AngellTravels

If it's Wednesday, we must be in Bermuda

2011-11-16T14:40:00.000-07:00

We are at our last port, Bermuda, before our cruise comes to an end in Florida this weekend. Bermuda is located approximately 600 miles east of North Carolina. It consists of about 181 small islandsThe 4 days went surprisingly fast and the seas were slight for the most part. It was a good trip across the Atlantic.

Just for a little trivia….In June, 1609, moving quickly to save their failing Virginian investment in the New World, company investors in England dispatched Admiral Sir George Somes as commander of a nine ship rescue fleet. Just seven days from their destination, a dreadful storm blew in and shipwrecked Somers flagship into what is now known as Bermuda. Somers promptly claimed the land for England, thus beginning Bermuda’s history of permanent British settlement.

Walls around theRoyal Navy Dockyard

We had no tour plans for this port, figuring we would be tiring of the typical coastal drive or history tour. It’s warm here…in the high 70’s so beach time would have been a option, but we decided to go for a walk outside the dockyard and try to find the ‘sea glass beach’. This is a beach on the West End that one will find thousands of pieces of colored sea glass washed up on shore. The color of sea glass is determined by its original source. Most sea glass comes from bottles, and the broken pieces are smoothed over time by the action of the sea. Red and cobalt blue are the rarest colors. Most common are Kelly green, brown, and clear.

With downloaded directions and map in hand, we headed past the Royal Naval Dockyard clocktower and headed on the coastal road in search of this beach. The Royal Naval Dockyard is where the cruise ships now dock and what was once the Navy dockyard is now a village of shops, and restaurants. As we left the dockyard, we walked past walls and buildings and found paintings on the walls. When this was a Navy base, the ships used to paint their insignia on the walls and buildings—lots of them.

Clocktower, which is now a shopping mall

Ship's insignias on walls along the wharf

Along the coastline we took in some beautiful views. We found the little stairway that led down to the beach and spent a few minutes gathering up some sea glass to add to our hurricane vases at home that have beach sand and shells from our travels.

They like colorful houses on this island

Sampling of the sea glass; there were thousands of pieces

Coast line view

Walking back the same route, we stopped by the Clocktower Mall, to enjoy the airconditioning! We browsed a bit and then headed back to the ship stopping by the “Moongate”. Legends say couples who kiss under the moongates (the wedding band shaped arches found throughout the island) will be assured a long and happy life together. So, we did!

The Moongate

Next 2 days will be at sea and we will sail through the “Bermuda Triangle”. The captain says he hasn’t lost a ship yet so we should be good!

A round of applause....

2011-11-14T08:25:00.000-07:00

It's another sea day today. For the most part the seas have been pretty smooth...sometimes we get to rocking a bit in moderate seas but the main atrium area and also our stateroom is mid-ship and that's the best place to be when the seas seem a bit bouncey.

Yesterday we went to another one of Jim Kennedy's lectures on NASA and the space program. He is a retired director of the Kennedy Space Center and relates stories about the NASA program and especially the space shuttle era. His lectures have been very interesting and right up Terry's alley with all the information about the space shuttle program.

Terry was doing laps around the ship one morning getting some exercise and stopped to chat with Jim Kennedy for a bit. Terry relayed the story about how our Florida daughter got us tickets to the final space shuttle launch last June and encouraged us risk the last-minute trip to Florida to fulfill this item on our 'bucket list'.

Well, he was so impressed with what Terry told him that it became one of his 'stories' during the lecture. All of a sudden he was mentioned Terry Angell and his daughter Jennifer who helped her parents fulfill a wish. Jim gave Terry a NASA pin, and emblem signed by him with a note to be given to Jen.

That was very neat!! You'll get your pin in just a few days, Jen!!

Day 22 - The Azores

2011-11-13T06:34:00.000-07:00

The Portuguese Azores are in the Atlantic Ocean 950 miles west of Lisbon and 2400 east of the US. All nine major islands are of volcanic origin. San Miguel is the largest island and that is where the capital city of the Azores is located, Ponta Delgada and is the port for our day in the Azores.

Our tour today is with 6 other Cruise Critic Rollcall members in a minivan with Gary, our guide from Azorean Tours. We leave the ship in rain to meet him on the dock. Since we knew that the Azores is often rainy, we left the itinerary of our tour up to Gary. He indicated that there was no sense in going Sete Cidades, a beautiful caldera that now contains a graceful lake, which appears to have both green and blue waters. Although, it’s rare that this can be seen as weather conditions have to be absolutely perfect when the sun shines directly on it. Not going to happen today so off we went to the other end of the island to see what we could between raindrops.

Coastline view

Beautiful rolling hills of green

Our first stop was at the Gorreana Tea Factory, which produces close to 40 tons of tea annually. It’s tea is in high demand as it is not treated with any pesticides or fungicides due to the inexistence of any pest or disease in the region. We toured the facilities and stopped by the room where several women were packaging the tea bags for sale and we got to sample the tea.

Tea plants--same plant for all kinds of tea...variations in processing make the different varieties of tea flavors

The women busy packing up the tea bags for sale

Next we headed to Furnas Lake for an overview and then to the village where there are hot springs and small geysers. There is a system of faucets where the townspeople can retrieve hot water in varying degrees for use in their homes. They also utilize the hotsprings to cook food, like having a big slow cooker in the middle of the village.

Furnas Lake

The hot springs in the village

A drenched Gary explaining the various water faucets throughout the hotsprings area

At this village we had a lunch of sandwiches made with local bread, ham, and cheese, its name I can’t remember. Very good, though.

Lunch where we dry off and have a great meal

Gary tried his best to find places to stop for view of the coastline and green, rolling hillsides where it was not raining, but with limited success. He did a great job! The beauty of this island is very apparent, even on a rainy day. We must return someday.

Flowers, flowers everywhere on the island

Sampling of the homes--all are white on this island

By the time we returned to the ship, the sun was trying to peek through so I took a picture of the sunset as we were about to sail east into the Atlantic.

Next we have 4 days at sea where we will do a lot of relaxing and reading books on our Kindles.

Day 20 - Lisbon, Portugal

2011-11-11T02:29:00.000-07:00

Lisbon is a large port at the mouth of the Tagus River, and the capital of Portugal. It was from here that much of the great wave of exploration started in the 15th century.

The first site to greet us was the 25th of April Bridge, which spans the river at the port. It is named for the date in 1974 when a bloodless revolution restored democracy by overthrowing the regime of Antonio Salazar. It was built employing the same engineering principles used to build the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco and looks like its twin. We were up on deck as the ship sailed under the bridge.

By this time in our travels, we have done some tours through the ship, some tours we booked online from the port cities we visit and some “just doing our own thing” when we got off the ship in the port. When researching the possibilities for the port of Lisbon, I discovered a local tour company called, “We Hate Tourism Tours” and thought they would have a fun and different approach to showing us the city of Lisbon. I made reservations for us and our Colorado neighbors and we were pleasantly surprised when several others making up the two 8 passenger minivans were people from our cruise critic rollcall. So we had familiar faces in our mini van of 8.

We had so much fun on this tour….we highly recommend this company. Our young local drivers took us on a journey to learn about Portuguese culture from their perspective. Yes, we saw sites that tourists go to but we also had the opportunity to taste local foods and go to places where tourist buses don’t go. It was an adventure just going up and down the narrow streets the locals use on the hills of Lisbon. They made our day fun, inspite of rain showers that followed us around for most of the day.

High in the hills above Lisbon

Sintra, where the rich go to escape from busy Lisbon

Quinta da Regaleira--a palace in Sintra for an aristocratic family

Yum - our morning treat

Our drivers made us a picnic lunch

A sampling of tile, which is all over Lisbon

Guardians Gate at the Quinta da Regaleira--the summer palace for aristocracy

Terry up in one of the towers on the palace property

Another overview of Lisbon

We now head east into the Atlantic Ocean with stops in the Azores and then across to Bermuda before arriving in Fort Lauderdale.

Back in Spain

2011-11-08T08:51:00.000-07:00

Located just above the boundaries of northern Portugal, Vigo is a Spanish city originally settled by Celts in 600 BC, giving it a longstanding Celtic tradition that lives on today through legends and the music of bagpipes. Not what we would think of for Spain; in fact, our tour guide today was a local with blonde hair and blue eyes!

Vigo is an important fishing and commercial port. As we left on our tour for the day, we drove along the coast and saw mussel flats, each one owned by a local family. Ropes are hung from the flat to the bottom of the harbor where mussels attach themselves and grow to be harvested.

Mussel flats in harbor

Our choices for touring today were: Santiago de Compostela, with its cathedral which is considered the 3rd holiest place in Christianity behind Jerusalem and Rome. The Apostle St. James is said to be buried there and pilgrams from all of Christiandom flocked to the magnificent cathedral built between the 12th and 13th centuries. It also was featured in the book by Ken Follett, “Pillars of the Earth”.

But we didn’t go there. Instead we took a winery tour and wine-tasting since Vigo is in the heart of Galicia’s (this area of Spain) Albarino wine country for a little variety in our siteseeing and a chance to have a laid-back day. It was a fun day and there was no holding back on the wine—one could have as much as one wanted, along with an assortment of tapas to munch on, and the busload of cruisers seemed pretty happy. We enjoyed the company of another couple from our cruise critic rollcall group. We will be on the same small group tour with them when we are in the Azores a few days from now. It was nice to have a chance to get to know them. They did a 12-day tour in Egypt before coming on this cruise and had a wonderful time. We always enjoy hearing the experiences of travel in parts of the world we hope to travel to someday.

The Agro de Bazan Winery

The winery's vineyard

Typical courtyard

Architectural style of balconies

Wine, tapas, and good conversation

Next up is Lisbon, Portugal

Normandy and the D-Day Beaches

2011-11-07T07:01:00.000-07:00

Our choice for the port of LeHavre, France was to either go to Paris or to the beaches and memorials of D-Day in Normandy. Being our first time here, we wanted to go to Normandy and pay tribute to those who fought so bravely in WWII.

The weather was as predicted today…..raining in LeHavre when we left on our tour. We left the rain but experienced cool weather and very strong winds coming off the Atlantic Ocean on the beaches of the landings where the Allied liberators started their massive invasion on June 6, 1944. So out came the gloves and headbands in this very typical Normandy weather which we learned is very much like that day in June, 1944.

Our first stop was at Omaha Beach, the site of the most difficult and bloody invasion. As we stood on the beach, we could visualize what happened through our memory of scenes from the movies, “The Longest Day” and “Saving Private Ryan”. We had an excellent guide, through Overlook Tours, who showed us photos taken in 1944 and recounted events at various sites as we stood at the same spot today. He told us how the hedgerows outlining the farms and roads in the area became an unforeseen problem as soldiers could not make their way through the tangled brush and could not tell if there was friend or foe on just the other side of the hedgerow.

Bunker on hillside at Omaha Beach

Omaha Beach

Overlooking Omaha Beach

Photo of church in 1944

Same church now rebuilt

Hedgerow

Next we visited Pointe du Hoc where American Rangers courageously scaled sheer cliffs on rope ladders while under constant fire to attack the German defense. Terry and our guide went down into one of the many holes around the Pointe to show how deep the explosions of artillery blasted out the area.

The cliffs the Rangers had to climb from the beach

Deep hole blasted out by artilliary

We had lunch overlooking the church in Saint Mere Eglise, where paratroopers dropped from the sky early in the morning ahead of the beach invasions. This church was where a paratrooper landed on the roof of the church, his parachute caught on the steeple. The fall knocked him out and when he awoke, he played dead until he could get himself untangled and off the roof. He was captured but escaped the Germans 2 days later. Our guide said that this paratrooper lived to be 96 years old. There is a parachute on the steeple to help the tourists visualize the event. We remember that this was also a scene in the movie, “The Longest Day”.

Church the paratrooper landed on. Parachute on steeple marks the spot

Our final stop was at a 12th century church at Angoville au Plain, where two American paratrooper medics administered life saving aid to a mix of some 80 American and German soldiers wounded during the first day of the Normandy invasion. This village was overrun by troops of both sides several times during D-Day.

Memorial to paratroopers

Church used as a hospital for both American and German soldiers

This was definitely a day of reflection and gratitude to those who fought and gave their lives for freedom and we will never forget.

American cemetary with over 10,000 graves

Memorial pool at American cemetary

If it's Saturday this must be Belgium!

2011-11-06T00:17:00.001-06:00

Today we are in Belgium. It’s nestled between Germany, France, and Britain, and is famous for lace, waffles, chocolate, friets (French fries but they are Belgium) and even beer.

Through connections with the cruise critic rollcall for this voyage, we were a group of 8 who had pre-arranged a taxi to take us from the ship’s port in Zeebrugge to the quaint city of Bruge, about a 30-minute drive away. Well, we had a snafu and our taxi did not show. This was a chance we took as we had read that often people will hijack another group’s taxi by saying they are the party on the sign the taxi driver has. After waiting about 30 minutes, we figured we were either forgotten or hijacked. We were very lucky to have friends in our cruise critic group and one of them had arranged for a coach bus to transport a number of people. There was room on the bus for our group, so we joined them for the ride to/from Bruge. Whew!!

Initially a trading center in the 11th century through the 16th century, today Bruge prospers because of tourism. It’s a uniquely well-preserved Gothic city and the tourists have found it!

Store window filled with lace products

....and chocolates everywhere!

With a Rick Steves’ book in hand, we followed his suggested walking tour of the city through the squares and along the canals and over the pedestrian bridges. Our first stop was the bell tower that has stood over Market Square since 1300. We climbed about 360 steps up the circular tower for fantastic views of the city. Just before we reached the top, we could see the carillon room, where the 47 bells are played on the quarter hour. We saw the carillonneur using his fists and feet to play the bells.

Bell tower

Very steep, narrow, winding steps to the top of the tower

The Carillonneur

View from top of bell tower of Bruge

We wove our way through narrow streets and large squares, crossing the canals from time to time and enjoying the beauty of the area. The weather was ideal….we were really expecting rain as there is a 50/50 chance at this time of the year.

Canal in Bruge

This portion of canal was originally the moat around the city

Our Colorado neighbors joined us today and we all met at the De Halve Maan Brewery where Terry and Bob went on a tour of the brewery while Tissy and I visited in the restaurant. Unfortunately the brewery tour turned out to be more of a museum and not a working brewery. Hasn’t been for many, many years. But the guys enjoyed their free glass of beer after the tour and chatted with some locals about the Greek situation and the Dave Matthew Band (Terry had on a DMB t-shirt which sparked the discussion).

Deep in discussion with a couple of Bruge locals

We thoroughly enjoyed our day in Bruge. What a fantastic and picturesque city—a definite must-see for anyone going to Belgium. There is so much more to see and museums to visit, but that will have to be another time.

Next…..France and we’ll go to Normandy D-Day beaches and memorials.

Day 14 - Back in Southampton...for just a bit

2011-11-04T09:46:00.000-06:00

After leaving Gibraltar we spent 2 days at sea before arriving in Southampton, Great Britain, where all of the Brits we met during the past two weeks leave this ship and we’ll welcome today new cruisers, mostly Americans, to take the trans-atlantic voyage for the next 15 days.

We left the ship this morning, boarded a coach bus, and headed to the Stonehenge area, about 30 miles away. It’s a rainy day and we are in and out of showers as we travel through the English countryside, through the “New Forest” (planted by William the Conqueror about 900 years ago so that the area could maintain wildlife that they would subsequently hunt). In spite of the cloudy, rainy day, the forest was beautiful with the tree leaves in full fall color. We passed through quaint English villages with thatched roofed houses. Our guide said that a thatched roof can last 50 years! It’s made of hay and covered with chicken wire to keep the birds from hauling away strands of hay to make their nests. Never got a picture of a thatched roof as we sped by too fast and raindrops covered the windows.

Stonehenge evolved from a simple bank and ditch in the Neolithic period some 5000 years ago to a very sophisticated stone circle built on the axis of the midsummer sunrise. The bluestones were brought 240 miles from the Presell mountains in Wales. There are many stories about the significance of Stonehenge. It may have been an astronomical observatory or used for sacred rituals linked to the sun, successful crops or even the dead.

Here we are in front of Stonehenge...in the rain

Artist rendition of what Stonehenge probably looked like

We headed toward the town of Salisbury by first passing “Old Sarum”, which is a huge earthwork raised in about 500 BC by Iron Age settlers, and later occupied by Romans, Saxons and Normans. They built a castle and a royal palace and by the mid-12th century, it was a busy town with a fine new cathedral. Lack of water and squabbles between church and military led to the building of a new settlement by the river, now known as Salisbury. Old Sarum was abandoned and fell into ruin. There is nothing left of any building today.

Old Sarum

In Salisbury, we visited the Salisbury Cathedral. I believe this cathedral was the inspiration (and/or filming was done here for the mini-series) of “Pillars of the Earth” by Ken Follett. It is one of Britain’s finest medieval cathedrals. Its spire is the tallest in all of Britain, and the inside is spectacular. There is nearly 800 years of history inside the cathedral including tombs of nobility from the 13th century and Europe’s oldest working clock (1386). The clock is outside on the bell tower; we got a close-up look at the working mechanisms inside the cathedral.

Salisbury Cathedral

Tallest spire in all Britain

The mechanisms of the oldest working clock in Europe

A tomb dated early 1200's

Also inside was one of the four remaining original texts of the Magna Carta. It is 76 lines of Latin exquisitely written on one page of vellum. No photos were allowed of it so I’ll need to find one on the internet for the photobook. It limited the power of the ruling monarchs and nobility back in 1215 AD and protected the rights of the citizens. Since then many countries’ laws as well as our Declaration of Independence are modeled after main points of the Magna Carta.

We headed back to the ship and will soon attend a Meet and Greet of many cruise critic rollcall members that we ‘met’ on the forum prior to the cruise that are boarding today.

Typical Salisbury street

Another street in Salisbury

Tomorrow we are in Belgium!

Gibraltar

2011-11-02T02:35:00.000-06:00

Today’s port is Gibraltar…..also known as “The Rock”. It is a peninsula 2.75 miles long, ¾ of a mile wide and 1,400 feet in height. A population of about 30,000 people live in Gibraltar, which is part of the United Kingdom. With its strategic location at the western entrance of the Mediterranean, “the Rock” offers great value as a military strong point. Europe is only 8 miles from Africa at this point. Whoever controls Gibraltar and the harbor at its base is in a good position to control the passage between the Atlantic and Mediterranean waters.

The Rock--Gibraltar

Over the centuries control of Gibraltar has passed from the ancient Greeks and Romans to the Moors from North Africa to Spain and finally the British.

Our plan today was to walk into town from the port and then take the cable car up the side of the Rock. There are roads zigzagging around the top and side of the Rock and plenty of stairs to go from one level to another. We changed our plans when we started to realize how long it would take to walk on these roads to get from one site to another in the limited time we have. So, we became a party of 8 to take a taxi tour of the Rock. In 1.5 hours we were able to cover all the sites on the Rock.

At our first stop we went inside St.Michael’s Cave, with its chambers of stalactites. There is an underground cavern which has become an amphitheater for concerts, plays, and even an occasional wedding.

The amphitheater inside the cave

Then it was on to see the Apes Den, home of the famous Barbary Apes. Actually tailless monkeys, the Apes are native to this area, but not to the rest of the Spanish mainland. Legend has it that Britain will retain the Rock as long as the Apes live here. At one point during WWII, they seemed to be dying out so to boost morale of the troops, Winston Churchill gave the legend a bit of help by bringing in ape reinforcements from North Africa in 1944.

At several overlooks of the area, we had a good view of the airport runway down below. It stretches from one coastline to the other, a distance of no more than ¾ mile. It separates Gibraltar from Spain and what is most unusual about it is that the road from Gibraltar to Spain crosses the runway and whenever an airplane is landing or taking off, traffic must be stopped!

The airport runway in bottom third of photo....with road crossing over it.

Our final stop on the Rock was at the tunnels dug out and used for firing cannons during wartimes. There are 34 miles of tunnels dug into the limestone rock. These tunnels were used during the Great Siege in 1779-83 during the American Revolution, when the Spanish and French attempted to starve the British into surrendering. The British held strong. More recently Gibraltar was a key naval and airbase during WWII.

Cannon inside the tunnels on the Rock

Having seen the Rock, we spent the afternoon walking around town, enjoying an authentic lunch of British fish and chips and watching a crystal blowing demonstration in one of the shops. It was then time to head back to the ship and say goodbye to the Mediterranean.

An Anglican Church of England with Moorish architecture

Glass blowers

We now will have 2 days at sea as we head toward Southampton.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

2011-10-31T06:38:00.000-06:00

Today is a sea day as we sail down the coast of Spain and enter the Straits of Gibraltar again. It’s Halloween and there are decorations all over the ship, with pumpkin carvings and Halloween movies showing throughout the day.

Tonight we’ll get all dressed up again for another formal night, along with the Captain’s Cocktail Party that we have an invitation to attend because we’ve cruised several times. It’s time we check it out.

Barcelona

2011-10-31T06:34:00.000-06:00

Today is Barcelona, which is one of Spain’s most lively and dynamic cities, but Barcelona is really not Spanish at all….it is the capital of the autonomous region of Catalonia. Located on the coast of the Mediterranean, it was a leading trading power in the 14th and 15th centuries. Today Barcelona is a busy, cosmopolitan place, a center of experimentation in politics and the arts. Pablo Picasso, Joan Miro, Salvador Dali, and Antoni Gaudi have all called it “home”.

There is a lot to see in Barcelona but being here only for the day we had to decide what we wanted to see for our first-time visit. We chose Gaudi, who combined art nouveau and modernism in his many works found all over town. Gaudi believed in natural and organic lines, with no trace of anything angular or mechanical. We decided to concentrate on seeing a few of his famous projects.

We were among the first off the ship and after a shuttle ride from the port to the Columbus Monument. You would think that Columbus is pointing toward the new world, but he’s not….he is pointing toward his hometown of Genoa, Ital. We started walking up the famous street, La Ramblas. It is a mile long street lined with shops, flower stalls and cafes. Early in the day, it was not very crowded. On our back way down at the end of our day, it was a mass of people going in both directions. We were always on the alert for pick pockets, and luckily didn’t have any problems.

Columbus Monument

La Ramblas in the morning

After reaching the top of La Ramblas we took the advice of our daughter Jen who visited Barcelona in 2010. “Take a taxi between sites, don’t try to walk it all.” We had lots to see and limited time so off we went to our first stop, Parc Guell, Gaudi’s colorful park. He intended this 30-acre garden to be a 60-residence housing project—a kind of gated community. But around the turn of the century (1900) that idea flopped as the high-income families it was intended for didn’t want to live so far away from the shopping and cultural activities.

Parc Guell

Serpent-like mosaic bench

Next we took another taxi ride to Sagrada Familia, Gaudi’s most famous and persistent work, an unfinished church. He worked on it from 1883 to his death in 1926. Construction continues today and it is considered about 60% finished. Following the travel tips I had researched prior to this cruise, I booked our tickets for entry into the building over the internet and that proved to be the way to avoid the massive line of people waiting to buy tickets upon arrival. We breezed right by them all and exchanged our internet receipt for our entry tickets. A definite plus when we didn’t have 3 hours to wait in line. The inside appears to be finished as there was a big push to get that done before the Pope’s visit in November, 2010, when he dedicated the church. The outside is still very much in construction phase and will not be finished until approximately 2026. Local craftsmen often cap off their careers by spending a couple of years on the construction site. Gaudi knew that he would not live to see the building completed and recognized that later architects and artists would rely on their own inspiration to complete the project. There were many Gaudi drawings and blueprints in the museum beneath the building and plaster models made throughout the years that were used in construction. It was a most fascinating building and we wandered around for about 2 hours.

Sagrada Familia

Plaster model in museum

But it was time to move on to the next Gaudi building, the Casa Mila—Gaudi’s last major work before dedicating his final years to the Sagrada Familia. The Casa Mila was built to be an apartment building for the middle class. We were able to tour a typical apartment, all set up as it might have been when first occupied. A highlight was the jaw-dropping rooftop, where chimneys look like they could have inspired the Star Wars soldiers.

Casa Mila

The rooftop chimneys standing guard. There are 30 of them on the roof

View of Sagrada Familia from rooftop of Casa Mila

Next on our list was the Casa Batllo, with skull-like balconies. We decided not to tour the inside of this as time was getting short and we were feeling a bit tired.

Casa Batllo

Close up of the skull-like balconies

So it was time to relax a bit at a little café on the La Ramblas, do a little people watching, and enjoy a little more gelato!

Before heading back to the ship, we walked through the Barri Gotic area and check out the remains of the old Roman wall that protected a smaller Barcino, as the city was called in ancient times..

Remains of the old Roman wall

Then it was down to the Placa Reial, a neoclassical square that has Gaudi’s first public works—colorful helmeted lamp posts.

Gaudi's first public work--a helmeted lamp post

A much busier La Ramblas at the end of the day

It was then time to catch the shuttle bus back to the ship and say “Adios” to Barcelona with hopes that we will return someday….there is so much more to see and experience.

Day 8 - Cannes, France

2011-10-29T13:43:00.000-06:00

It’s another beautiful day here in the Mediterranean. It’s Saturday and today we visited the Cote de Azur of France, known as the French Riviera. Today’s port was Cannes.

Back in the day of the Roman Empire, this area was called “Cane Harbor” by the Romans because of the abundance of reeds in nearby marshes. Cannes today is the crown jewel of the French Riviera. This seaside resort was no more than a small fishing village until 1834 when Lord Brougham, a British Lord Chancellor, visited. He could not get to Nice because of a cholera epidemic, but he found Cannes so pleasant that he built a house there and returned for the next 34 years. By the late 1940’s, it was the site of the International Film Festival and the resort of choice of many wealthy visitors.

View of Cannes from the ship

Over view of Cannes from the "old town"

I had read that a good way to see the Cannes was to take the little “petit train” that circles around the city. Definitely designed for the tourists, it was a bit dorky, but it did provide us with a good overview of the city and a little of the history.

The tourist train

After the ‘train ride” we walked along the waterfront, past the harbor area with yachts and sailboats, and then to the building that hosts the Cannes Film Festival. Like Hollywood, there are handprints and signatures of movie stars encircling the building. Many of them were unknown to us, but we did find the handprints of Cameron Diaz and Julie Andrews.

Harbor filled with sailboats and yachts

The Cannes Film Festival theatre

Cameron Diaz handprint and signature outside the Cannes Film Festival building

The waterfront is filled with expensive designer shops and luxury hotels. The Riviera has long been noted for its beautiful coastline and quaint villages. Even more important for artists, however, are the clarity of the air and the vividness of the colors. The entire region has been home to many artists who have done some of their best work here. Claude Monet felt the quality of light helped him to produce some of his greatest impressionist works.

Luxury hotel

The Carlton luxury hotel on waterfront

Missing our little grandson, Enzo

People are still enjoying the beach in late October

We made a short day of it in Cannes and headed back to the ship to catch up on the blog and to rest up for tomorrow, when we arrive in one of our most looked-forward-to ports…..Barcelona!

View from the ship of sailboats in harbor having a race

Day 7 - Tuscany and our plans change....

2011-10-29T08:29:00.000-06:00

Italy’s third largest seaport, Livorno, located in the heart of Tuscany, was our next port, where we had our choice of visiting Florence, Pisa, or the Cinque Terre, which is a section of the coastline of the Italian Riviera that consists of 5 villages linked together by a hiking trail. That was our choice BUT the best-laid plans don’t always work out. A couple days before we received notice that our excursion to Cinque Terre was cancelled due to severe weather in that area on Tuesday. We later learned that torrential rains and mudslides had destroyed part of one of the villages of the Cinque Terre. So no tours headed that way and we had to change our plans. We decided on the ship’s tour of “Florence and Pisa on your own”. The ship provided the transportation on a coach bus and also a guide who gave us maps and information about the cities enroute.

Our first stop was in Pisa, where of course we saw the Leaning Tower of Pisa, along with a cathedral. You would think that late October would be considered off-season for tourists. But there are thousands of them—can’t imagine what is must be like during the height of summer when there is no school and families would be travelling. The tower is very impressive and we would have liked to have climbed to the top, but there would have been a wait to do that and we didn’t have enough time at this stop. The tower tilts 14 feet off center due to an underground river and the very heavy stone constructing the tower.

The Leaning Tower of Pisa

Yes, we are here!!

So it was on to Florence, which means “the Flowering” and is considered to be the jewel of the Renaissance. Since the bus ride to Florence is 1.5 hours each way from the port, we only had about 4 hours to enjoy and explore. Upon arrival it was lunchtime so we enjoyed lasagna in an outdoor café overlooking the Palazzo (a plaza) Vecchio.

Our choice of restaurant for lunch

Enjoying the city of Florence and a glass of wine!

We then headed toward the river flowing through town, the Arno River, browsing some shops along the way. We stopped by the cathedral in town, the Duomo, that symbolizes the wealth and power of Florence in its golden age. It took 14 years to build, and was paid for entirely by the clothmakers’ guild. The façade is decorated with multi-colored marble in geometric shapes. It was very impressive, inside and out. We had thought about climbing up to the dome of the cathedral for an overview of the city, but the 15 Euros per person to do so (about $45 total) changed our minds. Instead we found a place to enjoy some gelato for an afternoon treat!

The Arno River

Artists and vendors in the palazzos

The Cathedral Duomo

Ahhh, Gelato!

A return trip to Florence would definitely include a visit to the Academia and Uffzi Museums, which requires much more time than what we had on our short visit. Inside, among the artwork and artifacts of the Renaissance, we would be able to see Michaelango’s statue of David, certainly a highlight.

NOT Michaelango's David but one of many, many statues in the palazzos of Florence

So as we headed back to the ship, we said “Arrivederci” to Italy with hopes of returning again someday soon.

Day 6 - ROME

2011-10-29T07:19:00.000-06:00

We visited Rome on Thursday so I’m a little behind on writing the blog. It’s been a busy few days as our days in port were full.

Our port for Rome is Civitavecchia, which I finally mastered how to pronounce. The port is about a 1.5 hour drive from Rome so we were off the ship early to make the most of the day. We had a tour pre-arranged with Tuscan Heart tours along with 2 other couples from the ship. Knowing that one cannot see Rome in a day, we used this tour company to show us an overview of Rome and its highlights. We had a nice ride in an 8-passenger Mercedes van and our guide Robert was very efficient in winding through the heavy traffic and narrow streets of Rome.

Our first stop was at St. Peter’s Square inside Vatican City for some photos. Visiting the Vatican Museum and St. Peter’s Basilica would have to wait for another trip to Rome as they require an all-day visit to get the most out of the history and artwork of the Vatican.

St. Peter's Basilica

Dome of St. Peter's

Next we visited the Colosseum. One of the couples in our group had taken care of buying tickets for admission and a guided tour over the internet so with directions given to us by our driver, we were able to breeze right by the long lines (queues as they are called here) and pick up the tickets and join the meeting place for the guided tour. As energetic and informative as our guide was, it was hard to hear and understand her English, even though we had radio handsets held to our ears. It would have been better to just use the Rick Steves’ guided audio tour on our iTouch or iPod. If we get back there someday, that’s what we will do. It’s a free tour that can be downloaded from iTunes or his travel website. The Colosseum was amazing to see and imagine what life was like when 50,000 Romans would pack this huge stadium and cheer as their favorite gladiators faced off in bloody battles. Only about a third of the original Colosseum remains. Throughout the years of the Middle Ages and Renaissance the pre-cut stones were carted off and re-used to make other buildings that still stand in Rome today.

Colosseum

Yes, we're really here!

Next stop was the Roman Forum, a rectangular flat patch about the size of a football field and about 20 feet lower than the level of the city today. This is where Rome was born and was the political, social, and economic center of the city beginning about 500 BC.

The Roman Forum

Lunch for the day was in a quaint restaurant filled with mostly locals. We shared a pizza and some good wine before heading across the street to the Pantheon, Rome’s best-preserved monument. Engineers still admire how the Romans built such a mathematically precise structure without computers, today’s machinery, or electricity. Guess have unlimited slave power didn’t hurt!

Our authentic Italian pizza!

The Pantheon

Typical street with outdoor cafes

One of many fountains

Terry on the Spanish Steps

Overview of Rome looking toward St. Peter's

Before leaving Rome, we made sure we stopped at Trevi Fountain. Legend says that if you toss a coin in the fountain, you will return to Rome. We threw in our coins and most definitely hope to return to this city again. It was a terrific day.

Trevi Fountain

Ready to throw our coins in the Trevi Fountain

Sardinia, Italy

2011-10-26T08:28:00.000-06:00

Buon giorno!

Yesterday was a sea day as we sailed across the Mediterranean towards Italy. We spent the day taking part in several ship activities.

Today was a beautiful day to enjoy the island of Sardinia, the second largest island in the Mediterranean Sea and just off the coast of Italy. It’s about the size of Georgia and Florida combined. The port town of Alghero is where the ship anchored and we were tendered in on small boats to the shore. Alghero is known as “Little Barcelona” as the language and customs come from eastern Spain. Most locals speak both the Catalan and Italian languages.

The waterfront in Alghero

We took one of the ship’s tours today. We started by walking the old cobblestone streets through the narrow walkways into the old, medieval part of the city. We entered the Church of the San Francesco, which is a 14th century Romanesque church. It took 200 years to build. We chuckled at the priests inside uploading photos from a digital camera onto their laptop computer.

Church of San Francesco entrance

Clergy uploading their photos

Next we rode a bus to the Sella and Mosca Winery, one of Italy’s premium wine estates. After an informative tour of the winery, we purchased some wine from their estate-grown Vermentino and Cannonau grapes, which will be good for sampling on the balcony as we sail away this evening.

1500 acres of grape vines

Wine barrels

Back on the bus we drove to Cape Caccia that overlooks a coral bay and rocky cliffs. Red coral is harvested from this bay and jewelry made from it is one of the main tourist souveniers. We were satisfied with just a photo.

The coral bay where red coral is 'fished'

Sampling of the red coral jewelry

On the way back to the port, we stopped by Nuraghe Palmavera, which has copper-age stone towers erected by the Nuraghi culture around 1500 to 500 BC. About 7,000 stone towers dot the hillsides of Sardinia; the one we stopped by is one of the largest sites. A typical tower had stone benches inside, stalls for animals, and frequently an altar at the entrance. There were often chambers on two levels, with a winding staircase inside.

Nuraghe Palmavera

Then it was back to the city and the waterfront where we joined our Colorado neighbors, Bob and Tissy at a waterfront café for a little glass of local wine and some good people watching.

Bob, Tissy, and Terry

Today was a nice introduction to Italy. Tomorrow we arrive in Rome!

The rain inSpain falls mainly on the plain....

2011-10-24T08:52:00.000-06:00

…and also in Malaga so it seems! We woke to a misty rain today. Guess the inclement weather caught up to us. We decided to go ahead and explore a bit of the town, with hopes that the rain would stop soon.

View of Malaga from the ship

Malaga has ancient roots, dating back 3,000 years. The first people to found a trading station here were the ancient Phoenicians. After that it changed hands many times, having mostly Moorish rule for nearly 8 centuries until 1492 when Ferdinand and Isabella, the ruling monarchs of Spain, captured Malaga. We learned from our British friends that today Malaga is the get-away spot for the Brits. It only costs about $60 to fly from the UK to Malaga and the area has many resorts and beaches for a sunny ‘holiday’.

A beach next to the pier.

Fountain in middle of a round-about

Every old city has a fort so that’s what we set out to find on our exploration of Malaga. It sits high above the city and gave us fantastic views of the city and harbor area. From atop the fort, we were able to get a good look down at the Bull Ring, the venue for the popular sport of bull fighting.

The fort - Alcazaba

The city's Bull Ring

We also spotted a building a little distance away with rounded windows that were slanted in all directions. We thought maybe it was something like the Gaudi buildings that we’ll find in Barcelona so we headed that way for a closer look.

What is this??

We stopped by the City Hall and went inside to find beautiful stained glass windows—it was a very good looking government building. Back outside we headed toward the strange building we saw and when we got close enough we could see that it was not a building at all, but instead a printed fabric enclosing a construction site like a tent!

The City Hall government building

Inside the City Hall

A construction site.

Unfortunately the misty conditions turned into a full-fledged rain so we decided to head back to the ship and dry off. Tomorrow is another sea day as we head toward our next port, Alghero Italy.

As I write this, it’s 4:30 in the afternoon here in Spain, but only 8:30 am back in our home state. So, I’ll say Buenos dias (good morning) as I sign off for today.

Day 2 at sea...

2011-10-23T08:26:00.000-06:00

As I write this we have been at sea all day, heading down the coasts of Spain and then Portugal. Later this evening we will round Cape St. Vincent on the southwest coast of Portugal and go east through the Gibraltar Straits towards Malaga, our port for tomorrow. It’s been a cloudy day but temps are in the mid-60’s so it’s fine outside except for the wind. The seas are a little rough, but nothing that would bother anyone. We spent the morning going from a lecture on the Space Shuttle (for Terry) and an informative talk about cruising to Alaska (for Joyce) and then a slideshow presentation on touring the sites of Rome (for both of us—at least I think Terry stayed awake through it all). Just when we thought we had done enough ‘learning’ for the day, we popped into a Photography Seminar so we could learn the photographic techniques the pros use. Whew!! By then it was time to find some lunch. Never too long between eating when on a cruise ship. We sat with 4 Brits—2 we met the day we boarded at lunch and 2 we met the next morning at breakfast. They are related (2 brothers and their wives). What a coincidence to have met both couples separately.

We were good this afternoon, though, and headed up to the gym on Deck 15 (taking the stairs all the way) and worked out 45 minutes on the treadmill. And before we know it, it will be time to get ready for dinner. Tonight is the first ‘formal’ night and we’ll be dining again with our Colorado neighbors, Bob and Tissy. Last night as the four of us left the dining room, the Head Waiter stopped us and said he remembered us from another cruise. This surprised us as he went on to say the ship (the Sapphire) and the voyage (South Pacific last fall). He even noted the dining room we frequented. He was right but to be honest, we don’t remember him. But it’s good to have friends in the right places, and he took care of arranging a table for the 4 of us tonight.

I took no photos today but I am attaching a picture of a map. It pinpoints Cadiz, which we are not going to stop at due to inclement weather in the area. Where we will be stopping is Malaga, directly to the right on the east side of Gibraltar. And Jen and Lisa you will love this…..we have NO plans for this port. We will just get off and explore. LOL

All aboard and it's smooth sailing....

2011-10-22T08:02:00.001-06:00

It’s Saturday and we are sailing toward Spain. Our travel via airplanes to London and then the port of Southampton went smoothly and without any incident, just very tiring. We left the house at 7:30 am on Thursday, flew to JFK in NYC and then after a 4-hour layover we flew to London, arriving about 9:30 am on Friday morning. Our transfer transportation to the port went well and before we knew it, we were onboard the Grand Princess. We were on this ship in March, just 2 weeks before it went to drydock for a little facelift. It was fun to see the new additions to the ship, but unfortunately the new things are just in the public areas…..no upgrading to the staterooms, except for the replacement of the tv with a flatscreen. We are hardly ever in the cabin so no big deal to us.

The Grand Princess

Last evening we met up with our Colorado neighbors, Bob and Tissy, and enjoyed a before dinner drink and then dinner with them. They have a balcony cabin and rounded up a couple extra deck chairs so that we can enjoy a drink on the balcony in the upcoming days. It’s a bit cool to be sitting outside now but the weather will get warmer as we head south and then into the Mediterranean.

Leaving the Southampton port

Terry, Joyce, and our Colorado neighbors, Tissy and Bob

This ship is full and we learned that 90% of the passengers are from England—Brits they call themselves. We have met several couples already and have enjoyed visiting with all of them. We laugh over the differences in our English language and find the conversations center around where are you from, where have you travelled and where are you cruising to next. While visiting with a couple of Brits at lunch, I noticed a way to tell the Brits from the Americans is that the British ladies all seem to carry handbags around the ship. I would say purses, but the Brits would correct me on that as a purse to them is actually what we would call a billfold or wallet, that goes inside the bag, which they would call either a handbag or shoulder bag. Why one would want to carry this around all day baffles me…..all I need is a pocket to stash the cruise card. 

A change has been made to our itinerary. Instead of our first port being Cadiz, Spain, inclement weather to that area has made the captain change our destination to Malaga, Spain instead. That’s one of the nice things about cruising. The ship likes to avoid adverse weather whenever possible. So we’ll be flexible and see what that port has to offer. We really had no plans in Cadiz except to walk around the old city and explore. That’s probably what we will be doing in Malaga.
Since we were so tired last night, we chose the buffet for dinner instead of the dining room. Tonight we’ll probably check out one of the dining rooms and enjoy a leisurely dinner and maybe a show.

We're off on another travel adventure!

2011-10-06T17:18:00.001-06:00

The bags are packed and we're ready to head to the airport. We are about to embark on our first trip to Europe! Today's destination is London, where we will not arrive until tomorrow morning, London time. We will then head to the port of Southampton where we will board the Grand Princess cruise ship for a 29-day cruise. We will visit 14 ports in 8 countries and then cross the Atlantic and end up in Fort Lauderdale just in time to spend Thanksgiving with our Florida daughter.

Our cruise itinerary

We hope to be able to blog again on this cruise. The laptop is coming with but we do know that this ship does not have a very good internet connection. It's often hard to get connected but we will try. Many days will be one port after another but there are plenty of sea days where we should be able to catch up on the blogging so there will no doubt be multiple entries on those days.

So, if you are interested, follow along as we share our travels through words and images.

The Space Shuttle Launch - A "bucket list" item

2011-07-13T16:07:00.000-06:00

About two weeks ago we took a wild chance and booked airline tickets to go to Florida in hopes of watching the final space shuttle launch scheduled for July 8. We were very hesitant as the shuttles don't normally take off on the scheduled day. Over the past year we had been thinking about doing this as being there for a shuttle launch was an item on our 'bucket list'. Our Florida daughter called and said "book the flight--I have tickets for the launch". We thought it over and decided to go for it, hoping above all hopes that the launch would really take place. This launch of the Atlantis space shuttle is the 135th launch of the shuttle program spanning 30 years.

7 days until launch and we are "GO"

It rained all day in Florida on Thursday, the day before the scheduled launch. NASA was only giving the launch a 30% chance of happening on Friday due to weather. We checked the updates constantly and when the final fueling began we knew our adventure was about to begin.

Photo from internet snapped the night before the launch.

Early in the morning of July 8 (2:00 am) we started our drive from Fort Lauderdale to Cape Canaveral. Our parking placard indicated we needed to be at the Kennedy Space Visitor Center no later than 7:00 am. Since it's normally a 3-hour drive, we allowed 5 hours because of all the traffic that was expected. Good thing we did. At 5 am we were 8.8 miles from the Visitor Center and it took just under 2 hours to go those last 8.8 miles in bumper to bumper traffic. One million spectators were invading the area.

Photo from internet of Atlantis on launchpad

But we arrived on time and settled in on one of the lawns to watch the giant video screen showing live video of the shuttle crew and final preparations. The commentator on stage by the screen told us where to be watching for the takeoff. We were 7 miles from the launchpad and would not see the shuttle until it blasted off and cleared the tree line. During our 4.5 hour wait for the launch we could wander around the visitor center and check out all the exhibits.

Our first spot on the lawn of the Kennedy Space Visitor Center

Photo from internet showing countdown of 3 hours until launch.

During our wandering we found another location that we thought would be better viewing so we packed up all our stuff and moved. We no longer had the video screen displaying the countdown so we had to depend on the roar of the crowds to let us know when the 10 second countdown was on.

Wandering around the visitor center prior to launch

The excitement of the crowds grew with each passing minute until we finally did the 10 second countdown and heard the roar of the takeoff and then the shuttle emerging above the tree line.

Internet photo of launch with a professional behind the camera

Our first glimpse of the launch

What our camera could capture

And in about 22 seconds, it was gone from site

All cameras were pointed at the shuttle...many of them with big, expensive zoom lenses. I'm sure they got great photos. My favorite photo is of Terry as he watched the takeoff. It was a very moving experience for him.

Terry watching the launch

A dream come true!

We stayed at the visitor center after the launch to let the crowds and traffic disperse. We saw 2 IMAX movies...one on the space station and the other on the Hubble Telescope.....in 3D. They were great.

In our 3D glasses at the IMAX

So, we did it. Luck was surely with us as we took a chance and went for this adventure. Up until just minutes before the takeoff it was still uncertain that the weather was going to cooperate and provide the right conditions for the launch. We are truly happy that it did!

Photo from the internet.....but our sentiments exactly!

Mission accomplished and One Bucket List Item checked off!

Grand Turk

2011-03-26T20:19:00.000-06:00

Docking next to an Oceania cruise ship

Our last port on this cruise is Grand Turk...one of the Turks & Caicos Islands said to be discovered by either Christopher Columbus or Ponce de Leon--that's up for debate. It was the original settlers of the islands, the Taino and Lucayan Indians, that left a rich heritage of seafaring, salt raking and farming. Bermudians came to Turks & Caicos to rake the salt and take it back to Bermuda as salt was a precious commodity in those days. The island of Grand Turk is only 7 miles long and 1.5 miles wide....and very flat, but the beaches are beautiful!

The ship docked at the Grand Turk Cruise Center, which has to be the nicest port we have seen. Walking off the ship, you can step on the beach (after going through the duty free shopping are--the only way out). We took a walk along the beach to Boaby Rock Point on the island, about 400 yards away. The point is known locally as the Conch Graveyard. Removing conch shells from the ocean is illegal in many places, but not here. That's because these shells are on the beach and have already been vacated by their occupants. There were shells of all sizes. Some were broken and eroded by the waves crashing ashore. Others were embedded in the rocks along the shoreline. But there were some in good shape for the beachcombers.

Conch shell

We headed back toward the pier and settled into a couple of lounge chairs with an umbrella right next to the water a little ways down from the cruise center. We spent a relaxing couple hours just people watching, sunbathing, and taking refreshing dips in the crystal clear waters. The Cruise Center area had hundreds of lounge chairs available plus the restaurant/bar at the Cruise Center had a swimming pool for those not wanting to deal with the beach sand.

Cruise Center beach chairs

Our view from the beach chairs

Our little spot on the sand

That's as far as we got while in Grand Turk. Never did make it to the town, Cockburn Town, just a short distance away. I think that John Glenn's capsule from his space launch in the 1960's is displayed somewhere around the town. Guess we'll catch that on another visit.

Sunday is a sea day as we make our way back to Fort Lauderdale, docking on Monday morning. We'll stay 3 days with our Florida daughter before heading back to Colorado. It's been a wonderful vacation.

Santo Domingo

2011-03-25T16:13:00.000-06:00

Today was our first visit to Santo Domingo, which was founded by Spaniards who wished to plant a permanent settlement along the southern coast of Hispaniola, the island the Dominican Republic shares with Haiti. This is the first settlement made by Christopher Columbus and the Spanish explorers in the New World. It has been declared a World Heritage Site. The "Colonial Zone" district dates back to the 1500s.

Our plan for the day included a ship's tour of the Colonial City and Tres Ojos, a national park which contains caves filled with stalactites, stalagmites, and lakes. It was a 4-hour tour that was very interesting. It was nice to have a guide explaining the history of the very old buildings. Our guide, Quirico was very knowledgable and I wish I could remember a fraction of all the information he gave us today. We had to endure the required shopping stop along the way, but that was a good time for a cold drink. The heat and humidity were both quite high today.

The caves of Tres Ojos

Columbus Lighthouse, where Columbus is buried...or not. Spain claims to have his remains so there is a controversy

Sailaway and we are about to take a swim

Once back on the ship, we enjoyed a swim in one of the aft pools as the ship sailed from the harbor area.
The ship's internet has become the slowest thing I've ever experienced, so adios...
Tomorrow.....Grand Turk

St. Thomas, USVI

2011-03-24T15:19:00.000-06:00

St. Thomas is a popular cruise port; I think we have been here on every Caribbean cruise we have taken. But we have never actually seen much of St. Thomas as we would always jump on the ferry to take us over to beautiful St. John for the day. This time, we decided to stay on St. Thomas and the plan was to go to one of the many beaches that people rave about; even after researching several of the popular beaches, we could not make a decision as to which was to go to. We headed off the ship and followed the signs to the taxis. The attendant hooked us up with Timotheus, who has an open air taxi, with benches that can seat about 25 people. He quoted us the price to go to any of the beaches. It's a standard price for all drivers.....$10 per person each way. In the next breath he said that for $5 extra, he would give us a tour of the island and then drop us off at the beach of our choice and pick us up later. We, along with 10 other cruise passengers, thought it was a great idea.

So off we went, through the busy downtown area and then up into the hills above the town. The streets are narrow and quiet away from the waterfront. He worked his way around the streets, stopping just before the end of one street at the top of a hill. He stopped the taxi, got out, and said to us: "Ladies and Gentlemen, this is where it gets interesting!" I think I heard some gulps from behind us and I'm sure everyone's eyes got as big as saucers. "Big Timmy" then broke into a big grin and proceeded to point out to us the exposed wall of the building we were parked next to. It is an original building from back in the early 1800's. The stones were held together with a concoction of molasses and sand, which was used as the mortar.

He turned out to be a great tour guide. We travelled all over, going to the highest point on the island, and stopping at overlooks and beaches, with our guide giving us a facts about the island and pointing out iguanas whenever he spotted one.

We were lucky to have Big Timmy as our guide today

Magan's Bay--on the list of the most beautiful beaches.

Coki Beach--the one to snorkel at

With the great tour that we received and the fact that we got to stop at Coki Beach and get our feet wet, we decided to head back to the port and do a little browsing of the shops in the big mall next to the ship. A quick run through those and we were back on the ship and secured deck chairs at the very aft (back) of the ship overlooking the bay. Before long the ship backed out, turned around and headed out to sea.

Back on ship enjoying the view of the harbor

Goodbye St. Thomas

Also in port today was the Ruby Princess. It docked over at the other port a few miles away. A little trivia about that ship: The "God parents" of the Ruby are Trista and Ryan Sutter of The Bachelorette fame. Just how does being the Bachelorette get you the great perk of being a ship's godparents???? I'm thinking they cruise free and in the best suite whenever they want!

Next port: Santo Domingo

St. Kitts

2011-03-23T17:22:00.000-06:00

It's Wednesday and that means we're at St. Kitts. We've been here once before with the kids in 2007. At that time we did a 4-wheeler tour through the plantations and forest. Today we took a ship's tour, which was a catamaran sail along the coastline of St. Kitts and then over to the neighboring island of Nevis. We stopped to snorkle a bit in a protected cove on the coastline of St.Kitts. It was good. The water was warm and clear. Not too much in the way of fish but we did see a variety of coral interspersed with the rocks.

After snorkeling it was time for a BBQ lunch on the catamaran and then we sailed over to Nevis, the birthplace of Alexander Hamilton, one of America's founding fathers. The catamaran left us on a beach for awhile to lay on the sand and play in the waters. After the snorkeling, the beer and rum punch started flowing and by the time we were back in port, everyone seemed to be having a wonderful time moving and dancing to the Caribbean music.

After yesterday's rainy day, it was a welcome site to see blue sunny skies. That's one of the nice things about cruising....if the weather is lousy, just wait a day you will be in a new place.

Next port....St.Thomas.

A rainy day in St. Vincent

2011-03-22T16:01:00.000-06:00

St. Vincent is an island that we had not visited before....and we can say that we really haven't visited it yet. We awoke to the ship just arriving in port and saw that it was raining...really pouring! We were hoping to hear from the captain that the forecast would be rain stopping very soon, but that was not the case.

Our plan for the day was a tour with Wayne, called Baleine Tours--a boat ride along the coastline of the island and then a hike into the rainforest to Baleine Falls. After disembarking the ship to meet the tour, we heard the locals say that the forecast was rain all day. We could barely see the hills as the rain clouds were so low. So, we decided to cancel the tour and go back on board. Many passengers did the
same thing. Looked like only the ship's excursions left the port area...cancelling would have meant a refund due. We headed for the covered pool area and secured 2 deck chairs for the remainder of the day.

It did rain all day, except for a brief time around noon where I could get a couple photos from the deck of the ship. Then, the rain started again and it was still raining when we left St. Vincent. A good thing about cruising is that tomorrow we will be in another port and hopefully the rain won't follow.

St. Vincent is one of the Caribbean's least traveled islands....it will still be new to us so guess we'll just have to return some day.

Next port...St. Kitts

Monday in Barbados

2011-03-21T18:18:00.000-06:00

Accra Beach

This was our second visit to Barbados. On our first visit in 2009, we visited the Concorde Museum. Riding on the Concorde has always been on Terry's bucket list. Since that is no longer possible, visiting the museum and actually boarding the real thing, was great. This visit we booked a tour with Glory Tours. To our surprise as we expected to be in a group, we were given a private tour with Colin, a local taxi driver who also chauffeurs for Glory Tours. Our first stop was way across the island to the Harrison Caves. We learned that Barbados is the only island in the Southern Caribbean that is not of volcanic origin. The island was formed millions of years ago with ocean sediment that was eventually pushed up by the earth's plates. As a result of all this, about 500,000 years ago the caves were formed. They were used by runaway slaves in the 1600's and then pretty much forgotten until 1970 when 2 geologists came upon them. One of them was named Ole Sorensen, which caught my eye because my nephew's son shares the same name. Several years ago the Chinese invested in property and the result is a wonderful exhibit and tour of the caves. We rode in open cars and descended 160 feet below the surface to view waterfalls, lakes, and plenty of stalagtites and stalagmites. It was beautiful.

Stalagtite or stalagmite??

Next we headed over to Oistin's Beach where we ate lunch near the local fish market. Our guide, Colin, helped us choose a fish for lunch that wasn't too fishy and that choice was Flying Fish. Mac & Cheese is big with the locals so that was the sidedish. Terry did good in sampling the fish--it was actually pretty good. Next Colin took us through the fish market where the daily catches were being processed. One of the workers went to find some Flying Fish so we could see what we had just eaten. She held it up proudly for us to snap a couple photos. We followed Colin through the Oistin Fish Processing Center to the jetty (dock) where Colin had a bag of turtle food ready. Barbados is home to a healthy population of hawksbill and leatherback turtles. Once endangered by over fishing, these creatures are now protected and monitored throughout the island. In some areas, the local fishermen feed and care for them, scraping barnacles off their backs and making sure that their nesting area is safe. The turtles are sociable and tend to stay in the same area. Colin threw the bait in the water and we watched as the turtles came to the surface to feed. We thought we would be swimming with the turtles as we did on our first visit, but the area we were in just didn't lend itself to that, although Colin said we certainly could if we wanted to. We chose to just watch them from the dock.

Next on our tour was a stop at Accra Beach. Colin left us to relax on the beach for awhile. The water was warm, clear, and the sands white. We played in the water for awhile and it felt great. The sun shined bright and hot. There were enough clouds in the sky, as well as gentle breeze, to provide brief periods of respite...for which we were thankful. We left the beach about 1.5 hours later and Colin drove us back to the port, continuing to point out things of interest along the way.

Crystal clear water and white sand beach---ahh!

Here's a bit of trivia about Barbados (from the Princess Patter). This island was a popular tourist destination even back in the 18th century. It was fashionable to go to Barbados for one's health. George Washington accompanied his ill half-brother, Lawrence, to Barbados for a change of air. Unfortunately, during that visit, George contracted the smallpox that marked him for life. Go figure!!

The lion that stands guard over Barbados

Next port....St. Vincent, a new one for us!

Grenada - The spice isle

2011-03-21T15:10:00.000-06:00

We are at the halfway point of the cruise. One more night and it will be a week since we boarded the Grand Princess. We can do nothing but accept the march of time and make sure we enjoy the rest of our time in the Caribbean at least as much as we have the days gone by. Today was Grenada - the largest spice-producing island in the Western Hemisphere. Shortly after 8:00 am we walked off the ship and into "the sauna". At least that's how hot and steamy it felt as we walked down the pier.

Fort George

We climbed the hill to Fort George and in a moment of weakness and feeling the heat and humidity, we succumbed to the offer of David, a taxi driver, to give us a 2-hour tour of the island. First time we have not had a tour guide or excursion prearranged and just winged it after arriving at the port. We have been to Grenada before on a cruise with our kids in 2007. At that time we did a ship's tour--river tubing. That was a lot of fun. We thought this time to just explore the port city of St. George a bit on foot and perhaps go to a beach later in the day. Plans changed when we opted for the taxi tour. Another couple from Toronto joined us on the tour. Grenada is one of the world's major producers of nutmeg, mace, clove, cinnamon and cocoa. Our guide pointed out the various spice trees on our drive. We drove through the hills and saw the impoverished living conditions of most of the residents of the island. We stopped at Annandale Falls, where local divers were stationed to jump off the top of the falls into the water below....securing $10-20 (their suggestion) a jump from anyone wanting to take a photo.

At Annandale Falls (a free photo!)

A drawback to this island is that all the locals are out to make a buck when a cruise ship is in port. Whenever we stopped, we were bombarded with ladies selling spices, men singing songs, and young ladies dressed in native clothes with baskets of fruit balancing on their heads--perfect for a photo, all with a price attached to it. It's their chance to make money, but all the selling got real old and when the tour ended at the local spice market near the port, we decided we had enough and worked our way back to the ship. The taxi tour was okay and gave us a glimpse of the outskirts of the city, but we didn't come back wowed by anything we saw.

Typical family home

While we were docked, another ship joined us at the port. A small ship called The World. According to what we heard, the cabins on this ship are privately owned. For a mere $1 million+, one can own their own cabin on the ship and sail around the world. Interesting concept for the rich, I guess.

The World ship

It's perfect weather for the MUTS....that's Movies Under The Stars. On Deck 14, a movie is shown throughout the day and evening. In the evenings special lounge chair covers and blankets are laid out to keep one comfortable watching the movie under the stars. We haven't done this yet but perhaps will before the end of the cruise. I hear popcorn is also available!

Next port--Barbados!

Do we have a BINGO?

2011-03-19T19:21:00.000-06:00

It was a sea day today as we slooowly cruise toward Grenada. It feels like the ship is hardly moving but we are inching our way along...not many miles to go and we have a whole day to get there so the ship is in no hurry. Since we aren't trying to work on our tans, we decided to stay indoors pretty much the whole day and do some things we haven't experienced before--an art auction and BINGO! Even lunch was out of our routine....we attended a Pub Lunch at one of the restaurants. It featured typical English Pub fare--Fish and Chips, Steak and Kidney Pie, and Scotch Eggs,...and Chicken Curry...don't know how that Indian dish is classified as English Pub food.

Then we headed over to the Art Auction and watched people bid on a variety of art pieces. People were buying the paintings and spending lots of money on them.

Then it was on to BINGO. We arrived a little early so we caught the last few minutes of a Trivia game. From the questions/answers that we saw, it was a good thing we didn't even try to play that game. Then it was time for the BINGO game. Tightwads as we are with game of chance monies, we only purchased one ticket, which gave us 4 games to play. We didn't opt to buy the special BINGO highlighter but a waiter (who looked like John Edwards) showed pity on us when we inquired about borrowing a pencil and he lent us a BINGO highlighter to use. I'm sure plenty are left behind by the end of the cruise so he had some stashed in a cupboard.

We sat next to a lady who knew her BINGO game and she clued us in on how to play. She was working 6 BINGO cards at one time; we happily played with just one! She WON the first game and pocketed $150. At times we felt the BINGO marker was going to dry up before we had a chance to mark off a number. It was fun, though. Thanks Lisa and Ryan for encouraging us to give BINGO a try!

No luck at winning but we did have fun

Tonight is the second formal night of the cruise. We did not pack clothes for formal night so we'll head to the buffet court instead. We have enjoyed a few shows in the theatre after dinner. Tonight a comedian is returning for his second show and he was hilarious the first time around so we want to catch him again.

Next island is tomorrow--Grenada!

Curacao - a charming, colorful island

2011-03-18T19:06:00.000-06:00

Curacao is a small island between the islands of Aruba and Bonaire (the 3 known as the ABC islands) and 35 miles from the Venezuelan coast. This was our first visit to Curacao (pronounced kyur uh sow) known for its colorful buildings. I found the 'tropicalized' Dutch architecture in Willemstad's oldest neighborhood (dating to 1684) quite charming. The story goes that the buildings were painted in colorful hues because an early Govenor of Curacao suffered from migraines that were aggravated by the white paint that originally covered the walls. It was later discovered that said governor was a part-owner of the island's only paint store!!!

View of Willemstad from the ship

We set out to do a walking tour of Willemstad, which is split into 2 districts, the Otrabanda where the cruise ships dock and the Punda, the more historical part of the city--one on each side of a narrow but deep channel, traversable by a landmark floating pedestrian bridge, the Queen Emma Bridge known to locals as "The Old Swinging Lady", as it swings open to allow passage to boats and some ships. Our walk took us along the waterfront, across the floating bridge, and into narrow streets lined with shops, shops, and more shops. We walked past the floating market, which is held every morning. Locals bring in fruits and vegetables by boat, and set up a stand to sell right on the waterfront alongside their boats.

The "floating market"

Floating market boats of the vendors

On the Queen Emma Floating Bridge

While we were walking around the town, the bridge opened up and we sat to watch the ship traffic sail by. When the bridge is open, there is a free ferry to take people across the channel. Since the bridge remained opened for quite a while, we opted to take the ferry back over to the other side so we could go through the Kura Hulanda Museum. "This museum exhibits the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade in its totality, from slave capture in Africa through the Middle Passage and the relocation in the New World. The museum reveals how African and other diverse cultural heritages have influenced our societies today." It was certainly impressive and well done. The harbor of Willemstad was where Dutch entrepreneurs once traded and shipped enslaved Africans. The Africans often stayed 2-3 years on the island so they could be 'trained' as slaves (and spirits broken) before being sold to landowners in America.

Walking the floating bridge

The slave museum. This device prevented sleeping and escaping

The colorful buildings of Willemstad

The afternoon's required activity--LOL

It was a hot and humid day....we are only 16 degrees above the equator. Everyone from the northern states which have had such a long winter are not complaining! LOL

Next day is a sea day as we head east to Grenada.
For those of you following us on Facebook, I am actually posting this to our travel blog: http://angelltravels.blogspot.com It eventually ends up on our Facebook page. Thank you for the comments along the way. The ship's internet service is very slow so we can't always connect or have the time to answer each of you.

Aruba - One Happy Island

2011-03-18T10:22:00.000-06:00

We had a great day in Aruba. Today's visit to Aruba was our third time on the island, which is located only 20 miles north of Venezuela. It has become a favorite because of the white powder sand beaches and warm, calm waters. Instead of the usual taxi ride to the beach area, this time we travelled on the city bus for a mere $2.30 each for a roundtrip ticket! We walked out of the port area, and hopped on the bus just 50 yards down the street. Fifteen minutes later we arrived at Palm Beach and quickly rented a palapa (umbrella), 2 lounge chairs, and 2 floating mats. We were set for a relaxing day.

Our spot on the beach

We were glad for the partially cloudy skies and the cool breezes as they made it possible to stay on the beach longer than we might have otherwise. Before we knew it, the day was gone and we headed back to the ship.

Terry always finds a way to get in a run

Joyce's favorite way to spend a day on Aruba

Look, Jen! Dad found the Amstel Bright

Next we head to Curacao...just 110 miles away

Two sea days

2011-03-16T12:02:00.000-06:00

We are chugging away at sea heading to Aruba, our first port of call. The weather is warm but windy out on deck. On sea days there's lots to do on ship but we tend to keep to a routine of a morning workout and then relaxing the day away in a lounge chair--a great time to catch up on our reading. (Dad has already finished the book you lent him, Jen!)

Heading to the Sun Deck yesterday morning for a run on the jogging track (.10 mile per lap) we were surprised to see the track blocked off. On this ship, this area is now turned in to "The Sanctuary"....lots of super comfy lounge chairs and cucumber flavored water for drinking....all for only $10 per person for half a day (4 hours)! No thanks, as tempting as it would be to find a place for lounging that was out of the wind.

To get our workout out of the way, we next headed to the gym only to find the treadmills and stationery bikes all in use. So, it was down to the Promenade Deck for some laps around the perimeter of the ship. On this deck, 3 times around = 1 mile. At the bow of the ship, there's a built in stairmaster exercise as one must climb up to the next deck to go around the bow and then back down again. Not our favorite place to run as there are lots of walkers at various speeds to work around, but it gave us our workout and it's good to see so many people wanting to get some exercise.

Today we passed within a mile of the Emerald Princess heading the other way. Seeing a ship so close at sea was a new experience for us.

Emerald Princess

We think the average age of the passengers on this cruise must be in the mid-70's. Watching them is like a glimpse into the future. We cerainly hope we are able to travel for many years to come. There are just a few families with young children on board, but not many. Hard to take kids out of school for 2 weeks. And, there are no college-age spring breakers! These 2 week Caribbean cruises are ending on this cruise line...next year they will be sold as 2 back-to-back 7-day cruises instead of the 14-day loop. We think that is to accommodate the spring breakers, who no doubt bring in a lot of $$ with drinking. More profitable for the cruise line than a bunch of senior citizens!

Today the seas are quite rough. We don't really feel any rocking on the ship but can see the effects of the rough seas. The pools have been emptied as they were splashing waves way outside the perimeter of the pools. We took up residence on deck chairs by the inside pool, trying to stay out of the sun as we know we'll get plenty of it when we go to the beaches on the islands...and it's out of the wind.

Pool water splashing due to rough seas.

Tomorrow.....the first of 9 ports....Aruba--one of our favorites!

Sunrise over Fort Lauderdale!

2011-03-14T17:20:00.000-06:00

We are traveling again--this time a trip to Fort Lauderdale to visit our Florida daughter and then, since we are here, why not jump on a cruise ship and sail away! Actually, we found a really good deal on cruise to the Southern Caribbean. That's our favorite area of the Caribbean and we will visit a few ports that we have not been to before. It's good to be retired and flexible with any plans. It's spring break time and the beaches (and roads) were packed in Fort Lauderdale with all the spring breakers! Jen successfully navigated around the traffic and delivered us to Port Everglades so we could board the ship.

We are on the Grand Princess. It's one of the bigger ships, with 2600 passengers, and from what we can tell, the ship is full. This ship has one more voyage after our cruise and then it goes to dry dock in the Bahamas for a few weeks before it heads to Europe for the summer. We have friends that we met on our last cruise that will be on the first cruise after dry dock....the transAtlantic voyage in early May. We look forward to hearing what wonderful changes will be made. We do know that the 'shoppping cart handle' on the back of the ship will be removed. It is closed now (used to be Skywalkers Lounge). The change should result in more fuel efficiency.

At sail-away time we headed to a meeting place where others who joined a cruise critic forum for this voyage gathered. It was fun to meet some fellow cruisers and compare notes on cruising. We will be doing a couple excursions with several of these cruisers. But for most of the cruise ports (9 in all) we will be heading to a beach and chillin' out with our books, our IPods, and snorkeling gear. Should be a relaxing time.

The next 2 days will be sea days as we head south to Aruba and white sand beaches and palm trees.......ahhhhhhhhhhh!!

Goodbye Australia!

2010-11-13T12:51:00.000-07:00

Sunday, November 7 and we leave Hobart, Tasmania and fly to Melbourne. We had to retrieve our luggage and then WAIT and WAIT for a little over 3 hours before we could check in with VAustralia for the international flight home. Then the last two hours went pretty fast because we stood in line to check in and then had to go through immigration and then customs before heading to the gate to catch the flight that left at 9:30 pm.

Our last Australian sunset

The flight was smooth and the flight attendants did everything possible to make us all comfortable. We had a nice dinner and then lights out in hopes of sleeping a bit before the airplane reached sunshine. Each seat had its own tv screen where we could pick from a variety of tv shows, movies, games, etc. So after giving up trying to sleep we each watched a couple of movies and some tv shows before landing in LAX about 4:30 pm on Sunday, November 7, the same day that we left Australia.

Australia currency does not have any paper bills under $5. We usually had a collection of $50, 20, 10, 5 bills and assorted coin. The coins are: $2 small gold coin; $1 bigger gold coin; 50 cents, 20 cents, 10 cents, and 5 cents. Unlike US currency, there is no 25 cents and the 5 cent coin is smaller than the 10 cent coin. While in Australia, the AUD currency hit a 28 year high against the USD, exchanging just about even dollar for dollar. We were fortunate that we had paid for everything except for $$ needed for daily expenses (food, souveniers) when the exchange was lower (1 AUD = .90 USD) so that saved us some money. Things are expensive in Australia. I've mentioned before that a cup of coffee (and that is just ONE cup..no refills) was anywhere from $4-5.50 a cup. Most meals were $25-$35+ per person and everything ala carte. We often shared a main meal--that helped the money stretch and the waistline not stretch. LOL

Australian currency

By the time we reached the airport, we didn't have much Australian currency left. After a purchase of a (small) bag of chips and a bottle of water, we were down to this:

Now we're home and dealing with a little bit of jet lag and a mountain of laundry and mail.

6 weeks' worth of mail

The trip was awesome and we loved every minute of our cruise and our travels down under. We met some wonderful people, learned lots about travelling, and experienced cultures and countries totally new to us. It was a dream trip come true! Now, where should we go next???!!!

A hike and a snake

2010-11-11T10:21:00.000-07:00

Our last full day in Hobart, Tasmania! Today is Saturday, November 6 and our first destination was to the Salamanca Market, just a couple blocks from our hotel. The market is held under the huge plane trees in front of the old whaling warehouses in Salamanca Place. The market has been held every Saturday for the last twenty years or so. It boasts a wide range of crafts, books, vegetables, and ethnic stalls as well as street theater and entertainment. We browsed the stalls and found a few souveniers of Tasmania that we couldn't live without!

Salamanca Market held every Saturday morning

We next walked along the wharf adjacent to the markets and inquired about the Sea Shepherds. We watch the show "Whale Wars" which is about the whale saving activist group, Sea Shepherds, who sail the Antartic Ocean to tharwt the efforts of Japanese whaling vessels. We knew they have stopped in Hobart on their journeys and inquired as to where they may have docked. We found out it was on the pier just down the street that they docked at last summer. It would have been fun if they had been in port while we were in Hobart!

Where the Sea Shepherds docked last summer

In the afternoon we headed up Mount Wellington, the tallest mountain around Hobart which provides fantastic overviews of the city, harbor, and ocean. It was just a 20-minute drive from our hotel to reach the top of the mountain. Just before the summit we stopped for a short hike that climbs about 50 yards uphill before leveling off and running along the contour of the mountain. We had some beautiful views, but the hike was difficult as it was mostly navigating stepping on and over rocks from landslides. Once we decided we had gone far enough, we turned to return the same way and within 5 feet we saw a black snake. It was about 2 feet long and it had to have been about 1 inch in diameter. Well, I screamed and jumped up and down while Terry claims he was telling me to run...like I could do that over the rocks--I had all I could do to stand up and walk. It was then declared that the snake was more afraid of us than we of him (ya, right) as he quickly slithered away under the rocks. From that point on, I was very aware of every little scampering I saw on the rocks as we hiked back to the car. All we saw were geckos, which was fine with me. Australia has 23 of the 27 venomous snakes in the world.....I'm hoping this one was not one of them!

Our hike along the side of Mount Wellington

View of Hobart from high above along the trail

We made it to the top of Mt Wellington and the Visitor Center

We continued the drive to the top of the mountain for some fantastic views. Once we were back into Hobart, we walked around St. David's Park by the harbor and watched the Salamanca Market vendors pack up their goods--selling was done for another week. St. David's Park is situated on th site of the first cemetery for the colony of Hobart Town, and has many of the tombstones of the first settlers, as well as those of some settlers who arrived on the First Fleet in 1788.

Relocated tombstones from early 1800's

In the evening we returned to an Italian restaurant, Da Angelo's, that we visited the first night in Hobart. We spent the whole dinner time reminiscing over the past 6 weeks of travel. Amazingly, we could remember what we did at each location.

The last two days have been clear blue skies and wonderful temperatures in the 70's and we now must soon face the long airplane ride home and the approaching winter weather in Colorado.

Derwent Valley and Mount Field National Park

2010-11-10T18:44:00.000-07:00

Today was a bonus day....about a month before we left on the cruise, the airline for our return trip to LAX made a change in the departure time by moving it up about 9 hours earlier. Since we would be travelling from Hobart to Sidney to catch that flight that same day, it would be impossible to make the connection. So....we added one more day to the trip--what the heck--we're retired! Today was the added excursion to our itinerary, a day in the Derwent Valley to the north of Hobart and the Mt. Field National Park.

We left Hobart and followed the Derwent River north, through pretty historic townships built on the banks of the river. We passed through the most beautiful green rolling hills, which were farms for sheep and cattle. The flowering trees and shrubs are in full bloom.

This photo in no way does justice to the bright green hills.

The Derwent River, which flows all the way to Hobart and to the sea.

Our destination was the Mount Field National Park, which is one Tasmania's oldest and most loved national parks. We parked at the Vistor Center and went in to find out that there was a daily park usage fee of $28. We hesitated ever so slightly as all we knew of the park was that there was a waterfall after a 10 minute walk. Sure glad we decided to take in the park as it was SPECTACULAR! We took a 2-hour hike that passed by 3 beautiful waterfalls, tall tall swamp gum trees, which are the world's tallest flowering trees, and on the forest floor, huge ferns. The day was beautiful; the skies were clear and the sun shone down through the trees onto the ferns and moss. It was a great hike.

First waterfall--Russell Falls

Large ferns covered the forest floor

Terry alongside a very tall swamp gum tree

Inside the base of a fallen tree

Waterfall #2-Horseshoe Falls

Waterfall #3--Lady Barron Falls

Kangaroos and Tasmanian Devils

2010-11-10T18:24:00.000-07:00

Thursday, November 4 and we checked out of wonderful accomodations at the Cascade Colonial and headed back towards Hobart stopping at the Tasmanian Devil Conservation Park. It was fun to see the Tasmanian Devil and Kangaroos at feeding time--we even got to hand feed the kangaroos. We just could not go to Australia and Tasmania and not see kangaroos and Tasmanian Devils. It was an interesting place and we spent over 2 hours there.

Tasmanian Devil saying "hello" to us!

Waiting for her lunch.

Kangaroo and her joey

We were invited to feed the kangaroos

Next we travelled back toward the Hobart area by going through Richmond, a quaint village that was the first area granted to free settlers from England for farming, and at its center they established a township reminiscent of their homeland. Richmond now includes some of Australia's oldest colonial architecture. Most of the buildings were constructed by convicts, including the sandstone bridge built in 1823 and Roman Catholic Church built in 1825. It is in the heart of the Coal Valley Wine Country, with many vineyards and wineries.

Richmond Bridge

The Catholic church

One of the many vineyards

We arrived at our hotel in the Historic Battery Point. The building in which it is housed was the Duke of York Hotel back in the early colonial days of the 1800's, and the owners have done it up with modern amenities, but have kept a feel for the dimensions of the original building to make a most comfortable, centrally located accommodation. We have the entire 2nd floor of the building, which includes, 2 bedrooms, a bath, full kitchen, and dining/living room. WOW!

Our hotel--we had the entire second floor of the building

The living room of our hotel floor

View from our hotel window

A walk around the immediate area which is adjacent to the wharf and a dinner at a wonderful Italian restaurant and we are set for a relaxing night!

Every house has the front yard filled with flowering bushes, mostly roses.

A coastal cruise and a convict site

2010-11-09T20:23:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, November 3 and today's weather looked promising as the rain stopped and it was clearing. After breakfast in our cottage we headed out for a day of siteseeing. In the morning we had a coastal cruise scheduled. We stopped at a few beautiful spots prior to boarding the boat for the cruise. We travelled 70 km up the coastline from Port Arthur to Eaglehawk Neck. The boat ride was WILD. We have never experienced so much bouncing around. We thought the seas were pretty rough as the boat bounced up and down and we literally flew out of our seats. It was fun, but wild. The seas were rough--we learned later they were only 1.5 meters, or 4-5 ft waves, but they were sure big to us.

A preview of the shoreline we would soon cruise along.

On the boat ready to head up the coastline. They offered us ginger tablets prior to boarding. That should have been a hint of what was to come with rough seas.

Seals

Sea cave and we rode right up into it.

To find whales, you follow the birds as they feast on what the whale stirs up.

As we cruised along, we saw a whale, seals, and a variety of birds. The coastline was rugged with cliffs that soared out of the ocean. At times the boat was just a few feet from the cliffs as the captain was showing us hidden caves and arches.

Next we headed to the Port Arthur Historic Convict Site. The penal station was established in 1830 as a timber-getting camp, using convict labor to produce sawn logs for government projects. From 1833 it was used as a punishment station for repeat offenders from all the Australian colonies. We toured the site with a guide and learned that Port Arthur was much more than a prison, it was a complete community--home to military personnel and free settlers. And the community of military and free men and their families lived their lives very differently than the convict population. There were beautiful gardens and homes.

Our guide explaining how the convicts were separated and isolated from others as punishment.

Port Arthur Convict Site

Following the tour of the site, we had a couple hours before our dinner reservation and ghost tour that evening. So, we drove back toward our hotel as Terry had noticed a junkyard and thought that would be the perfect place to buy a couple Tasmania vehicle license plates for our son-in-law, who collects plates. So off to the junkyard we went. Terry came out with a couple plates for Ryan! Yeah!!

Success at finding license plates

As darkness fell on Port Arthur, we met up with our Ghost Tour. In a group of about 20 people, our guide led us through several of the buildings on the site and told us stories of strange events going back to the convict days. She did a good job in making us feel creepy as we walked through the rooms. Didn't see anything out of the ordinary, but it was fun. As we walked to our car we marvelled at the stars in the

Terry was chosen to carry one of the lanterns during the ghost tour.

sky. The sky was clear and the stars were like glitter up there. We couldn't pick out the "Southern Cross" but we saw a gazillon stars and they were awesome.

On the drive home, we narrowly missed hitting two wallabies on the road. That was the scariest part of the evening!

We arrive in Tasmania

2010-11-09T19:29:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday, November 2 we headed to the airport, but while waiting for our driver in the hotel lobby, we watched people leaving for the Melbourne Cup. Today is a holiday in Melbourne in honor of the last day of the Melbourne Cup horse races. Much like the Kentucky Derby, people dress up for this event in fancy dresses and hats for the women and dress suits for the men. Our driver told us that tickets for the Cup go for about $2000 this day. Ouch!

Our flight to Hobart Tasmania was uneventful and short...only 1 hour and 15 minutes. We were out of the Hobart terminal with our rental car within the half hour after landing. We headed out of town traffic and toward the Tasmanian Pennisula, which was good as Terry is now driving on the left side of the road in a car that has the steering wheel on the right side. We made it through the first roundabout with no problem. I kept whispering, "bear left, bear left" and Terry did a great job.

Highway sign to watch for kangaroos and wallabies

We stopped for lunch in a small town called Sorrel and ate at the Wok & Roll Asian Cafe. Our waitress was the spitten image of our niece, Missy, but with an Asian twist. Both Terry and I remarked on the similarities. By the time we finished lunch, it was raining! The rain followed us all the way to our destination in Koonya, just a few miles north of Port Arthur at the tip of the pennisula. Tomorrow's forecast is better so hopefully the rain is moving out.

We are staying at the Cascades, a delightfully renovated Colonial Historic Accommodation. We are staying in an individual stone cottage from the early 1800's. It is part of the old Penal Probation Station. The cottage is an authentically restored and renovated convict building with colonial decor and period furnishings. Our cottage was once the 'workhouse'. This is in a beautiful location right on the water's edge of a bay. It's very unique and a fun and different place to stay, but no internet available so this posting will have to wait.

Our hotel room. We have the entire building to ourselves.

View from the ocean of our hotel

Our living room. Also had a kitchen, dining room, foyer, bedroom and 2 bathrooms.

Tonight our host took us up on the hills above the property for a nighttime expedition to see wildlife. Instead of walking we drove in a truck through the fields as the grass was long and wet from the recent rain. We saw possums, wallabies, and wombats. Pictures were hard to get in the dark, though.

Koalas and Penquins

2010-11-01T15:28:00.000-06:00

Our last full day in Melbourne was a busy one. In the morning we took off for a self-guided walk around the downtown area, stopping by the Parliament building and then the beautiful Fitzroy Gardens, which is a park within the downtown area, much like NYC's Central Park but not as large. The trees and flowers were amazing. We walked back to our hotel along the riverfront.

After a pub lunch we were picked up to be driven to Phillip Island about 2 hours outside of Melbourne. Our first stop was at a winery for some local wine tasting. Then we went to the Koala Conservatory and walked among the eucalypts, which is a 'gum tree' (kookaburra sits in the old gum tree....remember that song?--and we have seen and heard the kookaburras). We saw several koalas up in the trees. The conservatory has elevated platforms to walk on through the trees to get you up off the ground for better viewing of the koalas. We also saw wallabies, which are like small kangaroos.

Koala

After dinner at a local restaurant we headed to the coastline of the island for the "Penquin Parade". Every evening at sunset hundreds of little penquins (fairy penquins) come ashore and waddle across the sand to their burrows in the hillside. This was the most amazing experience. The penquins were fun to watch as they swam in from the ocean, organized themselves into small groups of 5-12, and then waddled across the beach and up the hill...they really do form somewhat of a line and it looks like they are marching in. We were in a group of 10 with a guide that brought us to some terrific viewing spots. No photos were allowed to be taken as the flashes would scare the penquins so all I have is the photo taken inside the visitor center.

Now we are packing our bags and will soon head to the airport for a flight to Hobart, Tasmania, which is the last destination for this most wonderful trip downunder. This might be the last posting for awhile as I would not be surprised that the hotels we will be staying will not have internet access. If that's the case, I'll catch up when I can.

Siteseeing Melbourne

2010-10-31T14:22:00.000-06:00

Melbourne is the second largest city in Australia. Unlike Sydney which was populated with convicts from the UK, Melbourne's population wanted to be in Australia.....they came seeking gold in the 1850's. The enormous wealth generated by the gold rush led to the construction of grand public buildings...it has the most elaborate Victorian architecture of all Australian cities.

Flinders Street Station (rail terminal)

A drizzling rain greeted us as we headed out the hotel door this morning. We quickly walked the half mile or so to the Queen Victoria Market. This market is open 6 days a week and has about 1,000 stalls that sell fresh fruit and vegetables, fish, meat, and clothing and leather goods as well as a large selection of tourist souvenier type stuff....and the prices are the best we have seen in our travels so far.

Queen Victoria Market

After browsing a bit we headed over to the Old Melbourne Gaol (jail). Between 1845 and 1929 it was the site of 136 executions. We took a self-guided tour of the cells and saw that the conditions of the gaol were pretty grim. There were exhibits that gave accounts of prisioners who were condemned to die at the gaol, accoompanied by their death masks. The most well-known execution was that of Ned Kelly, Australia's most famous bushranger. There was a large crowd present for the execution, most of them to lend their support to a man perceived to be rightfully rebelling against the English-based law and police authorities. The controversy over whether Kelly was hero or villain continues to this day.

Old Melbourne Gaol

Next we participated in the Police Watch House portion of the museum. We got to experience what it is like to be arrested, charged and locked-up inside the City Watch House, which is the holding tank for those charged with a crime until their trial. We had to answer to the Sergeant our name and crime we were charged with (they gave us a profile sheet of a prisoner) and walk through the paces as if we were under arrest, spending a few minutes locked up in a cell. At the end we took our mug shots!

Mug shot while in jail

After our release from jail, we headed over to the Italian Neighborhood to find a place for lunch and then back to the hotel to get ready for our tour of the city. Our travel agents had arranged for a driver to meet us at the airport yesterday and provide us with a city tour. Right on time Rob was waiting outside our hotel door. He drove us around for 3 hours pointing out the highlights of the city...and the drizzling rain had stopped. An interesting site was at the Brighton Beach, where we saw Brighton Beach Boxes lined up. These are no more than a garden shed with no electricity or water. People buy them to use on the beach and to store their beach chairs, etc. They can cost up to $160,000 each! I guess that's truly a case of location-location-location.

Brighton Beach Boxes

Dinner tonight was on the Colonial Tramcar Restaurant. The tramcar (old-fashioned streetcar) covers a very scenic route around Central Melbourne while a 5-course dinner is served. This was a fun experience and the food was excellent. One course featured kangaroo, which tastes like beef.

Restaurant inside the Colonial Tramcar

Melbourne and more rain

2010-10-30T00:54:00.000-06:00

Up early and out of the hotel by 7 am, we had a flight to catch to Melbourne. Today's airline was JetStar, and not at all like the Quantas experience when we flew from Sydney to Cairns. JetStar allows less baggage weight and we were over the limit by a few kilos. The agent said we could pay $40 extra or take stuff out of a bag and carry on to lighten the suitcases. I had my backpack packed in a suitcase so we took that out and stuffed it full and made the weight limit.

With all the food provided on the earlier Quantas flight, we 'assumed' that would be the case today. WRONG!! Nothing was provided free of charge....well I did get a glass of water from them but they got it from the tap. A cup of coffee would have cost $6.50. Needless to say, we and most everyone on the flight, had nothing.

Speaking of coffee, Australian coffee is a bit confusing. The Aussies love their coffee and they load it with cream and sugar or have cappucinos or lattes. There is also long black and short black and white flat to choose from. After experiencing a long black, which is NOT a large black cup of coffee, I searched on the internet and found this explanation:

"culinary adventures in the city by the bayFeeds:PostsCommentsHow to Order Coffee In Australian

January 21, 2007 by Micki
If you thought Starbucks was a confusing place in which to order coffee, you’ve neve tried in Australia. They don’t seem to call it the way we call it in America, and it took us a few days (and a few misordered products) to work it all out. Of course, once you learn the lingo, it actually makes quite a bit of sense.

Short Black: This is a single shot of espresso.

Long Black: Espresso with water (1/3 espresso 2/3 water). If you want a close approximation of a regular cup ‘o joe, order a long black. It’s equivalent to a Cafe Americano ordered in your local coffeehouse.

Simple, yeah? Well, I hope you didn’t want milk with that. That’s where the confusion starts.

Flat White: This is a popular drink in Australia and New Zealand. As far as I know, it’s not served anywhere else in the world. A flat white is an espresso with steamed milk (about 1/3 espresso, 2/3 milk). The closest approximation in America would be a no foam latte.So, what if you want a regular cup o’ joe with milk?You order a Long Black with Milk on the Side. This gives you cold milk to add to your long black.Thankfully a latte is a latte and a cappaccino is a cappacino."

Well, we landed in Melbourne and it is once again RAINING! The forecast doesn't look good for the next couple days either. We enjoyed wonderful weather in Cairns but found out that 8 days ago, the rain was causing flooding there. We lucked out!

Melbourne has been in a drought the past few years......I think it's over now. This weekend happens to be the Melbourne Cup, a horse racing event that is one of the biggest in the world. Maybe we should have gone to Brisbane, instead.....

Oh well, the city is beautiful and easy to walk around. Hopefully we can do that. We will have a city driving tour tomorrow afternoon so at least we'll be in a car then.

Our hotel is right downtown and is in an historic sandstone building that was formerly a bank. Our room is spacious and beautiful....and it includes a microwave, refrigerator, and a washer/dryer (no cost to use) Yippee!!

Our hotel room

View from our hotel balcony

Rainforest Day

2010-10-30T00:31:00.000-06:00

Our last full day in the Cairns area and we take a tour with Daintree Safaris. We were promptly picked up at our hotel at 7 am and then traveled along the coast to the town of Port Douglas where we picked up two sisters who were on holiday from Perth. So there were just 4 of us on this tour today, plus the guide, which was very nice. We travelled in a comfortable vehicle through along fields covered with sugar cane growing in various stages to the Daintree National Park, which is the oldest continuous rainforest in the world. Our very knowledgable guide, Nicholas, led us through the trails of the rainforest and pointed out various birds and plants. He filled us full of information--so glad there was not a test at the end of the tour. Some of the trees in the rainforest are 1200 to 1400 years old. The rainforest meets the sea at Cape Tribulation, which was our next stop.

Rainforest stream

Rainforest

Fields of sugar cane, the #1 industry in Australia. Tourism is #2.

Trail through rainforest

(Marie A.--this one's for you and your 3rd grade class study of spiders--it's a lichen spider and was almost impossible to see as it blended in with the lichen on the tree trunk. The flash of the camera made it visible.)

Cape Tribulation was named by Capt. James Cook in 1770 when his ship Endeavor ran aground on a coral reef while he was navigating the Great Barrier Reef. Through an ingenious way of sealing the hole in the hull with a canvas sail which was lined with wool and lanolin from the wool of the sheep on board, covering it all with tar and placing this now waterproof 'bandage' on the outside of the hull, and then tossing overboard canons and anchors to lighten the ship's ballast, he was able to move the ship off the reef during high tide and get it safely to shore for repairs. He wrote about his trials and tribulations sailing in the reef and thus named this particular area Cape Tribulation. We walked the beach and hiked to a lookout. Once again, Grandson Enzo got recognition on the beach.

Cape Tribulation

Driving through the rainforest was beautiful. To get to this area we had to cross the Daintree River on a ferry. There are no bridges--if one didn't want to pay the $21.00 roundtrip fee, it would mean a drive of 500 km roundtrip to find a bridge. The expense of building a bridge wasn't the issue. Roads would have had to been widened and that evidently requires much bureaucratic paperwork/permissions when trying to do so in a World Heritage area--about impossible they say.

Lunch was at the Daintree Tea House where we dined on freshly caught barramundi (ocean perch)...well, Terry had a steak....and an assortment of Australian fruits. The owner of the establishment came over to the table and talked about each of the varieties. Some were good...some not so. One, called jackfruit, had the texture of slime, although the taste was not bad.

After lunch we went on a boat ride on the Daintree River in hopes of spotting some wildlife. We slowly cruised close to the banks of the river looking for crocodile, snakes and birds. Well, we did see a croc--a big one named Scarface, but he kept his distance. We also saw a baby croc sunning on a tree limb just above the water....and hidden from Scarface, who is probably his father. The male crocs seem to like to eat the young ones.

Back on the road, we went to a gorge where a river (not the croc infested one) runs over a rocky area. We were able to take a refreshing swim in the river before calling it a day and heading back to our hotel in Palm Cove. While we were in the river, a rugby team showed up to swim and jump in the rapids. One of the guys did a canonball jump right next to Terry. When the guy surfaced, his teammate yelled that he had 'splashed the old man'. Ouch! That hurt, eh Terry?

Swimming hole in the gorge river

Terry about to jump into the rapids

Terry's in there somewhere floating on by....

Flowers seen on our travels today.

Next up is a travel day to Melbourne so it's now time to pack the suitcases again.

Great Barrier Reef

2010-10-29T05:06:00.000-06:00

The Great Barrier Reef was WONDERFUL! We had an all day trip with Ocean Spirit cruises to Michaelamas Cay. The GBR is actually about 30 miles out of Cairns where we boarded. It took about 2 hours to reach the Cay, which is like a sandbar in the middle of the water. The only thing on the cay were nesting seagulls. After arriving at the Cay, we first took a submersible ride to see the reef through the glass walls of a submarine-type boat. It was awesome. Marine biologists on board identified what we were seeing and told us all about the reef.

Next a buffet luncheon was served. There was a chef on board that put on quite a display of food. It was very good. After lunch we were transported to the shore of the cay by a little tender boat and then spent some time getting our snorkeling equipment in working order so that we were ready for a guided tour of the reef.

Selena, a marine biologist, took us out on the snorkel tour of the reef. She pointed out different types of coral and animals and would dive down and pick up coral, etc. for us to examine at the surface. That was a great time.

After the guided tour we spent more time going back over the reef until it was time to load up and head back to Cairns. It was a long day but it was an awesome experience. Here's just a sampling of what we saw...

The submersible

Michaelamas Cay

Our boat for snorkeling. It held 124 passengers. Many of the bigger boats hold as many as 300 people!

A banana slug, I think....

Giant clams--they were the most fascinating

Terry examining soft coral

Selena is pointing out a "Nemo" fish

Checking out the mushroom coral

A stingray trying to bury itself in the sand

Best fish picture.....they are hard to capture with a camera

A train ride and much more...

2010-10-27T02:45:00.000-06:00

Today was a full day of siteseeing with a company called Down Under Day Tours. We were picked up outside our hotel and brought to the Kuranda Railway Station to board a train that winds its way up the mountain range through 15 tunnels and over 40 bridges clinging to the rock face. There was commentary along the way that informed us about the history of the train and the construction of the rail line.

Our train car for the ride up the mountain

Looking back through the train window as we passed a waterfall.

There was a village at the top of the mountain called Kuranda that was filled with craft shops for the tourists. We opted to take a 3K walk of a loop along the river and into the rainforest.

To get down off the mountain, we boarded the Skyrail for a trip over the rainforest with two stops on the way to take short interpretative walks into the rainforest and snap more photos! It was fun to see the overview of the Cairns area as we traveled down the mountain on top of the trees.

View of Cairns area from the Skyrail

Last stop of the day was at the Tjapukai Aboriginal Cultural Center at the base of the Skyrail. Through presentations we learned 40,000 years of aboriginal history and culture in 2.5 hours! Tjapukai is pronounced jeb-a-guy and it is the local tribe of the Kuranda area. The presentations were very good. We watched dances, had a chance to throw a boomarang (neither Terry nor I were successful in our attempt, but several people did a good job at making the boomarang fly and come back toward them. We also learned and had a chance to use a spear thrower. Bush tucker (food) was explained to us and also how to make music on a didgeridoo, a wind instrument made from a tree limb hollowed out.

Didgeridoo

Showing how to make fire

Terry getting ready to throw a boomarang

It was a good day and we are now back at the hotel relaxing on our patio. Need to rest up this evening as tomorrow we snorkle on the Great Barrier Reef.

Travel day to Cairns

2010-10-25T23:32:00.000-06:00

Today was a travel day as we left Sydney and headed for the airport to fly to Cairns. Our travel agent had pre-arranged a driver to pick us up at the hotel at 7 am. He was right on time and we arrived at the airport, checked in, and was at the gate by 7:35 am! Security is much more lax than in the US. We had to go through x-ray screening but didn't have to take shoes or coat off and didn't have to show any ID throughout the whole checkin procedure. Once we got the word to board the plane, everyone just got up and very calmly walked on the plane...no calling by rows and we were on the plane in about 2 minutes! We flew in a 767 so it was quite large and full. Qantas was the airline and they kept you comfortable. No sooner did we get up in the air and we had a hot brunch served us(potatoes/beans/sausage/quiche/orange juice/roll) and then they came with coffee and after that a glass of water. Before landing in Cairns they served us a cookie and water. It was like being back on the cruise ship where there is food all the time!

Now we're in Palm Cove, a beach development just 20 minutes north of Cairns. We are 17 degrees below the equator so it is nice and warm....and sunny! It's in the high 80's and humid! :-) The beach area is wonderful; the hotel is great! We have a fresh water and salt water pool to use, and our room has a patio area with nice seating overlooking the fresh water pool. I think we have found paradise again! We are relaxing and walking on the beach this afternoon. Tomorrow is a full day of siteseeing.

Beach in front of our hotel

Our room with a view!

Ahh, relaxing on the patio

The beach!

Monday in Sydney

2010-10-25T03:29:00.000-06:00

Rain before 7 quits by 11. That's what my Mom would always say, and today that held true. We awoke to RAIN AGAIN this morning and it actually was raining quite hard the entire time we ventured out of the hotel for some breakfast. By the time we left for our day's activities, the skies still didn't look good but the rain was only a drizzle.

We headed toward downtown Sydney right during the Monday morning rush hour. Australia is a country that drives on the wrong....oops...LEFT side of the road. That also is the way the walking on the sidewalks tends to go. We just keep telling ourselves, keep left, keep left. This should have us well trained by the time we actually have a rental car in Tasmania and have to drive on the left. Very noticeable was the work attire of people rushing to their job. Men wear black or dark grey suits. Women wear black pant suits/dresses/skirts. It was like walking through a sea of black.

Our first stop for the day was to the Sky Tower, which has the typical observation deck on top. While in line for the elevator, in walks Kay & Jack, a couple from the cruise critic group on the ship so we had someone to chat with for a few minutes. The views from the top were great and by this time the rain had stopped! (It was before 11 am!) We noted areas that we have walked and the Darling Harbor area that we were off to next.

View from top of Sky Tower

We had planned on riding the monorail between the Sky Tower and Darling Harbor but after noting how close the harbor actually was, we decided to just walk it. While on the foot bridge that crosses the harbor, we walk right up to Derek and Marj, the Victoria Vancouver Island couple that we chatted with several times on the ship. We compared notes of Sydney sites and talked about the lightening strike
that hit the cruise ship while she was still in port on Saturday afternoon. (No damage reported, probably hit the lightening rod, but it did make the newspaper).

Next stop was a quick visit to the National Maritime Museum where we saw a replica of the ship Captain James Cook sailed in the 1770's when he charted the coastlines of Australia and New Zealand.

Replica ship of Captain James Cook's Endeavor

Our afternoon activity was a 3-hour sail on a yacht around the harbor. Once again we had a tour all to ourselves. It probably is still early in the season and that along with the fact that the weather didn't look good this morning, we were the only 2 on the yacht along with the captain and his crewmate. This was great! Terry got to take the wheel and steer the sailboat for almost 2 hours. The captain and crewmate handled the sails and Joyce snapped photos and held on. We sailed throughout the harbor, alongside the Opera House, and under the bridge. It was a most fun time. By the time we returned to the dock, the sun was shining and we grabbed dinner at a restaurant along the wharf, sitting outside, watching people go by, recounting the wonderful experiences we have had while in Sydney.

Skipper Terry & Joyce is hanging on

Our sailing yacht

Sky Tower and we finally have clear skies!

Tomorrow morning we head to the airport and fly to Cairns--back to the tropics!

Sunday in Sydney

2010-10-25T03:21:00.000-06:00

Today we woke up to RAIN. So we rethought our plans for the day (ferry to Manly Beach--the surfing beach in Sydney) and decided to go to the Sydney Opera House for their one-hour guided tour instead. We walked over to it in the RAIN, and found out that the tours were not going to be given today because today is Sydney Opera House's Open Day, and it's FREE! Open Day is the opportunity for the people of Sydney to see the backstage areas, the theaters, and enjoy some great live performances. A giant Open House for everyone in Sydney. We arrived about 9:15 or so and were directed to find "the line" that was forming outside the Opera House. By the time we wound our way through the people barricades zigzagging back and forth we were in a line that had about 75 people ahead of us. At this point we waited until 10 am when they opened the doors and we could take a self-guided tour through the opera theatre, the concert halls, the orchestra assembly room, the green room (where the stars wait before their performance), the opera theatre dressing rooms, the main rehearsal room, the drama theatres, etc. We wandered around for over an hour enjoying the sites and some guest performers and learning a little about each of the different areas. As we left, the line for admission stretched well around the harbor area. There must have been thousands of people in line....in the RAIN!

On stage in the Concert Hall. That's the organ in the background

This free day in the Opera House saved us $70 AUD. We like that! Now that we're off the ship, we're paying out $$ for every meal, and things aren't cheap here downunder.
By afternoon, the rain stopped and Terry went for another run across the Harbor Bridge. I plugged the computer in for charging and blew the fuse in the hotel room. I think my Belkin surge protector is now fried. Plugging the computer directly into the electrical adapter (Australia has slanted holes for the electrical prongs) and then into the outlet works just fine. Whew!

Time for the Harbor Bridge Climb. We had tickets for the Sunset Tour of the Bridge and were to meet at 5:15 pm. Just as we were about to go up to the meeting area, in walk our England friends from the ship, Phil and Pauline! We knew they were staying in Sydney for a few days but didn't expect to see them since they were to stay with a niece in the Manly Beach area. They were in Sydney to go the the Opera House today and then wanted to stop by the Bridge Climb office to buy tickets for another day. (They didn't think climbing the bridge in the rain was going to be much fun!) Oh, yes, it had started to rain again. We met up with our bridge climb group and started the process of getting ready for the climb. First they give you a breathalizer test to be sure you have no alcohol in your system. Then you sign a health condition statement and waiver and are given a jumpsuit to put on over your clothes. We then go to a changing room where we can lock up everything. Nothing can be taken up on the climb--no watches, no earrings or hair clips, and of course, no cameras. We are given rain gear to put on over the waist harness that attaches to the bridge railings and also headphones so we can hear the instructions and dialog from our bridge climb guide. This all takes just about an hour to get dressed and go through a sample of the steps we will be climbing.

Once the guide has us all checked out, the climb can begin. It was raining but visibility in the harbor was still good. About halfway up the rain slowed up to just a mist. At the top the guide took several pictures of the group and then we had several shots of individuals/couples. We were in a group of 10. At the top the rain had stopped and the skies were starting to break up in the west and we did see a nice sunset. By the time we worked our way down, we were enjoying the lights of the city.
Then we had to take off everything that we had put on. Every item is clipped to you in some fashion and we had to take things off in an organized manner and drop them in chutes. What a process that is very efficient. They have to be. During the summer 'high season' they can take 2,000 people a day up the bridge. It was a most fun experience and the wet weather didn't hinder us at all...just didn't make for very good photos as we all had wet hair/raingear/etc. We were given a certificate and a print of the group photo at the end. We didn't opt to buy the individual photos as they were too scarey looking to dish out another $20 per photo. LOL

In spite of the rainy weather, it was a very good day!

Running the bridge and going to the opera

2010-10-23T06:31:00.000-06:00

Well, the rain stopped so we took off to go across the Sydney Harbor Bridge. Terry ran it and Joyce walked and snapped pictures. We saw several wedding parties throughout the day. Many were held in the Botanical Gardens alongside the harbor and we saw several taking photos in the Rocks District.

The historic "Rocks" area of Sydney. Site of the original town and built by convicts sent to Australia from England.

Our 'home" for the past 30 days.

Opera House from the Bridge

After the run, we found a little outside restaurant to have some dinner. Just as we were finishing, up walks our newly found Colorado neighbors. Bob had been to Sydney many times over the years on business trips and was searching out the restaurant that we were at as it was one of his favorites! We laughed as we seemed to run into them many times on the ship. Great couple and we've gotten to know them pretty well now as we had several dinners with them on the ship and a couple of the same tours at the ports. We have plans to get together once we get back home to Colorado.

After dinner we headed over to the Opera House for the performance of Rigoletto, an opera. It was actually very enjoyable! The sets were beautiful, the singing superb, and we could follow the story line very easily as there were subtitles on a screen above the stage that translated what was being sung in Italian. Glad we attended a performance. It was very memorable!

Ready to go inside for the performance of Rigoletto

We're arrived in Sydney!

2010-10-22T22:33:00.000-06:00

We're off the ship and exploring Sydney. This morning we were up bright and early as the cruise ship sailed into the Sydney Harbor. We sailed up to the Harbor Bridge and then turned to dock right between the bridge and the Sydney Opera House. What a view!

Sunrise over the Opera House from the ship's deck

From the ship's deck; Harbor Bridge

Disembarkation started out very well. We had a 9:15 departure time and they let us go about 10 minutes after that so we thought we'd be on our way to the hotel very quickly. WRONG!! Luggage is sorted by colored tags that we were given to put on the luggage. Ours was Orange 3. We got to the area in the terminal to find our luggage and there was only a short row of bags with the orange3 tag--none of them ours. Seems that a whole container of bags was missed when unloading and we waited about 1 hour for our bags to appear. It was amusing watching everyone scramble for luggage carts and their bags, though. Wheeled luggage carts were in high demand and as soon as a few were brought in, the crowd of people jumped on them like a pirhana feeding frenzy! Women were leaping over bags with high heels on grabbing carts out of people's hands. We opted not to have a luggage cart as our 2-wheeled suitcases carried the rest of our luggage on top. Finally we were able to clear customs (sniffing beagle again) and walked over to our hotel which is just a block from the ship in the historic Rocks area of Sydney. Our new friends from Grand Junction CO saw us walking to our hotel and came to chat for a minute. They always carry their own bags the whole way off the ship to avoid the Princess disembarkation fiascos. We will remember that and do that from now on. Pack less, pack less! (and that was hard for a 6-week vacation). We met many wonderful people on this cruise and have exchanged names/e-mails with many of them.

Too early for check in but we were able to leave our luggage at our hotel and then head out into a most beautiful day and explore the Royal Botanic Gardens, Mrs. Macquarie's Chair, and the Sydney Opera House area. Mrs. Macquarie's Chair (a sandstone rock formation) is on the waterfront and is the place where the wife of the Governor of New South Wales used to sit on a promontory of land watching for the return of her husband when he was obliged to leave the colony on the business of the Crown. The area now has a wonderful panorama of the city skyline, the Bridge and the Opera House, which would have all been missing from the more rural vistas Mrs. Macquarie enjoyed back in the early 1800's.

Sydney Skyline

Mrs. Macquarie's Chair

Royal Botanical Gardens

Tonight we have tickets for Rigoletto, an opera at the Sydney Opera House. It's supposed to be one of the Opera Australia's best-loved productions. We'll see! It will be great to see the inside and experience the wonderful acoustics of the opera house.

But right now, Terry is itchin' to run across the Harbor Bridge. A rain shower came over and stalled us enough so that I could write the blog, but as soon as the rain stops, we'll try to go across the bridge.

The Sapphire Princess will set sail tonight for its return voyage to the USA. We heard that 178 passengers from our cruise are staying on and cruising back on the same itinerary for another 30 days. Many new passengers are getting on the ship today. We are excited to start our 2 week adventure in Australia.

Sydney Australia here we come!

2010-10-21T20:55:00.000-06:00

Today is our last day on the cruise ship. We reach Sydney Australia tomorrow morning, at which time we will have traveled just over 10,000 nautical miles.

Our plans include a 2 week land tour of Australia. We will start in Sydney, then off to Cairns for the Great Barrier Reef, then Melbourne for a few days and we will finish our vacation with several days in Tasmania. Not sure what the availability of wireless internet will be at our hotels so this may be the last entry for awhile. I'll write when I can.........
T and J

Pitchin' and rollin' and plans change

2010-10-20T14:10:00.000-06:00

Today was to be a day of cruising through the fjords on the southwestern part of the South Island of New Zealand. After leaving Dunedin yesterday evening we started to pitch and roll as we neared the Tasman Sea. All through the night the ship bounced up and down. By morning, we knew it didn't look good for entering the fjords. About 9 am the announcement came from the Captain that for safety reasons, the ship would not be entering the fjords today but instead head west toward Sydney to get ahead of the weather front that was moving in.

A ranger for the Fjordland National Park had come aboard at Dunedin as he was to commentate during the cruise through 5 fjords. Instead he presented a slideshow and commentary of the fjords in the theatre here on ship. His talk was kind of boring but the pictures of the fjords were beautiful. There were people in the audience taking photos of the slideshow! Guess they wanted documented what they were missing. It would have been nice to see the fjords - and for many this was to be the highlight of the cruise - but I guess we'll just have to put it on the list of things to see if we can return to New Zealand some day.

We pretty much camped out midship today and read our books. Tomorrow we have to report to an Australian Immigration Inspection in preparation to leave the ship in Sydney on Saturday morning. They are very strict about what cannot be brought into Australia. New Zealand is strict, too. At each port there was a beagle dog sniffing handbags and backpacks to be sure no food stuff, plants, etc. were being brought in. At one port, the beagle hit on Terry. The dog sniffed the backpack and then put a paw on Terry's foot as a signal that this one must be searched. Terry was pulled aside and the backpack searched. We had nothing but concluded that the beagle hit upon the scent of a banana that Terry had eaten just prior to heading down to leave the ship.

We now have 2 more days at sea as we head toward Sydney. The seas are better this evening so hopefully we are getting away from the bad weather. The ship's stabilizers work pretty well to correct the rocking but nothing can be done to prevent the pitching (up and down) over the swells. The 'barf' bags were out in the hallways this morning (taped to the elevator doors in case one needed it) and I'm sure some people were getting seasick, but we're fine.

UGH!

Dunedin

2010-10-19T20:23:00.000-06:00

Located in the southeast of the South Island on the Otago Peninsula, Dunedin has the distinction of being settled by Scottish pioneers. Originally a Maoris settlement, Dunedin was first discovered by European whalers in the early 1800s. Scottish emigrants, looking to escape religious persecution at home, settled in the region in the first half of the 19th century. And because they surveyed the land and planned the city carefully before starting to build, Dunedin is laid out wonderfully. It is known as the Edinburgh of the South.

View from ship as we entered harbor. Notice the road at the water's edge. Nice drive to work for those living around here.

Our excursion today was with Back to Nature Tours. We ended up having the tour driver and his intern all to ourselves for an all day tour. It was excellent! We started out with a city tour of Dunedin, stopping by all the key attractions and learning a bit about the history of the city. We saw Baldwin Street, billed as the steepest street in the world, Otago University, and the historic Railway Station. Tour buses filled with cruise passengers were at the Railway Station when we arrived. And there was a photo frenzy going on inside the main entrance. And people aren't afraid to speak their minds! When Japanese tourists take photos, they always have at least one member of their party posed in the photo. There was a beautiful stained glass window in the entryway that many wanted a photo of and did not like that the Japanese were always standing poised for their photo in front of it. I only wished that the tour buses hadn't park right in front of the building so I good get a nice photo of the exterior stonework, which was amazing.

The Railway building and those darn buses

Lanarch Castle

Next we headed up in the hills to Lanarch Castle, which is New Zealand's only castle. It was built by a banker between 1871 and 1885 for his wife, who died before it was completed. It is quite grand and the gardens and views of the coastline were amazing.

After lunch of fish and chips in a small pub by the shore, we went to Penquin Place. It is an award-winning venure to save the yellow-eyed penquins, the world's rarest species of penquin. A system of camouflaged trenches allows visitors to view nesting yellow-eyed penquins at close range without disturbing them. We hiked up the hillside for overviews and then down into the trenches to view the penquins. This was awesome!

Overview of penquin preserve

Beach here penquins emerge from the sea

Walking through the trenches to view the nesting penquins

Back in our van, we followed the road that runs along the coastline of the pennisula. It is just a few feet from the water and great for viewing a variety of wildlife. The hillsides are a bright green and spotted with sheep and a pesky little plant called gorse. From a distance the gorse is quite striking and looks beautiful on the hillsides right now as it is blooming bright yellow. But the locals don't like it and consider it a nuisance as it takes over indigenous foliage.

We stopped by the Royal Albatross Center at the mouth of the Otago Harbor. This is home to the world's only mainland royal albatross colony. We watched the birds glide above us (their wingspan is about 3 meters, which I think is about 9 feet) and saw a nesting albatross on the center's webcam.

This was a most wonderful day. The Dunedin area is absolutely beautiful, the people friendly, and a place where we would love to spend more time. But, it's back on board and we set sail for the fjords on the west coast of the South Island.

Christchurch and it's a beautiful day!

2010-10-17T23:57:00.000-06:00

We were happy to see clear skies this morning as the ship pulled into Lyttelton, the port town just a 30-minute bus ride from Christchurch, our destination for today.

Sunrise as we head towards the port

Christchurch is the largest city on New Zealand's South Island. It was envisioned as a planned community for the Church of England in the 1850's, and many say it is the most English of cities outside of England. Named for the college at Oxford, Christchurch features Gothic Revival architecture, manicured gardens and punting on the river Avon.

The city's focal point is Cathedral Square with a crafts market, food vendors, music and other touristy activities and the site of the landmark Cathedral. This is where the shuttle bus from the port drops everyone off for a day of exploration. We headed over to the river area, where the sidewalk follows the meandering river through downtown. We watched several punts float by on the river. They are small flat-bottomed boats that have no keel.

Cathedral Square

Walking path alongside the river

Punting on the Avon River

The punt is propelled by means of a pole, which is also used to steer. The person who stands at the back of the boat without losing his balance and navigates the boat making sure the passengers enjoy the smooth ride without getting wet, is called a punter.

We noticed some earthquake damage to the old brick and stone buildings in the downtown area. There was a lot of scaffolding present and sidewalks blocked off from pedestrian traffic as the repairs were in progress.

Earthquake damage to the Baptist Church

This 18-meter-tall metal sculpture, the Chalice, commemorates the millennium.

The Chalice--one of many sculptures around the city.

This metal sculpture along the river commemorates Firefighters around the world. These pieces of metal came from the 102nd floor of one of the twin towers and was gifted to Christchurch as a thank you for the help of Christchurch firefighters sent to NYC after 9/11.

The 9/11 Memorial Sculpture

After a walking tour around the downtown area, we hopped on the "Penquin Express" bus to go to the International Antarctic Center, which features many informative displays that depict life and work on the frozen continent.

There is a specially designed "blizzard" room, featuring sub-zero temperatures and wind, a penquin exhibit, and a ride on a Hagglund All-Terrain Snowmobile, which simulates a ride on the rough terrain of Antarctica. This was a lot of fun to go through. Expeditions to the research bases in Antarctica leave from Christchurch. A plane headed there took off just before we arrived at the center, which is next to the airport. This visit brought back memories that a former teacher from our small Montana town went to work at one of the bases in Antarctica several years ago as part of the support group for the research centers. Through these exhibits we saw what life on the bases must be like.

Terry in the simulated blizzard room after the storm.

Joyce testing out the snowmobile

The Hagglund All-Terrain Snowmobile. Ride was like being on a roller coaster.

It was a great day. Christchurch is a beautiful area, as is all of New Zealand. It would be nice to do a driving tour through New Zealand some day. Might have to put that in our "bucket list". :-)

All the flowering trees and shrubs were in full bloom

This evening we take sail to Port Chalmers, which is the port next to tomorrow's destination....Dunedin.

Windy - Wet - Wellington

2010-10-16T22:40:00.000-06:00

Today's port was Wellington, New Zealand. Because of its location in latitude and its exposure to omnipresent winds coming through Cook Strait, the city is known to Kiwis (New Zealanders) as "Windy Wellington". And it certainly was, but today we will add that it is Windy WET Wellington.
We awoke to a beautiful sunrise as the ship was navigating the Cook Strait headed toward Wellington. Wellington is the southernmost national capitol city in the world. It it more densely populated than most other settlements in New Zealand due to the small amount of building space available between the harbor and the surrounding hills. Wellington lies at the south end of the North Island on the east side of Cook Strait which is the passage between North and South Islands.

As we left the ship to walk into town from the pier, it started to rain....and it rained ALL day. But, it was a good day to be inside museums and that was the plan for the day. We headed over to ride a cable car up to the hilltop district of Kelburn. The cars move along a cable in the ground, not in the air. With the exception of the harbor and the downtown businesses, the people of Wellington live in homes nestled into the hills, which are quite steep. Cable cars were used to transport people up and down the hills to link the suburbs to the downtown. Many of the homes have their own private cable car, which transports 2-4 people at a time from the street to their house.

Hillside of Wellington

The view is supposed to be spectacular from the top of the hill where the Cable Car Museum and Lady Norwood Rose Gardens are located. It was raining (and wind blowing) so we really didn't see the view. The museum was interesting and we spent a good time there but decided to skip the Rose Gardens due to the weather and the fact that it's really too early in the spring for the roses to be in bloom.

Cable Car Museum

Next we headed to the Te Papa Museum. It is five floors of interactive exhibits and displays showcasing New Zealand's Maori (indigenous peoples) heritage, national history and natural environment. The museum is one of the largest national museums in the world and it is FREE. We spent several hours wandering around the museum and saw only a fraction of all the exhibits. The place was extremely busy (especially with a cruise ship in port). There were many local families with small children enjoying the museum as well as all the cruise passengers. One of the interactive exhibits was to be in a house during an earthquake. It really jostled one around--the floor moved to simulate the quake, but at least we didn't have to try to avoid falling objects such as ceilings, walls, etc. This museum was amazing. I'm sure every school child in the area has the opportunity to experience this museum many, many times.

Maori carving

Replica of boat used by Maori to sail from Polynesia to New Zealand

We got totally drenched walking back to the ship. The picture below shows the view of the harbor from our balcony after getting back on the ship. We will head south to Christchurch, our port tomorrow. This is the area that had an earthquake a few weeks ago. We learned at the museum today that earthquakes are common in New Zealand due to the fact that the islands sit on the break between the geological Australian plate and Pacific plate.

Now it's ALL ABOARD and we see that the rain has stopped and the skies are clearing. Hope that means better weather for tomorrow!

Auckland NZ

2010-10-15T20:40:00.000-06:00

With more boats per capita than any other city in the world, Auckland is appropriately known as the City of Sails. We learned that 1 out of 4 people in Auckland own a boat and there are more than 1 million residents. At dinner tonight the couple we sat with told us they learned that it costs $150,000 a year to own a spot to anchor your boat, or $12,000 a year to rent the spot! Yikes!!

We sailed into port this morning about 7 am. Our berth is located almost within arm's reach of the Hilton Hotel on the pier right in downtown Auckland. As the ship docked, the residents of the hotel came out onto their balconies to welcome the ship by waving and snapping photos. We could almost shake their hands!

New Zealand consists of 2 islands....North and South. Auckland is located on the northeast side of the North Island and stretches across 60 extinct volcanos. The volcanoes are easy to spot as they rise steeply and feature flat tops. Spanning a narrow isthmus, Auckland separates two seas--the Pacific Ocean to the east and the Tasman Sea to the west.

The Maori people had settled in the Auckland area as early as 1350; European settlers arrived in 1840. The British got quite a bargain when they bought the 3,000 acres on which Auckland now stands from the Maoris for $110 and a scattering of items. Because of its central position, good harbor and fine soil, it was chosen as New Zealand's capital, but later the capital was moved south to Wellington as it was considered a more accessible site for the people of both the North and South Islands.

We had a tour booked today with Milestone Tours and it was a very nice tour. There were just 6 of us and our tour guide. We rode around in a Mercedes Benz van....it was quite comfortable. Our first stop was to one of the extinct volcanoes...Mt. Eden. Our guide gave us a brief orientation of Auckland's unique geography and we enjoyed 360 degree views of Auckland that included two harbors, the Waitakere Ranges to the west and the youngest volcano just off the eastern coast.

Next we stopped by the Arataki Heritage and Environment Center, which is at the gateway to the Waitakere Ranges, to get an introduction to the rain forest. It is a popular education center for the school children in the Auckland area and the displays and short video were impressive. The park has walking trails, access to beaches, breathtaking views, spectacular rock formations and waterfalls. We visited Pihu Beach and Karekare Falls before stopping for a lunch break at a restaurant with wonderful views. From the road above, we could see Karekare Beach, which is the location where the movie The Piano was filmed. I remember the scene where the piano was brought ashore with great difficulty in that movie. Never did I ever think that we would some day see the beach featured in the movie.

Pihu Beach

On Pihu Beach missing our little grandson

Karekare Falls

Then it was off to the wine vineyards. New Zealand is known for excellent wines. We stopped at one winery for a little tasting and then due to popular (male) vote within the tour group, the next stop was a spontaneous one at a local brewery for a little sampling.

After returning to the ship, we walked around the downtown area a bit looking for a couple of souvenier t-shirts. It was interesting to experience crossing the street at an intersection. Traffic in all directions stopped; green walking light was for pedestrians only and you could cross in any direction--even diagonally across the entire intersection. Certainly an efficient way to move people along.

It would be nice to stay and explore some more--we only got a sampling of Auckland, but cruise ships only stay in a port for one day. So tonight we sail towards Wellington, located at the
very southern end of the North Island. We have one day at sea before arriving.

View of the Auckland downtown as we leave port

View of New Zealand coastline as we sail south to Wellington

It's a swell day and just ramblings...

2010-10-12T23:51:00.000-06:00

We're headed south-southwest across the South Fiji Basin at a speed of approximately 19.0 knots, which is about 22 miles per hour and already the air temperature is cooler.

Today's high was about 70 degrees and the change of temperature caused passengers to dress in a wide variety of clothing. Some looked like they were ready for a cool fall day, dressed in slacks, sweaters, and jackets. Others weren't giving up the swimsuits yet and searched out deck chairs in the sun.

Then there were the swells. The sea was quite rough today and walking proved to be quite difficult at times as the ship rocked up and down. We tried to do our daily exercise and found the promenade deck that goes all around the ship was closed off at the very front but that the jogging track up high on deck 16 in the front of the ship was okay for a short walk/run. Gave up after 15 laps (1.5 miles) as running in short circles combined with the rolling of the ship was just too much.

Ship slamming down on the swells

When we booked this cruise, we booked a guaranteed balcony stateroom instead of actually selecting the stateroom. This meant that Princess assigned the stateroom for us but it left us open for a free "upgrade" in case a better category did not sell out and Princess would feel like they should treat us to a better room. Well, that didn't happen so don't think we'll even try that again. Our stateroom this time is close to the front of the ship. We usually have had a cabin either mid-ship or near the back. I think that one feels the rough seas more in the front of the ship....at least today that is the case.

Other than that, the location is good. We get more exercise having to walk way to the back of the ship for meals, and that can be a good thing.

We went to the ship's library today as it was noted in the daily announcements that there would be a passenger paperback exchange. I have a Kindle with and have several books loaded on this e-reader; Terry had a few books selected to pack along on the trip. Well, as good as his intentions have been in the past, he never actually read a complete book during a cruise. So when I saw that he packed 3 books, I pulled one out to keep the suitcase weight down. Bad choice! He finished 2 books and then had nothing to read. So we were happy to see the opportunity to exchange a book for one he has not read. Mission accomplished and he spent the afternoon reading away.

Terry reading in our cabin while Joyce writes blog

In preparation for our New Zealand ports, I exchanged some US money for NZ money. We were able to use US money at all the previous ports as the tours and vendors near the port accepted US$. Not so in NZ and Australia. The ship doesn't give a great exchange rate but we won't have to try to find an ATM immediately as we have a tour reserved in Auckland, our first NZ port, that leaves right from the ship's dock soon after we arrive.

We have met the most interesting people on this cruise. This morning at breakfast, a couple joined us at our table and we sat and chatted for well over an hour with them. They have travelled the world since retirement 20 years ago and told us stories about some of their favorite places...and they still have places they have not visited. I hope 20 years from now we will have similar stories.

Good Night!