A Welcome Back....To Reality

We enjoyed many things about sailing on HAL (Holland America Line). We always tell people that we have no favorite cruise line really, because they all differentiate themselves by a collection of little things. One of the little things HAL does is that they allow you to stay in your stateroom as long as you like on dis-embarkation day, even after your number/color is called for leaving the ship. The other nice little difference on HAL is that they will still deliver you a room service breakfast on the day of dis-embarkation. Most other cruise lines have no room service on the last day. A difference of much larger proportion is the HAL beds, I think the matress on our bed was about 16 inches thick and perhaps the most comfortable of any of the cruise lines!

By 8:30AM, our number (one of the last) was called so Peg and I began to leave our sureal European experience. The airport Marriot in Barcelona was more efficient than expected upon arrival on the dock with their shuttle driver waiting for us / our luggage right outside the terminal (holding up a sign so we could find him). For 10 Euro each, the driver was bussing people to the Marriot by the airport (BCN). We dumped our bags in our tiny European hotel room (which had no normal electrical outlets for anything) and was about 1/3 the size of a normal hotel room.

Peg and I jumped on a free shuttle to the city center in Barcelona. The driver left us at Plaza Espanya (sort of in the middle of things). Ironically I was telling Peg how fun it was in London to take a double decker Red bus around the city when one of these busses pulled right up. We thought it would be a great way to see all of Barcelona by jumping on the Orange line for the east side of town and then transfer to the green line for the west side. I got some great pictures of churches and other architectural marvels including some of the facilities used for the 1992 Olympics held in Barcelona. We walked down the Las Ramblas area where everything seems to be happening in the city except being Sunday, most businesses were closed. It was odd to see so many stores and shopping centers completely closed because it was Sunday! After shooting pictures all day we ended up in a small cafe enjoying some of the local wine and food (pizza and payeia....a seasoned rice dish filled with seafood in this case). After we had our dinner, we headed back to the main plaza and found hoards of people heading up to the local stadium for a footbal game (these people are more passionate about soccer than Amercians are about the NFL). We were amazed at all the people. In the midst of it all was a large group of young people dressed in goth / completely black clothing and weird wigs. We could not for the life of us figure out what these demonstrators were trying to say or what their point was. Even the locals looked at them weird.

We caught our shuttle back to the airport hotel and were now totally exhausted. I felt especially worn out just thinking about the 4:00AM wake up call for the 6:55AM flight to Paris and then the change of terminals / more security checkpoints / more passport station checks / topped off by our 8 1/2 hour flight to Chicago where we would fly ahead of the sun all day. Right now we are decending into the Chicago area and the local time is 12PM Non. My watch says 7:00PM still. As we fly over Lake Michigan, the monitor on the seat back in front of me says we have now travelled 4,082 miles since leaving Paris this morning, and we have about 60 miles to go!

We are definitely back in reality now.

Next Stop.....The Eastern Coast of Spain, Wake Me When We Are There

We sailed away from Italy Friday night traveling just north of of the island of Corsica. I have no idea what is there but I did notice a huge ferry in Livorno taking people and cars to and from Corsica. It is a large island just off the coast of Italy about 20-30 miles or so. I didn't know this of course until one day Peg and I were checking out the world map books on display in the ships' library. They had a special table set up for these giant world map books with two of them open all the time across the table for people to view. The books were 3 feet tall by 2 feet wide!

Saturday was sort of an odd day as cruising goes. We woke up to a day at sea as we crossed the Mediterranean heading for Barcelona, Spain. The day was odd because we were going to pull into Barcelona at 5PM that day and dock the ship for the last time of our cruise. The morning started with a special presentation of the ship crew members. No less than 300 of the crew from all walks of ship life got up on stage in the main show room as the crowd (and we) all cheered in appreciation for all that the crew had done for us in the past two weeks. The crew ended the presentation with a song about love and people from all walks of life.....and learning to get along together. The show was great and it was the crew's way of saying good bye to everyone. The theatre was packed and I would be lying if I didn't tell you that the moment was a bit emotional for everyone. It reminded me a bit about something we heard a performer say one night. It was something like, "how is it that people will come on to a ship as total strangers and make new best friends of almost everyone they encounter, but on the streets of a city....people walk by each other and wouldn't give you the time of day if you asked?". It is a strange but true observation.

After the lines were tossed and the ship was tied, many people headed into town to see Barcelona. Peg and I decided to relax and wait until Sunday morning when we actually dis-embarked the ship to go into town. We spent our final day / night on the ship going to special shows that were put together by the singers and other special entertainers of the cruise. We saw the Irish Celtic Band "Live Wire" perform once again and the tenner known as Drew Preston.... sing a few more songs. Saturday evening, just the 4 lead singers from the song and dance team performed a unique show called a tribute to Broadway. These 4 singers were perhaps the most talented we have ever seen on a ship. Each and every one of their shows was just filled with energy and spectacular performances. Saturday night was no exception. After the last show, we packed our bags, prepared for the early morning exit, and called it a day. Saturday was weird in that we sailed into the port and sort of watched our cruise come to an end....slowly but surely.

The Gateway To Tuscany

We left Rome at 8 PM Thursday and began sailing across the Tyrrhenian Sea for Livorno, Italy. By the time we woke up, the ship was already tied to the pier and people were disembarking the ship for tours to Pisa, Florence, and other spots in the Tuscan region. It seems Livorno is a gateway to Tuscany. Peg and I were too tired to take on anything real adventurous or involving additional travel today so after breakfast and getting dressed we just wandered into town and eventually came upon a tour boat operator selling rides through the canals of Livorno and telling all about the history. The boat was very much like a motorized Gondola and turned out to be fun.

This was a pretty low key activity so we paid the 10 Euros each and went along for the ride. I thought of it as a vacation from our vacation. The waterway took us all through the town and the guide told us all about the various buildings and the history behind them (including stories about which structures were damaged in the war and how some structures were never repaired...see the cracks in the walls of the fortress built to protect the town from the sea). It was a very relaxing day and we spent the entire afternoon back on the ship.

We later learned that while the taxi/tour operators wanted 100 Euros and more to drive the 15 miles to Pisa, one could hop on a local bus to the train station (bus #1 at the town square in Livorno) and the train woulld take you to Pisa, Florence, and back all for about 9 Euro.

Our french friend we met on board named Suresh did this with his wife Veronia and said it was very easy...and they had lots of fun. They got off the train in Pisa and went by the tower for a while, only then to re-board a later train that took them on an additional one hour ride through Tuscany to Florence. Suresh said the cathedral in Florence was absolutely amazing. I had no idea the train to Pisa was as easy to take as the one going to Rome (just a different direction). We did hear later in the evening tht some of the people who did the shore excursion through the cruise line did pay a lot for it and also had no idea it could have been done so much cheaper by train. In reading about Pisa, I found out that there has been some excavation work done at the base of it so the tower is actually leaning a little less these days (about 5" less). Engineers have excavated the base of the tower in such a way that they hope the base will continue to move and the tower itself will right itself by about another 15 inches! It did occurr to me that if the tower stops leaning all together, Pisa may not get all the tourists there to come and see it!

While we did miss Florence and Pisa, we enjoyed just hanging out on the ship for a day of relaxation. The people who did make it all the way to Florence (about 1.5 hours from the port) all seemed to just love it. Florence and Pisa are for sure on our list of future things to do, but it sounds like taking the train is the ticket!

We left Livorno by slowly pulling away from the dock and turning the ship towards Spain. Looking at the port made us realize that visitng the country of Italy was a sureal experience. Having only been there for the first time in our lives, who could say whether we would ever be back again? Of course we would love to return, but life truely is like a box of chocolates.

If we ever do return, I want to go back to the Straights of Messina and this time stop there to see the town. I talked to a crew member who has been sailing the Meditteranean Sea for 7 years now, he told me the stop in Messina on the island of Siciliy is his favorite place amongst them all.