Europe/Mediterranean 2015

Day 16 - May 28th
Arrive in Barcelona and fly back over the pond - Crazy tranport to get home. First we got up very early to get off the ship. then had to wait for our bus to fill before we could go to the airport. Our luggage was placed on a different truck and met us there at the curb. From the gate we were driven by bus to the plane. 8 hours over the pond and then 4 hours across the U.S. Dave picked us up at th eairport and then we drove up the hill and Stan and julie back to C.G. Whew a great trip and "Jet-Lag" for sure! Arrived in Payson about 8:30 PM. WHEW...a great trip!

Pulling into Barcelona Harbor.

Bus ride to the plane.....CRAZY!

Day 15 - May 27th
Sailing to Barcelona -  Returning home ;-(
What a great trip....now the sail home.  Took the time to pack, shop and of course eat at our favorite "WindJammer Cafe". 

Crew was preparing an out door barbeque or seafood pasta.

Weather was getting cold so the band was "hoodied-up"

Day 14 - May 26th
Naples (Salerno) - Our excursion today was to the Isle of Capri and cruising the Amalfi Coast. What an incredible place. The countryside on the way to Capri was complete with hillside towns, cliffs, ancient turrets, watch towers and mountainous regions, too!  When we arrived on the island we had 5 hours to explore on our own.  The streets were winding, hilly, quaint and so beautiful. The delivery trucks, garbage trucks and any vehicle on the small streets were just small enough to get around and all electric. Doctors, apartments, homes, gardens, gift shops and restaurants all dispersed along each street.  We visited a fabulous garden high on the hillside, had a great lunch overlooking the harbor and topped our visit off with some incredible lemon gelato (our second gelato while on the island...HUMMMN)

View of the harbor while having lunch.

Actually one of the wider streets.

Caprisians harvesting their Loquats. They shared some with us.

Local gentleman on his way home.

Julie leading the way up one of the beautiful streets.

Selfie in the Garden.

Day 13 - May 25th
Sailing Day - After Working out we had a relaxing breakfast and headed for poolside, a venue that we really hadn't taken advantage of as of yet. It was great fun watching the Belly Flop contest and line dancing. We all went back to our rooms and readied for our dinner at Chops........WOW! Incredible and we ate until totally miserable. After dinner we went to the evening show "Boogie Wonderland" put on by the ship singers and dancers......Loved it.....they did many of our favorite songs from back in the 70's. Then back the clocks up and get ready for our Amalfi Coast tour and Capri on our own. Just now before signing out......the vessel emergency code, Oscar-Oscar-Oscar the code for Man Overboard aboard Royal Caribbean ships was sounded on the intercom. Our ship has stopped and 5 life jackets have been tossed overboard. Not sure what has happened yet. One of our lifeboats has gone out to investigate an inflatable raft at our front. We now know that it was a coast guard training raft and we are taking it on-board until further instructions and then full speed ahead to Salerno. Not done yet.....We now got an Alpha-Alpha-Alpha to deck 4 port side...it is the code for Medical Emergency aboard Royal Caribbean ships. 11:19 PM

Look at those beautiful pedicures!

Beautiful Medium Rare 9 oz. Filet Mignon with a wine reduction!!!!!

Day 12 - May 24th
Santorini - The place that basically was our reason for choosing this trip....the white stucco and blue tile roofs, "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" and photos seen through the years....... BAD DAY........ Gale force winds have kept us from anchoring in the harbor and no tendering would be safe. So disappointed, but we will just have to return another time. Not many pictures, going to ship games and such today.  I had a great birthday despite the fact that we couldn't see Santorini.  Birthday wishes from many friends and family, along with a dinner serenade from the wait staff in the Aquarius Dining Room. Tomorrow is another sail day.

No one is allow on the top deck

Everyone once to find sheltered sun!

Day 11 - May 23rd
Ephesus - WOW another awesome indescribable place! Our guide was very good and she was toting a very stylish and expensive Prada bag. Ephesus was so spectacular it is very hard to just pick out one "best of".....we saw where Paul preached and where John is buried. At the end of our tour we were taken to a Turkish Rug dealer. It was a great demo of how they are made and how long it takes to make just one. Quite a talent! Today we had our first traditional Turkish feast, OH MY! We ate 3 different kinds of Kebobs and they served fresh hot Pita bread before the meal. It made us compare it to chips and salsa that we get at a Mexican food restaurant, you fill up on the pre-meal goodies. Back to the ship and had time to just relax on the upper deck. We were so full from lunch we all said that we would only have some dessert for dinner...."not so much".......Julie and I had dessert, but the boys had dinner and dessert... HUMMMMN! After we left port, we saw a school of dolphins that followed by us for quite a long time. Another great day.

Greeting from Turkish Dancers

Roadway to the library.

Amazing 2500 year old columns.

Toilets back in the day.

 

The Library

4 in Ephesus!

 

The Stadium/Theatre

Day 10 - May 22nd
Athens -When we docked in Piraeus there were dock dogs that helped to wake up the ship.....just strays, but they seemed to think barking was their job.  Our tour today was to the Acropolis. high on a hill. We had a great tour guide who was very patient with our group. The sites were incredible. Our Captain had to do quite the maneuvering to get us out of port. We literally pushed away and then rotated from the center. She, is one of only 4 cruise ship captains in the world. Royal Caribbean has 2 of them.

Olympic Stadium on our way to the Acropolis

Traffic in Athens Ready Set Go!

Bruce the Photomaster

Day 9 - May 21st
Sailing Day -  Second full sail day. ..... I have tried to go to the Pilates class, but I'm the only one that shows, so it gets cancelled every time...... Julie and I walked the deck track, she gone at least a mile before I joined in. Bruce and I went to the Destination talk to learn about our next three stops...... We will be touring with Shore Excursion Group for all three ports.  As always we have our 3 squares for the day, that's LARGE squares.  Tonight we went to the dining room for formal night! Everyone looked FAB! After dinner we sat in the Centrum and enjoyed the evening entertainment, both the musicians and the people dancing. There was a fabulously stunning older gentleman and his wife who stole the show.......Two ladies from Great Britain were also very well practiced in the jive. ............Can't wait to see Greece tomorrow!

Going to Piraeus

Ready for formal night!

Had Caviar with the Shrimp Cocktail...YUMMM!

Julie and I watching the show!

Docking in Piraeus

Day 8 - May 20th 
Sailing Day - First full sail day.......After our morning workout, Julie and I got our pedicures. We got to see an active volcano from the ship. As we entered the Strait of Messina we had a great view of its Lighthouse an the cities on either side of the strait. This strait is at the south end of Italy and just north of Sicily.  In the evening we went to the "Welcome Back Party" where we met all the captains and got complimentary refreshments. Dinner service was really great as usual. Our waiter is Vicente from the Dominican Republic, so cute and very nice. All of the dining room staff filled into the dining room and up the grand stairs to sing "O Sole Mio" to us.  60's Rock and Roll Party was held in the Centrum. After the entertainment, it was off to our staterooms. During the night we lost another hour as we sail Eastward. Now we are 10 hours ahead of AZ.

Elmer the elephant created by Patrick

Chillin' above the pool

Volcano

A bit of a breeze on the upper deck getting a shot of the volcano

 

Aquarius Dining room staff sang to us.

Day 7 - May 19th 
Docked in Civitaveccia. Everyone had to get some sort of transport to get into Rome City. We took an all day tour so that we could get to all the sites that we wanted to see. We had great guides, but it was so much to see in such a short time that every one was beat and a bit overwhelmed being on a time crunch. We arrived first to see and go to Vatican City. OH MY.....thousands were in line to get inside. We got our photos from the outside. WOW! The Sistine Chapel was behind the Vatican so we could  only see the top of it where the chimney is placed when they are selecting a new Pope. Driving through Rome was unbelievable. Seeing all the historic places and the traffic...;-) Our bus driver was excellent, getting through those small streets, crazy drivers and motorcyclists. We did get to witness a  display of Roman road rage between two people......it was quite different than what it would look like in the states. Trevi Fountain was being repaired, but still an incredible sight. We got to tour and enter the Colosseum and the Pantheon. What a long and full day!

End of the tour

Begining of the tour at St. Peter's Square

The Colosseum

Trevi Fountain under repair

In our 2nd country of the day!

St. Peter's Basilica

Day 6 - May 18th 
Docked in Port La Spezia.  From La Spezia our tour took us to Florence and Pisa.  Well another great day.  We covered a lot of ground and saw so many amazing things. Starting with Pisa, we never pictured it as big as it was.....crazy people, like us of course, took pictures of each other trying to hold up the leaning tower. HUMMMN! We had a very interesting lunch and met Franco Fonati, a leather designer. He baited Stanley with his interests in cars and then got all four of us in his store. He served the boys wine and let the ladies try on 4000 leather jacket.....Quite a hoot! He promised all of us an invite to his annual fashion show held in Scottsdale this coming winter. We will see. Got back to the ship and continued our feeding frenzy. Oh I forgot to mention the continuation of our pizza and gelato tour.......Again, we had great service from Eric at the Hot Pot. Still think the Cannes pizza was the best so far, but Florence may win the best gelato so far.

Pisa

Looks like more than the tower leans......;-)

Got some of the lean out! Beautiful Day!

Trying to help.

Ponte Vecchio

Day 5 - May 17th 
1st stop on the cruise is Cannes, France. WOW what a place....we got to see things happening from the outside surrounding area all the way up to the RED Carpet festivities at the Cannes Film Festival.  Julie and I tried to storm the gate, but to no avail we had to gander from afar. Great city with bistros, bars, boutiques and restaurants lining every street in the historic district. We saw the greatest farmer's  market ever!!!! We ate pizza (Stan ate his first artichoke) and had gelato, both the best yet......
Our ship was tendered today , so we got a tender ride from and back to the boat. Because of the Cannes festival....there were major Yachts in the harbor supper amazing. One of the yachts is the "Octopus" owned by Paul Allen the one who started Microsoft....WOW! A 63 foot dingy...really?
Tomorrow we are going to see if we can "Right" the leaning tower of Pisa.....

Quite the amazing Farmer's Market

Another great side street in another city (Cannes)

Cannes leads the contest for best Pizza and the best Gelato!

Day 4 - May 16th
We relaxed this AM after eating breakfast (great breakfast at the hotel which was included in our stay) at the Hotel. We packed up the Taxi for the pier. The lines were really pretty easy getting through for our boarding of the ship. Thank you Shan and Steve for the awesome on board ship surprise. You guys are so awesome. Of course we had a great lunch at the Windjammer Buffet and then to the Muster drill. After we were let back into our rooms yes, we readied for more food......OH MY! Vicente is our waiter in the Aquarius Dining Room only a 1/2 day on the ship and already crazy full.......Chill'n on the verandas until sundown @ 8:50PM, that's just not right....... After watching a trivia contest we cam back to our rooms and WOW, the winds were incredible up to 80 MPH...

Thank you Shan and Stevie!!!!

Love the Decor so special!

Day 3 - May 15th
We had a great day today on the "Hop on Hop off "Buses. The Touristic bus system was great, we had head sets to explain what we were seeing, you can leave the bus at any stop and get back on at any stop. We traveled all three of there bus lines and walked at least one more line while trying to find the right bus stop. WHEW! after leaving one stop we found another hole in the wall restaurant. It was Via Margutte in old town. The Pizza and salad was excellent.
Prepping for tomorrow's "Set Sail"

Pictures were for the taking from the top of the bus.

A small capturing of the great streets in Barcelona.

Day 2 - May 14th 
After arriving in Barcelona our hotel was not ready to let us into our rooms. We did talk the staff into allowing us into a couple of available rooms so that we could sleep for awhile. Took our small siestas and then off on our Side Car Tour Adventure.( "Bright Side") We, all four, would recommend this to everyone! Peter and George were our tour guides. It was really great when Stanley started to talk with George about cars, they were a match made in heaven. They were so fun! So great! All of the Antoni Gaudi work is beyond words, totally incredible in so may ways.
When we were done with the motorcycle tour, we ate Tapas (snacks, canapés or finger food) at El Guindilla on a cute street in "old town". We ordered Tapas for 4 of us and were totally stuffed to the gills, but not enough to forgo the Gelato. Then we took a taxi back to the hotel. Crashed out!

Great statue of Columbus but he is pointing the wrong direction.

One tableau of Gaudi's Church to be completed in 2026.

Bright Side Side Tour

Day 1 - May 13th 

Flight from Phx -  Philly - Barcelona.......not much sleep but arrived safely....What a huge plane from Philly to BCN......No reclining seats for us...HUMMMN! The crew did serve Dinner and Breakfast on the plane while traversing the "Pond".

From our seat

Waiting for our flight out of Philly