Pat and Norm's World Cruises and other adventures

Corfu, Greece

Posted on April 10, 2022 by patmathews

April 10, 2022

Our port of call today is Corfu, Greece.

We arrived while it was still a bit dark outside but you could still see one of the forts as we sailed in.

Our guide is Zita who was born in Hungary but has been working here for 23 years.

Locating Corfu on the map – if you picture the heel of the boot of Italy and the west coast of mainland Greece, Corfu lies just between them. It faces Albania on the east, and we got a notice on our phones “Welcome to Albania”, that’s how close it is.

The position of Corfu at the entrance to the Adriatic Sea makes it a strategic location as well.

First, we traveled through the town and heard from Zita that the population of Corfu is 100,000. It is very fertile and is called the Emerald Island. It has a wonderful climate and many beautiful beaches. Before Covid, Zita said that about 78 planes a day landed here in summer.

We stopped for a view of a small island called Mouse Island due to its small size. Mythology says that it was the ship of Ulysses that was stoned by the god Poseidon. It is near a church and monastery called Panagia Vlacherna which is linked to the land by a small bridge.

There is a forecast for some rain today but so far it is sunny.

The Venetians occupied Corfu during the period when Christianity was introduced and most of the so called pagan structures were destroyed and the worship of the gods decreased. Many stories remain though.

We visited the Mon Repos Palace which was actually the birthplace of Prince Phillip of the UK. He was born on the dining table in the villa which belonged to Greek Royals in 1921. There is a plaque marking the site as his birthplace. Mon Repos is now an archeological museum. We had a tour through the museum and learned the importance of olive oil and wine in the country. Much of the old pottery was used for oil or wine.

One room had these paintings of local flowers. The large one is the so called Judas tree where Judas hanged after betraying Jesus. It is plentiful on the island.

The grounds are beautiful and we saw lots of runners on the roads around the palace.

There are two large forts on Corfu aptly named the new fort and the old fort! The old fort on the east side of the town overlooking the sea was built in the 15th century by the Venetians and is one of the most impressive fortifications in Europe. We didn’t go in but had lots of photo opportunities.

The new fort is also called the Fortress of St. Mark and was built between 1576 and 1645. You still see the winged lion, symbol of Venice, on many of the buildings.

So you see, they are both quite old!

We had time to walk around the old town. Even though it is Sunday, many shops were open. Apparently a big thing here is Donkey Milk soap, so we had to buy some.

We also saw these men load this large object into their small car. No idea what it was or where it was headed.

We visited a small ornate church and the man inside gave us candles to light and also some bread.

Just as we were getting ready to return to the ship, there was a rain storm so we got kind of soaked. It wasn’t too cold though, and we did have our waterproof windbreakers on.

We say goodbye to beautiful Corfu and Greece. Tomorrow we visit Dubrovnik in Croatia and we are really excited to see it because everyone says it is so beautiful. Our clocks go back one hour tonight.

Posted in April, Europe, Excursions, Spring Cruise 2022 | 3 Comments

Katakolon, Greece

Posted on April 9, 2022 by patmathews

April 9, 2022

We arrived at our first port in Greece this morning. The village of Katakolon is on the western coast of Greece’s largest peninsula, the Peloponnese. It is best known as the gateway to one of ancient Greece’s most notable historic landmarks ancient Olympia. It is famous as the location of the first Olympiad, and that is the site we visited today.

Our guide was Marietta, and she was really terrific. She says she is close to retirement and our whole group decided she should not retire, she was that good!

Greece is made up of 3000 islands, the largest is Crete.

As we traveled the countryside, Marietta told us about all of the many things that are grown here. The largest is olives and this peninsula has 22 million olive trees. Second is watermelon and we passed several farms on our route. 65% of the fertile land in the country is found in this area. The prize in the early Olympics was an olive tree branch, a symbol of peace.

96% of the population is Greek Orthodox.

1700 years ago, Olympia was buried by an earthquake and a tsunami and the site of the Olympiad was buried under 15 – 30 feet of land and it is still being excavated.

The last Olympics to be held here were in 393 AD. Back in the day, no women were allowed to compete, only Greek born males could compete, later Romans were allowed. I didn’t know that the men competed naked! The games lasted 5 days and after the games ended in those days, women were allowed into the site to honor the goddess Hera.

The games inspired the Olympic truce when all hostilities were temporarily suspended in honor of the games.

The Olympic torch is still lit here and carried by a series of runners.

The 5000 acre site was made a national park in the 1970s.

Here are some pictures of the site:

This is where the torch is lit.

Norm did a start and a finish, but didn’t run the length of the course, we both walked it!

The red bud trees and other flowers combined with a nice clear and warm day with few tourists made this a wonderful day.

After our visit to the site, we went to the modern city of Olympia for shopping and strolling. There will be a big motorcycle race here soon, Here’s the banner that is all over town and also some of the bikers. Check out the boots!

Marietta gave us information about the prices and inflation in the country. It seems to be the same in most places that we visit.

In 2007 there was a big fire and 3 million olive trees burned. 60 people died. Marietta and her husband had 1000 trees and lost them all. There was another fire in 2021 but no lives were lost.

Tomorrow we head to Corfu, our second Greek port.

Posted in April, Europe, Excursions, Spring Cruise 2022 | 2 Comments

Cruising the Ionian Sea

Posted on April 9, 2022 by patmathews

April 8, 2022

Today was our last sea day of the cruise unless we have a port cancelled, but the weather has been nice so I think we will make all of the next ports.

Today we were invited to a wine tasting which was called “the battle of the reds” , Bordeaux to California and was kind of like the Judgement of Paris challenge when the French were appalled that the California reds won the competition. It was very interesting. We tasted 6 wines and each two were paired. We learned about each in a blind tasting and then had to guess which came from each region. They were delicious and I learned a lot.

The wines we tasted were Chateau Valandraud Virginie De Valandraud (Bordeaux) challenged by Duckhorn Vineyards Merlot (Napa) (France won).

Chateau Bouscaut Grand Cru Classe De Graves (Bordeaux) challenged by Shafer Vineyards TS-9 (Napa) (France won).

Chateau Lunch-Moussas 5Eme Cru Classe (Bordeaux) challenged by Camus Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon (Napa) (Napa won).

The sommelier said that it doesn’t always turn out that way, each group that does the tasting may score differently.

The line dancing was held in the Marina lounge so I got to see what the room looks like from the stage!

I thought I might give a few facts about the ship. It is the Oceania Marina which was built in 2011 and completely refurbished in 2021. It holds 1250 guests. The last segment had about 900 and this segment we have about 600. I am sure that at the Oceania Club parties on Saturday and Sunday I will hear the exact number. There are 800 crew members from 52 nationalities. I love meeting them and hearing about their lives when they are at home.

I made the finals of blackjack and did not win – one player got blackjack on the final hand when we all had big bets on the table and he wiped us all out!

Here is a picture of the ship:

It was windy and cool today and here is the ADDA band on deck with their wooly hats on.

We had another dinner in Red Ginger tonight. They start each meal with edamame and give you a dry small towel which they pour hot water on to expand it, this is to clean your hands after the edamame. I tried to take a video of it but it didn’t turn out.

I had the tempura sweet potato and avocado as an appetizer. Delicious.

Tomorrow we visit our first port in Greece, Katakolon.

Posted in April, At Sea, Europe, Spring Cruise 2022 | 1 Comment

Syracuse, Sicily, Italy

Posted on April 8, 2022 by patmathews

April 7, 2022

As I wrote in my previous post, instead of Messina, Sicily, because of dangerous winds, we were rerouted to Syracuse which is located in the southeastern coast of Sicily. I am not sure if the local authorities were not accustomed to ships or it was just bureaucracy, but we were supposed to leave for our tour at 8 AM and the authorities did not clear the ship until almost 9:30. Our cruise director, Peter, said they just kept asking for more and more paperwork that no other ports had requested. We even had to show our ship card to authorities as we left the ship which hasn’t happened up until now.

Anyway, we got on our way by 9:40 for our trip to Taormina and Mt. Etna. Our guide was Nadia and the first thing she told us was that we needed N95 or KN95 masks and if we didn’t have them (we did), she provided them. We had to wear them in the bus too. But by now we are well used to that.

The port of Syracuse did not impress us on arrival, but apparently there is a very impressive old city. It was founded by the Greeks in 734 BC. As with many European cities, subsequent wars and takeovers by Romans, Byzantines, North Africans, Normans and others left their influence on art and even cooking styles. It is hard to imagine now, but in its heyday this was the largest city in the ancient world, bigger than even Athens and Corinth.

As we left Syracuse, Nadia gave us some other information about Sicily. (in Amalfi, Alessio told us that their biggest export was the Mafia, but Nadia didn’t mention that!!)

Sicily is the biggest island in the Mediterranean and also borders the Ionian Sea. The population is 5 million. It is generally temperate all year but of course on Mt. Etna there is snow from about October to May and there is skiing during the winter months.

Because of the lava from Mt. Etna, the soil is very fertile and many crops are grown here. Lemon and orange (including blood orange) trees line the roads and wheat, almonds, olives, cherry tomatoes, peaches, prickly pear, fava beans and cherries are some of the many agricultural crops found in the area.

Nadia would have been a guide leaving from Messina if we had docked there, so she had to get up at 3 AM to get to Syracuse to meet the ship. She never complained, though, the guides are all happy to have tourists back.

Here are some views of the coastline as we approached the road leading up to Taormina.

We drove to Taormina which is located high on a cliff (200 meters above sea level) just below Castelmola. Here is a view of that town.

Taormina is a really charming town, 12,000 population, with many winding streets, several squares usually build around the churches, and one of the main attractions, the Greek and Roman Theater. Here are some of the sights we saw on our walk to the theater.

We are so lucky to have a clear day. Mt. Etna views were wonderful. And it is really the beginning of the season, so there were no crowds and the weather was about 65 and sunny. It can get over 100 degrees in the summer.

By the time we were ready to leave Taormina at 1:45, I just had to get a gelato because “lunch” wouldn’t be until about 3:15!

We headed to Mt. Etna where we would first have lunch at a restaurant near the Crater Silvestri (1300 feet from the top) and then visit one of the 200 craters on the 11,000 ft. high volcano. This is an active volcano with 4 active craters and it last erupted two months ago. Nadia said there were 50 eruptions last year. They have warnings and ways to divert the lava so it is very different from 1669 when the lava reached the sea and destroyed the city of Catania, which was rebuilt. It is the highest active volcano in Europe.

I had to really admire the bus driver as the roads up Mt. Etna are narrow and very winding. In fact, for this tour, there was a printed warning for anyone who gets motion sickness to avoid the tour.

We had lunch at the restaurant La Cantoniera. The hospitality was great and the mushroom risotto was perfect. The wine, not so much! Those who eat meat also had a lasagna and we all had a salad and dessert.

I bundled up because it was 40 degrees and very windy at the crater. Here are some photos which of course, cannot accurately show how deep it was. The wind could almost lift you off your feet and I was the only one of 20 on our tour who walked down AND around the rim of the crater. I guess I am a true badass!

We arrived back at the ship at 6:30 and were the last to return. We canceled our reservation at Jacques for tonight and after our showers to remove all of the lava dust, we had a casual dinner in the Terrace Café.

It was a tiring but really wonderful day. Our entertainer tonight was Mark Palmer, a comedian in the style of Jerry Seinfeld – using every day experiences to make us laugh.

Tomorrow we have our only sea day of this cruise and our clocks move another hour forward tonight.

Posted in April, Europe, Excursions, Spring Cruise 2022 | 1 Comment

Valletta, Malta

Posted on April 6, 2022 by patmathews

April 6, 2022

We had not booked anything for Malta as we had been here several times before. I was interested in a tour called Maltese food and wine and signed up, but we were waitlisted. When I called destination services to book something else, they said they did have one seat available. Norm said that I should go and he would walk around the city or take the hop on hop off bus.

We arrived in port at about 11:45 today. Originally we were told we had to download and complete information on the VeriFLY app or we could not get off the ship here. But late yesterday, the cruise director informed us that Malta made an exception due to the short time we would be here. It took a long time to download and populate the app and I imagine there were many complaints by less tech savvy people and the slower internet also made it tedious to do. We did get it done though.

We were told we could use paper vaccination proof or digital, so I relied on digital which I have in many formats. But when I got off the ship, the officials said digital was not acceptable, so I was glad I did VeriFLY because that worked like a charm.

For those who blame the cruise line about almost everything, they really need to realize that things change all the time and it is the local regulations that are hard to keep up with! Oceania does a great job in spite of all the changes they need to deal with.

Sailing into Valetta is really quite spectacular. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The city is less than half a square mile. It is located just south of Sicily and just north of Africa. There is a large concentration of churches, palaces and museums here. The population of Malta is 500,000.

Anyway, this tour started at noon and to my surprise there were only 14 people and it was a large van rather than a bus for this tour.

Our guide was Martin and our driver was Victor. They limit the number of people on this tour because it is a very local one and a small group works the best. Martin is a professional photographer and a Knight! He is originally from Malta but lived in Melbourne Australia for years and returned to Malta 9 years ago.

Our first stop was a sheep farm in the village of Santi. Interestingly, there is no grazing here, the sheep are kept in pens. These sheep produce the milk to make an amazing cheese called Gbejniet. It is sold locally only as it is not pasteurized so can’t be shipped. We had a walk through the farm and a cheese tasting.

There are a lot of “rubble walls” which are made of stone, some from ruins. If any walls are built here, they must be in the same style. You see them everywhere outside of the towns.

We then drove through Rabat and Imdina and got to see St Paul’s Cathedral where Pope Francis visited just a few days ago.

Martin said there are a lot of festivals held here and people are really missing them due to Covid. Things are easing up, though and some festivals are back. They even have horse racing in the streets!

Like everywhere else, cost of living has increased dramatically and tourism is just beginning to return.

Our next stop was a small bakery in the village of Qormi. It was so small that we had to split the group in two to fit in. They use a small wood burning oven. We had two kinds of pastizzi, one with cheese and one with peas. They are filo pastry with the different fillings. There was a school across the street and when it dismissed many moms and kids headed to the bakery. I said the pea filled ones (which were wonderful) would be a good way to get kids to eat their vegetables without them realizing it.

Here is one of the cars covered with the sand from the recent Sahara sand storm. Martin said that the people normally keep their cars really clean but as soon as they clean them, more deposits seem to happen.

We proceeded to Bingermma where we visited a family compound with lovely ponds, beehives, lots of vegetation and a small olive grove. We had an olive oil tasting and then went to a terrace adjoining their home where we had the cheese and bread (brought from our other stops by Martin), a kind of hummus with crackers and carrots, wine (of course) and a dessert made from the cheese with a fig sauce, fresh strawberries and some homemade cookies.

This is the beehive.

It was a truly wonderful afternoon and I had no appetite for dinner so had a small green salad.

Norm’s day was OK, he took a hop on hop off bus that he thought would be a ride of 1 1/2 hours. It turned out to be 3 hours and he actually went out to the country and to some of the villages we either passed or visited. So his pictures were similar to some of mine.

The countryside is covered with wildflowers at this time of year, unfortunately, on the winding, narrow roads, there wasn’t a good shot of them. They also have a lot of prickly pear cactus which the local people love.

When the Captain comes on the intercom we know it is not good news, and due to 25 knot winds, our port of Messina was cancelled and we will now go to the port of Syracuse tomorrow. We are lucky that our tour to Taormina and Mount Etna will still take place from that port. We are eager to see Mount Etna and are prepared to bundle up because the weather report says it will be 30 degrees there with some possible snow.

Posted in April, Excursions, Food, Spring Cruise 2022 | 1 Comment

Amalfi and Positano

Posted on April 6, 2022 by patmathews

April 5, 2022

This was probably our fourth visit to this area of Italy and it never loses its charm. Today we took a ferry from Amalfi (which was an anchored and tender port) to Positano. Our guide was Alessio and he was really fun and a good guide. The highlight here is the amazing coastline and while it was hard to get good pictures, here are some of them. Many homes and hotels are located right on the cliffs and there are terraces where people have gardens. I would not want to weed those.

The first thing he did when we got off the ferry in Positano was give us a coupon for gelato at the “best gelato place” and he wasn’t wrong. A good way to start the morning at about 10:30! I got the stracciatella flavor, Italian chocolate chip. Delicious!

We got back on the ferry and went to Amalfi. Here we visited the St. Andrew Cathedral which was really magnificent. We toured through the museum and the catacombs then went into the main cathedral.

We wandered the streets of Positano and enjoyed the many ceramics shops and people watching. Positano has a population of 3000 and Alessio says the main occupation is gossip!

We had free time to wander around the streets. One of the main attractions is the limoncello and you see it in every shop. There are even ices sold in a lemon.

The weather was really perfect so it made the day both picturesque and delightfully warm.

This picture was painted by my new friend Laura and what a surprise when she gave it to me before she and her husband Thomas got off the cruise and were spending several days in Rome before heading home.

Posted in April, Europe, Excursions, Food, Spring Cruise 2022 | Leave a comment

Civitavecchia, Italy

Posted on April 4, 2022 by patmathews

April 4, 2022

We arrived in Italy this morning, had breakfast and got ready for the team to change our room to one across the hall and mid ship. This is because our desired type of cabin was not available on the first cruise and then it became available – so we had to move to the originally booked one for the second cruise. They are back to back but were booked separately.

Well, it was amazingly well done. Before we knew it, all of the clothes on hangers were already in our new closet, and the suitcases that we just stuffed things into arrived as did our flowers. We just had to carry our valuables.

This is the gateway to Rome. Many of the friends we made on board were leaving, some staying on in Rome for a few days and one brother and sister who traveled together had an audience with the Pope to look forward to today!

We have spent several days in Rome before and with the room change, didn’t want to travel that far. We had never explored Civitavecchia. The town is just over a mile to walk to so after we settled in our new room, we headed out. It is a beautiful sunny day today, mid 50’s, which is just about what we expected for all of the Mediterranean ports.

We shopped, visited the market (always a must for us), walked around the town and on the sea wall and stopped at a restaurant for a nice lunch. We had a delicious wood fired vegetable pizza, salad, and Norm had a glass of red wine. I had my usual daytime Coke Zero. The resident dog was nearby but never begging!

These amazing orchids are in the main area of the ship.

Lots of Mediterranean ports to come and new friends to meet. This is a port intensive segment, only one sea day is expected and of course, we don’t know if any weather systems will prevent our visits but fingers crossed that we will get to go to the 5 cities we have not yet visited.

We expect the ship to be half full this voyage, about 600 people.

We leave at 6 PM today for Amalfi/Positano and in the meantime, we are on the deck reading and of course, I am posting this to the blog.

Posted in April, Europe, Food, Spring Cruise 2022 | 3 Comments

Monte Carlo, Monaco

Posted on April 4, 2022 by patmathews

April 3, 2022

We have been to Monaco before and were looking forward to tour tour today which was taking us to Eze, France (have visited before and loved it) Nice (new to us) and Monte Carlo (visited before ). The tour was called Jewels of the Cote D’azur

Our guide was Bridget and our driver was Marino.

The Principality of Monaco is the second smallest country in the world, second only to the Vatican. It is only 5000 acres and has a population of 38,000. 8000 are citizens and the rest are residents. About 120 different nationalities live here and it is a magnet for sports stars, entertainers, etc. Elton John and Bono both have houses here. It is one of the world’s most notorious tax havens (residents pay no income tax). I asked Bridget about the residency requirement for residents and she said it is 6 months but is very hard to prove or enforce. The people who work here cannot afford to live here. It is also famous for the annual Formula 1 Grand Prix, held every year since 1929. We will visit here later in the tour.

Our first visit on this tour was to Eze. This village has winding roads that reach a height of 1000 feet. No cars are allowed on the road. We visited here many years ago and really enjoyed it. Many of the shops were closed when we arrived early but opened up later. Two five star hotels are located here.

On the way we passed another yacht, the Olivia O which is 250 feet long and is valued at 250 million Euros.

The views from the top were so beautiful.

After visiting Eze, we traveled by the middle corniche road, which is the road that Princess Grace was traveling in 1982 when she ran off the road and died the next day. She is still beloved by the people and her son, Prince Albert, is the reigning prince.

Nice was next on our visit. It is the 5th largest city in France and one of the oldest.It was originally built by Greeks. Today there is a “semi marathon on the promenade so it is closed from 4 AM to 2 PM. We did get to see some of the runners and had a chance to be on the promenade. There is a man made beach but no sand, just pebbles.

We walked to the market which was outdoors and very nice. Bridget told us about Socca which is a crepe like dish served in waxed paper and eaten by hand. It is made mostly from chick peas. You see these little carts around the market bringing the Socca, which is made off site, to the stands to sell. It is hot and delicious and you can tell it is popular because people are lined up to wait for it. It looks like a huge flat pizza before it is cut.

We also visited the Cathedral of Nice.

I had to stop by the chocolate shop where they had delicious choices! LAC Chocolatier.

We enjoyed the market and it was chilly and windy today but we dressed for it and were very comfortable.

The flower market was so pretty, we bought a bouquet to have in our room on the ship.

This was the most amazing gelato shop I have ever seen. There must have been almost 75 flavors and some were flower based. Bridget said her favorite is the violet. It was too cool for me to try it though.

We returned to Monaco via the lower corniche which hugs the see for our last stop in Monaco and Monte Carlo. We went to the Rock, known as Le Rocher, which just out on the south side of the port and is home to the royal palace. We were too late for the changing of the guard at noon (they change every hour, but the noon one is the one to see). We have been here before and have seen it, so nothing to miss. There is a wonderful aquarium here founded by Jacques Cousteau and the yellow submarine of Beatles song fame is outside of the aquarium. There are no homeless or pickpockets in Monaco because there are cameras everywhere.

We walked on to casino square in Monte Carlo and were allowed in to the main room and one of the small gambling rooms with no charge. If you want to gamble (no time for that for us), you pay a $17 entry fee. The area around the casino often has the most expensive cars you would ever see parked there. Today we only saw Rolls Royce and Bentley. Ho hum, we see them in Palm Beach!

The Grand Opera House, the Hotel de Paris and other casinos, palace-hotels and grand cafes surround casino square. There are also some lovely gardens.

The graves of Princess Grace and Prince Rainer in the Cathedral.

That’s our reflection in the middle of this large mirror in the square!

This is the famous tunnel that the Grand Prix goes through. The grandstands are already set up and a seat costs about $600 Euros. They are all sold out!

This area is known as Cote D’azur and it gets about 300 days of sun per year, a warm temperate climate. Here too, Bridget says they haven’t had enough rain. Real estate is extremely costly here. In the French Riviera towns, 10 square feet in an apartment costs about 10,000 Euros. In Monaco it is 10 square feet for 50,000 Euros.

At each stop we had free time and we wandered around each city. We returned to the ship later than the time posted but because this was a ship sponsored tour, they waited for us.

Then we got our belongings organized as they will change our room tomorrow.

Posted in April, Europe, Excursions, Spring Cruise 2022 | 3 Comments

Cruising the Mediterranean Sea

Posted on April 2, 2022 by patmathews

April 2, 2022

Last night was the third of the Oceania Club cocktail parties. Some of the statistics we heard at all three:

There are 924 passengers onboard, the ship holds 1250. The passengers come from 17 different countries. Most of the passengers are from the US, second is Canada followed by UK, Germany and the Netherlands. There are more than 725 crew who serve us so beautifully. More than 200 crew work in the culinary department and all breads, pastries, etc are baked on board with the exception of the English muffins and the bagels.

As I wrote before, we are missing the port of Marseille. It is a disappointment but the weather today is really something wild. We have 60 knot winds and huge waves. The water comes up over the front deck! And when you see the waves crest, often a small rainbow can be seen in them. So it is very understandable that the ship would have a hazardous time docking anywhere here. At this point, the Mediterranean is worse than the Atlantic. We are lucky that we don’t mind the rocking. We are now at sea at the border of Spain and France at the Bay of Roses. We just passed the meridian.

And here is how I had to dress for a walk on the deck. It is 45 degrees and extremely windy. I had just taken the windbreaker jacket off! The walk was cut short at 30 minutes when they closed the deck because the winds were way too strong. So I went to dancercise class instead.

I try to do all of the blackjack tournaments and have come in first once and second once. Today my new friend Laura won! People say they think we are sisters. Here we are in our favorite place.

We had our covid tests today as we are on the next segment of the cruise and needed a negative result to continue. We were both negative.

Tomorrow is our last port in this segment, Monaco. We have not yet heard that we will have any problem docking there. Fingers crossed. Then on Monday we reach the port of Civitavecchia which is the port closest to Rome. It is the end of the first segment of the cruise and we know that about 330 passengers will continue on with us. We do need to change rooms and will do that before getting off the ship. We have a butler who will do all of the moving for us. We just need to personally take our valuables. We have been to Rome before so we plan to take a taxi to Civitavecchia, explore and have lunch.

Posted in April, At Sea, Europe, Spring Cruise 2022 | 1 Comment

Malaga, Spain

Posted on April 1, 2022 by patmathews

March 31, 2022

Malaga is a beautiful city built around the splendor of Spain’s Moorish heritage. We decided to explore that heritage by traveling to Grenada to tour Alhambra, a complex of palaces atop a hill that offers panoramic views and a detailed study of incredible architecture, art and history.

Before we left for the tour, we saw a huge yacht, the Lady Moura, in port. I looked it up and it turns out that many famous people have sailed on her. Now she is owned by a Mexican businessman.

There is also a ferry to Africa from here as it is really a close trip and there is a Spanish territory that it travels to which is adjacent to Morocco. Sergio thinks that the nicest part of Morocco is southern Spain!

Our guide for the trip was Sergio. On our 90 mile 2 hour trip to Grenada, he gave us a lot of facts and history about Malaga and Grenada.

Here is Sergio in Alhambra explaining the mosaic tile work. You can see that some of the stucco and tiles are damaged.

Spain has fared better than most of the world in controlling the spread of Covid. We did not need to get tested to disembark here but we did need to wear masks inside and out.

The city itself gets about 320 days of sun each year and it has had its effects on the reservoirs – right now they are only 15% full. They are just recovering from a huge sand storm from Africa which spread red sand everywhere. They got some rain just at the end of that for which they are very happy, but he said it seemed like it was raining mud and was very hard to clean up.

Only 18% of their power comes from wind energy and the cost of energy here is high. They are trying to do more solar but it is just the beginning for them.

They have earthquakes almost every day here but they are so slight you really don’t feel them.

We had a rest room stop about half way to Grenada which I normally wouldn’t mention but there was a shop there and I spotted 3 liter bottles of olive oil for 16.9 Euros which is about 19.75 in dollars. Wow, wish I could have taken that home. Sergio says they have 500 million olive trees and we saw many of them on our trip. There are also many almond trees.

Orange trees are plentiful and line many Malaga streets, but they are bitter and only used for marmalade.

Alhambra means “the red” and it is a spectacular place. It is a palace and fortress complex and is a UNESCO heritage site. It was begun in 1238 the site of an earlier fortress and palace complex.

Visitors line up to get in but for groups, you have a timed ticket and must show your original passport. Our tickets were for 12:30 PM. We had 25 people in our group. We arrived at 11 so had plenty of time to see the amazing gardens before we went into the palace complex. It is the #2 tourist site in Spain after the Camino de Santiago and can get as many as 7600 visitors each day.

Inside the palaces, as is common in Moorish architecture, there are interior courtyards with fountains, reflecting pools and plants as well. The palace decoration is primarily decorated with mosaics on the lower walls and carved stucco on the upper walls. The stucco includes geometric patterns, vegetal motifs and Arabic inscriptions. Stalactite like sculpting was used on entryway ceilings and vaulted ceilings. Some of the ceilings are made of leather.

Seeing the preservation of Alhambra and all of the work that went into the buildings, gardens and courtyards made this trip one that we will always remember.

The author Washington Irving lived at the palace while he wrote Tales of the Alhambra which was instrumental in introducing the site to Western audiences. There is a plaque honoring him in one of the rooms.

The view from the complex and the resident cat.

What we didn’t expect in Grenada was the weather. When we left Malaga, it was 63 and pretty sunny. Grenada is 2800 feet above sea level and it was 46 degrees and rainy much of the time. It wasn’t a heavy rain, but I certainly wasn’t prepared for it and was cold the whole day. But it didn’t change how much I enjoyed the visit. Of course the local people were thankful for the rain.

Grenada is only 30 minutes away from the Sierra Nevada mountain ski areas and they had snow so they extended the season for 1 extra week.

The gardens here are really beautiful. From the tall cypress trees to lovely wisteria and many kinds of flowers and plants set on several levels, it is a joy to see. There are also some places that you can see ruins of former residences. I have many pictures but will share just a few.

The walkways are designs made from small stones.

After our visit to the complex, we had lunch at Restaurant Jardins Alberto which is just across the street from it. It was a typical Spanish lunch including gazpacho, salad and small plates with local specialties and a kind of flan for dessert. Not as good as the food on the ship but then hardly anything is! And no one really liked the wine. I was so cold I had to get tea to warm my hands.

We were entertained by two musicians who then tried to sell us CDs or USBs with their songs.

I did have a short snooze on the way back. A word or two about Malaga itself, which we only drove through, but Sergio filled us in. It is the birthplace of Pablo Picasso and there is a museum dedicated to him. I guess Sergio is not a fan, though, as he said you have to drink heavily to appreciate Picasso’s art. There are lovely beaches, an old historic quarter and beautiful gardens with plants and trees from all over the world. The Cathedral of Malaga is known as “La Manquita””, (the one-armed) thanks to its unfinished right tower.

All in all a very full and interesting day.

I am writing this on April 1 and as I always say, if the captain comes on the intercom at any time other than noon when he gives the daily update, it is never good news. His message today was that we will miss tomorrow’s port, Marseille, France, due to high winds. The winds may go as high as 50 knots which makes it dangerous to get into port and dock. It is a disappointment, but it you can’t argue with the weather. So we will have another sea day on the way to Monte Carlo and we hope the weather will be better. I just heard from a friend who is on the Insignia, following us by a few days, and they were advised that they will miss their next two ports because of this weather system.

Tomorrow we will get a covid test two days before this segment ends in preparation for the second leg of this cruise – we booked it as two separate cruises. We will be moving to another cabin as well – when we get to the Rome stop on Monday. Monte Carlo is scheduled for Sunday.

Posted in Europe, Excursions, March, Spring Cruise 2022 | 2 Comments