Med-Ventures

So we spent a much needed leisure morning at our hotel in Rome. Wow, the train staion in Rome is insane!  Thousands of people, too many trains (I'm sure it's like Grand Central  Station), most everything is in Italian, and the ticket machines won't take our credit cards or cash. Mark's off to find help while I sit on all our bags and hope nobody snatches anything out from under me.  We finally board our 12:40 train for Civitavecchia, the kids, our home for the next week and the Mediterranean Sea. Whew!

Check in was a breeze, off to our cabin...which little miss Kayleigh had so nicely decorated for our anniversary and my birthday, as well as provided us with a nice little bar for our enjoyment. 

My working girl

The cute couple, kayleigh decorated our cabin

Kayleigh and Rob had made arrangements to take us to a very special dinner in the specialty restaurant Tamarind.  It was fabulous! They both worked every evening but they were able to join us for dinner almost every night. 

Pulling into Sicily

NFirst stop Palermo, Sicily. We chose to wonder the quaint streets aimlessly, ok we got lost a couple of times. Turns out the ship map was a little wrong...we decided to sit a spell in a alleyway cafe and have pizza, beers and a very very strange, and bad I might add, white wine. Along came the strolling accordian player to set the mood just right. A little more lost walking and we happened upon some pretty fabulous gelato, all is not lost. We did finally make it to the catacombs...ewww gross. I guess I never really knew what that would be like. 8000 mummified bodies dating as far back as 1534 all hanging on the walls and laying on shelf after shelf. I gotta say that will be the first and last time I go out of my way to do that. 

Our Home away from home away from home

Pulling into Palermo

Palermo, Italy

Market shopping in Sidi Bou Said, Tunis

A Spectacular Tunisian Sunset 

Tunisian Mosaic at the palace

 On to La Goulette, Tunisia. I was very excited that we got to set foot in Africa.  That being said, I did not fall in love with Tunisia. We hired a cab for 5 hours for the 4 of us to take us to Carthage, Medina and Sidi Bou Said. We had been warned, that the shops and markets would be very aggressive and pushy, by western standards, but perfectly acceptable in their culture. Still didn't like it, and I can only be followed and yelled at so much. Our driver was more interested in taking us to the shops in which he gets a cut on our purchases, to bad for him we are not big shoppers. Back to the ship and the lido deck to enjoy a bit of reading in the cool sunshine.

Sidi Bou Said, Tunis

Barcelona

Our sky tram ride over Barcelona

Ah, Barcelona.....from the moment we stepped off the ship, to our return, We LOVED Barcelona. We got ourselves a hop on hop off bus pass and enjoyed the ride around the city. We chose to get off and transfer bus lines at one point, however too many people were waiting in line for us to hop back on, so we walked the 8 or so blocks to the Sagrada Familia church, Gaudi's most famous work. Construction started in 1882 and to this day it is still not finished as you can see in the pictures.  The amazing structure has tower cranes popping up from everywhere. 

half way across, looking back

We took a short but much needed break from the crowds and found an outdoor Tapas bar, Rob and Kayleigh ordered for us. Gotta say...the sun was out, the beer was cold, the wine was good, the company was great, and the food was yummy! Back on the bus for more of our city tour, R & K had to get back to the ship for work so Mark and I decided to get off the bus and ride the sky tram back down to the waterfront and put our feet in the sand on the Mediterranean Sea. What a beautiful waterfront walkway back to the port area. Barcelona really invested in their city for the 1992 Olympics. It is so clean and beautiful, with bike and running paths everywhere.  A must do for everyone and hopefully a repeat visit from us.

Christopher Columbus statue in Barcelona

Sagrada Familia Church, Barcelona

Old Barcelona

Toes in the sand of the Mediterranean Sea

Crashed out in K & R's cabin after another long day

Barcelona boardwalk....

Monte Carlo, home of the Grand Prix, Princess Grace and the Casino de Monte Carlo.

With Kayleigh working all day, Mark Rob and I headed out to walk around the city in search of "the best Pizza ever" recommended by a friend. We gave up looking after too much walking and found a little restaurant and yes, pizza ($60 and pretty ok). Rob headed back to the ship and to Kayleigh so that maybe they can share Monte Carlo together next week when they return. Again we went with the hop on hop off bus and a great topside seat in the sunshine. The city is gearing up for the grand prix starting May 24, so we could only imagine how much more beautiful it would be without all the barricades, grandstands, detours and fencing set up everywhere. We hiked up and down Fort Antoine, perched on the hillside overlooking the harbour of Monaco. Built as a fortress in the 18th century, nowadays it's used as an outdoor theater. Used by Pierce Brosnan as Bond in Goldeneye in 1995. We ended another lovely day in an outdoor cafe across from the Palais de Prince (Palace of Monaco) enjoying french wine and sunshine. Tonight we are honored to have Pim de Visser 3rd officer join us for dinner, always great to see him again. He just happens to be K & R's great friend, who provided us with a tour of the Bridge on our last sailing...truly an amazing experience.

Monte Carlo 

Monte Carlo Aquarium

Pulling into Monte Carlo

Atop Fort Antoine

Monte Carlo

Fancy night leaving Monte Carlo

Our tender into La Spezia

Last day, but thank goodness it was spectacular! Holland America was required to change our port from Santa Margherita to La Spezia. We were not really sure what we should do, but the kids got some great advice. The travel advisor suggested that we board a train and head to Cinque Terre (5 towns) built into the mountains, about a 45 minutes ride. 

La Spezia

La Spezia, Italy

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ok, so we only had time enough for one amazing town and beach, Monterossa, but we fell in love with all of it. We thought we would hike to the next town, but we got a late start and didn't have time to finish the two hour hike and make it back to the ship in time for the kids to go to work. I guess we will have to come back another time.

Beautiful Monterossa

Beautiful Monterosso, Italy

Monterossa, Italy

Great beachfront cafes, Monterossa

Fantastic day in monterosso

Disembarkation day, waiting up on the lido deck

Famous WW2 statue in Civitavecchia, Italy

We found it in Rome of course

Disembarkation day is always depressing.  All the bags are packed and taken away in the middle of the night, and you just sit in the morning waiting for your time to get off.  K & R abandoned us to go meet some friends on shore, but we got a final wave from the deck of the ship as they were walking down the pier.....or so we thought.  The port was chaos, but we finally hopped a shuttle to the port entrance, but it just kinda dumps you there.  Hundreds of confused travelers trying to figure out which way to go.  We spun around to start walking to the train station and ran right into K & R!  STALKERS!  Their plans to meet friends didn't pan out so they helped us get all our gear to the train station, and Rob was kind enough to buy our tickets back to Rome for us.

After a hot sticky one hour ride we made it back to the Rome station and stored our bags so we could go play for the rest of the day.  Our flight was late so we had around 6 hours to kill.  Another hop-on-hop-off bus was the right call.  We breezed through Rome so quickly before the cruise that we decided to just get on the bus and ride it around.  About 3/4 of the way through the ride a familiar smell caught us.  Sure enough the bus went right by the Hard Rock. We stopped for a not so Italian lunch then hopped back on the bus for another loop of Rome before catching a train to the airport.

What a trip.....next up?