Nov. 4-5
We are now off to Rome.
We would like to thank Bill and Barb Meints, who were kind enough to drive us to the Lakewood Transit center, taking the 11:00 ferry so we could take the 574 Sound Transit bus to Sea-Tac. Our first flight, Delta 40 left on time at 3:15 and we were soon in Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport and after a short layover we were on our long flight to London, where would catch our Alitalia flight to Rome.
The Delta flights were uneventful. We only had a screaming baby behind us on the first, shorter flight and the books, music and in-flight entertainment seemed to shorten the long stretches. We did manage to get an hour or two of half-sleep, even though the seats became quite uncomfortable. After 8 hours onboard this second flight, we were glad to get to Heathrow shortly before noon on Saturday. We have lost 7 hours of time changes so far and would lose one more before reaching Rome.
The arrival area at Heathrow seemed nearly empty and we had to go through the security scanning and then spent another four hours in terminal G waiting for our connection to Rome. We did find it curious that there was no customs or immigration check coming into Heathrow, so we expected one in Rome.
We then boarded our Alitalia flight for our 2 ½ hour flight to Rome. The old airbus was only about 1/3 full and seemed shabby, in contrast to the Delta Boeings that we had been on earlier. All-in-all the flights were quite smooth and we arrived at Rome’s airport at about 8:30. After a long wait for baggage and a longer wait for the airport shuttle we finally checked into the airport Hilton, exactly 27 hours after boarding the ferry from Anderson Island!
Sunday, November 6
We woke early this morning after a few hours of sleep. The 8 hour time difference is still playing a few tricks on our sleep schedule. We were told our transfer to the ship would pick us up at 6:30 am so we at an excellent, but early buffet breakfast at the Hilton. After waiting outside for quite a period of time, we checked with a hotel employee who checked and notified us that our transfer would pick us up at 8:00. so much for getting up early. Eventually our van came and we traveled with the ship’s crew the 35 or so miles to Civitiveccia, Rome’s port. Our driver ignored stop signs, but we arrived safely, without the bother of traveling into Rome, itself.
After a relatively short wait at dockside, we were onboard by 11:00 and were met on the gangway by members of the cruise staff. We were very impressed by the organization.
We were asked to present our first program at 10:15 pm on the first day of the cruise right after the welcome stage show. This was definitely a new experience for us as we had never presented in the evening and never on the first day of a cruise. We were both very tired from our 27 hours of flight that we really had to work hard to smile and be as enthusiastic as we always try to be when we present a show. It was a new show for us so we rehearsed in our state during the first afternoon
We went to dinner and met our table mates who seem to be very friendly. We were glad to be assigned to the main seating at 6:00 giving us a enough time to change clothes and attend the big stage show right before ours. We then came back to our stateroom and were asleep within a few minutes!
Monday, November 7
Today was a port day so we bought a ticket on the shuttle bus and went into the port city of Livorno, Italy. It is a marine city and we decided to simply walk around the city and not book any tours. That is what we like to do best, simply walk through the cities on our own.
We found this to be a very pleasant city and much bigger than expected with a nice canal running though the center of town. We saw the central market and spent hours walking and exploring city before returning to the ship.
We still were tired due to 9 hour time difference from WA. so after the stage show in the evening, we crashed and went to sleep expecting a pleasant day in Toulon, France upon wakening.
Tuesday, November 8
When we left our room for breakfast we saw that pleasant wasn’t exactly the word to describe our day in Toulon. The rain was coming down in a shower but being from WA. we know rain so decided to take the shuttle into town dressed in our Gortex saying to ourselves that a little rain wouldn’t stop us from visiting this city and enjoying the day together in town. Little did we realize that this was not only a rainstorm that got worse and worse as we closer to the city center but the wind was also blowing at about 30mph. Since this Mediterranean town doesn’t get this kind of weather very often, they were ill prepared to deal with this storm and had few awnings on the outside market or in front of the stores. We couldn’t trust our umbrella as we saw so many of them lying on the ground inside out. After about an hour of trying to walk and stay reasonably dry, we decided to walk down and bus and back to the ship. It was a good idea as the weather seemed to get worse and worse with the winds blowing the rain almost horizontally.
The wind continued to blow and the rain fell the rest of the day, making any trip ashore undesirable. The ship’s original itinerary called for an evening departure from Toulon and Wednesday was to be spent in Barcelona, but the strength of the wind made departure from the snug harbor at Toulon a safety issue. We were forced to spend all night in the harbor and the decision would be made the next day when to depart. This threw everyone’s schedule off.
Wednesday, Nov 9
We are still in Toulon harbor, stuck on the ship. The television news referred to the weather conditions as a "Medicane," a Mediterranean weather event with hurricane force winds. Plans call for a departure later in the day for Barcelona. We were contacted this morning and asked to fill in with an extra presentation, which, fortunately he have available. We gave our "Life and Times of Charles Darwin" lecture to an audience of between 150-200. It was quite successful.
Exiting the harbor of Toulon was a very interesting experience to watch, as the harbor has many twists and turns, an error on the part of the pilot could have proved disastrous.
It was announced later in the day that we would be skipping our stop in the Azores, due to the weather, but would be visiting Barcelona and Cartagena one day later than scheduled. Apparently, the ship has major supplies to take on in Barcelona.
This throws our presentation schedule off and we will now be lecturing for 8 straight days. We arrived in Barcelona later that afternoon and many people chose to go into the city for the nightlife, although we chose to stay onboard.
Thursday, Nov 10.
This is John’s mother, Edith’s 93rd birthday. We had hoped to call her, but the 9 hour time difference makes it impossible.
Today the sun began to shine on one of the loveliest cities in the Med, Barcelona. It is one of our favorite cities in the world so we were glad that we have the whole day to visit and relive some of the places. The last time we were in Barcelona was 4 years ago when we spent four days right in the heart of the city.
We took the shuttle from the ship to the city and then started walking to Las Ramblas, the pedestrian friendly outdoor market filled with flower carts and artwork. It extends for many blocks and is always is the hub of the city. We re-visited the central market, one that definitely rates as one of our favorite markets in the world. We walked through the market which was filled with shoppers buying their fresh meat and produce for the day. This is one or favorite things to do in each port that we visit as we are able to enjoy not only items for sale but to also mingle with the locals and gain a little cultural exposure. It is definitely an overall sensory experience with the sights and the smells of the market. We bought a hard crusted loaf of bread and a diet coke and enjoyed this as our lunch as we strolled the streets of the city.
We walked to downtown and found the apartment that we had rented during our 4 days in Barcelona. We also bought our favorite Spanish drink, coffee con leche. This Spanish coffee spoils us as it far superior to similar drinks at Starbucks, etc. It is another delightful sensory experience, one we never miss when we visit Spain.
We walked for over 4 hours and then returned to our ship. Since the weather was unseasonably sunny and warm, we spent sometime sitting out by the pool for the first time this voyage.
The evening show was a hypnotist. I thought it a rather long drawn out affair but John enjoyed it more than I did.
Off to Cartegena tomorrow. It is our last stop as the captain has announced that we will not be have a port call in the Azores as previously planned. This is a little disappointing to us but we realize that one stop has to be eliminated due to unexpected storm referred to as a ‘medicane’ that we experienced during our longer than scheduled stay in Toulon, France.
Friday, Nov 11
Off to Cartegena today with a beautiful sunny Spanish morning.
We continue our lectures tomorrow with one everyday until we return to Florida. We have never presented 10 shows in a cruise this short so we will be busy each day until FL. The first two were well received by the guests and we hope that they enjoy the remainder of our programs.
This may be our last chance to Blog, since we have only one more stop in Spain on Friday and then our next landfall will be Ft. Lauderdale on the 20th.
J & D
