Home Sweet Home

Well we have been home a week and I unpacked the last (clothes) suitcase and did the last load of travel laundry today.  We had a FANTASTIC trip but I am happy to be home for a while.  I have the craft suitcase to unpack and I have to make the trip photo show, which should be ready by Feb.  I will post the link here, on FB and WG if you want to watch it...
I don't think either of us is ready for another long voyage/trip YET but B will leave in 2 weeks for a short casino/WG trip and in January we will join friends for a 7 day poker cruise out of Ft Lauderdale.
Happy Thanksgiving and hope you enjoyed your virtual cruise.  HUGS GB

Canary Islands

Tenereef, Canary Islands - beginning of shopping strasse

We are in La Palma, Canary Islands today and the weather is crummy - rainy and cold.  It is our last shore day so we are disappointed - we will probably not get off the ship at all... 

We enjoyed Tenereife yesterday and B got a Mc Donald's cheesburger.  We went to the local market and I had the best empanadas ever!  yum!  did a little shopping and then back to the ship for the jacuzzi...  

We had one sea day so far so I taught my first craft class... had over 50 people and we had to turn some away as we had no space...  Luckily the ship's schedule said limited space so we did not have complaining passengers too much...lol!

Tomorrow we start the 7 day crossing - home shortly - it is our 34th anniversary tomorrow... 

This will probably be the last blog but I will try to post some photos later...  happy sailing 

The Sultan of the Sea and the Sultry on Halloween

B tries to figure out where we are...

water source

Central Market in Tennereef

Hola from Malaga

Hola from Malaga, Spain

Well the Liberty is a HUGE ship – probably holds 3500 passengers…and they all arrived in the Barcelona port to board at the same time!  We actually sat on a bench and people watched as the line (or queue as the Brits say) went by us.  We played the game “American or Foreign” based on attire!  LOL!  About 2 hours later B said he would get in line and I waited till he got to the front to join him…  We finally finished the boarding process about an hour and a half later…ugh!  At least we weren’t exhausted or suffering from jet lag like some folks.  We went to get a bite to eat then suffered through the mandatory boat drill!  Double ugh!

Yesterday we were in Cartehenga and were able to just walk off the ship and walk right into town…  It is a beautiful city and a nice area for a stroll.  In fact all the locals were walking down to see the ship as we walked in to see the town. Lol!  I got to pet several dogs including one Dalmatian – miss my dog…  Of course it was Sunday so shops were closed, but I don’t have room to buy much else anyways…lol!  However B was disappointed because even the grocery stores were closed…hehe  He wanted to buy some more soda.  We have actually found caffeine free Coke Zero around…  sure wish they carried it in the states… 

We got lucky and have late seating with 3 other American couples at our table.  They seem nice enough and conversation is interesting.  Food has been good so far and we have had one formal night already…  There is morning trivia at 10am – which is a bit early for me but I am managing to drag myself out of bed to play…LOL!  We have one more port in Spain and then the Canary Islands.  I will begin teaching arts and crafts every sea day.  The class will be at 3:30 is the afternoon which is great!  The space crafts are in is acceptable but has small round tables – it may be hard to teach painting classes…

Today we are in Malaga, Spain but we didn’t get off as the town center is about 4 miles from the ship.  We have been here before on a small ship and were able to dock right in town – this one requires the use of a shuttle but for a fee, & we really did not want to fight 1500 folks for a seat on the bus…  There is a terminal so B went off to see if they had a store for soda just here in the port…  I am sitting in The Viking Lounge (very top bar on ship) overlooking the whole Malagan area – the view is great.  A beach area, a cathedral and lots of condo like buildings with a green hillside behind.  Well it has been 4 hours since we ate last (lol!), so I will post this, then off to lunch…  oh and 4pm is frozen swirled yogurt time…  happy sailing…

Florence, Rome and Barcelona

We are on our third day in Barcelona, but I will backtrack and tell you about our last couple of days.

Florence

We took the train (about an hour ride from Sienna) into Florence on a Saturday 20 Oct and we were worried about how busy it was going to be in the city.  However Saturday is a great day to visit Florence if you are going to ride the hop on-hop off bus – there is no traffic!  We rode around once and saw all the gorgeous sights, 

then got off near an area we wanted to explore.  We noticed a charity function going on in a building and thot this would be a perfect place to spend “Georges”…  As we walk in, people say hello to us and offer us dessert and coffee in English!  What are the chances – we have walked into an English speaking Methodist church! And there is a man making and selling balloons!  Too funny!  

 We wandered and shopped, walked on the Ponte Vechiccio, and ate then hopped back on the bus to ride to the top to take this panoramic photo.

Back to Sienna by train and we had a weird hamburger in a fast food place at the train station.  B adventured through a huge grocery store and I played with a puppy… lol!  As we payed for our ALL day parking – 2 euros (not quite $3) we commented it was the best bargain in Italy! Ha!  As Florence is our favorite city I will post more photos than usual...

Jess come get arrested in Italy!  LOL!

on the Ponte Vecchio in front of jewlery store - Maddie, B was gonna get you something but there was toooo much jewelry to choose from...lol!

what more could a Georger want?  Free wifi, a place to spend georges and yummy gelatto!

oh no! B ran out of money again!  I wonder how that happens?  lol!

St Peter's Basilica in Rome

Roma

Sunday we drove to Rome – about a 3 hour drive, however B had booked a room at the Crown Plaza on the outskirts of Rome and the directions we had were lousy.  We drove in circles for about 45 minutes, checking road after road but we knew we had driven more than 600 meters…  We finally asked at a Holiday Inn and found out we had turned around about 2 blocks from seeing a hotel sign!  Ugh!  It was quite stressful, but B & I managed not to yell at each other – too much!  Lol!  The Crown Plaza has a Roman Spa with sauna, Jacuzzi and pool inclusive, so we put on our suits and relaxed.  CP also provides a shuttle into Rome so we took the evening one in and found a restaurant in a plaza and dined “al fresco” once again…  I will miss our outside dinners when we return to TX as I hear it is cccold there…  The next morning we went back into Rome and the shuttle drops you in the Vatican plaza…  It is an amazing sight which we only viewed from the outside as there was a humongous line up of people waiting to get inside and see the Sistine Chapel…  We meandered over to the Red Bus and once again toured the city.   

B studies map and listens to tour of Rome on the Red Bus

We did get off once and walk over to the Trevi Fountain so we could throw and coin and wish to return. 

B makes a wish

us at the Trevi Fountain

 

 

 

 

Colosseum

 Rome is an amazing city with lots of history, archeological sights and incredible architecture but I wished to return to Florence…  I didn’t feel as welcome in Rome and the city is a bit dirty but the food all over Italy is mostly great!  We are gonna have to cut back from 3 course meals when we return – lol!

one of the most interesting sights on the Barcelona tour

Barcelona

Last Tuesday we drove to Civetivechio and boarded the ferry.  It was an adventure getting our 8 pieces of luggage to the ship and on the ferry as they don’t offer porter service…  We arrived over 3 hours early (as we had to return the rental car) & made certain we were in the right place.  One of the crew was returning and we pointed at all our luggage saying we would pay for help and he said, “wait here until they let you board – I will return…”

He did and brought a friend with him so we managed just fine – what a relief!  He even helped us disembark – it was sooo worth it!

Brian booked a Holiday Inn about 40 minutes outside of Barcelona – it is free using his points, so we figured it was cheaper using taxis than paying $150/night in Barcelona (hotels are EXPENSIVE here!)  Turns out there is a train about a 7 minute walk away that takes you direct into downtown Barcelona…  The taxi driver (we played tetris with our luggage in a tiny cab) almost the same amount of trouble finding the Holiday Inn that night as we had in Rome finding the Crown Plaza…yikes!  I was looking forward to a nice dinner but there is nothing around the hotel – so we ate at the hotel…  Food was good – we ordered a vegetable stew & that is what it was: veggies only with lots of artichoke – yummy!  I ate mine and part of Brian’s – when the waitress cleared our plates I complimented her on the first course saying I have eaten half B’s too…  She said, “I saw”…lol!  So later when she brought the lemon mousse for dessert – which was fabulous, better than any dessert on the ship – B ate half mine…  I whined at the waitress and she cleared plates, coming back from the kitchen with another serving of mouse, scolding B, “only for her…”  lol!  But she brought two spoons…  The next night we just ate pizza here at the hotel but we were talking about the amazing mousse(which was not on the menu) – I told B not to tease her or she would try to get some…So we never mentioned it – BUT we still ended up with lemon mousse!  Incredible!  We made balloons for her and the cook – she was an adorable waitress…

The weather has turned cold and when we took the hop on-hop off bus in Barcelona it even rained…  Florence and Rome tours were about an hour or so to go all around – Barcelona is 2 hours and not much of interest…  I am not that much impressed with this city…  Today we went back in on the train and went to the casino.  I played poker for a couple of hours and B played slots.  It was fun sitting at a poker table again even if half the players spoke only Spanish…  I had lousy cards for about an hour and half, then finally won a big pot…  I was 10 euro ahead and B had won 6 euro, so we left and went to dinner.  I had a HUGE pot of mussels and they were really delish!  Tomorrow we board the Liberty of the Seas, a Royal Caribbean ship.  We sail for Ft Lauderdale stopping at 3 ports in Spain & 2 in the Canary Islands.  I will say “adios” for now…  Happy Sailing