Transatlantic Cruise

We decided to take Celebrity's transatlantic (repositioning) cruise on Reflection in April 2016. It was a spur of the moment decision, since the cruise is inexpensive and we would not mind revisiting the few European places such as Barcelona, Rome, etc.

West Palm Beach, Florida, United States; Thursday, April 7, 2016

Yesterday we brought Djuna and Iubi to Southboro kennel. They will be there for 3 weeks! It made me very sad and worried .... Mary and Beca's son were there and they were very warm and nice towards the dogs which is the main reason we use that kennel. We subscribed to play time twice a day. They took both dogs to the yard and started playing balls with them which distracted both dogs from their separation anxiety and lessened my worries ....

Even though I was 95% packed before yesterday, the last 5% seemed to take as much time as the 95%. Plus I wanted to get the house cleaned so we would come back to a clean house, without dog hair everywhere :-) We went to bed around mid-night, and got up at 6:30am this morning. The limo came at 7:30, and we got to Logan just around 9. Our flight was at 11:15 so we had plenty of time to relax.

Our flight was on schedule and we got to West Palm Beach around 2:40. It was a full flight. The lady sitting next to us had a small dog with her, a poodle mix, only 10+ pounds. It was a rescue dog, around 8 years old. Very well behaved, cute. There was another similar small dog on the flight who sat on his/her owner's lap the whole time, possibly a service dog (since it did not have to stay in a carrier like the lady next to us). It reminded me of 15+ years ago when I brought JJ back from Minneapolis .... He was less than 20 pounds then....

After getting our luggage, we got our AVIS rental car and drove to our hotel, the Springhill Suites Marriott. It's only a 10+ minutes drive. The hotel staff was nice and friendly. But the first room we got smelt of smoke or some stale stuff, so we had to change to a different room. The room is OK, clean, space is adequate, but definitely not as nice as the Marriott Fairfield we stayed at in Philly. You get what you paid for, and we're not willing to spend too much $ for the 2 nights.

After settling stuff in the room, we drove out to explore West Palm Beach. We drove by the downtown City Place, then to the beach. The beach itself did not seem to be anything special, nowhere to be compared with the Siesta Key beach. But the overall beach area was very very nice. It was quite obvious this was an affluent town, quite cosmopolitan, much more so than Sarasota, or Miami, and we like it a lot!

It was after 4pm and we both were very hungry. Bob had looked up yelp and found out Thai and Vietnamese food here seemed to be more popular than Chinese. I really wanted Vietnamese. So we went to the restaurant called Pho Saigon. It turned out to be quite good! Perhaps not as good as the Pho 99 in Sarasota, but close. We had a hearty meal. Then we drove back to the downtown City Place and walked around. It was surely a nice place! Shops, restaurants, movie theaters, very pleasant. We definitely like West Palm Beach! Don't know if there's another town called Palm Beach?

Tomorrow we will take a good walk along the beach, then perhaps explore more of the town.

West Palm Beach Day 2; Friday, April 8, 2016

We actually went to bed quite early last night, way before mid-night. As usual I had the TV on at HGTV which watched me to sleep. I turned it off probably around 3am. We were both awake around 6am, but stayed in bed being lazy until around 8. Without dogs to worry about, without any responsibilities, it was quite relaxing. But I did/do think and worry about our 4-footed kids, and I miss them ....

Breakfast provided by the hotel was better than some of the other "free" breakfasts. After breakfast, we set out towards Palm Beach. Our goal was to walk at least 3 miles, then to the West Palm Beach city place and stroll around. But it turned out that unless we actually walk on the sandy beach, the walkway by the beach only went a short way. So we walked the walkway by the beach, then walked into the "downtown" area of Palm Beach. Oh, I figured out what was West Palm Beach vs Palm Beach. They're actually two different towns - west palm beach is to the west of the intracoastal waterway which divides these two palm beach towns/cities. Palm Beach appeared to be very wealthy. The downtown area reminds me of Rodeo Drive - full of high end name brand shops, and restaurants. The buildings were all of the old Spanish style, very pretty. I found the Kate Spade shop I was looking for, to replace my sunglasses that broke. Found the store but rather disappointed with their supply and knowledge of the expensive sun glasses. They're on sale, so I got my pair, reluctantly :-(

The temperature was in the 80s, quite hot. There were quite a number of people on the beach, mostly sun bathing. We did not know how hot it would be so we did not wear shorts which was a mistake.

We then drove to West Palm Beach's city place - I had to return something at Macy's. Afterwards, we drove to Spoto's Oyster Bar for lunch - we were told they had stone crab claws which were a must-have on this trip. This restaurant was one exit to the north of our hotel on Rt 95. It was a decent place. We enjoyed our lunch. But we each had only 2 claws though - too expensive to indulge ourselves for more :-(

We came back to the hotel after lunch, around 3pm, to rest for a while. Then we went out again after 5, walked around the City Place some more - I think we exhausted the stuff we want to see at that place. Come to think of it, as much as we like West Palm Beach and Palm Beach, I am not sure if this is a place I want to spend a month or two. I would enjoy visiting this place for a week or so very much. But if we want to escape the NE winter and come this way, I think I would still prefer Sarasota, especially its wide side walks everywhere.

For dinner, we went back to Pho Saigon again and enjoyed the same dishes :-) We won't have any real Asian food for the next three weeks, so better load up what we like. Tomorrow we will leave the hotel around 9am, then a 2-hr drive to Miami, return the car and take the shuttle to the cruise terminal to board the ship.

Boarded the Ship in Miami; Saturday, April 9, 2016

Did not sleep well last night. Could not fall asleep for a very long time for some reason, then was woken up by noises from room next to/below us. Very annoying. The alarm sounded at 7am, and we were out of the hotel shortly after 9. We were at the AVIS car rental place in Miami around 11. Our original plan was to take the AVIS shuttle to the cruise terminal, until we saw how many people there were waiting for the shuttle and how slow and small the shuttles were. We got a taxi which took us to the cruise terminal in no time. A guy who's on the same cruise asked to share the taxi with us - he only had a small suitcase so we agreed. It turned out that he drove to the cruise terminal and dropped off his wife with their heavy luggage, then came back to return the car. Not a bad move.

It was somewhat chaotic at the cruise terminal - we dropped off our luggage with the porters (feeling somewhat worried as it was hard to tell if our stuff would safely get to us ....), went through security check, then checked in to the cruise. We got on the ship shortly before noon time and were told our stateroom would be ready by 1:30. So we went to the 14th deck cafeteria and had the buffet lunch. Then we went down the deck 5 to check out the specialty restaurants, bought the 5- restaurants pkg and made the reservations - 2 Tuscan Grille, 1 Qsine, 1 Murano, and 1 Lawn Club Grille. Then we went to look up the excursions and booked two - one in Cartagena Spain, the Chef's Discoveries; the other in Florence, Italy, the Coast of Cinque Terre & Portovenere. For Tenerife, Canary Islands and Malaga, Spain, I found out that the town centers were within walking distance of the port, so we would explore on our own. Still have to decide if we would do anything else in Barcelona besides the 2 activities we signed up with Lori. Also Nice, France. We were there many years ago. I have only very vague memories of the place. I'd like to go to Cannes, but Bob said he did not think there's much to see there. We'll see ....

We had the mandatory security drill at around 4. Then the ship set sail shortly after 5. Our luggage arrived at our cabin starting before 4. I unpacked and put things all away before we set sail. Boy, this room is REALLY small! Probably the smallest we've been on these normal cruises (not counting the expedition cruises of course). And as usual, I over packed :-( Don't think I'll use half what I brought .... The crew on this ship seem to be mostly from the Phillipines. Our room attendant's name is Elsa. Her assistant is ? (did not catch it), not from the Philippines and he's responsible for the bathroom.

I started to feel the differences between Celebrity and Oceania, some small things ..... The hangers in the closet are randomly gathered together, as opposed to grouped by the ones with and without clips, on Oceania. The room did not smell fresh when we first came in..... Oh well! Let me focus on the positives!

We went to the Blu restaurant for dinner and really enjoyed it. The portion was small and just right! We both ordered the blackened tuna as entrees and it was very very nicely done! Definitely one of the best we've had. I hope to order it again and again when we dine there, even though we should not eat too much tuna because of the mercury concerns.

We toured most of the decks after dinner, checked out the spa, the gym, the library, etc. This is a nice ship, despite the fact that the aqua class cabins are just too small. We did not do our walk on the walking deck because it was too dark and we were tired.

Bob went to work, while I stayed in the room, watched some TV and then went to bed. He came back after a hour or so and did well. I started reading Anderson Cooper's book "The Rainbow Comes and Goes" on my iPad/kindle - really really enjoyed it! Hope it would last me through this trip.

Day 1 Sea Day #1; Sunday, April 10, 2016

On the daily activity sheet we got last night, I saw the 7am morning mile walk. Bob and I both would like to take it. Again I did not sleep too well last night and woke up quite early. But I was confused about when we would change our watch (to push ahead 1 hour, which we need to do tonight), so we sort of missed the walk. But we were up before 7 any way. And we had a simple breakfast at the Aqua Spa place which supposedly provided healthier meals. I had some fruits and 3 tiny muffins. Bob also had a little fruit and some museli. After breakfast, we went to deck 14 to walk our 3 miles which equaled to about 12 rounds of the deck end to end. The wind was very strong, to the extent that at some spots I felt I was losing my footing and had to hold on to Bob. But I am glad we accomplished more than 3 miles before 10am.

We then attended the "Beyond the Podium Presentation" at 10:15 am which was about Backstage at the While House, given by Melinda Bates who was the director of White House visitors office during the Clinton years. It was a very interesting talk and we really enjoyed it! I bought both her book and CD after the presentation, and had her autograph the book.

It was lunch time after the talk. We went to the cafeteria on deck 14 and pigged out on the virus buffet stuff. After that, we attended the Italian language lesson (offered by a fellow cruiser) at 2pm, followed by another talk, given by Ian Wright, a friend of John Lennon and a photographer. It was interesting, but because I did not experience the Beatles era, so it was not as interesting to me as to some others perhaps. 

After the talk Bob went to work and I came back to the room, started reading Melinda's book - very interesting! Unfortunately books often put me to sleep after reading for a while so I took a nap.

Tonight's dinner was at the Qsine, the specialty restaurant that serves fusion dishes in tapa style. We had some really interesting and tasty dishes! Must go back and try the other dishes we did not get to tonight.

After dinner we attended the magic show by Trigg Watson who was a pretty good magician and entertainer. It's the first time I witnessed the incorporation of what's on the computer with the magician in person! Don't quite know how he did it!!

Tonight we will need to move the clock 1 hour forward - 11pm will become 12am. We will probably be doing this for the next few days, one hour each day. No wonder today it became much darker at 6:30pm than yesterday!

I am looking forward to reading my Anderson Cooper book in bed.

Sea Day #2; Monday, April 11, 2016

The time has been pushed forward 1 hour, so 6am is not 7am and that's approximately when we got up. I was hoping by keeping my iPhone no the wifi, the time would adjust and therefore my iWatch, but that was not the case. I did not want to manually change the time on my phone or watch or my Mac, so I would just have to remember the real time is one hour ahead of what's shown on my phone or watch or Mac.

Had a quick breakfast on deck 14 buffet then went to deck 4 for Melida Bates 2nd talk about the white house. Again it was interesting - will attend her third talk tomorrow as well, 9 am again.  We then did the Galley tour at 10:30. This was the first time I did a kitchen tour on a cruise ship. Somehow I had high expectations - to see a huge kitchen, etc. The kitchen was big and the organization was impressive, and it was very clean - they sanitize the place from ceiling to floor every day.  But somehow I thought the place would be even bigger ....

It was almost noon time after the galley tour. But neither Bob nor I was hungry. I actually did not feel that great - maybe the breakfast did not sit with me well, or maybe yesterday I ate too much. I took a zantag and basically rested the entire afternoon - reading, watching movies, napping .... Bob went to the wine tasting then the blackjack tournament qualifying game. He came back around 4 and took a nap. By that time I felt better and went to the gym. It was a very windy day today. The sea was more turbulent than yesterday (but nowhere near what we had in South Georgia!), and it was too windy to walk on deck 14. The gym had quite a lot of people - every of the dozen treadmills was occupied. I did a mile on the elliptical machine, then 2 miles on the treadmill when some treadmills opened up. It's funny that the iWatch did not record the miles correctly - perhaps it's also based on my left arm movement which I did not move as much on the treadmill because I had hold on to the bar?

We headed to dinner at the Blu restaurant around 5:30. It's definitely the right move that I did not eat anything until then. Dinner was pleasant. The couple sitting next to us were seasoned cruise travelers and were also fans of the Red Ginger on Oceania. They live in Connecticut and have a condo in Florida. 

None of the evening activities interested me so we came back to the room. Bob went to work again, and I watched movies on the TV. Surely a do-nothing, restful, and relaxing day.

Sea Day #3; Tuesday, April 12, 2016

I woke up around 6, feeling very tired, so I decided to go back to sleep even though I really wanted to go to the 9am talk about the white house. When I woke up again it was past 8:30. We quickly got up and washed then went down to the talk on deck 4, without having any breakfast.

The talk was very interesting as expected. After the talk, we decided to take our 3-mile walk on deck 14. The sea was quite calm today and it was sunny. But when we got outside onto deck 14, the wind was quite strong. There were quite a lot of people sun bathing, and quite some people walking (or sauntering). We braved the strong wind/breeze and completed our 12 rounds. Even though it was not easy (somehow I always felt a bit dizzy when I walked ....), I felt good.

For lunch, we decided to try the Sushi restaurant on deck 5. It was a restaurant different from the other specialty restaurants. It was like a regular restaurant off the ship - we order things and pay for each. I enjoyed the couple of appetizers we ordered, and the noodle bowl I had - the soup was tasty and the grilled pork and other ingredients were nice, but the noodles were disappointing. The noodles did not seem to be fresh and perhaps they put in a bit too much noodles, some of which were stuck together. The rolls we ordered were disappointing. Not tasty, and the rice was a bit too heavy, too sticky, and a bit cold. Oh well, glad we tried.

Did not do much in the afternoon, mainly rested. I read and watched Top Chef on TV - never watched it before and enjoyed it. I also read my books and relaxed. Bob did a little "work".

Tonight's dinner was at Tuscan Grill, one of the specialty restaurants. There was nothing too special to write home about. So far, our favorite restaurant is Qsine, followed by the Blu.

After dinner we walked around and into one of the activities - Battle of the Sexes. Kind of entertaining. Then we went up to the sky lounge on deck 14 at 10:30pm to see the "who wants to be a millionaire", another activity for entertaining, which was just OK, something to do outside the room.

We've been on the ocean for 3 full day and 3 full nights now. Based on what we saw on the map posted on deck 3, I think we're about half way across. 3 more days to go before we reach the Canary Islands.

Sea Day #4; Wednesday, April 13, 2016

I could not fall asleep last night until way past 3 or 4am - I think it's the decaf coffee I had at dinner that did me in - either the waiter served me real coffee by mistake, or the caffeine in the decaf coffee was still too much for me. It was real torture not being able to fall asleep while being so tired .....

We got up shortly after 8, or so we thought. Then we went down to deck 4 to attend the 9am lecture. There we learned it was already 10am - we should have turned the clock ahead by 1 hour!  Duh!! ....

So we attended the lecture on Miro and Gaudi given by a professor. It was very educational! And we had a better idea about what we definitely want to see in Barcelona. Want to take the Gaudi tour to see all his buildings. To visit the Miro museum(s) - I really like Miro's paintings! And to walk on the La Rumbla, visit the famous market. We were in Barcelona about 26 years ago. Have been to most of the places. But my memory is fading and I want to see them again, and more.

No breakfast, lunch at the buffet again. Now we really felt the difference between Celebrity and Oceania - the food on this ship is nowhere to be compared with Oceania! And the service is no longer as good as I remembered ....

After lunch, we rested a little, then went to deck 15 for our 3-mile walk. The wind was quite strong, and I felt more tired than usual because of lack of sleep last night. But we did it. That felt good.

I took a shower and washed my hair after the walk. Watched some TV (Top Chef again), then we went to Melinda Bates' white house talk at 5:30. Enjoyed it. Then dinner at the Blue around 7.

There was a show tonight - singing by Aime Atkinson, a British singer, I think. But we did not quite like the style or voice, so Bob went to work, and I called it a day.

Two more sea days to go. We seem to have fallen into a routine every day. Best is the lectures. Glad we have been disciplined enough to do our walks.

Sea Day #5; Thursday, April 14, 2016

With another time change last night we lost another hour. By the time we got up this morning, it was way past 10am, and we missed both lectures that I would have liked to attend. Oh well, at least I got a good night's sleep - no decaf coffee last night which surely helped.

After we did our 3+ mile walk on deck 15, it was noon. We had lunch at the main dining room Opus on deck 4 - it was quite interesting watching the waiters serve so many people in an organized manner - we happened to be seated next to their serving station. The food was OK - small portions where was very good. 

There was a 1pm talk I really wanted to attend - it's by the same professor, Alan Fishman, and it's about Matisse. We were late by a few minutes and could only stand at the back of the room. I really enjoyed his talk. It turned out he and his wife (who's been teaching watercoloring on the ship) live in Belfast Maine. I asked him if he had a book about the stuff he talked about (Gaudi, Miro, Picasso, Matisse, etc.). He said no because he spent his time painting.

After the lecture I sat in the same room and attended the ship's talk about its future cruises in South America. Then I came back to the room. Bob and I finished watching all the episodes of Top Chef - I quite enjoyed it. When I go home I will see if I can find the rest of the seasons somewhere.

5pm was Melinda Bates' last lecture about the white house. We listened to it and enjoyed it. Dinner tonight was at the French specialty restaurant Muranda, at 6pm. It was very good! Now it's our #1 restaurant - Muranda, Qsine, Blu. The service and the food were both very good. And we really liked having dinner early so we don't have to go to bed with a full stomach.

There was not much to do after dinner. We did not quite like the performance. So we walked outside on the decks some, then went to the sky lounge and listened to people sing to the karaoke some - I was surprised the some of the old men passengers actually sang quite honorably! From the songs played, one can clearly tell the age of the people - all around Bob's age.

Water, water, when you look out, it's water everywhere! :-) I just realized that we actually have 8 sea days altogether! So there are two more sea days after today before we reach the Canary Islands on 2/17! Phew!! Really a LOT of sea days! And more clock change tonight and tomorrow night. Quite confusing since I don't know how to change my Apple Watch.

Sea Day #6; Friday, April 15, 2016

Really don't have much to write even for a boring diary today ....

Got up around 10am, "new" time. Did our 3 mile walk on deck 15, under the hot sun, together with lots of people who were just swaggering there .... Had lunch at the buffet - I wanted to swear I would not want to go back there because there was nothing really appetizing. After lunch we came back to the room and rested. We watched some TV - the old 007 movie Spectra, and I finished Anderson's book The Rainbow Comes and Goes - really really like it! I'm so glad I bought it before the cruise! I have not sat down and read a book for a long time! Next I will finish Melinda's White House stories and then start Anderson's other book.

The afternoon disappeared while we napped, watched TV and read books. We went down to Blu for dinner at 6. After dinner we walked another mile on deck 15 and played some pingpong. We thought about going to the jaccuzi but were too lazy to change. So Bob went to work and I relaxed in the room.

Tomorrow will be the last of the 7 sea days in a row, thank goodness, enough is enough! :-) And we'll move the clock another hour ahead tonight.

Sea Day #7; Saturday, April 16, 2016

Ah, the last of the stretch of sea days!

We got up quite late, around 10:30, new time (which is 5:30 back at home). Somehow the time change one hour a day is not making things easy. I feel like we have been sleeping so much, but somehow still feel tired ....

The 3+ mile walk on deck 15 under the sun brought us to noon. Bob had a quick breakfast in the cafeteria while I got a head start on the walk. Then we went to Sushi on 5, mainly for me to have some "homey" food, the noodles. I really did not feel like either the buffet or the main dining room which were the two option, plus the burgers on deck 15, under the hot sun. Not for me.

After lunch we came back to the room - read, rested. Shortly after 3, we decided to go to the Turkish Garden spa. We did the dry heat room and the steam hot room, then rested on the warm bed. I regret we did not do this every day in the last 6 days! :-( Definitely will do it again! The spa on this ship is newer and has a better layout than the one on Constellation and the other ship we were on before. Nice!

Dinner was at the Lawn Club Grill on deck 15. I did not think much of it before, but was pleasantly surprised. Both the service and the food were quite pleasant. We had a salad bar, and pizza of your choice, followed by a number of grilled choices - steak, seafood, lamb, etc. etc. And one could choose to participate in the cooking - learn to do the pizza with the chef, and cook the grilled dishes. I watched a couple of guests do that and it was quite fun. Our dinner package includes 1 dinner each at Qsine, Murano, Tuscan Grill, and Lawn Club Grill, plus a second dinner at Tuscan Grill which was my least favorite of the 4. I am hoping we can change it to the Lawn Club Grill.

Dinner was quite heavy so we tried to walk another mile after the dinner, then played a little pingpong. Tonight we will not push the clock another hour ahead, but tomorrow night we will.

Tomorrow we will finally see land!! It's Tenerife in the Canary Islands, Spain. The brochure said we will arrive at 8am and must come back to the ship by 3:45pm. It'll be a short day. At the last minute we booked an excursion, called the Cultural Tenerife. Originally we thought we would just walk in town and look around. But after looking on the net, there seemed to be quite some stuff to do there. There was the tallest mountain in Spain, del Teide, but somehow I hesitate to take the 4x4 tour, so finally we decided to do the simple tour. Hopefully we will still have some time after the tour to wander around town a bit.

Need to bring a camera - I just found out that I forgot to bring the charger and memory card of the Sony point-n-shoot ... .Darn!!! So I will have to carry the real Canon camera and am not sure what we will see ....

Tenerife; Sunday, April 17, 2016

The alarm rang at 6:15am. It's still pitch dark outside. But by 7am when we got to the cafeteria for breakfast, the ship had pulled into the harbor of Tenerife - we could see the lights from the harbor mountain city, and the sun was rising. We finally saw land!

The excursion we took started around 8:30. We had a busload of people from the ship, and we had a very nice guide, Carlos. He not only spoke very good English, but also was very knowledgable - he works in the tourist bureau, etc. The port was by the capital city Santa Cruz of Tenerife. The bus first drove us to a lookout place where we got a nice panoramic view of the area. Then we went to the city La Laguna. Carlos talked to us about its history and took us through the city streets - there was a lot of history in that city. It's clean and very well maintained. He also took us to a local market. Finally we went back to Santa Cruz and visited a local museum. We came back to the port shortly before 2. Bob and I did not get on the ship. I wanted to take photos of the beautiful building that's the auditorium which was somewhat like the famous building in Sidney. We had to walk probably 2 miles round trip, in the pretty hot weather. And we came back to the ship after 3.

We did not do any reading or investigation of the places we would visit on this trip. Somehow I had the wrong impression that Tenerife would be a small island town. Wrong! Tenerife is a modern cosmopolitan city. And Tenerife is a famous vacation place for the Europeans. It is the largest of the seven Canary islands. It has the tallest volcano mountain in Spain and this volcano is the 3rd tallest in the world (behind the 2 in Hawaii). The island is shaped like a pyramid, with the volcanic mountain in the middle. The island is closer to Africa than to Europe. The weather would have been very hot if not for one the 4 cold ocean currents that go by it. Because of this, the island's temperature is the high 60s and low 70s all year around. But the temperature changes drastically if you go higher - there are 3 feet of snow on top of the mountains in the winter (Nov, Dec, Jan) with temperature as low as -17 degrees (C), while at the sea level it's in the 20s (C). Rain is scarce. There are many endemic plants such as the basil trees which are all over the mountain, together with norfolk pines, etc. Carlos said they're working with Delta airline on a direct flight from NYC to Tenerife to promote tourism from the US. If that happens, this would be a good vacation spot.

We were quite tired after we came back to the ship. We decided to go to the spa to enjoy the hot/steam baths and rest. By the time we came back to the room, it was almost 5:30, time for dinner.

Dinner was at the Blu - not quite memorable :-(

After dinner we strolled into the theater. Tonight's show was by Kev Orkian who turned out to be a musician (piano) and comedian. Very funny! He did not seem to be worried about being political correct and was very entertaining. I would have gone to his 9pm show again if I was not so tired.

Tomorrow is another sea day, the last for this cruise, thank goodness!

Sea Day #8; Monday, April 18, 2016

It's the Boston Marathon day back at home, and we're again floating somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean towards Spain. Thankfully it's the last sea day of this cruise.

I was planning to get up early, around 7, to keep the schedule more normal for rest of this trip. But with the clock change last night (again another hour ahead), we did not get up until 9.  We had a quick breakfast on deck 14, then did our 3-mile walk, rested a little, then had lunch at Sushi on 5. Not that we like that restaurant that much or want to spend the extra $, but I am really getting sick of the cafeteria food. The noodles in Sushi on 5 suit my stomach better.

Melinda gave another White House talk at 2pm. Since I finished reading her book already, the last talk did not provide too much extra, but we enjoyed it any way. Bob went to his blackjack thing around 2:30. After Melinda's talk, I sat through the next talk, by Ian Wright. The topic was about his celebrity photos, but there really were not many photos. I slept through part of it.

Oh, after lunch, we watched the "egg drop soup" activity. People signed up to compete in this - each competing party needed to drop 2 raw eggs from deck 7 to deck 3, into the defined circle, and unbroken. Participants were allowed to devise their own stuff to ensure the eggs don't break. It was very funny and pretty amazing! Some designed a parachute thingy, some wrapped the eggs in layers and layers of stuff. Amazingly one party won by dropping the pkg right in the center of the circle, eggs intact! Another couple also did quite well. I had a good laugh.

Around 5, Bob and I went to the spa again and enjoyed the heat/steam rooms. Dinner was at the Tuscan Grill again - unfortunately we're not allowed to change to a different specialty restaurant (the 5-restaurant pkg was very very strict). Food and service were OK. But it's a restaurant no better than the normal dining room and I would not pay extra to go there if we ever come to this ship again.

The program said there's a ballroom dance lesson at 8pm in the sky lounge, so we went. But it turned out to be some party with the senior officers of the ship, with free alcohol, snacks, and a ban playing (music I really did NOT like). We went by mistake, sat for a while, then left.  It turned out the program was printed wrong. The dance lesson was on deck 3. Sigh ....

Tomorrow we will dock at Malaga, city on Spain's Costa del Sol. 26 years ago when Bob and I drove here, we must have driven past it, but we did not go there. We booked a small-group excursion for tomorrow, a simple city tour, hoping it'll orient us. Then we will have enough time to go see places that the tour would not cover. I want to see the cathedral, the Picasso museum(s) - there're two of them, and one of the citadels, plus some stores. We'll see how much we can accomplish.

The ship is supposed to dock at 10am, and we must be back on the ship by 7:30pm.

Málaga, Andalusia, Spain and Canary Islands; Tuesday, April 19, 2016

We were up at 7 when the alarm woke us. Pulling open the curtains, I could see the shore with lights not too far away and it was still dark. The shore was somewhere along Spain's Del Sol coast, not yet Malaga. By the time we went to breakfast around 7:30, daylight had broken but it was an overcast day. Even though we could see the buildings on shore, everything was shrouded in gray.

Our tour was supposed to start at 10:30. But the ship docked early so all tours started ahead of time. We got on our bus shortly after 10. Even though it was supposed to be a small group tour, there were still more than 20 people and I did not feel it's small.

Our guide was a Spanish lady. She was cheerful and spoke decent English. But she did not seem to communicate very clearly and it was always quite confusing to figure out what she was saying. She was accommodating and friendly nonetheless.

Our first stop was somewhere on a mountain, in front of a rather fancy hotel, where we could get a nice overlook of Malaga, the harbor, with our ship docking there. After the overlook, we went to the famous Cathedral Malaga. It was an impressive looking nice church. We went inside and the guide gave us some explanations while taking us around. We were done with the church around 1pm. Rest of the time would be free time and the guide pointed to us the places in the old town center where we could eat and shop around. Many, including the two of us, decided to split and would go back to the ship later on our own (via the free shuttle).

Bob and I stepped into a restaurant on one of the streets in town which looked nice, with lots of people sitting outside and inside. We wanted to have some tapa. So we did. We ordered a mix of 4 tapas, plus another sausage one, and a plateful of good jambon. Bob also ordered a gazpacho and at the end we had a flan. We enjoyed it, even though we would not say they're extraordinary or anything.  Afterwards, we continued walking around town, poking into the stores that were open. Because it was a cloudy day and threatened to rain, it was rather chilly. We did not bring our jacket and I had a very thin T-shirt on, so I bought a sweater/shawl which kept me less cold. 

After shopping, we went to the Picasso Museum. There were two Picasso Museums in town. One was his birth place, which we saw during the tour but did not go in. The other was not far from the Cathedral. We went to the latter. Somehow I did not realize Picasso passed away only in 1973 when he was 92 years old. I always thought he was someone from a long long time ago. I watched the talk by Professor Fishman last night on TV and learned a little bit about the artist, so today's museum tour was a lot more interesting than any of the museum tours I had. I can't say I understand Picasso's art or really appreciate them. But there were a few I do like, especially the "goat" sculpture he did in 1953. I would love to get a print of that goat! Unfortunately it was not in the museum here and I could not even find picture of it to buy. Someone said it's being displayed in the Paris Picasso museum. I will remember to go next time we go to Paris.

Learned that another rather famous person was born in Malaga - actor Antonio Banderas. 

Malaga is a modern European city, with some typical charming plazas, squares, cobble stoned streets, road side cafes, and colorful buildings. We did not get to visit the citadels. The La Alcazaba was quite close by, up on the hill, sprawled out. But we did not have the energy to figure out how to climb up there to visit. Maybe next time ....

Shortly before 5, we decided to return to the hotel on the shuttle bus. By the time we got back on the ship, it was around 5:30. I would have liked to ride on the buggy cart, but Bob did not want to. Oh well ....

The ship started moving around 7:45pm while we were sitting in the Blu dining room. It's still light out but there was no sunset because it was very much overcast. We watched a few other ships (freight ships, sail ships) pulling out of the harbor, then ours started moving. Off we go, to the next stop!

Dinner at the Blu was so so. The appetizer short ribs was very tasty, but the rest was non memorable. I had to return the cornish hen entree I ordered and got another short rib appetizer instead. The cornish hen was really quite bad.

Tomorrow we will be at Cartagena. We booked the "tour" Chef's Market Discoveries. We were supposed to go with the chef to the local market and then come back to the ship and cook a private dinner. It was a pretty expensive activity so I hope it'll turn out to be worth it. Somehow I'm not too optimistic .... We'll see. Think positive!

Cartagena, Murcia, Spain and Canary Islands; Wednesday, April 20, 2016

The ship was approaching Cartagena when we got up at 7 and the sun was barely up. But it was again an overcast day, so there was no obvious sunrise any way. The ship docked probably shortly after 8.

We had the Chef's Discovery tour which was supposed to start around 10. The description of the tour was not very clear - something about go to the local market with the ship's chef and buy things, then cook our own dinner, also go to a local restaurant. We did have a chef from the ship, Alex, who is Italian, a nice guy. But the tour was led by a local tour guide (lady, whose name I could not spell). It turned out that the executive chef was supposed to lead this tour, who was from Malaga. Yesterday he went home when we docked at Malaga, and he bought a lot of local produce. He wanted to cook us a real Spanish dinner, so he asked Alex to go with us on this tour. But Alex did not really do any leading. It was the tour guide who did everything.

The ship dock was within easy walking distance of the city center, so we walked through the center and to the local market. The guide introduced us to the various unique things in the market, such as the sweet and spicy paprika, the wine cheese, etc. and we tasted various things. There was one stall that sold fresh lemonade. The owner let each us have a taste. It was REALLY good! Just the right amount of lemon and sugar and ice!

After the market, we went to a local restaurant where the chef cooked paella in front of our eyes and we were served a hearty lunch. In addition to the paella which was very good, we had sangria, some sort of fritter appetizer with garlic sauce, followed by a large, very fresh salad. Then the paella. I tasted everything but did not dare to stuff myself. I learned some tips about cooking paella and I will definitely try it again after we go home. Interestingly I have the same paella pan as the restaurant's :-)

At lunch table, we started chatting with folks in the group and really enjoyed the company! There were a couple of ladies from Chicago, very outgoing fun loving "foodies". Also met another lady, who I later learned is a writer! One of her books is Dating My Vibrator" which I just ordered on my kindle).

Lunch ended shortly after 1. Instead of going back to the ship following the guide, we decided to split and walk more around the city. Unfortunately most stores were closed around 2pm - the well known Spanish siesta time. So we did not get see much more and finally went back to the ship around 3. Somehow I was not tired - perhaps because the weather was cool. So I went up to deck 15 and walked my 3 miles. After that Bob and I went to the spa till 6-ish.

Our private dinner which is part of the chef's discovery tour was at 8pm, in The Porch (another special dining area). And we gathered in the Cellar Master room on deck 4 at 7:15 and were served champagne. We were very happy to see each other again after a few hours. Chef Alex then took us for another kitchen galley tour (since some of us did not get to participate in the previous general one). It was interesting to see the kitchen at dinner hour - busy and organized. What amazed me the most was the attitude of the waiters and kitchen staff - they were greeting us with smiles even though they were busy and we were sort of in their way.

The executive chef came to The Porch to meet us and explained every dish. Oh boy, it was a 5-course dinner! I was hoping every dish would be of very small portion, but no, each was quite a healthy amount! Every one was very good! But my favorite courses were the appetizer, which was made of some sort of fish he got yesterday, soaked over night, then pulled into shreds, mixed with some stuff, served on a piece of toast. Really delicious! I was planning to just have a taste of each dish, but I ate it all. Second course was a soup, with chicken and a poached egg. Very good! I did not eat all the chicken to save some room in my stomach. Third course was red snapper fish with rice in squid ink. Fish was nicely prepared but it's fish which I could pass. The rice and the garlic sauce were very good. 4th course was port tenderloin with ratatouille, and there were s small mount of jambon shreds on top - the most expensive kind of jambon, which was very good. And the ratatouille was THE BEST I've ever had. I'm not a ratatouille fan, but I LOVED this one. I ate all of mine plus half of Bob's. I only had a taste of the pork which was good, but I had no room in my stomach any more .... However, I did make room for the dessert, which was very very good! It's a small almond cake with ice cream, light and refreshing. The pastry chef who made this was an Indian young man.

There were two tables of us. At our table, there were bob and me, Paul Simon and his wife Mimi (?), Suzanne the writer, and the two ladies from Chicago. We had a ball! It turned out Paul was also a photography enthusiast and they had gone with Nat Geo to the Arctic and the Antarctic, etc. He was very funny.

I learned from Suzanne that there's a dance thing at 10:30 in the theater which was like Dancing with the Stars, but the pairs were ship staff with passengers. Bob and I went to see it and it was absolutely hilarious!! How come I did not know there was such an activity before?! I would have gone to see it every time!

Tomorrow we will be in Barcelona! Unfortunately we did not make any plans or investigations like a lot of the other people have done. And I really don't want to do the ship's tours. So, I think we will wing it on our own - first go get the Gaudi tour map, then hope to hire a taxi to take us to all the Gaudi sites, and we will go to Las Ramblas, walk the place and go to the market, and tour the Gothic quarter. Hope to be able to find a good restaurant for dinner. Then on the second day we will do the Miro museums.

Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain; Thursday, April 21, 2016

When we got up at 7, the ship was still sailing. The fog was so thick that we could not see if we were close to Barcelona or not. By the time we finished breakfast, shortly after 8, we could see the ship slowly pulled into the harbor. And it was raining :-( The cruise director said "we had liquid sun today" - that was a good expression.

Bob and I bundled up and got on shore shortly after 9. We took the shuttle bus out of the terminal and the bus dropped us all off about a quarter mile away from Las Ramblas. We walked in the rain from this end of Las Ramblas to the other end. It's the same Las Ramblas. The last time we were here was 1991 and we stayed in a hotel right on the Ramblas, even though we could not remember the name of it, we knew approximate where it was. Las Ramblas in the rain really was not that appealing. Our first stop was the famous market. It's still at the same place. The saving grace was that it has a roof on top so we could wanter without holding the umbrella. It was really fun to walk through the market and admiring all sorts of beautiful fresh produce! My favorite stuff was the jambon, the Iberian ham! If I were living here, I would have it EVERY DAY! There were many stands that sold these beautiful and delicious ham. I bought some from one where the girl spoke fluent English and was very sweet. Oh I wish I could have bought a whole leg of the best ham back - if I could afford it and if the US custom would allow it!

After the market, we continued walking on Las Ramblas and stopped by a tour stand where they were selling Barcelona tours. We ended up getting the tickets for a Gaudi tour for tomorrow, at 9am, which would take us into Sagrada Familia and Casa Batlio, plus going by a few others. It's not less expensive than what the ship offers, but hopefully we get to see more.

Since we will be doing Gaui tomorrow, we decided that today we would explore the Gothic Quarter nearby Las Lamblas, and visit the Picasso museum and the Miro museum. We went to the tourist office at the other end of Las Lamblas and got some more information about the museums. By the time we walked out of the tourist office, guess what, the rain stopped!! Hooray!! The weather forecast said we would have rain all day! So this was a very pleasant surprise. 

We walked the Gothic quarter, admired its fancy cathedrals, beautiful old buildings, cobble stoned squares, narrow alley ways, and I tried to capture the scenes on photos but was not successful. We stopped at a simple quick food bread place and shared a jambon sandwich then continued our walk.

After the Gothic quarter, we walked to the Picasso museum. Unfortunately the line was rather long and moved very slowly. We decided to give up and just went into the museum gift shop and looked around. Since we went to the Picasso museum in Malaga and since we really don't understand that much about his art, I guess it's OK we skipped the one in Barcelona. Besides, it was already past 3pm. We would really like to have the time to visit the Miro museum.

Bob studied the map and thought he knew how to get to the Miro museum on the hill Montjuic. So we started walking. After a while, he sensed things did not look right and it turned out we were walking in the wrong direction. So we got in a taxi which took us to the museum quickly. The museum was not crowded and it was a very pleasant visit. I can't say I liked or understood all Miro's art work, but Bob and I both love some of his paintings! I would have loved to have one of his paintings, with the vivid colors and lovely shaped objects. But all I could afford were a couple of T-shirts in the gift shop :-)

After the museum, we thought we could take the funicular down, but found out the funicular near the museum was actually going up to the castle at the top of Montjuic. Since it's still not late, we rode the funicular up, visited the castle and had a good overlook of Barcelona. Unfortunately the atmosphere was quite hazy so I was not able to take really clear pictures. Oh well ....

By the time we rode the funicular down to the museum level, it was close to 7 already. We wanted to take a taxi down, but the only place to get a taxi was to walk 10 minutes down from the museum level, to a hotel there. I was getting very hungry. We really wanted to have a good Spanish dinner for the one night we spend in Barcelona. I had looked up a couple last night on tripadvisor, but did not have the chance to make a reservation. So we ended up going into the hotel and asked the kind lady in Concierge to all for us. Unfortunately the ones I noted down either did not open till 8pm (like many restaurants here), or all booked up. I asked her to recommend a good place for us. She told us a tapa place in downtown, called Cerveceria Catalana, which did not take reservations. We got a taxi outside the hotel which took us to the restaurant around 7:30.

Oh boy, the restaurant was busy! Many people were already waiting in line. We were told we needed to wait about half an hour, so we did. And we were seated in about half an hour.

Even though they had a menu in English, it was quite difficult to know exactly what dishes were what. And the daily specials did not have an English version. We ended up ordering a bunch of things which were not bad. My favorites were the Iberian ham on toast, and the red grilled prawns (with head on). Delicious!! And we had our favorite dessert flan, or course. We were starved when we got there, and we were so stuffed when we left.

An easy taxi ride brought us back to the ship before 10pm. A busy day! A good day! Successful second visit to Barcelona.

Barcelona Day 2; Friday, April 22, 2016

Up at 7am again. Our Gaudi tour was at 9am starting from the square at the far end (from the ship) of Las Lamblas in front of the HardRock Cafe, which would be a 15-min taxi ride from the ship terminal. We were not sure if we would be able to get a taxi right a way, so we were a little nervous. It turned out everything worked out smoothly and we got to the Hard Rock Cafe before 8:30. It took us a while to find what/whom to look for for the tour, finally the kind policeman we asked told us to look for the people with an umbrella, so we found them.

After talking with the lady with the orange umbrella we learned that the tour consisted mainly just two Gaudi sites - Sagrada Familia and Casa Batllo, outside and inside. Unlike what the guy told me yesterday, the bus would not stop by any other Gaudi buildings. I was a bit disappointed. But the tour turned out to be quite good, even though it was just those two sites.

First of all, the group had only about 16 people, so the big bus was more than half empty. Secondly our guide Tanja was good. She spoke good English and we could understand most of it. We first visited Casa Batllo, then Sagrada Familia. With the group, we did not have to wait in the long lines. Big advantage! And I learned things I did not know before.

Tomorrow is International books day (first time heard of such a thing) - this holiday originated from the fact that two famous writers died on the same day 400 years ago, one was William Shakespeare, the other was Miguel de Cervantes. So the tradition here is that, on that day, the woman would give the man a book, and the man would give the woman a rose. This is why we're seeing so many roses being prepared at the flower stands/shops everywhere, and book stands were being set up. Interesting! The roses were so fresh and pretty! I asked Bob to get me one. But when I found it would cost 5 euros, I stopped him :-)

Casa Batllo is on one of the most famous and wealthy streets of Barcelona. And it is one of a group of buildings called buildings of discordant. The story goes: there were a few buildings side by side there done by a few famous architects including Gaudi and there were different opinions about which one was the best. All of them are gorgeous! But Casa Batllo, the one by Gaudi, was the most unique. And now because of the holiday tomorrow (I think it's also St. George's day, whatever that is ....), Case Batllo has been decorated with red roses! So it's even more unique now. The house used to be a boring building owned by one of the riches, who hired Gaudi to renovated it. The result was what we see now. It is just truly amazing!! So much imagination, so much talent, and so ingenious! Also heard another story about Gaudi. He had a really bad temper. He was commissioned to renovate a very rich lady's more than 10000 square meter flat. After he was done, you could not find one straight line in the flat, and the lady asked him where she could fit her grand piano. Gaudi told her to change from playing piano to playing violin. Well, we could only imagine how well that went with the lady ....

I remember 25 years ago when Bob and I were in Barcelona, we walked by Sagrada Familia and saw the outside. We were not impressed as it did not invoke any feeling of beauty in us. And it was under construction. 25 years later today, it was still under construction and it is scheduled to take another 10 years to complete. Even though Bob and I did not find the outside of the building too appealing, we were impressed by its uniqueness and the amazing design and workmanship of all the sculptures, etc. But once we went inside, we were truly awed! I had never seen or been into a cathedral that was so bright and cheerful. Just beautiful! Just gorgeous! I wish I could capture some of the serene grandeur on my photos, but I was not able to :-(

Saudi lived in the cathedral the last few years (months?) of his life, supervising the construction of his design. He lived humbly. He was 72 when he died - he was struck by a car outside the church when he was crossing the street. Because he dressed so poorly, people thought he was a beggar and nobody helped him, until a policeman took pity and brought him to the hospital for the poors. The second day a priest recognized him. They were appalled and wanted to move him to the hospital of the rich. Gaudi refused. And he died. What a sad ending for the true genius! His body was buried in the cathedral, under the crypt - we were able to see it today.

The tour ended at 12:30. Next time when we come this way, I will try to arrange a private Gaudi tour to go through all the other Gaudi buildings! Tanja said it can be done.

After the tour, we went to Las Lamblas and had tapa lunch at a nice restaurant on one of the side streets there. Then we went to the market again for a short stroll - I got a little more Gambon :-) Then we came back to the ship around 2:30. Today everyone must be back on ship by 3:30. The ship sailed shortly after that.

Bob and I walked 6 rounds on deck 15, 1.5 miles, so we more than met our 5-mile goal today. The weather was a bit chilly, so the hot tubs on deck 14 were mostly empty. We decided to enjoy it ourselves and stayed for 10 minutes.

Had dinner at Blu - nothing terribly interesting. Tonight's show was by a rock group called Tenors of Rocks. The group just got on the ship today and they're from the UK. We went over after dinner. The first few pieces they did we enjoyed greatly - one from Phantom of the Opera, one by Eric Clapton "Tears from Heaven", and another by the Eagles. Fantastic! Later they did songs by the Beatles and other rock bands. They actually did not turn me off, but I would never go to such concerts.

Tomorrow we will arrive at Villefranche (Nice). We have a long excursion (8.5 hours) that would take us to Nice, Eze, and Monaco. Hope it's good.

Villefranche-sur-Mer, Provence, France; Saturday, April 23, 2016

It's been a LONG day of excursion, or more accurately, sheep herding tour. Pretty exhausting. But we did see quite a bit - Nice, Eze, Monaco, Montecarlo. Got a little taste of all these places, and hopefully we will come back to some of them in the future.

We were up at 7 and had a BIG breakfast. The ship had anchored by the time we had breakfast. This was a port we needed to tender ashore. Our excursion was group 7. But it turned out that for the same excursion, there were at least 4 groups, which meant 4 BIG buses ....

We had a nice guide, Caroline, who spoke very good English, and worked very hard to guide this big group of people. The port where our ship anchored was Fillefranche which was adjacent to Nice. It was a beautiful old town which, as Caroline told us, has become unaffordable for the locals because lots of northern Europeans  have been coming hear and buying vacation home. A short bus ride took us to Nice where Caroline led us through the old town center and explained a lot of stuff to us. Then we had more than an hour of free time. Bob and I walked through the local flower market in the old town, wandered around a little bit. Then we continued our bus tour at 12:30pm, heading towards Eze.

Eze was an accent small village up the mountain. It was absolutely lovely! If it's not for the tons of tourists, it would have been an absolutely heaven. Old ancient buildings, narrow cobble stoned walkways and courtyards, various kinds of huge cactus and other plants, and breathtaking sceneries, overlooking the harbor. We spent only less than 2 hours there, then got back on the bus and headed towards Monaco. 

In Monoco, we followed Caroline, visited the cathedral where Grace Kelly and her husband the prince were buried toured the streets, walked by the house where princess Carolline lives, and looked at the outside of the palace. We were given some free time to look around, then got back on the bus towards Montecarlo.

The weather was supposed to be around 63 degrees, but it was very sunny and felt much warmer. That is, until after 4pm, the dark clouds came over and it started to rain before 5, while were were in Montecarlo. We walked into the grand casino and had a quick look, took some pictures of the outside of Hotel Paris (the most expensive hotel in Monaco), etc. As it started to rain, we hurried back to the bus. By this time we were quite tired. The full breakfast served us well, since we did not have lunch. By the time we took the tender back to the ship, it was almost 7pm.

We met Mimi and Paul for dinner at Qsine at 8pm - they were fun company and Paul and I both like photography. They seem to be very nice people, have a great sense of humor. Between 7 and 8, I packed one of our two suitcases - tomorrow will be our last day of cruise, since we have an all-day excursion, I'd better start packing now. I felt better with one suitcase packed! So tomorrow I will have one more to pack and ready for pickup by 11pm.

Tomorrow we have the excursion Coast of Cinque Terre & Portovenere. We need to be up at 6 and meet the group t 7:15! Brutal hours! And it will be another long day. Hope it's worth it!

Livorno, Tuscany, Italy; Sunday, April 24, 2016

Up at 6 and got on the bus for our Cinque Terre excursion at 8. We were group #1. Originally I thought this would be a small group. WRONG! There were 7 groups for this tour! 7 big buses of people from the ship! Thankfully we were the first group and we had a very good guide, Andreas. He spoke beautiful English and had an excellent sense of humor.

Our first stop was Porto Venere, which was a picturesque old town on the Ligurian coast of Italy in the province of La Spezia. The colorful narrow buildings at the foot of the mountain by the ocean were so beautiful. And the light came at the right direction, so hopefully I got a few decent photos. Oh by the way, I found the battery charger for my Sony RX100, so today I brought the simple camera, after much debate with myself. It made my walking much more enjoyable even though at times I really wish I had the real camera with me ....

Andreas took us for a short stroll in the small town and then gave us about one hour free time to wander on our own. At around 11, we boarded the sightseeing boat - I think all the 7 Celebrity excursion groups occupied 2 boats. The highlight of the excursion was most definitely the boat ride because we were able to see the Cinque Terre, the 5 old villages on the mountains by the ocean! Breathtakingly beautiful!! If I had a real camera with long lens, on a boat that I could take my time leisurely, I would have really loved to capture the scenes of these villages and their surroundings! Hopefully what I took would give me enough motivation to come back here some day!

The boat ride was less than one hour and we landed at Monterosso, one of the Cinque Terre. Again Andreas led us through the town and pointed out the most famous landmarks, then we were given almost 3 hours free time. Bob and I went into one of the restaurants Andreas recommended and had a lovely Italian lunch. Then we walked around the town some more. At 2:50, the group met again and we headed to the train which took us one stop to a town on the mountains, where we boarded our bus heading back to the ship.

Oh by the way, on our way to and from Cinque Terre, we were able to see the Pisa leaning tower and the church domes far far away.

We were back on the ship around 5:30. I started packing the 2nd suitcase. After packing, we had dinner at Blu before coming back to the room to finish all the packing. Suitcases need to be out by the door before 11pm. Tomorrow we are scheduled to get off the ship at 7:45am.

The cruise is almost over. In general it has been a good cruise! Relaxing. And saw/learned a lot of new stuff!

Rome, Italy; Monday, April 25, 2016

Up at 5:30, had our last breakfast at Blu at 6:30, and out of the room before 7:30. The ship docked at Civitavecchia before 7. We were supposed to disembark at 7:45, but we walked off the ship before that. Unfortunately our shuttle was scheduled to pick us up at 9:10, so we waited in the tent by the ship. The weather today was very chilly, in the 40s, and with a strong wind. Thankfully I packed our warmer clothes at the top of one of the suitcases, so we bundled up while in the tent. We were there before 8am. What happened from that point on was really quite horrible! Lori emailed Bob and on our voucher sheet, it all said there would be someone holding card with the name Joanne Schulte.  We parked our luggage in the tent, and took turns to go out looking for someone holding the name card. There were many many many people there, holding cards with different names. We could not find ours. Finally, around 9:20, I asked a kind guy (who was holding up the name plate for someone else) to call the number on our voucher to find out where our pickup was. He was told there was a woman holding a list of names. I found the lady, showed her our voucher, she said no. So we waited and waited. Finally I went to bother that kind man again. He said just go to that lady and ask her. I went again. And guess what, at the bottom of the long list she was holding, "fisk" was one of the 3 names separated by "/". And it was a BIG bus. We got on. It was close to 10 already. We were among the very last few to leave the terminal. Boy I HATED it!! Really need to ask Lori how she could do a job like this?!....

The bus ride to our hotel "Duke Hotel" was more than one hour. I was exhausted and probably dozed off without watching what we drove by. Around noon time, our bus approached our hotel. But it got stuck in the very narrow one way street which was lined on both sides with parked cars. It took the drive at least 10 minutes, with the hotel staff coming out to help guiding the bus, and one guy having to moved his car, finally our bus parked! Phew!

I had no idea what kind of hotel Duke was. Bob arranged it through Lori. With the experience of the shuttle, I had sinking feeling that it was probably not a good one. We were very pleasantly surprised!

The hotel did not look like much of anything from the outside. It was in a residential area. There was not much around. But the neighborhood seemed to be good. Once we stepped into the hotel, I felt relieved! It was quite nice! The two gentlemen at the front desk were friendly and accommodating. We got room 321, but it was not going to be ready for at least one hour. So we sat in the lobby (which had different sections and were very nice), and chatted with some fellow cruise people who were also Lori's customers. Then we went to the hotel restaurant and had lunch - I had my pasta carbonara which was definitely better than what we've had in the States. After 2pm, our room was ready. It turned out Lori did have us upgraded to a mini suite - we appreciated that. The room was very very nice! The hotel was old, not modern, but very well maintained, classic, and clean. Floor is real hardwood, shiny. We were very happy!

We settled our stuff down in the room. I wanted to get my MacPro set up. I tried to use the multi plug extension cord I brought (since we only had 2 plug adapters), but we blew the fuse - it turned out the extension cord could only handle 110. The hotel electrician had to come and get things fixed. Sorry! :-(

We started out around 3, planning to first visit the Spanish Steps area which we're relatively familiar with. The hotel provided a free shuttle which runs constantly all the way till 11:15pm. But it could only take 6 people and we must sign up for it. We were not able to get in the 3:15 one but were able to get in the 3:45. The shuttle would take us to a place in the city center, from there people could take buses, etc. But guess what, Bob left our backpack in the lobby (he took it off while we were waiting for the shuttle). We had to get back to the hotel, but we could not ride the shuttle because it was already fully booked. We took a taxi. Fortunately the backpack was still there. Phew!

Now we decided we would walk. And we did. Without a detailed map, and with only the directions from the hotel staff, it was a big challenging. And it turned out the hotel really was NOT far from the Spanish Steps! Actually it was probably closer than the hotel we stayed last time. We were very glad that we got there. The Spanish Steps were blocked off because it was being repaired. Once we got there, everything looked familiar. We walked the streets there. I could even remember one of the shoe stores where I bought a pair of boots last time :-)

By 6 pm, we decided to look for a restaurant for dinner. Bob remembered the restaurant where we had pasta carbonara twice last time, so we looked for it. We did not find it, but found two other instead. One was La Buca di Ripetta, the other "adhoc". Both looked quite good. Adhoc was fully booked so we made a reservation for tomorrow. La Buca di Ripetta did not open till 7, so we sat on the bench outside the door and waited. We were lucky to get in without a reservation. A lot of the dishes looked very good, but I had to have my past carbonara! So I ordered the pasta, Bob ordered the stuffed suckling pig, and we swapped half way. Absolutely good! We also ordered a couple of side dishes - sautéed spinach in olive oil and garlic and sautéed endive, both were really really good! Finally the pana cota, our favorite dessert in Italy. It was SO GOOD! We made our dinner reservation here for Wednesday night, our last night in Rome this time.

After eating all that food, we wanted to walk back to the hotel. But half way we got a taxi, and back into the hotel around 9:30. We're both pretty exhausted!

Tomorrow we will need to be up early because we have a Vatican tour at 7:45! We're going with another 2 couples from the cruise. The 6 of us will meet at 7:15 in the lobby to share a taxi there.

Need to call it a day now.

Rome Day 2; Tuesday, April 26, 2016

We were up at 6:15 and met the other 4 for breakfast at 7. The breakfast was quite impressive, perhaps a typical breakfast spread at a good European hotel. We did not have much time to really eat because our taxi came at 7:15. The hotel even prepared a breakfast bag for each of us, since we did not know if we would be able to eat anything (breakfast starts at 7).

We got to our meeting place right outside of Vatican museum before 7:55 and met our guide. We went in without having to stand in the long line. Our guide was a young lady named Alexandra. A lovely lady who spoke good English and was quite knowledgeable. Later we learned that she has been a guide for many years and it was not easy to be a licensed guide in Rome.

I was completely ignorant about the Vatican, besides knowing that it was an independent country in Rome and it was the Catholic "capital" and where the pope lives. After today's tour, I think now I know a tiny bit more than before. Some basics are:

The Vatican museum is a separate entity from the Vatican church (even though they're physically connected. It contains a tremendous collection of valuable art work. Michelangelo did a LOT of work in the Vatican. Among other things, he painted the gigantic ceiling in the Sistine Chapel. Raphael was the other famous artist who also did a lot of work in the Vatican.

The Sistine Chapel is the pope's private chapel. Many of the important Catholic events take place there.

St. Peter's cathedral is an active church. It contains a LOT of precious art work done by Michelangelo, Raphael, and others. I still don't know if it is open to the public for its services ....

I really want to know more about the Vatican. Alexandra recommended a book "Michelangelo an Raphael in the Vatican" written by Antonio Paolucci who was the director of the museum. I got the book and will try to learn more. Also got a set of DVDs from the Vatican bookstore. Hopefully I will be more clear about some of the basics after I watch them.

It started raining after we left the Vatican, about noon time. We went into a place which seemed to be for tourists but was not crowded at all. We sat down, ate a few bites of the snacks we brought, used the restroom (1 euro per person per use :-)), sheltered from the rain and studied the maps to figure out where to go next. We decided to walk to the Trevi Fountain and the Pantheon. We visited both years ago but wanted to see them again. Thankfully the rain stopped. And we saw both places which were very crowded. We had lunch in a restaurant somewhere after the crowds of the Trevi Fountain thinned out. Then somehow we walked by the Spanish Steps again. From there we walked back to the hotel shortly after 4. We were both quite exhausted.

We took a nap, then head out again for dinner. We took the 6pm hotel shuttle. It turned out that the place where the shuttle dropped us off was very close to the restaurant "Ad Hoc" where we made a reservation. Our reservation was for 7. but we got there around 6:30. We assured the waitress that we're glad to wait. Because it started raining again we did not want to wander around. She seated us, sort of reluctantly. I wanted to sit at the table by the window (so I could look out at the pedestrians) but she said no because other had requested that table. Somehow I had the feeling that perhaps we were dressed too casual? ....

I found out yesterday while surfing the net that Ad Hoc had a truffle specialty. The waitress today mentioned this. I love truffles, so I decided to splurge and ordered my 3 courses all with truffles (which would more than double the price of each). Bob did not care about truffles so he ordered the regular ones. It turned out the dishes were very so-so, definitely not as good as what we had yesterday! The food was not bad, but nothing to write home about. Actually, at the end they gave us a small card asking for feedback on food, service, and ambience. I gave the food a 3. Don't think we will go back to that place.

After dinner, we took a taxi back to the hotel. Too tired to walk :-(

I feel my headache is coming and probably need to take a pain killer pill .... Maybe because I have not had enough sleep in the last 5 days. Tomorrow we will no longer need to get up early, thank goodness! The weather forecast says it will likely rain the whole morning. Bummer! We hope to go to the colosseum area and I want to take picture of the night scene. Hope we can do it!

Rome Day 3; Wednesday, April 27, 2016

Ah! No need to get up early this morning and we had a nice night's sleep finally! Woke up after 8 and got up shortly before 9. The good night's sleep and the Advil pill last night cured my headache. Yeah!!

After a leisurely breakfast, we took the hotel shuttle to the city center area then started walking towards the colosseum area, which was our goal today. It really was not that long a walk, probably 3 miles. We walked along Via Del Corso which led straight to the monument of Vittorio Emanuele II. We clearly remembered that we were here last time. But we did not go all the way up to the roof top then. This time we did it. We had a good view of Rome and of the whole colosseum area.

After coming down from the monument, we walked to the colosseum and scouted out where we could come at night to take photos. We remembered our last visit here and all those ruins around. We enjoyed walking by and looking at them from the outside. We started walking back towards the hotel around 4, and stopped at a cafe to have some coffee and pastry. We got back to the hotel around 5. By then we had walked more than 6 miles, according to my Apple watch. The weather today was very nice. It did not rain, thank goodness! And it was partly cloudy and relatively cool. Very comfortable.

We took the 6pm hotel shuttle to go back to the city center for our dinner at 7, back to the same La Buca di Ripetta. I was hoping with a reservation we would be able to get any seat we would like since we were the first ones there. But the hostess would not seat us at a corner table (so I would have a place to put our camera bag), and she gave us the same table as last time, in the middle of the room :-( Oh well, don't really know how Italian restaurants work .... But we had the same nice waiter and enjoyed a great meal! We both had pasta carbonara - needed to have the fix before we return to the States :-)

We left the restaurant before 9 and got a taxi to the colosseum. It turned out that the area still had quite a lot of people even at night. I guess a lot of people would like to see the colosseum with lights on, just as we did. Unfortunately I did not bring my tripod this time, so I don't think my pictures would come out too well.

We took a taxi back to the hotel. Tomorrow our flight home is around 3pm and Lori had arranged a private car pickup at noon - we have a voucher for it but when our hotel staff finally reached them by phone today they could not find our reservation. I emailed Lori who is traveling but had her staff called the Rome travel agency. I just got an email confirming the pickup tomorrow. Let's see if they show up ....

As much as we enjoyed traveling, we're eager to get home, to our 4-footed kids!

Thursday, April 28, 2016

Up before 9 and had a leisurely breakfast, then finished packing. The car (arranged by Lori) picked us up at noon sharp - after communicating with Lori and her staff over email, this time Travel Bound did not mess up. We got to the airport within the hour smoothly.

Our flight was at 3:20pm. Checkin at the Aitalia counter took a while - we had one extra checkin and somehow the two ladies there did not know how to handle it .... The worst part was, we were charged 85 euros for that one small additional checkin. Ouch! .... Another bad thing was, I forgot to pack the scissors in the checkin luggage as I intended, and left them in the carry on suitcase. Not only they had to be thrown away, they had to mark something on our ticket .... Sigh .... Not happy!

With the AMEX VIP card we were able to wait in the VIP lounge. Small consolation :-( 

We were in economy. But the plane was not full, so it was not too bad. And there were movies so I watched a bunch of movies. So the 9+ hours were not too torturesome. After we got to Logan and went through the Customs, however, I had my 3rd bad luck of the trip - they would not allow me to bring in the vacuum sealed jambon that I especially bought in Barcelona (and spent at least $150+). $ is one thing. That's my very favorite food! I asked why. He said because meat could bring in animal disease unless they're cooked to however many degrees. Really rubbish! If I were to bring in raw meat, I could understand that. For vacuum sealed ham, I open it and eat it, how can any animal disease be transmitted to the live stock??!! But, the Custom people were like God or the Chinese police and you do not argue with them, or they put you in prison or something. I HATE them!! No reason whatsoever!! I wanted to call the custom to really find out ... I'll bet the custom guy at the airport had a great feast with the ham he took away from me. Hope he chokes to death!

Accent limo was waiting for us outside the terminal and we got home around 10. The last straw of the night was that our furnace was off, so there's no hot water .... Bob took a lukewarm shower. By the time I wanted to take mine, the water was icy cold. So, no shower after the long journey. Yuk!!

Still, it was good to be HOME!