Sunday, October 30, 2011

Days 6 & 7: Boarding the ship and Cartagena, Spain


It’s so great to be aboard the Liberty of the Seas.  Lady Liberty is one of the 2nd largest classes of ships in the fleet (Oasis and Allure are the biggest, then sister ships Freedom, Independence, and Liberty).  We were on here last March with my daughter Amy and her husband Chris, so we are familiar with the layout and amenities.  She’s over 1,000 ft long and 14 decks tall – enormous!
As soon as we booked the cruise 2 months ago, I went onto the website cruisecritic.com.  They have a thread for every cruise line, ship, and sailing.  You sign up and you can cyber-meet your fellow cruisers, plan activities, share information, and register for events onboard.  The first activity was the sail-away party.  We were to meet at the Sky Bar by the pool wearing a pink shirt and pink boa.  So here we are:
We wanted to have something unique as a conversation starter – so I made our “boas”.  They’re stuffed with socks so we wouldn’t waste suitcase space.  They were a huge hit.  We made lots of friends. 

The first night at Happy Hour was fun.  There are over 2,000 Diamond and Diamond Plus status cruisers (levels of the loyalty program)!!!  Instead of the Concierge Lounge, they moved us to the Sphinx Lounge and it was still packed.  Insane was more like it!  But we saw several people we had met last year on the Australia cruise, and a few other people we already knew so it was a happy reunion.  We also met some other people from London and the south of France, as well as all over the US.  We enjoy talking with other avid cruisers.

Our dinner mates are Steve and Joyce, from the Dallas area.  There were 4 other seats at the table, so perhaps others will show up at some point.  We had our typical first night menu which is always so yummy.

Today we arrived in Cartagena, Spain.  We bought a pass for the 5 top sites in the city for 10 Euros each.  It was a pretty good deal.  Everything was easily within walking distance from the ship.  We had a great weather day – some clouds, hot, and humid.  But no rain!
I am so amazed at the antiquity of this country.  Only 3 blocks from the pier are the remains of a coliseum built in about 13 BC.  Imagine that!  It’s amazing that buildings can last for so long without being completely destroyed.  We went thru the museum first, which was the entrance into the coliseum.
We also toured an old castle, not nearly as cool as the one in Mallorca.  I didn’t even take many pictures of it.
To exit the castle there were 2 choices:  walk down a million stairs, or ride “the lift”, which was one of our 5 sites on our pass.  I have a terrible time with heights, so I wasn’t thrilled about walking across that walkway.  Fortunately it had a solid floor.  If it had been see-thru I never would have made it.
The fifth “site” was a bus tour around the city.  We saw so many gorgeous old buildings. Unfortunately, the internet is extremely slow and terribly expensive, so I'm not gonna be able to include all the pictures I had wanted to in the blog.  I'll have to upload everything when I get home.

We walked down the main street.  It’s Sunday, so most of the shops were closed.  I did find one place to get a magnet for my collection.  There were so many interesting buildings along the way.

Tonight was our first of 3 formal nights.  We got all dressed up, but ended up not having dinner in the main dining room.  The Windjammer (buffet) had everything we wanted.  We met the Captain and had our picture taken with him.  Captain Patrick, who normally has this ship, is on vacation.  So we were meeting Captain Kjetil for the first time.  (No that’s not a typo – he’s from Norway).

Tomorrow we’ll be in Pablo Picasso’s hometown of Málaga, Spain.  The excursions include a 9-hr trip to Granada (2 hrs in a bus, each way).  I’d be tempted, but that’s a long bus ride and Alhambra Palace (the main attraction) is closed on Mondays.  So we’re planning to just walk around in Málaga on our own. 

Stay tuned for the next exciting blog…

Friday, October 28, 2011

Day 5: Barcelona Tours


Today we explored Barcelona.  The rain gods smiled on us today and cut us a little slack.  We had some sprinkles early on, but it cleared off in the afternoon and the sun even came out for a while.  What a lovely city – home to about 4 million people and the pick-pocket capital of the world.  We noticed that not very many people here speak English like they did in Mallorca.  We actually had to speak Spanish.  Only it’s not really Spanish either.  It’s a blend of Spanish and French that is a local dialect unique to this area.  And to make it even harder – there are 4 sub-dialects of that.  No wonder we’ve been a little confused by the signs and such. 

We wanted to see 2 things today – Sagrada Familia and Las Ramblas.  The lady at the desk in the hotel told us how to get there.  She did a great job.  We took the hotel’s shuttle to Plaza Espana.  Then we were to get on the subway to Sagrada Familia.  Now that was a challenge.  There were lots of different kinds of tickets and we couldn’t figure out which one to get.  We went to the information window and had to ask the questions in Spanish (before we knew the thing about the dialects).  It was a comical dialog to say the least.  Bruce let me do the talking and he was kinda laughing on the sideline.  But – I did it!  We got the ticket and found the right train.  It was like 2 country bumpkins in the big city the first time, but by the end of the day we were hopping on and off the subway like pros. 

We emerged from the bowels of the underworld and looked around to see which way to go.  All of a sudden, I turned around and there was this MASSIVE building that is so beautiful it literally takes your breath.  OMG – words just can’t even describe it.  My jaw dropped.  It’s so huge that you have to take about 6 pictures because it doesn’t even begin to fit in the camera’s scope.  It’s by far the most amazing structure I’ve ever seen.  I don’t know which is more impressive – the inside or the outside.  Gaudi was a genius.  Period!! 


The construction began in 1882 and has been ongoing ever since, with the exception of a few stoppages during war times.  They have about 300 people working on it.  It’s estimated to be finished somewhere between 2026 and 2041.  The interior was only opened to the public in Nov last year when it was consecrated by the Pope.  There is so much symbolism to things in nature on the inside.  The columns represent trees and the ceiling has the leaves of the tree.  The level of detail and the intricacy of the objects is unbelievable.  Only some of the stained glass is in, other windows have temporary plain glass.  If you’re interested in all the details, Google it.  It’s fascinating.  I’ll just put in a few pix for now, but I’ll upload all of them to Snapfish when we get home.  Trust me – photos don’t do it justice at all.  It’s the size of a football field, and 558’ tall.




This was Gaudi's office.

After spending several hours at Sagrada, we hopped on the subway and went to Las Ramblas.  It’s a street about a mile long with shopping and the center is lined with kiosks.  Pickpocket Heaven, for sure!  It’s bustling and crowded.  The buildings along there are really cool, too. 

At the end of the street is a statue of Christopher Columbus pointing to the Mediterranean Sea.  Across the street from that is where we will board the ship tomorrow.  There are lots of cool buildings around that area.

We walked back into Las Ramblas to have some tapas (appetizers) and drinks.  Suddenly 2 young men walked in front of us and stopped, blocking our path.  Bruce noticed one had his jacket slung over his arm and from under it he was reaching with his other hand to try to either unzip his fanny pack, or take the whole thing.  As the guy’s hand came toward him, Bruce instinctively pushed it away and in the process he accidentally lightly punched him in the stomach.  The guy quickly walked away – he knew he’d been made.  Boy was I glad I did the research, knew that this was a problem, and took action to prevent getting robbed blind!  All our money and credit cards were in our money belts that I made.  All they would have gotten had they been successful were just a few personal items.  We were super careful and aware in that area of town.  We tasted the local drink called Cava.  It's like a very dry champagne.

We headed back to the hotel via city bus.  We were happy to learn that our subway pass worked on the bus, too.  We met a young man from Atlanta who has lived here for 2 years.  He told us all about the language dialects and cleared up that confusion for us.  He was a wealth of information.  He also helped us get off at the right stop.  I think we would have missed it if we had been on our own.

We went back to the store next door to get some dinner.  Wow – were we shocked to find half of Barcelona’s population in there shopping!  That place was a ZOO.  Last night there were only a few people picking up a few items.  Tonight they all had heaping baskets of stuff and the lines were so long.  I don’t know if it was because it’s Friday, near the end of the month, or what.  The hot food in the deli was all gone.  So we ended up eating in the hotel restaurant.  Wanna guess what we had?  Pizza, of course.  What else but a bocadillo could it have been?

We’ve enjoyed Mallorca and Barcelona immensely, each for their own reasons.  But now we’re excited to be getting on the ship tomorrow and settling into our ship routine.  We’re ready to start writing our new screenplay, too.  And I’m sure we’ll be making lots of new friends over the next 2 weeks at sea.  The sail-away party should get things kicked off nicely.  It's time to pack up everything.  Those wet clothes are about 1/2 dry.  We'll slosh a little bit getting on the ship.  Hopefully they'll dry by the end of the trip.

Thursday, October 27, 2011

Day 4: Barcelona Hillbillies


Today was moving day.  We said good-bye to the lovely Mallorca and headed to Barcelona.  We had a very interesting experience while boarding the plane.  Directly in front of me as we were walking down the jetway to the plane were a man and his approximately 13-yr-old son.  If I was to racially profile them, I would guess Middle Eastern.  We got to the doorway of the plane and the kid started freaking out.  He turned and tried to get off, but his dad pushed him back on.  The boy was crying and becoming hysterical.  The flight attendants tried to calm him down, to no avail.  The dad, in his frustration, grabbed the boy by his jacket and tried to force him down the aisle.  The kid grabbed onto the nearest seatback and hung on for dear life, screaming and crying.  They were making a huge scene and everyone was so shocked we didn’t know what to do.  They finally stepped into a row so we could all get to our seats.  After a few minutes, security removed both of them.  We had to wait until they located and removed their checked bags before we could take off. 

I have to admit, that my first thought was “I wonder if this boy knows something we don’t”.  As in, intuition was telling him not go get on this plane.  I didn’t think about the fact that they could have been suicide bombers or something until they made the announcement about looking for their luggage.  That just shows how naïve I am, huh!  I guess if you fly often enough you eventually see strange things like this.  Thank goodness the rest of the flight was uneventful – just like I like ‘em!

We arrived in Barcelona about noon under clouds and humidity.  We made it to the hotel with only a few sprinkles on the shuttle’s wind shield.  As soon as we got inside, the skies opened up.  It rained pretty hard for awhile, and then a steady drizzle set in.  The forecast for the next week is rain every day.  We decided to hold off on doing any touring today.  Instead, Bruce logged on and worked all afternoon. 

I discovered that you have to watch out for Expedia’s definition of things.  When I booked this room I searched for hotels that had an airport shuttle, free WiFi, A/C, and laundry facilities. It was titled a “Cruise Special”, which usually means a shuttle to the cruise port.  We’re very disappointed in what we got.  No cruise shuttle, that was just the title but wasn’t in the deal.  The A/C is actually the heat.  Man this place was cooking!  We asked about it, and they said they had turned it off since winter is coming.   Winter??  There’re frickin’ palm trees here – give me a break!!  Luckily the window opens.  We’re on a pretty busy street, so we have a lot of noise.  And it’s super humid – 94% to be exact.  I had planned to wash clothes here so we wouldn’t have to pack as many.  I went looking for the laundry – and found out that “laundry facilities” means there is an iron and ironing board available.  They offered to send it out to be done, but I didn’t want to do that.  So I brought my laundry soap and dirty clothes back to the room and washed them out in the sink.  Just call us the “Barcelona Hillbillies”.  We have wet socks, undies, and clothes hanging from every door knob, window ledge, and chair back in the room.  I’d take a photo, but I don’t believe in airing our laundry online.  Who wants to start a pool for how long it’ll take to get all these clothes dry in this humidity with very little air flow?  I predict that I’ll either be giving the hairdryer a workout, or I’ll be boarding the ship with a bag of soggy clothes.

Next door to the hotel is a nice shopping center with a HUGE store like a Sam’s or Costco.  We bought a rotisserie chicken and a salad for dinner.  We’re sick of fast food and there’s not much in the way of restaurants nearby.  We also got some bread, peanut butter, jelly, Nutella, and chips to make a picnic lunch for our touring tomorrow.  And we got some water, Coke, and beer.  Did I mention that we travel on a budget so we can travel often?  This is one way we cut corners.  If this room had a microwave, we could’ve had lots of options.  But we still had a good meal for little cost.

Tomorrow we plan to take a bus to the heart of the city.  We’ll hopefully tour the Familia Sagrada and Las Ramblas.  I think that’s about all we’ll have time for.  But I’m told that those are the two highlights.  It looks like we’ll be out in the rain again, so I’m REALLY glad I bought a second travel umbrella.  It’s already been christened.  Our sail away and the first 2 ports on the cruise will also be wet.  After that we should start seeing some sun.

Sorry there’re no photos today.  Tomorrow there should be lots. 

Do you suppose I would find some bubbling crude, black gold, or Texas tea if I shot at the ground out back?  I’d LOVE to be a millionaire!

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Day 3: Picture-Perfect Palma


We had another picture-perfect day in Palma, the capital city of Mallorca.  We had breakfast at Burger King again.  Gotta have my protein!  Then we got tickets for the Hop-On-Hop-Off tour bus.  This is a double-decker bus with a recording that describes all the sites.  You use ear buds to listen and it’s available in 10 languages.  There were 15 stops to choose from – you decide what sites you want to explore. We enjoyed the drive around the city, it's all gorgeous.

We went to Castell De Bellver first.  It was built in 1300, designed to be a royal residence.  In 1717 it became a military prison and in 1821 it was used as a mint.  It became a museum in 1931.  It’s very rare for a castle to be built in a circle.  Absolutely amazing.


I can hear my grand-daughter Caylin asking if Rapunzel lives here.


Imagine the labor involved in building this - it's round and gets narrower with each layer of stone.

The center courtyard was circular and so ornate.  We love "pozos" (wells).


The stones in these supports are pretty.

Then we went to the Cathedral and the Royal Palace.  We didn’t go inside either of them – they were really expensive and wouldn’t allow any photos to be taken inside.  We plan to return here, so we saved this for next time.  But I got a few good shots of the outside.  The Cathedral was designed by Gaudi in the Gothic style.  I’m sure it was impressive inside.

 It's massive!
This entrance was so tall I had to shoot it in two pictures.


The details...

This is the edge of the Royal Palace on the left.  That’s all I got of it.
And here’s our hotel:

Now for the bocadillo story - our experiment for the day.  Bruce checked every cafe for the best one at the best price.  We had looked at a lot of menus yesterday and he remembered seeing one in particular that he had decided on.  We had to walk all the way down the street looking at all the menus again until he found it.  But then we were confused again.  Some menus call them “baguettes”, some call them “bocadillos”, and some places list both sandwiches and bocadillos, but they all seem to describe the same thing.  First he thought bocadillos didn’t have lettuce, tomato, and mayo while sandwiches did.  But then we saw lots of them that did.  So to solve this riddle we went into the local Subway and asked them.  The lady told us that “bocadillo” is just the Spanish word for “sandwich” and it can have any amount of ingredients.  Sure enough, I Googled it when we got back.  The definition of a bocadillo is:  Sandwich on a baguette.  Pronunciation: bo-kah-dee-oh.  And here it is:


Mmmmm. Tasty!  For dessert we had a fruit tart.  I thought it was probably the least diet-damaging thing in the dessert window.

 Conclusion:  this town must’ve been established by college students!  The people here appear to live on pizza, sandwiches, and beer with lots of desserts.  Yet we haven’t seen ANY obese natives.  (Tourists – YES!).  So the locals must have the metabolism of a twenty-year-old to eat like this and remain slim.  Hence – they could only be college students.  LOL  (Except we haven’t seen any colleges, explain that!)

Another thing we learned – and this is for the men.  Bruce says if you’re less than 5’7” and/or have short legs, be careful how much you drink.  Input leads to output.  And you need to be tall and/or have long legs in order to successfully “output”.  Let’s just say that the “facilities” are up high.  Get it??  Fortunately, Bruce measures up.

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Days 1 & 2 - [almost] Winter in Mallorca


OK, the fun has begun!  We left home at 9:00 AM Sunday and arrived in Mallorca at 3:00 PM Monday.  Three flights, two layovers, and 12 hours of flying later we finally made it.  We were exhausted, hungry, and very excited.  We’ve decided that cruising to vacation sure beats flying there!

Our hotel is nice and conveniently located on the main street in downtown Palma just a block from the bus and train station.  It’s across the street from Placa Espana – which is an area like Denver’s 16th Street Mall or Boulder’s Pearl Street Mall.  Lots of quaint little cafes, pizzerias, gelato and bakery shops, with stores sprinkled in.


 It’s really hard to resist all the pastries and sweets.  They look sooooo yummy!  I’ll probably have to try one before we leave here.  I don’t know how I’ll choose just one, though!


 We were in bed by 6:30 PM – so tired we could hardly function any more.  We slept until 9:00 AM!!  We had breakfast at – Burger King.  Breakfast doesn’t seem to be a main meal here.  None of the cafes had anything except pastry, and I need protein to get my motor started.  The weather has been great.  Temps in the low 70's with mostly sunny skies and humidity at 60%.  A slight breeze was almost chilly in the shade but felt good in the sun.

We were headed off to Valldemossa (pronounced Vie-duh-MO-suh) by noon – by bus.  It cost  6.60 Euros for the round trip for both of us – super cheap deal.  Its 17 miles driving through beautiful country full of olive and almond orchards, wooded mountain areas with large boulders, and then into the village of 1,300 people.


Valldemossa is where Chopin spent the winter of 1838-39 with his lover, authoress George Sand, and her two children.  They stayed in an abandoned monastery built in 1399 (the bell tower is visible in the photo above).  The site has been well preserved and is a lovely museum filled with their relics and other interesting items of that era.  She wrote "Winter in Majorca" and another novel there.  There are many displays of her writing and his compositions.  The piano Chopin used to compose all of the Etudes, the Polonaise in C minor, Mazurca in E minor, Scherzo in C sharp minor, Ballade in F minor, and the Military Polonaise in A major is the featured attraction.  A huge item on my “bucket list” was to visit there and see this piano.  I was struck by how small the keyboard was.  All 88 keys were there, but they were smaller than the keys on modern pianos.  Everything I had read in my research said you were allowed to touch it.  So I did.  Bruce thought the lady in charge was going to cut off my hand and display it next to the cast of Chopin’s hand.  Ooops!  Too late.  I TOUCHED IT!!  It was amazing.  I could feel the vibes.  I’d do it again.  And I’d say that my hand is almost exactly the same size and shape as Chopin’s.  I was shocked at how small his hand was and how boney his fingers were.  I took a photo of the cast of his hand and his funerary mask. I got severely scolded for that, too.  Wow, I’m on a roll for being the “bad American tourist”.  Luckily they didn’t toss me out of there.


The patios off each "cell" of the monastery were so beautiful.  No wonder they were inspired to write and compose such works of art.  The view from there was breathtaking.  I took over 100 pictures and it’s hard to choose what to show you.


 We toured the entire monastery, listened to a short live concert of his music played in a small auditorium, and soaked up every inch of the place.  Then we walked around the town.  I felt so at home there – like déjà vu experiences.  The architecture, the rich colors and textures, and the quaintness make it one of my favorite places. 


 We got back to Palma in time for dinner.  We’re somewhat confused by Mallorcan food.  They seem to only eat pizza, bocadillos (like sub sandwiches), pastry, and gelato.  Somehow they stay slim on this diet.  I hope I do, too!  On every block there is a pharmacy, a pizzeria, and a bocadillo shop with pastry and gelato.  We had pizza tonight.  Tomorrow we’ll try the bocadillo, although a sandwich with lunch meat and thick bread is not my first choice for food.  But when in Spain, eat as the Spaniards eat, I guess.  It’s worth trying anyway.  

The people are friendly and so laid back.  Almost everyone speaks English.  We noticed that they amble along very slowly and seem to be present in every moment.   That's admirable, except I'm a super fast walker.  I think this might be a reminder that I need to slow down to their pace instead of trying to out-walk them.  Or perhaps they're just enjoying their cigarettes.  Yes, everyone and their brother's dog smokes here.  Smoke and I are completely incompatible and my poor sinuses choke on every whiff of it I get.  That's my only complaint so far.  It's as bad as Fiji was.

Tomorrow’s plans are still undecided.  We’ll probably go to the harbor, and then maybe get a pass for the Hop-On-Hop-Off bus and tour the area.  Or maybe we’ll go back to Valldemossa and see the palace that we missed.  Honestly, I couldn't get enough of that beautiful village.  Stay tuned to find out how we like our bocadillo, too!

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Preparation - T-minus 5 days

Hi everyone!!  Bruce McCay and Jan Rogers are ready for another big adventure, so I hope you're ready to follow along.  Last time it was the wonderful trip to Australia.  You can read all about that in my blog "Adventures Down Under".  This time we're venturing off to Europe for the first time, Spain to be exact. 

We learned A LOT on our last trip.  We got our flu shots way in advance this time.  We're better prepared for the long flight, too.  Since we'll be in Spain for 6 days before we board the ship, we even purchased Euros so we wouldn't have to hassle with it there.  The packing is about to begin with real earnest today.   And I'll defintely be taking my little umbrella - just to be sure that the rain in Spain stays - far away from us! 

Our itinerary goes like this:  Sunday we fly from Denver to the island of Mallorca (via Dallas and Madrid), spend from Monday-Thursday exploring Mallorca, on Thursday we fly to Barcelona where we stay until Saturday when we board the Royal Caribbean ship Liberty of the Seas for a 14-night Transatlantic crossing ending in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.  We'll be calling on Cartagena, Malaga, and Cadiz in Spain, as well as two of the Canary Islands, along the way.  Three full weeks of excitement.

Why the attraction to Mallorca, you ask?  It's two-fold.  When Bruce was in the 3rd grade, he drew a picture of Mallorca - and even called it that.  He had no idea where it was, or why he knew anything about it.  But he knew he wanted to go there someday.  He still doesn't know why.  For me it's the love of Chopin and his music.  Chopin and his lover George Sand (female author who penned under a man's name) spent the winter of 1838-39 there in the hope that the island climate would improve Chopin's health (he had consumption).  If you're not familiar with them - it's one of the greatest love stories of all time.  The movie "Impromptu", my favorite movie, describes it well.  She wrote two novels and he wrote all of the Preludes there.  His piano is still there in the place where they stayed.  It's now a museum.  They don't allow anyone to play the piano, but they do allow you to touch it.  I can't wait!!  Maybe someday we'll make it to Paris where most of his relics are, as well as his grave site which is near Jim Morrison's (of The Doors).

In my research, the main thing I learned about Spain is that it's "Pick-Pocket Heaven".  The crime rate is very high and they prey on tourists.  So we have a plan for that.  First - don't look like a tourist.  Second - don't put anything in our pockets (unless it's razor blades, ha ha).  Third - put on our "Don't F*** With Me" face.  Fourth - don't look like a tourist.  So the first thing I did was make some money belts which will be worn under our tucked-in shirts.  These will hold our passport, credit cards, and Euros.  We plan to load them up after we clear TSA and before we board our first flight.  That way no one can get these items while we're sleeping on the plane.  The top is a zipper over the passport and cash, and a button over the credit card so everything stays secure.   The back is wide elastic for our comfort.  Here's a picture:


I feel like we're as informed and prepared as we can be.  We're both interested in the architecture and culture of Spain and speak enough Spanish to get by.  I promise to take lots of pictures to share here over the course of the trip.  I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I do writing.  And speaking of writing... we're going to be collaborating on a new screenplay that we've been discussing for about 6 months.  It's a very scary psychological thriller on the level of "Silence of the Lambs".  Stay tuned....