Alas! The Trip Must End...

Happy Thursday to you all!  Today we will finish up the 2008 Mediterranean cruise and trip to Europe.  Our ship, Voyager of the Seas returned to Barcelona on Saturday morning.  We did the self disembarkation which means we were allowed to leave whenever we were ready once the ship had cleared customs.  This is a good way to go if you have manageable luggage.  You don't leave your luggage in the hallway overnight that final night.  You keep in in the room with you and you just take it all with you and leave the ship once you are allowed to.  The only time this is troublesome is if you have too much luggage or luggage that is too heavy and have to walk down stairs.  You see, on disembarkation day, sometimes you can wait forever for an elevator that isn't completely packed.  But since one piece of my luggage never even made it to Europe in the first place, we were in pretty good shape.

The stormy weather that the ship had spent all day Friday in came all the way to Barcelona with us.  So when we arrived in Barcelona on Saturday morning it was cold and rainy.  I'm a knitter.  Before leaving home I had finished a couple of pairs of wool socks just for this trip and on this day, my wool socks were put to the test. We left the ship and arrived at our hotel by 9 A.M.  I was surprised to discover that they already had a room ready for us at the hotel.  So we were able to take our luggage upstairs and settle in before heading out for our final day of sightseeing.  I wish I could tell you the name of the hotel we stayed at on this night.  It was well located and a nice modern hotel but I do not remember the name of it.  It wasn't as cozy as the one we had stayed in the previous week.  But for one night it served the purpose and it had a towel warmer in the bathroom which was going to come in handy after we came in from sight seeing and had to thaw out with hot showers followed by hot towels.

After settling into the hotel, we went straight to a spot where we knew we could buy HOHO tickets and got on the next bus that went by.  We had already sort of mapped out what we had missed the previous week that we needed to do before leaving and we knew that there was no time to spare.  Our fist order of business was breakfast.  So, we headed out for coffee and a breakfast sandwich.  These were no Egg McMuffin's people.  It was a good old fashioned baguette with prosciutto.  We had these for lunch and breakfast on a couple of occasions and I love them.  I also loved getting a design in my coffee.  A steaming hot Americano and a baguette for under 5 euros and I was in heaven.

After breakfast we headed to Parc de la Ciutadella which is where the 1888 world exposition was held.  The Arc de Triomf was built as the entrance to the world expo that year and still stands.  It wasn't easy to find for some reason, but we eventually found it.  Before finding it we went by the Palau de la Musica Catalana which is a concert hall and got tickets for a tour that would take place later in the day.  While there we both realized that it is possible to attend an event there and we tried to find out if there were tickets available for that night.  But they were sold out.  Apparently everything there sells out in advance.  It is probably my biggest regret of the entire trip that we were unable to attend a musical performance there.  If you plan to spend any time in Barcelona, do yourself a favor and order tickets well in advance so that you can enjoy a true musical experience.  Tickets can be purchased at the Palau de la Musica Catalana website.

As you can see in the photo to the right, while we were at the Arc de Triomf, the sky tried to clear for a few minutes.  But the blue skies didn't last long.  Within just a few minutes, it started raining again and continued to rain until much later in the day.  The photo below was taken standing in front of the Arc and looking away from it.  I just thought the boulevard was nice.

Parc de la Ciutadella is home to the zoo among other things.  We weren't sure what we might find there and knew that we still had several other stops to make so we decided not to go in and just took a few pictures from outside the park.  Below are a couple of photos of the zoology museum which I thought was a really terrific building from the outside.    It was also built for the world expo of 1888.  How could you not love a building with a weather vane on it like that one?

After leaving the Parc de la Ciutadella, we rushed back over to the Palau de la Musica for our tour.  They do not allow photos to be taken inside.  I think it is so that if you want to see the ceiling you are forced to pay the $12 euros for the tour.  But make no mistake, you are there to see the ceiling.  It is amazing!  The building itself is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  In the ceiling is the most unbelievable stained glass skylight you can imagine.  Since were weren't allowed to take photos inside, I'm posting one that I found on line.  But you can't really appreciate exactly how amazing it is unless you see it in person.  Maybe that's why they don't allow you to take photos since the photos could never do it justice.

The acoustics in the building are supposed to be remarkable.  I wish that I could confirm that with personal experience.  But I only heard people talking while we were there and single notes being played on the pipe organ which was being tuned.  The concert hall itself seats 2,200 people. It contains an enormous pipe organ and the hall was intended for choral performances.  Some of the worlds greatest opera singers have performed there in addition to world renowned orchestras.  A number of popular artists have performed there over the years too including Duke Ellington and Norah Jones.

Inside the Palau de la Musica

The outside of the Palau de la Musica

Jenny wet and cold. :-

 After leaving the Palau de la Musica we spent the rest of the day tying up loose ends.  I needed another suitcase to carry everything back home in since one of mine didn't make the trip.  So, we got that.  Then we got on the HOHO and headed back over to Park Guell since there was a souvenir shop over there that we both knew we wanted to revisit.  Walking up to the park, we were able to get pictures of the parrots that are in the trees over around the park.  Actually, on the HOHO we were told that they are kind of everywhere.  But you see a LOT of them near Park Guell.  By the time the day was over we were both very cold.  My handknit wool socks had done their job and kept my feet warm and dry.  But Jenny wasn't so lucky with her pathetic store bought socks.

After going back to the hotel and trying to warm up for a few minutes we decided to go out and look for a place to have our final meal in Barcelona.  We walked around for as long as we could and found a little market but no place to eat.  We were also hoping to see a lot of Christmas lights but the ones below were about all we saw.  So we went back to the hotel for a drink in the bar and then dinner in the hotels restaurant.  

Following dinner we went upstairs and repacked all of our luggage getting everything situated for the long flight home early the next morning.  The final incident of the trip occurred the next morning as the bellhop was loading our luggage into a waiting cab around 5 A.M.  In Barcelona there are bike lanes on all the streets.  (See the bike lane in the bottom photo.)  Even when a cab stops to load or unload passengers they can't be in the bike lane and the bike lane has the right of way.  So the cab was sitting in the first lane of car traffic and the bell hop had his luggage cart on the sidewalk.  He was taking luggage off of his cart and tossing it to the cab driver who was putting it into the trunk and he didn't notice a cyclist approaching.  You can imagine what happened.  The cyclist trying to avoid the luggage hit his breaks hard and went over his handlebars.  A huge argument between the three men ensued after the cyclist got back up.  I was sure that he must be horribly injured and that we would miss our flight filling out statements.  But no, it was Europe, so they all yelled at each other for a few minutes then the cyclist got on his bike and rode away and we got in the cab and left.  

All in all, the trip to Europe was the best trip of my life to this point.  There are many more places I need to go.  The problem that you run into is trying to decide if you want to hit another country or even continent first or revisit some of the places in Europe first that you have already been to but didn't spend enough time in.  I am of the inclination to visit Asia before going back to Rome.  But we'll see.

I hope you have enjoyed this recap of the Europe trip from 2008 as much as I have enjoyed going through all of the photos again.  I am not sure yet what tomorrow's blog will be about but please stay tuned for more exciting Places You'll Go!

Sicily!

Good morning friends and travelers!  During our November 2008 Mediterranean cruise we are up to Thursday, Thanksgiving day and we spent Thanksgiving 2008 in Sicily.  Now, if I could figure out how to get the theme from The Godfather to play throughout the time you spent reading this post today, I would.  But you will just have to imagine it in your mind.  Or maybe, find a recording on YouTube to play in the background as you read this.

I had always heard that Sicily was the home to the Italian mafia.  But I never imagined that it was a source of pride for the Sicilians.  We visited Palermo and it seemed that everywhere we turned, there were Godfather t-shirts for sale on street corners.  I suppose they consider it their claim to fame.  But I thought it was bizarre.

Market scene

On this day we had a short excursion that should have become even shorter because the church that the excursion was supposed to visit was closed for repairs or restoration.  So, we drove past it but didn't even stop.  But I guess they decided to drive us around a little longer to make up for the church being closed.  Unfortunately, we didn't stop enough times to take photos in my mind.  So I would have preferred to have just had time on my own or to have done a HOHO bus. Basically, we drove up a hill where there were a lot of cactus and they let us out there to take photos.

Cathedral of Palermo

Then they took us to this restaurant for coffee that was really neat.  But since it wasn't open to the public so early in the day, you just got a small piece of this cake that was already made and coffee.  There was no menu to choose from.  You got what they had.  Then we took photos there.  After that, they took us back near the pier and let us off the bus.  Palermo was a pretty place and could have been very interesting.  I think if I went back, I would do the HOHO bus for sure.  A couple of our dinner companions did the HOHO and said it was good.  Anyway, these photos are some of the places we sped past but didn't stop for.

The rotunda of the Cathedral of Palermo

We actually slowed down for the church in the photo below.  I think it must have been the one that was closed for restoration.  But we did not stop.  Two photos down you can see our ship from the place we stopped up on the hillside. This was also the place where the cactus were.  The tour guide spent a lot of time talking about the prickly pear fruit on the cactus.  I honestly can't remember what was said now.  But they do get fruit from there.  That is what I can tell you that I learned on that day in Sicily.

Once we left our tour, we were on our own with no map and we spoke no Italian.  So, we asked our tour guide as we left the bus which way we needed to go to get back to Quattro Canti which we had sped past on the bus and wanted to take pictures of.  We were given general directions and then we left.

We found a place on the street with one of those "You are Here" maps and were able to get our bearings a little better.  But to be safe, I took a picture of the street sign at the location we knew we needed to make it back to so that we could find our way back to the ship.  Thank God for digital cameras.

The picture of the water was taken from the hillside after we had passed the cactus.  The structure in the water is the restaurant where they took us for our cake and coffee.  Again, it was a nice place.  I just think it would have been nicer to have just sat down and had a regular meal.

The photo to the right is the one I took of the street sign so that we could find our way back to the ship.  Once I got home, I liked it and decided to keep it rather than just deleting the photo I took while in a near state of panic.  The building below is the Teatro Massimo.  It was just a very big and pretty building.

 In the photo to the right, at the other end of this street you can see the bell tower of the Cathedral of Palermo. I really liked the streets of Palermo.  Everywhere you went there were trucks of fruit and veggies stopped and they were selling out of the back of them.  While we were on the bus, the tour guide told us as we set in a traffic jam that was being created by one of the trucks stopped in the street that the police make them move on when the see them stopped like that.  But until that happens, they just stop where ever there is a good crowd and start selling.

Below is the Quattro Canti that we had been looking for since leaving the bus.  It is the main intersection in Palermo and each of the four corner buildings represent a season.  The facades are amazing.  If you look hard you can see Jenny in the photo below talking to a couple.  Those were two of our dinner companions who we ran into while at this site.

 I think that there is probably a lot to see in Palermo as well as other parts of Sicily that we did not see at all or only glimpsed from the outside as we drove by that might make it worth going back for.  In case you haven't been able to tell from my commentary today, I did not enjoy our excursion in Palermo.  I thought that we could have seen and done a lot more and even been better informed if we had gone out on our own.  But in a foreign country where we didn't speak the language and with only a limited amount of time, neither of us were willing to take a lot of chances.

Palermo was the last stop on the cruise.  And since it was Thanksgiving we were looking forward to Turkey and Dressing on the ship that night.  So, we headed back to the ship early to get ready for dinner and relax for few minutes in the Champagne Bar before heading to the dining room.

Piazza Pretoria

Piazza Pretoria

Jenny at Teatro Massimo

Yum!  Olives for sale on the street.  I got some and they were delicious!  This is so much better than anything you can get at Central Market or Whole Foods!

Okay, on the Amalfi Coast I was obsessed with the bougainvillea, but in Palermo, it was the rubber trees.  The trees in the photo below are rubber trees like you grow in a pot in your house.  Sometimes in a pot in the house, I can get one 2 or 3 feet tall with 20 or 30 leaves on it, you know, before I kill it.  In Sicily, apparently they grow wild and they are as big as oak trees.  Ants can't move these rubber tree plants!

Another rubber tree.  Unbelievable!

 To the left is a picture of our ship from the back as we were docked in Palermo.  As I said a few days ago, this was my first time on Voyager.  But I have been on it again since.  I did enjoy this cruise.  But it was unlike any other cruise I have ever been on before or since.  It was more of a floating hotel room that just moved you from one port to another so that you could do your sightseeing.  It was never warm enough to be out on deck for any extended period of time.  This is one of the reasons, that I question my ability to go on an Alaskan cruise.  I am a whiny baby when I get cold.  We had a balcony room.  But we really only used the balcony in the mornings as we were arriving at a port to go out and take pictures of our newest location or take a photo as we were leaving the port as you see below when we were leaving Palermo.

The next day was our only day at sea and it was VERY rough.  The weather was bad and as a result a lot of people became seasick.  We even attended a napkin folding class where the instructor didn't make it because she was seasick, so another crew member came and led the class instead.  Below is a picture from our balcony on that last day at sea.

Tomorrow I'll tell you all about our final day in Barcelona.  Have a great Wednesday!

The Amalfi Coast and Perhaps the Most Photos EVER!

We are still making our way through that 2008 Mediterranean cruise.  Today we are stopping at Naples, Italy. Naples is home to several military bases.  I know that because I have several friends who were either born there or lived there for several years as children.  I'm not sure how you would get anything done if you lived there knowing that the Amalfi Coast is so nearby.  I guess it just takes military discipline.

On the day we were there we did a bus tour of the Amalfi Coast with lunch in Sorrento and stops in Positano, Amalfi and Salerno to name a few.  Then we wrapped up the day with a stop at a cameo factory where we were able to watch an artisan at work and purchase cameos to take home.  As we left Naples in the bus, we went past Mt. Vesuvius.  I have a few regrets about the stop in Naples all of which center around the fact that it was not long enough.  I would have liked to go to Mt. Vesuvius and visit Pompeii.  I also would have liked visiting Capri and it would have been nice to do all of it in a warmer month when I could have spent time on the beach and in the water.  Otherwise, it was perfect.

Mt. Vesuvius

So, after passing Mt. Vesuvius we drove for 45 minutes or so before arriving at Sorrento.  There we were taken to a shop which sold hand crafted woodwork and beautiful Italian table and bed linens.  I still have a card from the place.  One of these days, I am going to get a piece of that linen.  It was amazing.  After listening to their spiel on the handcrafted woodwork, we were given time to walk around Sorrento before lunch.  The village is beautiful and it was such a pretty day.  You could see Mt. Vesuvius across the bay and I must have taken 100 pictures.

Sorrento

I think I mentioned last week how amazing the bougainvillea along the Mediterranean was.  Here is an example to the right.  It is a tree that they trim back to keep it from getting out of hand.  I've never needed to trim bougainvillea.  Usually, when I get it, the fact that it dies just a few weeks later, keeps in in check just fine.  Also, I mentioned last week, we were on the trip over Thanksgiving, so Christmas decorations were going up everywhere.  Below are some of the Christmas decorations in Sorrento.

We walked around for an hour or so, taking photos and shopping.  It was such a nice village.  The photo of the dog below is one of my favorite photos from the trip.  The composition isn't great and the color isn't spectacular or anything.  I just loved the dog and the way he seemed so interested in seeing what was going on down on the street.  He sat in a second story window just watching the happenings.  What a great life for a dog.

Another view of Mt. Vesuvius

 I don't know who the guy in the blue jacket is.  He wasn't the subject of the photo.  He just happened to be in the way and looking directly into my camera.  I really just wanted a photo of the palm trees and the building decorated for Christmas.  To the right is a man trimming bougainvillea from the top of an outdoor cafe.  It is growing all the way across the roof of the dining area and I guess someone must trim it to keep it in control.  Seriously, they could just cut a sprig of it for me and then the entire thing would immediately start dying.  All of that trimming is really not necessary.

 This is just another beautiful view from a bridge in Sorrento.  Get used to it, you are going to be seeing views like this throughout today's blog.  The place is nothing but one location after another for taking postcard photos.

Speaking of postcard photos.... here you can see me at lunch in the little restaurant they took us to.  The lunch was included in our excursion.  Wine, pasta, fresh baked bread in Italy...  It really doesn't get much better than that.

Another shot of the guy trimming the bougainvillea, I really couldn't get over it.

 Here I am outside of the restaurant where we had lunch.  It was pretty good.  Again, it was an Italian restaurant actually in Italy, you couldn't really go wrong.  Below you can see Jenny agreeing that Italian restaurants in Italy are the best.  She is even drinking Chardonnay for the occasion and she is not a fan of Chardonnay.  But who are we kidding.  It is wine, she can suffer through it.

After leaving Sorrento we got back on the bus and headed down the coast.  The lunch was early so we still had almost an entire day ahead of us.  As we went along the coast, the tour guide pointed out the homes of the rich and famous.  We went past Elton John's house.  I think I took a picture of it, but if you asked me which house it is in any of the hundreds of photos I took, I couldn't tell you.  Elton and I go way back though.  We attended the same play once in NYC.  It was his production of Aida and he was sitting in the orchestra level and I was sitting in the balcony.  But I'm pretty sure he felt my presence.

 Most of the day was spent on the bus.  So, when we got off the bus, you had to hurry up and take as many pictures as you could.  We did take a lot from the bus as we drove but with the tint of the windows and sometimes the glare those photos left a lot to be desired.  So, anyway, here is one of those photos that I took quickly while we were stopped.  I had to have proof that I was actually there on the Amalfi coast.  So, it may not be pretty, but here I am....

 The sheer drops from the side of the road are unbelievable.  Then when you think about all of the homes that are built down the cliffs and the fact that there are no roadways so that you can drive to them.  That must make for some pretty powerful quads.  Can you imagine carrying groceries to a house at the bottom of the cliff pictured above?

And look out below - guess what?  More bougainvillea.  I was obsessed with it.  I don't think anybody was spending time trimming this patch of it though.

If you live in a place like this you can't help but be skinny.  If you aren't skinny enough to walk up and down stairs all day, you would probably just have to lay in bed and waste away.  I don't think you could leave home without getting a massive stair climbing workout.

I love the photo below because it shows one of the roads that our enormous bus was driving on.  There are no switchbacks in this stretch.  But let me assure you, there were switchbacks everywhere and I don't know how we got around some of the corners.  We were sitting in the back seat of the bus on the side closest to the water.  There were times when you looked down out of the window and couldn't see road, you only saw water several hundred feet below you.

There were really no bad views as we made our way around the coastline.  It seemed like every time we went around a corner, the entire bus oooohhh'd and ahhhh'd.  By the end of the day you were like, eh, just another million dollar view.

We went through the tunnel in the photo above.  As you come out of that tunnel you are in Amalfi.  There we were able to walk around for an hour or so.  So we did a little shopping.  Then we met back up with the tour guide near the Amalfi Cathedral for a little information on the area before re-boarding the bus.

The tower n the center of the picture is the Amalfi Cathedral.

The front of the Amalfi Cathedral

The photo to the left was a man who was working on the street and stopped to take a sip of water from the fountain.  I was so amazed that people would just stick there heads in the fountain and take a drink of water.

There were a lot of nice shops and restaurants here. I think it would be nice to spend about a week on the Amalfi coast so that you could really do it justice.  We sort of sped through it.  In about a week, you could sit in enough cafes and walk through enough streets to say that you had really done the Amalfi Coast right.

The two photos below were taken through a bus window, but I love them so much, that I don't even care about the tint that it gives the shots.   It has nothing to do with the photographer.  I just love the way the city is built so directly above the water.  It is a truly amazing thing to see.

I wonder what it would be like to live in the apartment just above this tunnel.  At night do you hear traffic below you?  It seems crazy to me.  But I suppose anywhere on the Amalfi coast is a good place to be.

By the end of the day I think most people were oooohhh'd and ahhhh'd out.  But we were still really excited to go to the cameo factory back in Naples.  When we got there it was nearly dark but we still had a little time before we had to be back on the ship and we weren't willing to waste any time.

After a few minutes of listening to the cameo shops owner explain the process to us and watching the artisan work for a few more minutes, we were able to shop around and Jenny and I both got cameos.  Mine is both a broach and pendant in one.  I love it and wear it often as a pendant.  I don't think I have ever actually pinned it to anything though.

When we got back to the ship that night, it was late and we had to rush to get ready for dinner.  But it was worth it.  I can't remember if I told you already about our dinner companions.  But they all went to Mt. Vesuvius and Pompeii while we were riding in our bus along the Amalfi coast.  You can actually go up Mt. Vesuvius.  I guess it is like Diamond Head which Jenny and I hiked up a year and a half ago.  If I can do Diamond Head, surely, I can do Vesuvius too, right?  So, that is my goal.  When I go back, I want to hike up Mt. Vesuvius.

Tomorrow we head to Sicily, (insert Godfather theme here) where the local people are very proud of the whole Godfather connection.  Go figure.  Anyway, have a terrific Tuesday.  I'll try to post earlier tomorrow.