July 12
Aboard Independence of the Seas
After
cruising to Gibraltar, Barcelona, Villefranche (Nice, Monte
Carlo) Livorno (Florence/Pisa), Cagliari (Sardinia); Malaga,
Lisbon, and Vigo, we returned to Southampton today and said
goodbye to Cason, Julia, Petter and Kristina. What a fabulous
time – everybody went home a little plumper than when they
left…here’s the short form of what we did…
  Gibraltar: Wonderful historic town, quaintly dug out of the
“rock.” We walked about a half hour from the ship to the
pedestrianized downtown, full of jewelry shops, tourist stores,
English pubs, and a few shopping stores for the locals. We
walked past the Trafalgar cemetery, noting that many British
sailors who perished in that formidable battle are commemorated
here. At the end of town is a funicular to the top of the rock,
where we stood in line for about an hour, and realized we would
never get up and back before the ship sailed. So we strolled
the botanical gardens instead.
  Barcelona: The ship arrived at 7:00 in the evening to stay
overnight, so Ole was able to come ashore with us as we ambled
on Las Ramblas, thoroughly entertained by most imaginative human
statuary. The 7 of us ended up in a tapas bar, sipping sangria
and sampling Spanish. We found the Barcelonans to be extremely
friendly and helpful, and the Catalonian language
unintelligible. The next day, while Cason and Julia went to the
cathedral, Petter and Kristina wandered the old medieval city,
Suzanne and I took a subway pass to El Diagonal, and went
shoe-shopping. We discovered an incredible building by Gaudi,
an architect of the early 20th Century that was
either a genius waaaaay ahead of his time, or completely
bat-shit crazy. Here’s some further information that
illustrates my point…
  Villefranche: If we ever decided to live again in France, I
would most definitely consider this tiny little town on a
perfect rocky cove my piece of heaven. Real estate prices be
damned…what I loved about it was the organic way the old
medieval buildings seem to grow right out of the rocks. Cason,
Julia, Suzanne and I hopped a train into Nice – about 12 minutes
and 1.5 Euros away – to find the makings of a picnic. God
smiles on the French. Perfect baguettes, 4 kinds of cheese,
parma ham, duck liver pate and sausage, and two bottles of
perfect rose were spectacular as we sat in the grass of a city
park and watched the world go by. Doing the math, our picnic
cost $90!!! Full and happy, we opted to take a taxi back to
Villefranche – same 12 minutes, but this time 35 Euro (about
$50). Sticker shock is setting in…
   Livorno:
Unfortunately for us, Ole had auditors aboard, and their review
meeting was this morning. We were hoping to get off the ship
with him at about 8:30, but it ended up being closer to 10:00,
leaving Petter, Kristina, Ole and I only about 5 hours to try to
cram in the leaning tower of Pisa and a quick dash through
Florence. Luckly, Pisa was only about 15 minutes away by train,
but we decided to walk to the tower (about 30 minutes in an
increasingly warm day). Our friend, Neil, had said that though
it sounds cheesy, it really is very interesting. He was right.
There is a project underway to clean the tower, with explanatory
boards around illustrating exactly how it stays up. There must
have been 10,000 tourists there by 11:00 am, each of them taking
a turn to assume the “holding up the tower” pose. Cracked me
up. We took a city bus back to the train station, for the
hour’s run to Florence. By the time we arrived, it was nearly
1:30, and all aboard for Ole was 5:00, meaning we only had about
90 minutes to see this spectacular city of Michaelangelo and the
Medicis. As luck would have it, an English-speaking taxi driver
offered to accomplish the impossible, giving the four of us a
private taxi tour of the highlights. He was a great guide,
really knew his stuff, and made sure we made the 3:27 train to
get Ole back on time. All the tour did was whet my appetite to
spend hours and hours in this amazing city.
Cagliari,
Sardinia: Thank goodness it was Sunday and the city was largely
closed…otherwise we would have been exhausted! Petter and
Kristina took a stroll through the little market; Cason hiked up
to the old fortress, Julia spent the day by the pool onboard,
and Suzanne and I went to the department store, La Renacente
(VERY high-end) and ended up in a small alley drinking local
beer in an outdoor café. Across from the café was a local
handicraft shop that featured specialty food items – sausages,
cheeses, breads, wines, olive oils, wine and cordials – which
two delightful ladies insisted we sample. All in all, a
beautiful experience. One of the highlights, though, was
watching 5 tugboats position the QE2 in her slip, this being the
last summer she will be in service.
Malaga:
We were exhausted, stayed onboard the whole day. This being a
tourist business is just too much to take!
   Lisbon:
Perhaps the most interesting approach of any of the ports, we
cruised up the river for about an hour before docking at the
commercial port, passing a monument to explorers like Magellan,
Vasco da Gama, and King Henry the Navigator. It’s a beautiful
work that looks like the prow of a ship sticking with the key
players all standing at attention on deck. Cason was kind
enough to front us all for lunch along the waterfront –
featuring olives and beautiful salty cheese as an appetizer,
followed by good old baccalao. What a guy! The ship provided a
shuttle bus for the 15-minute ride into town, where all of us
took Lisbon at our ease. It’s a remarkably beautiful city, with
medieval gates, pedestrianized streets, and decoratively tiled
buildings, with lots of development going on along the
waterfront. We stopped in at a shop called Casa da Ceramica,
oohing and aahing over some gorgeous decorated porcelain pieces,
enough so that Suzanne fell in love with two painted cranes to
take home as a souvenir.
Vigo:
Located in the northwest corner of Spain, this is a port that
reminded us very much of Seattle. The literature says it’s home
to the largest fishing fleet in the world, and a quick
exploration of the old part of town found us strolling past rows
of oysters, crabs, shrimp, langostines, and every kind of fish
you could ever want. The weather also reminded us of home –
gray, overcast. And the aroma??? Aah, eau de Pescadores!
  We all had
a wonderful time together – saw the ice shows, sang karaoke, ate
and drank our brains out, and thoroughly enjoyed each others’
company. We were able to stuff Petter and Kristina in an
available cabin, but Suzanne opted to camp out with us rather
than stuff herself into the third bunk of the anniversary suite!
Saturday
morning came all too soon – said goodbye to Cason and Julia,
Petter and Kristina – Suzanne’s staying on for another two
weeks.
July 25
Aboard Independence of the Seas
Well today
we bid fond and tearful farewell to Suzanne, our roommate for
the last 28 days. She was probably glad to get away from the
rollaway cot back to her own bed…
The second
two weeks she was aboard with us, the itinerary was slightly
modified, calling at Civitivecchia (the port for Rome), Cannes
(instead of Villefranche), and adding Cadiz, the port city for
Sevilla.
   We were
unable to score any complimentary excursions, so decided it was
“once in a lifetime” spending to pack in the sightseeing. We
opted for a deluxe 10-hour tour of Rome, which, if you’re only
going to be in Rome for a day, was perfect! The coach took us
directly to the Vatican, where we sped right past the huge line
right into the Vatican Museum for a wonderfully guided tour that
included the Sistine Chapel and the inside of St. Peters
Basilica. I had seen both nearly (gasp) 40 years ago during a
trip while I was a senior in high school – but it still took my
breath away. After St. Peters, the tour included a 4-course
lunch (WITH wine and spumanti) at a lovely hotel, a drive past
things you only read about in history books or historical
novels– the site of Julius Caesar’s assassination – the Circus
Maximus (site of the famous Ben Hur Chariot Races) – the
Colisseum – Musolini’s Palace – Trevi Fountain – and words fail
to describe how awe-inspiring the city is. I must go back to
spend more time there!
   In Cannes,
we just tendered ashore and walked the seafront, then strolled
the shopping district, choking on the prices. Ole was able to
get away for lunch, so we found the public market and a small
alley behind for crepes and cider – made us both homesick for
Pornichet!
We were
able to book an appointment to get into the Uffizi Gallery in
Florence – even with the appointment, it took us nearly 45
minutes to get through security and into the museum. I’m not
really big on Renaissance painting, but there was a
Michaelangelo painting there of the Holy Family, as well as two
different interpretations of Adam and Eve that were impressive.
What impressed me more was a sculpture gallery that featured the
busts of all of the emperors of Rome, in chronological order.
Even with our appointment, we found we had limited time to
really explore Florence any more than last time – MUST go back!
In Cadiz,
we took a shuttle bus for the 90-minute drive into Seville,
billed on the ship as the “most beautiful city in Spain.”
Seriously, that’s about all we knew about it. So the bus lets
us off, we stroll about 4 blocks, and find, guess what, yet
another cathedral. What else do you do in Europe? So there we
were, in the third largest cathedral in the world, by accident,
when we turned a corner and saw a wall of sculpted panels
depicting biblical history, leafed over with TWO TONS of gold.
We turned around and saw another altar covered with silver (and
a guy in a cherry-picker polishing it.) Photos wouldn’t do it
justice – we just gasped – then turned another corner and found
the tomb of Christopher Columbus. Aha! THAT’S where all the
Inca gold and silver went! Had a lovely lunch with the
ubiquitous olives and peasant bread, and sampled fantastic
Spanish ham, sausage, and cheese.
Our time
aboard Independence was also spectacular. We befriended the pub
entertainer, Chris McCann, who is better for bar revenue than
just about anybody we’ve ever seen aboard. On the Friday after
Vigo, the Croatian engineers that work for Ole sponsored a
homemade seafood feast with purchases fresh from the Vigo
market. We ate in the specialty restaurants, Chops and
Portofino, and had finer dinners than many restaurants offer
ashore. And it was great to have Suzanne back in our lives,
even for such a short period. We had a wonderful time – and
can’t wait for the next one!
[ Back ] [ Next ]
|
