Rome – Transatlantic 2009 Day 10 – Barcelona, Spain
December 4, 2009
Yesterday, we had a port of call in Barcelona, Spain. Barcelona is a busy cruise port and there may be many cruise ships in at one time. At the dock we were located at, we were sandwiched between the Grand Princess and the Azamara Journey. It was my first look at one of the new Azamara ships. It looked nice and was a relatively small size. Having been to Barcelona last year for our transatlantic cruise and having spent four or five days before the cruise, we didn’t feel like we needed to visit Barcelona again.
I arose early and watched our arrival into Barcelona from the top deck while eating some breakfast. The water was calm and the sun was out. It was a bit chilly, but still a good start to the day. I also managed to snap a few pictures. We should have a quite an album to upload upon returning home. We like to run the pictures through photoshop to resize, crop and clean them up before we upload them.
I spend the morning walking around the ship looking at the Barcelona sights once again, remembering the trip last year. I must say, while Barcelona was fun, the pre-trip cruise to Rome this year, was much more memorable.
After a quick lunch, I did a rare thing. I took a nap. I don’t take too many naps, but the time seemed right. Unfortunately, some cruise line employees were doing some work on the bow of the ship right outside our cabin so while restful – I did get some sleep – it was a bit interrupted.
After my nap, Suzanne and I spent some time topside again looking at Barcelona. The kids were enjoying the day in the Fun Factory so we had some rare quiet and alone time. The idea of taking our next cruise without the kids seems to be gaining favor. However, it has been our family vacation for the last five or six years, so don’t know what will happen.
In the evening, after our departure from Rome, Sean and I went looking for watches. I have had a bit of a hankering for a new watch and Sean has been wanting me to give him my old watch. I have never been a big jewelry guy and struggle with paying big bucks for a watch (or anything else you wear). Many years ago I bought my current watch, a Citizen, on a cruise ship and it has been the best watch I ever owned. I have put this through hell without a single issue. I love the fact it never needs a batter (EKO life of something) and has constantly kept good time. When on a cruise, the Tag Heuer watches have always caught my eye, but the price tag was always the deal break. My wife still needed to get me something for Christmas, so I thought this might be the year.
After looking at hundreds of watches, I again ruled out the higher priced watches as just not making sense for me. I liked the appearance, but just couldn’t spend that much money on a watch. The watches seem to be getting bigger and bigger too. I finally found a couple of Citizen watches that I liked. Both were made of titanium which made them very light. After dinner, I took Suzanne to the shops and got her opinion on which one she like better. So, I know have a new watch! Thanks for the Christmas gift honey! Oh, and birthday gift too!
Its broken record time again, but dinner was fantastic again. Sean had his usually shrimp cocktail appetizer while Suzanne had a seafood risotto. Savannah had a consommé while I passed on all the courses except for the main entrée course. For that, Savannah and I enjoyed a Cajun style Rib Eye steak with a baked potato. They were cooked to perfection and were very tasty. Sean had a turkey penne pasta dish that he said was the best turkey he had ever had. Suzanne had Osso Bucco for dinner.
After dinner it was again karaoke night. The kids left us. Sean went to the Fun Factory again and Savannah went to turn in for the night. She wanted to hit the Fun Factory early in the morning before we went ashore in Cartegena, Spain. I tagged along with Suzanne to hear her sing. She sang I Dreamed the Dream, Unforgettable (duet with another singer), A Liza Minelli song that I can’t remember the name of and Linda Edder song that I also cant seem to remember the name of. It was a fun night.
We returned to the room about 12:30 and called it a night. Today we will be in Cartegena, Spain. It’s a relatively short visit as we are due to dock about 10:00 am and then depart at 5:00 pm. We don’t have a tour planned, but do plan to get off the ship and walk around the small Spanish coastal town.
NOTE: I seemed to have messed up my day numbering somewhere along the line so have titled this post to get back on track (and will edit the titles of the others).
Rome – Transatlantic 2009 Day 6 – Last Full Day In Rome
November 29, 2009
Yesterday was our last full day in Rome on this wonderful vacation. This morning we will be boarding the Celebrity Solstice for our Transatlantic cruise back to the US. We decided to scale back our ambitious site seeing yesterday and take in a few of the larger piazzas.
We got a slow start on the day by sleeping in. After a breakfast of bacon and sausage, we made our way down to Piazza Popolo. We strolled around there for a bit and check out the three churches that are on the piazza. Suzanne really had wanted to visit one of them (can’t recall the name) because of a couple of really old painting that the church has. The church dates back to the late 1400s.
We then proceeded to head over to Piazza Novona (my favorite piazza). Along the way, we stopped at a new monument/museum. I say recent because it was only recently discovered and put back together. It was a former monument/temple to peace. When it was rebuilt, it was housed inside of a building which seemed really odd. I guess it gave them an easier way to charge an admittance fee for viewing.
At Piazza Novona, we were able to enjoy a nice pasta lunch will taking in some people watching. This piazza is very large and usually has an array of artists and street performers there. At this time of year, most of those had been replaced by a Christmas Market. There were still a couple of street performers there too. Suzanne was able to find a couple of souvenirs at the street market.
This was also the first time we got a bit wet on the trip. As previously mentioned, it had been threatening rain the entire trip which made the weather actually quite enjoyable. There was a slight drizzle falling while we ate lunch and for a few minutes afterwards, but we still managed to stay pretty much dry.
After leaving Piazza Novona, Sean wanted to visit the Spanish Steps again since he still hadn’t actually climbed up the steps. So I guided us back there but took a path back over there that went past the Pantheon. The kids still had not seen the inside during daylight hours. After seeing it, the nighttime view was still preferred. It also gave us an opportunity to get our Gelato for the day! We also visited the Trevi Fountain another time on the way back to the Spanish Steps. Savannah wanted to throw another coin in the fountain since she said she had already left Rome and then returned. Now, personally, I think visiting the Vatican doesn’t really qualify as such, but what the heck.
Finally, we hit the Spanish Steps and the kids were able to climb to the top and view them from above. After a short stay, we headed back to the apartment. I picked up a bottle of my favorite Italian wine, Barolo, for us to enjoy in the evening/night in the apartment.
We enjoyed a final Roman meal and reminisced about the trip to Rome. The girls were a bit sad, but were cheered up by the fact that tomorrow we would be getting on a cruise ship!
This has been a great way to start the vacation. The fact that we gave ourselves four days in Rome was really good. It would have been hard to see all we did in less time. Luckily, having been here many times on business myself, also gave us a pretty good idea ahead of time what to see and how to get there since I still find navigating room on foot very easy. The food has been fantastic. The people have been wonderful. The apartment couldn’t have been better. The price was right and we were ideally located in old Rome with easy access to most things we wanted to visit. All of us have enjoyed the pre-cruise stay in Rome much better than last years pre-cruise stay in Barcelona, Spain.
Be sure to follow our travel exploits on this blog as I try to make a daily update of our Rome and transatlantic cruise. Today, as previously mentioned, we will be boarding the Celebrity Solstice to begin our transatlantic cruise. This should be an interesting cruise as the Solstice is a bigger ship than we normally cruise. It will be another fun day!
-
Subscribe via Email
Sign up to receive the latest Mr Papa's World site updates! -
Subscribe via RSS
