This is the sight from my balcony that welcomed me the morning after I arrived home. Usually the leaves peak by October 12 but this year they hung on so that I could experience the spectacular fall colours before winter.
Monday, 26 October 2015
SAFELY HOME
Our plane was an hour late leaving Rome as officials there wanted to do a complete check of all the plane's systems. Apparently this happens quite a lot in Rome. Despite the hour delay, in Toronto, we whisked through customs, picked up our luggage, and got it on the connecting baggage carousel, in record time. We even managed an hour in the lounge before being called for our flight to Ottawa. Blue arrived at the airport to meet us just as we were exiting. Very smooth.
Wednesday, 21 October 2015
DISEMBARKATION
DISEMBARKATION
We were up at six, had our last room-service breakfast that included a marzipan lemon tart that we saved from our dessert last night - we were too full last night. We were to leave the ship at 8 but for some reason, at this port, all the luggage had to be off the ship before anyone could leave. We waited 45 minutes on the gangway giving truth to the old adage "Hurry up and wait". We were one of the first off the ship, claimed our luggage in the port terminal and hurried outside where we found our smiling driver holding a sign with my name on it.
The drive to the airport was surprisingly picturesque passing by the Mediterranean and through the countryside. We pretended we were on the Amalfi coast that we skipped yesterday. After an hour we reached the Air Canada terminal where we were greeted by two huge lineups. Luckily, we found someone to guide us to the correct one. We waited about 15 minutes and finally got inside the terminal, checked in with Air Canada, got my custom's stamp for a tax refund, through security, and passport control to a shuttle bus to the terminal. Found the smallest business-class lounge I think I've ever been in but here we sit relaxing with a coffee waiting for our boarding call.
We were up at six, had our last room-service breakfast that included a marzipan lemon tart that we saved from our dessert last night - we were too full last night. We were to leave the ship at 8 but for some reason, at this port, all the luggage had to be off the ship before anyone could leave. We waited 45 minutes on the gangway giving truth to the old adage "Hurry up and wait". We were one of the first off the ship, claimed our luggage in the port terminal and hurried outside where we found our smiling driver holding a sign with my name on it.
The drive to the airport was surprisingly picturesque passing by the Mediterranean and through the countryside. We pretended we were on the Amalfi coast that we skipped yesterday. After an hour we reached the Air Canada terminal where we were greeted by two huge lineups. Luckily, we found someone to guide us to the correct one. We waited about 15 minutes and finally got inside the terminal, checked in with Air Canada, got my custom's stamp for a tax refund, through security, and passport control to a shuttle bus to the terminal. Found the smallest business-class lounge I think I've ever been in but here we sit relaxing with a coffee waiting for our boarding call.
Tuesday, 20 October 2015
OUR PRIVATE YACHT DAY
OUR PRIVATE YACHT DAY
At the Social Travellers gathering last night (we were the only two there), the Captain announced that due to inclement weather and the improbability of getting us to shore by tender that instead of going to Sorrento, we were docking in Naples. Our hostess, Marla made a face. She said that this would mean that our shore excursions would have an extra hours's drive to get to the port where the shore excursions were supposed to start from. And, of course, an extra hour to get back to the ship. Our excursion was a drive along the Amalfi coast and was already 6 hours in length. At dinner, we met a woman who taught at the college in Cazenovia where Warren and I have friends. She did not attend the social travellers but met us for dinner.
Our shore excursion didn't start until noon so we didn't set an alarm but both of us were wide awake at 6 a.m. so decided to get up. We went for a leisurely breakfast at Compass Rose of those wonderful lingonberry crepes and maple syrup and I googled the weather for Naples and Amalfi. Both reported a 100% chance of rain. We decided to turn in our tickets. Than meant that we could go back to our room for a mid-morning nap. We were up by the time the ship docked at noon and decided to go to the destinations desk and wait for the Naples tourism representative to come aboard with maps and information about Naples. I waited in line to pick up maps and information about Naples while Norma googled the city. I explained to the tourism representative that we were two old ladies on our own and she gave me the same information that she was giving everyone - take off all your jewelry, only go to these three squares, only shop on this street, and never venture into the historic part of the city. I took a map and went to join Norma. She was quite emphatic that we not explore the city. Her google search found that the city was owned by the Mafia, that corruption was rampant, and that it is so polluted as the Mafia is allowing (for money) the world to dump its toxic waste into landfills around the city. Consequently, the incidence of cancer here is astronomically higher than elsewhere.
Hence, our private yacht day. Very few passengers remained on the ship. We had a delightful lunch followed by another 2-hour nap. When we got back, we packed, ate the hors d'ouevres our butler brought us, and are now awaiting our room-service dinner. Sometimes, things work out for the best - we both needed this "sea day" as we were more exhausted than we realized and we have a long travelling day to look forward to.
Tomorrow, Rome and Home!
At the Social Travellers gathering last night (we were the only two there), the Captain announced that due to inclement weather and the improbability of getting us to shore by tender that instead of going to Sorrento, we were docking in Naples. Our hostess, Marla made a face. She said that this would mean that our shore excursions would have an extra hours's drive to get to the port where the shore excursions were supposed to start from. And, of course, an extra hour to get back to the ship. Our excursion was a drive along the Amalfi coast and was already 6 hours in length. At dinner, we met a woman who taught at the college in Cazenovia where Warren and I have friends. She did not attend the social travellers but met us for dinner.
Our shore excursion didn't start until noon so we didn't set an alarm but both of us were wide awake at 6 a.m. so decided to get up. We went for a leisurely breakfast at Compass Rose of those wonderful lingonberry crepes and maple syrup and I googled the weather for Naples and Amalfi. Both reported a 100% chance of rain. We decided to turn in our tickets. Than meant that we could go back to our room for a mid-morning nap. We were up by the time the ship docked at noon and decided to go to the destinations desk and wait for the Naples tourism representative to come aboard with maps and information about Naples. I waited in line to pick up maps and information about Naples while Norma googled the city. I explained to the tourism representative that we were two old ladies on our own and she gave me the same information that she was giving everyone - take off all your jewelry, only go to these three squares, only shop on this street, and never venture into the historic part of the city. I took a map and went to join Norma. She was quite emphatic that we not explore the city. Her google search found that the city was owned by the Mafia, that corruption was rampant, and that it is so polluted as the Mafia is allowing (for money) the world to dump its toxic waste into landfills around the city. Consequently, the incidence of cancer here is astronomically higher than elsewhere.
Hence, our private yacht day. Very few passengers remained on the ship. We had a delightful lunch followed by another 2-hour nap. When we got back, we packed, ate the hors d'ouevres our butler brought us, and are now awaiting our room-service dinner. Sometimes, things work out for the best - we both needed this "sea day" as we were more exhausted than we realized and we have a long travelling day to look forward to.
Tomorrow, Rome and Home!
Monday, 19 October 2015
EUROPEAN REFLECTIONS
EUROPEAN REFLECTIONS
I entitled this blog, European Reflections, and so as we near the end of this trip, it is time to put some of our thoughts down in writing.
As we have heard many times from others on our shore excursions, "A B C", to describe what they have been seeing - Another Boring/Bloody Church, Another Boring Castle, Another Boring City. Norma even came up with one of our own, A M V - Another Medieval Village. However, while it is possible to sum up the trip that way, we cannot. We found each city, church, castle, village to be interesting in its own way.
Once we mastered how to not get run down by the bicyclists in Amsterdam (I think bicyclists must be the same the world over - the rules are not made for them), we were absolutely charmed by the different architectural styles of the canal houses. Being at the Van Gogh Museum at the same time as the Van Gogh and Munch retrospective was taking place was a highlight. To see the work of these two masters who lived at the same time but who never met, displayed side by side was so interesting. Seeing the Guggenheim in Bilboa was another artistic highlight. We were awed by the mammoth sculpture, The Matter of Time, and later (after seeing Gaudi's work) saw much influence of Gaudi in this work. We equally enjoyed viewing the architecture of the Museum itself and how it was designed to fit into the city of Bilboa. The Port Building at Oporto, Portugal, was another marvellous example of modern architecture which is a work of art. It was totally unexpected. Genoa was also an unexpected surprise. I had forgotten what a centre of wealth this port was. We enjoyed seeing all of the different architectural styles used in the numerous palaces and the use of materials - black and white marble for the earliest buildings, yellow, red and white pigments on the newer ones. Some were covered with frescoes and trompe l'Oeil paintings. For me, the biggest disappointment was Monte Carlo, Monaco. This city made me feel that I was not rich enough, not beautiful enough, not chic enough to be worthy to walk on its soil. I did not imagine this and it is not paranoia kicking in as we were told that Prince Albert is aiming to keep out the riffraff (like us) and make his tiny country a haven for only the super-rich. To do this, he is in partnership with the Sultan of Qattar. I imagine Russian oligarchs will also be welcome. So if you want to come here, do so sooner rather than later. While it was clean and shiny, they still didn't provide seats on their toilets! I asked the guide today why this was so everywhere we went. She said that not only had no one ever asked her that question, but that she had no idea why. They have seats on their toilets at home. We concluded that they were easier to clean that way. Norma and I have vowed to practice peeing in our toilets at home without using a seat in preparation for our next trip to Europe.
Mont St. Michel, our first AMV, was built with a very dark grey stone so it had an atmosphere of its own despite sharing with others the typical narrow winding cobblestoned streets lined with souvenir shops. I found the atmosphere here to be more sobering than other villages. In Spain, the AMVs, were built with white stone, and thus seemed so bright and cheerful. In Italy, built with yellow and ochre coloured stones, a feeling that they had always been there and always would be. Most of the small villages were built on top of the mountains so they could be defended from attack. It seemed to us that most of the centuries were spent fighting for these strategic locations. I guess not much has changed in the world on that point. The views from them all were spectacular so you can see why today, people want to live in them. As we are at the tail end of the tourist season, the crowds were not too bad. I imagine that at peak season, my claustrophobia would kick in big time. Too many people and not enough room to manoeuvre. I am sure that tour buses only visit certain ones and that if you were on your own, you would be able to visit less popular but equally charming AMVs.
I must say that the Chateaux we visited varied from being in ruins or being so musty you marvelled that anyone would want to live there, to the absolutely sumptuous and beautifully decorated that you wondered why anyone needed that much space and that much wealth.
Now to the ABChurches - all of them Roman Catholic. We found that they differed too depending on when they were built, the materials used, and the purpose, other than worshipping, they provided. The earliest ones were built on a prominent site with very few windows except for ones at the top which were used to defend the building. They were more like fortresses where people took refuge when their village or city was being attacked. As time went on and there would be an extended period of peace, the architecture changed and beautiful stained glass windows were added. The interiors became more opulent over the centuries. The Baroque-styled ones were so 'over the top' there wasn't a surface in them that wasn't decorated. Gold leaf everywhere - so much richness. However, nothing compared to La Sagrada Familia, Gaudi's crowning glory. To us, this is what a church building should be - we found it more of a tribute to nature - whether he intended this or not. It was not overly florid but instead awe-inspiring. Having a guide with us made this visit all the more worthwhile. Also, on the subject of the Catholic Church, all of the young guides we had disparaged the church, said they never went, would never marry in one. We were surprised by the animosity they felt. According to them, all over Europe, only the elderly are attending services and the church is having difficulty maintaining their buildings.
We have only one more day here and one more shore excursion on the Amalfi Drive -hard to imagine. Despite all the wonderful things we have seen, the highlight of the trip was our 6 hours spent marvelling at Gaudi's works in Barcelona. There is a lightness and sense of humour in his buildings and his genius was apparent in everything we saw.
But the very very best, was meeting and being part of the FAB FIVE - Sandra, Bill, and Tom - made this a trip that we will always remember. From the very first night we met at the Social Travellers, we hit it off. Imagine having a song written about us on the first night of our cruise. Bill taught us everything we needed to know about ordering martinis and other cocktails. Sandra with her indomitable spirit and sassy wit had us all laughing hilariously. May we keep in touch for many years.
Having said that, it is time to bring this A B B (Another Boring Blog) to a close. See everyone soon.
I entitled this blog, European Reflections, and so as we near the end of this trip, it is time to put some of our thoughts down in writing.
As we have heard many times from others on our shore excursions, "A B C", to describe what they have been seeing - Another Boring/Bloody Church, Another Boring Castle, Another Boring City. Norma even came up with one of our own, A M V - Another Medieval Village. However, while it is possible to sum up the trip that way, we cannot. We found each city, church, castle, village to be interesting in its own way.
Once we mastered how to not get run down by the bicyclists in Amsterdam (I think bicyclists must be the same the world over - the rules are not made for them), we were absolutely charmed by the different architectural styles of the canal houses. Being at the Van Gogh Museum at the same time as the Van Gogh and Munch retrospective was taking place was a highlight. To see the work of these two masters who lived at the same time but who never met, displayed side by side was so interesting. Seeing the Guggenheim in Bilboa was another artistic highlight. We were awed by the mammoth sculpture, The Matter of Time, and later (after seeing Gaudi's work) saw much influence of Gaudi in this work. We equally enjoyed viewing the architecture of the Museum itself and how it was designed to fit into the city of Bilboa. The Port Building at Oporto, Portugal, was another marvellous example of modern architecture which is a work of art. It was totally unexpected. Genoa was also an unexpected surprise. I had forgotten what a centre of wealth this port was. We enjoyed seeing all of the different architectural styles used in the numerous palaces and the use of materials - black and white marble for the earliest buildings, yellow, red and white pigments on the newer ones. Some were covered with frescoes and trompe l'Oeil paintings. For me, the biggest disappointment was Monte Carlo, Monaco. This city made me feel that I was not rich enough, not beautiful enough, not chic enough to be worthy to walk on its soil. I did not imagine this and it is not paranoia kicking in as we were told that Prince Albert is aiming to keep out the riffraff (like us) and make his tiny country a haven for only the super-rich. To do this, he is in partnership with the Sultan of Qattar. I imagine Russian oligarchs will also be welcome. So if you want to come here, do so sooner rather than later. While it was clean and shiny, they still didn't provide seats on their toilets! I asked the guide today why this was so everywhere we went. She said that not only had no one ever asked her that question, but that she had no idea why. They have seats on their toilets at home. We concluded that they were easier to clean that way. Norma and I have vowed to practice peeing in our toilets at home without using a seat in preparation for our next trip to Europe.
Mont St. Michel, our first AMV, was built with a very dark grey stone so it had an atmosphere of its own despite sharing with others the typical narrow winding cobblestoned streets lined with souvenir shops. I found the atmosphere here to be more sobering than other villages. In Spain, the AMVs, were built with white stone, and thus seemed so bright and cheerful. In Italy, built with yellow and ochre coloured stones, a feeling that they had always been there and always would be. Most of the small villages were built on top of the mountains so they could be defended from attack. It seemed to us that most of the centuries were spent fighting for these strategic locations. I guess not much has changed in the world on that point. The views from them all were spectacular so you can see why today, people want to live in them. As we are at the tail end of the tourist season, the crowds were not too bad. I imagine that at peak season, my claustrophobia would kick in big time. Too many people and not enough room to manoeuvre. I am sure that tour buses only visit certain ones and that if you were on your own, you would be able to visit less popular but equally charming AMVs.
I must say that the Chateaux we visited varied from being in ruins or being so musty you marvelled that anyone would want to live there, to the absolutely sumptuous and beautifully decorated that you wondered why anyone needed that much space and that much wealth.
Now to the ABChurches - all of them Roman Catholic. We found that they differed too depending on when they were built, the materials used, and the purpose, other than worshipping, they provided. The earliest ones were built on a prominent site with very few windows except for ones at the top which were used to defend the building. They were more like fortresses where people took refuge when their village or city was being attacked. As time went on and there would be an extended period of peace, the architecture changed and beautiful stained glass windows were added. The interiors became more opulent over the centuries. The Baroque-styled ones were so 'over the top' there wasn't a surface in them that wasn't decorated. Gold leaf everywhere - so much richness. However, nothing compared to La Sagrada Familia, Gaudi's crowning glory. To us, this is what a church building should be - we found it more of a tribute to nature - whether he intended this or not. It was not overly florid but instead awe-inspiring. Having a guide with us made this visit all the more worthwhile. Also, on the subject of the Catholic Church, all of the young guides we had disparaged the church, said they never went, would never marry in one. We were surprised by the animosity they felt. According to them, all over Europe, only the elderly are attending services and the church is having difficulty maintaining their buildings.
We have only one more day here and one more shore excursion on the Amalfi Drive -hard to imagine. Despite all the wonderful things we have seen, the highlight of the trip was our 6 hours spent marvelling at Gaudi's works in Barcelona. There is a lightness and sense of humour in his buildings and his genius was apparent in everything we saw.
But the very very best, was meeting and being part of the FAB FIVE - Sandra, Bill, and Tom - made this a trip that we will always remember. From the very first night we met at the Social Travellers, we hit it off. Imagine having a song written about us on the first night of our cruise. Bill taught us everything we needed to know about ordering martinis and other cocktails. Sandra with her indomitable spirit and sassy wit had us all laughing hilariously. May we keep in touch for many years.
Having said that, it is time to bring this A B B (Another Boring Blog) to a close. See everyone soon.
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