I’ve been working in my shop on the nativity set and on quilting my Bento Box quilt. While the projects are moving along, there’s nothing really worth taking a picture of. So by popular demand (okay, one person asked) here are pictures of my three cats, Boots, Socks and Spot.
This will be the last installment of our Mediterranean cruise. When I got back from Rome, I was exhausted and Heather wasn’t feeling much better. We went to the onboard medical center and got some medication for Heather and instructions to isolate for a day.
Which was fine by me. It also meant that when we pulled into Naples, we stayed onboard and ordered from room service. The rest was welcomed. Likely we missed something interesting in Naples, but one thing we did learn on this cruise is that you can’t do everything and likely we should have scheduled fewer tours. There’s plenty to do on the ship and in most ports you can get a shuttle from the ship into the local city for a short walk around town.
The ship’s doctor called us in the afternoon and since we were doing better said it was fine to leave our cabin. We went up for afternoon tea in the ship’s “Winter Garden,” for their version of English tea – a pot of tea, little sandwiches, biscuits, chocolates and a scone. The only disappoint was the scone. I make better scones than they served, but everything else more than made up for that.
They had a guitar player doing the entertainment for us. That was okay, but she wasn’t the best. Still it was nice to have some live entertainment.
Actually, most of the entertainment onboard was good, some excellent. One of our favorite places to hang out on the ship was the atrium. There were comfy chairs, places to read, a jigsaw puzzle for guests to work on and an area for board games. In the afternoons and evenings they had a piano player who did mostly classical music — she was just wonderful to listen to. They also had what the called, “The Classical Duo,” a piano player and a violinist. They were just outstanding and we would often check the schedule to see when they were playing.
The ship had one theater with a number of entertainers and from time to time they’d bring on an act from one of the ports. In Barcelona they brought on a Rumba band with dancers which was a fun energetic show. They did a country music night, and for matinees they’d do solo shows with one of the singers from the onboard entertainers. We went to a couple of these. One was very good and the other a nice afternoon music show.
There was also a pool, a bar and grill near the pool, the forward facing “Explorer’s Lounge” that seem to have hyperactive air-conditioning that we froze in for five minutes before leaving. There was an area they called the living room where you could get a fancy coffee made. Our only disappointment with this area is that we didn’t discover it until the last day on the ship.
sigh …
By cruise ship standards ours was a small ship, but still for people who’d never been on an ocean cruise before it seemed large and lots to do.
After leaving Naples, the ship sailed through the strait of Messina. I’d been looking forward to this. I’ve studied a lot about WWII and the Italian campaign so it was nice to see something in real life that I’d read about. After passing Messina, we passed the toe of Italy and spent the day sailing the Ionian Sea arriving in Corfu the next morning.
Corfu is a Greek island on the northwestern frontier of Greece. There we took a tour of a local monastery and had sometime in the town of Corfu where we had lunch and did a little shopping. Heather was interested in seeing Corfu as she watched the PBS Masterpiece Theater show, The Durrells in Corfu, and wanted to see where it had been filmed. We found out that only a few parts of the show were filmed where we were with most of the production being on the coast further north from the town.
After Corfu it was on to Croatia and the ports of Dubrovnik and Split. Both stops looked the same and a lot like California. We learned from our tour guides that they have relatives in California and apparently California is a common place Croatians emigrate to. The areas we visited were also the filming locations for “Game of Thrones,” and most tour stops including a guide saying something like, “This is were they filmed …” and some reference to the show. I’ve never see Game of Thrones so that was mostly lost on me. I didn’t buy any of the teeshirts.
Our last stop was Venice. Well, sort of. Actually the ship docked at the port city of Chioggia. Cruise ships aren’t allowed to sail into the Lagoon of Venice and have to dock near the entrance to the lagoon. To get into Venice you have to transfer to a smaller boat and take an hour and a half boat ride into the city proper.
The tour we signed up for was a short walking tour of the city followed by a large block of free time before we had to get our boat back to the ship. Our guide walked us from the landing dock through some back streets until we got to Saint Mark’s Square. When we arrived at the Square we found that some military ceremony was just ending and the crowds were very large.
We then did what most travel writers say you should do in Venice, and just wandered and got lost. We just walked around, went into shops and finally found a place for coffee. We took pictures and just were there. I wish we had done this at other ports of call. Then it was back to the dock to get our boat and the 1.5 hour ride back to the ship.
The next morning we left the ship and were taken to the airport where we got a flight to London where we caught a train to visit Heather’s family for a few days before returning home to Reno. I always enjoy my trips to England and visits to Heather’s hometown, but this time we didn’t have much time to do anything other than just visit family and enjoy a walk on the Malvern Hills.
Our last day of travel was a 24 hour travel marathon that left us just plain exhausted. It took us a few days to get over jet lag and regain our strength.
We haven’t decided on our next adventure, but we’re thinking of something closer to home next time. There’s the cruise to Alaska, one to Mexico, or maybe exploring the east coast around Boston. Not sure what we’ll plan, but it will be something.
For now though, winter is settling in here in the high desert and if it starts snowing, just getting to the grocery store could turn into an adventure.
Here’s a few pictures from our trip:
Well, I have three cats so here’s everything I know about the little furry things:
Cats are great at video games, they have 9 lives.
Don’t play poker with cats in a jungle, too many cheetahs.
Definition of a cat: A small furry creature that’s always on the wrong side of a door.
How many cats can you put in an empty box? Just one, then it’s not empty.
There’s only on animal smarter than a talking cat … a spelling bee.
What button on the TV remote do cats like the best? Paws.
Lights run on electricity and cars run on gas. What do cats run on? There paws.
Dogs have owners. Cats have servants.
My neighbor was talking to her cat like it understood her. It was so funny that I went home and told my dog about it.
My cats are afraid of trees. I think it’s because of the bark.
My friend’s cat lost its tail. He had to take the cat to a retail store.
Cats are very good story tellers. Well they only have one tail …
So how did the cat get the first prize at the bird show? Someone didn’t shut the bird cage properly.
Our next stop on our Mediterranean cruise was the French city of Marseille.
Well, that’s where the ship stopped, all we saw of the city is what we could from the harbor and from the bus that drove us an hour and half inland on a tour titled, “In the Steps of van Gogh.” I should point out that it’s not pronounced , “van go” like many people do. It’s a Dutch name that apparently can only be properly pronounced by a Dutch person. Our French tour guided didn’t even try, she simply announced that the French can’t pronounce it either so she’d call him, “Vincent.”
The tour was a trip to Saint-Remy-ed-Provence where van Gogh spent time in the local psychiatric hospital. First stop was in the town of Saint-Remy for a restroom stop and 30 minutes for shopping or rather panic about only having 30 minutes to shop. After that we were taken up the road to visit the Monastery of Saint-Paul de Mausole that in 1889 housed the Saint-Paul Asylum where van Gogh admitted himself for treatment. The events leading up to his seeking admission were his break with fellow artist Paul Gauguin and incident where van Gogh cut off most of his ear.
This was one of van Gogh’s most creative periods and the building and grounds of the hospital are the subjects in many of his paintings. Here he painted well known works like The Irises, and Olive Trees. It was interesting to see where he worked and lived during his stay. The building where he stayed is now a museum with a gift shop, but there is still a mental hospital nearby which uses art therapy as one method of treatment. Some works by recent patients were for sale in the gift shop and there were a number of artists on the grounds painting and drawing.
Our next stop was supposed to be lunch at a French country restaurant. No, didn’t happen. When we got to the bus we were informed that the bus wouldn’t start and a mechanic had been dispatched to fix it and get us going again. Yeah, right. There were a few of us mechanically inclined folks on the tour who were sure that the problem was more than a dead battery and that the mechanic wouldn’t be able to fix it.
Turns out we were right and eventually another bus was dispatched to fetch us from the field where the bus was parked. By this point we’d missed lunch, and weren’t in good humor. This wasn’t entirely Viking Cruises problem as they contract their tours out to local operators who have to meet Viking’s standards. We were told by our guide that there were a lot of tours out of Marseille that day and most of the buses were on other trips so we had to wait.
I was delighted when our replacement bus arrived and we could be on our way. We did make one more stop in a walled city on top of a hill that Heather and I didn’t really like, but there was a nice gelato shop where we got a treat before heading back to the ship.
A few days later we received a letter in our cabin from Viking admitting the problem and refunding half the cost of the tour. It was nice to have them do that without us having to demand it.
On our way out of port we got a nice view of Chateau D’if, the famous fortress and prison in Alexandre Dumas’ novel The Count of Monte Cristo. Heather was interested in viewing it as we passed as this was a book she read as a teen.
Next stop was the small nation of Monaco, the second smallest nation in the world. Only the Vatican is smaller. Later I did see the Vatican so I can now say that I’ve seen the two smallest nations on the planet.
Again, we didn’t spend much time in Monaco, but we did walk half way across the tiny nation to get from the dock to our bus that drove us into France for our tour of the day. Our first stop was Antibes, a walled city and harbor. We had a short tour of the city and then were let loose to shop and get lunch on our own. Here Heather and I sought our favorite French food: A baguette sandwich. We did find one and enjoyed it.
Then it was off to visit the home, now museum of the French painter Renoir. In his later years Renoir suffered greatly from rheumatoid arthritis and moved to the south of France for the warmer weather. The museum houses many of his later works and has preserved his studio from that time. It was interesting to see where he spent his final years.
Then it was back to the ship and an evening meal at “The Chief’s Table,” one of the two specialty restaurants on board the ship. It was also our anniversary that day so this was a special treat. The restaurant was billed as a kind of culinary experience with a set five course menu. The menu changed every three days and on our day it as an asian seafood, wine and duck dinner. Each small course came out with a preselected wine and much description from our waiter. I don’t really remember all we ate except for the Peking Duck burrito that was the main course.
Sadly, while the meal was nice and I drank more wine than I should have, it upset Heather’s tummy and she didn’t really recover from that till we got home. You don’t want the details …
Our next stop was Tuscany and the port city of Livorno. From here you could get tours for Pisa, Florence and other places in Tuscany. Being in the cheap cabins, the good tours were gone when we went to select one so we got a tour of Lucca. Yup, I hadn’t heard of it either before I booked the tour. Turns out to be a medieval walled city with a nice gelato shop. We had a long bus ride, a short walking tour and a couple of hours to wander on our own. We found a nice restaurant for lunch and the gelato place.
I don’t remember what we did back on board ship other than comment how much Italy and Tuscany looked like California.
The next stop was the port at Civitavecchia. Yes, that’s how it’s spelled. I never did figure out how to pronounce the city name, but that’s where the cruise ships dock near Rome.
Heather wasn’t feeling well that day so I set out on the tour of Rome alone and vowed to take as many pictures as I could. Most looked like this:
Rome is a crowded city and the population of four or five cruise ships made it even more crowded. The tour was basically a bus ride to the Colosseum. From there Viking had setup a shuttle service to take you to the Vatican, Piazza del Popolo (near the Spanish steps) and back to the Colosseum. I found lunch at a pizza place and managed to stop at each of the shuttle stops. I walked to Saint Peter’s Square, but since I didn’t have a ticket, I didn’t actually get into Vatican City, but I got pictures.
I didn’t really enjoy Rome without Heather and the crowds and insane traffic didn’t make it a nice place to be. When I got back to the ship I asked myself if I’d ever go back to Rome and my answer is, “I’d go back to Madrid, I liked Madrid.”
Well that’s it for this week. Next time I’ll finish talking about our trip starting in Naples and ending in Venice.
Andrew's View of the Week 