World Cruise

We got to the “Rock” on a beautiful morning. The storm we encountered on our way had passed through the day before and left a clear sky with brisk temperatures. Our excursion on Gibraltar started early to avoid the crowds and took us by bus immediately to the cable car that would lift us to the top of the Rock.

[Read more…] about Gibraltar

As we were leaving Cadiz, Spain today the Captain came on the intercom and told us that a rather large storm has been brewing in the North Atlantic and that it would affect the Azores and our course if we sailed as planned. Heavy seas and rain in the midst of the storm would be encountered and the ride would not be rather rough for a ship of our smaller size.

[Read more…] about Another Itinerary Change

Our arrival in Barcelona was scheduled for 1pm and about an hour before that we entered the breakwater and backed the ship up to the cruise dock where we tied up and opened the gangway at 1pm. My scheduled excursion for today was a supper and Flamenco dancing exhibition. As I write this in mid-afternoon I may not make that as the stomach is queasy. No fever, just feel poorly. Not certain why as I have not eaten anything outside the ship since Rome and that’s far enough back so if it was that the symptoms would have developed already and not waited this long.

[Read more…] about Barcelona (Days 1 and 2)

The Genoa entry is easy. It rained – a large amount. That’s it.

We knew the weather would be unsettled due to predictions and what happened yesterday in Castel Gandolfo and Rome. We’re in Genoa because the predictions for Portofino would not have allowed us to tender into the port. The excursions from Portofino were canceled and monies refunded and a few new ones (or modified old ones coming to Genoa anyhow) put out. None sounded particularly interesting and given yesterday’s rain and weather I decided this was a “me” day.

[Read more…] about Genoa and Villefranche

The day started out looking like it would become nasty and it did. So nasty, in fact, that I left the Sony camera I’ve had with me from day one in the cabin and took the Olympus TG-5 waterproof camera along instead. A good move as it turned out from the safety of the camera point of view; not such a good move from the good photo point of view. The Olympus simply does not have the same resolution, the same ISO abilities, and, among other things, it does not have the ability to shoot as well through windows, since it has a macro mode and the camera keeps wanting to focus on whatever it sees on the windows instead of what’s behind the window. But, it is rugged and waterproof so the weather dictated the choice and I made due with what I could get with the TG-5 instead of the good Sony.

[Read more…] about Castel Gandolfo and Rome

Positano is a tender port as there is no dock able to handle a cruise ship; indeed, it barely handles the tender. The town is built on the side of a mountain jutting a couple of thousand feet out of the sea about half way between Sicily and Rome in Italy. The town is so steep and compact that the lower part bans all motorized vehicles as they just won’t fit.

[Read more…] about Positano and Pompeii