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John and Diane sail the Mediterranean


Johnny B
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Thursday, November 9

Rome, Italy

If your parents told you that you didn’t have to do what your friends were doing, or if you told your kids that, be aware that peer pressure doesn’t just affect teenagers. After John’s double knee replacement in late June, we were pretty much housebound for about three months as he worked through physical therapy, daily home exercises, and proceeded to be able to walk one, then two, and then three miles from our home over to the beach in Avila. That, of course, deserved a reward, and since we had promised our friends Rich and Ginni Lyle that we’d come to Georgetown (near Austin) Texas for Rich’s significant birthday, we then spent a week in Texas, a state where we’d never even left the airport.

John didn’t consider that enough of a reward, so five days after our return from Texas, we headed off to Maui for ten days of pure enjoyment. However, before we left, our friends Bill and Jane Hotze and Woody and Susie Woodworth contacted us to let us know that they’d be on the Veendam’s 49 or 50-day roundtrip cruise to Europe from Ft. Lauderdale. They then applied maximum peer pressure until we figured “what the heck” and booked the 28-day return leg from Rome, sailing November 10.

Since we are constitutionally unable to approach Europe without stopping to visit, we decided that two and a half weeks before sailing would be a nice amount of time to allow us to pay an extended visit to people and cities we love. On October 23 we flew Norwegian Airlines from Oakland to London, spending four days wandering around the city and seeing three plays (well, only two for John). We saw Young Frankenstein, Book of Mormon (for the second time), and I went to a matinee of A Woman of No Importance by Oscar Wilde.

From London we headed to six days in Paris, where we spent some great time with Marie, our former au pair and very good friend. John and I, along with Marie and Helene, her favorite sister, had a wonderful dinner at Polidor, an old and very traditional Paris restaurant featured in Woody Allen’s movie Midnight in Paris.

After six days in a newly discovered apartment in Paris, it was off by very comfortable TGV train to Milan with a connection to Bologna, where we had three days to catch up with Giorgia, our exchange student from five years ago. She’s studying at the medical university in Bologna, about to graduate, and we spent two wonderful days with her, including one where we traveled to Ravenna and met her family for a day visiting the marvelous mosaics which make Ravenna a Unesco World Heritage Site.

Then it was time for Roma, one of our very favorite cities. Our apartment there, a new VRBO choice, was very close to perfect, but those two flights of stairs were a bit of a challenge for John’s four-month-new knees. Next year it will be a breeze.

Now it’s time to do a final packing, check the travel folder, and look forward to driving the hour and a quarter out to Civitavecchia, the port for Rome. When we did this last year, we used a shared shuttle for 65 euros (for two of us), but this time there was no one else to share the shuttle, so we were offered a private car for E 110 - and we took it, especially since HAL emailed us to say that there would be a rail and bus strike on Friday.

 

The bags are now packed, we’ve had a lovely last dinner in the rain at Cafe Bernini, a favorite spot in the corner of the Piazza Navona, and then it’s all downhill until tomorrow morning when the car appears. Can’t wait.

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Friday, November 10

Rome to Civitavecchia and out to sea

Everything went ever so smoothly today. We’d set the phone alarm for 7:00, but of course we woke at 6:40. Then it was a quick breakfast of everything left in the refrigerator, showers, a last check of the apartment, down those blasted 500-year old stairs and along the street to meet our car and driver.

Ordinarily the drive out of Rome to the port would be an easy one, but the one-day public transportation strike meant everyone had to drive everywhere, so WAZE showed red lines along all the streets in and out of the city. With a great deal of patience, however, we reached the outskirts of Rome and headed along the autostrada through farmland to Civitavecchia, the port for Rome.

We checked our luggage, waited about 45 minutes to check in (they just weren’t quite ready for us), and finally were allowed to board at 11:30. We think the time was chosen because it’s when the Lido opens for lunch, but who knows? We were just ever so happy to get on board, put down our heavy carry-ons, and then turn around and head into town for lunch.

Every one of the three times we’ve been to this cute seaside city, we’ve had a pizza lunch at a restaurant (whose name we can neither pronounce nor spell) on a centuries-old wall overlooking the port. Because it’s November, this was the first time we had to eat inside, but the pizza was pretty darned good.

Afterwards, we wandered the familiar streets for awhile, including a stop for gelato (my favorite is limone and amarena - lemon and cherry). John wanted to walk along the old road a bit saying that he was sure that Susie and Woody would be having pizza, wine, and Coke Zero down that way. Amazingly, that was exactly what we found. Fortunately, they were at a table facing away from us, so John snuck up, put his face next to Susie, and said “Buon Giorno.” She almost fell off her chair and it was lucky that John waited until she had put down her wine glass, or it would have been all over the table. After hugs and kisses, we joined them for a bit of wine and caught up on the news. Then, as it began to sprinkle, it was time to catch the shuttle back to the ship to find our suitcases on the bed, ready to be put away.

We had found an invitation to a cocktail party for 3, 4, and 5-star Mariners in the Crow’s Nest, so we headed up there. The welcome “line” was made up of the Hotel Director and the Guest Relations Manager, but during the 45 minutes of the reception, no one said anything about why we happened to be invited, because there are certainly more passengers in those categories than the two dozen or so at the party. We’re assuming it was the “newbies” who had boarded that day, but truly, who knows?

Dinner was our first time to see Bill and Jane at our dining table, and it was a fond reunion. Although my birthday was in the middle of October, there were birthday cards for me and the biggest surprise was when our waiter showed up at the end of dinner with a small chocolate birthday cake and the waiters sang “Bonja Boulia” (or whatever the correct spelling might be), the Indonesian birthday song. I guess it’s a good idea to celebrate a birthday, even a month late!

It had been a wonderful reunion with old friends and it’s always a treat to board any HAL ship, but we were pooped and these old folks hit the sack shortly after 10:00.

 

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I'm thrilled that John's knee replacements have gone so well for him. Sounds as if he has done very well, indeed.

And I am also thrilled to be reading another 'live from ...' report from you. Your reports are always so interesting. You seem to enjoy many of the things I do about a cruise---especially including ship-board life.

 

Have a great trip.

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Saturday, November 11, 2017

Naples (Napoli), Italy

While we’ve been to Naples twice before, this was the first time we’ve had good weather, giving us the inclination to walk and walk and walk. The first time we visited, we met up with our Italian “daughter” Giorgia and her family and spent the day in the rain, walking from covered area to covered area. This time, however, the weather was perfect and we walked to the main street and covered it in both directions. It was so crowded as to be almost uncomfortable, and then we realized that it was Saturday; duh, of course people would be downtown.

As I’ve mentioned before, the Holy Grail of cruising is free internet, and nowadays it’s much easier to find. The golden combination for us, however, is cappuccino and free internet, and we found a cute little outdoor cafe where we settled ourselves, got the password, and ordered cappuccini (the plural of cappuccino) along with a cannoli for John and a crema for me. That’s an incredibly flaky croissant filled with custard and I think it’s just wonderful. We took full advantage of the internet, emailing a photo of John with his cannoli to an Italian friend at home.

Of course we were no longer hungry, so we walked and walked some more. John’s new knees get better every day, and although 2 tylenol + 2 ibuprofen each morning help with the remaining discomfort, he refuses to cut short any exercise. After another hour of walking and checking out shops and people-watching, we decided it was finally time to find that which was invented in Naples: PIZZA! An American friend who has lived in Italy for 10 years told us what to avoid in restaurants, including “shills” outside who try to wave you in and photos of food, which only appeal to tourists, and food for tourists is almost never as good as food for Italians. We wandered up the hill from the main street and found little bitty side streets with adorable cafes and restaurants. One on the corner “spoke” to us, so we went inside where we found that we were the only non-Italian speakers there - always a good sign. The pizza was about the best I’ve ever eaten, with a perfectly charred crust which was thin on the bottom and lighter than air around the outside. John opted for spicy pasta and we shared a lovely bottle of red wine. The cost for all of this: 24 euros (6 for the pizza, 8 for the pasta, 8 for a full bottle of house red and 2 for “coperto, or bread charge). Does it get any better than this? I do’t think so.

After we returned to the ship, we checked the new favorite new app on our phones (which doesn’t require internet to use). Actually it’s not new, as it came with the phones, but we just discovered it, so I think it qualifies as new to us. It’s called “Health” and it records the number of steps and number of miles walked (as long as the phone is with you). We each had walked over 11,000 steps and about 4 miles, but since I had covered three miles on the treadmill that morning, I was then over 20,000 steps - simply amazing to me! Looking at the calendar history of our activities, we found that whenver we were in a city we had no trouble exceeding the “recommended daily dose” of 10,000 steps.

Speaking of the treadmill, we followed our usual routine this morning. We get up and head to the gym, where John usually uses the elliptical cross-trainer (it’s good for his knees) and I do three miles on the treadmill. Then we go to breakfast, sitting outside at the Lido, after which it’s shower time and then whatever we’re going to do for the day. The only exception to our routine is Sunday, when we shower, go to breakfast and then to 9:00 interdenominational church services. I know that many people have a vision of a cruise as 24-hour eating, but when you’re on the ship for many days (28 this time, 100+ for a world cruise), most people are pretty careful about what they eat. For example, because I ate about 3/4 of that marvelous pizza for lunch, dinner was two starters: soup and then a salad. I do dread stepping on that Weight Watchers scale at home for the first time, but then steps will be taken to remedy whatever the situation may be.

Tomorrow’s a sea day, my personal favorite, and I’ll be able to catch up on my Cruise Critic entries.

 

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Sunday, November 12, 2017

At Sea

Ahhhhhh! A sea day! If you’ve read what I’ve written in the past, you know how much I love sea days. As we were waiting to board on Friday, a nice gentleman and I were talking about cruises and he asked about the longest cruise we had taken. I told him about the world cruises and he became very interested and commented, “So you must just love to visit all those ports.” I told him that, yes, we did love the ports, but what I loved most were the sea days. He had a difficult time understanding that, but I guess he decided that I was just a bit odd. He’s probably right.

The sea is not very rough; in fact there are times when we hardly know we are sailing, but once in a while there’s a bit of movement. We’re still looking for similarities and differences between this ship and the Amsterdam, and although they’re almost the same, every once in a while a funny little difference will pop up. Yesterday I walked around a corner expecting to see the Dining Room Manager’s office, and there was the Pinnacle restaurant. Actually, the placement on this ship is much better, as the diners have a wonderful view of the sea. The only disappointment is that they don’t have the Tamarind items on the menu as they did on the WC earlier this year.

Since yesterday was a Sunday, we hied outselves off to find the interdenominational church services. A nice surprise was actually finding the Half Moon Room and realizing that it was big enough for everyone to fit. The officiant is a retired United Methodist minister, and since that’s our denomination, it seemed like a good fit. Afterwards we went to our first “Meet and Greet” in the Crow’s Nest and were able to straighten out our three CC tours. We knew where they were, but weren’t sure who was in charge or how much they cost. We finally met Mary (actually, two of them), and were able to talk to her and give her our cabin number (which had been a big secret until two days before sailing.). The other benefit to the meeting was talking to Janet who needed another couple to taxi into the city tomorrow. The ship’s shuttle is $16.00 each - round trip - and a taxi (for four of us) is 13 euros. Even going with just the two of us, it’s cheaper than the shuttle. Such is shipboard life.

Last evening was our first “gala” evening, and most people dressed very nicely, with a sprinkling of tuxedos and the rest of the men in suits or at least nice sport coats. The men at our table had a pre-cruise vote and decided that suits were just fine, so that’s what they wore - and looked very nice, too.

We went to the show in the main lounge for the first time last night, and it was well worth it. The entertainers were called Vox Fortuna and consist of four young men with absolutely amazing, classically trained voices. Two of them are English and two are American, and they were semi-finalists on Britain’s Got Talent a couple of years ago. They sang together and separately and received a well-deserved standing ovation at the end. They’ll perform again in about a week, and that performance will be more operatic in nature.

It was a wonderful, relaxing day, but the upcoming schedule has us in port for six days in a row. Oh well, I guess the next sea day will be even that much more welcome.

 

P. S. For some unknown reason, I used the wrong date for Naples. It was November 11, NOT November 12.

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Monday, November 13, 2017

Dubrovnik, Croatia

What a beautiful, historical and charming city is Dubrovnik, a city we’d visited once in 1969. We docked without any problems this morning, and we were happy to see that we were the only ship in port. Later in the day our taxi driver told us that on one memorable day in the middle of the summer there had been 13 ships in port - what was someone thinking!? That information was given after he told us not to come in July or August because the heat and the crowds were just too much. According to our driver, late September and October are the best times.

We had arranged to share a 13 euro taxi into town, so for 3.5 euros each (including tip), we headed off to the old city. Janet and Pat, our taxi partners, were to meet their tour group at the Pile Gate to begin their tour, while we just wanted to walk as much as possible - and boy, did we!

Dubrovnik is a city completely encircled by a medieval wall and it’s the setting for Game of Thrones, which I’m sure some of you have watched. After our day in the city, we felt that we must be the only people in the USA who haven’t watched it - but we’re going to get it on Netflix when we get home, if only to enjoy the view of the city.

The “big deal” in Dubrovnik is to walk the 2 kilometer wall, and if the walk were all that was included, it would not be that challenging. The problem is the steps! We began our walk with about 75 steep steps up to the top, and really enjoyed the views as we proceeded around the city. That wasn’t all, however. There were hundreds of steps up and down and down and up. John’s IPhone app said that we walked the equivalent of 19 flights of stairs. About halfway around the wall we found a little hole in the wall offering cappuccino, and we took them up on the offer. Looking out over the incredibly rough sea was spectacular, and because the wall is roughly circular, we had a variety of equally lovely views, including the boat harbor which has ferries to some of the islands in the area.

Rain had been predicted for the day, but it was a mix of clouds and blue sky - for a while. As we began our last descent (down those vicious stairs where we had begun), the sky litterally opened up, and water just bucketed down. It was accompanied by a pretty impressive wind, and as I held on to my hood to keep my hair dry (a futile attempt), the sheets of water went down my sleeves, so by the time we arrived at the bottom, I was wet from my elbows to my knees and down to my half-boots. Of course something warm was called for, so we found a lovely little cafe in the town square and had yet another cappuccino as we tried, in vain, to dry out.

Then it was time to wander around the town, and we found lots of cute little shops, many memorials to the Balkan war in the early 90’s, and some nice-looking restaurants. In one lovely old building we happened across a room which is a memorial to those in Dubrovnik who lost their lives keeping it free in the 90’s. I did a lot of subtracting birth years from death years and found that, while many were middle-aged, a large percentage were not even 20. Such a sad loss of life. There was a huge amount of bombing for a couple of years, and it’s interesting to pick out the tile roofs that are new and the paving that has had to be replaced. Many of the buildings have been rebuilt, but they’re not as easy to distinguish.

John made fun of me, but I got a lot of photos of “The Cats of Dubrovnik.” They are everywhere and are just awfully cute. I threatened to make a calendar when we get home, but I don’t really know what I’ll do with all those photos.

Finally, about 12:30, we headed back to the ship for lunch and a quiet afternoon. A nap was quite necessary, mostly to get myself warm after all of our soaked clothes caused a bit of a chill. At 7:00 it was Trivia (and we did NOT do well - who knows the name of the only woman only to get a best director Oscar and the name of the film? We do now).

 

Woody is still under the weather, one of the 37 passengers on board with norovirus, so he and Susie were MIA at dinner. It was a quiet evening and an early bedtime, since we had to be ready for a CC tour at 8:00 tomorrow morning. Overall, a great port day and a memorable visit.

P. S. John asked me to thank everyone who commented on his knee, and I appreciate the belated birthday wishes.

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Hey, just now saw you were posting from the Rotterdam. Wish we were there. I love the Med and pizza. Give Bill, Jane, Woody and Susie hugs from us. Don't hug Woody until he is well though.

 

We're doing 11 days on the Konigsdam at the end of this month, mainly just to get out of town and visit with Jeff and the girls.

 

leslie & handler

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Tuesday, November 14, 2017

Corfu? I don’t think so!

Since I was whining about not enough sea days on this cruise, I have been corrected. Today is an unexpected additional sea day due to heavy winds which prohibited us from docking at Kerkira, the port for Corfu, Greece.

Since we had a CC tour which required us to meet at 8:00, I set the alarm for 6:30 (yuck!), and got to bed a bit early, especially because we had to set the clocks ahead an hour last night. I had forgotten that Greece is an hour ahead of most of Europe. When the alarm went off this morning, I was sure it was wrong, since it was pitch black outside, with the deck soaking wet from rain which had blown across it. I checked the “World Clock” on my phone, however, and found that we were now 10 hours ahead of California - so the alarm was correct. Darn!

We hopped out of bed (well, maybe not “hopped”), John went for his coffee and I got into the shower. Once we were ready, we went upstairs for a light breakfast so we’d be ready for our tour. When we returned to our cabin, we noticed the pilot boat bobbing around like a cork in a storm and John went outside to see that a tugboat was pushing us into the dock - or trying to. By now it was 8:25 and we began to wonder if we would indeed be able to dock.

Finally, about ten minutes later, an announcement was made that, because of the weather, we’d been forced to abort the docking and were headed out to sea. Shortly thereafter, the captain came on and explained the whole situation. It seemed that the wind was about 30 knots and gusting into the low 40’s. Because of our size, we can take winds of about 30 knots, but not much higher. The forecast for the rest of the day was even worse, with steady winds of 40 knots and gusts into the 50’s. The captain explained that even if we were able to dock, gusts that high would probably tear us from our mooring and those of us on shore would really be stuck. It seems that it was a wise decision and now everyone is enjoying yet another sea day. You know that I love it!

With that news, since we had already showered and skipped the gym, we just headed up to the coffee shop, AKA Explorations Cafe, for a couple of cappuccini which we took to the Lido to just sit outside and watch the waves and the nearby islands. Since it really wasn’t very far from this port to the next, we spent much of the day circling nearby islands and watching the rainstorms come and go.

After a well-deserved nap, we met Jane and Bill in the Crow’s Nest at 4:00 for one of two “happy hours.” (Why is ‘happy’ only an hour?) The deal is that the first drink is regular price and the second is $2.00. You could, of course, share those two drinks, but in our group, everyone gets two each.

Regarding “happy hour,” there is a bit of animosity among second seating people about the times for it. 4:00 is perfect for early seating people, but the second happy hour is at 9:00 PM, which is also perfect for early seating people after the 8:00 show. However, neither works for those of us who eat at 8:00 and attend a 10:00 show. Several of our friends have written comment cards asking that the second HH be from 6:00 until 7:00 (so that late seating people could use it closer to 7:00 before dinner). That suggestion just gets blown off, however, so I guess it’s going to be 4:00 or nothing. Oh well, I guess we’ll just drink less.

Since Woody and Susie are still under the weather, it was just Bill, Jane, John and I who were to be at dinner, but we invited our friend Don to join us, so we were five. Don is lots of fun and has been cruising so long that he knows many of the staff on ships other than the Amsterdam and all the stories of years and years of world cruises. I think he was President’s Club before we even sailed on our first WC.

 

Afterwards, the show was “Dance!” by the ship’s singers and dancers. They were darned good, especially the dancers, who can move in ways I didn’t know were possible. Then it was sleepy time, with no alarm set for tomorrow and not even any plans for Katakolon, our next port. We at least hope we’ll be able to dock

Note to Leslie and Handler: We're on the Veendam, not the Rotterdam, and we wish we got to see you again. Lunch was great in San Marcos! Hope to see you again soon. XOXO

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