5 weeks in Europe including 12 Night Royal Princess Grand Mediterranean

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DAY 12 BARCELONA

 

Love the fact that the sun rises so late here. Had a luxuriously slow start to the day. When we eventually got moving, we walked up to the Passage de Gracia. Caso Batlo and La Pedrerar are on this street as well as the block of dischord which is a line of buildings of modernist architecture that includes Caso Batlo. We bought a two day ticket to the hop on, hop off. This was an excellent way of seeing the city. There are 3 routes, red, blue and green. The red heads east and takes in the Olympic site, Barri Gottic and the beaches, the blue heads west and takes in Parc Guell, Mount Tibidabo and the Barcelona Football Field. The Green heads east and then runs north along the beaches, that only runs at certain times of the year. We started on the Red bus. This runs past Barcelona Sants station. We got off at the Placa Espanya. This area was all developed for the World Expostion in 1929. We walked up past the dancing fountains, which are all lit up at night, to the Museum of Catalan Art. From the front of the museum, there is the most amazing view of Barcelona, right across the city to Mount Tibidabo on the other side. We hopped back on the bus, around past many of the venues built for the 1992 Olympics. Teleferic Montjuic, or Montjuic Cable car, was our next stop. This offers a spectacular view of the city as you head up to the castle. Sagrada Familia and the Torre Agbar, tower above their surrounding districts. Once up at the castle, we had lunch at a café and then wandered around the castle. From the castle you can also see the port area and out to sea. Also, of most interest to the children, you can see the airplanes coming into the airport. The bus runs from here around the port towards the beaches. We hopped off near the beaches and strolled along the beach where we found a café on the beach to have a cool drink and ice cream. Barcelona is hot and also very humid. After finishing our drinks, we caught the bus from near the Casino, with the giant scaly fish outside (although my daughter thinks it looks like a giant hairdryer. I think she might be right) The bus then winds around past the Parc de la Ciutadella, where the zoo is, and then up through the Barri Gottic past the Cathedral. We didn’t have a chance to look in it, but I think the City History Museum might be quite good. It’s in a medieval building and looks like it would be fascinating. From the Cathedral we walked up the Avenue of Angels to the Place Catlunya. And then from there, back to our apartment. Once again, we did our 2 kilometre trek looking for dinner. We found a little family restaurant, that served a variety of food to suit everyone. Although, after telling our son he couldn’t the fries until he’d finished the chicken, it took so long for him to eat, that I sent it back to the kitchen before he got to the fries. In big trouble for that. He’s still harbouring a grudge.

Edited November 13, 2013 by windplayer

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DAY 13 BARCELONA

 

Today, under sufferance, we have agreed to go the zoo. There will be much whinging, not necessarily from the children. Our plan, is to get up early and catch the hop on, hop off, around to the zoo which is in the Parc de la Ciutadella. From where we are based, this took about an hour and a half. Make sure, if you use the HOHO, that you get the discount coupon book. There are quite a few discounts and if you don’t have the book, your ticket doesn’t get you your discount. We didn’t have the book and so missed out on our discount to the zoo. However, the small folk are keen to see the zoo, so to the zoo we will go. I quite enjoyed the ride on the bus. Because we go off at the Placa Espana yesterday, we missed a bit of the route and caught it at a later stop, so I found it quite interesting. You also never catch everything on the first go so found out some things that I had missed. Eventually we arrived at the zoo. Yes, it has all of the usual suspects, lions, tigers, monkeys, elephants – they looked a bit sad, I think they need more space. The highlight for us was the flamingos. There are a couple of flocks and they are very pink. My husband also liked the Iberian Wolf. Finished with the zoo, we climbed back onto the bus and rode to the Passage de Gracie. We had planned to be back for an early lunch, but that plan has gone out the window, a late lunch it will be. After lunch, we walked back to the Placa Catalunya and walked the down a bit of Las Ramblas. This was very crowded, and tourist shop after tourist shop. I think I preferred the Avenue of Angels yesterday, it was easier to see the buildings and it had a variety of shops. We then caught the blue route of the HOHO. This winds out to the western side of the city. It takes in the Sagrda Familia, Parc Guell, the Gaudi designed park, Mount Tibidabo, Barcelona Footbal Club and more of the Eixample district. It was late in the afternoon, and we didn’t hop off, but it was a pleasant way to spend a few hours and to see a bit more of the city. I would have liked to see Parc Guell, but we just ran out of time. Oh well, may need to go back. Today was our fifteenth anniversary, so we were very keen to find somewhere nice to have dinner. We started out on our usual trek, and finally just around the corner from our apartment, we found this lovely restaurant, the food was beautifully prepared, delicious, and they were happy to take all of the interesting sauces off the children’s chicken kebabs. We had a very lovely dinner, a great way to finish our stay in Barcelona and Spain.

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DAY 14 - 26

Some kind of cruise, it was on a big boat, she was quite lovely. Embarked in Barcelona and disembarked 12 days later in Venice.

 

DAY 26 …..

 

 

 

:D I'm kidding

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DAY 14 ROYAL PRINCESS GRAND MEDITERRANEAN

 

The children have been looking forward to this. I think after the very busy days they are hoping that there will be a bit of time to relax. Certainly our 11 year old loves her sleep in.

Before we caught a taxi to the port, I went to have a look at Gaudi’s Casa Batlo. Another amazing piece of architecture. Beautiful, fluid lines all the way through, the staircase, windows, doors and the use of coloured glass and ceramics all the way through. The roof is an amazing mosaic of coloured tiles designed to look like the scales of a serpent, a dragon I think it’s meant to be. I was early, so there were only about three people ahead of me. By the time I left though, it was very busy. When I got back, we caught a taxi to the port to board the Royal Princess. This was our first cruise, and it was booked solely on the itinerary. It wasn’t until I doing some research on how to DIY the ports and found Cruise Critic that I discovered that actually, she was quite new, and in fact at the time we booked, not even launched. So we have nothing to compare her with. Embarkation was pretty much as we thought. There were lots of people, but the lines flowed and there were plenty of people to deal with check in. We were in our cabin very quickly, and our suitcases were not far behind us. We were in a bog standard balcony cabin on Dolphin Deck. They did offer us an upgrade to a Deluxe Balcony, and I can’t deny that those 2 foot of extra space would have been nice, but it was up under the Horizon Court, and we had carefully chosen our cabin to be between cabin decks and therefore quiet. We were bunking in with the small folk, so we knew there would be early nights for all of us. Thankyou, thankyou, thankyou to the nice man at Princess who got us moved back to our original cabin. I was especially grateful when I read Pam in CA’s reports of the noise under the Horizon Court. My husband and son are both very light sleepers. After we had a look around, we went up to register the kids for the kids club. To be honest, they never bothered with it. I think with all the running around and moving, they just liked to have their own space, and so if we were back early, or on the sea days, they were quite happy to stay in the cabin and watch movies. We didn’t care, we were quite happy to sit on the balcony and read. (Balcony perfectly adequate for this, and also held a glass of wine and a packet of Pringles) We did have a look at the kids area , however, and it looked quite good. They have loads of playstations, and I think they also had Wii. Looking at the activities, there was lots of craft, pizza nights, party nights, it looked like fun. There were only about 30 children on this cruise to the age of about 12, so she did say that the two younger groups would most likely be combined. I don’t know how many there would have been up there, with all the port days, and I often saw a few of the children around the Horizon Court. After we had been to the kids club, the kids were very keen to try the pool. I don’t know how they coped with 800 kids on board, it’s not a big pool. Surprisingly, given how hot it had been in Barcelona and around the Med, it was a bit cool for them. This was from a girl who swims all winter in an outdoor pool. At night. (My husband thinks this is how they plan to address the number of pools issue. Keep it cool so that no-one stays in very long) We had a wander around the boat after the children had changed and came up on deck for sail away and the playing of the Love Boat horns. I love those horns. They made me smile every time I heard them. After sailaway, we had dinner in the Horizon Bistro. Number one good thing, we didn’t have to trek to find dinner. We really enjoyed the Bistro and we ate there most nights. We were usually early, but we always found the food to be hot, tasty and a wide variety of choice. They also had a great range of salad, our son only eats salad, no cooked vegetables, so they had all of his favourites. Most of all, we loved the pastry shop. As Homer might say, “mmm, pastries.” We returned to our cabin, to discover that our wonderful room steward had made up the room for us to sleep. Once the bunks are down those rooms are very small. She did an amazing job. We tried to keep our stuff out of the way, but it must have been a pain to make four beds in very cramped quarters. We knew this would be the case, but it’s one of those things, the reality is always a bit of a shock. That was ok, we all just took to our beds and read or watched movies. The movies are fantastic. Lots of choice, and a good range for the kids as well. All in all, a good first day.

Edited November 14, 2013 by windplayer
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DAY 15 – TOULON

 

For this port, we joined the ships tour of Aix –en- Provence. The rest of the ports apart from Kusadasi, we plan to do ourselves, but the advice I found here on cruise critic and also in Rick Steves was that these two ports are good ships tours to do as public transport is a bit harder to find. We looked at private tours, but as we can’t share the cost, being four of us, it didn’t come up much cheaper. Up early to get breakfast before our 7:30 meeting time. At this hour, the Horizon Court, Bistro and Pastry Shop, are all crowded and tables are hard to find as everyone is up for early departures. Organising the groups onto the coaches was quick and easy. One of the buses broke a window going into the port, so we had to wait and take on a few members of that tour group but finally we were underway. It’s a grey and gloomy day in the south of France, but so far, so good, no rain. The bus dropped us off near the Rotunda, an enormous fountain in the middle of the town, and our guide took us up the street that divides the old from the new town, pointing out the various architectural features and the differences between the 17 and 18th century buildings. We also saw a café that Cezanne used to frequent. From here we walked through medieval part of town. This has the most eclectic collection of shops I’ve ever seen. There was even a ballet shop with the most gorgeous tutu in the window. This made our daughter’s day as she is a dancer, and we had to go back after the tour to have a good look. Being a Saturday, there was also a fresh produce market, flower market, flea market and an art market. WE also had a look in the cathedral. This is a true medieval cathedral, with late additions as they have tried to modernise it. It is very dark, no marble, just the old stone all through it’s interior. There is also an amazing 6th century mosaic that they found when carrying out some work on it at some point. After taking us back to the flea market, our guide left us to our own devices. We did some more wandering, looking for the art market again and the ballet shop and had some lunch at a small restaurant. We filled in some more time wandering around the medieval town until it was time to meet our bus at around 3:00pm.

We had dinner that night in the Symphony Dining Room. We had anytime dining, but we booked a table for 6:30. This was a lovely meal. I had a seafood soup, and perch, and then the most divine soufflé, Drambuie with a pear sauce.

We enjoyed our day in Aix, It’s a very pretty town with lots of lovely architecture and a lovely place to stroll around, but I’m not sure it was entirely worth the money we paid for it. If there had been a convenient train connection, we would have been just as happy doing that. In fact, apparently that day in Toulon itself there was a pirate festival. Had we known, we probably just would have stayed there

[Mom33]

Thanks for your captivating travel review. Looking forward to your next installment. :D

[Woobstr112G]

OP;

 

Enjoyable reading. I really enjoyed your observations of Toulon. Looking forward to your further reports.....:):):)

 

Bob

Edited November 17, 2013 by Woobstr112G

[danuty]

Enjoying your review and getting to know you and family in addition to a wonderful travel log.

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DAY 16 – LIVORNO – FLORENCE

Everyone up early again today. We are catching the train to Florence and then stopping off at Pisa on the way back, as the children want to see the Leaning Tower. It was very easy getting off the ship, we just wandered off with the ships tours, and in fact that was the case for the whole cruise. We caught a taxi to Livorno station rather than try and find buses and walk. It is a bit steep at 25euros, but for four of us there isn’t much of a difference. Catching the taxi meant that we were able to make the 8:12 train to Florence. We bought our tickets from the lady at the ticket office. Return tickets, which also meant we could hop off at Pisa on our way back. The weather was looking very murky and this was also the day of the International Bike race that was finishing in Florence. Because of the race, the all aboard time was pushed back to 8:00pm. We had not planned to see any of the museums, DH has spent quite a bit of time in Florence, and we both spent some time there when we were in Europe last time, so between us we have seen most of the “must sees” We thought we would take the kids to have a look at the outside of the Duomo, the replica David in Piazza della Signorina, the Ponte Vecchio, the leather market, and the Galileo Museum. Florence was crowded because of the bike race, but once you were away from the main route, there were actually fewer people around. Possibly helped by the weather, which was becoming more threatening by the minute. The Galileo Museum was really interesting. It had lots of telescopes and gadgets, models of the differing views of the universe, changing over time, a room where the kids could get their hands on things and a heap of clocks and various time telling devices. One room had all of these models of how babies lie in the womb. Totally freaked our son out. By lunchtime, the rain was really starting to get heavy. We just found some sandwiches to eat while were walking and started to think about heading back to the ship. Unfortunately, we were on the wrong side of the bike race track, and therefore cut off from the station. We had to wait until they went through, before we could move on. It must have been a terrible ride, form what I understand the rain had been even heavier around Lucca (where the race started) that morning, so it must have been a hundred kilometres riding through pouring rain. You’d have to be dedicated is all I can say. The kids, by this stage had certainly had the rain, and decided that they could live without seeing the Leaning Tower (no dedication there). The rain eased a little bit, so we had a look at the San Lorenzo leather market on the way back to the station, and arrived at the station, just as a train was leaving for Livorno. As we headed west on the train, it appeared to clearing a little bit, so DH had his trusty tablet out to get a weather report. We decided that as they had particularly wanted to see the tower we would get off at Pisa and have a look. (Plus, I have never seen it and always wanted to see it as well.) It was speed sight seeing at its best. We just caught a taxi from the station, had a wander around and took a few photos and caught another taxi back. The black clouds were looming ominously again. We returned to the ship about 4. Everyone looking forward to hot showers. Dinner was in the buffet, and then it was time for “Family Movie Night” as my daughter likes to call it, everyone tucked up in bed to watch…..well I don’t know, I was reading my book. :D

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DAY 17 CIVITAVECCHIA – ROME

A Beautiful day in Civit – Civit – the port near Rome. Again, everyone is up early as we are planning to catch a train to Rome around 8:00. We caught the shuttle bus to the port gate and then walked to the station. It was very easy to find, and buying a BIRG ticket was very easy to do as well. This gets you onto the train into Rome and then onto the Metro trains in Rome, and I think it may even do the buses, but you would have to check. Again, we have no plans to do the Vatican, the Sistene Chapel or St Peter’s. The children are very keen to see the Colosseum, so we planned to go there, the Palatine Hill and Forum, and then wander, maybe the Pantheon and Trevi Fountain if we have time. We changed trains at Ostiense to the Metro, getting off at Coloseo, right across the road from the Colosseum. Unfortunately, the first sight of the Colosseum, was shrouded by scaffold, as was Constantine’s arch, so there was some disappointment from the small folk.

“Why has it got scaffolding around it?”

“Because they are doing repairs on it”

“But it’s already a ruin so why would you bother?”

“because they don’t want it to fall down any further”

“hmmm”

Five weeks later there is still much scepticism about this apparently wasted effort in restoring the Colosseum. Apart from the scaffolding, the Colosseum was a hit! Lots to see, a bloodthirsty history and lots of signs to read. Similarly outside, despite being half covered in scaffolding, Constantine’s Arch is also a hit. We had embarked on a tour of Europe’s triumphal arches after seeing the Arc de Triomph, and the forum had quite a few good examples. So far the sun had been shining, and was in fact quite hot. We wandered around Palatine Hill, from which there is quite a good view of St Peters, and then went down to the Forum. I love the Forum, it amazes me that whole buildings have fallen down apart from three columns and a bit of pediment at the top. Unfortunately, it had now started to rain. We continued on out the other side, and decided to have some lunch. We found a restaurant that had something the kids would eat., with minimal trekking. I thought we came to Italy for the pizza, but apparently they had eaten their fill already, in Spain and Paris. The heavens opened! Thunder, lightning and torrential rain. Thank goodness, we had managed to find some shelter, just before the storm arrived. We watched one of the hop on, hop off busses go past, all of the top deck valiantly trying to huddle under umbrellas. The rain looked to be setting in, so having seen what we came to see, we decided to call it a day and head back to the ship. As we got closer to the port, it got sunnier and sunnier, and it was positively radiant at Civitavecchia. . We spent lovely afternoon camped in the Horizon court with dessert and electronic devices and chatting with some fellow Australians that we had met that morning on the way into Rome. For dinner, we again ate at Horizon Court. It’s so nice not to have to trek every night looking for dinner.

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DAY 18 – NAPLES

We had a much more leisurely start to the day today. We are only planning to go to Pompeii today, and from Naples on the Circumvesuviana train line, it doesn’t take too long. Last time we went to Pompeii, we did it as a day trip from Rome. We managed to get an express train to Naples from Rome, but on the way back I think we stopped at every small town between Naples and Rome. I think we spent 6 hours on the train, for 2 hours at Pompeii. I find Pompeii fascinating, have done since our Greek teacher in Year 7 showed us his holiday photos. I love that the city is just as if everyone had walked out yesterday, the cart ruts in the road, the fast food places and all the art work and mosaics. The children, just didn’t seem to “get it” Maybe they are bit too young to understand the scope of history and how special Pompeii is. However, the day was not wasted, our son has a fascination with volcanoes, and what looms over Naples and Pompeii? One very big volcano. This led to a discussion on how volcanoes are formed, how it erupted, what came out of it, and ended up with me, a pen and a post it note, explaining why the Glasshouse Mountains in Queensland look like they do. For most of the day, however, the top of Vesuvius was shrouded in clouds. Every time we turned a corner and got a look at it, there was another sigh of disappointment.

Anyway, we caught a tram from the Port to Porta Nolana. This is not actually labeled as this when you are looking at the tram map when you are on the tram, but there is a big sign saying this as you get to the Circumvesuviana station, so you just need to keep a lookout .We bought the ticket from a kiosk opposite the terminal, this covered the tram and the Circumvesuviana. We got off the train at Pompeii Scavi . It is only a short walk from here to the ruins, and we just bought our tickets when we got there. It was still relatively early so the queue wasn’t too bad, mind you, after 2 hours at Versaille, all queues are looking good. We spent about 2 hours at Pompeii and then headed back to the ship for lunch. After lunch, we went back into Naples to have a look around and to find the Pandora shop. We walked up to the Via Toledo to find the shop and then had a wander around, looking at the shops and peering up the winding alleyways that head up Vesuvias. We also walked through the Gallerie Umberto, which is a shopping centre, but an amazing shopping centre. It has beautiful tiled floors and this soaring glass vaulted ceiling and dome. From here, we walked back to the port, stopping to look at the castle by the port on the way. I couldn’t believe how filthy Naples was. I think it could be a beautiful city. There is lovely architecture, and the alley winding up Vesuvias are intriguing, but there was rubbish and overflowing rubbish bins everywhere. It looked terrible. Finally, as we got to the ports and looked back, Vesuvias has lost its clouds and we can see it. Great rejoicing.

Today was DH’s birthday, so he got sunshine in Pompeii and Naples and we had dinner in the MDR again. He enjoyed his meal, which is the main thing, but I didn’t think it was as good as the first meal we had there.

Edited November 17, 2013 by windplayer
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Happy you're all enjoying it. It's making me want to go back, which sadly, isn't going to happen anytime soon:(

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DAY 19 SEA DAY

This will be quite short. It is a much needed sea day of relaxation between Naples and Mykonos. We have had a very slow start to the day, apparently, so has everyone else. The HC is quite busy. DD and I decide to have a wander around the ship, so we have a look at the shops and the bargain sale, there was a fruit carving demonstration in the Atrium, which was amazing, and then we headed back to the cabin. After lunch, DH went to have a look at the art auction, while the children watched a movie in the cabin, (really, how often can you watch Despicable Me?) Too cold to go swimming and they had no interest in the kids club. However, they are happy, and I sat out on the balcony with a glass of wine, a packet of Pringles and a book. So this was our day. And after the past 28 days of constant moving, I think it was needed.

Edited November 17, 2013 by windplayer
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[TracieABD]

Amazing review! :)

[bulldog on water]

I am in bed with the flu, but getting much enjoyment reading your review, your post is a wonderful cure.

[The Big Booper]

Last time in Europe we stopped at CIVITAVECCHIA and took the RR up to Termini and then the Rome subway to Colleseu (sp?). these cars looked like NYC subway cars from the 70's, only dirtier and more defaced with graffiti. We had the same situation going in to Rome, express train into Termini and a sloooww local back out to CIVITAVECCHIA.

 

I salute you for doing this with 2 kids, but they do seem well-behaved.

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They are, fortunately, well behaved when they are out. They save their bad behaviour for us ;)

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DAY 20 MYKONOS

 

Ah, the beautiful sunny Greed Islands, or maybe not. The day has dawned cloudy and wet and cool. We have docked for our half-day visit, so no need to tender. We opted to take the shuttle bus into town. Mykonos is very pretty with its blue and white buildings and we spend the morning wandering through the winding lanes and up to the windmills. We also spend a lot of time window- shopping in the many jewellery and clothes stores on the island. After we had wandered for a few hours we decided that we had seen enough. I think if it had been a bit warmer, we may have gone to the beaches and had a look, but once we had exhausted the shops, there wasn’t a lot to do, so we headed back to the ship to have some lunch. Just before we were to leave, the sun came out. Now it looked like a proper Greek island. We whiled away the afternoon, somehow, not quite sure what we did. (probably watched Despicable Me again.:))

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DAY 21 ISTANBUL

 

We have been looking forward to Istanbul. We were a bit later coming into the dock this morning, so were able to see the city as we came in, and then the captain’s brilliant reverse park in behind one of the Celebrity ships. We decided to use the ship’s shuttle bus that dropped us near the Grand Bazaar. It would probably have been quicker to use the tram, the traffic was terrible! Oh well, it was peak hour. We had pre booked our tickets for the Hagia Sofia, the Topkapi Palace and the Harem, so our plan was to head up that way and then work our way back to the Grand Bazaar. The Blue Mosque, which we also wanted to see, was not open until 2 as it was a Friday, so instead, we started at the Grand Bazaar. I have read, all over Cruise critic, how busy and crowded the Grand Bazaar is. I was worried about the kids in there, so they were under strict instructions to hold hands with one of us. Well, it was apparently early, by Turkish standards. There was hardly anyone in there, so we were able to have a good look at all the shops, and because it was early, the shopkeepers were still drinking their coffee, so no-one was inviting us to buy a carpet. Fantastic place, we didn’t venture very far in, but we could see all the alleys leading off into strange and mysterious regions. We walked from here up past the Blue Mosque to the Hagia Sofia. We had pre-booked our tickets for this, thank goodness, because with a few ships in port, it was packed. We still had to go through security, and that did take a bit of time. This is an amazing building, beautiful mosaics and the size of it is just incredible. I am such an idiot. It is always described as a museum, so I was thinking, a museum like the Louvre, I didn’t realize that the building is the exhibit (I hope that makes sense) We then walked to the Topkapi Palace. Again, fortunately, we had pre-booked our tickets, but again, going through security is slow. Once inside the lines were very long as well. We looked through an exhibition of jewels, and thrones. Just the most amazing pieces of jewellery, and the size of the stones!! We had a lovely lunch at the restaurant in the grounds, overlooking the water and then had a look through the Harem. This is also amazing. A warren of rooms, many sumptuously decorated. It’s an insight into a long lost world. Unfortunately we didn’t have time to have a good look through the rest of the palace as we wanted to have a look at the Blue Mosque. This is a very beautiful building as well. The queue to get in wound around the courtyard a couple of times, so unfortunately, we didn’t have time to go in as we didn’t want to miss the last shuttle bus. We really enjoyed our day in Istanbul. It gave us a taste of the city, and I think it would be a place that we would come back to and stay for a few days. There was so much to see, and just not enough time. I think you could easily spend a day in the Palace and another in the Grand Bazaar.

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DAY 22 KUSADASI OR, MAYBE NOT

 

We had decided to do the ship’s tour today of Ephesus and the Terrace Houses.. I have read many rave reviews of the Terrace Houses on cruise critic and also one of the ladies from my gym had just come back, I think from the same cruise, raving about them as well. Unfortunately, it wasn’t to be. The winds were very strong, and too strong for the Royal Princess to get into the dock. So we had an extra sea day. At this point, we decided we could while away the afternoon in the Horizon Court. And so, appropriately kitted out with 2 kindles, 2 mini I- pads, 1 tablet and 2 I- pods, we made our way upstairs. After we had washed our hands, it ended up that they had all been handed to our daughter to carry inside. The waiters were very amused at her apparent addiction to electronic devices. (Little did they know, that the person with the least devices, is the greatest addict, our nine year old son) We moved from the Horizon Court to see if we could find somewhere to sit in the atrium to read, but everyone seemed to have the same idea, and we ended up sitting in the Vista Lounge, not many people had that idea, before heading back to our cabin to watch, another airing of Despicable Me. How can kids keep watching the same movie over and over? Anyway, they were happy and not fighting, so yay for the minions.

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DAY 23 – ATHENS

 

Athens today. Even our son is enthusiastic about Athens, as apparently, he has always wanted to see the Parthenon. We thought that we would just grab a taxi to take us into the centre of Athens, but at Piraeus, this is easier said than done. Taxis are reluctant to just take you to Athens, they would prefer to give you a full day tour. Having now been touring with the small folk for four weeks, we know this to be a bad idea. It’s all about the speed with which you can see things, there is no lingering. We eventually managed to find one to just take us in, although, once we were captive, he had a tour to offer as well. On the way in to the city centre we saw many if the venues for the 2004 Olympics. Once in Athens, we discovered that many of the streets had been cordoned off for the Athens Marathon. The taxi dropped us as close to the Acropolis as possible, which was just down the hill from it, so not too bad. We bought our tickets from the ticket office, we were relatively early so no queue. Also, I think we are near the end of tourist season, so the only other place we saw a long queue for the rest of the trip was in Amsterdam for the Van Gogh Museum and the Rijksmuseum. At least the sun was shining in Athens, although the breeze on top of the Acropolis was a bit nippy. I couldn’t believe that we were actually standing in this place, that we have seen a thousand times on tv and in pictures. The scale of what they achieved is amazing. Unfortunately, for our son, there is more scaffolding, and apparently, he thought it would be more “complete”. Complete? It’s a ruin! I don’t know what he was expecting. He said he had seen it looking more complete. Maybe he has seen a CGI image on television. We spent about and hour and a half having a look around the monuments of the Acroplolis,. I especially like the ladies holding up the roof of the Erechthion. From the Acropolis we could see a smaller “Pantheon” down below, so we went exploring. This turned out to be in the Ancient Agora and turned out to be the Temple of Hephaistos. I think to the young cynic, this was more impressive, smaller, but complete. The Agora was very interesting. You could see all the old streets and avenues. We exited the Agora and walked through Monastiriki and the Plaka around the base of the Acroplolis to the Temple of Zeus and Hadrian’s Arch, which we had also seen from above. I like the laneways of these areas of Greece. One day I would love to come back and rent and apartment for a few days. Hadrian’s arch is apparently not a real arch, according to the nine -year old arch -expert. It’s not grand enough and it is not a monument to a great military victory, apparently arches built as a monument to an Emperor just for being a good guy do not count. I really like the Temple of Zeus, it must have been amazing when before it was ruined, 104 columns must have been an awe inspiring sight. We decided to head back to the ship to have lunch, and apparently find new accommodation in London, as our accommodation has been cancelled. This email came through the night before, so I was told. The afternoon was spent looking for new accommodation. Ah the pleasure of being on the same side of the world as the person you are emailing. We have been waiting a day or two in Australia for responses because we are emailing in the middle of the night. Being on the same side of the world, we had a response in and hour or two, and had booked ourselves some new accommodation. Phew!

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DAY 24 SEA DAY

 

After early starts, it was nice to have a sleep in. Along with everyone else. The HC was still crowded when we went up for breakfast. I went to see the cooking demonstration in the Princess Theatre. This was very popular. It was very entertaining and very funny. Some of the crew sang as well. They were really good. After the cooking demonstration, we were allowed to have a wander through the galley. This was very interesting, a vast stainless steel space where they were lining up all the desserts for lunch. I returned to our cabin to find DH reading and the kids watching a movie. We went up to the HC for lunch. We really like the HC. We thought the food was good, although we were always fairly early so it was always hot and always a variety of choice. It was especially good for the children as they do tend to be a bit suspicious about food, and most importantly, for the boy who doesn’t eat cooked vegetables they had his favourite capsicum, cucumber and carrot, every meal, unpolluted by salad dressing. After lunch, we went to the champagne fine art auction. Interesting collection of art. Some were lovely, some, um, a bit different. Quite a few, when you see them altogether a very overwhelming but when you see them in place around the ship, they look good. Much better when they are away from the mass of art at the auction. My son and I went to watch the movie showing in the Princess Live. But it was about surfing, which didn’t interest him, so we went back to the cabin to watch The Hobbit.

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DAY 25 VENICE

 

I love Venice!! A grey and cloudy day to see this beautiful city. The sail in was magnificent. A view of the city you don’t usually see. We found ourselves a place by the rail to have a look. There are quite a few leaning towers across the city. I was especially looking forward to not having to be out of the city by 4:00. Last time we were here, we were on a bus tour, so we left with the other tourists. Our plan for the afternoon was to simply wander around Venice. So that’s what we did. We had lunch on the ship and then caught the shuttle to the centre of Venice. The arrival near St Mark’s square is crazy. There are big ferries, little ferries, shuttles to islands, tour ferries, shuttles from the ships all trying to get into about 3 wharves at the same time. There seems to be no system, if you can wriggle in, you get the spot. After eventually getting off the shuttle, we walked along the waterfront for a little way, and then took to the backstreets. I loved looking in the shops, lots of glassware, jewellery, masks, gelato, giftware. We found a fishmongers as well. We eventually found ourselves at St Marks Square. There was a bit of water in the square and they were putting out the boardwalks. Not too much, though and we were able to keep our feet dry. We decided to have a look in the Doges Palace. The queue for the Cathedral was very long and DH and I have seen it before, we knew better that to even mention it to the children, but around the corner at the palace, the queue was much shorter. DH has seen this before, but it was all new to the rest of us. Amazingingly huge rooms and very ornately decorated. I hadn’t realized that the Doges were actually elected, not a hereditary title. The part we really liked best , was the walk across the Bridge of Sighs to the dungeons. Even the children liked this bit. After we finished looking at the Palace, we went across to the other side of the square, to wander through the lanes on that side. This must be the Rodeo Drive of Venice. Every big designer name had a shop here. We came back to the square and into some more alleys, more away from the touristy areas this time. Lots of small Disneyesque bridges, little restaurants and cafes. Once back at the waterfront, we decided to sit in one of the cafes and have a glass of wine. Even though it was getting gloomy as dusk was falling and the clouds closing in, it was lovely just to sit, look out at the canal and watch the people go by. The kids had lemonade, which cost more than the wine!! No one was allowed to leave any. This was just to give us a rest and fill in time until the sun went down and we could see Venice at night. Fortunately we had stopped, as at this point the heavens opened. Once it had stopped raining, we went back to St Marks’s square and into the Clocktower shops, where we found the Pandora Shop. After another wander around the square at night we headed back to the shuttle to the ship to have dinner and organize our bags to leave on the next day. The ride back to the ship was magical, with many of the buildings on the way lit up. We were surprised that St Mark’s square wasn’t better lit at night. The Clocktower was, but the lions on columns at the entrance to the square and the cathedral are not lit. They did check our passports coming back onto the ship. So when they say make sure you have them, they really mean it!

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DAY 26 VENICE – AMSTERDAM

 

Sadly, the time has come to leave this beautiful ship. Although, really looking forward to not having 4 in one cabin. We left all but one of our suit cases out the night before and elected to stay on the ship as long as possible as our flight wasn’t until 2:00pm. We had a reasonably early breakfast as we had to be out of our cabins by 8:30 and then sat in the atrium until our departure time was called at 10:30. It was a day with lots of waiting. Our flight to Amsterdam was leaving from Treviso Airport not Marco Polo, so we decided to catch a cab. You can catch a bus from the Piazzale Roma as well, which would be a lot cheaper. The taxi was easy to find, just as we came off the ship, but cost an absolute bomb. The flight was on time, another of Europe’s many budget airlines, and comfortable. From Schipol airport we caught the train into Amsterdam Centraal and then walked to our apartment. The apartment was in Westerdok .It was beautiful and very spacious after spending 12 nights in very close quarters. It also had amazing views down the canal and was a short walk from the Ann Frank House. After we had settled in, we went on a trek to find somewhere for dinner. Must say, we hadn’t missed this. WE finally found a lovely Italian restaurant, because of course, this is what you eat in Amsterdam, (and every country apart from Italy apparently) I think it must have been run by a genuine Italian. I shared a pizza with our son, our daughter had cannelloni and my husband had pasta. I finished off with a divine home made Tiramisu.

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We started the morning with a walk along Prinsengracht to the Museumplein where planned to see the Van Gogh Museum and the Rijksmuseum. Amsterdam is such a pretty city, the sun was shining and the beautiful canals are all lined with the lovely canal houses. All about 3 floors with detailed facades, many look like gingerbread houses. We bought timed tickets for the Van Gogh Museum at a little kiosk next to the Iamsterdam sign, and then went to the Rijksmuseum. Only a bit of a queue to buy tickets for this. When we left at lunchtime, they weren’t letting people in. The Rijksmesuem is amazing, so many things to see, so many unusual things to see. There was an exhibition of model ships that were used to as scale models for real ships, an exhibition of swords and guns that appealed to our nine year old son, beautiful clothes from the 1800’s, jewellery, china, clocks, fantastic dolls houses, and of course a vast collection of Dutch paintings. We, of course were speed sight seeing, but like the Louvre, the British Museum and the New York Metropolitan it would be very easy to spend a day going through it. We walked across the park to the Van Gogh Museum where we were due to go in at 1:30. This is a beautifully laid out museum, showing the development of Van Gogh’s work as you work your way up the three floors. It includes some his Irises, a Sunflower and his Bedroom in Arles. I really like his more colourful works, though and I was disappointed that there weren’t more of them, but it was still an excellent collection of his work. I must say, the gift shop there was brilliant. I do love a good gift shop. After the Van Gogh Museum we walked to the Jewish Museum. My husbands father’s family is from Amsterdam, which is why we went to Amsterdam, and his grandfather was Jewish and in Amsterdam during the war, so he was very keen to have a look at the museum. This is a very interesting and poignant museum. It is housed in four synagogues of varying ages and follows the history of the Jewish people in Amsterdam. It covers the various rites of passage through displays and video recordings. The section devoted to the **** occupation is particularly moving,

 

After we had been to the Jewish Museum, we walked up to Newmarket to see where my FIL family lived before they emigrated to Australia. There has been much redevelopment in this area and the street where they lived has made way for a block of flats, but we were still able to have a wander around the streets, alleys and canals that surround the area. We had dinner at a café in an old gatehouse. Lovely food and amazing atmosphere, it was actually lit by candles! A proper ring of candles hanging from the very high ceiling. It was very relaxing after all of the walking we had done. We walked back to our apartment in Westerdok, carefully skirting the Red Light District, as we were with the munchkins. You get a good idea of the city walking through it, all the shops and restaurants, and Amsterdam has a lot, and lots of people everywhere. Also, the Christmas decorations were starting to go up, so there were lots of pretty lights