In fact, we could have walked here but what fun would that be!  We took a tour today from the port city of La Spezia to Pisa to see the leaning tower in all its glory. I have seen some crooked buildings in my day (and Cloverdale has more than its share), but never have I seen anything like the bell tower at the cathedral in Pisa. Funny thing though, the great iPhone camera lens straightened out the tower in darn near every photo we took! It doesn’t look very crooked in the photos so just as well I can’t post photos to the blog right now. Who knew Apple could fix the leaning tower of Pisa! Part of the tour was a little river cruise (about 25 minutes) up the Arno River through the old city of Pisa. It was overcast and only about 20C this morning but it was...

The door to our B&B in Civitavecchia  Yes, that skeleton key is our room key! The beach in Civitavecchia, the port city for Rome A massive statue of a sailor and nurse on the waterfront promenade in Civitavecchia  We left Civitavecchia Italy Saturday at 5 pm and woke up yesterday morning in Corsica France. The Mediterranean is like glass and not a bump was felt since we left port.  We visited the old town of the city of Ajaccio and witnessed international bocce being played. No gentle bouncing of wooden balls here, they use steel and wing those babies with all their might. I thought it might be olympic shotput! Today we spent the day in Portofino Italy. It is a tiny port with beautiful pastel buildings at the water. We climbed to castle and a lighthouse and once again, we survived the hike! Life is good!!! We sat at the water on the port wall. We enjoyed a gelato and remembered our good friend Pete who loved this place. I can understand why. Back to the ship to enjoy ...