San simeon

Honfleur

Last cruise port before Dover was le harve and not far away was this gorgeous town of honfleur, reputedly the prettiest town in France & after seeing it I believe it.

Note the cat in the box

Lisbon

At last a day at sea to relax, I think the whole ship has been looking forward to it and get their heads together again.  For some poor souls unfortunately that will never happen by the looks of them.

Afternoon tea onboard ship

We traveled south down the Spanish coastline far enough away to just make out the land then we rounded the bottom & around 7pm, out of the misty murk the rock of Gibraltar appeared.  I didn’t recognize it at first but there could be no doubting it as we sailed alongside with it’s distinctive cliff plunging down into the sea & the monkeys hopping around the top.  Actually we couldn’t see the monkeys but I could imagine they were there.  We got a better view of Morocco than we did of Spain & Gibraltar but we could make out thousands of windmills along the hill line in Spain & I remembered when we drove along there a couple of years ago how for miles over that coastline and over the hills were all the wind farms and solar farms.  Passing through the Straits of Gibraltar was about the most exciting thing that happened that day as again we didn’t win bingo so the jackpot is now over $2,000.  Today (being Friday, our final day at sea) is our final chance to win.

The following day at 12pm we pulled into the port of Lisbon and the final port I can write about.  Tomorrow is our last port of Le Havre but not much will happen there as we will be attempting to squeeze all our little goodies including a tea set into our bags as we jump ship the next day. I hope to find an internet café to post my last reports.  There will be questions asked on all the ports so I hope you have been paying attention.

I will be more than a little sorry to leave the ship, after all, who will make my bed every morning and turn it down again every night & put little chocolates on my pillow & clean the bathroom and cook all my meals? It’s these little things we haven’t had to worry about, leaving us to worry more on the bigger picture such as which dining room shall we eat in or shall we order breakfast in instead of getting dressed & going upstairs or what should we wear when going ashore.

Anyway, we sailed into Lisbon midday & had until 7.30 that evening to have a look around.  The boat passed under the magnificent 25th of April bridge which is almost a replica of the San Francisco Golden Gate bridge as it was built by the same company from America.  It is 1012 metres long & got it’s name from the date in 1974 from the carnation revolution when they overthrew the regime of Antonio Salazar & democracy was restored to Portugal.

We just fit underneath

The historians think Lisbon was founded by the Phoenicians as early as 1200BC but despite the long history there are not many really historical buildings here due to the devastating earthquake of 1755 which killed over 100,000 people, destroyed not only Lisbon but all down Portugal and what wasn’t destroyed by the earthquake the rest was wiped out by the tsunami.  It’s a shame but there were still some old parts which managed to survive, mainly in the old region of Alfama. 

This part also shares similarities to San Francisco as it’s very hilly and bone rattling vintage trams trundle up and down the narrow, steep, cobble stoned streets.  There the similarities end as washing hangs out the windows and the buildings are covered in gorgeous blue & white tiles, called Azulejos, some are just patterned but others depict pictures.

The main shopping area of Lisbon, the Baixa quarter, has these lovely buildings painted in pastel colours, wide streets and enormous squares. I mean these squares in the middle of the street are just huge with black & white patterns on the ground and big statues or fountains.  It starts near the river with their own Arch de Triomphe or “Black Horse” Praca do Comercio then behind that is closed to the traffic and filled with restaurants, wonderful looking boutiques, specialized tea & coffee shops as well as your run of the mill shops.  It seemed that on every corner and every street was a policeman or two, they were everywhere.  One of them, around 5pm said to someone we knew from the ship to be careful as the pick pockets had just arrived so they obviously know who they are and must be a real problem.

Eating famous Custard Tarts

Once again Jo, Jon & I decided we would go with a taxi who offered us a 2 hour tour of the main sights for 75 euro.  It saved us having to catch buses, trains & trams to get around & see it all.  A bit more expensive but when time is limited it is worthwhile.

He took us to see the Torre de Belem or Belem Tower which predates the earthquake and was the point where many of the discovery voyages started from & ended like Vasco da Gama’s journey to India via the tip of Africa.  Further down was a monument to honour these Discovery’s which was a huge concrete carving in the shape of a ships’ bow with all the people associated with the Discovery’s carved in it, Henry the Navigator being at the very front of the bow.

Next was Jeronimos Monastery, again built around the 16th century to commemorate the expeditions of the Portuguese explorers.  In one part of this was a church with wonderful carvings and two elaborate carved tombs with the effigy on the top of the person inside, one was the very same Vasco da Gama & the other was a poet.  Not sure of the significance of the poet but I think he wrote about the Discovery’s?  Looked grand anyway.

After that I insisted he take us to the famous bakery I had read about that make the best pasteis de nata or more commonly known as a Portuguese custard tart.  The taxi driver knew which one I was talking about and said that this is where the original cake was made and the recipe was kept secret.  Japan have similar custard tarts and the Portuguese claim it was first made here & during the explorations when they went to Japan the recipe was taken over.  Not sure how true that is but I was willing to believe it.  He dropped us off with the instructions to ask for a Belem cake.  I wasn’t sure if we were talking about the same thing but it turns out we were.  If you ever go to Lisbon you have to go to Confeitaria de Belem, everyone will know it with it’s classic blue & white tiled walls and to die for bakery cakes & biscuits behind the glass counters and THE most fantastic custards tarts in the world.  Jo wanted to know if they were similar to the NZ custard pies as she didn’t like them but after taking one bite of this tart she was a convert.  The pastry is crisp & a bit flaky like filo and the custard was silky smooth and sooo yummy.

He took us up to another old Cathedral called the Se of Lisbon.  Every town has their own Se and this was Lisbon’s.  He warned us to be very careful inside as it was fairly dark and a haven for pick pockets so we go in clutching our bags tightly to our sides. It was a lovely old church with little alcoves covered in the blue & white picture tiles & a room with a cardinal’s cloak spread out and all his different hats, no pickpockets tho.

He drove us down what he called their Champs Elyse, a wide boulevard lined with palm trees, ponds & benches.  At the end was a big monument to Pombal and behind that was a lovely looking peaceful park but he warned us not to walk in it even in the daytime.  What’s the use of a park that’s too dangerous to walk in?

After our two hours he dropped us off downtown where we all parted to go our different ways, me to MacDonald’s to post the blog & photos and the other two to the shops.  We met up again at 5 and found a nice little café where we could have a snack & mostly watch the world go by. Jon bought a beer that came in a glass so big his entire face disappeared when he took a sip.  More custard tarts & we were ready to get back on the boat and sail away to our last port.


We have had two days at sea where it has been more than a little rough, the roughest we have encountered yet.  Apparently the Bay of Biscay is notorious for being bad as parts of the continental shelf extend into the bay making for fairly shallow water in comparison to the Atlantic & along with the weather helps to cut it up.  Last night I was walking from one side of the corridor to the other and clinging onto the stairs to save myself being thrown down and this was before I started drinking.  We had the Captains farewell party and as Jon was feeling a little under the weather I went by myself, there was no way I was missing out on free drinks.  I found I walked a lot straighter after a few rum cocktails.

One more dinner on board, 4 more chocolates on my pillow (none on Jon’s) and we will sadly disembark from our cruise.

Barcelona

The last, but definitely by no means the least, port of call in this marathon of port calling was Barcelona.  We were allowed a slight sleep in as we didn’t dock until 8am and unfortunately we only had a short day as all aboard time was 3.30pm.  Barcelona deserves a lot more time than this but we had to target our key sights and forget about the rest.

This ship, once it has your money for the ride, then tries to target you any way they can to eek out those extra dollars from your pocket.  Most of it is a wrought and targets the fear in folk that this is the only alternative & if they don’t take it they will be stuck.  In this case I’m talking about the shuttle buses from the ship into town.  In some ports they supply free of charge a bus to take you to the port gates which in some cases can be a trek & you are not usually allowed to walk anyway. For our last three ports of call we received an order form in our cabin to book the bus from the ship into near the centre of town for a pricey sum of $8 p/p one way, so for two of us would be $32 for each port.  Turns out it’s either a very easy walk into town or you can take a taxi for 5 euro & with 4 people it’s a no brainer.

In Barcelona it was only a 2 km walk, over a huge bridge that could open up to allow big ships through and into the bottom part of the city where a very tall monument to Columbus stands.  From there 3 of us, Jo, Jon & myself decided to catch the hop on hop off bus (Jon was banned from sitting at the open side of the bus) while the others were going to ramble along the shopping promenade of Las Ramblas before taking the bus. This promenade is lined with cafes, flower stalls, trinket stalls and the inevitable street performers mainly the statues, all painted up and meant to be standing still.  We saw a magnificent golden angel but she was sitting down talking on her mobile phone.  Jo commented that she was still connected to earth but she may have been talking to the man himself.

This bus is a great way of getting an idea of the feel & layout of a city, gives information on the different sights & history and gets you to the most important places with relatively no hassles.  What we wanted to see the most was of course the Gaudi creations.  As the bus went down the streets we did catch a couple of glimpses of what could be no other than a Gaudi design.  He must have been the most unusual man and I don’t know what he was on but it must have been strong.  I can’t really describe what they looked like but he didn’t like straight or angular lines so every thing is curved and the colours were iridescent. I read a description that he combined art nouveau & modernismo but that would give you no idea of what it looks like.  I can only likened it to a gingerbread house or something out of Disneyland. 

 

His biggest passion and life long work was a church he designed and started building in 1883 called La Sagrada Familia.  He worked on it for over 40 years then was killed by a tram in 1926 so here it remains, still unfinished.  He didn’t leave any notes or plans so they are now trying to finish it how they think it should be done.  It has cranes all around it and the top turrets have a sheathing over them so you can’t see what the look like but you can see the rest which is amazing to say the least.  There is so much detail that you can stand there for hours studying it.  The bell towers are covered in Venetian mosaics, it has a nativity-themed façade with doorways representing faith, hope & charity and it even has a Christmas tree above the front door.  Jo & I thought we would go inside as it was only 13 euros so Jon said he would meet us outside in half an hour.  The queue we joined was only short so we thought that would be fine.  We got to the front & found out it was for internet booked tickets only and had to join the other queue.  Ok, no problem we thought, we just had to find the end of it, so we walked from the front of it down the street to the corner, turned the corner and walked a whole block until the next corner, turned that corner and walked almost another block before we thought we didn’t really want to see it that much.  So the tip of the day is buy your ticket on the internet first otherwise buy a postcard.

The next stop was to see Guell Park, another Gaudi designed creation.  His original intention was to construct 60 homes around a garden park and decorate the area with mosaics & sculptures but falling under a tram brought that idea to a halt as well.  Still it was just amazing what he had done.  We had to walk up a steep hill to get to it and Jon was muttering that this better be worth it so I had my fingers crossed otherwise I could be in for an ear bashing.  Lucky for me that it was.  We came around the corner and there was this wonderland of gingerbread style gatehouses and steps leading up to all these columns with mosaics along the way & mosaics sculptures of a lizard and the head of some animal.  The columns up the top were holding up a wavy ceiling with mosaic patterns in the hollows of the wave.  If you climbed up the stairs next to this you got to the roof which was a large flat area with curved seating around the edges with the backrest done all in mosaics.  It was such a lot of work and so incredible.  The gardens were a maze of tropical flowers & lavender all in bloom giving great colour to an already colourful place.  Also there were the mobile markets, our darker coloured friends with myriad of souvenirs, handbags etc but when someone blew the whistle they were gone in 10 seconds flat only to relay it all out again further up the top.  One lot we saw had only just started laying it all out when the whistle blew again. They must get sick of that carry on.

The bus then took us past the big football stadium and up Montjuic mountain with it’s sweeping views over the city and where the Olympic stadium is.  The diving stadium would have been the most spectacular for the spectators as they would have been sitting with their backs to the mountainside and overlooking the city while the divers jumped in the air in front of them, what a view!

When we finally got off the bus we just had enough time to race down Las Rambles a little way, buy a big bottle of Sangria and look longingly at the cafes with the big plates of paella & tapas and wish we just had a little more time to sit & enjoy the ambience but it was a short day and had to be back by 3.30, not even our normal 6.30, that would have given us enough time but no, we had to make tracks for Lisbon so it was goodbye to Barcelona or rather was it Austa la wago, as we will be back.
  

Cannes

Cannes may possibly be the most mispronounce city in Europe or at least in France.  You don’t say the ‘s’ it’s just Can as in singular, not plural according to some self appointed ‘experts’ on the ship.  And so it was for the 4th day in a row, we were up early and arrived in the glamorous city of Cannes without the ‘s’.

It was originally called Cane Harbour by the Romans due to the abundance of reeds in the nearby marshes, go figure.  Lord Brougham was responsible for making Cannes a trendy place to go to, back in 1834 when he couldn’t get into Nice due to the cholera epidemic, now every man & his dog wants to be seen here.

It is a nice little resort town with some very swanky hotels, The Carlton being one of them so of course we had to have another photo of that.  It was lucky we got there on a Sunday as most of the shops were closed.  If they hadn’t been who knows how much money we could have spent.  We looked into the windows and there were some very expensive clothing like a nice looking T Shirt was 240 euros or a basic pair of sandals was over 140 euros.

Trying to figure out just what it is

Only three of us, Jon, myself & Maureen wanted to go to Monaco & Monte Carlo for the day so we figured out where the station was, how to buy a ticket and which train to catch, no mean feat I can assure you.  The 1 hour train ride from Cannes to Monaco is very picturesque as the tracks wind around the cliffs of the French Riviera giving great views of the beaches & Mediterranean below and the mansions & houses clinging onto the hills above.  Unfortunately it was a bit cloudy this day, our first cloudy day in over 3 weeks since starting the cruise but as the day went on the sun finally came out.  I had almost forgotten what a cloudy day looked like and we were pleased with the slightly cooler temps of around 27, makes sight seeing so much easier.

We got off the train at Monte Carlo and emerged from the very flash marble lined train station into the heart of Glamour Ville. The cars that were charging down the road almost running us over were Bentleys, Rolls Royce’s, Ferraris, Porches and some completely unidentifiable but looking pretty flash.  Across the road were the mega yachts bobbing in the small harbour and all around were grand buildings & hotels, some reportedly over 15,000 euro per night!  For the guy who has everything we saw in one shop window the perfect present.  It was a leather covered wheelbarrow with the matching leather spade, trowel & bucket.  No idea of the price but definitely something I have never thought existed, let alone buying. 

We were surprised they let us into the Monte Carlo casino as we were not properly attired but it turns out it was closed until that afternoon but we did get to see inside the grand entrance with sweeping staircases and high ceilings decorated in gold.  We also got to visit the toilet which was something in itself.  Maureen went down the stairs and afterwards insisted I came down too to have a look.  As we went down the stairs we passed the gents loo’s which had no doors and you looked straight inside to the row of urinals and to the men standing there having a leak.  Oh well, she said, we are in France after all and into the ladies she lead me.  She particularly wanted to show me the hand drier which was one of these flash jobs like a dyson fan where you insert your hands down into a slot and a whirlwind of warm air dries your hands in an instance.  The interesting thing about it was on the top it had the words “check willy willy”. What the hell that was about we had no idea but the images it conjured up almost sent us into hysterics, especially when we passed the men’s loo again with all the wily willys lining up. 

Jon picking out his next boat

At last, the perfect boat!

We sat and ate our lunch overlooking the marina with all the posh boats and the dramatic backdrop of the steep cliffs behind, high rises clinging on for dear life and the castle at the top of one of the hills.  There was a shroud of mist covering the top of the tallest mountain and ominous looking black clouds & occasional spot of rain but humidity was up and it was lovely & balmy.  I didn’t realise how steep the hills and streets were here and how they have built the town right on the side of it.  They also have beautiful gardens & parks with fountains & waterfalls in amongst the shops, casinos and hotels giving a lovely green & peaceful look to the city. There were pictures of Grace & Prince Rainier everywhere obviously still revered and the occasional one of Prince Albert.  It’s a shame we didn’t have time to see the palace or the tombs of Grace & Prince Rainier or even Jacques Cousteau’s Oceanographic museum which was just down the road.  Being very conscious of the time we didn’t want to miss the 1pm train back as the next train would get us back too late.  The ship was anchored in the harbour so we had to catch the tender ashore and the last one back to the boat left at 4pm.  Miss that boat and we would miss the ship, something we were a bit reluctant to do but at least we had seen what the fuss was about in Monte Carlo even tho we didn’t break the bank.

After strolling down the glitzy palm tree-lined boulevard of La Croisette back at Cannes & having a paddle in the sea on the public beach (there were heaps of private beaches with their umbrellas & deck chairs lining up) so we could say we swam in the French Riviera and had our photos taken on the red steps of the Cannes film festival theatre (an extremely ordinary looking building), we raced back to the wharf just in time to catch the 4pm boat and back to the ship, safe for another day.  

Doggone it, where is that train?