OK, have no idea why the words posted twice and none of the pictures did...so will try and add the pictures to the first post now.
And we had a lovely second day in Barcelona, but am too pooped to write tonight....so will add that to orrow sometime and I will leave you with just one picture of the interior of La Sagrada Familia
We have arrived at the port of Barcelona, Spain. It is a huge working port as well as a popular cruise destination and turnaround port.
There are four large cruise ships here today. I’ve got to say, watching the ship pilots parallel park these things is quite amazing.
Today we decided to go out of town to the monastery of Monserrat. It was (naturally) a little rainy, but only light showers and we were able to spend a lot of time inside. This is perched high on the side of a rocky cliff.
The basilica is home to a shrine, that of the Black Madonna. It also was a locale used in the newest Dan Brown book, Origins.
That’s her, way up high in the niche above the altar. We also heard the boys choir sing. The boys range in age from 9-14, and live at the monastery Sunday noon through Friday noon and attend school in the mornings, and study music in the afternoons. By the time they leave they have learned piano and one other instrument in addition to their singing and regular studies. We are told it is very competitive to get into the choir.
We returned to the ship for dinner and packing up. The luggage is out in the hall and we are just finishing up a few final thanks and goodbys before disembarking in the morning and checking in to a hotel for three nights.
Tomorrow we intend to visit La Sagrada Familia, and weather permitting one or two other Gaudi sights.
Majorca (or Mallorca, depending on what language you are spelling with) is a vacation destination island in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea. Today is Sunday, so many of the local businesses are only open for a very few hours. Most of what is open are tourist related shops. However, the famous cathedral, La Seu, is open for services, 😊.
They have beautiful stained glass, gothic styling, with a Gaudi-Modernisme altar and a pipe organ that is used during services.
This afternoon we took a tour to the Caves of Drach, which translates to Cave of the Dragon. No photos allowed inside, so....
...I took a photo from a postcard, lol.
Musical concerts are held inside because of the amazing acoustics. And the musicians arrive by small boats across the lake. (If you recall the boat scene from Phantom of the Opera...yes, it was just like that).
Speaking of small boats, several flotillas of teeny-tiny my-first-sailboats have passed by the back patio today on their way out of the harbor. The instructors are in inflatable dinghys, which are huge compared to these sailboats. They all look like mother ducks followed by ducklings.
We spent Saturday in Cartagena, Spain, which is a UNESCO world heritage site. The entire city! That’s because the Romans built their city of New Carthage right here on the shores of the Mediterranean in the third century B.C. Good location before the straits of Gibralter and all. And then the Moors built their city and then the Spaniards built their city... one right on top of the others. So we went walking through them all.
Fortunately, the weather was also a lot more comfortable —>Sunny. 🌞👍
We pulled into our dock right in the center of town, which made it very easy to get to the sights.
This is the view from the back patio:
There is a wide pedestrian street on the left. See that red and yellow Spanish flag?....that’s the start of the street. Filled with shops, restaurants, and beautiful architecture.
All along the route we found a variety of ruins; the 7000 seat amphitheater:
Which you may have noticed is/was built right in the middle of the city. When they first started to restore it in 1991, they had to remove several apartment buildings that were on top. It is now fully exposed, and the acoustics are amazing. One can hear quiet conversation all the way from the top to the bottom. As Tom demonstrated for us.
We also visited the Forum, which is still on
ly partly excavated, although there are some lovely colored murals and mosaics in a few buildings. Also, this was the site of the public baths, with both hot and cold water.
Lastly, we ventured to the top of the hill for a panoramic view over the city, before returning to our ship.
Tomorrow we visit the island of Mallorca.
Well, it was not the day we had hoped for. Yes, we
made it inside the rock. Where it was raining, just like everywhere else today. Gigi, you can stop laughing now.
I am sure this is a much more interesting visit in sunny weather. We tried to imagine what it was like during the Great Siege, when people had to live here as well as defend their tip of the continent. With all the puddles and dripping water through the limestone, accompanied by rousing English marching music and speaking dioramas (“Halt! Who goes there?!”), we figure we got our full-effect visit.
Here is a picture through one of the cannon embrasures, aimed right at the airport for Gibraltar. Notice the highway on the left that crosses the runways.
The Gibraltar apes (really Barbary Macaques) are all over this three mile by one mile rock. And fearless, jumping all over the tour vans and tourists.
This one stayed in the tree.
We also saw the southernmost point of the European continent.
That’s Tangiers, Morrocco behind us, sort of visible through the clouds.
We were supposed to take a cable car up the mountainside, but it was too windy, so we had to drive up. We could not go to the top, as only the cable car can reach that viewpoint. Frankly with the wind driven rain, I doubt if we could have seen a thing this morning.
And then some confusion happened. The rain began to pour in buckets. Tom and Denny stopped by the bathrooms, while Kathi and I continued on down 25 yards to the turn off for the overflow parking, where our bus #19 was. Denny and Tom got lost, missed the turn off, and continued walking down the hill. Spmewhere far below, they eventually flagged down another bus, #18, boarded and went on ahead. While we waited for them back at the parking area, looked in the bathrooms, made international phone calls, etc etc.
Everyone has blamed everyone else (the driver for not moving the bus to where the guide told us, the guide for telling us he would, the guys for not paying attention to where they got off the bus, the phone company because the texts and phone messages took 30 minutes to be delivered).
We made it back to the ship right about the time the rain let up. We can see blue skies now, although it is still windy.
So yeah, the whole day was about right for a Friday the 13th.
I haven’t written much over the course of our sea days...as they are truly not all that exciting or interesting to read about. Now, to us, they are very relaxing, but exciting still is not part of the description. I wake up whenever, mosey down to the International Cafe for our Skinny Latte, maybe have breakfast, or skip it altogether if lunch is getting close. Tom usually gets up around 7 and heads out for his hour+ four mile walk, then a steam or sauna, then a hot tub soak, then he showers at the spa and returns around 9:30 or 10. By which time I am deciding whether it is a skip or eat breakfast day.
On these sea days, as I mentioned earlier, we change time at 11 -> 12 noon. So skipping breakfast is no big deal, as it becomes noon soon, and we can have lunch. Today, for example, was a skip breakfast day, and it is now just after 1 and I am beginning to think about a lunch. Then we do something onboard in the afternoon (watch a movie, play bingo or trivia, go to a lecture, meet with our friends, or just sit on the back patio and watch the ocean float by) and then it is time to get ready for dinner and the show after. Then we go to bed and pretty much repeat again the next day. Today we went to the ‘cooking’ demonstration, which ends up being a bit more of a comedy show than a real lecture, but we did come away with some great recipes, if not technique.
Today’s adventures were not much different than any other day, with the slight difference that it was not really a sit on the back patio kind of day. Last night we were warned it would be rather rocky overnight, extending into the morning. It has been cool temperatures also, with off and on rain showers. A few minutes ago we had one of those rain showers along with a big gust of wind that shoved us off course a little bit....I even got a picture of our wobbly trail...
And...today is the last of our eight sea days on this trip. Tomorrow we begin the first of five port days in a row. We will arrive in Gibraltar where we will be traveling into and to the top of the Rock. Fingers crossed for less rain.
Bet you thought that was a cuss word, huh? Well, it’s not. It is Portugese for ‘fennel’ and the name of the largest city on the island of Madeira where we spent our first day on land since Fort Lauderdale a week ago. It is 300 miles due west of Marrakesh, Morrocco, which makes it half as close to Africa as it is to it’s home country of Portugal.
Madeira is Portugese for ‘woods’, because the island was, and is, covered with trees. And because of its mild climate, it is not only a popular vacation spot for most of Europe, but is a gardener’s paradise with abundant fruits, flowers and vegetables in addition to many eucalyptus. It is a volcanic island, and reminded both of us as a sort of cross between Kauai and La Jolla.
Our weather was a bit cloudy, but very comfortable at 65 degrees. We took a drive up and over, and then through, the series of ragged volcanic ridges and cliffs. Let me tell you, driving a huge bus on narrow one-and-a-half lane roads which twist and wind up and down the sides of the mountains is no little feat and a definite E Ticket ride for those of us (me) on the window side of the sheer drop off cliffs and vertical rock faces. There are no white stripes on the side of the road, much less any shoulder. Just me, the bus window and about four inches of space. Sometimes less, as when the trees slap against the window and sometimes more, as when the cliff drops away a thousand feet or so.
I did take a few more pictures, but only one on this device, so until I can get real wifi, this picture will have to do.
