THIS IS THE END FOR NOW

I think this will be the last post from our days at sea.  There is not much that is different or changing so I will talk about all the little things.  Laundry has been done a couple of times and it will be great to go home with mostly clean clothes.  The seem to do a fabulous job, but they put a label in all your clothes.  This is fine until the scratchy little thing you forgot to remove is poking you in a place you don’t want to touch when you are out in public.  Of course that is when it decides to poke you.  Would be nice if they were thinner and less pokey.

Interesting feature of this ship is that you can view the bridge from a room in behind.  You can't interact with the crew doing their job, but it is interesting to look out through the big windows up front.  It is strictly forbidden to take pictures, but I stood back and snapped a quick one that really doesn't have any detail - but gives you an idea.

We had another day of huge swells.  Playing cards on deck 5 the wave hit the top of the window.  The bang was quite loud and the splash was amazing.  One man was standing at the window when it hit.  What a surprise he got!  We were playing the card game golf.  I had forgotten about that one.  It is a lot of fun for 4 players.  

Magnet seems to be fixed on the bathroom sliding door.  If it stays rocky, it shouldn’t be slamming and banging any more.  Tonight will be a good test of that.  Hmm huge swells and entering the Bermuda Triangle…the skies are looking nasty and the white caps and swells are plentiful.  It is going to be rough seas tonight.  The weather map seems to indicate the rest of the way could be rough.

I don’t think I mentioned that the carpet on the ship has little fish swimming.  They are always pointing to the front of the ship.  So as soon step into the hallway, you’re aware of the direction you are heading.  It was very helpful for the first few days, now I don’t need them to point me in the right direction, but I enjoy looking at them.

Now as we are nearing the end of the cruise, I am happy to report that we are happy and healthy and hoping to remain that way.  It was a good time and we remain friends – that is good and very important.  I have begun to pack things into my suitcase to prepare for the final departure.  See you soon!

DAY 4 OF 8 DAYS AT SEA

The at sea days are not very exciting.  Today being another one of those.  We had a quiet night last night without any pitching and rolling about and woke up to a lovely day.  The weather was very warm and it was actually too hot to sit out on the balcony for more than a couple of minutes.

A new Scrabble game made an appearance in the game room so Brenda and I were able to have a game.  It was a good game.  I think we play similarly and that always makes for a good game.  We also played a couple of the usual 2 player card games that can pass the time.

The decorations around the ship are really becoming more prevalent.  Each day something new makes an appearance.  There are beautiful displays in each of the dining rooms that appear to be made of marzipan, gingerbread, icing, lights and lot of imagination.  They are fun to look at.  I usually have my camera or my phone handy to snap pictures of any new decorations that appear.

This afternoon the pool deck was very busy with lots of pool time, sun bathing time and just people enjoying the heat today.  I imagine as we sail further west and south that we will see more sunshine and warmer temperatures.  Then, Brenda and I will need to acclimatize ourselves when we get home.  Home might be sunny...but it won't be very warm.  

Home is looking pretty good right now.  I think that 16 days is too long for me now.  I guess I am becoming more of a homebody.  Not exactly homesick, just looking forward to home, family and friends.  I even feel that the food is all starting to taste the same.  Dare I say that I miss my own cooking?  I think I do!

The TV selections are rather dismal.  There is one channel that plays movies, one channel that offers a selection of TV shows (you can’t choose, it is only what is being broadcast) could be a cartoon, Shark Tank, Gilligan’s Island, The Office or Blackish.  Then there are other channels:  MSNBC, BBC or Fox News and a few of different languages.  Wow I can’t wait to get back to our room in the evening to sit back and watch the telly!  Guess they really want you out and about an not in your cabin.

So only a few more days to go until we begin our flight home.  We’ll see what tomorrow has in store for us.

DAY 3 OF 8 DAYS AT SEA

Last night, the ship was really rocking and rolling.  We awoke to the sound of the sliding bathroom door banging first one way and they back the other.  The magnetic closure wasn’t strong enough to prevent the door from coming undone.  Other noises had us rooting around to see if suitcases were moving around in the closet and opening and closing cupboard doors in case something was rattling. After investigating, we determined that the rattling, banging and squeaking was just the ship noises.  Needless to say it was not the most restful night.  Brenda stuffed pillows in the bathroom door track and that stopped the worst of the noise.

In the morning, most of the conversation around the ship was about how rough it was.  I am very grateful that neither of us are bothered by that.  There is always a ready supply of green apples available.  From what people are saying, it really helps for sea sickness.  For me, eating a green apple would bother me more, however, I guess if I felt sea sick, I would try to choke one down.

    

In Ponta Delgado yesterday, the ladies from Colorado introduced me to a really neat app that can use your camera to translate something.  So I tried it on the sugar packets in the restaurant.  This app will also translate a sentence you are trying to say and even say it for you.  Could come in quite handy.

Our day at sea was spent playing more Skip Bo with our ship friends.  We get along so well.  It is very nice to have these times together.  This game is so similar to one I have played with 2 regular decks of playing cards so it wasn't difficult to learn.  Good game for 2 or 4.

 

I also wandered around taking pictures of the beautiful light fixtures.  Some of them hang down two or three decks and the sparkle is magnificent.  There was one pink and white one I was looking for to get a picture of.  After two days of looking, I realized that it is the main one and changes colour.  It can be white, turquoise or pink.  It is quite spectacular.  

Tonight we watched movies on our TV.  We saw a cartoon version of A Christmas Carol with the voice of Jim Carrey followed by Elf – one of my favourites.  The seas aren’t so active tonight, but we will stuff the pillows in the door track just in case.

PONTA DELGADA IN THE AZORES

Today I was going to go ashore come hell or high water.  Well, if rain had anything to do with the high water part, I should have been more careful what I wished for.  It was raining very hard!  So, once again, we donned our rain capes and set out to see the town.  So glad I found those rain capes on line as we have really needed them on this trip.

Being a Sunday, there wasn’t a whole lot open.  We walked to the centre square and it looked quite lovely.  Once again we saw the small shacks that are part of a European Christmas market, but this time, none were open.  We continued to wander up and down the narrow streets and browse in the shops that were open.  We still were able to enjoy time here … even with the inclement weather, we managed to do the things we want to do.

We came across a lovely little coffee shop, Dondue, and sat down to have a cuppa.  The only seats available were sharing with two other ladies from the ship and from Colorado.  The most delightful young lady waited on us.  The prices on the menu were more than reasonable.  We ordered 2 lattes and a cheese plate with their local bread.  Generous cuts of 3 different and delicious cheeses and the bread was more like a fluffy pita but did have a slight sweetness to it.  It is called bolo levedo.  When our lattes arrived, they were sprinkled with gold dust.  Dereje – you need to up your game!  Our repast was delicious and perfect for a light lunch.

We continued making our way around the small town and I was loving the decorations throughout every street.  Particularly beautiful are the colourful cobbled streets.  Being a volcanic island, black rock is abundant and when mixed with white stones, the patterns are striking and attractive.  I imagine that it would be easy for little ones to remember where to find a friend who lives on the street with the stars rather than a street with a name.

Coming back to the ship, I was slowing and a bit soggy.  Even with the rain cape, my feet were wet and since I was not wearing my hood, my hair was dripping.  However, I made it ashore and was so glad to have seen this quaint place.  I still managed to get a taste of Portugal and a delightful and delicious taste it was!

DAY 2 OF 8 AT SEA DAYS

As I wasn't able to get off the ship yesterday, when Brenda came back she had a treat for me. I had heard that the pastel del nata, Portuguese custard egg tarts, were wonderful to try.  So, she not only brought me back 2 of those, but also a Napoleon withe the same custard egg cream.  They were delicious!

We are on our way to Ponto Delgada in the Azores.  I am glad we are having another day at Sea so I can hopefully feel able to get off the ship when we dock.  Today we played Uno with Stan and Susan.  We have run into this couple from Utah a few times and we get along quite well.  I think that we will be playing games with them a few times before we get off in Port Canaveral.

There certainly is no shortage of things to do around the ship while at Sea.  There is Bingo, bowling, of course the casino is open and it is quite large, trivia, dance classes etc.  If all that fails....you can always eat!  We haven't taken advantage of many of the activities, but plan to try Bingo one day.  It is always entertaining.  (Yah won't be playing Bingo, cards start at $50.00 US and go up from there.)

For the first time ever on a cruise ship...there are no towel friends.  I miss those.  Maybe in cabins where there are children they make an appearance, but we haven't seen any.  I used to like to see them on the bed before turning in for the night.  There are some watermelon carvings around and sometimes you can see a cabbage animal.  I know ... I wondered about that too!  This was an especially weird watermelon carving...not offensive at all!

There is an ice bar on board.  I really want to go look in there.  You put on a heavy cape and enter and drink Vodka or something.  Ahh here is a description.  "Inspired by the ice hotels in Scandinavia, the Skyy Vodka Ice Bar is a unique  arctic like chamber where the bar, seating and glasses are all made entirely of ice.  The bar is 17 degrees F and features specialty drinks made from Skyy Vodka." will try and have a look at that before the cruise is over.  I'm sure there is much that we won't see.  

This ship has  Starbucks.  Twice I have had a coffee drink there, but it is not the same taste or feeling as being at the Finest Cup.  I miss my friend Dereje, his coffee, his family and his staff.  I look forward to a visit there quite soon after I get home.

Christmas decorating around the ship is quite prevalent now.  They seemed to make a gradual appearance.  There are many trees and garlands everywhere.  Christmas songs are becoming more noticeable in the mix of music playing around the ship.  It is really helping to keep reminding me that Christmas will arrive a week after we get home.

So now time to get rocked to sleep.  Tomorrow we will be ashore for our last bit of looking around and shopping.  Have a great day everyone!

LISBON FROM MY BALCONY

Sailing into Lisbon was beautiful.  The buildings looked different than what we have seen in our other stops.  It looks newer and more modern buildings painted with creams and pastels.  Must be lovely in the summertime.

Although I really wanted to go ashore here, I decided that I will stay on the ship and let Brenda be my eyes today.  Needless to say, I took lots of pictures sailing in and out.  It was a decent day today weather wise.  Brenda said it wasn’t far to the main square and she was able to walk there with little difficulty.  She walked a lot!  The pictures I am putting in this blog post, I don't know much about them but they are views sailing in and out.

I decided to purchase the internet for the remainder of the trip and then have a manicure as compensation for missing this port.  I sure hope after today and another day at sea I will be able to walk around Ponta Delgada which is still a part of Portugal.  Although still walking gingerly, I feel I will be able to do that.  

After trying to get the keyboard working on the tablet, I have given up.  I find that I am getting really good at typing on the screen keyboard.  Born out of necessity for sure!  Funny though when the actual keyboard is attached, I still go those keys first – so it is now detached and I don’t have to look at it in frustration.

Brenda came back tired from all her walking and showed me the things she had purchased at a better Christmas market than we had seen so far.  She bought some lovely items made of cork.  Portugal is known for the cork: purses, shoes, fabric and more.  I will be looking for some when I go ashore in Ponta Delgado.   

She shared some of the photos that she took of the city.  It sure looked lovely.  The shopping was good too.

CADIZ WE HOPPED ON AND OFF

Cádiz, Europe's oldest continuously inhabited city, founded by the Phoenician's, dates back 3500 years. Due to its strategic port location, where Christopher Columbus sailed from on voyages to America, Cádiz became an important centre for commercial trade.  History lesson is now over!

It was a lovely day weatherwise albeit a bit cool outside.  We started out by taking the Hop On Bus for the one and a half hour circuit.  It was a good way to see some highlights of the city and then come back to the older centre part of town for our walk around.  I especially love all the narrow streets that make up parents of the old city.

There was a Christmas market in the centre square just outside the cathedral. So after we spent sometime in the church, we wandered around the market stalls.  There is always something different to see.  The Christmas markets we have seen on our brief times ashore do not really compare to the larger ones in Germany and France from what I understand, but they are novel and interesting to spend some time and a few Euros while we are visiting.

The cathedral was quite large and had a beautiful creche inside.  I am finding it hard to think of it being so close to Christmas.  I guess it is because we are on a vacation.  I am so very glad that I did as much as I did to prepare for the 24th and the 25th before I left for the cruise.  I should be in pretty good shape when I get home...especially if my hip is not behaving.  Read on to find out more. While walking back to the ship, I had some difficulty and a feeling that my hip and knee were unstable.  I sat down at the bar with Brenda to have a beer and think about things.  Mostly I was thinking about how I would make it back on board.

I visited a washroom before starting the trek back and had to take a picture of the beautiful tile work.  Not the first picture I have taken inside a loo and I am sure not the last but it really was lovely.

Needless to say, I made it back, but was finding that I really had to step carefully and be mindful of something close to hold in to if necessary.  I stayed in the cabin and was lying down to give it as much rest as possible.  Hoping that tomorrow I will be able to get off the ship in Lisbon.  It really was such a weird feeling...there was no indication of anything until it happened.  Hoping tomorrow is a day without issues.

Oh and Pam, I saw the parrots again and managed to get a picture of the noisy squawking birds.  They really are quite loud but also delightful!

FIRST OF 8 AT SEA DAYS

 Today is the first of 8 at sea days.  Thought I would talk a bit about the Norwegian Epic. 

To say this is a large cruise ship is an understatement.  It is huge with 17 decks.  There are only 2 banks of elevators – forward and aft.  We are on the 11th deck aft.  The dining room and Garden Café are forward.  So needless to say there is a lot of walking.. that’s a good thing.  With the wonderful offerings in all the restaurants, we need to walk! 

The restaurants are interesting.  There is the main dining room and the Garden Café that are “complimentary” restaurants that are always on cruise ships.  However, this ship has a couple of other restaurants that are complimentary dining choices: O’Sheehan’s (pub style) and Shanghai and Noodle Bar (Asian).  We have tried O’Sheehan’s and will try the Noodle Bar soon.  Just gives a different choice to sit down and order from a menu.  Other than that there are 6 restaurant that have a cover charge.  With the 4000 plus passengers this ship can accommodate, extra dining options are a necessity.  We are travelling with about 3200 on this cruise and it doesn’t  seem crowded.  Maybe if the weather was hotter, as it is in the Caribbean, you would notice it much busier in the outside pool area.

There is a 3 lane 10 pin bowling alley and an assortment of bowling shoes.  The weight of the balls goes from 11 to 15 lbs.  When I bowled all those years ago, my bowling ball was 8 lbs.  I can’t imagine trying to use those heavy ones and especially now that I am older.  This ship also boasts a climbing wall, miniature golf, basketball court and an enormous water slide with a huge swirly bowl at the bottom.  There is only two days so far that the slide has been open.  It is quite cool on this adventure.  This wasn’t unexpected…it is December after all.  So there is lot to keep people active and busy.  

Climbing wall on the right

Of course there are shows, trivia, the spa, fitness room and lots to join in on.  Today I am going to find a craft group that meets on Deck 5 at 10:00 am on the at sea days.  So ciao for now.

BARCELONA PRONOUNCED BARTHELONA

My first impression of Barcelona was how lovely and clean the city is.  We were up early to get to our tour.  Today we are starting at Park Guell and then going to see Sagrada Familia.  Both of these were the visions of Antoni Gaudi.

We climbed a lot of stairs up into the park which is built on the side of the hill.  I was so glad when we began our descent down through through the park.  There were  lot of interesting architectural features that are representative of his work.  The coloured tile throughout the park was beautiful.  Often it appeared that the tiles which were designed for this installation were deliberately broken and then pieced back together with grout.  So they were never displayed when they were complete and unbroken.

There were a lot of parrots throughout the park. It reminded me of San Francisco when Pam took me on a special walk down the hill.  There were parrots everywhere!  These looked and sounded much the same as the ones we saw there. It was so nice to have shared that experience with Pam and now to have the memory refreshed today.

Soon it was time to leave the park and go to the Sagrada Familia.  Did we walk out the exit at the bottom of the park?  Nooooo we had to walk up the same stairs as we had before and even more stairs to the top of the park. By the time we got on the bus, I was very grateful that I had arrived alive.

We had some free time to find a cafe with internet and have a bite of lunch.  We have certainly had some tasty bites and delicious coffee.  First in Italy it was Cappuccino and then in France it was cafe au lait.  Now that we are in Spain we ask for cafe leche

So onto the Sagrada.  We were gobsmacked.  Although every picture I have ever seen attest to its beauty, to see it up close is magnificent.  Our tour guide first walked us around the outside to show us how the life from birth to death of Jesus is depicted in the scenes and statues.  Everything that is the architecture of the Sagrada has meaning.  I.e., the 12 towers represent the 12 apostles.  (That is the one significance I remember)  I found it very fascinating, but I didn't retain the information.  Good thing there wasn't a test.

When I first walked inside, the colours from the many stained glass windows playing on the alabaster columns and walls rendered me speechless!  I know impossible as that seems, it really happened.  The immenseness of this cathedral is difficult to comprehend - even standing inside.  

Antoni Gaudi's Sagrada Familia has been under construction for almost 100 years and still there is no date for completion.  Actual completion requires the demolition of some adjacent apartment buildings.  Those residents are not cooperating, so who knows if will ever be finished.  So glad I got to see this beautiful structure!