Ocean princess venice to rome

[Bimmer09]

I took some photos ,standing on a rampart of the wall, of the surrounding countryside

 

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If these were photographs of Northern Ireland all the fields would be a vivid green. You can tell there is not much rainfall here. I have since scratched my plan to open an umbrella store here.

[HRPro]

Spectacular photos coming into the Malta harbor. I'm so enjoying your review and you are inspiring me to give the little girls a try. Love the beautiful warm decor of the ship and love the smaller ports that you can access like Malta. Thanks for all your hard work doing this review, which is bringing the cruise to life for all of us traveling along.

 

Susan

[Bimmer09]

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By 9.25 I rejoined the group at the Cathedral steps and moments later the door opened and we were ushered in...flash photography was not allowed, which was fine by me as I try never to use it.

 

[ar1950]

Great pictures. One thing that seemed odd to me was seeing the two old canons in front of the cathedral.

[Bimmer09]

I don't think there is any building more restful and calming than a Cathedral-they are an escape from the hubbub of the outside world.

 

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Stunning beauty

 



 

[Bimmer09]

This was part of the floor

 

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In the meantime a very large tour group entered the Cathedral and luckily we were about to leave. Our timing had been perfect, allowing us to enjoy the space in peace.

Edited October 20, 2014 by Bimmer09
spell check

[Bimmer09]

Thank you for your photos of Malta. Love the photo looking into the courtyard.

 

Malta is one (of many) places I've wanted to visit. It always intrigued me, from a young age, as there were many Maltese immigrants in Mackay, North Queensland. i wondered what made all these families leave such a small place for such a large faraway land, as Australia.

 

Back there was a restaurant and I would have loved to have visited and had a Maltese breakfast with coffee as the Room Service one on the ship had been lame. There's never enough time, particularly when with a tour group.

 

 

 

On many of the excursions we have been on I would love to have had the time to linger and sit at a cafe and people-watch over a coffee or beer-but we try to pack a lot of experiences into a short time span. I am definitely liking the idea of Cruise Itineraries that linger in port overnight- I think Azamara does this at times-so that we can sample the nightlife and linger in restaurants in the warm night air, hear the crickets and such and let any stress leave our minds as the wine and the food and the conversation of new-found friends works it's magic.

 

Ports take on a whole different complexion when night falls and the lights go on but I am usually a few miles out to sea when that happens.

 

Sigh.

 

Norris

[Bimmer09]

Spectacular photos coming into the Malta harbor. I'm so enjoying your review and you are inspiring me to give the little girls a try. Love the beautiful warm decor of the ship and love the smaller ports that you can access like Malta. Thanks for all your hard work doing this review, which is bringing the cruise to life for all of us traveling along.

 

Susan

 

Susan-thanks so much and I am glad you enjoyed the photos taken in the dark.

Even though flawed I had to post the earliest ones so you could see what we were seeing. Luckily I could force more light into the camera by holding the shutter open longer (on a moving ship, hence the blur)-can't do that with the camcorder but regardless of perfection I was glad I was up and awake and ready for one of the most magical experiences of my life.

 

Carol was similarly taken by the beauty of it all.

 

It was one of the Captain's favorite harbors and now I could see why.

 

Norris

[Bimmer09]

Great pictures. One thing that seemed odd to me was seeing the two old canons in front of the cathedral.

 

 

ar1950 thanks for stopping in again. The canons were probably at the harbor upon a time or were maybe used for extremely low-flying German dive bombers in WWII as Malta is the most-bombed island in History.

 

Good eye, though.

 

Norris, WWII buff, although very happy to have missed it.

[Bimmer09]

Ok, time to take a breather and show you the video of our arrival in Valetta in the dark.

 

 

Norris

[MMDown Under]

Thanks for sharing the magic of coming into a new port in the dark, then the half light, then eventually watching the ship being tied up to the wharf, knowing that you are soon to go on a new adventure.

 

Don't you just love watching the pilot jump aboard from that tiny pilot boat?

[Jasperdo]

One of my absolutely favorite things to do on a cruise is be out on deck when coming into port, especially a new port. Your Malta Harbor photos really captured that feeling for me.

[KruzeKrazy!]

We, too, are loving your most captivating travelog! I read the entrues to my wife and remark that your writing style and gloriously descriptive details sound like you are/were a professional writer.

 

We are enthralled as we have been contemplating a Med cruise for some time now. And we are also going on our first "little sisters" cruise next year on the Pacific Princess for our 40th.

 

Here's to more of your story with all the wonderful photos!

[KruzeKrazy!]

And I see you're a bit fond of C749. We were in C749 on the CB as you have been and absolutely loved it!

[Bimmer09]

We, too, are loving your most captivating travelog! I read the entrues to my wife and remark that your writing style and gloriously descriptive details sound like you are/were a professional writer.

 

We are enthralled as we have been contemplating a Med cruise for some time now. And we are also going on our first "little sisters" cruise next year on the Pacific Princess for our 40th.

 

Here's to more of your story with all the wonderful photos!

 

KK thanks for the kind words and I am happy you are along for the ride/sail.

I wish I could spend more time on the writing part but most of the time is spent on cutting and pasting and deleting, dragging and dropping, watching the spinning beach ball, saying "really Youtube? really?" etc etc-the mechanics of getting stuff on the screen. Writing in a rush. Still if you are enjoying it and it is reading briskly then it's all good. I never want to bog people down in laborious detail and side-tracking.

 

Life gets in the way and the clock is ticking.

 

For instance this morning I am up at 5 a.m and have a 100 mile drive in the dark at 6.30 to my car dealership's Body Shop all because October 2nd I was sitting at a traffic light in Chicago at 5.45 a.m and the SUV in front of me began backing up. I was about 8 ft behind in neutral (stick shift) and sounded the horn with both hands but it backed up faster and smashed the front of my car. This is a car that my dealer had featured on their Facebook Page as a "cream puff" (one door ding in 11 years). Luckily I had my cell phone and took photos at the scene and photos of the other driver's insurance and filed a claim. For two weeks the Texas girl who was driving the SUV didn't return calls from her Insurance Co and finally last Friday the 17th she admitted liability. (phew!)

 

So taking the car in and leaving it for a couple of days (new hood and paint job)

will eat into my day somewhat.

 

Then Saturday we are taking a driving tour up into Michigan to catch the last of the fall foliage for three days so I will be gone from the computer for a while.

 

I'll try to get as much done on the review as I can in the meantime.

 

You mention a Pacific Princess cruise in 2015 but your signature says Ocean Princess....

 

Norris

[KruzeKrazy!]

Good catch on my signature. We were booked on the Ocean Princess but changed to a Pacific Princess itinerary and I forgot to update the signature. Too nuch thinking about cruising and not enough about signatures...

[jlf1]

Ok, time to take a breather and show you the video of our arrival in Valetta in the dark.

 

 

Norris

 

Stunning pictures of Malta. Malta has been on my bucket list for as long as I can remember.

 

Judy

[Bimmer09]

One of my absolutely favorite things to do on a cruise is be out on deck when coming into port, especially a new port. Your Malta Harbor photos really captured that feeling for me.

 

I'm the same way but darkness just adds to the magic of the arrival- Skagway for instance where the only people on the dock is the line hauling team at 5.30 a.m.

I think ships and harbors are more theatrical when lit by the amber glow of incandescent bulbs.

 

If there is drizzle and mist it just adds to the magic of the moment.

 

We have the leaving of one great harbor to come and the discovery of yet another following.

 

Watching a careful focused professional team park a big ship with precision is very gratifying-you know you're in good hands. Dino Sagani told me he gets a similar satisfaction docking the Diamond Princess as he does when backing into a tight parking spot in one maneuver (something so many make a hash of) without touching another car or the curb....that moment when you walk away and look back and think..."hey nice job, ME!".

 

Norris, glad you are reading and enjoying this, Jasperdo

[Bimmer09]

Stunning pictures of Malta. Malta has been on my bucket list for as long as I can remember.

 

Judy

 

Thanks Judy. It's a very small island so I might not want to spend a week there unless I had time to burn but a couple of days would be good. I regret not being in the ports at night after the ships leave.

 

Some day.

 

Norris

[Bimmer09]

We were back outside the ancient city walls of Medina (M'Dina as you'll have seen on some signs) and a couple of Carol's probing questions were answered by Antonio, our guide. Yes there were restrooms and Yes there were benches.

 

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We had a 20 minute break to use the clean public bathrooms and indeed enjoy a relaxing wooden bench. The carriage rides were still being offered.

 

 

The drivers weren't hustling people to buy, which was nice. No pressure.

 

 

Our next walk would be a short one-maybe 10 minutes to the adjoining town of Rabat. There we would find catacombs on a normal looking street.

 

I took some snaps as we walked along....

 

 

Walking past this little square made me want to stop and have a cold local beer, something which the wise locals were already doing at 10.30 a.m as the sun was beating down on us.

 

 

[Bimmer09]

Another public square

 

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Same thing happening in the USA at that time

 

 

We made our way down this narrow street to the catacombs

 

[Bimmer09]

Catacombs are underground and have stone walls so they are nice and cool on a hot day. However they are low-ceilinged and cramped and I didn't see any point in following the guide through the maze of tunnels so once we had an overview in the first wide chamber I stayed behind while the others followed the guide. This was an option as the guide would return to the same spot again after 20 minutes or so.

 

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Carol's vivid blue shirt was a reminder of the 21st Century and the land of the living.

 



 

Been there-done that. I prefer graveyards with grass.

 

[Bimmer09]

We climbed the steps from the catacombs into the dazzling sunlight and were now headed back to the bus, by the walls of Medina.

 

We didn't take the train-we walked

 

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We returned to where the bus was parked

 

 

Some eyes rolled when back on the bus we were told there was time to stop at (a) a glass showroom and (b) a jewelry store or some such (my brain turns off at the mention of the word "shopping" unless it is followed by the words "fridge magnets". Shopping wasn't obligatory though-one (ME) could go have a beer!

 

I managed a couple of photos of Medina on it's hill through the bus window

 

 

[Bimmer09]

When we stopped at the glass factory showroom I made a beeline for a little stand nearby with umbrellas for shade. It was like a food truck for drinks and I sat and had one of the local beers- CISK. It was very welcome as was a cigarette.

 

Photos like this let me know I am on holiday-and loving every minute!

 



 

 

The bus waits in the background for 20 minutes.

 

More later....

[Bimmer09]

Malta does have trees-and parched looking soil

 

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We drove back to Valetta and after a show of hands the bus veered from the ship and parked near the Upper Barakka Gardens. The ship was a 10 minute downhill walk away. We had over 3 hours before the ship sailed at 4 pm, bound for Palermo which had been substituted for Tunis, due to safety concerns.

 

 

The gardens are high above the harbor supported by mighty stone ramparts.

 

An elevator has been built to take people from the dock (5E fee) or from the gardens down to the dock (free)

 



 

 

They afford views like this

 

 

The cannons are sounded at Noon and 4 p.m ( I was led to believe)

 

 

It is a very popular place to visit. Tourists from all over the world were up there according to the accents and languages I heard. Another ship or two was in port...