May 6,
2023
Chicago
to Venice – the long way!
I believe
this will be our longest trip so far. 28
days altogether. We will visit 3
countries and I haven’t counted how many cities we will visit along the way. We start with a transatlantic cruise from
Miami to Barcelona which has stops in Portugal and Spain. Then we will tour Italy, including Rome,
Florence, Cinque Terre, and Venice.
Day 1-
Chicago to Miami – an EARLY, but uneventful day
Leading up
to our vacation we had quite a lot of last-minute chaos. Max’s phone stopped
working and we also found out that our boat in Wisconsin had completely filled
with water over the winter. We managed
to get the boat resolved as much as possible.
Max and I tried to get his phone fixed, but didn’t have any luck, so we
bought a new one after we got to Miami.
I think there were MANY last-minute
things we had to deal with the week before the cruise and that Marc really
downplayed that the boat that we bought less than 1 year ago is totaled and we
don’t have any insurance. Also, we couldn’t even rent a boat for 4th
of July week, but there are bigger problems in the world. I had much to deal
with at the office too, but as of tomorrow we will have no Wi-Fi or connection
to the world, so we will be done with any stress and on a wonderful vacation!
Our flight
was very early – 7am – so we had to leave the house at 4am which is never any
fun. But we got to Miami without any
problem. Marc dropped us off at the airport
then dropped the van off for the month at off-site parking and took their
shuttle to the airport. We seem to have our travel day procedures down pat. The
kids only get easier to travel with too. It’s amazing that we traveled so often
and did so well when they were much younger.
When we arrived in Miami, I
suggested Marc and Max head straight to a Verizon store while the rest of us
Ubered to our hotel. We needed two cars anyway. We also decided it sounds
cooler to say we “hired a private driver” versus Ubered… so expect that going
forward. Max and I got
his phone and the others headed to the Intercontinental Miami Doral and were
able to check in right away even though it was only about 11:30. So that was a
bonus.
The Intercontinental Miami at Doral
is a beautiful upscale hotel. The lobby seemed busy enough but the pool was
deserted. Spring weather in Chicago has been mostly cool to cold so we couldn’t
wait to embrace this 86 degree day. We changed quickly, ordered lunch, and
hopped in the pool while we waited.
Max and I
got to the hotel around 12:30pm and we all had lunch and then spent the
afternoon at the pool. Kyrie had placed
an order with Walmart for things like sunscreen, toothpaste, and contact lens cleaner since we couldn’t bring full
size on the plane. They delivered most
of the stuff to the hotel, but said they were out of the contact solution. I looked online and they did have it, so I
walked there in the afternoon and got some.
We had club
level rooms, so we checked out the club lounge.
We had a drink, some cookies and a couple snacks. Nothing that special, but it was fine. Yes, something special :0.
We ate
dinner at a Chinese place. It was good,
but I can’t remember the name. Started
with a Q and it was right by the hotel. It was very convenient, and nobody was
that hungry anyway. Not true THEY weren’t hungry. I
was. Not me C: We were discombobulated with our
early start today and chaotic week, so we actually shared three Chinese dishes
amongst the seven of us. The dishes were on the smaller side, so Max ate 1 ½
and the rest of us really were not hungry.
We all went
to bed early tonight after such an early morning. I
couldn’t sleep :c.
Day 2 –
Embarkation Day! Disney Dream
We had
breakfast at the club lounge at the hotel before getting a couple of Ubers, err, “private
drivers” and heading to the port.
The
breakfast at the club lounge was great quality. My favorite “hotel breakfast”
ever was in York, England but this one rivaled it. The service staff was
excellent too. I enjoy the early morning hours, meditation, coffee, views, and
breakfast. So of course, I was awake hours before the rest of them.
The port was
very congested, and they had closed a tunnel that leads more directly to our
terminal. The girls’ uber left about 10
minutes before ours and got through the tunnel.
They ended up getting to the ship about a half hour before the rest of
us. And their Uber didn’t
crash like ours did.
Our driver’s name was Ariel which was
perfect for driving us to the Disney Cruise. He was a nice man from Cuba who
spoke almost no English, yet we had quite a long conversation about Al Capone
once he found out we are from “Chicago.” The conversation involved pantomiming
machine gun fire and handcuffs. I did learn that “Capone” (pronounced with a
Spanish accent) was imprisoned at Alcatraz. I enjoyed Ariel and we were super
glad to have arrived when we did, before the line was long. Once on the ship,
all we did was find a comfortable spot to wait for the boys and watch the long
lines and massive piles of luggage waiting to get on.
It was a
long line to get on the ship, much different from any time we have boarded at
Port Canaveral. But we were still on the
ship by 12:15 or 12:30. We had some lunch at the buffet and then explored the
ship. We haven’t been on the Disney
Dream before, so it was fun to see what was different (not much compared to the
Disney Fantasy).
After lunch,
the kids took a ride on the Aquaduck (water coaster) while Kyrie and I enjoyed
the sunshine by the pool. Then we
checked out more of the ship, including the 3 kids clubs I didn’t go to edge ;c. The Vibe for ages 14 to.17) is definitely the coolest on this ship. Besides having a bunch of video games and
hangout areas, it even has its own hot tubs and smoothie bar! Our dinner tonight was in the Royal Palace
(themed to Cinderella.) We have good servers
and were lucky enough to get a table by a port hole.
I was
surprised that they did not have a show in the main theater tonight. I feel like that sets the tone for the whole
cruise, so that was very disappointing.
The kids went to their ice breaker activities at their kids clubs. Jacob went to the 1820 society, which is a
group for 18 to 20 year olds. Kyrie and
I checked out the Skyline bar. The
Skyline bar has a picture of the skyline of major cities which changes to a
different city about every 15 minutes.
It also has drinks that are themed to each city.
The bars are very nicely themed on
the Dream. We probably never saw any of them on the Fantasy considering Zach
was only 12 weeks old when we sailed on the Dream’s sister ship, but I’m sure
they are an upgrade from the Magic and the Wonder.
Disney ships may look very plain, or
we could say “classic,” but that lends to the Dream feeling immediately
familiar to us. The kids were all off doing their own things in no time.
Day 3 – 1st
Day at Sea
Today was
our first of seven days in a row at sea.
We then have a mixture of port days and at least one more sea day. For these longer voyages, Disney arranges
special guests and it is often our favorite part of the cruise. This time it is Bruce Kimbrall who has worked
at Disney for decades. Forty eight years in 18 roles so far. He is giving
talks about the history of Disneyland.
He had some fascinating information, including the fact that they change
the grass at Disneyland every 41 days!
He also said that Disney sells all its garbage! I really don’t understand that one. Looking forward to more of his lectures
throughout the cruise.
We also
spent some time at the pool, and of course the kids spent more time at the
kids’ clubs. Jacob isn’t a big fan of
his group, but we’ll see if he gives that another try. They also did some Disney trivia, which is
always extremely challenging.
The sea was
very calm today. We didn’t look out at
it a lot because we kept quite busy, but we did spend a little bit of time on
our balcony. There isn’t a lot to see
out in the open ocean, but we did see some kind of sea bird that was following
the ship, as well as the occasional flying (or at least jumping) fish. Max and I saw some kind of animal out there,
but we aren’t sure what it was. At first
it looked like a stick sticking out of the water and it wasn’t really moving
around, just kind of floating. Then all
of the sudden it gave a little splash and went under. It was at enough of a distance that we never
got a great look at it. We speculated
that maybe it was a swordfish, but I don’t know if they stick they’re nose out
of the water like that. I’m
pretty sure it was a fin of a swordfish but I don’t think that they usually
stick their fin out of the water.
We also thought that maybe it was a turtle fin and then it turned over
and swam away.
Our dinner
was at Animators Palette which included some Turtle Talk with Crush.
The show in
the main theater tonight was somebody from Disney on Broadway. That isn’t something that any of us were
interested in, so we did other things. I went to a movie with Jacob and Max,
the girls went to the tween kids club and Zachary went to the younger kids’
club. I LOVED IT SO MUCH AHHHHHHHH C: Kyrie had an early night. She is disappointed because the audiobook
that she had planned on listening to this week didn’t download and the ships
internet service will not allow downloads, only email and Facebook and things
like that.
Yes, I am awake hours before the
others and enjoy listening to my meditation app from which I had downloaded a
variety of mediations to my phone. Then I planned to walk around the track
listening to an audiobook novel. But unfortunately somehow it didn’t download
and my meditations are in the cloud not my phone, so I have hours of silence.
I’m just a multi-tasker. I need to be listening or doing something while I’m
relaxing.
After the
movie was over the girls went to Karaoke.
Zoe sang a Taylor Swift song and did really well.
Day 4 – 2nd Day at Sea
It is our
second day at sea and I’m definitely not getting bored. We’re keeping busy, although I’ve skipped
some activities to just enjoy the sea a bit.
Today is also the first day that I started writing the blog.
The one
problem with an Eastbound transatlantic cruise is that you must set your clock
ahead several times (maybe 5?). Last
night was our first time change. It’s
hard because we’re already staying up too late and sleeping in too long. I set my alarm for 9am this morning, just so
that I wouldn’t get too out of schedule.
This morning
we had another talk by Bruce Kimball, this time about the names on the windows
of Main Street USA at Disneyland. He
explained each person and the significance of any wording on each window and
had an interesting story to tell about each person.
It was
another nice, sunny day in the 70’s.
Kyrie and Jacob spent some time in the pool.
After lunch
there was a game show called “Generations” where two young people compete
against two older people in a series of things like singing and dancing. Zoe participated for the young people
team. It ended up in a tie. She got a Goofy
medal.
Kyrie and I
did a Martini tasting. We had a good
time trying the different drinks and talking with the people sitting near
us. I thought the best drink was a lemon
martini with citron vodka, triple sec, and limoncello. I was surprised the five martinis we
tasted were all sweet. They were all good. But three of the five were “tinis”,
not proper “martinis.” A proper martini has either gin or vodka. I liked the
first one we tried best which had muddled cucumber, lemon, and mint, along with
gin and blue curacao. It was refreshing and the least sweet.
Dinner
tonight was in the Enchanted Garden and we were lucky enough to get a table next
to the port hole again.
After dinner
was The Golden Mickeys show in the main theater and later Jacob and I watched
Ventriloquist/Comedian John Kimmons. He
was very funny. Looking forward to his
show in the main theater later in the cruise.
The girls
had a lot of fun in their kids’ club singing karaoke. They did a seven minute Taylor Swift duet. They will need to describe it, since I didn’t
see it, but they were very excited about it.
Day 5 – 3rd
Day at Sea
I got up and had a cappuccino on
deck before meeting Jacob for a ship tour highlighting the art/theme on the
Dream. Kyrie and Jacob
had their breakfast in the main dining room this morning while the rest of us
slept in. It was our second night in a row of changing the clocks ahead. I eventually had to wake everyone up at 9:30
so that they adapt to the time.
There were
two shows from Bruce Kimbell today. The
first was a continuation of the windows of Main Street. The other focused on some usually unseen
areas of Disneyland. It included Walt’s
apartment, Club 33, and the Dream Suite.
It was interesting to see, especially Walt’s apartment.
Jacob and
Max did a scavenger hunt this afternoon to identify photos of carpet from
around the ship. They have found all but
one so far. They have until the end of
the day to find the last one. We did not find it. Tonight we will have dinner in the Royal
Palace again. The entertainment tonight
is the ventriloquist again and a magician in the main theater. There will also be some activities tonight to
celebrate Disney Cruise Line’s 25th anniversary.
Turns out
the ventriloquist show was a workshop.
It was still fun and interesting, just not what we were expecting. One thing that has been not so good on this
ship has been the disorganization. The
list of activities each day keeps changing at the last minute and often has
things incorrect. Maybe it’s just that
it’s electronic instead of the old paper version, so they feel like they can
just change it whenever. I highly prefer
the old paper version so that you can easily see the highlights and the whole
day. Maybe I’m just old, but I think
going away from that was a mistake.
Anyway, I’ve been very happy with the entertainment on board, just not
with the organization and communication.
On the main
stage was Jamie Raven, a magician from Britain’s Got Talent. After that was the 25th
Anniversary show, which was about what I expected. Pretty much like the sailaway party, but
less. It did have fireworks, but they
were just like the pirate night fireworks and they ended abruptly. Not sure if that was on purpose or if
something went wrong. This was their
first time doing this show on the Disney Dream so they could have had some
technical difficulties.
Zoe did some
karaoke with her friends from the Edge.
They all seemed to have a great time.
Day 6 – 4th
day at sea
The days are
really flying by. Today we forced the
kids to get up for breakfast, so that we could start getting used to the time
changes. We woke up at 8:30, but it was
still difficult since we are now 3 hours ahead of home and have been staying up
much later than usual.
After
breakfast we went to the morning show which was a lot of fun. It’s kind of like a morning talk show you
would see on TV. They do a good job with
it.
The weather
today and yesterday has been cloudy, but still fairly warm and a little
windy. The seas have been a little
rougher, but still reasonably calm.
Kyrie and
the kids went on a backstage tour of the Beauty and the Beast show that is the
signature show of this ship. This is a
special session for Gold and above Castaway Members (Disney Cruise Line’s
loyalty program.) They also gave us Mickey rice crispy treats after the show.
During the presentation, they had cameras to hear and see the behind-the-scenes
actions while one of the Beauty and the Beast segments was being performed on
stage.
Next, Kyrie
and I went to the theater and watched Pollyanna. I’d never seen it before. What a great old movie and such a treat to
see it in a theater as it was intended!
In the
afternoon it’s been lightly raining and very foggy. The ship has to blow its horn every minute or
two. I’m guessing they are forced to
drive more slowly as well. I’ve noticed
that the ship sways more when it drives slower even though the seas are at
least as calm as yesterday. Still fine,
just more noticeable.
On our
previous long cruises we have been on Disney’s two smaller ships – Magic and
Wonder. I really don’t notice much of a
difference. There are some different
restaurants, of course, including Remy their very fancy specialty restaurant. Other than that the only thing I’ve noticed
is that the various spaces are a little larger to accommodate the additional
people. I don’t feel like there is much
additional compared to the smaller ships.
At first I was a bit concerned that the ship felt overcrowded, but that
was only during the check-in process and at first on the ship when everyone was
mainly on the pool deck. Since then it
has been fine and I haven’t noticed any overcrowding. Well actually, the ventriloquist show the
other night was standing room only. I
forgot about that!
We don’t
have much planned for tonight. Dinner
will be at Animator’s Palette again, themed to Frozen this time. Most of my family didn’t like the Frozen themed menu but I enjoyed it. Then in the main theater they are showing
Guardians of the Galaxy, volume 3. It
just came out a few days ago so we are looking forward to seeing it.
Day 7 – 5th
Day at Sea
We all
reluctantly got up between 8 and 9 to have breakfast together. Kyrie is the only one able to adapt to the
time changes since she gets up early anyway.
The girls stay at their club the latest each night doing karaoke and
some games.
It’s sunny
and warm today. Definitely better than I
expected by this point in our trip.
Went to
another Disney history talk. This one
was some old recordings of Walt Disney during the 10th anniversary
of Disneyland and the announcement of Disney World around the same time. They said that when they were first building
Disneyland that ABC bought a 1/3 stake in the project for $500,000 and that
five years later they bought ABC’s share for $7,500,000. At one of the earlier talks we learned that
Disney doesn’t own most of the land that Disneyland is built on. They actually have a 99-year lease with 5
different families that owned farms there originally. They recently renewed the leases for another
99 years for much more money of course. When
they bought the land for Disney World they were able to buy up the 47 square
miles for $5,000 per acre by forming several different companies to buy up the
land and keep it secret. Eventually, a
reporter saw Walt Disney at the Orlando airport and word got out that they were
probably the mystery buyer.
After the
talk we spent some time by the pool and enjoying the sunshine. I’m going to miss these relaxing sea days
when we start getting to the ports!
We have
rooms 6544 and 6546. I really like the
location between the forward and midship elevators and not too many floors
between the pool up top and the entertainment and restaurants down below. We also are very close to the laundry which
is very convenient!
Actually saw
some whales this evening – very exciting!
Kyrie,
Jacob, and I had dinner at Remy tonight.
It is a very elegant restaurant, that has two menus to choose from –
American or French. Jacob and I got the
French menu and Kyrie chose the American one.
There were 5 courses, plus a few things in between. It was mostly excellent. A couple of things I could have done without
like the Faux Grau, but that wasn’t even officially one of the courses. It’s too expensive for me to really be able
to recommend it, but it was worth doing once.
The
surcharge is $125 per person to dine at Remy. Considering the menus were
created by Michelin Star chefs and supposedly on caliber with Victoria and
Alberts at Walt Disney World, $125 is probably a deal. It was certainly worth
experiencing once. The thing I found odd was that we weren’t offered any drinks
besides water of course and the wine or champaign tasting menu. Not wine by the
glass or even coffee before dessert. I’m sure we could have asked.
After dinner
was pirate night. The show before the
fireworks was different than I remember it from previous cruises. A little better because it wasn’t so long and
drawn out. I think maybe they had the
Mickey Mouse part earlier in the evening while I was at dinner, so that might
have been the difference. The girls
participated in a flash mob which they’ve been practicing for all week. They did a good job and looked like they had
a lot of fun with it.
Day 8 – 6th
Day at
Sea
It was
another beautiful day today. Completely
sunny with amazingly calm seas. I really
don’t think I’ve ever seen the ocean as flat as it’s been for most of the days
on this trip.
The warm sunny days and calm seas
ALMOST make the Eastbound Transatlantic worth it. The EBTA is generally also 13
nights whereas the Westbound in most recent years has fewer ports and is 11
nights. It’s hard to imagine that we’ll end up preferring the EBTA though
because of the six 23-hour days. The 25-hour days on the WBTA are more
palatable for sure and bring us home well rested after busy touring days in
Europe.
There was
another interesting Disney lecture this morning all about Walt Disney himself
this time.
We had a
sunny day by the pool.
Tomorrow we
arrive in a port. I’m really enjoying
the sea days. I would be perfectly happy
if we never stopped at a port! It’s nice
not having plans.
We had a
real treat at dinner tonight. We looked
out the window and saw a bunch of dolphins leaping in and out of the
water. They stayed around the ship all
evening. They were very small. Black on top and white on the bottom. I think they were spinner dolphins, but I
don’t know for sure.
There was
good entertainment tonight. The
ventriloquist was the main entertainment tonight. He did a good show. The late-night show was comedian Jonathan
Burnes who was hilarious. He was the
main act yesterday, but I didn’t get to see it because we were at Remy. Glad I saw it tonight!
Day 9 –
Ponta Delgada, Azores, Portugal
(Mother’s
Day)
We arrived
at our first port today, Ponta Delgada, which is an island west of the Portugal
mainland. (Sao
Miguel is the island and Ponta Delgada is the city. Sao Miguel is one island in
a group called the Azores.) I
think it is quite far from the mainland, so it is a rather quiet, peaceful
place. It is only 62km east to west and
15km north to south. Only 140,000 people
live on the island and most of it seems to be farmland. We have been here once before and toured some
of the countryside. I think the people
here have a lot of time on their hands because all of the hedges and
bushes and trees are perfectly manicured and even the sidewalks in the city are
made of individual stones with designs in them of white rocks. Today, was a big festival and they had laid
out many of the streets with flowers. On
this visit, we just walked around the city a bit and toured a large garden and
a mall. We had a good time exploring!
This festival takes place a certain
number of weeks after Easter (5? 6?) It’s the biggest religious festival on the
island. In preparation for our trip, I watched some YouTube videos showing the
parade that takes place later this afternoon. It’s huge! It was very cool to
see the locals preparing the streets with elaborate designs from evergreen
clippings and flowers mostly. Some used very fragrant herbs too. It was
gorgeous and fragrant! It did make it a little tricky to get around with the
already narrow streets becoming even more narrow.
I wasn’t sure I liked Marc’s plan of
walking to a garden/park in the city. It looked far away and went through some
err, less beautiful, more urban areas. But the park ended up being quite
amazing. Caves, huge trees, a lot of beautiful and unique areas.
Just before reaching the park, we came
upon a grocery store. (I thought it was a small store at the time, but it’s the
largest we’ve seen by far at any of the ports. I’m almost always filling in my
commentary many days later.) It reminded me of how it feels to be in Europe and
I really look forward to it. The products are different. This store had a
little café and I couldn’t help but get two lattes to share before moving on.
Purchasing something also gives us the right to use the washrooms, which are
few and far between.
When back on
the ship we enjoyed the nice weather on the pool deck and soon it was time to
set sail again. There were a lot of
dolphins again this evening. Ella and
Zoe played shuffleboard with the other kids from the Edge and called their team
Dolphins (but with a strange accent).
Whenever they would see a dolphin they would stop playing and run to the
side of the ship shouting Dolphin in that strange accent again. The show tonight was DNA: Mentalists. They were really quite amazing and I couldn’t
figure out most of their tricks.
Day 10 –
at sea
It’s a
little cooler today. It’s a little
breezy and very overcast. People are
wrapping themselves in blankets on the pool deck which seems pretty cozy.
We had to
change the clocks again last night. I
think this is the fifth time change of the cruise and sixth of our
vacation. All of the time changes have
been on sea days (and the day we arrived in Miami), but it’s still hard to
adapt to the change in time. Definitely
prefer the westbound transatlantic as far as that’s concerned! Otherwise though, the eastbound has some nice
advantages. It’s two days longer than
the westbound and the weather is much nicer.
Plus the ports seem more interesting, haven’t been to them yet, but I
assume they are.
Not a busy
day today. Went to watch the latest Ant
Man movie at the theater this afternoon and watched the Beauty and the Beast
stage show after dinner. It’s been a
nice, relaxed pace so far.
The Beauty and the Beast show was
very well done. The lighting brought the whole theater into the show. No photos
are allowed so my fingers were itching, but I managed to follow the request.
Day 11 –
Lisbon, Portugal
Our port
today was Lisbon, Portugal. We took a pre-arranged
walking tour here around parts of the old and newer city. The main difference is that there was a very
bad earthquake here in the 1700’s and they had to rebuild a large part of the
city. Since it was built in the 1700’s,
even the “new” part of the city still looks quite old. I really enjoyed the older part of the city a
lot. The streets were very narrow and on
hills. There was a lot of drying laundry
hanging out of windows as well as a lot of old ladies yelling out their windows
to each other. The yelling was fantastic! Neighbors
talking loudly from the street to people a couple stories up. Loud and
friendly. Cool. Felt like olden days.
We walked up
quite a bit of the hill that leads from the port and then made our way back
down before heading over to the newer side.
We walked through a small flea market and also the inside an old
church. We tried these custard tart
things that Portugal is known for. They
were quite good. SO good! And we shared a few cappuccinos to go along with them.
Later we tried a world famous pork sandwich. Bifima? It was also good, but
not amazing. The cod cake wasn’t great,
but I’m not a big fan of seafood. Raquel, our
guide, also bought three shots of local sour cherry liquor for the adults to
taste. We also went in the world’s oldest bookstore. That was unremarkable, but still worth
doing.
One thing I really like about the
European countries we’ve visited in our life is the outside dining. One thing I
don’t appreciate is that smoking is so prevalent and not restricted to
designated areas. I’m all for fewer government restrictions, but I’m not used
to the smoke in my face.
The outside
of the buildings are all required to maintain the old style, so it was
interesting to go into a building that looked very old and then walk into a
modern department store and go up 4 escalators and end up in a mall. Overall, it was an interesting tour. Our guide shared a lot of facts, but most of
them didn’t stick, so I don’t feel like I know too much about the place, but it
was still nice.
It was a
very nice, sunny day. When we returned
to the ship we spent some time in the pool and then watched the scenery as we
sailed away.
Day 12 –
Cadiz, Spain
Cadiz was
much flatter than Lisbon, so that was a relief to our legs. The city is also very old, but doesn’t show
it as much, at least not in the parts we went to. In Cadiz, they don’t seem to have the same
rules about keeping the outside of the buildings looking traditional, so it
looks more modern than Lisbon did. It
still had some very narrow streets. We
walked along the old wall of the city for a while and also checked out the
beach. We tried a pastry that was
similar to Boston cream pie and we also checked out the Mercado, which is like
a fish and produce market. One stand had
a huge fish that they were selling. It was also surrounded by prepared food places. It
reminded me of a smaller version of the market we visited in 2016 in Barcelona.
My favorite thing was an old church which had a lot of interesting, but creepy
looking, shrines. It’s amazing how much
work people used to put into these old European churches.
Day 13 –
Malaga, Spain
This was one
of my favorite ports. I could see us
visiting here for a few days sometime.
It’s a very clean city. It still
has an old look to it, but very fresh as well.
Hard to describe, but I really liked it.
We started
by taking a taxi up to the 13th century “castle”. It was more of a fort, but that’s okay. There were just a bunch of walls to walk on
and it had a great view of the city.
There was another castle further down the mountain, but we ended up not
going inside that because it would have involved a lot more climbing up since
the entrance was at the bottom of the mountain.
After a few days of doing a lot of walking through these old cities,
even I wasn’t up for doing more climbing at this point. The lower castle looked a lot more interesting,
should have done that one instead. Next
time! We spent another couple of hours
walking around the city and checking out some stores and a church. There is a huge cathedral in the city, but I
didn’t want to pay 8 Euros a person today.
We’ve seen a lot of cathedrals and they are amazing, but I don’t need to
see every one of them.
The weather
was nice this morning, but thunderstorms this afternoon. We were lucky that Kyrie convinced us to
leave the ship early today. We were back
before the rain started. Zachary made me
go with him on the Aquaduck waterslide a couple times. That was fun even though it was cold when we
got done. We went straight to the hot
tub after that, so it was okay.
Kyrie
started packing already! It’s hard to
believe that this part of our vacation is already wrapping up. We have one more port tomorrow and then our
cruise ends the next morning.
Bummer! Looking forward to the
rest of our trip of course, but I know the rest of it won’t be as easy!
We’ve been
enjoying seeing the dolphins. We
probably saw them 5 or 6 different days.
Always in the evening. They seem
to like to swim right up to the ship and then swim under or next to it.
We watched
the crew talent show tonight. They were
all quite good.
Jacob and I
have been in the routine of going to the 10pm game show each night and then the
10:30 show which is usually from one of the acts that performed on the main
stage the night before. Today it was
just another game show.
Max has taken over as the greeter
for Zach at 11 as we’ve convinced him that is a late enough curfew. We actually
said 10:30 tonight and 11 for the girls just to try to work them towards
getting up earlier.
Day 14 – Cartagena,
Spain
We only have
a short stop in Cartagena today. 7am to 12:30pm. We took a short walk around the town. We stopped at a café for some coffee and
pastries. I also tried their tomato
toast. It was some French (Really? We’re
in Spain! Lol) bread with olive oil and tomatoes squeezed onto it. It was pretty good and something
different. There wasn’t much to see, but
it was interesting that their main street was made of marble.
It's going
to be a quiet day on the ship today. The
younger kids are trying to get in as much time at their clubs as they can. They will really miss that.
We had a
nice day sailing by Spain. There was a
Q&A session with the Disney expert which was interesting like his other
talks have been.
We have had
a great cruise and as usual it has gone by too quickly. Everyone had a good time, but probably Ella
and Zoe the most. They were very sad to
say goodbye to their new friends from their kid’s club, but they have plans to
keep in touch. I would rank this as my
top 1 or 2 cruises. The only real
downside was that it was eastbound instead of west. Having the cruise at the beginning of the
trip is definitely going to be less relaxing than having it at the end like we
usually do. Also, losing an hour so many
nights was really no fun. Other than
that, it was great. Really liked the
warm weather.
Day 15 –
Barcelona, Spain
I enjoyed getting up before 6am to
spend one last quiet hour wandering the top decks and seeing the views. We were
already docked at port in Barcelona behind another cruise ship. Not great views
other than of the fort on Montjuic.
I returned to the staterooms in time
to kick everyone out of bed and pack up our last bit of stuff. Then we enjoyed
one last breakfast at Cabanas (the buffet) before reluctantly disembarking.
The cruise was amazing, and I would
be more sad that it’s over if not for the fact that we have an amazing vacation
still ahead of us!
Disembarkation was very organized.
The lines took a while but were always moving. Even though we were prepared
with two apps that could get us a ride, we ended up waiting in the very long
taxi line. The apps could not match us up with a ride today. Apparently besides
two cruise ships in port, there is a big football/soccer game in town. We
decided to take two small taxis rather than wait who knows how long for a van
that could accommodate us all.
We took a
taxi to the office of the place that we are renting our apartment from –
enjoybcn. We dropped off our luggage
there.
I am seriously impressed by this
company. First, their office is amazing! It’s on the 19th floor of a
beautiful building. They are friendly and their communication is good. It was
10am when we stowed our bags in a secure room behind their main desk, which
happens to be the time the 20th floor opens for business. The 20th
floor is called Barcelona 360 degrees. It’s stunning and it was cool to get a
bit oriented and take some pictures before setting out to sight see. Everyone
was tired from our past days of walking so much at the ports and from staying
up late the night before, that had our apartment been ready, we would have just
crashed there and rested instead of seeing what we did today.
We mainly toured the La Ramblas neighborhood and the market there. I think we were in the Eixample area. It’s the upscale expansion of the old city and has much wider streets. The corners of the intersections are cut off which makes the building corners visible and provides nice views as well as more room for auto and pedestrian traffic. We weren’t efficient in our plans and ended up walking through Plaza de Catalunya several times.
We saw the Block of Discord with
Gaudi’s famous Casa Batilo as well as two other famous mansions built in the
first decade of 1900 by two other famous architects. I wish I would have
listened to Rick Steves’ audio guide before we visited this block yesterday
instead of this morning. We would have gone into the courtyard of the mansion
next to Casa Batilo and also had some hot chocolate made from the chocolate
from that Mansion’s owner’s chocolate factory.
Next we sought out La Boqueria – the
most famous market. But we were too hungry to walk 8 more minutes there and had
to stop for coffee and pastries first. We walked on La Rambla to the market and
it truly is beautiful and amazing! And also so busy! We bought only one small
beef burrito to sample amongst us and Max and Zach each got fresh pineapple and
coconut juice. Zach also bought a souvenir for Seth.
Now really tired with aching feet we
rested for a bit back at Plaza Catalunya for the third time today. It’s an
interesting although smelly place to rest. There are SO MANY pigeons. And
sometimes something/someone gets them all stirred up and they fly in a flock
encircling the plaza.
Approaching 2pm now, we walked back
to the EnjoyBCN office to see if our apartment was almost ready. We needed to
pick up our bags there then walk approximately 15 minutes to the apartment when
it was time. Not ready yet. They offered to have us wait upstairs on that 20th
floor outlook which sounded good. There were chairs to rest in, endless views,
and now a bar that was enticing us to order a drink while we waited. I tried an
Aperol Spritz made with Cava vs. tonic. It was so good! Marc had Cava. He
doesn’t like “Champaign” (most likely prosecco or other sparkling wine
actually), but he did enjoy the cava.
We probably spent another hour here
before our apartment was ready, then we eagerly set off to see it and get
settled.
We really
like our apartment on Argenteria street.
It’s in a great location and seems quite roomy compared to our cruise
cabins! It’s been a while now since we chose
this apartment along with all the other arrangements we’ve made for Italy, so I
did not recall all the details. I especially selected this apartment for its
location so close to where we stayed last time in El Born.
This is a very clean place and it
has everything I was looking for right outside. There’s a small grocery on
level 0 of this building. I was hoping to get a manicure and possibly pedicure
while we’re here and there is a place right around the corner. There is a
gorgeous café next door and many restaurants and shops down our street. When
you look down one end of our street you see the Barcelona Cathedral and the
other end has another cathedral that I do not know the name of. I do know it
though. We enjoyed tapas in the square there on our 2016 trip.
Finally settled in our apartment and
laundry started, of course, everyone sat on the couch basking in the glow of
Wi-Fi access. Then hunger set in.
Marc, the energizer bunny, set off to
find a quick snack to bring back to all of us. He went the wrong way around the
block, otherwise he would have seen the pizza place in the building next door.
Instead, he circled the block and eventually came along a place selling buckets
of frites a little further down our street than the more desirable pizza place.
Nevertheless, the fries hit the spot and had very mild peppers on top. This was
just enough food to revive us enough to freshen up and find a place for dinner.
We had
delicious tapas for dinner near our apartment.
We first walked to the cathedral where we had tapas on our last trip here, but it was too busy and looked quite upscale. We had passed a tucked away square very close to our apartment that looked perfect. We found a table immediately that accommodated all of us comfortably. Right as we walked up, a street performing acrobatic group started their act right by our table. It was entertaining. I wouldn't really call it entertaining. It was mostly loud and much too close to our table.
The tapas and drinks were delicious
and the setting ideal. We are not used to the open smoking in Europe though.
Thankfully it didn’t bother our dinner. I just thought of it because there were
two ashtrays on our table.
After dinner we walked a bit through
“our old neighborhood” and bought small dishes of gelato for dessert.
Marc was tired and ready for bed at
8pm! That’s when Max and I went to bed too. I asked the kids and they said they
all went to bed at 9:30pm. I guess we needed rest!
Day 16 –
Barcelona part 2
We had a
very restful day in Barcelona. Some of
the kids took turns staying at the apartment because they didn’t feel like
walking around so much. The rest of us
explored a few places nearby including a big cathedral (Kyrie can fill in which
one) Barcelona
Cathedral and the archaeological excavation of an old El Born area that
was buried until the 1990’s. We mostly
just spent time walking around and exploring.
It really is the best thing to do here.
I
would love to see Sagrada Familia again some day and Park Guell again too. It’s
just that we planned for this to be a more restful period of time knowing we’d
be coming off of a lot of port days in a row and then on to a lot of touring in
Rome and Italy. We just didn’t feel like we HAD to do and see a lot here. We
did just want to take in the charm and the food! We had lunch near the
excavation area and even though we just had hamburgers we thought they were
very good. Much better than what we
usually get at home.
Our time in
Barcelona went much too fast, but we are excited to get to Italy! Barcelona has
topped my favorite city in the world list and I think it will stay there. I’d
certainly like to visit again.
Day 17 –
Rome, Italy
This morning
we flew to Rome. We had arranged a ride
with Welcome Pickups and that worked out great.
Our driver met us right in the airport with a sign with our name on it,
which was much easier than trying to figure out how to get a taxi or Uber and
figuring out everything while we are disoriented at the airport.
Our apartment
in Rome is just across the river from the Trastevere district. The apartment is nice with plenty of room
(and very high ceilings) for all of us.
We only dropped off our luggage when we first arrived since they were
still cleaning it. That was okay because
we were ready for lunch. We had
delicious pasta and pizza within a block of the apartment. Then we walked to Welcome to Rome, a
multimedia presentation that explains the history of Rome and shows what the
city looked like in ancient times. It was
very well done and showed what the ruins look like today and then showed how
the buildings would have looked originally.
It also gave the history of some of the buildings and the area. I think it was a great way to start our trip.
My review of Welcome to Rome is not
as good as Marc’s. I think it was a good way to get oriented both
geographically and historically to start our touring, but the technology was
old. It was one step better than wheeling in a TV on a cart into a classroom
like they did in the 1980’s in grade school. Snooze. It cost nearly 100 Euros
for the seven of us, it lasted an hour, and the only time you could sit down
was during the theater part of the presentation. Otherwise, we were huddled
around displays that overlayed the representations of the past over the present
ruins using mirrors and plastic to create the 3-D effect. Meh.
After
stopping for some gelato, we went to our apartment to relax for a while. We were fortunate with our timing, a large
rainstorm started within 15 minutes of us arriving at the apartment. Prior to that it was completely sunny. We were very surprised. Our timing was
super fortunate today and everything just clicked easily. I think it’s because
of my prayer for this in the Cathedral yesterday.
For dinner we
ate at a restaurant nearby that sits where an ancient theater once stood. The food was great and it was interesting
reading about the theater while we waited for our food.
The food in Italy has been very
good, but I don’t feel like we’re ordering optimally. The menus have so many
sections: Appetizers, Pastas, Meats, Salads, Etc. I think we are meant to order
more family style or something. At one of the restaurants, the server even
mocked us a little for all ordering pasta and no meat. And of course, when we
didn’t order dessert and espresso he said, “Mamma mia.” I think that means we
were missing out in his opinion.
I haven’t
mentioned laundry on this trip mainly because I feel like I talk about that a
lot. Also, because it’s been
uneventful. Even in Barcelona I was able
to figure out the washer dryer thing and other than each load taking 3 ½ hours
I really didn’t have a problem. Here in
Italy though, I might not be so lucky. I
had to look up a YouTube video to figure out how to use the washing machine. It has a drum that spins vertically and the
only way to put the clothes in is from the top.
You have to unlatch the drum itself, put the clothes in and then latch
it back up again. I’ve never seen
anything like it. Anyway, that seems to
be going okay, but there is no dryer at all which is going to be a
challenge. There is a small area off the
kitchen where I can hang up a few articles of clothing outside, but with the
rain that might not work anyway. So,
I’ve been drying stuff throughout the apartment and I have no idea how long it
will take. I’m especially concerned
about the jeans!
Day 18 –
The Vatican
We had to
get up early today to visit the Vatican.
Even with the early access tickets, it was very crowded and judging from
the lines when we left I’m sure it was much MUCH worse later. It’s considered one of the largest museums
and I definitely believe it. Our tour
guide was very informative, but it was hard to take in all of the information
since there was so much to see and learn.
Hearing that the earlier Popes were
like Kings in Rome and the way the Popes built buildings and courtyards,
statues, etc. it seemed kind of weird to me. I guess I should read more about
it all to get the full picture. The Vatican seemed 20x larger and 100x more
opulent than what I saw of Buckingham Palace. More than Versailles too. These
are my only two references.
There were
some sculptures, but mostly it is art painted on the walls and ceilings. Some were also tapestries and mosaics. I can’t really describe the art. Obviously it was mostly religious based, but
there were a few other things like maps of places in Italy. I was surprised that the mosaics on the floor
didn’t get ruined by so many people walking on them every day, but our tour
guide said that is because the mosaics are made from different colored rocks
instead of paint so they don’t change as the get worn down.
The Sistine
Chapel was considered the highlight, but really most of the other areas were
just as impressive. I thought it was
kind of amusing that they had a loudspeaker in the Sistine Chapel part to tell
people (very loudly) to stay silent about every minute or so. It definitely would have been more peaceful
with just the low murmur of the crowd.
St Peter’s
Basilica was the most impressive part to me.
It is an enormous church built upon the place where St Peter was killed
and later buried. This is also where the
popes are buried in the catacombs which we were able to see. Ironically, Pope John Paul II, who asked to be
buried very simply has the most elaborate area for his tomb. The tour guide said that this is because he
was sainted, but there must be more to that since many of the popes were
saints.
The kids did
a great job of touring with us. It was a
long tour (over 3 hours) and a lot of walking involved, but they never
complained even though a lot of it probably wasn’t that interesting to them.
I keep asking the kids after every
tour whether they’ve enjoyed it or not. Every kid has said they’ve enjoyed
every tour. That’s cool. As we were leaving St. Peter’s Basilica, the line to
get inside was 3-hours long! …in the hot sun. By researching enough to get a
tour with early access, we had completed our whole Vatican tour including the
Basilica in about 3 ½ hours. It pays to get up early.
After
leaving the Vatican we stopped and had pizza sort of nearby (across the river)
and then continued exploring Rome. We
saw some fountains and plazas as well as the Pantheon. We didn’t go in the Pantheon because we were
not ready to stand in a long line, but it was really impressive from the
outside. It is one of the oldest
remaining buildings in Rome. It was
built around 25BC.
Most of the
oldest buildings and monuments in Rome were destroyed during the Middle Ages. St Peter’s Basilica was actually made almost
entirely out of reused materials from various ancient buildings.
After seeing
the Pantheon, we headed back to the apartment for an afternoon break. It was an interesting walk back with ruins
scattered around the city. It’s
interesting how they don’t even bother putting up signs telling what they are
from. There’s a rather large ruin area
near our apartment (that has a lot of cats living in it). I looked it up on a map to see what it was,
but it’s not even labeled.
We had a
nice evening walk to Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps. The fountain was impressive, not sure why the
Spanish Steps are that interesting. We
had dinner on the way back. We all
really enjoy the food here, but it might be time for some variety. It seems like every place has basically the
same things – pizza and pasta. They do
have another section on the menu, but the descriptions are very minimal (at
least the English description), like steak or chicken. Also, it’s hard to justify 30 euros for some
chicken where you have to also order the side dishes separately when there is
such amazing pasta for about 12 euros.
Day 19 –
The Imperial Forums, the Colosseum and Trastevere
Since we managed to “catch up” on
the sites we wanted to see by getting to the Trevi Fountain and Spanish Steps
last night, I didn’t get everyone up super early today. Once everyone did get
up, we went to breakfast at the nicest place. Literally the owners were the
nicest people is what I mean. The breakfast was good too. Cappucinos, freshly
squeezed orange juice, and croissants, or omelets, or sandwiches for all of us.
Marc had a Coke. He’s not a breakfast eater.
We walked
explored some more today. The Imperial
Forum is a very large area of ruins with some intact columns. There are a few signs in the area, so that
you can see what the area looked like in very ancient times (between 50BC to
100 AD).
Nearby was
the Colosseum. It’s very large, like a
modern American football stadium, maybe even larger. We didn’t go inside because we had read that
there wasn’t much to see inside. And we just need to pace ourselves with our mental
and physical capacities. We could
see through a couple of doorways and that was probably enough anyway. I’m sure a tour would have interesting
details, but I don’t think any of us were ready for another tour after our long
one yesterday. And I’m not sure how much of the historical detail I can handle anyway.
Next, we
walked over to the Circus Maximus where they used to have chariot races. It’s a really huge area and I’m surprised
that they didn’t build over it since they didn’t seem to mind doing that
anywhere else. There were many other
ruins in the area, but they were not labeled so I’m not sure what they
were.
After a
short break at our apartment we explored the Trastavere area and had
lunch. Our lunch was a kind of bread
cone filled with a choice of fillings. I
had the zucchini and cheese one. The
zucchini was amazing, but it was mostly cheese which I didn’t prefer. Other flavors that we had were eggplant
parmesan, meatball, and chicken cacciatore.
We also tried suppli which are small deep fried balls of rice, tomato
sauce and mozzarella cheese. These were
very good. Zach tried something called
Lino (I think) which was deep fried tortellini and cheese, but he didn’t like
it because the cheese had a strong flavor.
I really like the atmosphere of
these small inside and especially outside dining areas. I’m especially
sensitive to cigarette smoke though and unfortunately it’s everywhere. Growing
up in a house with parents who smoked, I had terrible heartburn and stomach
pain constantly as a kid. I began noticing once I’d moved away that those
problems would only return when I was back at my parents’ house. Well, I’ve
been getting terrible congestion and heartburn which is rare for me so I’m sure
it’s the smoke. Heartburn is a more common problem for Marc when he’s eating
gluten and especially bread/pasta and tomatoes like pizza and spaghetti. As
we’ve heard, this has been less of a problem for him here even though he’s been
eating these things often!
We then
walked around some shops before stopping for a treat of Granite. This was basically shaved ice with a lot of
syrup. I didn’t try it, so I’m not sure
how it was.
Zoe-
hello I wanted to make an appearance. Goodbye! (btw this color is green)
For dinner
tonight we just bought a few things from the grocery store. It worked out well since none of really
wanted to go out to dinner tonight.
It’s been a
nice stay in Rome. I feel like I’ve seen
enough and don’t need to come back. It
was great to see all of the ancient monuments, fountains, etc. Plus, the Vatican and St. Peter’s Basilica
were really impressive. And of course
the food was great as well. Once is
enough for me though. I don’t prefer
cities, and this is a very busy, crowded city.
By the way,
the laundry turned out fine. Our clothes
dried mostly and I was able to keep up with it, so good enough I guess.
Day 20 –
Florence, Italy
We nearly
missed our train to Florence today even though we arrived at the train station
in plenty of time. I guess we are too
used to airports because we stopped for a snack and looked for a bathroom and
then leisurely headed to our train platform without realizing that it was
nearly time for the train to leave. The
clock on the platform said we still had a few minutes, but they started blowing
a whistle and closing the doors. We must
have looked like the most ridiculous American family running along the platform
and then taking a rather long time to get situated with all of our bags and
stuff. It was a nice train ride through
the countryside. It took about an hour
and a half to reach Florence.
I didn’t compare the time posted in
the station with our phones but a day or two later, I realized I didn’t have my
phone set to automatically sync times. Since we changed time zones very often
on our cruise, we manually changed the times and my phone was three minutes
behind and Marc’s was five. I wouldn’t have cut it so close if my clock had
been correct. It was a terrible feeling seeing the doors CLOSE on the trains as
we were walking down the platform to the very last car. If we’d thought we were
cutting it that close we would have hopped on any train and walked inside the
cars. Fortunately, one of the men reopened the door to our car. Whew!
Rome was a
very impressive, ancient city. Very
large and very old. Florence is very
different. It is definitely very old by
American standards, but it’s oldest building is from the 1200’s, so it is much
newer than Rome. It existed as a city
during ancient times, but nothing is left from back then. The buildings in Florence are much more
beautiful than Rome. The Duomo (as it is often
called), Florence Cathedral is amazing on the outside. It is made from 3 colors of marble and looks
really impressive. Michelangelo,
Raphael, Leonardo Da Vinci, and Galileo all lived here. We took a 3-hour walking tour around the city
which gave us much of its history.
Our tour guide, born in Sweden, but
living in Florence for the last 30 years was very engaging and good. We found
out that DaVinci’s subject, Mona Lisa, lived in Florence. Her husband
commissioned the painting. He died early and Mona Lisa became a nun in a
convent right here. Her body must be buried here too, but they haven’t
identified exactly where yet.
It was good to know that as lovely
and impressive as the Duomo is, that it is very plain and unimpressive on the
inside. We did not bother trying to see it.
I found it strange
that the town hall has a replica of the famous David statue in front of
it. The real statue is in a museum here
in Florence, so why put a copy in the same city?
Marc did not catch that the replica
is in the exact place that David originally stood. They moved it inside the
Accademia Gallery to protect it. At one point David’s arm was broken off. I
think it makes sense to have a replica here if it makes sense to have a replica
anywhere. I wonder how many people think it’s the real deal.
It did rain
during most of our tour, but never rained too hard and we had a couple
umbrellas from the apartment and were mostly able to stand under eaves to avoid
the rain.
The “Cupola
View” apartment is very nice. It’s so
modern looking compared to where we stayed in Rome, very different but I like
both places.
I forgot to
mention our lunch at Trattoria Za Za. It
is a really nice restaurant, and the food was great. The best pasta I’ve had so far.
We have sort
of gotten used to eating dinner later, like maybe 7 or 7:30pm since that’s when
the restaurants typically start serving dinner.
I read that that’s still just the tourist time and real Italians don’t
eat for a couple more hours.
Day 21 –
Florence day 2 – The Accademia and Uffizi Gallery
We went to
two of Florence’s top museums today, the Accademia and the Uffizi Gallery. Both are art museums. The Accademia is primarily sculptures with
some paintings and old musical instruments.
It is best known for having the statue of David by Michelangelo.
We beat the crowds with the earliest
reservation for the day, so we were able to head right for David and observe
and get pictures with few people around. We only spent 35 minutes in the small
Accademia Gallery. That’s perfect for us.
We walked back and forth through the
same areas of Florence many times as we wandered aimlessly having seen the
whole city yesterday and having no plans until our Uffizi reservations at 1pm.
We did take a break back at our
apartment mainly because the market wasn’t even set up yet. We did return to
the Central Market for a delicious lunch before our Uffizi admission.
The Uffizi
Gallery is mostly paintings from the renaissance era, including works by
Michelangelo, Rafael, Leonardo Da Vinci, and many more. The Uffizi Gallery has 99 rooms. Uffizi means
“offices” because this big, beautiful building was once the offices of the
ultra-rich and powerful Medici family. Apparently, this family “ruled” Florence
for 400 years or so but eventually dies out. The last relative donated all the
art and wealth to the city of Florence.
The tour starts on the fourth floor
with paintings and pieces from Medieval Times and you can see how things
progress or change into the Renaissance period. Art is not our thing, but we still enjoyed walking
around a bit and seeing the different art.
Only a few were familiar to us, but it was interesting anyway.
I particularly liked seeing a
painting that DaVinci had not finished and another where he had painted only
one little cherub in a painting done by his teacher. DaVinci was only 14 years
old then. His cherub outshines his teacher’s.
I also liked a painting of Mary,
Jesus, and John the Baptist where they are toddlers. The museum hallway on the
top floor had a very nice view of the Arno River and the walkway above the
bridge that the Medici family built so they wouldn’t have to mingle with the
commoners as they commuted from their house on the other side of the river to
their offices. Prior to that and still to this day, the shops on the lower
level of that bridge all have to be jewelry shops. Back in the day they had to
walk over it, they did not like the smell of the butcher shops that used to
occupy those spaces.
Other than
that, we had a very low-key day. Just
walked around shopping a little, ate lunch at the Central Market, and had some
gelato. The girls insisted on checking
out a record shop even though they knew they couldn’t buy anything since it
would be too much trouble to bring it home.
For dinner, I picked up some pizzas and brought them back to the
apartment since no one felt like going to a restaurant.
Day 22 –
Florence to Portovenere
We had a
nice breakfast in Florence this morning.
It was a beautiful restaurant and a fairly reasonably priced
breakfast. We scheduled a later train to La
Spezia anticipating that we would not be able to check into our next rental
until later afternoon and did not want to be stuck in a more rural area with
nothing to do.
That’s why everyone who wanted to
was able to sleep later other than needing to check out of the apartment by 10
am. We were able to leave our luggage there, have a leisurely breakfast, then
return to pick up our luggage and walk to the train station.
The train station was a bit of a hike with their tiny
sidewalks, but we made it. We gave
ourselves plenty of time to spare this time and kept an eye on the board that
tells what platform to go to. We were a
little concerned this time because it is a regional train without reserved
seats. It worked out fine since we
boarded right away. We were all able to
sit together and have room for our bags.
Marc left out that we arrived way
too early this time and some of us sat on the dirty floor for an hour waiting
for our platform to even be assigned. I mention this in case anyone is reading
looking for travel tips. Arriving 30 minutes early to a train station is plenty
of time. Some stations have cafes and shops and places to sit, others do not.
It was a
very nice 2 ½ hour train ride through the countryside and mountains. We passed by Pisa where Jacob and I were able to
get a glimpse of the famous tower in the distance. We also went through Carrara
and saw the mountainside of the white marble they are famous for.
Our train
went to La Spezia and we managed to get a taxi fairly quickly that took us to
our villa.
La Spezia is a cruise port that
hosts a massive cruise ship nearly every day. Today there were two in port. Our
train had nearly all cruise passengers on it returning from day trips to
Florence or Pisa I imagine.
It was pretty crazy at the taxi
area. There was no line or person directing the flow. After a very large group
got taxis, we appeared to be one of the next few families/groups in order of
arrival. We stood right by the sign making us look official anyhow to anyone
looking to follow “rules”/order. I’d
heard that Italians generally don’t queue up in lines and while not rude, do
just sort of squeeze you out if given the opportunity. It’s just the culture I
guess. I was worried we could be there for hours honestly at the rate at which
taxis were coming (practically zero.) So we were extremely fortunate that the
few families/couples that were legit there before we were, deferred easily to
us when a big van taxi pulled up that could accommodate us seven. What a
relief!
We have
quite a hike up from the driveway up to the villa, but the area is really
beautiful! There are fifty steep stone stairs
and some elevated slopes to walk as well from the driveway to the villa. The
pictures will be gorgeous, I’m sure, but it really doesn’t compare to actually
being here. The flowers smell amazing
and the color of the water is unbelievable.
Really one of the prettiest places I have ever been.
The villa
itself is nice and has a great view, but it’s taking a little adjusting to get
used to all the new details. The first
thing is that there is no air conditioning, which is fine and expected, but the
weird thing is that nobody has screens around here. So, figuring out how to keep it cool without
letting in a bunch of bugs is a concern.
The main challenge however is the location basically on the side of a
mountain. We are quite a ways up the
mountain, but all of the stores and restaurants are down by the ocean. So, anywhere we want to go, we have to hike
back up. It’s not a huge way, but
challenging for a family of flatlanders.
The villa’s views are breathtaking
from every window. The windows are actually all doors which I suppose screens
are tougher. Resigned to living with bugs and bug bites was okay, I say as I’m
still experiencing the itchiness many days later at home. We felt compelled to
closed the doors at night though whether it was rodents coming in that we were
concerned about or just more mosquitoes, I’m not sure. That made it warm at
night but it wasn’t uncomfortable. Glad we weren’t there during a hotter time
of year.
We had
dinner tonight at Spaghetteria down by the ocean. It was really great pasta despite being
served with plastic utensils. It’s very
quiet and peaceful even down by the ocean.
Such a nice change from all of the cities! The climb back up though. 350 steep stairs each
way. Somehow it’s tougher than it sounds. I vowed not to leave the villa the
next day. Who needs food anyway?
Day 23 –
Portovenere – a day off!
We gave
ourselves a well-earned break today and just lounged around the villa. We even ate all of our meals here. After smelling one of the neighbors cooking
some amazing smelling spaghetti sauce we even decided to make our own spaghetti
dinner. I was shocked that after all of
the pasta we have been having that we would even want that, but it was about
the only thing we could figure out how to make without going through too much
trouble. Jacob looked up an authentic
Italian sauce recipe and it turned out great.
Day 24 –
Cinque Terre
Cinque Terre
is named after 5 towns of colorful houses that are built into the side of the
mountains along a stretch of coast north of Portovenere where we are
staying. The five towns are connected by
a train, a ferryboat, as well as (mostly by) a hiking trail.
We booked a
boat tour today, but it was from the furthest of the five cities, so we had to
take the ferryboat to get to it. The
train wasn’t a good option because it only connects in La Spezia which is
pretty far from where we are. (A 55-60 Euro cab ride each way.) We would have to get a taxi to go there, so
we decided to take the ferry. We walked 20
minutes or so to town mostly just an inclined road which was a relief. The
ferry ride over was great. We got to see
all of the five towns along the way.
Unfortunately, this made our boat tour less interesting since it basically
went back by each of the towns.
We caught the first ferry out which
was at 8am. It takes an hour and twenty minutes to get to Monterosso (the most
north land, farthest from Portovenere.) The ferry was not at all crowded and
the morning was sunny and warm so we rode on the top deck and enjoyed it very
much.
We had just enough time in
Montorosso to find a café that was already serving some lunch options just to
be sure we wouldn’t starve on our 4 hour tour that began at 12:30pm.
We met our boat just off the beach.
It’s a smallish boat. There was a captain and a tour guide and two other
passengers, siblings in their early twenties, joined us.
The boat
tour also included stops for swimming, but it had just been raining when we
made our first stop so it was still really cloudy and people weren’t really
into it. Everyone
except Ella and I got in. I didn’t think it would be worth it to be wet the
rest of the way. Very shortly AFTER the swimming stop, the sun came out and it
was hot. Would have been perfect to swim now. The tour had a few
interesting facts, but was mostly just a nice way to see the area. It also included a nice spread of focaccia,
meats, cheese, nuts, etc. If we had been
staying in Monterosso and took the tour to see the other cities it would have
been better.
Not to sound like a complainer, but
just to remember things the way they were. The tour was pretty expensive for
very little “tour.” We actually ditched the tour when we made a stop in
Manarola. We didn’t want to go all the way back to Monterosso just to get on a
slow crowded ferry back for another 80 minutes. Marc returned to let our guides
know while the kids and I bought gelato. We should have stayed and shopped for
souvenirs in this town but feeling pressured to catch the ferry to the next
town to see it too, we left. The ferries schedule says they come one hour
apart, but now we think they were running many more unadvertised ferries to
accommodate the large crowds.
Anyway, the first ferry to
Riomaggiore was completely full and sailing away before the line (and our line
of sight) got around the bend. Thankfully after a ferry filled heading north,
another southbound ferry pulled up.
I’m glad we got to see all 5 cities
of the Conque Terre by sea and three on foot, but Riomaggiore had nothing to
offer us. Not any shopping and it took a lot of searching to even find a place
to sit down, relax, and have an apertif.
Ultimately, we took a standing-room
only ferry to Portovenere. Arriving too early for dinner, we looked around the
souvenir shops and finally ate an early dinner. It wasn’t a viable option to
walk home and back again…so. The food is a bit different in this region –
Liguria. Much more seafood for one thing. Jacob and I both ordered this dish
with three flat pastas like small tortillas, each with a different sauce. That
was different. I liked Max’s calzone better. We did a lot of musical plates
(switching entrees) during this dinner.
Day 25 –
another break
I guess
we’ve had a long trip because at this point we enjoy our relaxing days around
the villa as much as going and seeing new things. We didn’t do much of anything today except
buy some groceries and make dinner.
Relaxing was exactly the goal of
this part of the trip. Knowing how we tour intensely; I knew we would need a
break after Rome and Florence. This Villa was a great place for down-time.
(Except restaurants and stores being so far away.)
I did take a hike a little further up the mountain today, just for about 45 minutes. It was a very nice walk. The trail is quite rocky. I wonder if the trails around Cinque Terre are the same way. I did see a large green snake which was a surprise.
I’ve enjoyed
my time in Cinque Terre. It’s honestly
one of the most beautiful places I’ve been.
I loved the view from our villa, but not the hard bed!
We are all starting to yearn for
home a little bit. We’re blessed to have a wonderful trip like this and also
blessed to have a home and life we enjoy and are almost ready to return to.
Day 26 –
Venice!
Today we are
heading for the last stop on our Tour of Italy – Venice. We had to take three trains to get there,
which I was a bit concerned about. It’s
a little scary trying to get all of us on a train, each with a carry-on bag and
most with a backpack, since they only stop for a few minutes. On two of the three trains we at least had
reserved seats, so we didn’t have to worry about being separated. It all worked out fine and the scenery was
nice.
Arriving in Venice,
we took one of the Vaporetto’s (public water bus) to an area near our
apartment. While much cheaper than a
water taxi, they are still very expensive.
The experience was not nearly as pleasant as I expected. I pictured something like a ferry slowly
going from stop to stop while we enjoyed the view. Instead, they are extremely crowded boats
that just bump around like crazy. I
could barely see anything. I don’t
really know how to describe it, but it wasn’t great. At least it wasn’t a long ride.
Our
apartment is great. The owner clearly
uses this place for his family and has it fixed up really well. It actually has two washing machines and two
real dryers which is unheard of in Europe! Probably even more so in Venice
where it’s so much trouble to get things delivered. He also has giant TV’s in several of the
bedrooms which also seems very extravagant especially in Venice.
The
apartment is situated in a quiet square which is a few blocks away from St
Mark’s square. It’s very conveniently
located and nice that it doesn’t have a bunch of tourists.
It was great to see children playing
ball and running around the square. The buildings are so old! So cool. We found
out that the legendary Venetian composer and virtuoso violinist Antonio Vivaldi
was orphaned as a baby, left in basket at the step of the church that literally
connects to the house we rented. He was also baptized in that church.
The owner
seems to like being a good host. He had
one of his staff meet us at the apartment and also called us personally soon
after arriving. He gave us a lot of
recommendations for restaurants and things to do. They also left a packaged cake for us to enjoy. The
restaurant in the square took special care of us because we were guests of
Massimo.
The restaurant servers were so
friendly. They brought four glasses of Prosecco for us assuming Max was also
18. I think they gave us a discount and also they brought us “digestives”- 2
limoncellos, and non-alcoholic shots for the five kids- with our check. They
told us they’d have different treats for us every day if we dined with them
again.
After
dinner, we took an evening stroll through Venice. It’s a really interesting city. After trying to share the tiny roads with
cars in Rome and Florence, it was a really nice change of pace to go somewhere
that doesn’t have any cars!
I didn’t expect to like Venice so
much. It’s charming. I think it helped that our stroll was after the hustle and
bustle of the day visitors had died down.
One of the
highlights of the evening was seeing St Mark’s square. The basilica there is really beautiful on the
outside. It uses several colors of marble and has many mosaics. In some ways it was even nicer than the
cathedral in Florence. I think it’s the most beautiful exterior of a church that I
have ever seen.
Day 27 –
Tour of Venice
We had a
private tour of Venice today. It was a
very long tour ( 5 ½ hours) and we are all very tired at the end of it. We toured St Mark’s Basilica on the
inside this time. Very nice inside, with
more mosaics. Then we went next door to
the Doge Palace. It had a lot of
paintings on the walls and ceilings. We
learned a lot about how the government used to work in Venice. There was also a display of armor and
weapons.
I thought it was interesting that
they had these “lion mouths”/mail slots in Doge’s Palace for citizens to report
crimes of their neighbors. It couldn’t be anonymous either. I don’t know
whether it remained anonymous to the accused or not. Anyway there was only one
remaining and it’s not a lion’s face but still all were called “lion’s mouths.”
We also saw the prison that was
attached to the Palace and the Bridge of Sighs which sounds romantic but
actually was named because the last glimpse of Venice the prisoners got through
a window headed to the cells.
We walked
through a lot of squares and places throughout the city. Our tour guide had a lot of facts to share
with us, but it was hard to keep track of it all.
She knew how to get around lines for
sure and where all the good bathrooms are.
Eventually,
we took a water taxi to the island of Murano where they are famous for making
glass sculptures and products. We
watched a very interesting demonstration of glass blowing where they made a
nice vase and a horse made of glass just to show us. He said the products will shatter in a few
minutes because the glass has to be cooled very slowly to keep from
breaking. I was amazed that the guy
didn’t wear gloves even though his hands were very close to the hot part of the
pole and the molten glass itself. This
was my favorite part of the tour. After
that was them trying to sell us extremely expensive glass which was less fun.
The many chandeliers here were
especially amazing and room after room of glass art. Almost all of it was
contemporary (not my style) or elaborate. My style is more organic and
traditional. It’s better that they didn’t have anything that appealed to me.
Jacob pointed out one rather plain green vase that the tour guide/salesman took
and put in a window to show us in natural light. Marc asked the price. $3600
Euros but as a special deal for us, $2500 including shipping. I can see how
people can buy a memorable piece here and cherish it for their lifetime. But
I’m just not into “things.” We spend our money on experiences/travel.
We then took
the taxi back to the main part of Venice and continued exploring the various
islands of the city.
I thought our tour was good. The
only improvement I would suggest is that when she points to “her favorite
gelato place” and “the best pastry shop in all of Venice”, that we get the
option to stop and buy some! Not enough breaks and if we hadn’t asked to stop
for a quick grab and go lunch I don’t think we would have had any! (9:30am to
3pm!) We could have used that gelato break!
We are now
taking a break back at the apartment. After our
break, we had a long dinner at a nearby restaurant. Knowing it was our last
meal in Italy, we ordered an antipasto and apéritifs, first course of pasta
except Jacob had (overdone) lamb chops, Marc ordered a second course of sliced
steak and shared it with whomever wanted some, and we shared one tiramisu
because we hadn’t had any yet, oh yeah, and the three of us shared a bottle of
Italian Chardonnay recommended y the waiter (even though it was one of the
least expensive on the menu) and it was delicious. They also brought Marc and I
a shot of limoncello and the kids a biscuit with our bill.
We did extremely little souvenir
shopping this whole trip! Just always busy or not near shops when we weren’t.
So, even though it was getting late, we dropped off Max and Zach at the house
and tried to find some shops and some crepes for the remaining kids, their
remaining unfulfilled desire.
I did manage to buy an affordable
Murano glass souvenir and a baseball hat for our neighbor who mowed our grass
while we were away. The kids finally found crepes with Nutella and we finished
our stroll in the moonlight returning around 10pm. We made the most out of our
short time in Venice!
I have
really enjoyed seeing Italy. Each place
had its own interesting things about it.
I didn’t love having to deal with all of the “city stuff”, like traffic,
garbage, smoke, etc., but it was worth it to see these interesting places. Cinque Terre was a nice break from the
city. Venice was nice because it was a
little different from the other cities because of the canals. I really don’t know why anyone decided to
build this place, but it is fascinating to visit. The tour guide said that
people came here to escape from the Byzantine’s or something like that. I think there must have been easier places to
escape to. It’s weird being in a place
that has so few trees and no grass.
Apparently, there are some private gardens in the courtyards, but that
seems minimal.
If we come
back to Italy, we will head to the countryside instead of the cities. Everyone agreed that the food was the best
part of Italy.
Day 28 –
Travel Home
We barely unpacked anything in
Venice so it didn’t take much to pack up and get on our way at 8am. Of course,
I was up at 5:15am and so was the sun so I sat on the balcony observing the
wide variety of people coming and going through there. I got a kick out of
observing the garbage men coming through there. There must be a hub nearby that
makes many pass through this courtyard. Some will go out of their way to pick up
every scrap of paper they see in every corner of the courtyard. I saw one pass
by the piles of early morning spill over picked through by ravaging sea gulls
and pigeons several times before it was officially his job to get those piles I
guess maybe a half hour later. People walking dogs, taking pictures, passing
through with suitcases, etc.
It's amazing how small our world is
really. Pretty cool that we left this tiny courtyard in Venice at 8am on June 2nd
and 22 ½ hours later and only dark for about two hours later, we walked into
our house in the cornfields of Illinois still on June 2nd (with 7a 7
hour time change,)
We pulled our suitcases one more
time over cobbled walkways, boarded a water taxi to an airport-that was unique.
Our first flight was a little longer
than 3 hours and had a 3 hour layover in Lisbon, Portugal. Jacob and I got to
use the executive lounge in Venice. It was very nice. Marc doesn’t enjoy
breakfast or perks like this and he knows I enjoy both, so he bought coffee and
breakfast/croissants for the other kids just outside the lounge.
Marc and I flew business class home
and bought the kids coach seat with extra legroom-at least that’s what it was
supposed to be.
Business class was super nice on the
second leg of the trip with lay flat seat and plenty of personal space. Marc
concocted his own version of an Old Fashioned cocktail for us with Whiskey,
Sour Cherry Liquor from Portugal, and Sprite. Not bad.
Dinner was good and the kids even
got a hot dinner in coach. It was a 9 hour flight.
It went super fast for me occupied
with a couple of cocktails and dinner then a movie, a nap, then I awoke to the
lights coming on and a snack being served about 90 minutes before landing. I
was able to finish my second movie and that was it. I’m sure it seemed much
longer to the kids but no one complained.
The worst part was the longest line
ever at border control at O’hare. Then Marc having to Uber to pick up our van
and drive about 20 minutes back to the airport to get us from the remote lot he
paid to park at for 28/29 days. Our flight LANDED at O’hare at about 7:40pm. We
walked into our house at about 11:45pm.
Happy to be home and have had this
awesome journey with our family!
