Category: 2016 Mediterranean Cruise

The ‘required’ early start to the day was not necessary, as we were showering one hour before due time. Our new friends at the Hotel Scandinavia were so kind in preparing an early breakfast for us prior to the cobblestone walk, with roller cases dragging behind, to our water taxi pick-up point. The transfer to the airport by water taxi takes about 15 minutes.

Flying with the Iberia Airlines ‘cheaper version’ (Vueling Airlines) to Barcelona was an uneventful flight but the walk through the terminal became an experience in itself. I must admit that I was pleasantly surprised; a modern, spacious building with a purposeful design that allows free-flow of passenger movements. The coach/hire car access is at ground level and gigantic. Sydney and Melbourne airport authorities, forgot to check this airport design for their expansion requirements for into the future.

When you have a surname the same as a country, you always want to visit that country and today, my 65-year-old dream came true. A thought came to mind that I should ‘kiss the ground on which I stood” but that practice is reserved for pilgrims returning, or popes. But I am in Spain – Yeah!!!! For those who don’t know, when I was a kid, we lived in Barcelona Street in Box Hill, Melbourne; even more reason to ‘kiss the ground”. Last year, I took a course in conversational Spanish prior to our tour of South America but my memory of the phrases is so ‘grey’ that I never completed the course – oh, one day, you never know. (Is there anyone out there who would like to do a Skype Spanish tutoring course with me as the only student?) Now the saying “The rain in Spain ……” is well know but today has been bright sunshine with a touch of warmth, although a chilly breeze came through later in the day.

The very fast (120kph) transfer to the city was done in 20-25 minutes to our apartments right in the main street of Barcelona. Streets are wide boulevards with a wide central lane for pedestrians as well as conventional sidewalks on each side of the street. The streets are busy with a hive of people, scooters, and taxis.

Our expansive accommodation is no comparison to the small rooms in Venice. The ‘fast-food’ lunch was a Spanish omelette – filling and delicious.

Most cities have a hop-on, hop-off open topped double decker bus system and this allows you to travel around to the various touristy spots to hop off and investigate at wish. We chose to ‘stay on the bus’ to the end. The route, and commentary, included areas relating to the Olympic Games event held way back in 1992. Our itinerary is known as the Red Route; tomorrow we may take the Blue Route, and maybe the Green Route in the afternoon.

After a one-hour break in the room, it was time to explore again. Wandering down the main boulevard of the city, our eyes were attracted to an interesting way to advertise some retail therapy. Further on, we came across one of the 50 market places in Barcelona. The colour and freshness of the food was very impressive. Chocolate douched strawberries are a delight; I found out. We just may come back tomorrow to sample the tempting fresh fruit for breakfast.

When you’re on tour, you want to try some of the local foods. For our evening meal, we tried paella. Paella is a large dish of rice and vegetables, sometimes with seafood, chicken or beef included – a bit like fried rice that we are used to. This was another adequate filling meal. It was good to catch up on what Lindley has been up to since we were in the same class at high school in Melbourne over 50 years ago. We met up again on Facebook a few years ago and Lindley decided to come on this trip due to the advertising twelve months ago.

Tiredness set in early and won outright at 9:30pm. Tomorrow is free time to visit parts of this interesting and, fast becoming, modern city.

Today is a ‘free’ day. However, this town has much to offer for anyone. We have been to Venice a few years ago and today, we both said, “yes, we could return again”. The weather has been very kind to us with a clear blue sky and warm from the sun.

After the fiasco last night at the restaurant, we woke around 3:00am to start the wheels turning in the supplier’s offices to get the meal vouchers sent again. It had never occurred to us that once you have printed out a voucher for some suppliers that you can print a second copy, but fortunately we were able to have emailed a second set. We were on our way to picking up the cash in exchange for the vouchers.

When that was settled in our minds, and the first two posts were published, it was time to clear our minds by going for a long walk – well, it turned out to be a long walk because we got lost. We found many alleys where tourists have been lost before, I’m sure. 90 minutes of walking was a big hole in the 10,000 steps a day goal.

After breakfast, the sun’s warmth told us it was going to be a bonza day. There are quite a number of areas of the town we had not ventured into before (a bit like the early morning walk). We hadn’t been near the very busy Grande Canal, so off we ventured after collecting the money from the restaurant. They were very good and patient with us about it all, and so I will put up a Travel Advisor post on their restaurant for them.

When we climbed one of the highest points in the town, the bridge over the Grande Canal, the colours of the waterway was turquoise and ready to be enjoyed. After the photos, we climbed down to the café on the shore for what turned out to be a light lunch – toasted cheese and tomato sandwiches with a large dob of thousand island dressing. All good while watching the boats and water taxis pass by.

We needed to see more of the Grande Canal, so caught the ‘water bus’ which took us to the Rail Station and the wharf where cruise boats tie up. There weren’t any in port today but still the town had multitudes of tourists. On arrival back in St Marks Square, you tell where all the locals were – serving the thousands of tourists who were eager to purchase souvenirs and nick-nakes.

A day like today requires an nice ice-cream to wrap the tongue around – pistachio, tiramisu, and cookies and cream went down well. Our hotel is no more than a ¼ kilometre from the main town square the outside chairs became our resting place for the next 2 hours. A celloist was practicing all her repertoire for all the passers by.

Senior’s Moment

Lynore was wondering how the fire trucks got on with carting the water to the fire in their fire-boat. “Do they really need any?” we asked. I’ll leave you all to sort out Lynore’s problem for her.

Take a look at this time lapse video to see how busy the Grande Canal gets. Taken with an iPhone and hand-held.

Today is ‘embarkation day’. To many in our group, this will be the first cruise they have ever been on. Some are in trepidation, some are excited. Some have failing memories and forget where important documents are just as we are about to be processed before boarding. No names are to be mentioned but, yes, Lyn goes out of her way to ensure that all is good. Wow! She’s a good travel agent. Where would you be without a good travel agent. Answer: “On your own”.

This is the largest ship we have cruised on and has definitely been the fastest embarkation processing we have encountered. I noticed that when people board an Airbus 380 aircraft or similar , they appear to have a “got to sit in this thing for 14 hours” face. Passengers embarking on a ship have a “i’m excited about boarding this holiday vessel.” So why not try cruising, if you haven’t before, to enjoy a happy holiday. We will not have to pack a suitcase for 21 days; and see 17 cities of Europe in that time.

The vessel we are now on is the Royal Princess, a sister ship of the Regal Princess with a similar layout and features. In some way, we like the smaller ships, the first being that we cannot walk the circumference of the ship on the ‘Promenarde Deck’; we have to go to Deck 17 to the walking track for our morning 5km walk. However, there is so much more to this ship in other ways. You can get lost on this ship very easily – there are over 3000, passengers and 1000 staff.

The rooms are ready when we embark but the luggage will be delivered later in the day. We take ourselves to what is a central part of the ship, the eating area. It is here that many say they have spent a lot of money so they may as well use this facility exceptionally well. They could be here at any time of the day and into the evening for their continued sustenance. After a check on the food variety, I decided on a little indian ‘made up’ meal but there was so much to choose from, one could never end up enjoying all that was being offered at the one sitting.

There was a few hours to ‘kill’ before our sailing time and that was taken up checking out the layout of the inside area of the ship; the outside can wait until it decides to stop raining. Our departure from Barcelona, happened in the rain around 6:00pm. After the evening meal, we had to ‘kill’ some more time while waiting for the evening show. To our amazement, we both went to sleep during the ventriloquist’s performance; a good sign really.

Tomorrow, we visit Cartagena.

After leaving Naples, we had a full ‘sea day’ before arriving into Barcelona for our disembarkation to mark the last day of our cruise. Our sea day was taken up doing the last bit of tanning on the sun deck and then packing for the first time in 21 days. It’s definitely is a great idea to incorporate a cruise in your holiday as you save at least an hour a day just in pack time and, get all the service and meals you want included – just a great way to wind down.

Our arrival into Barcelona was around 4:00am. I happened to look out and there were the lights of Barcelona coming towards us but at a very slow rate of knots, as ships tend to do when running early.

After an early breakfast, we were off the ship, collected our baggage, and into our transfer vehicle within 10 minutes. We all commented on how smooth and hassle-free, the process for the 3,000 passengers was, and that airports need to learn a few things about dealing with the problems they use to process passengers.

We had made arrangements for a tour of the Sagrada Família. You are probably asking, “What is that?” so I will ‘cut and copy’ a few paragraphs from their website.

Before we entered the grounds of the cathedral, a young girl came up to me and with a list in her hand, asked if i wouldn’t mind being part of her goal she had in mind. I said, “What is this goal?” (Lyn heard better than me, of course). “To kiss men outside lots of different tourist locations in Barcelona before her wedding in a month’s time.” Her future wedding attendants were with her and so I got a lipstick kiss from her and she got a pic and a tick on her list. How’s that?

“The Sagrada Família, Antoni Gaudí’s unfinished masterpiece, is one of Barcelona’s most popular tourist attractions. Construction on this church will continue for at least another decade, but it has already become Barcelona’s most important landmark.

“The idea for the construction of a new church was launched by a devout organisation whose goal was to bring an end to the de-christianisation of the Barcelonese, which had started with the industrialization and was caused by the increasing level of education of the Catalan population. The organisation purchased a plot of land in the new Eixample district in 1877. The architect Francisco de Paula del Villar designed a neo-Gothic church and led the construction which started in 1882.

“Antoni Gaudí’s Design. One year later, the modernist architect Antoni Gaudí took over as lead architect at the age of thirty-one. From that moment on, Gaudí devoted most of his life to the construction of the church.

“Instead of sticking to the original plans, Gaudí changed the design drastically. The neo-Gothic style made way for Gaudí’s trademark modernist style, which was based on forms found in nature. When he died in 1926 only one facade (the Nativity Facade), one tower, the apse and the crypt were finished.

“Because Gaudí was constantly improvising and changing the design while construction was going on, he left few designs and models. And most of these were destroyed in 1936 during the Civil War.

“Still, architects now have a clear idea of what Gaudí had in mind. The last version of his design called for a church 95m/312ft long and 60m/197ft wide. The church will be able to accommodate some thirteen thousand people. When finished, the Sagrada Família will have a total of eighteen towers.

“Four towers on each of the three facades represent the twelve apostles. The towers reach a height of 90 to 120 meters (394ft). Another four towers represent the four evangelists. They will surround the largest, 170m/558ft tall tower, dedicated to Jesus Christ. The last tower, dedicated to Virgin Mary, will be built over the apse.

“Construction. After Gaudí’s death in 1926 construction slowed dramatically due to a lack of funds and the outbreak of the Civil War. Construction pace started to pick up again in the mid 1950s and now two facades and eight towers have been completed. The main nave was roofed in 2000. At that time construction was expected to last for another hundred years, but modern technology has enabled architects to speed up construction so that the “Sagrada Família is now slated for completion in 2026, the centenary of Gaudí’s death.

“Facades. The first facade, facing east, is known as the Nativity Facade. It was finished by Gaudí himself and is ornamented in a Baroque fashion with motifs of animals and plants. Opposite the Nativity Facade is the Passion Facade. Construction of the facades started in 1954, but only in 1987, sculptures depicting the crucified Jesus Christ, were added. As soon as they were installed, the abstract figures caused a storm of criticism, as the style was very different from Gaudí’s.

“The third and main facade is the Glory Facade. Construction of this facade – the most monumental of the three – started in 2002 and is still ongoing. This facade, on the south side of the church, will picture life and death.

“Visiting Sagrada Família Even though the Sagrada Família is far from finished, the remarkable church is well worth a visit. You can visit the crypt were Gaudí is buried as well as the transept and central nave with its giant, tree-like pillars and spectacular vaulting.” http://www.aviewoncities.com/barcelona/sagradafamilia.htm

This was surely one ‘wow’ experience. The outside is obviously not complete and neither is the inside in certain areas, but the first impression is just “overwhelming”. As people entered the enormous well-cut stone edifice, you could see the jaws drop and cameras go straight to eye level. Soon after our entrance, a voice came over the loud speaker singing Ave Maria. The tone was set for a very interesting and educational hour. There were changes of coloured lights to enhance the work done so far, albeit over 140 years, with another 10 to go to completion.

We had included a visit to one of the four towers. That included a 65 metre elevator trip to the top and then a long and tight circular walk down a narrow stairwell to the bottom. There were landings along the way to take photos and a to rest the ‘jelly legs’.

That was some cathedral! I’m sure that on completion, there will be a big party indeed.

Lyn and I returned to our hotel on a peddle-cab taxi. The guy worked hard for 30 minutes and stopped for rests to explain the architecture along the way. The rest of the afternoon included an afternoon nap before the group met to buy some ‘market food’ to put together an evening meal to have before our departure to Singapore tomorrow.

Our transfer to the airport was to come for 12 mid day. The guy was on time, but didn’t seem to be aware that tourists have luggage. He parked across the busy street and it was obvious that he was going to have trouble with getting us in with all our baggage. Only two suitcases fitted into the ‘boot’. The rest were loaded once all of us were seated in the bus. So we had our hand luggage on our laps and the aisle was double stacked with suitcases and then the passenger’s seat in the front had 3 suitcases on it.

During the 25 minute drive to the airport, the driver, who didn’t speak English, took some photos of us in the back and sent them to a mate. (I was right behind him jammed up against his seat with my backpack between me and the seat, and could see his every move over his shoulder). He then took a photo of the fuel gauge, which was sitting on the red empty section and sent that off to a mate. He then called ‘someone’, presumably his mate, and appeared to be asking if his fuel level would get us to the airport. Nervous, nervous, indeed. Both he AND I.

We made it to the airport and he was very happy when we all cheered and applauded him. He was even happier when he received my tip. (Geelong to win!!! – Bummer, they lost) Lol!

Our flight to Singapore on an Airbus 380 touched down in Dubai. The onward flight to Singapore departed 3 hours later, plus half an hour waiting on the end of the runway for a departure slot. Lyn and I managed to sleep most of the way during the second 7 hour flight for the ‘day/night’ into Singapore which is always good.

The Merlion (Malay: Singa-Laut) is a well known marketing icon of Singapore depicted as mythical creature with a lion’s head and a body of a fish. It is widely used as a mascot and national personification of Singapore.

The Merlion was first used in Singapore as the logo for the tourism board. The Merlion is similar to the heraldic sea-lion which occurs in a number of different artistic traditions.

We had last visited Singapore in 2014 on our return to Penang. Without realizing what we were about to experience then, we made our way down to the Marina Bay Sands to experience the wonder of this new icon for Singapore. Yes, we were very impressed as we made our way around the hotel, Marina Bay Sands. It has been built on an area of reclaimed-land. This area has become of a mixture of technology, ingenuity and beautiful nature in the form of gardens, all in one. Having now won many awards for tourism, architecture and management, a visit to Gardens by the Bay was on our list to visit.

Singapore never disappoints, but today it had forgotten to provide blue skies with the sunshine. We often find in Asia that on a sunny day, a thin layer of cloud prevents that brilliance to be poured out on the experience.

During this trip, Lyn and I have been measuring our steps and distanced travelled each day and today was going to be one where we increased our distanced walked by a good margin. We chose to walk down to Marina Bay Sands rather than the quicker cab service. It was quite a walk but fortunately, it was early Sunday morning and there weren’t too many out doing the same. We came across the oldest icon for Singapore, which we hadn’t in the past. Still looking imposing, the Merlion seems to control the surroundings and the man-made lake before it.

We walked around the lake to the Marina Bay Sands precinct. Here is another imposing icon that has become the feature of every travel brochure on Singapore. Many buildings in Singapore appear to be ‘entrants in the national architects competition’ and this building surely was a winner at some stage. It provides the backdrop to the magnificent Gardens by the Bay.

Stepping off the shuttle train towards the two domes brought a feeling of ‘what have they done to improve what we had seen before?’ Each three months, the floral display depicts different moods within a garden. We were there for the change and so the full display was being a little disrupted as the change from tulips to Christmas lilies, as gardeners extracted the old and were planting the new.

Moving to the Forest Dome, Lyn found that the colour variety had more to it than at our last visit. I had used a small Sony camera last visit but this time, the movie got a chance to take in the many blooms up the side of the vertical garden. I hope the movie does justice to the scenes before us.

After dinner in one of the Chinese restaurants in the gardens, we took some time on the skyway that is ‘strung’ between the ‘man invented trees’. Each tree has vertical gardens growing amongst the metal frames of the trees. We were impressed with the one that was laden with bougainvillea of various shades.

The Garden Rhapsody Light Show is on twice each evening and we took our spots to film from an appropriate location to take in the complete performance. Popular orchestra music is played while the lights in the trees ‘perform’ their translation of the emotions played in the music. The 11 minutes went all too quickly.

We had mentioned to the others in our group where we would be for the evening, but did not see them after the show. We waited for them to return on our arrival back at the motel. Each of us said how we enjoyed the light show and well worth going to. However, as it turned out, we were talking about different shows. The others had gone to a light show that is played 15 minutes after the Garden Rhapsody on the other side of Marina Bay Sands with the lake being used in the performance. So looks like next time we return, we will be going to each other’s shows.

Tomorrow is our final day on tour as we wing our way back to Melbourne or Sydney.

To see yourself, get out and see the world.

Barcelona, is the capital city of the autonomous community of Catalonia in Spain and Spain’s second most populated city, with a population of 1.6 million within its administrative limits. Its urban area extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of around 4.7 million people, being the seventh-most populous urban area in the European Union after Paris, London, Madrid the Ruhr area, and Berlin and Milan. It is the largest metropolis on the Mediterranean Sea, located on the coast between the mouths of the rivers Llobregat and Besos, and bounded to the west by the Serra de Collserola mountain range, the tallest peak of which is 512 metres (1,680 ft) high. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia.

MY city has proved to be more than I had expected. I was aware that Barcelona was a good city to visit but had visions of ‘another old European city full of old buildings’. My impression now is ‘a European city full of old buildings, merged in with many new and architecturally diverse buildings’. Of course, a mass of moving people, scooters, taxis and tour buses.

After shopping at the market for our breakfast, we took the Blue Route of the hop on hop off bus to the northern part of the city. These tours take 3-4 hours and are very popular with the tourists. We lined up for 30 minutes to board the bus for our journey. The top deck is usually full. A guy commentates on the buildings and architecture and various famous people of the city who lived in ‘that’ building or composed ‘that’ piece of music ‘there’. You listen in to your language through supplied earphones.

I had said to Lyn that we never get off at the touristy spots and were right outside the Barcelona Football Stadium soon after. I thought I could jump off the bus and buy some souvenirs and back on. Lyn suggested we get off and take a look around at what looked like a very busy attraction. It turned out that it surely was a busy attraction with official football clothing and souvenirs and other sports related ‘stuff’ available. The que to the ‘walk through the stadium’ visit was very long, each willing to pay 23 Euro to do just that. The retail hall was exceptionally busy with shoppers able to buy football jumpers and have their team hero’s name and number embroidered or stamped on them. They also had a little waffle bar and that became our lunch stop. (Now ya talkin’).

As we had said to our group members to fossick around and see the city, we had not expected to see any of them for most of the visit. While walking around the football precinct, we ‘banged’ into Lindley who was wandering alone. With 3 million people in this city, the odds of accomplishing that are way out of this world.

At the end of the Blue Route Tour, Lyn and I returned to the room for a rest before setting out by foot to see some more of the city. We found the Gotic District considered to be the old part of the city. Of course, there was another grande cathedral there and people milling around the square. We stopped to view some break dancers doing their thing; one guy seemed to be bouncing from a shoulder stand and into a head stand and back to a shoulder stand with the beat of the music. After his effort, I noticed he was a little ‘dazzed’ if that is the right word.

For dinner, we went into the supermarket across the road and found an Asian ‘cook and eat’ kitchen inside the supermarket. We ordered and for 6 Euros each had a very nice bucket of Asian rice or noodles with vegetables.

Another early night was our choice and we were asleep by 9:00pm.

We board the Royal Princess tomorrow for our much awaited for 21 day cruise around the Mediterranean – stay with us.