Last Installment

Chloe and Anneke waiting in NYC for five hours 

Written by Nonny the day after we returned home.

Yesterday was our hardest yet as we were up for about 26 hours altogether, with very little sleep on the plane.  The actual flying time from Barcelona to Seattle was about 14 hours, but with final packing, travel to the airport, plane delays, immigration and customs, time between planes at JFK, and travel time home, it made for a very long day.

On reflection our favorite places were Paris, Venice, Dubrovnik, Florence, Barcelona, and the island of Skiathos.  We had a wonderful time, but are all glad to be home again.

Last Day in Europe

Chloe and Anneke at Sagrada Familia Cathedral, Barcelona

We decided to start our day with a visit to La Sagrada Familia Cathedral, a Gaudi creation.  The facade was different from any other church we had seen.  There were no straight lines.  They all seemed to spiral upwards.

The line to get in looked very long, but only took us about 12 minutes.  Inside, the church was filled with pillars that were very beautiful.  The stained glass windows cast colored lights on the pillars.  It was the most memorable church we’ve seen, but not our favorite.  Chloe believes her favorite churches are St. Peters Basilica in Rome, Sacre Coeur and St. Chappelle in Paris.

We then took a taxi to see more of Gaudi’s houses in Barcelona before walking La Rambla, the most famous street in all of Spain.  We did the predictable tourist thing and bought some souvenirs.

After a rest at a sidewalk café, we took a taxi up the hill to the Spanish Village of Poble Espanyol.  We enjoyed this most out of all of the attractions in Barcelona because there were NO crowds.   It was very peaceful and authentic, making us feel as if we were in a medieval Spanish village.

We’re sad to leave Europe in the morning, but we are happy to be going home.

Martes en Espanã (Tuesday in Spain)

Anneke and Chloe in front of Gaudi House at Parc Guel

This morning we woke up at 5:00 a.m. when the ship docked in Barcelona.  We stretched out our breakfast until our number was called to get off the ship. 

After we left the ship, we got a taxi cab that took us to our apartment.  The lady who we were supposed to meet, a doctor who had been on a 24-hour shift, wasn’t there yet.  We waited in a café next door for 90 minutes.  We finally found her and she showed us her apartment (she stayed with her brother when she rented out her apartment). 

After a little rest, we decided to check out Gaudi’s houses in Parc Guell.  Anneke thought it was interesting and beautiful; but, because her ankle was hurting her from all the walking, we had to cut it short and go home.  Chloe thought that the buildings came straight out of a fairy tale and she was reluctant to leave.

When we returned, we Skyped Mom and Dad and then rested for awhile before going out to an outdoor café for dinner. 

Anneke thinks that Barcelona is a beautiful and and clean city.  She especially likes our balcony.  Chloe loved the fact that Spanish artists and architects were so willing to try new and beautiful art styles.  She, too, loved Barcelona.

Unexpected Surprise

Chloe and Anneke on the ship

This morning everybody was all ready to go Monaco when we realized the ship was not docking.  Anneke called Guest  Services and found out that due to high winds, we could not dock.  Instead, we had another day at sea.

Once we finished breakfast, we weren’t sure what to do.  Anneke decided to go on the Sky Course yet again.  Chloe wanted to listen to her book, so she stayed in the room.  Papa went to the Casino and Nonny looked at photos. 

After that, Anneke went to the arcade to play for awhile.  After a couple of games, she called Chloe down to try to win her a prize.  Their luck was rotten, and they didn’t get a prize but had a fun time anyway.

Chloe and Papa went to an Art Auction for three hours.  Chloe bought five prints and really enjoyed it. 

After dinner we saw a show with lights, magic and dancing. We saw someone’s head being turned 360 degrees, and the classic trick of being sawed in half. Everyone was impressed, and we all enjoyed it. We knew that it was impossible to do these things and that there was a trick, but we were baffled.

This cruise was one of the best, if the not THE best, experiences of our lives.

Firenze, Hooray!

Anneke and Chloe at Ponte Vecchio, Florence

Today was much better than Rome.  We had a wonderful city guide and a wonderful bus tour guide.  After a good breakfast we headed to the theater to get on our tour bus.  After yet another 90-minute drive through the beautiful Tuscan countryside, we reached Firenze (Florence).  We drove to a bus stop, and got off to walk to a square, our meeting place, after our free time.  We walked past Leonardo da Vinci’s house and into the Piazza de la Signorina. It is an open air museum of sculptures. Among others, there was a copy of Michelangelo’s David. Our tour guide told us about the making of the original, and why they had to put it inside. It had been made from inferior marble and was cracking.  It is now surrounded by a glass case in the Academia.  We then walked over the Ponte Vecchio (old bridge). On it is a collection of jewelry shops. The Medici’s built a passage over it to get around privately.

Later on, we saw a string of locks that went between two posts. We asked our city guide what they were and he said that lovers used to make a vow together with the lock and then threw the key in the river.  

As we circled back around, we walked into the courtyard of the Uffizi, the oldest museum in the world.  Inside we saw many famous paintings and because the museum was organized in chronological order, we got to see the history and how the styles of art progressed.  Unfortunately, it was very crowded and Anneke didn’t get to see much over the heads of adults, but what she did see, she said was beautiful.  Chloe continued to say that every time she sees something that she only has seen in books, she can’t believe that she is seeing it in real life.  After the Uffizi, our tour guide led us to the cathedral in Piazza del Duomo. We marveled at the church and then went to lunch.

After lunch we had two hours of free time. We chose to try to find the oldest church in Florence.  It was built in the 8^th century. We were surprised that the people of the Dark Ages would have the money to build such a beautiful and elaborate church. We then roamed the streets looking for a souvenir.  We got back to our meeting place early, so we sat down for a cool drink in the piazza.  Anneke was talking with gestures, and hit Nonny’s wine glass.  It flew though the air and sliced Nonny’s hand.  Luckily we had a nurse sitting next to us and she helped us.  We walked back to our bus with our group.  We had an uneventful trip back to the ship and headed to the medical bay where Nonny got proper bandages.

Florence was one of our favorite cities and one of our best tours. We had a lot of fun.

Roman Holiday?

Anneke in St. Peter's Basilica, Rome

Today was an early morning and it started out okay, but ended up horribly.  First, after the bus ride of 90 min., we went to the Vatican Museum.  Inside we saw many sculptures and tapestries. We also saw the Sistine Chapel.  Anneke said that it was much smaller than she thought it would be, but that it was beautiful.  It lived up to all of Chloe’s expectations and more. She loved seeing the real Creation of Adam, not just in a book. Afterwards we went into St. Peter’s Basilica and saw briefly “La Pieta” by Michelangelo.  Our guide showed us many details and monuments.

When we came out into the square the heat was intense. It was 82 degrees Fahrenheit.  We walked by the obelisk and to a souvenir shop where we would meet in an hour.  We went into the shop and then to a little café where we had some cold drinks. When we met the group again, we got on the bus to go to lunch. After a ride to the outskirts of Rome, we sat down to eat.  This is where things started to go down hill. The lunch took us two hours, because the service was slow.  After lunch, a scenic tour of  Rome, a stop for two hours in Polomo Square where we could take our own time to go to the Coliseum, the Trevi Fountain or shopping were scheduled.  Many people fell asleep on the “bus tour.”  We couldn’t understand our guide and she withheld bathroom privileges and was rude.

After showing us many unimportant things, we finally got to Polomo Square, after nearly two more hours of bus trip around Rome districts.  We thought that now we had finally gotten to something that we had been looking forward to. We wanted to see the Trevi Fountain. She then told us that we only had 25 minutes.  If we wanted to see the fountain then we had to run, and couldn’t take a much needed bathroom break. Everyone was already cross, but this made us mad.  She had wasted much of our time showing us the oldest hospital, and took away our chance to do anything of importance.  She left people in the dust as we ran across intersections trying to get to our bus.  She threatened us with a 200-dollar fine if we were late and we would have had to find our way back  to the ship alone.  On the way back we found that our only common ground with other passengers was revenge.  We were cracking jokes about how we would make t-shirts that read, “I survived the Rome Tour of 2011,” or “I survived Bus #5!” (It was our bus number.) 

When we returned to the ship, we joined about 50 other passengers to demand a refund and vent all our troubles to the customer services people.  We are still waiting on the refund.  Overall it was the worst day we have had yet. We loved the Vatican City, but the rest was bad. We hope tomorrow is better in Florence.

The Ruins of Pompeii

Anneke and Chloe at Pompeii

Our Port of Call this morning was Naples. We had a tour planned and, luckily, it was later in the day. We met at the theatre to go to the Ruins of Pompeii.  After we were ten minutes away, we still had some time to kill.   We toured a factory where they took coral, shell and semiprecious stones and carved beautiful cameos out of them.  They herded us through their showroom and Papa was surprised at how many of our group bought cameos. 

When we had been dropped off, we were led into the ruins. Inside we saw taverns, with the still intact bars.  We saw an outdoor theatre and a bathhouse.  Afterwards, we saw the red light district, some villas, the forum, the basilica, and Jupiter’s temple. Even though we saw so much. we saw only about a quarter of the city. Our tour guide was very good and we learned a lot about all the different ruins.

After we were outside the 2,000 year old rubble, our tour guide gave us 15 minutes to roam around the tourist shops.  We barely made it back to the bus in time. When our tour guide counted, we were two people short. We almost left because we had waited a half hour, but they came running. We got back and came to our room, definitely ready for a rest.

Sicily Today!

Chloe at the Greek Theater (nearly 3000 yrs. old) at Taormina, Sicily, Italy

Sicily

After everyone woke up, we went out to breakfast.  As we looked out on Messini, we saw a large cathedral.  We didn’t have anything planned for today so we decided to wing it.  We went to ask some questions at the tour desk about where we should go and she recommended a tour up to a medieval, walled-village outside of Messina, Taormina.   We eventually signed up for that but we had to wait until 1:00 p.m., so we determined to walk up the hill to the cathedral with the beautiful facade called Cristo Re church.  As we went up, so did the temperature. To our surprise, inside it was an art gallery.  We could look down to a bottom level and see a casket of some sort, much like in Westminster Abbey, with the statue of the person lying at rest on the top.  It was a knight.  We walked around the outside until we found the door to the bottom level and went inside.  We found that it was a war memorial; and instead of a knight, it was a World War II soldier.

We had some extra time before our tour and saw another church we wished to enter.  We walked across the hill to it and while Anneke and Papa waited outside, Nonny and Chloe went inside the most different church we had been in.  Sicily was invaded many times by many different people.  One of those groups was  the Normans. They built many churches and buildings.  Inside the church we saw small and intricate paintings on the roofs and beams. It reminded Chloe of the Normans’ art. As we were leaving we saw a sign that the church was built in 1294, 715 years ago.

Anneke decided not to go on a tour in the afternoon, and Papa had to stay with her, so we got a refund on their tickets.  Nonny and Chloe took the one-hour bus ride to the mideval town of Taormina. It was a beautiful drive along the coast and although the maneuvering was scary in a bus, we loved the views.  When we got there our tour guide walked us past several churches and through three squares.  He showed us one restaurant where the entrance was about a foot wide.  We went up to Greek amphitheatre and after a human jam, we went inside.  While Nonny sat on the stone benches, Chloe wandered around the top taking many pictures, being more excited about these ruins than the ones in Verona.  When Chloe was ready to go, she met up and Nonny who told Chloe that as she was wandering. she had seen our tour guide giving information to the rest of our tour. We had not heard him say to wait and missed some info. but  we got more time to see the theatre.  On our way back we bought some gelato, oranges, and we tried a cannoli; but he gave us mango filling and we thought it was odd .  We met at our meeting spot and headed for the bus.  Once on the cruise ship again, we found that Anneke and Papa had spent the day relaxing in the room. 

We were going to pass the most active volcano in Europe, Stromboli, after dinner and went out into the wind to get a view. We waited for forever and we saw two spurts and a red glow.  It was very exciting after waiting so long in the cold.  Papa believes we were some of the only ones to have gotten any actual photos of the eruption, since we had played with camera settings for awhile in anticipation of the event..   We came back to the room and collapsed.

Second Fun Day at Sea

Chloe and Anneke at Formal Dinner

This morning we went to a sit down breakfast.  Anneke left early to go to a rope course called the Sky Course.  She had lots of fun! Soon after, Anneke met her friend and they wandered through the ship.  During their adventures, Anneke got a free balloon dolphin hat and Monique got a cartoon character.  Also they went on the water slides over and over again.  Everybody else spent the day at sea relaxing and reading.  This evening was Formal Night, so we all got dressed up.  Nonny bought Anneke a scarf and Chloe a bag. At dinner the waiters sang a song, “That’s Amore.”  After dinner we went to a show that was very funny.  It was performed by a woman who was a female impressionist.  What a wonderful end to wonderful day!   

A Day in Croatia

Anneke and Chloe in Dubrovnik

Early this morning the ship docked in Dubrovnik, Croatia.  We had 12 hours in port and enjoyed a lot of flexibility.  After we had eaten breakfast, we went down to the gangplank.  Before we could leave, we had to go through security.  Even as we were walking off the gangplank, we were bombarded by souvenir shops. We looked at what they had to offer and took a taxi to the Old Town.  Once there we took some pictures of a cove with the battlements.  The weather was horrible and made for beautiful pictures of the turbulent water.  We proceeded across the drawbridge and into the walled town of  Medieval Dubrovnik.

Inside we decided we wanted to go up on the wall but not just yet, and so we went on.  The main drag was wall to wall souvenir shops and the like.  As we walked down the street, we went in shops and churches.  We bought some gifts and souvenirs. We skirted off down some side streets but were unable to find Croatian food so we ate pizza.  We did find our favorite dessert and had tiramisu gelato in the rain.  While Papa and Anneke sat by the fountain in the main square, Nonny and Chloe went up into the wet ramparts.  We took some wonderful pictures and Chloe didn’t hold onto her umbrella very well. Sorry, Mom!  Once down, we looked for the umbrella and eventually gave up.  We took a taxi back and got on our cruise ship,  glad that we had come to Croatia.

First Fun Day at Sea

Chloe and Anneke at Northern Lights Restaurant, Carnival Magic

We had a late breakfast and Anneke went to Club Carnival where she colored a T-shirt.  There she met a girl named Monique from South Africa.  They became friends. While everybody else relaxed Anneke and her friend explored the ship and  went on the water slides. Her favorite one went around slowly, then it suddenly dropped and you went into a funnel and were swirled around.   The girls swapped room numbers, played Jenga, and built a volcano.  Anneke decided to take a nap because nobody had slept well the night before.

Later Anneke and Chloe went to the Warehouse Arcade where Chloe won Anneke another stuffed animal.  This time it was a whale and Anneke gave it to Monique.

Bon Voyage

Chloe and Anneke in stateroom on Carnival Magic in Venice

Sunday

This morning we packed our bags and went to the square for the last time.  Anneke fed the pigeons all the leftover cereal. We then got on the express boat that took us right to our cruise ship.  After we got through security and on the HUGE boat, Anneke was hungry so we went to the buffet. Then we explored the ship.  There was an arcade where Chloe won a stuffed frog for Ani.  When we were back in the room, we had to go to the safety seminar and Anneke thought that it was really boring. Chloe thought it would be helpful in the event that that the boat sank.  After a little rest it was dinnertime.  It was a good day.   

We may not publish the posts each day while on the ship, but we will write them and publish them together when we have easy access to internet.