France!

Also known as the day the cruise ship discovered Christmas.

Today was (by design) a pretty relaxed day.  Royal Caribbean only offered six excursions, and none of them really sounded impossible to miss, so we opted to sleep in a little.  And then watch the new Spiderman movie.  Had to happen.

Once we had gotten our super hero fill, and some food, we took advantage of the ferry to Toulon, which is the city in France where we had docked.  Toulon is definitely not a tourist city, but we walked around the marketplace for a while anyway.  It was probably the best weather we’ve had, with direct sun and pleasant temperatures for the majority of the day.  The area around Toulon is beautiful – all these mountains just seem to rise up from right behind the city.

A few hours later, we headed back to the ship and used the rest of the afternoon to read in the sun.  I’ve finished The Life of Pi (thrown for a little bit of a twist there at the end), so I’ll have to download a few more books for the flights home before we leave tomorrow.

Dinner tonight was accompanied by a Christmas tree and a large ice sculpture, and there was another Cirque du Soleil-type performance (I don’t remember if I’ve mentioned this, but every other night or so, I’ve stumbled into an aerial performance in the centrum) this evening, also complete with Christmas theme and tree.  I probably should have expected it – it is Black Friday, after all, but for some reason it still just seems very early to me.  Guess I should get on the shopping, and maybe it wouldn’t have caught me so by surprise.

One of the greatest things about traveling by cruise ship is the staff’s willingness to take care of all of the details.  We packed up our bags tonight and stuck them outside of our stateroom, and Royal Caribbean will take care of getting them to the airport for us tomorrow.  It’s very, very streamlined.  Have to love that.

As much as I love traveling, coming home is pretty great too (obviously minus the many hours spent in an airport/on an airplane).  Looking forward to seeing everyone soon!

Happy (belated) Thanksgiving!!

The $.65/minute internet was down last night.  But anyway...

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!  I hope that you’re all having a wonderful holiday, surrounded by family and friends J

Today we docked in Livorno, which is relatively close to Pisa and Florence in Tuscany.  Our excursion du jour was to tour a Tuscan Vineyard and to do a wine tasting.  We were pretty excited because the excursion didn’t start until 1:15, which gave us a little bit of extra sleeping time (every other excursion has required a pre-7:00 AM wake-up call).  We were somewhat foiled, however, because the crew had its muster drill around 9:00 AM (3:00 AM, EST).  It’s pretty darned hard to sleep through a fire drill.  So we got up.

Being awake for a few hours pre-excursion did allow me to finish my fifth book of the trip, and because I’m trying to do a better job balancing trashy romance and not trashy romance (the two Kindle book categories) on this trip, I’m now reading The Life of Pi.  I can’t even express how much I love my Kindle.  I don’t read as much when I’m not on a trip, but the fact that I can go online for anywhere, without having to pay $.65/minute, and download a new book, which is often discounted and doesn’t take up any additional room in my suitcase, is a strange and wonderful thing.

The Tuscan Vineyard was a little more than an hour away, and so our tour guide gave us some information about the area on the way there.  She was interesting – reminded me (probably more than was flattering for her) of Melissa on The Real Housewives of New Jersey.  She kept having us wave to the black sheep for good luck and giggling into the microphone.  Ben was pretty sure that she was smashed the entire time.  Anything’s possible.

When we got to the vineyard, we took a “tour,” which consisted of about 10 yards of walking to one corner of the (now hibernating) grape vines, about a paragraph’s worth of information, and backtracking about 5 yards to an olive tree, where we talked briefly about the process of making olive oil.  Having also toured a vineyard in Sonoma Valley, which was a much more robust and informational experience, Ben and I were both a little underwhelmed by the “tour” in Tuscany.

The main part of the excursion was the wine tasting.  There were two red wines, two white wines, and then later a dessert wine.  The vineyard also gave us bread, oil and vinegar, roasted tomatoes, cheese, ham, and olives to snack on while we tasted.  Sitting around, eating, drinking, and chatting with our fellow cruisers was a very enjoyable experience.  The other two people at our end of the table have done more than 20 cruises, and they were happy to talk about where they’ve been that they’ve liked and disliked.  They’ve done some really awesome sounding trips to southeast Asia… not on my current top five travel destinations (which may include Peru, Austria, Scotland, Portugal, and Turkey), but will definitely need to happen at a point when I have more disposable income to travel.

We came back from the excursion and both of us pretty promptly fell asleep for a few hours, waking up just in time to go and enjoy a Thanksgiving turkey dinner.  The fact that our cabin doesn’t have any natural light is very disconcerting for naps.  We woke up and had absolutely no idea what time it was (though I suppose that natural light wouldn’t have helped us all that much – sunset was at 4:42 this evening).

In closing, I’m grateful for so many things (including the opportunity to travel :) that I want to share.  I’m thankful for the support my parents and family have always given me, and for my brother having suggested that we start to do some traveling together.  I’m thankful for Troy and our awesome life together (with cats!) in North Carolina.  I’m thankful that I had the opportunity to go to Massachusetts three weeks ago to see my family (hurricane be damned!) and to have seen all of the (recently enlarged!) Carter family two weeks ago when we came up for the Morgan State tournament.  I’m thankful for my support system of friends, and the technology that helps me to stay close to them, even as we have scattered around the world.  I’m also grateful to work with colleagues I enjoy in a position that I find challenging and rewarding.  And, while it doesn’t come anywhere close to the level of gratitude that I feel for everything else I’ve listed, I’m grateful that I am now within the 48-hour window for a real Diet Coke. 

Tomorrow, to France!  Since we don’t have an excursion planned, we will be like Napoleon.  First we will show up.  Then we will see what happens. 

Rome!

Well, today was what felt like the entirety of Rome (but in reality was only a relatively small section of what used to be the ancient city).  The weather was gorgeous – high 60s to low 70s, and sunny.

From the ship, we had a roughly 90-minute drive to the center of Rome, where we were given some vague directions and the crappiest map on the planet.  If I had access to a scanner, I would show everyone just how bad this map is.  Most of the streets are not labeled at all, and the map-makers extraordinaire have stuck clip art pictures of the major landmarks over the landmark destinations (presumably so that we know what things like the Coliseum look like), but they’ve made the images large enough to cover several blocks in any direction from the actual location of the landmark, so that you can’t easily tell where things are actually located on the unlabeled streets.  NOT helpful.

Despite having to overcome significant adversity, we were able to see a number of historic sites in our morning free time.  We started by looking for the Pantheon, but managed to find the (very impressive) Tomb of the Unknown Soldier/Italian military museum first.  After some backtracking, we were able to find the Pantheon, which is one of Rome’s more-than-400 churches.  We then headed west (ish) to the Trevi Fountain, where I threw money from my right hand, over my left shoulder into the fountain.  Apparently, this indicates that I will quickly return to Rome, which seems like money well spent to me.  Our final morning visit was to the Spanish steps, before returning to meet our group at St. Peter’s Basilica prior to the afternoon’s guided tour.

Our tour guide for the afternoon was awesome.  She was enthusiastic, knew a lot about what she was talking about, and repeated herself endlessly.  She walked us across the street and into the Vatican, where we hit some of the most sensitive metal detectors I have ever had the privilege to walk through – people had to take off their earrings.  Crazy country, that Vatican.

The tour of St. Peter’s Basilica was really interesting, and when you walk in (and until the tour guide starts telling you the heights of different parts of the ceiling… over and over again) it doesn’t really sink in, just how massive the building is.  For reference, in the tallest dome, you can stack two Statues of Liberty on top of each other, and still have room before you get to the top.  The letters in gold around the bottom of the dome are seven feet high.  Construction started on the Basilica in 1506, and didn’t conclude until 1626.  One of the other crazy things about the building is that there’s not a single painting or tapestry in the place – it’s all mosaics, with the rationale that mosaics can’t be destroyed in a fire.  So everything that you walk in and assume is cloth or paint or anything other than tiny tiny tiles, is actually an incredibly detailed mosaic.  Hence the fact that the Basilica took 120 years to complete.

After crossing the street back into Italy, we went to a small church that contained Michelangelo’s Moses sculpture, and a few relics, including the chains that held St. Peter.  This was a relatively quick stop, on the way to the Coliseum.  We didn’t actually go into the Coliseum, but rather walked around the perimeter.  Apparently, the Coliseum could be filled to capacity or emptied completely within five and a half minutes – quite the feat, considering that it could hold up to 20,000 people at a time.

I really enjoyed Rome, and as I said, it was great to have an enthusiastic guide.  Tomorrow, we opted to do the Tuscan vineyard excursion, which Ben is very enthusiastic about, rather than the tour of Florence or Pisa.  Those will just have to wait until I return to Italy (I hope I threw enough change in the fountain for American Airlines to have overbooked our flights home and for them to offer $800+ in compensation for volunteering to wait for a later flight…cross your fingers, everyone!)  Happy day before Thanksgiving everyone!

Pompeii and Mt. Vesuvius

Today started out bright (read: rainy) and early, with a quick breakfast and then a departure for our Naples excursion.  We had docked around 5:00 AM, having sailed between Italy and Sicily last night around 8:30.  Our first stop was a tour of the Pompeii excavations.

Pompeii was a city with a population of approximately 20,000, of which approximately 8,000 have been recovered through the excavation process.  We toured the forum, one of the bathhouses, several of the main streets, temple ruins, and one of the city’s more than 20 brothels.  Interestingly enough, though residents in Pompeii did have water pumped in to their homes (via lead pipes), because the city is situated on a lava flow, the ground was too hard to allow for sewer lines.  Raised crosswalks were created to accommodate people who did not wish to walk through the rivers of sewage created during wet weather.

The only real downside to Pompeii was that it rained off and on the entire time, and since the only parts of the buildings that did not survive the Vesuvius eruption 2000+ years ago were the roofs, we ended up being pretty damp by the end of the tour.  Not a huge deal at that point, because the temperature was pretty mild, and it didn’t rain all that hard, just consistently.

After touring Pompeii, we had a quick stop-off at a cameo factory, so that we could explore their gallery and take advantage of their “30% off sale.”  The cheapest cameo I saw started at 300 euro, so I abstained, even with their generous offer.

One of the benefits of the stopover was that it allowed our tour guide to call and confirm that the road to Vesuvius was safe for the bus to travel (it was).  The road itself had been used (and repaired) since Roman times, and included some very narrow ledges, and some very quick switchbacks.  Not for bus drivers who are faint of heart, certainly.

Predictably, though I hadn’t considered it, the temperature stepping off the bus was pretty significantly cooler than it had been at Pompeii.  The bus had taken us most of the way up the volcano, but we were on our own for the last mile or so, which was a steep, volcanic gravel trail up to the volcano’s crater.  So, it was cold, the wind had picked up some, and we were already wet from having walked around in the rain for a few hours.  Then it started raining again.

We worked our way up the trail, and, though the mist obscured our view of the coast for most of the trek, every once and a while the mist parted a bit and we were treated to a much better view.  At the crater, there was a guide post, which shared some information about Vesuvius and its eruption history.  Between that guide post and another toward the end of the trail around the crater, the wind picked up significantly, and it started snowing/sleeting.  As you can see from the picture, we were mostly unprepared for that turn of events.  Needless to say, we headed back down the volcano pretty darned quickly.

We got back to the ship and opted for a late lunch and dry clothes, as opposed to exploring more of Naples in the rain.  Hopefully, the weather will be more cooperative tomorrow for Rome.  Either way, I’m excited J

Day at Sea – Waved at Sicily :)

Safe to say that it has been a VERY lazy day, brought on by the fact that our sleep schedules are pretty screwed up.  Neither of us fell asleep before 1:00 AM, and so, hearing the Cruise Entertainment Director discussing the morning’s activities at 10:00 was quite a surprise.  Having an interior cabin is a little weird – there’s no natural light anywhere, so keeping track of time has been a somewhat futile effort (especially since there also aren’t really any clocks).

So, we kinda hung around and then went and had brunch.  I spent the day moving from comfortable reading nook to comfortable reading nook.  Had to be entirely indoors, as it was cloudy with intermittent showers all day long.  Because that put a cramp on the shuffleboard and mini-golf, I had to be content to move the nap up on the agenda.  Le sigh.  Hard life.  Now, after having seen Canadian Wipeout, it’s time for dinner (and frozen yogurt…obviously).

Croatia!

Hello friends!  Today was our Croatian adventure, which started first thing in the morning.  The ship set anchor a ways out from Split (probably because it’s too massive to fit in the harbor), so we took a 20-minute water taxi in to the city.

Our excursion was a tour of the central part of Krka National Park.  The park has a total area of 109 km2, and encompasses the entirety of the Krka River and its basin.  About an hour and a half outside of Split, the park was established in 1985, and includes an island Franciscan monastery, remnants of a Roman aqueduct, and several (non-operational) water mills along the length of the river.

The section of the park that we toured today was a network of interconnected boardwalks that wove around several small islands and waterfalls in the river.  By and large, the walkways were under tree cover and over water, which was a very interesting experience, as the river seemed to meander everywhere, with the trees growing out of the water.  There were a series of small waterfalls, until the boardwalk path wove down to the bottom of the largest waterfall.  For reference, the climb back up to the mill from the bridge at the bottom of the waterfall was around 220 stairs.

The walk around the waterfalls was a giant loop that took about an hour to walk – we, being the active people we are, and given that we had two and a half hours to spend at the park, did it twice.  On the way back from the excursion, we learned more about Croatia.  The landscape between Split and the park was mountainous, with mostly low bushes and rocky terrain, which was a pretty sharp contrast against the river basin.  Split has around 200,000 residents, and is the second largest city in Croatia.

When we got back to Split, we walked around for a while, since we had three hours before the ship departed.  It’s too bad that we had to see Split on a Sunday.  My feeling is that it would have been a much livelier place, any other day of the week.  We walked around the historic area of the city, which was originally a retirement palace for one of the early Roman emperors, who had been born in the area.  Within the area that used to be the palace, there were a lot of narrow, winding streets that opened up into huge courtyards (now bordered with restaurants).  The weather was more or less perfect, and we enjoyed wandering around.

After our (much choppier) ride back to the ship, we grabbed a late lunch, and I hunkered down in the Solarium to finish “A Casual Vacancy.”  I liked it reasonably well, but it wasn’t what I was expecting.  Somehow, I had it in my head that it was a mystery, so I kept waiting for the plot to thicken and some suspense to kick in.  That said, I still found it entertaining.  And I'd love any other book recommendations if people have them - I tend to go through books pretty quickly on vacations, and I have a kindle, so I can download from here.

Favorite things about the ship so far include: the mini golf course and the frozen yogurt machine.  I don’t know why, but when on vacation, I cannot seem to stay away from the frozen yogurt machines.  I have no problem staying away from the outpouring of trendy new fro-yo bars in Charlotte and Gastonia, but give me a cone to enjoy on a vacation, and I’m a happy camper.

Tomorrow is our day at sea.  I’m planning to read, take naps, try my hand at shuffleboard, and eat frozen yogurt.  That’s more or less the sum total of my plans.

Made it to Venice

Through a series of fortunate events, I can report that we have successfully made it to Venice, gotten aboard, and are en route to Split, Croatia!!

The flights were… flights.  Charlotte to Boston was delayed, but not by all that much.  We had both planned on just flying with carry-ons, but the overhead baggage storage filled before we boarded, which meant that we had to exit the terminal and then go back through security with our bags in Boston.  Boston to Heathrow was very smooth, except that the 12-year-old sitting next to me didn’t have much self-awareness or personal space awareness, so that got a little old.  Lucky that we had a two hour stopover in London, because we made it with minutes to spare, after moving from Terminal 3 to Terminal 5.  That is one sprawling metropolis of an airport.  London to Venice was awesome, because I was dead asleep for most of it (the only two hours of sleep that I’ve had in the last 30 or so).

Actually getting on to the cruise was super easy (in spite of the fact that they had us coming into Venice having had a layover in Frankfurt, rather than in London).  Check-in took about 20 minutes, and went very smoothly.  Priority sub next was to book our excursions for the remainder of the trip.  We have chosen to:

·         -Visit a national park, renowned for its waterfalls in Croatia (tomorrow);

·         -Hike Mt. Vesuvius and tour Pompeii on Monday;

·         -Do a “Taste of Rome” tour on Tuesday.

We’re still on the fence about the other two stops (Florence and Marseilles).  For Florence, I was thinking a full-day highlights tour, while Ben was thinking a Tuscan wine tasting.  Dad, I know that you’re pulling for a tour of Florence, but if this excursion doesn’t work out, I’m calling it all the more reason to start planning a full-family trip back to Italy (with you as a translator, of course ;).  None of the excursions for Marseilles have struck us as “must-do’s,” so we may wait and see how we’re feeling after either the tour or the wine tasting.

So far, everything has gone more or less exactly as planned.  Looking forward to the first excursion (and as much sleep as I can possibly cram in between now and then)!

P.S.  My blog posting may be a little more sporadic than it was on my last trip.  The Internet is available on the cruise, but it is $35 per hour.  That is ridiculous.  I cannot handle it.  So… moral of the story, I may be posting a little less regularly.

Soon to be galavanting :)

Hey all,

Already time for the next trip!  Today, my brother and I leave for Venice, where we will depart on a week-long cruise.  Most of the ports are in Italy (Naples, Rome, Florence/Pisa), but we'll also be stopping in Split, Croatia and Marseilles, France.  Here is our cruise information.

And here's a nice picture of my brother feeding the giraffes at the Lazy Five Ranch in NC.

Getting excited!

Catherine