Friday, September 12, 2025 – We are docked in Halifax, Canada, and had a 3.5 hour ships tour. As it turned out, it was pretty worthless.
Due to road construction, it took about 1.25 hours to get to Peggy’s Cove, where normally it would be about a 40 minute drive. Peggy’s Cove is a cute fishing village which we had not visited previously. It is the ancestral and unceded territory of the Mi’kmaq who have been living on these lands since time immemorial.
Once we arrived, and had a bathroom break, we only had about 20 minutes to visit the site. We walked to the lighthouse, took in views of the ocean, and then it was time to head back to the bus. There are artists studios, souvenir shops, restaurants, etc. which we did not get to visit. Driving back through the construction area, our next and last stop was a retail store for a maple product processing company. We were told there would be different samples for us to taste, but only got one sample of maple syrup, and one sample of maple roasted peanuts. They were sold out of many of their products: an empty freezer of gelato, sold out of fudge except one piece of chocolate, sold out of almond snd cashew maple roasted nuts, etc. I stood in line about 15 minutes to buy a package of maple roasted peanuts.
So our 3.5 hour tour consisted of 20 minutes at Peggy’s Cove, and 30 minutes at a retail store.
Tomorrow is a sea day, and then we fly home on Sunday. This will be my last post for this trip.
Thursday, September 11, 2025 – We are docked at Sydney, on the island of Cape Breton, in Nova Scotia. When the island was first discovered, it was named Cape Breton. When the French founded Louisbourg, they changed the name of the island to Ile Royale. Prince Edward Island also came under the jurisdiction of the colony Ile Royale. Each time the British captured Ile Royale, the British renamed the island Cape Breton.
Today we had a ship tour to the fortress at Louisbourg, which is on the island of Cape Breton, in Nova Scotia. It was a French fortress established in 1713, captured by the British in 1745. Apparently the British gave it back to the French a couple of years later. Then the British captured it again in 1758, and ordered demolition of the fortifications in 1760.
In 1928, Canada designated it as a historic site.
The French had kept detailed records of all activity, including the construction, inventories of homes when people died, etc. So in the 1960’s, when Canada decided to reconstruct the fortress, they had the documents kept by the French to restore 20% to 25% of it. The unemployed coal miners were able to provide the labor for the reconstruction.
The Fortress of Louisbourg is the largest living history site of its kind in North America. There are costumed curators in many of the buildings ready to explain what life was like in 1744. The King’s Bastion is a walled building with what we would call a parade ground in the center. During the 60’s, coal mining in the area was no longer viable. Outside the King’s Bastion was the town, with homes of married officers, merchants, fishermen, etc., and buildings for pubs, supplies and other support.
Salted cod was a desired product and was exported from Louisbourg.
We arrived at noon just as they were shooting off a cannon inside the King’s Bastion. The King’s Bastion had living areas for the governor, military officers and enlisted men. Women were not allowed inside the King’s Bastion area. The governor’s quarter’s had the most period furnishings.
It was a short 2 hour visit for us, so we walked the town and visited a few of the curated buildings.
Tomorrow we will be in Halifax, Canada.
Tuesday & Wednesday, September 9 & 10, 2025 – Two sea days, but we got one more glance of the northern lights as we sailed south from Greenland.
Monday, September 8, 2025: I have to say, we like Greenland. I dont know exactly why, but we really enjoyed our visit to this part of the COLD (!) world! Today our port was Nuuk, which is the capital of Greenland. It has about 20,000 inhabitants, which is about 1/3 of the whole population of Greenland. We had booked a walking tour, but our guide was next to worthless. He was supposedly training another guide, Sten, who we really liked. Sten was 59 years old, a father of 5 and a grandfather of 15. He was born in Denmark. Sten seemed to watch out for the group much better than the “official” guide.
We visited the cultural museum which was very interesting, but our worthless guide only gave us 20 minutes. Somehow we hooked up with the assistant, Sten, who walked with us and told us about some of the exhibits.
One of the exhibits Sten told us about was the Qilakitsoq mummies.
Dated to around 1475 AD, the mummies were unearthed purely by accident at an abandoned Inuit settlement called Qilakitsoq, by two brothers who were hiking in the area and became curious about a stack of rocks. One of the mummies was the body of a six-month old baby boy. He was buried alive with his already dead mother – presumably because there was no one left to care for him.
The small Inuit baby was found along with a two-year-old boy, and six women of various ages, who were buried in two separate graves protected by a rock that overhung a shallow cave. The bodies were naturally mummified by the sub-zero temperatures and dry, dehydrating winds, providing a remarkable opportunity to learn about the Greenland Inuit of half a millennium ago – they are the oldest preserved remains ever to be found there. Four of the bodies are in the museum. The reason for their death has not been determined.
Our walking tour ended at the museum, but Dave and I decided to walk around the town a little more. There was a mall which had all the basic stores. One store sold appliances and electronics, other stores sold clothes. We walked some more and found a tourist information building that sold local artist pieces and we bought a small soapstone sculpture. Walking back to the ship we passed the cemetery.
Unfortunately it was overcast and misty rain, otherwise, we would have been happy to wander around more.
Something about Greenland was calling my name. Wish we could have spent more time in this country.
Tomorrow and the next day are sea days.
Sunday, September 7, 2025: Today is a sea day, but we got to see icebergs and icesheets. Some people saw whales, but I guess we were too slow ☹️.
Saturday, September 6, 2025: Our port today is Qaqortoq, Greenland. It is a large town by Greenlandic standards with 3,229 inhabitants. It has had human presence since prehistoric times, roughly 4,300 years ago. The present day town was founded in 1775.
I may be my old habits of being “wordy” again, but for such a small town, we had a nice visit to Qaqortoq.
It is a tender port, so we need to ride on one of the lifeboats to get to the town. The tender process was chaotic in my opinion, but we were not planning to be the first ones off the ship. Qaqortoq is very cute, and I wish we would have had a little more time there. We were so fortunate that it was a beautiful day. So even though the temperature was in the low 40’s, the sun made it feel warmer.
Although the ship was anchored by about 9:30AM, we did not reach Qaqortoq until about 12:30PM. I wanted to send a couple of postcards, so we wandered in and out of shops looking for postcards. I was happy to find some, although it was not a big selection. This is the interesting part…It cost almost $41 to mail 3 postcards back to the US! I think the postcards were $8 each, and the rest was postage. But I felt fortunate to actually find I could mail post cards. There have been some places that do not have mail service anymore. I think it may have been Germany that I had to use FedEx or UPS to send postcards!
We walked around the little town until time for our tour to “Viking Ruins and Hvalso Church”.
Qaqortoq is a town with a lot of artists and there many sculptures in the rock faces and boulders around town. It is called the “Stone and Man” exhibit.
The fountain is the oldest fountain in Greenland finished in 1932. It depicts whales spouting water out if their blowholes.
When it was time for our tour, we boarded a twin engine boat for a 30 minute ride to get to the ruins that were about 12 miles northeast of Qaqortoq. Only 10 passengers each tour, so a small group. Fortunately, the seating area was covered with plastic so we did not freeze on the high speed boat ride.
A guide was waiting for us on Hvalsey, and explained the ruins to us.
The ruins of Hvalsey are largest and best preserved Norse ruins in the area, and it is a UNESCO site.
The land around Hvalsey was supposedly claimed by a relative of Eric the Red. The ruins of the Hvalsey Church are the big draw to this site. It was a Christian church, built in the early 14th century, possibly by a foreign master mason. It had stained glass windows and niches in the wallls to hold crucifixes and relics. The archeological finds hint it was not the first church on this site. The last historical record of this church was a wedding in September 1408.
Another historical record mentions a man was burned for witchcraft in 1407.
We also saw ruins of a meeting room, food storage area, horse corral and long house, but the ruins of the church were the best.
Heading back to Qaqortoq after our tour, the boat captain stopped to let us take pictures of an iceberg.
Tomorrow is another sea day! Dave and I are taking advantage of resting on these sea days. I think the busy port days on the earlier part of our trip wore us our a bit!
Friday, September 5, 2025 – Sea Day, but overnight, Dave caught some nice pictures of the Northern Lights from our balcony. These were taken off the coast of Greenland as we will tender to the town of Qaqortoq, Greenland in the morning.
Wednesday – Thursday, September 3-4, 2025: The ship docked in Reykjavik about noon on Wednesday. The dock is about 2.5 miles from the city center. The city provides a free shuttle bus from the cruise terminal to the city, so our plan is to take the free shuttle. Looking outside, we see the shuttle line is really long, so we had lunch and lingered and the line was still long. Finally we ventured out and probably waited about 40 minutes to get on a shuttle. We wandered around the city a bit to get our bearings, and checked out a few souvenir shops. Everything is very expensive. Then back to the ship.
I converted a few items from Iceland krona to US dollar, with the conversion rates on September 4, 2025. Obviously these conversions could change in 5 minutes, but gives you an idea of how expensive things are in Reykjavik.
I signed up for a Northern Lights tour which starts at 9:45PM. It is a private tour arranged by a fellow cruiser on the message boards. There are 18 of us and we are driven to a very dark location called Bridge Between the Continents Park (Iceland sits on two continents – North America and Europe) to minimize any light pollution. The forecast is not good, but the guide is optimistic. It was cold, but I dressed warmly and also took hand warmers, which was a good thing. Our guide really was very knowledgeable, just optimistic. He has a website, emeraldskies.is, and declared his occupation is chasing aurora, or northern and southern lights. We did not see anything phenomenal, but our cameras were able to pick up a little color in the sky. We were fortunate that the sky was very clear and all the stars were visible. The guide kept thinking something good would happen, but it never did. I did not make it back to the ship until after 3:00AM. But, it was just something I had to do. I hope someday I’m able to get a better display.
I know these are not fabulous pictures, and I took lots, and whittled it down to these four (remember, my photographer was not with me…):
Thursday, we were planning to do a guided walking tour at 10:30AM (Not much sleep for me!). But Dave had another Rick Steves walking tour, and we decided to do that instead. I like to do things independently because we can stop for coffee or sit and rest and take our time. We won’t go independent if we don’t have written materials to follow and tell us what we are seeing. But having wandered around Reykjavik yesterday, we felt comfortable going on our own.
We did have a bit of trouble finding the starting point, and ended up doing the last last half first. It worked out great, because we finished closer to the shuttle bus pick up point, and just as we were finishing, we started getting some rain drops.
Tomorrow is a sea day, and then Greenland!
Tuesday, September 2, 2025 – Sea Day – Rested up for Reykjavik, Iceland. We have been to Reykjavik before, but spent the full day doing the Golden Circle tour and, getting Covid 😢. I had a successful zoom call into my Bible Study group Tuesday evening.
Monday, September 1, 2025: Dave is feeling better, but I had a rough nightwith whatever he gave me. We have a self guided tour of Glasgow, which is basically transportation from our port of Greenock, Scotland to Glasgow. This is also the port to visit Edinburgh, but we have been there before. The options for this port did not look that great, sowe got out our trusty Rick Steves book and planned to do his walking tour. Glasgow is more popuated than Edinburgh, but for some reason Edinburgh was chosen as the capital. Glasgow has a lot of interesting buildings architecturally, but to be honest, architecture is not one of our interests. As it turned out, Rick Steves tour was all about buildings and the architecture. We did not take a lot of pictures.
Charles Rennie Macintosh was a famous architect in Glasgow, and made his living from design commissions. He designed muktiple tearooms for businesswoman Kate Cranston. He wanted the tearooms to be a place for women to gather while unescorted in a time when traveling solo could give a woman a less-than-desirable reputation. Kate Cranston requested the rooms be bathed in white, the suffragists’ signature color. There are two Willow Tea Rooms that we saw that are still in existence, so we decided to visit one of the tea rooms and have “tea” for lunch. When the young Scottish waitperson came to our table, we could not understand her because her accent was so thick. But we had a delightful lunch. We had tea ( Dave had green tea and I don’t know what I had), and we had the “Classic Afternoon Tea”. We had one plain scone and one fruit scone and chose a lemon tart and carrot cake for our daily baked selection, which we shared. It was all good
Our afternoon tea was the best part of our visit to Glasgow. Glasgow was cold (to us) with infrequent sprinkles, misting or light rain. The people were very friendly and at least 3 different people saw us looking at our maps and offered to help.
Bottom line, we would not visit Glasgow again, just because it did not have sights we were interested in. For someone interested in architecture, there are lots of sights and museums.
Tomorrow is a sea day, and then we are scheduled to arrive in Reykjavik about noon on the 3rd.
Friday – Sunday, August 29-31, 2025: Basically the last few days were sea days. On Friday we had a mandatory immigration check with the United Kingdom immigration officers because the UK has implemented a requirement to apply for an ETA in order to visit the UK. We also had to pack all our stuff as we were moving to a new stateroom. Saturday was “turnaround day” as the ship arrived in Southampton. The first Royal Caribbean cruise ended, and the second one began. Dave has caught a cold, so I got off the ship in the morning in Southampton and walked to a pharmacy to buy some cold medicine for him…and for me as I knew I’d catch whatever he had. In the afternoon, we unpacked, in our new stateroom. Sunday we did not do much, just rested because now we both have cold symptoms ☹️. We did attend a presentation on the ports, which did not really give us much information. In the evening we felt better and went to the show in the theater, the Barricade Boys, which was a quartet, which we enjoyed.
The seas have been very rough, which we have experienced before in this area of the north Atlantic.I have always been prone to car sickness, and have been handling this pretty well – but kinda got to me Sunday. I have an app that shows the wave action, and got this screen shot.
Thursday, August 28, 2025 – We had a full days ship excursion today, but while what we saw was interesting, there really was not that many sights. Our tour took us to Lugo, Spain, which was about 70-80 minute drive from the port. Lugo is the most populous city in the Galician region of Spain. The reason we chose this tour is because Lugo is the only city in the world entirely surrounded by fully intact Roman walls, built in the 3rd century AD to defend the ancient Roman town. The walls are a UNESCO World Heritage sight. Since the middle ages, pilgrims have passed the gates of Lugo walls on their way to Santiago de Compostela.
Our guide did not talk much on the drive, but he did say the Romans settled in Lugo, which is not a port city, because of gold mines. The modern city has been built on top of the ancient Roman city, and when people want to build a house, it is inevitable they dig up ruins. There was one small, Roman house museum with mosaics I wanted to see, but we stopped to get a drink and our waiter disappeared for too long, so we couldn’t pay our bill! Unfortunately that caused us to run out of our free time allotment.
Besides the walls, our guide pointed out the Lugo Cathedral, which is a landmark because of the pilgrims passing by on their way to Santiago de Compostela.
After our visit to Lugo, we drove to a restaurant for a lunch of Spanish food. Our table of ten had large bottles of water and 3 bottles of red wine to share. The red wine was very good, but did not have a label. We were served bread, thinly sliced ham in a paprika sauce, something similar to hush puppies except the filling was potatoes, little sandwiches with a filling similar to tuna salad, delicious and very tender pork with potatoes. For desert we had “Tarta de Santiago”, or cake of St. James. It is an almond cake with a dusting of powered sugar. A lot of food!
Tomorrow is a sea day, and Saturday is turnaround day where the first cruise of our back to back ends and our transatlantic begins, and then we have another sea day! So 3 days to rest. On Monday, 9/1, we will be visiting Glasgow, Scotland as we start the transatlantic cruise which will end in Boston.
Wednesday, August 27, 2025 – Today we are docked in Leixoes, Portugal which is the port for Porto, Portugal. We have been here before, and decided to explore using a walking tour from Rick Steves Portugal Travel Guide. We purchased shuttle tickets as it is a little over 30 minutes to travel from the ship to Porto. Porto is a city that is uphill and downhill – with lots of ups and downs! Nothing is level in Porto. We did not find this visit to Porto as interesting as other cities on this trip. Our walking tour was “just OK”. Maybe all the construction affected our opinion.
After the driver drops us off, we start walking uphill to the starting point, which is near the train station. The first stop is called “ Avenida dos Aliados” which is actually the main drag of Porto, and has lots of construction going on. It is a wide boulevard with city hall at one end and a statue of King Pedro IV (1798-1834) at the other end, which is Liberty Square, and closed for construction! Even the statue is covered. King Pedro IV was a hero of the 1832 Civil War and advocated for a limited constitutional monarchy in Portugal.
Next to King Pedro’s statue is “The Imperial McDonald’s”. This is one of the fanciest McDonald’s in Europe, and Portugal is the only country where McDonald’s serves soup.
We walk to “Rue da Fábrica, a street named for the tobacco factories that once was a local industry. Now it is lined with boutiques and restaurants. Walking along the street, some of the buildings have tiled facades.
Walking further, we stop at a pastry shop, Padaria Ribeiro, recommended by Rick Steves. Dave tried two – one was the same type of custard filled crust we had yesterday, and the other had a sweet pumpkin filling. He said the custard filled one was better yesterday, and the sweet pumpkin filled one tasted like an apple filling. I had a puff pastry filled with custard, which Porto claims as “their” pastry, and it was very tasty.
After our little rest, we walked to the next point, which is a plaza in front of the University of Porto and contains the “Fountain of Lions”. Across the street is the “Armazéns Cunhas” department store ehich demonstrates the sleek Art Deco style which would look right at home in Miami Beach. The sign on the front says, “new fashions – we sell cheaper”.
Just past the University, and more construction, are two churches that look like one church. On the right is the Carmo Church, once occupied by friars and on the left is the Carmelite Church that once housed an order of Carmelite nuns. In the center is what the Porto people call the “world’s narrowest house”. It is a green gate and door for the monks and nuns.
Walking back past the University, we can see a garden. It actually camouflages a parking garage that is underneath. We crossed the park to reach the Clérigos Church and Tower. It is interesting because the architect fit the oval shaped church into a hilltop and finished the building with the tower, built in six sections. We have no intention of climbing the tower after climbing all the hills in Porto, but we do go in the church. It happens to be noon, and there is a free 30 minute concert going on. We sat and listened for a few minute before continuing our walk.
We find ourselves back at our starting point by the train station. The first part of our walk was up, and the last part is “downward”.
We circumvent the construction and go into the train station. It is filled with hand-painted tikes showing historical and folk scenes. The building had originally been a Benedictine convent, but was nationalized and turned into the train station.
Next we walk down “Rue das Flores” which is a pedestrian filled street with cafes and shops selling jewelry, chocolates, antiques, etc. At #213, the building facade is decorated with flowers, celebrating the street’s name. “Ourivesaria” written on the building, a protected sign, recalls a jewelry shop that was once one of many along this street. This was the end of the Jewish quarter and lined with jewelry stores until 1496 when King Manuel I ordered all Jews to convert to Christianity, or be expelled. Many became Christians in name, but not in practice, as secret synagogues are found under the buildings.
A little further down the street is the painting on a wall of a cat that is 4 stories tall. Its on a narrow street, so hard to photograph. I heard a child “meowing” as he walked by, so he obviously knew about the cat!
At the bottom of the street, back to the riverfront, is a statue of Henry the Navigator. Henry is the most important Portuguese person of all time because he put his country on the map by putting many mysterious, faraway lands on the literal map, and Henry was from Porto.
On the way back to our shuttle, we saw this trolley.
Tomorrow we are in La Coruna, Spain and we have a ship’s excursion.
Tuesday, August 26, 2025: Today we are docked in Lisbon, Portugal. We have been here many times and so we decided to check out Rick Steves travel guide book and use his book as our guide to visit Belem which is about 5 miles from where we are docked, so a bit too far to walk. We checked with the information booth in the terminal and he said we could take bus #728. We walked a little out of the way, but found the bus stop. It was about a 30 minute ride.
There is a Belem Tower, which welcomed home sailors in the past, but Rick Steves says there is almost nothing to see inside, so we skipped the. Belem Tower and visited the “Monument to the Discoveries”. It is a monument rebuilt in 1960 to honor the 500th anniversary of the death of Prince Henry the Navigator. Per Rick Steves, “it takes the shape of a huge caravel ship, in full sail, with Henry at the helm and the great navigators, sailors, and explorers on board behind him.” We paid 8.5€ apiece to ride the elevator near to the top, and then walk up 42 stairs to reach the top. The viewing platform has beautiful views, but not much else! Not sure it was worth the 8.5€ per person for us, and as seniors, our fee was reduced.
Next we visited the church in the Monastery of Jerónimos. When we first arrived in Belem, we saw the Monastery and it had a huge line. We inquired at the ticket booth and was told it would be at least a 2 hour wait (outside, standing in the sun). But when we were at the Monument to Discoveries, with our fabulous views, we noticed a shorted line on the right of the entrance. Then we remembered Rick Steves said the line to the Church was on the right and the line to the monastery was on the left. Also, visiting the church is free! The church looked more interesting than the monastery anyway! So we stood in the short, free line for about 20 minutes to enter the church. Rick Steves has a self guided tour of the church which we followed. He pointed out the architecture, which he called basically Gothic with “Manueline” ornamentation. King Manuel (ruled from 1495 to 1521) built the church near the site of a humble chapel where sailors spent their last night in prayer before embarking on frightening voyages.
Manueline Architecture is more an ornamental than structural style, blending late Gothic features with Moorish elements. The Manueline aesthetic is ornate, elaborate, and intertwined. The ceiling is rope-like and looks like its intertwined with knots.
After visiting the church, it was noon, and Rick Steves recommends visiting “Casa Pastéis de Belém for their custard tart. So we did.
Then we found our bus #728 and headed back to the ship.
Monday, August 25, 2025 – Sea Day. One good thing that happened – as Dave was walking out of the restaurant after dinner, he noticed the man that fell the previous day and asked him how he was doing. The man said they took him straight to the hospital but everything checked out OK and he was feeling good. Dave told him we had been worried about him. I am relieved he is ok.
Sunday August 24, 2026 – Today we are docked in Valencia, Spain. We have not been here before and we have booked a 6 hour tour, “Valencia and Albufera with lunch”. We have a full bus of 45 people, and there is a second full bus, too.
It is Sunday, so we enjoy the benefit of fewer people and less traffic. Our first stop is to admire the new buildings built along what used to be the river. The river has been diverted and flows in a different area. The new buildings are very modern, and actually appealing to look at! There is a new opera house, a new museum, and a new IMAX theater. I think the guide wanted to show off this new modern area. He said there is all kinds of entertainment in this area every night. It was also a bathroom stop. Unfortunately, just as I was reboarding the bus, a man in front of me fell. He started up the bus steps and then just fell backwards. His head hit the pavement, causing him to bleed and he had a big bump on his head. I guess I’m writing about it it because he was sitting right in front of me on the bus and I’ve been worried about how he is doing. Later, the bus took him back to the ship while we we were off touring.
Our next stop was a walking tour of the city. We walked around the govenment buildings area, where the sidewalks were made of marble. The guide said there had been much more marble on the streets and sidewalks, but is being removed because of the maintenance. Marble is abundant in the Valencia area. We walked into the older area of the city, saw the market areas, the church and archbishop residence.
The Placa Redona was circular and was an interesting area. It was a fish market and the apartments above must of had terrible odors from the fish, especially in the summer. Then when the food markets were built, above photo, the fish market was moved there and this area became a lace market. In about 2000, the area was renovated into modern apartments.
Next we drove to Albufera National Park. There is a huge lagoon here and we had a boatride on the lagoon. Unfortunately, most people thought it was a waste. They loaded about 25-30 people on each boat, and we motired around the lagoon. We saw a few ducks and birds, but that was about it. The water was muddy looking. I think most people agreed that if we had a naturalist onboard to point out plants, birds, etc., it would have been more enjoyable. As it was, we rode around with little shade, in the heat for 30-40 minutes.
After the boat ride, we walked through the little town to a restaurant for lunch. We had bread, salad, something that looked like hush puppies but contained potato and cod, potatoes, muscles, chicken paella, and a tiramisu dessert. We were also given water and 1 (☹️) glass of wine. After Dave and I had eaten most of the meal, we remembered we had a specialty dining restaurant reservation for dinner! We were so full we didn’t even need dinner!
After lunch, we were driven back to the port.
We went to our specialty dinner in Giovanni’s. Dave and I both had calamari appetizer, he had carbonara for his primi and I had gnocchi. We both had filet mignon for our entree, and we both skipped dessert. The good news is the restaurant had a Chardonnay that he likes whereas he has not found a good one anywhere else on the ship.
Tomorrow is a sea day, we gain an hour, and plan to do nothing!
Saturday August 23, 2025 – We are docked in Palma de Mallorca, Spain which is an island off the coast of Spain. We visited here on our last cruise, and we are doing a different shore excursion this time. Our bus took us from the port in Palma to a beautiful little village, Valldemossa. Our guide said it was originally settled by the Arabs, and they called it the “valley of mosques”. Over time, the name became Valldemossa. It is a very cute village with lots of shops snd cafes.
Our guide told us all about how Michael Douglas has a home here and spends 6 months a year. People see him in the coffee shops in the morning having coffee with the locals.
We are here to visit the ancient La Cartuja monastery.
Valldemossa has a female patron saint, Santa Catalina Thomás, who was born in Valldemossa. She always wanted to be a nun, but was too poor. Apparently in those days you had to pay to become a nun. It is believed that her employer paid for her. Our guide said she protects the homes. We saw several of her banners around the village.
The monastery was originally a royal residence. King Jaume II donated the property to the Carthusian monks, who occupied the property from 1399 to 1835. After the monks left, it became a private residence, and hosted several guests. In 1838 it was the chosen sanctuary of Frederick Chopin and writer George Sand and her children. Apparently they were good friends. Our guide frequently referred to a book written by George Sand “A Winter in Majorca” which I bought to read. One comment our guide made referencing the book was that Chopin was sickly and died at age 38. If I understood her correctly, George Sand left him on his death bed and took up with her lovers! I have to read the book to see if that’s what George Sand wrote. It seems George Sand was an odd character and people in Mallorica avoided her including closing their shop when they saw her coming!
Also, Chopin was born in Poland but left because Poland. When he died, he wanted to be returned to Poland, but because the government thought he died of tuberculosis, they could not send his body out of the county. His mother pleaded with the doctor, who cut out Chopin’s heart and gave it to her. She preserved it with alcohol and she took his heart back to Poland. Our guide said a later examination of the heart showed he died of cystic fibrosis.
We also had a short live piano concert of one of Chopin’s compositions, which was very nice.
Friday, August 22, 2025 – We were assigned a boarding time of 11:30AM, so we took our time getting ready. Embarkation was pretty quick, and we were onboard by 12:20PM. Royal Caribbean is not Seabourn! Lots of people, lots of kids, standing in lines, etc. Fortunately our status with Celebrity gets us a few perks. We get amenities, and our own lounge with free coffee and snacks. Our room steward is very nice and wants to do whatever he can to help us. Not sure we would ever choose to cruise Royal Caribbean again…..
Thursday, August 22, 2025: Today we did basically nothing. We wandered around Barcelona. We needed a down day after the port intensive Seabourn cruise. We walked many interesting little alleyways and found several plazas. It really is a neat city if you didn’t have to worry about theft. I had a friend whose wallet was pick pocketed several years ago. I think he may have been on a bus or the metro – I forget. It is important to always be vigilant. Bottom line – I like. Barcelona.
We were looking for a tapas place for lunch, but all the tapas places seemed to serve “small plates” and not what I think of as tapas. Finally Dave spotted a place with lots of plates with small portions on them and it turned out to be what I was thinking of as a tapas place. The lady behind the counter explained what was on each plate and each item had a toothpick. We paid by the number of toothpicks. Each item cost 2.8€, and we had 3 items apiece.
Of course it turned out there was a “rowing boat” on the ceiling…a perfect place for me!
Tomorrow we board Royal Caribbean in the cheap seats!
Wednesday, August 20, 2025: We disembarked Seabourn Ovation. It was a very nice ship, with lots of similarities to Regent Seven Seas cruises. Two differences that immediately come to mind is that Regent includes many shore excursions in their price where Seaborne charges for all excursions; and Regent includes laundry services where Seaborne charges for laundry. Seabourn does have a free guest laundry and we were able to do two loads of laundry. Seabourn offers a laundry special where you can fill a laundry bag and they will wash it for one charge of $85. However we were able to get a large amount of shipboard credit which paid for all our ship excursions on this cruise.
We took a taxi from the ship to our hotel, H10 Montcada, which is in a touristic area. There are lots of restaurants and shops close to our hotel.
I had purchased tickets to the Basilica de la Sagrada Familia and we walked from our hotel. It was about a 40 minutes walk. On the way, we passed the Arc de Triomp.
Sagrada Familia is the largest unfinished Catholic Church in the world. It was designed by Antoni Gaudi, and work started on the basilica in 1882. When Gaudi died in 1926, the church was less than 25% complete. Construction resumed intermittently and is projected to be completed in 2026, though some sculptures and decorative elements are expected to continue until 2034.
We had visited the church about 25 years ago, and it was very much under construction with a lot of work going on. It was very incomplete and I wondered at that time if it would ever be finished.
We found it to be substantially complete when we visited today. It is a huge building. According to Wikipedia, it has a capacity of 9,000 people, is 300 feet long and 200 feet wide. Unfortunately, I think all 9,000 people were with us today ☹️. It is beautiful and has beautiful stained glass windows. We bought tickets to enter, for the audioguide, a guided tour, and a tour of one of the two open towers, Nativity tower and Passion Tower. I am glad we visited it, but was also disappointed in our visit. It probably didn’t help that we got caught in a rain storm just as we arrived, and we arrived too early. We had to wait in the rain for our entrance time. Fortunately, we were able to stand under part of an umbrella used by a guard who let people in based on their ticket time. After a bit I think he felt sorry for us and let us in early.
So we waited for our guided tour timeslot, and the guide was a disaster. He did not speak into his microphone, the equipment must have been faulty because we heard lots of scratchy noises, he spoke so fast that when we could hear him we couldn’t understand him. We were very disappointed in the guided tour. We followed him around for about 45 minutes – but should have bailed. Then we visited the Passion tower. An elevator takes you up 164 feet, but then you have to climb another 80 feet to get to the highest point. We did get a view of the golden statue of Jesus, which is why it is called the Passion Tower. The golden statue of statue of Jesus represents the risen Jesus. After visiting the highest point of the tower, you have to walk down 426 steps! The walk down is challenging because the stairs are narrow and it is very dark in some areas making it impossible to see the steps. The good news is that we made it!
We were exhausted after our tour and took a taxi back to our hotel, where we enjoyed an adult beverage at the rooftop bar.
Tuesday, August 19, 2025: We have a ship excursion called Echos of Empúrirs: Exploring Ancient Splendor. To be honest, while I love history, this cruise has been very port intensive and we have seen lots of ruins, which begin to look the same!
We have about a 1 hour drive to a cute little town called “Sant Marti D’Empuries, a very small preserved medieval town. It received its first inhabitants in the 9th century BC. As we enter the city gates, we are welcomed, in English, by the mayor – or he said he was the mayor! He welcomed us and asked us to tell our friends about the town. He is on the second floor of a building just inside the city gates.
Our guide points out details on the houses which are original, versus that which has been added in modern times. Our first stop is at a church which is from 1507. But their history indicates there were bishops here between 516-693AD.
We could not go in the church – photo was taken through glass barrier. If I understood our guide correctly, you could enter but there was a fee.
There was a castle here, but it is only ruins now.
We walk towards the water which is the Bay of Roses. It is a very long beach area, but surprising that there are no hotels close by. Lots of people on the beach and in the water, so it must be worth the walk.
We walked towards the entrance of the archeological park which contains ruins of what was a large Greek settlement. Our guide points out a statue from what has been described as a hospital. Sick people would go there, they would be given something that would make them sleep. Then when they awakened, they would tell of their dreams which would determine their illness.
We continued walking through the Greek ruins, which was a very large area, to a museum. In the museum, our guide pointed out various objects that were found in the ruins.
Leaving the museum, we walked UP ((!)) to the area occupied by the Romans. Our guide said the Greeks came to trade, but the Romans came to conquer. Ww saw an area that had been the Roman baths, and what had been a huge Roman villa with mosaics on the floors.
Then we walked up further to what had been the Roman Forum. It covered a very large area, so there must have been a lot of people that lived here. I believe the measurements were about 250 feet by 130 feet.
After the Greeks and Romans left this area, the next inhabitants turned the Greek area into a cemetery, and we could see tombs.
We did a lot of walking.
We drove back to the ship and packed because we disembark tomorrow.
Monday, August 18, 2025 – Today we are DOCKED near Marseille, France. Seabourn has provided a shuttle bus out of the port, which is a long way, and into the city. It drops us off near the “Marseille Major Cathedral”. Our plan which is very “casual” is to walk to the Le Panier district, walk around the Old Port, buy bandaids for my blister, and try bouillabaisse as it was developed in Marseille. As we started walking, we passed an interesting statue.
We’re right below the Marseille Major Cathedral, and since we were still energetic this morning, we walked up 72 steps to get to the Cathedral. It did not have a lot of gold decoration like many European Catholic Churches, but it was a very large building. They was a display of the nativity. There was a lot of information regarding the selection of the site and the layout of the interior. As it turned out, most of our pictures are related to the Cathedral.
Leaving the Cathedral we walked through the Le Panier district. There was a pharmacy where I got my bandaids. There were lots of stores selling soaps and lavendar. It was a cute area and lots of tourists were checking out the shops.
It is hot, but we continued walking toward the old port which is supposed to to be an interesting area. We decided to take a side trip into a shopping mall to check it out. It was a shopping mall. We did not buy anything.
As we approached the Old Port area, we stopped at a restaurant so I could get bouillabaisse. Dave had a cheese burger and french fries. We ate inside so we could get cooled off…too hot outside!
After eating, we walked along the old port and then headed back to the shuttle bus to go to the ship.
Sunday, August 17, 2025 – Finally a sea day! We just relaxed! It has been a busy week!
Saturday, August 16, 2025: Today we are in LaGoulette, Tunisia which is the port to visit ancient Carthage. Visiting Carthage is the high point for us on this cruise. We have rented a private car and guide so we can make sure the sights we see are the important ones for us. This is a full 8 hour day.
Our first stop is the Bardo Museum, which is not air conditioned, so it is warm inside. Our guide focuses on the “stone paintings” or mosaics, which I believe is one of the largest collections of mosaics. The museum was home of a King at one point, but was converted to a national museum. I did not catch the dates on all the mosaics, but mainly from first to fourth century AD. We probably spent an hour going from room to room which were FILLED with mosaics, including mosaics that were on the floor…I could not believe we were actually walking on mosaics! As soon as we walked in the door of the museum we were face to face with a mosaic that was approximately 20 feet by 30 feet in size. Because I love mosaics, we have lots of pictures, some with descriptions.
After leaving the museum, we headed to Ancient Carthage. Carthage was a Phoenician settlement founded in the 9th century BC. The city’s name translates to “New City”, fitting for a thriving metropolis that grew into one of the richest and most influential in the world. It was a powerful international trade empire.
Carthage was conquered by the Romans in 146 AD. The Romans torched and rebuilt Carthage enslaving the Carthaginians. leaving few remnants of the ancient Carthage.
Also, over the centuries other structures were built and remnants of the ancient city are underneath and cannot be excavated. One example is a church from the 16th century that was built over ancient Carthage.
We visited the Roman Amphitheater which may have accommodated 36,000 spectators. We could visualize the underground passages where the gladiators and animals were held prior to performances.
We drove to Byrsa Hill where a small portion of the Carthaginian houses from the 3rd century BC (Hannibal-era) had been excavated.
Above the Carthage excavation was the remains of the Roman Forum.
From this Byrsa Hill location, the Carthaginians had views out to the sea, the circular Punic ports which we visit later, but were hidden from approaching enemy ships.
There is a huge Catholic Church that was built on this location, 16th century(?), which prevents additional excavation.
We visited Tophet, which is a cemetery containing the remains of more than 20,000 children. Some archaeologists claimed it may have been a site of ritual sacrifices, but recent investigations have revealed many of the remains were from fetuses, and had coins. Because of the coins and more recent discoveries, our guide thought this cemetery more reflected infant mortality and miscarriages. We were so stricken by the size of this location, the many tombstones, and our guides description, that we forgot to take pictures. So one is downloaded from the internet.
Next we visited the Punic ports which were very interesting. There was an outer port, where the commercial vessels were berthed. Then a narrow channel, guarded by chains to prevent unauthorized entry, led to the military port. Elaborate boat houses were built on an island in the center, and also on the surrounding shoreline, for their navy.
We took a break for lunch and enjoyed some Tunisian food. The guide helped us order and made some suggestions. Our table had bread with little dishes of harrisa with olive oil, sliced cucumber, puréed carrot, and olives. Our appetizer was a “brik” which was a thin pancake filled with shrimp, egg and maybe cheese (?), rolled up and then fried. For our entrees, I had a fillet of grouper on a huge bowl of couscous, with a chunk of pumpkin, an onion, and two steamed, long, green peppers. Dave had a branzino fillet served over mixed vegetables. After the meal, they bought slices of delicious watermelon and honeydew melon. The food was good and we were stuffed.
After lunch we drove to the Roman Antonine Baths. The baths were built under Emperor Hadrian in the 2nd century AD along the seaside and is the largest bath complex outside of Rome. Massive pillars held up a cold pool approximately 72 feet x 138 feet with tunnels underneath for staff to maintain the facility without disturbing the bathers. In addition to the cold pool, there was a warm room, a hot room, and gymnasiums.
We left the bath complex and drove to Sidi Bou Said for a walk through this picturesque town with white houses and blue doors that was overrun with tourists! It is a pretty town and our guide directed us to a beautiful view by the lighthouse where there were few people. I had originally thought this would be a good place for lunch, but glad our guide chose a different place because of all the tourists here.
Our last stop was a photo opportunity of a huge cistern complex.
Then we went back to the ship and showered after a long, hot day.
Friday, August 15, 2025 – We are docked in Trapani, Sicily, which means no tenders. Our original shore excursion choice was cancelled, and the destination services suggested a tour of Erice as a substitute.
Erice is a medieval town on top of a hill settled sometime between the 10th and 5th centuries BC. There is evidence that the settlement was a center of trade, defense, hospitality and transportation. It was a religious center and our guide said it has been called the city of 100 churches.
It is at an elevation of 2,464 feet and the actual town part is very small. I think we walked around the whole town in less than two hours.
After our drive up a very windy, narrow road with innumerable switchbacks, we arrived at the town. We started by walking up (we did a lot of walking up). We visited a church that was preparing to have a mass. It seems everywhere we visit the town is preparing for a festival. According to wikipedia, this is what it says about the festival:
Festa di Maria Santissima di Custonaci – Celebrated annually in late August, this festival honours Erice’s patron saint, Maria Santissima di Custonaci.
After visiting the church we walked UP to the castle. The castle and watch tower are not open to visitors, so we could not go inside. I assume we were brought here for the views.
After visiting the area around the castle, we walked down to the main part of town. We were treated to a sip of Marsala wine, an almond cookie and a cannoli from a famous bakery. It is called “Pasticceria Grammatico”. The guide said the grandma that owns and runs the bakery was raised by nuns and learned to bake from the nuns.
After our treat from the pastry shop we were given some free time. Dave and I took the opportunity to sit in the shade and drink a Coke Zero.
Our visit to Erice was over and our bus headed down the narrow, windy road back to the port. After eating a late lunch, we noticed this crate of lemons on the way out of the restaurant.
Thursday August 14, 2025: We are visiting Gozo, which is one of the islads of Malta. It is smaller than the main island which is named Malta. Unfortunately, we have to use tenders again today. Our tour is called “The Best of Gozo”. On the islands of Malta, two languages are spoken: Maltese and English. The Maltese islands were part of the British empire at one time, so we can thank them that the population is bilingual. Malta is centrally located in the Mediterranean Sea.
The first site we visit is a megalithic temple complex more than 5,500 years old, which makes them older than the pyramids in Egypt. Some of the outer walls are still standing and an altar on the inside of the walls.
While driving after leaving the temple, our guide pointed out this church which he said had the 4th largest dome.
Next our guide stopped at a souvenir shop where we could sample Maltese coffee and prickly pear juice. The coffee is flavored with various herbs and barely tastes like coffee. The flavor was OK, but Im not sure I coukd drink a whole cup. The prickly pear juice was sweet and maybe had a faint resemblance to peach flavor.
Starting at noon today, for 24 hours the island celebrates the Feast of the Assumption of Our Lady Santa Marija, or the Virgin Mary. The celebration has not started yet this morning, but we visit a church which is prepared to start the celebration. There is a story behind this particular church. A lady farmer would stop in a chapel on her way to the fields in the morning and on the way home each evening. One evening she did not stop and a voice told her to pray 3 Hail Mary’s. She was so taken abackthat she did not tell her priest about the voice for a couple of years. When she finally told him, a church was built on the spot where she heard the voice. Popes have visited this church and prayed to commemorate the event.
Leaving the church we rode on the bus to a spot the guide called an inland lake. For 5 euros each, we took a little boat ride from what looks like a lake but is actually sea water which enters through a natural tunnel out to tge ocean. I believe the guide said the tunnel was 60 meters long. It was an interesting little ride and the water is very clear and a beautiful blue. The captain of the boat showed us what they call the Gozo Blue Grotto, which is a natural short cave on the ocean. He also pointed out rock formations that looked like an alligator and a turtle. The most memorable thing was the beautiful blue water. A lot of divers dive in this area because the water is so clear. In some some spots we were able to see the bottom even though the water was quite deep.
Then we drove to the main city of the island, Victoria. We did a little walking tour through the city which has very narrow, windy walkways. Our guide explained the city was laid out when there were a lot of pirates. The pirates used arrows to attack, but would only reach about 40 feet. So every 40 feet the walkways would turn to give residents an escape from the pirates.
We were in Victoria at noon, and as the festival started at noon, all the churches started ringing their bells for about 5 minutes and then we could hear fireworks going off!
As you can see, there are many churches in Gozo. Each house has a plaque or some reference to which ever church they attend.
After our walk, we went to lunch. Although it was very hot, we sat outside and had a beautiful view of the water. There were lots of fans, so we had a nice breeze. We were offered red or white wines to drink, or another be erage. Our appetizer choices were a pasta in tomato sauce or orange and carrot soup. I chose the soup thinking it would be a cold soup – unfortunately it was hot. But the pasta dish was hot, too. The entree choices were chicken, pork or swordfish. We were also served grilled vegetables and parsleyed potatoes. (Potatoes are a crop which is grown and exported from Malta). For desert we were given two cookies that looked like fig newtons, except the outer layer was crispy.
After lunch we were driven back to the tender port to go back to the ship.
Wednesday, August 13, 2025: Today we have docked (no tenders today! Yay!) in Valetta, Malta. Our ship is here with 10,000 of our closest friends on the MSC World Europa.
Malta is an island near Sicily. There are 21 islands that make up the Maltese archipelago. We are visiting the biggest island today, Malta, and our ship visits another of the Malta islands tomorrow, Gozo.
We have a morning tour, and are driven by bus to the city of Mdina, which has a population of 250. The houses are very old and houses tend to be passed down from one generation to the next. The city has been inhabited since the 8th century BC.
After visiting Mdina, which was the original capital, we drove to Valletta, which is the current capital.
Our tours were basically walking tours, so I am posting the pictures with their descriptions. We did take a lot of pictures! First is Mdina, the first capital of Malta.
After Mdina, we drove to Valletta, the current capital of Malta.
Leaving the church we returned to the ship. At 4:00AM, the ship will move to Gozo, and we have another (early for us) morning tour!
Tuesday, August 12, 2025: Today we are in Lipari which is one of the 7 Aeolian Islands just off the coast of Italy. We have a half day tour, and when our guide pronounces Lipari, it sounds to me like she is saying “liberty”.
The first part of our tour is a bus ride to give us an overview of Lipari. Our guide says there is no fresh water from wells available, so people have cisterns and also buy water. They have vineyards and produce wine. They grow capers and prickley pears from which they make jam. People grow all kinds of fruit and vegetables in their yards, but there are no sheep or cows on the island. Obviously, being an island, there is all kinds of seafood available.
We have three photo stops. The first is a view of Vulcano which is an island with an active volcano. We can see a white “cloud” of steam coming from the volcano.
Our next stop is a beach. The beaches do not have sand, but rocks. The rocks are a pretty good size! The water is very clear and beautiful. Tge place where we stop sits above the beach and it would not be easy for us to climb down to the water. There are people in the water, so they have found a way to get to the water.
The last stop was a view of another Aeolian island, which I can’t remember the name. From our viewpoint it is blocking Stromboli, which has an active volcano, also called Stromboli. It is hazy, so we don’t have much of a view of Stromboli. Previously, we have passed Stromboli many times on other cruise ships, and it has been easy to see the smoke rising from the active volcano. Our guide said the volcano has a minor burst about ever 15 minutes!
We drove back to the town on Lipari and some people left the tour to do their own thing. Four of us stayed to walk to the castle which contains an archeological museum.
People have been on this island at least since the 6th-5th century BC. An archeologist exhumed an ancient necropolis, or cemetery. There was an exceptional conservation of the ancient tombs. This information is from a sign in the museum:
“Different kinds of coffin-shaped sarcophagus were used in burial rites.
The oldest sarcophagi were made from clay in the shape of a tub or trunk together with another kind that was made in stone using blocks by Monte Rosa (6th – 5th century BC). These blocks were only roughly fashioned on the outside. More than 500 examples had been found.
From the end of the 5th century to the mid-3rd century BC these stone sarcophagi were made of four monolithic slabs well worked and smooth, with moulded frames and with gabled covers. Another kind was made of clay bricks and covered by tiles. A large grey stone sarcophagus differs from the others. Amphorae were used frequently to bury children and also used as cinerary urns.
Large vases were placed outside the sarcophagus and contained the grave-goods in the tombs of the 5th and 4th century BC.
All the sarcophagi were buried deep in the earth.
Tombs were marked above ground by gravestones of different kinds that changed over the centuries.”
We saw samples of the sarcophagi and amphorae, and grave goods buried with the dead such as mirrors, lamps, eggs (which signified rebirth), and toys.
The last room we visited was filled with amphorae that had been recovered from the ocean floor. There were at least a couple hundred amphorae that had carried all sorts of goods on ancient ships.
On the way back to the ship we stepped inside the Lipari Cathedral. We saw an altar honoring St. Bartholomew the Apostle and patron saint of Lipari.
Tonight we have been invited to dine with an officer. In all our cruises, we have never been invited to dine with an officer before. He is a First Navigation Officer, Rusi Rusev,41 years old, married with twin 4 year old girls and a 1 year old boy. He is from Bulgaria. He was very nice and easy to converse with. It was a table for 6 with Rusi Rusev, Andrea from Austria, and Sheila who lived very close to us when we lived in Dearborn Park, Chicago. She was at 1143 Plymouth Court and we were at 1169 Plymouth Court. I do not remember where she lives now.
Tomorrow we visit Malta and we stay overnight, but we just have another morning tour.
Monday, August 11, 2025: The internet on the ship is pathetic, so I don’t know how often I will be able to update my blog, or if I will always be able to upload pictures.
On Sunday, we checked out of our hotel and embarked the Seabourn Ovation cruise ship. Everyone we have met is from Florida! Mostly the east coast, though. We explored the ship a little, visited with the excursions desk regarding our car rental in Tunisia, unpacked and had dinner.
Monday – We are docked near Amalfi, which means we will need to use tenders to go ashore. Picture of Amalfi cathedral.
We have a short tour today which takes us from Amalfi to Ravello, which is a small town on the Almalfi Coast. Everything is built on the hillside, so our tour guide says they live vertically. The drive is up a winding, narrow road, with lots of traffic, but only took about 30 minutes. Unfortunately, the little mini bus we were on did not have much air conditioning, and it is a hot day. Our Italian guide speaks very fast and holds the microphone under her chin. Despite several requests from Dave to speak louder, she never figured out that she had to speak into the microphone and not hold it under her chin.
Anyway, we arrived near Ravello, and walked to the center plaza.
The first site we visited was the Duomo. The Duomo in Ravello faces the main square. It was built in the 11th century with support from the Rufolo family (whose villa we will visit next).
The bronze doors were constructed in 1179 by Barisano da Trani. They are special as there are fewer than two dozen bronze church doors in Italy and three of them are by Barisano da Trani.
The pulpit is supported by six spiraled columns sitting atop marble lions.
The ”Ambo of the Epistles”, across from the pulpit, is flanked by mosaics of Jonah and the whale.
Next, we walk next door to Villa Rufolo. It is within the historic center of Ravello. It was originally built in the 13th century by a wealthy family, the Rufolo’s. However, years later, all the wealthy families left Ravello and moved to Naples which became the center of commerce. In the mid 19th century, a man from Scotland visited Ravello, purchased the abandoned villa and extensively remodeled it. The composer Richard Wagner visited the villa in 1880 and was taken by the beauty of the location, and used the gardens as inspiration in one of his compositions.
The Rufolo family was very wealthy and had a large tower built which demonstrated their wealth. I climbed the 138 stairs to the top of the tower.
Most of the villas have been refurbished and are now hotels. Villa Rufolo is now owned by the government and kept to show what villas of the past were like.
After visiting the villa, we returned to the ship. We were hot, in need of food and a shower. We took one last picture of Amalfi from the ship.
Saturday, August 9, 2025: We had no issues with our Delta flights from Tampa to Atlanta and then Atlanta to Rome. Dave had arranged for a shuttle from the airport to our Hotel in Civitavecchia, which worked out fine. We shared the shuttle with a couple from Canada who were heading to the port to embark Celebrity Constellation. Ironically, his name was David and his birthday was August 6, just like my David.
Our hotel, Hotel Porto di Roma is on a cute cobblestone street. The rooms are small compared to American hotels, but feels very clean and is just what we need for 2 nights before our cruise. We had a pizza lunch at a small restaurant nearby:
We wandered around a little after eating to get our bearings and find an ATM that we could understand and that took our card…that was a bit of a challenge, but we were successful.
We spent the rest of Friday resting and catching up on our sleep.
On Saturday, we did a walking tour of Civitavecchia. A short walk from our hotel was the Saturday morning market, which was actually quite large! Here’s a sampling!
Of course there were several vendors selling all kinds of seafood – Civitavecchia is a port city with lots of fisherpeople!
Our first stop was Fort Michelangelo, which was huge! We walked around the whole fort looking for an entrance, but apparently it is not open to tourists. This picture is only a bery small part of the fort.
The next stop was the Kissing Statue. Dave wondered which one came first – this one or the one in the USA. It was created to remember people who left the Civitavecchia port for war, often never returning.
On May 14, 1943, a heavy bombardment devasted the port area and city center, erasing centuries of history.
Next we visited the Vanvitelli Fountain. It was sponsored by Pope Benedict XIV, built out of travertine in 1743, showing the head of an old faun. Water comes out of its mouth.
We walked a little further west to Porta Livorno. It was an old entry to the city built by Pope Clemens XIII who lived 1693-1769. It has been restored after the bombings of 1943. It demonstrates the Churches interest in the development of Port Civitavecchia, considered a strategic garrison on the Tyrrhenian Sea.
Nearby is the “Ancient Rock of Cicitavecchia”. It was a real castle, built around 1400 under the pontificy of Pope Callixtus III. The castle apparently no longer exists! This “Rock” was the focus of several clashes between the Roman Empire and the Church until 1432, when Civitavecchia was conquered by Pope Eugene IV, becoming property of the Papal States.
Directly behind this Ancient Rock if the reconstruction of a part of Liburna, an ancient war ship of the Roman Fleet.
We walked along the oldest part of the Port of Civitavecchia which today was filled with fishing vessels. Across the street was a huge building filled with fishnets. Some of the nets were strung out on the floor and men were apparently repairing them.
We continued our walk in this dock area to a roundabout which contained a statue of emperor Trajan in the middle. Apparently he was the founder of Civitavecchia.
For our last stop, we walked back towards the water to get a view of Fortino di San Pietro, better known as Molo del Lazzaretto. We could only view it from a distance. It is what remains of piers and a lighthouse built at the behest of emperor Trajan in 107 AD. Although quite ancient and damaged by the bombings, the pier is an example of the engineering skill of the Romans.
Our walking tour is over. As we were walking to find some lunch and head back to our hotel, Dave spotted this tree with bananas growing!
Tomorrow we board our ship, Seabourn Ovation.
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Our itinerary for our Seabourn and Royal Caribbean cruises (looks busy!):
| 2025 | Arrive | Depart | |||
| Wednesday 8/6 | Englewood Car rental | 1:00PM | |||
| Thursday 8/7 | TPA to ATL | 1:44PM | 3:20 PM | Delta 1099 | |
| Thursday 8/7 | ATL to FCO | 7:40PM | Delta 66 | ||
| Friday 8/8 | 11:05 AM | Hotel Porto Di Roma | |||
| Saturday 8/9 | Hotel Porto Di Roma | ||||
| Sunday 8/10 | Civitavecchia | 5:00PM | Seabourn Ovation | #817 | |
| Monday 8/11 | Amalfi, Italy | 8:00AM | 5:00PM | SE: Ravello | 9:00AM-12:30PM |
| Tuesday 8/12 | Lipari, Italy | 8:00AM | 5:00PM | SE: Lipari Island & Museum | 9:00AM- 1:00PM |
| Wednesday 8/13 | Valetta, Malta | 8:00AM | Solis Restaurant – 6:45PM | SE: Malta’s Capitals: Mdina & Valetta | 8:45AM – 12:45PM |
| Thursday 8/14 | Valetta, Malta | 5:00AM | |||
| Thursday 8/14 | Mgarr (Victoria), Malta | 8:00AM | 6:00PM | SE: The Best of Gozo | 8:30AM – 2:30PM |
| Friday 8/15 | Trapani,Sicily, Italy | 8:00AM | 6:00PM | SE: The Ruins of Selinunte | 8:30AM – 1:00PM |
| Saturday 8/16 | LaGoulette, Tunisia | 8:00AM | 6:00PM | SE: La Goulette Private Touring – Full Day Car | 8:30AM – |
| Sunday 8/17 | At Sea | ||||
| Monday 8/18 | La Joliette (Marseille, France) | 8:00AM | 6:00PM | SE: Olive Farmwith a local expert, Fontvielle for Foodies & Les Baus | 9:00AM – 4:30PM |
| Tuesday 8/19 | Roses, Spain | 8:00AM | 5:00PM | SE: Echos of Empúrirs: Exploring Ancient Splendor | 9:15AM – 1:15PM |
| Wednesday 8/20 | Barcelona, Spain | 7:00AM | Disembark Seabourn | H10 Montcada | 3302-003072 |
| Wednesday 8/20 | Barcelona, Spain | 3:30 PM tour 5:00PM Passion Tower | Sagrada Familia | Conf #80832465 | |
| Thursday 8/21 | Barcelona, Spain | H10 Montcada | |||
| Friday 8/22 | Barcelona, Spain | 5:00PM | Embark Royal Caribbean – Brilliance of the Seas | #1018 | |
| Saturday 8/23 | Palma de Mallorca, Spain | 8:00AM | 5:00PM | SE: Valldemossa | 10:45AM-2:45PM |
| Sunday 8/24 | Valencia, Spain | 8:00AM | 5:00PM | SE: Valencia and Albufera with lunch | 9:00AM – 4:00PM |
| Giovanni’s Table | 7:30PM | ||||
| Monday 8/25 | At Sea | ||||
| Tuesday 8/26 | Lisbon, Portugal | 8:00:00 AM | 7:00PM | On our own | |
| Wednesday 8/27 | Oporto (Leixoes), Portugal | 8:00:00 AM | 6:00PM | Rick Steves Walk | |
| Thursday 8/28 | La Coruna, Spain | 8:00AM | 5:00PM | SE: Historical City of Lugo | 9:00AM-4:00PM |
| Friday 8/29 | At Sea | ||||
| Saturday 8/30 | Southampton, England | 5:30AM | 4:30PM | Royal Caribbean – Brilliance of the Seas | #7560 |
| Sunday 8/31 | At Sea | ||||
| Monday 9/1 | Glasgow (Greenock), Scotland | 7:00AM | 4:00PM | SE: Glasgow on our own | 8:16AM – 1:31PM |
| Tuesday 9/2 | At Sea | ||||
| Wednesday 9/3 | Reykjavik, Iceland | 12:00 PM | Pvt: Northern Lights Tour w/ Maritza Rivera | 9:30PM – 1:30AM | |
| Thursday 9/4 | Reykjavik, Iceland | 5:00PM | Chops Grill | 7:30PM | |
| Friday 9/5 | At Sea | ||||
| Saturday 9/6 | Qaqortoq, Greenland | 10:00AM | 7:00PM | SE: Boat tour to the Viking Ruins and Hvalso Church | 2:15PM – 4:15PM |
| Sunday 9/7 | At Sea | ||||
| Monday 9/8 | Nuuk, Greenland | 7:00AM | 5:00PM | SE: City Walk | 11:00AM-12:30PM |
| Tuesday 9/9 | At Sea | Giovanni’s Table | 7:30PM | ||
| Wednesday 9/10 | At Sea | ||||
| Thursday 9/11 | Sydney, NS, Canada | 10:00AM | 6:00PM | SE: Relive History at the Fortress of Louisbourg | 11:00AM – 2:45PM |
| Friday 9/12 | Halifax, NS, Canada | 10:00AM | 8:00PM | SE: Coastal Charms and Maple Delights | 10:30AM – 2:00PM |
| Saturday 9/13 | At Sea | ||||
| Sunday 9/14 | Boston, MA | 7:00AM | |||
| Sunday 9/14 | Boston to TPA | 3:40:00 PM | 7:04:00 PM | Delta 1439 | |
| TPA car rental | 7:45PM | ||||