Nancy Love’s Weblog

Last night we attended the variety show on board ship. It was a salut to broadway and was actually quite good. A couple of nights ago there was a comedian, Fred Klett. He was extremely funny. I thought my sides would split. It was one of those … you had to be there … experiences that will stay with me for a long time. He did a bit about growing up in a large family and bed time with 7 kids in the room. And another about his brothers 5 of them one after another jumping out of the second story window after seeing Mary Poppins. His father asked each of them why they had jumped after the first atttempt didn’t work. “We thought he didn’t do it right!!” The last one jumped without the umbrella. His father asked him why. “Well it didn’t help them” he answered.

It is funny how as humans we don’t learn from other’s mistakes. I find too that it is difficult to fully describe an experience so that others can enjoy it vicariously. I just talked to mum and dad and it was great to hear her tease me about the acupunture and the wrap therapy. They were surprised to hear from us out here in the ocean and wondered where the picutres were. You may be wondering too. The connection is so slow that I am afraid to even try from here. Saturday when we get to the hotel in San Juan I will make another attempt. We have great picutres to share. I will embed them into the story so far so you can get the visual.

One of my favourites will be the picture Jim took this morning at 4 am. I woke up early. The clocks had changed again and it was bright out so I got up to check on the time. 4am… full moon with light bouncing off of the water. It was eery and beautiful. I am so glad I didn’t sleep through that.

It is time to get gussied up for dinner. We are going to a special restaurant to celebrate Bill and Lynda’s Anniversary. Dressing for dinner has been fun. Gotta go relax some more!! Talk to you again soon. Tomorrow the beach at St Martin.

Christopher Columbus started his journey from here.  I have pictures that I will post later today of one of his vessels.  I had embedded them in the word document but I see they don’t appear in the posting.  They are on the card in Jim’s camera.  It is good to have the internet again.

Watch for the pics later.

The Santa Maria at Los Palmas

Pulling in to Tenerife

Yesterday we were in Lanzarote, a volcanic Island off of the coast of Morocco.  It wasn’t a sparkling place to go.  Madeira, the day before was delightful.  At dinner we all agreed that we would all go back there in a minute.  At Madeira we rode the gondola to the top of the mountain (600 metres), looking into everyone’s gardens and at their roof tops.  The view was spectacular.  Then we walked to past the botanical gardens to the church a where men in straw hats put us in willow toboggans and slide down the asphalt streets for 2 kilometres with us.  It was quite a ride. I accidentally called Mandy after the ride and woke her in the middle of the night.  Sorry, Mand.

Five of us got in a taxi to go back up to the church.  That was a bit tight and with the 80 degree angle of the slope and the windy roads it was as much fun as the ride down in the toboggans.  We took the gondola back to town and had wonderful beer and cod fish for lunch under the cable of the gondola.  The people of the island were very polite and pleasant and at the end of the meal we were served Madeira wine from a small wooden cask that had been home made.  It was a great meal and the little shops were wonderful too.  We bought some Christmas table runners in the market that was full of lace and embroidered table linens.

Top of the hill with our ship in the background at Madeira

The waters are calmer now and the outside temperature is pleasant.  We are pulling into the harbour at Tenerife as I write and it is time to go for breakfast and visit the town.   There is a rainbow on one of the peaks right now.  This is also a volcanic island with lots of peaks and valleys.  It is the biggest of the Canary Islands.  More about it tonight…  Thanks for staying tuned.

Lanzarote

Lanzarote, which seemed a little barren, also had stalls in a market.  We wandered through and then sat and had beer and conversation until we got back on the bus for the ship.  The ships satellite was down yesterday so there was no internet.  Hopefully today I will be able to access and post this entry.  So far it has been a travel log, not as insightful as past entries.  It seems to be a whirl wind of activity with not enough time to just sit and think.  I am sure that will change once we get to sea.

Tenerife

The church where we left our new back pack.

Yesterday we left Barcelona.  We had a nice breakfast at the same Lobo Bar as we had the day before.  It was raining cats and dogs.  We got the luggage together and called a couple of cabs to head to the ship.  There didn’t seem like any point in trying to see more of the city with the weather the way it was.  Two taxi’s, six people and 18 pieces of luggage (or so we thought)  headed toward the harbour.  A couple of blocks from the hotel we came upon a traffic jam.  Horns were honking.  Everyone was leaning on their horn for 30 to 60 seconds at a time.  Our driver was doing the same.  He opened his windo to add his voice to the expression of anger and ‘bang’  a grocery bag full of water hit the car and dumped inside.  It hit hard as if it had some from the 3rd or 4th floor.  The driver was not happy and we were still stuck.  It was unbelieveable.

We got to the port, got out of the taxis and they dashed off right about the time that LYnda noticed that her red hanging bag with her formal wear was not with us.  Was it in the taxi? or at hotel?  We all went in to sign in and then Lynda and bill had the concierge phone the hotel.  They had the red bag AND Bill’s duffle bag.  He hadn’t even realized that it was not with us.  Jim and Bill got in a cab, went back to the hotel and retrieved the bags.

Once we had our bags we had a lifeboat drill.  That was fun. 

We convened for dinner and met the rest of our party.  After dinner we waited for the ship to pull away.  Appartently we were waiting for people arriving late and left port about 9 pm.  It took about an hour to manoeuver the ship through the dock area and then we were at sea.  The band started up.  They were great.  It was disco night.

This morning JIm and I went to breakfast, met some nice folks.  Then we spend two hours at the spa.  It was great.  Lynda and I are off to shop….  You can do that here.  It is acutally a very nice boat.  Talk to you tomorrow.  Please email me or add acomment so I know you are out there!!!!

It was cold on day three.  We were chilled to the bone on a tour bus with an open roof for two hours.  We saw the city, especially the Olympic Venues from 1992 and the World Expo sites from 1929.  It is a beautiful City with outrageous architecture.  It is busy and alive and the restaurants have all been wonderful.  People speaking every language in the world pass by you on the street.

We attended an Opera/Flamingo Dancing performance.  The dancers and the singers and the musicians were so talented and it was easy to follow the story.  It is part of Catalonia culture.  Here in Cataloniathe “turn off your cell phone” announcement was made first in Catalonia, then in English and THEN in Spanish.  They really have a separatist attitude here.  The shoe store guy told me that it was like Quebec in Canada.  They have their own language and culture and dancing “Everything except our independence”  he told me.

A late night drink and dinner and some awake time with jet lag and today is raining … the day we board the ship.  More to follow ….  If you were here you might be saying “Bon Voyage ..”

We had a great day.  We met at 11 and took the metro to the Sagrada Familia by Gaudi.  It is the most amazing and ugliest church I have ever seen.  It is not finished although people have been working on it for over 100 years.  It was worth the ride just to experience its affect on people.

Then we went to an espadrille shop where Lynda and Susan bought the same pair of multi-coloured sandals with ribbons that tie up around the ankle.  Then we found our way back to have lunch with the others at a corner restaurant near by with probably the best example of single tasking I have ever seen.  The waiter could not pick up glasses and take an order at the same time.  He literally did one thing at a time.  The beer and the sandwich were good once we got them.

We strolled back to the Rambla and down to the harbor where we boarded a boat to do a harbour cruise.  On the way we were intrigued by a man playing a shell game for money.  Lynda was picking the right box every time.  It seemed that as soon as she got interested people moved in around her.  John and I were watchin gfrom a few yards away and could see the crowd assembling and John went in to take Lynda’s purse from her before someone else did.  It was very interesting and a little scary, a reminder of how aware you have to be at all times.

Aboard the harbour cruise there was no discernible commentary.  We floated through the docks and along the shore of the city in 10 foot swells.  Especially out past the breakwater, the seas were wild.  I was amazingly not sea sick.  The Cava was the saving grace although there were only 3 chilled glasses and five of us.  Refills were available. It made me realize again how important the question is.  There are only 3 cava’s means there are only 3 glasses to serve cava in….  who knew if you didn’t ask.

After the harbour tour, such as it was, we went back to the hotel and looked at pictures in our room until it was time to meet everyone again for dinner.  I called the concierge who suggested a tapas place within a short walk … if you followed his directions ….  We made a wrong turn and had to ask for further directions which took us back to the square that we had left 10 minutes before and up the correct street to the restaurant which was excellent.

Today is US Thanksgiving.  Dan picked up the tab.  We had a great meal with tapas for 8.  It was tasty and filling and there was wonderful atmosphere.  It was a perfect evening.  It was raining when we left to walk back to our hotel … a shorter walk than the one there. Tomorrow we hope to do a bus tour of the city.  Today I learned that we are a good group.  Every one is getting along.  That’s good.  We have fourteen days at sea to spend together.

As we watch CNN we see the attacks in India.

Tomorrow a bus tour of the city more shocking architecture. Be safe.

Hello everyone.  Welcome back to the world travel report…..

The flight from Calgary to Frankfurt was long and because it was a different time of day it was almost impossible to sleep.  Frankfurt to Barcelona is only one and a half hours and I have to say that I don’t remember much of it at all.  Once we got to our beautiful hotel, Le Meridian, on La Rambla, we took a nap.  I tried to shower but the drain was clogged and I flooded the place.  Then we went out with our friends to ramble on La Rambla towards the harbour and the cruise ship dock which is really walking distance.

It is quite lovely with the large boulevard and merchants and buskers all along the way.  We picked up a pamphlet for a Spanish guitar concert tonight at the Basilica which I think we will try to attend.   It is at the same time that we are supposed to meet our KC friends and Marjorie but we have sent messages for them to come early so that we can all go to hear the music.

It is surprisingly cold here.  It is the kind of cold that penetrates.  I will add a layer or two tonight before we go out again.  I had also forgotten that in Europe the restaurants close between 4 and 7:30.  No civilized people eat at that time of day.  We had some difficulty finding a place to have tapas and beer.  Perseverance paid off and at a delightful place, the waiter ordered for us and we had a nice light snack.

Now we are back at the hotel room.  It is 10:30 am there and 6:30 pm here. And we have had some interrupted sleep over the past 36 hours.  I find my self fighting to stay awake so that we can sleep for 8 hours tonight and make the adjustment.  I am very curious about the Atlantic Crossing and how our bodies will adjust to a less traumatic movement through the zones.