Thursday, December 03, 2009

Sunday, November 29 – taxi from Hotel Regencia Colon to airport. Got all checked in for flights and bought some pastries to eat on the plane. Flight to New York’s JFK fine but that airport is a zoo. You have to clear immigration and customs and drop your bags for rechecking and go through security (again) so if we had had less then 90 minutes, we might have missed our flight on to DFW (via Pittsburgh first).

Got home about 10:45 PM and glad to be home but it was a fabulous trip.






Barcelona, Spain – Saturday, November 28

We arrived back to port about 6 AM. No rush for us to get off so we had a leisure breakfast and then departed the ship about 8:45. Took a taxi to our next hotel – Hotel Regencia Colon – located right across the street from the Barcelona cathedral. Could not get into our room until after lunch. Hotel staff gave us directions how to catch the #19 bus to La Sagrada Familia – the Gaudi Cathedral that is still under construction – supposedly two more decades of construction. We arrived just fine and ned chose not to tour the LSF. He sat in a nice park across from this and people watched and also there was a dog park so he watched it, too. I rented a headset and started on my tour. it took about 90 minutes. There were lots of tour groups there but when I exited the LSF, the line was around the corner and down the block just to get in. It is am amazing site.

Found our way back to bus #19 and took it back to our hotel. There was some kind of Christmas festival that had started this day so there were shops set up (like Canton) all along the street between us and the cathedral. So we browsed along those and then had a very nice lunch at the Hotel Colon. Had some down time in the hotel room and then went out searching for some place to have a light dinner about dusk time again tons of people at the Christmas festival. We settled on a place close to the cathedral to have churros and cocoa for dinner and it was excellent.

November 27 – FRIDAY _ DAY at Sea – this should have been a relaxing day but really wasn’t. Ned entered the slot tournament which took 3 rounds to win and won $264. I played in two bingo tournaments and won $135 in one of the rounds.

We had great wait staff and cabin staff on this cruise.





more amalfi coast ophotos.






more photos from Amalfi Coast.






Naples, Italy –November 26 THURSDAY – Ned and I both went on t his tour. Our tour guide was Bruno. This was an amazing tour. We drove from Naples along the Amalfi coast to our first stop which was Sorrento. Had about 90 minutes to walk through Sorrento. Ned and I got a cappuccino and then headed off to buy some souvenirs. The drive along the Amalfi Coast is not for the faint at heart. Very steep walls and narrow two lane roads with lots of winding blind curves. I would never attempt this drive in a small car much less a bus. Beautiful views. We lunched with our entire bus group at a restaurant sitting over the cliffs with beautiful views and a nice lunch. Then the bus dropped us in Amalfi for some walking time. You wonder how people have built houses on these steep cliffs.






Rome, Italy – November 25 WEDNESDAY – I went on this tour alone as Ned has been in Rome many times. My first overall impression of Rome is overwhelming – the amount of people, the amount of stuff to see, etc. Fortunately I was on a bus riding through town touring all the ruins we saw. The bus dropped us adjacent to the Vatican where we had about 1 hour to tour. I headed to some of the souvenir shops and took quite a few pics. There were people everywhere and our tour guide (Giorgia) told us to plan for a minimum of 3 hours to view the Vatican Museum/Sistine Chapel. I got another gelato which wasn’t nearly as good as the one in Florence. We also almost didn’t get of the parking garage here because some stupid person had parked a car in a no park zone & the bus had to go through a lot of contortions to get the bus going again.






Florence, Italy – November 24 TUESDAY – Ned and I both went on this short tour. Good tour guide Trudy. Entered Florence from a hilltop and took great photos of the panoramic view of Florence. Bus then dropped us off at the Ferragamo Store which was our meeting place. We had about 90 minutes in Florence to walk again, take photos, etc. Only thing I would have liked to do was visit the Accademia and see the David statue but that will have to be another trip. Got some great panna cotta gelato in Florence. Walked over the Ponte Vecchio bridge and I guess in high season alla those jewelry vendors making a killing but they were all selling basically the same stuff.






Genoa, Italy – November 23 MONDAY
I signed up for a tour to the Cinque Terre. Ned didn’t want to do this tour. We had a drive through the countryside to get to the Cinque Terre from Genoa and it was VERY foggy but once we got to the water side of the mountain, it was beautiful sunny weather. Our tour guide was Andrea. He was fantastic. We all wore headsets where we could hear his “spiel” wherever we might be in the pack walking. We departed the bus in the second village (Riomaggia I think) because the bus could not get into the first village and have a place to park. We walked along the pathway of love and arrived at village #1 (Manarola) & took the train to Vernazza . Had some free time here in Vernazza. I got a Cappucino in a small place lisa told me about. Took some photos, enjoyed sitting by the water and visited a few souvenir shops. Alot of the town was closed up as this is very slow season now. Took the train past village #4 (Corniglia) as it requires many steps just to get up to this town which is built on the top of a hill on to village #5 which is the largest Monterrosa al Mar. Had free time here but again a lot of shops closed for the season. had a wonderful lunch out on the patio in a restaurant here.






Cannes, France – November 22 SUNDAY
We signed up for a shore excursion going to Nice, France and Monaco. The bus dropped us in Nice first and we walked around the old quarter in Nice. Had lunch at an outdoor, very smoky café with delicious crepes. Did some shopping at the wonderful flower market. Reboarded the bus for the drive to Monaco. We departed the bus in a parking garage under the Palace in Monaco and went upstairs. Toured all the gardens and grounds of the Palace, souvenir shops, etc. and took the small train that takes you from the Palace grounds down into Monte Carlo along all the expensive shops, the roads used by the racing cars, the casino (dress code and entry fee) and then back up to the palace. This was the only place it was really very cold atop the hill where the Palace sits.

Barcelona-November 21 SATURDAY

Slept good and departed hotel for Las Ramblas. Had breakfast on Las Ramblas. It was early. Most street performers hadn’t set up yet or were in the process of putting on their costumes/makeup. As we finished breakfast the crowds starting picking up & performers were out, we walked to the Columbus monument and then back through the crowds to our hotel. No problem with pickpockets although we had nothing displayed they would have wanted.

Took a cab to the cruise port and boarded the cruise ship. Had already printed out our cruise documents so that makes boarding very simple. Got assigned (to our good fortune) to a room with a window. Cruise ship departed Barcelona about 6 PM.















Barcelona – November 20 FRIDAY

Arrived BCN about 9AM. Took a cab and checked into Hotel Jazz located close to Placa Cataluna. Good hotel. Location was excellent. Departed hotel to catch Bus Turistica just a couple of blocks from our hotel. We rode around the first loop that covered all of the Gaudi buildings plus some other stuff. Got back to Placa Cataluna on the bus and exited and went to El Corte Ingles (a large department store) and had lunch. I had read on a bulletin board that the view from the top floor of El Corte Ingles was magnificent and it was. The food was just OK. walked back to Placa Cataluna and picked up the blue line of the Bus Turistica and rode it for another hour or so.

After this went back to our hotel for some down time. Went down to the bar in the hotel for a glass of wine and ordered dinner in the hotel and had an early night.