Venezia, Italia

We arrived in Venice early Saturday morning along with about 10000 other disembarking passengers on 8 cruise ships. The port area was a crazy place but at least the embarking passengers were not out in full force yet. We schlepped our suitcases over 500+ metres to a people mover train that took us to Placa de Roma where we caught a vaparetto (water bus) to Rialto. While we had instructions on how to find our hotel, maps and directions in Venice are a curious thing. Lots of wrong turns, up and down stairs to cross canals , through narrow passages, and asking locals . And it was all very crowded. But we did eventually find our hotel and get checked in.

We went out wandering and had some lunch. While sitting have a beer and pizza an email arrived from Air France, our carrier to get home, saying our flight on Monday from Venice to Paris had been cancelled. Later on more emails from them saying Paris to Montreal too was cancelled. I believe the bus from Montreal to Ottawa was still on the schedule though. Apparently there is a pilots strike , and as we've been living in a news free bubble for several weeks, this came as somewhat of a surprise. Trying to phone Air France was a waste of time. Luckily I had texting and email access and knew my son Geof would be up around 7am at home. We got him and his wife Jane on the case. After a lot of anxiety on our part and phone calls on their part, it was eventually resolved and we fly home Monday (we hope) with British Air via London and Toronto. If for some reason we get stuck in Europe I'll be asking all my faithful readers to send Euros to help us out.

Now lets get to the interesting parts. Venice is a fascinating city with it's islands, canals, bridges, narrow alleyways, boats and gondolas, crowds of tourists, restaurants, and mostly it seems souvenir stores. And i'm sure the images that follow will be familiar to most of you even if you've never been here.

 

 

 

 

 

We also took a vaparetto over to Murano. The glass shops there are outstanding and it is lot less crowded. Very pretty place.

 

Back in Venice later.

Deen enjoying a glass of wine next to the Grand Canal.

Finally a picture of the Grand Canal taken from the Rialto Bridge about 7pm.

So I'm hoping this is my last posting in this blog series. I hope this because I want my travel day on Monday, while long, to be so uneventful that I have nothing interesting to say other than we arrived home after midnight Monday (or 6am CET Tuesday) dead tired but happy.

It's been fun for me to write these blog posts and I hope you have enjoyed them too. Bye for now.

Ran

 

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Last Day on the Ryndam

Friday marked our last full day on the ship as it made it's way north west i n the Adriatic to Venice. I had thought it would be a relatively quiet day but no it wasn't as it turned out.

The evening before we had received an invitation to attend a special Mariner presentation as recipients. So at 11am we showed up and were presented with Bronze Medallions marking over 100 days at sea. The Captain and the Hotel Director made the presentaions and only one other person was similarly recognized. They did make note though of the people in attendance with several hundred days at sea. This was all followed by a special lunch in the main dining room.

Deen and I with our medals. The Captain joked we could take these medals into a dimly lit bar and claim they are Olympic Bronze Medals and maybe get a few free drinks. Will have to try it sometime.

After lunch we met Peter and Janine at a premium wine tasting session in the Pinnacle Grill. Very very nice wine. Following that Deen and Jan went to bingo where Jan won over $400 and Peter and I went to an outdoor lounge to continue our Global Beer Tasting Tour. This time it was Italian Peroni Beer. We all met up after with new Aussie friends David and Janice and continued to sample the Peroni. Peter also noticed T shirts on sale, and using some of Jan's winnings bought one each for me, David, and himself.

The evening continued with the International Dinner and the staff were well attired.

Some of the kitchen staff.

After dinner there was the final show, this time the grande finale of Dancing with the Stars at Sea. The passengers in the competition are pretty good. Back to the room to finish with the suitcases and put them in the hallway for pick up by the crew.

It was again a great cruise and we'll be sad to see it end Saturday morning. But there is Venice to look forward to!

 

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Dubrovnik, Croatia

For many of us being in Croatia was indeed a first. Dubrovnik is known as the Pearl of the Adriatic and you can see why. It is a beautiful seacoast town on the eastern side of the Adriatic and was for many years an economic and political rival to Venice. Like many other coastal European towns it has had it's share of wars and battles over the years, the most recent being the Balkan War in the early90's. Some evidence still of that conflict and the emotional wounds are still healing.

Dubrovnik is a town of about 42,000 people and is very pretty. It has an old city and that was where we spent our day. Deen had arranged a private walking tour and the guide was excellent.

 

The old fountain dating from 1438.

The old revenue and customs office.

A view from the walls surrounding the old city.

More of the old city.

The two intrepid travellers.

After lunch Peter, Jan and I went up the cable car to the Imperial Fort while Deen went T shirt shopping.

 

A great view of the old city.

Hot and tired we returned to the ship. There will be Croatian entertainment on board this evening and in the morning our floating hotel will drop us off in Kotor, Montenegro.

 

 

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The First Sea Day

Not much to report here as we generally took it easy. Deen and Janine went on a kitchen tour then the 4 of us went to a wine tasting in the afternoon. Lots of fun there. Later in the afternoon Peter and I crashed an Aussie only party in the Crows Nest. We had made friends with an Aussie couple the day before and they invited us to join them. Canadians and Aussies are kindred spirits and we had a very good time. Deen and Jan joined in later when they came looking for us. Another formal night so again Peter and I were in our rented penguin suits.

After 11pm there was the Indonesian Crew Show and these are always fun. Some very talented crew members and nice costumes.

 

Wednesday will find us in Dubrovnik, Croatia.

 

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Capri, Italy

On Monday Deen and I took a tour to Capri, an island off the coast about a 45 minute jet hydrofoil ride from Naples. Another gorgeous location with stunning visuals as you will see. The town of AnaCapri on the island is about 300m above sea level and it was , to say the least, an interesting ride up sheer cliffs and tight roads. Deen wouldn't look at the scenery.

 

This is the scene at the harbour level. It was very crowded with a lot of tours.

In AnaCapri I took the chair lift up to Mont Solaro , a trip up of another 300m. Lots of great views from there.

 

 

 

The trip back down on the chair lift.

 

 

The view from the bus on the way back to the town of Capri. It's about 200m above sea level.

The road from Capri to AnaCapri.

Deen and I waiting for the funicular ride from Capri back to the harbour.

The view from the hydrofoil on the way back to Naples.

Tuesday is a sea day and after all the ports ,everyone seems to be looking forward to an opportunity to recharge the batteries.

 

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Ostia Antica, Italy

Ostia Antica is an ancient Roman military and commercial town beside the town of Ostia south of the airport on the coast. The Tiber river runs beside it. It was just over an hour bus ride to the site from Civitiavecchia. Ostia Antica had it's origins several centuries BC and was developed in the early centuries AD. The archeological digging continues to this day and things are remarkably well preserved.

 

Some of the marbel wall coverings are still visible.

 

 

 

 

The Theatre

 

Some of the marble tiling

 

And finally the communal toilets. But they did separate the males from the females.

Tomorrow we land in Naples. Peter and Janine go to Sorrento and then Pompeii which we've seen before. Deen and I head to Capri for the day.

 

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Marseilles

Yesterday we left Barcelona to board our ship and the start of the cruise. Of course we were very excited to get this phase going. Before though I must mention how beautiful a city we found Barcelona. The architecture is stunning, the avenues broad and leafy, and the weather most agreeable. We enjoyed our two days there.

However we happily jumped in the taxi to the cruise port and were quickly checked in. We found our rooms and headed off to Main Dining Room for lunch. After lunch Deen found the self serve laundry while I contributed by staying out of her way. What a guy! Deen and Janine got the suitcases unpacked and I was able to see clothes I hadn't seen in a couple of weeks. But then we all headed up to Deck 10 aft for the sailaway party. Sangrias were the drink of the day.

 

An easy overnight sail to Marseilles. Back in France if only for a day. Marseilles has a reputation for being a rough place and it may well be. However we took the ship shuttle into the Vieux Port and had a very pleasant day wandering around. I had a few routes all laid out until we met this very nice local lady who gave us some terrific advice and we thus changed our plans somewhat. Below is a picture of the main harbour.

 

 

 

We then took a little train or as I called it, Le Train Moins Vitesse. It took us up the hill to La Basilique de la Notre Dame du Gard. Stunning views from there including Le Chateâu D'If from the XVI century. Apparently the Count of Monte Cristo was imprisonned there.

 

 

The TMV ride took us back to the lower part of town where we had lunch. A bit more wandering after that then back to the ship.

On our way now to Monte Carlo.

 

 

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