wanderingbishops.com

This is the first of two days we will be spending here in Bordeaux. What is really cool is that because our ship is “small (750 passengers)” compared to most (2000-4000 passengers) cruise ships we are able to sail 36 miles up the river and dock right in downtown Bordeaux. Larger cruise ships must dock near the mouth of the river where it meets the ocean. As a result the only other ship in downtown Bordeaux was a riverboat. We had the city to ourselves.

Bordeaux is another example of a city that has reinvented itself in the past 25 years. Until then the area where we are docked was dominated by old warehouses and parking lots. The city decided to focus on tourism and wine and converted the riverfront to what it is today-a promenade for walkers, runners and bikers, grassy areas where one can picnic and enjoy the outdoors, restaurants and shops. They have done a beautiful job! Bordeaux has more than 350 historic monuments, making it, after Paris, the city with the most listed or registered monuments in France

I had signed us up for a 5 hour afternoon tour that would take us to the village of Saint-Emilion to see their underground churches and visit a local chateau for wine tasting. Unfortunately the temperature was expected to reach near 90 today and Yvonne thought it would be a lovely day to simply sit in her lounge chair on our balcony and read her latest book.  She had not started it yet because we have been too busy taking tours! I must admit it has been a hectic schedule with all the ports we have been visiting so I could not fault her decision.

 

On my tour I learned a lot about the wine industry here in the Bordeaux region. I had envisioned the “chateaus” we would visit would be immense homes and estates. Not so. A chateau here is simply a family home with 2-5 acres of vineyards. In fact laws require that the wines made by a chateau must come directly from its vineyards. I also learned that Saint-Emilion only produces merlot and cab franc based wines. Other regions in the area, such as Medoc, focus on Cabernet Sauvignon wines.

Saint-Emilion is about 35 km east of Bordeaux and located on the right bank of the Gironde River. It is a small village with a population of about 1900 people. It is named after an 8th century monk who lived here. The wine making skills of the monks date back to that era and were famous by the 11-12th centuries! Our tour to the village was brief with a major focus on a visit to the remains of the 12th century monolithic underground church that had evolved from 9th century catacombs. It is the largest underground church in Europe.

From there we went to a nearby small family owned chateau (Chateau Cantenac) where the group had a wonderful tutorial on grape growing and wine making in the Bordeaux region. Their “chateau” (in which they live), is 150 years old and it is surrounded with their own vineyards.  Our American born hostess is the daughter-in-law of one of the owner’s sons. What made it unusual is her story of how she “acquired” that position. Turns out she came to the chateau as an intern as part her studies of vinology at UC-Davis. You can imagine the rest of the story. She gave us a quick study course on how they maintain their vineyards, a detailed story I had never heard before in any of my visits to wineries. She focused on telling us how the grow the grapes rather than how they make the wine. It was an excellent presentation. They are indeed a small winery, bottling only about 110,000 bottles/year, 75% of which is exported. We tasted their two merlots before returning to Bordeaux.

Because we were spending the night in port I had convinced our group that it would be fun to dine at a local French bistro rather than eati nag on the ship. I had researched good options months ago and made reservation at a small bistro called “Arcada”, which was highly rated by previous customers (it was listed as the #3 or 4 best restaurant in Bordeaux). We had reservations at 7PM (when they open). We are Americans and eating at 9:30 did not appeal to us.

Unfortunately because of the late arrival of their tour Dave & Gael Romoser were unable to join the 4 of us. After a hilarious (?) detour and $35 cab ride where we had to walk the last few blocks (because the building adjacent to the restaurant had started to collapse) we safely arrived at the very small (seating for 28) cafe where we enjoyed a marvelous 3 course French meal prepared with locally sourced ingredients. The limited item menu (3 appetizers, 3 main entrees, 3 desserts) was in French. Our waiter did speak a little English and part of the experience was trying to understand what he was trying to tell us about the dishes. We ordered a variety of items simply to see what we were getting. The presentation was artistic and needless to say, the food magnificent. Even more surprising was the meal with wine came to $60/person. Try that in Seattle or Austin we said. Rather than trying to navigate another cab ride we chose to walk back to the ship along the waterfront park that was crowded with late night revelers. It was a memorable evening.

Tomorrow is another day of sightseeing in Bourdeaux.

Steps today: 9319.

 

---

The real highlight for this visit to Bilbao is to experience the world famous Guggenheim museum. Bilbao is in the the Basque region of Spain, an area of somewhat controversy as it has often talked of succession from Spain. It is the de facto capital of northern Spain with a metropolitan population of a million people. The city itself is the 10th largest in Spain with a population of 345,000.  Until the arrival of the Guggenheim museum it was a dying industrial city. The downtown area on the river was a shipbuilding port. Its other main product was the mining of iron ore which was sold throughout Europe from the 16th century. Unemployment was 25-30% in the mid 1980s.

The arrival of the Guggenheim in 1997 revitalized and reinvented the city to what it is today-a beautiful city to visit! We were blown away. The old port and shipbuilding region have been replaced by tree-lined parks, modern buildings, restaurants, and  concert halls-all anchored by the magnificent Guggenheim museum.

I asked our local tour guide how did Bilbao get the Guggenheim museum to locate here. He said: “we bought it”!  Indeed when it was announced that a new location was being sought Bilbao decided to bid for it. What allowed them to do that is that Bilbao keeps the taxes they generate (rather than sending it to the head government-unlike the US) so they offered $180 million dollars to the foundation to have the museum built n Bilbao … and the rest is history. The design took two years and construction took four. It opened in 1997 so they will be celebrating its 25 year anniversary this fall. Prior to Covid over 1 million people/year visited the museum. Over the last 20 years over 20 million people have visited, 80% from overseas. In hindsight it was a stroke of genius to bid for the project.

Frank Gehry designed the structure; some say it appears as a ship. It is covered with 33,000 sheets of titanium which reflect the surrounding light. It is truly futuristic in its design.

On Mondays (when we were in port) the museum is normally closed but Regent negotiated for us the have a special entry and tour, and I think a vast majority of our shipmates chose to take the tour. We were broken up into small groups of about 20 each and led through several of the main exhibits by knowledgeable guides. Although the museum looks large from the outside it is not that large inside. It only has 3 floors of exhibits separated into major display halls. The first hall we viewed was an exhibit by sculptor, Richard Serra , called “The Matter of Time” which consists of massive steel structures formed into shapes that often confuse your sense of balance.

We then viewed some very large pieces of art including one by Warhol on Marilyn Monroe and the Jeff Koons sculpture called “Puppy” which is a large steel structure that is covered annually by live flowers. However, the main attraction (to mostly the men in attendance) is a traveling exhibit by Norman Foster called: Motion-Autos, Art, Architecture. There are magnificent autos from the past, present and future on display-many one of a kind vehicles, including the original Aston Martin used in the James Bond movie. There were a lot of “wows” going around when we toured this exhibit. All in all, everyone seems to be impressed with our visit to the Guggenheim.

From there we were driven to the old town portion of Bilbao where we had free time to grab a bite to eat, shop or simply wander around. Well, we were on a mission! Today was our last day in a Spanish city and we had yet to have our traditional toast of sangria to commemorate a previous visit to Barcelona with Ron & Marlene Massa where we consumed “fish bowl” sized glasses of their local drink. Bilbao is also noted for its version of tapas called “pinxtos” bite sized appetizers. Our tour guide deposited us in the old main square of Bilbao that was surrounded by small bars that featured both! We ordered a round of sangrias, pointed to dishes stacked on the bar loaded with various types of pinxtos (guessing which ones we might like) and headed to an outside table in the shade of the square to consume both. The first sangria disappeared quickly and since we had extra time we decided to have another rather than walking around to shop. It was a wise decision and we toasted the completion of our “quest”!  I do seem to recall that we went back to the ship and had a very nice nap after this tour.

Cocktails and trivia (do not ask!) completed our afternoon. Tonight’s entertainment was a production show by the ship’s singers and dancers, with a focus on the music of famous Broadway musicals. We all were amazed at the quality of the 3 female and 2 male singers currently on board.

Tomorrow we are in Bordeaux, France for a two day stay. Obviously the focus is on wine…and more wine.

Steps for the day: 9,155 plus 8 extra large glasses of sangria!

P.S.  I really liked Bilbao and would enjoy going back to spend more time there.

 

 

Aside:  I asked the reception desk last night how many people were actually on this cruise and was told there were 526 (ship capacity is 750). Not sure if they did this on purpose or was there a lack of interest because of Covid. Needless to say there has never been an issue with overcrowding or lack of seating for meals or shows.

Back to our day:  Our ship docked in the small seaside town of Ferrol, Spain. Not well known it was, however, the birthplace of Francisco Franco, the former dictator of Spain. It is not on any “must stop” ports; however, it is only about one hour from a most famous town from as far back as medieval times-Santiago De Compostela, where the famous pilgrimage church of St. James is located. That is our destination today!

The weather was cloudy and cool this morning with a 20% chance of showers. Yvonne and I had NOT taken our rain gear with us which turned out to almost be a big problem as it started to rain just as our bus arrived in Santiago . Luckily there was a small shop right by the bus parking area that sold ponchos for people like ourselves so we were spared the indignity of getting soaked as we walked the city. As it turned out the showers were sporadic. Surprisingly it was windy and cool the entire time we were in Santiago.

The Camino de Santiago (the Way of St. James) is a large network of ancient pilgrim routes stretching across Europe and coming together at the tomb of St. James (Santiago in Spanish) in the town of Santiago de Compostela. The history of the Camino de Santiago goes back at the beginning of the 9th century (year 814) moment of the supposed discovery of the tomb of the evangelical apostle of the Iberian Peninsula.

The most popular (and longest) route  is the Camino Francés which stretches 780 km (nearly 500 miles) from St. Jean-Pied-du-Port near Biarritz in France to Santiago. There are other shorter routes throughout France and Spain that can also be taken if a 500 mile trek is not for you.  I cannot imagine how people in medieval times actually did this pilgrimage. People did the trek to seek inner peace, forgiveness for their sins, or seeking a spiritual favor.  Luckily a series of lodging, restaurants, other churches and support entities grew up along the routes to ease the burden of the trek. There are even passports that people carry with them that are stamped as they proceed along the route. It was originally a religious experience but it obviously has grown into a big business for many people! Approximately 350,000 people a year make this pilgrimage!

Most of the people we saw while there were tourists like ourselves, who arrived by bus. However, we did see true pilgrims (mostly young) arriving with backpacks and walking sticks.

The original chapel of St James is hard to see as it has been surrounded by a magnificent church built over the centuries. We were able to enter the crypt under the church where the coffin of St. James is located. Our local guide walked us through much of the surrounding town where shops offer souvenirs, eating establishments, locally made candy and cakes and other items of interest to tourists (and pilgrims).

In the main square where the church is located is a very large building that was originally a hospital serving pilgrims. It is now a 5 star hotel where we had a multi-course luncheon in an old chapel (complete with altar).

After lunch we headed back to our ship for more trivia, cocktails, dinner and entertainment. which was a Celtic violinist.

Tomorrow we are going to a place that has been on my bucket list for quite awhile- Bilbao, Spain and the famous Guggenheim museum.

Steps today:  10,075.

 

Another visit to a city we have experienced on a previous trip (2014 Douro River cruise) so I looked for an excursion that would take us elsewhere in the area. We chose a “small group” trip to visit the “The Charming Minho Province” on an all day tour. By the way, Oporto is really a lovely city to visit if you are ever in the area. I like it even better than Lisbon. Second comment: even though it spelled with an “o” it is pronounced as “Porto”, not “Oporto”.

We awoke to cloudy skies with a couple of claps of thunder but no rain so far, and right now it does not look like rain. The temperature is pleasant- upper 60s.

Small group trips, when offered, go on the same itineraries as larger groups but the number of participants is limited to 16 or less to make it a supposedly more intimate experience and allow for more personal engagement with the local tour guide. The ship charges extra for these trips, sometimes only a nominal amount. This trip cost $46/person. To my great surprise there were only 8 of us on this particular trip and as it turned out we ended up with the best tour guide we have had so far on this cruise.

We first drove about an hour north to the town of Guimaraes, which is noted as being the first capital of Portugal and the birthplace of its first king (Afonso Henriques 1109-1185).  It is a UNESCO world heritage site. I was amazed at how large Guimaraes was. I expected a small medieval village but it is a bustling city of 152,000 people.

The area to the north is noted for family farms and the growing of the grapes used to make Portuguese Vinho Verde wine (literally green wine), although it is not really green. It is a light white wine meant to drink when it is young. There are vineyards everywhere in this area of the country growing the grapes used in making the wine.

Major sites in Guimaraes include the Castelo de Guuimaraes, a castle/fort that was constructed in the 10th century to defend against the Moors. We walked through the streets that led from the castle down to the center of town to view the church where the king was baptized. As is typical with old medieval towns the cobble stoned narrow streets were a treat to walk, ending up in small village squares now lined with cafes and shops.

After some free time to wander nearby shops we re-boarded the bus (which by the way was a big 50 passenger bus-for the 8 of us) for our journey to the other major attraction in the area, the city of Braga.

Braga is a major religious city located near Guimaraes, in that it has over 30 churches, monasteries and convents that date back to the 4th century AD. It played a great role in the christianization of the Iberian peninsula.  It is also larger than I expected-193,000 people live here. It is also the site of several important universities. We walked through the old town, stopping is see the remains of the castle and early churches. After a delightful multi-course lunch we visited the church of Bom Jesus, which is famous because of the 600+ steps that pilgrims would/could ascend to reach its doors. Being of sound mind our tour leader chose to drive us up to the church rather than forcing us to walk those stairs. After that visit it was time to return to the ship.

On returning to the ship we experienced a first time incident involving a cruise today. I was the absolute last person to board the ship before they pulled the gangplank and set sail! We left Braga a bit late and because of traffic it was obvious we would not get back to the ship before the final time to embark. Normally if you were on an independent tour (one not sponsored by the cruise line) the ship would likely leave you, and you would be responsible to get to the next port of call on your own. In this case we were on a ship-sponsored excursion so they waited for us.

Because of our late arrival we missed trivia today so there is no news on our quest to win more points. We did find time to gather and have cocktails before departing for dinner in the main dining room this evening. And the entertainment tonight was a British comedian (who had just arrived on board- the ship brings on some new entertainment about half way through the cruise). We were somewhat skeptical because he was British and would likely portray British humor; however, he was simply a “hoot” and we laughed our selves silly. We are now looking forward to his next show in a few nights.

Tomorrow we will be in Ferrol, Spain which is near the famous pilgrim church of Santiago De Compostela that we are planning to visit.

Steps today were 10,946! we earned our desserats once again.

 

We have lost track of time; it must be a good vacation!  According to the calendar we are now at the halfway point of the trip.

We have turned the corner and are now headed north up the Atlantic Ocean coastline, heading to our destination of Lisbon, Portugal today. Our ship is extremely stable; we hardly know we are moving. Also it is very quiet; the rooms are well insulated and even though we have neighbors on both sides we have never heard them.

I continue to be plagued with the inability to upload photos for my blog. Yesterday I even got off the ship and sat in the lobby of the port building to see if their Internet was better. Alas, it was not. I am now wondering if the issue is with Word Press, the blogging app I am using to write the blog.

The weather has been marvelous so far- sunny and not too hot, although it is predicted that today it will be 85 in Lisbon. Note to self: Do NOT come to Spain or Portugal in July or August as it can be ungodly hot! Yesterday in Cadiz we were told it can reach 118 degrees (48 degrees C) in the summer and it is humid!  No thanks.

It was another marvelous weather day- sunny with a predicted temperatures of 85. We do not arrive in Lisbon until 10 AM so we finally will have time to have a leisurely breakfast in the main dining room this morning. Yvonne has yet to have her favorite item-eggs Benedict, so this is the day!

We have been to Lisbon many times and have seen also the local attractions so I chose to visit something new-the medieval town of Obidos, a town that was a wedding gift from the king to his wife in 1298. It certainly sounds intriguing.

I have decided to publish this without pictures for the time being. Here are the highlights of our day. We, indeed, go to the main dining room where Yvonne did get her Eggs Benedict and I ordered eggs & corn beef hash with a side of crepes and lingonberry sauce. Marvelous!

We docked on time at 10AM ( I am amazed on how these ships maintain their posted schedule) and joined Ron/Marlene and Dave/Gael for the excursion to Obidos as they had all selected the same tour. The locals were adamant about wearing masks when indoors and on the bus bus we were free to not wear them when outdoors. There were less than 20 people in our group. It took about an hour to arrive at Obidos so many of us grabbed a quick catnap along the way, even though our local tour guide provided some commentary about Lisbon. Once there she led us through the small, two street village to the local church and viewpoint over the valley. Unfortunately when we arrived at the church it had already been closed for the usual extended lunch hour locals take. She did point out where we would be able to purchase the simply fabulous local Portuguese delicacy- the “pasteis de nata”, a warm custard tart baked in a phyllo dough cup. It is one of my favorite treats when visiting this part of the world and I had been concerned if it would be available in the small village.

It was lunch time and we found ourselves at a small outdoor cafe on a side street of the village that was quite busy, so we figured it must be good. And luckily one of the waiters spoke English and provided us with English menus so we knew what we were ordering. The fun dishes were a local beer, a plate of chorizo and small loaves of bread as appetizers, followed by platters of either chicken salad or fried pork steaks with fries.

What made the lunch memorable and ultimately laughable was a discussion about our river cruise with Ron & Marlene Massa 2014 on the Douro River some time ago. Marlene & Ron then started searching their iPhones for photos taken during that trip and discovered we had visited Obidos as part of that trip. No way, I said! Sure enough, she had photos of us here. So much for visiting some place new on this trip. The good news for me was I did not remember any of it (obviously a senior moment) so to me it was new! We all had a hearty laugh.

I purchased “pasteis de nata” for us to eat as we walked back to the bus for our return trip to Lisbon. They are still as wonderful as I remembered.

We arrived back at our ship just in time to play trivia once again, still looking for a win! It turns out today was the day!  We got 13/15 answers correct, only missing the following questions: what year did the Cold War end and how many eyes does a bee have? Answers are: 1989 (we guessed 1986) and 5 ( we said 4). Our score was good for 2nd place. We each received tickets worth 2 points, which can be used at the end of the cruise to redeem for “gifts”- like pens, tee shirts ,etc..We are making progress!

Dinner tonight is back at the specialty restaurant called Pacific Rim for a second time, which specializes in Asian inspired dishes. Although we tried a few new dishes the obvious favorite was the tempera fried lobster!

The evening entertainment will be provided by our tour director, who also happens to be an accomplished singer. We were impressed.

Our next stop is Porto Portugal.

 

Steps today were 10,086:  Good for us!

Final note: quit complaining about gasoline prices. Prices here are close to $8/gallon!

Back to the mainland of Spain with a stop at Cadiz.  Most of the ship’s tours headed to Seville, which we had seen on a previous trip so I again looked for an alternative. We were going to visit “The White Villages of Andalusia”, a 5 hour tour of the small villages of Medina-Sidonia and Arcos de la Frontera, where virtually all structures are painted white, thus the name of the tour.

We were lucky to be here today as we were told it was 93 degrees yesterday; today it was nice and cool-mid 70s. Cadiz can be hot and humid in the summer, temperatures often reaching as high as 118 degrees!

Leaving the ship we first drove through the countryside to the hilltop village of Arcos de la Frontera. It is located at an elevation of 607 ft with a population of about 30,000. It is definitely old with evidence of stone age dwellers and Roman ruins in the area. The Moors occupied it in 1011.  As advertised the buildings are white, the streets are narrow and the village is quaint. We walked the streets, went to a territorial  viewpoint and visited an old elaborate church before stopping at a local hotel for some tapa snacks and wine before moving on to another nearby village.

Medina-Sidonia is located at an elevation of 1,106 ft with a population of ~12,000 people. It is considered by some to be one of the oldest villages in Europe. Because of its elevation it was of prime importance as a military defense location. Like Arcos the buildings are white, the streets are narrow and the village is quaint. It was a bit of an uphill hike to get to the village center but we managed.

It was then back to the ship for more drink, food and entertainment. Dinner tonight was back in the Compass Rose dining room and tonight’s entertainment was another show put on by the singers and dancers of the ship’s Production Cast. It was called Diamond Run and featured the music of Lady Gaga, Rihanna, Nancy Sinatra and Michael Buble.

Tomorrow we arrive mid-morning in Lisbon, Portugal, the first of two stops in Portugal.

Steps for the day:  9,577. Not bad!

We were supposed to stop in Casablanca, Morocco today but several weeks ago the cruise line indicated that this port was closed to cruise ships so this is a nearby alternative port that is open, so here we are.

I had to look up this city as I had never knew of its existence. It is one of several Spanish territories like the Canary Islands and Melilla, so I guess I can count it as a new visit on my “countries & territories” list. It has a population of about 84,000 people and is located at the tip of North Africa in a strategic position between the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea. We can see the Rock of Gibraltar from here. Because of its prominent  position it was settled by the Phoenicians in the 1st century BC. It was later ruled by the Moors, then Portugal and eventually deeded to Spain in 1668.

Regent was able to generate a couple of escorted tours in Ceuta, even though it was a last minute scramble. Of the four tours offered the one that read:  “The Past & the Pastries” caught my eye.  Walking from the ship’s dock it was a short (2.5 hours) and offered a narrated tour of nearby sites, ending with a Moroccan breakfast. Sounded like a winner.

We did walk past the old fort (built from 962-18th century) with its tricky path of entry that slowed down any boats trying to invade the city, a pleasant (and very clean) plaza that contained two old churches, learned a bit about the history of the area and the problems they were having with immigrants trying to use Ceuta as a means of getting into Europe (sound familiar?), and finally ending up in a little restaurant for our “Moroccan Breakfast”, which we were looking forward to seeing what it would entail.  The problem is that all we received was a plate with two small cookies and a glass of very sweet hot tea!  Turns out the written description of the tour did not match the title of the tour. We had a good laugh, ate our cookies and returned to the ship for a more substantial lunch.

Dinner tonight was at another of the specialty restaurants:  Prime 7, their signature steak house.  I might point out how Regent manages eating at their specialty restaurants.  Prior to boarding you are allowed to reserve, in advance, one reservation at each of the 3 specialty restaurants on board. They are traditionally much smaller in capacity so some management is needed. Once on board you can attempt to make more reservations for additional meals. Because we have 6 people it is more difficult to find additional time slots as I only saw two tables for 6 -8 people in each locale. It would probably be easier to make additional reservations if you were only a party of 2-4. As it turned out we were able to eat twice in two of the three specialty restaurants during our cruise. Back to our dinner at Prime 7. As I said the specialty is steak, steak and more steak. They did offer other non-steak options but most of our party ordered the filet mignon with a lobster on the side! Because I knew there would be other opportunities for a filet I went with the prime rib for my entree. It seems that the real highlight of the meal was the dessert menu when virtually everyone ordered the sinful popcorn sundae! It is two scoops of ice cream, chocolate sauce, and topped with caramel corn/peanuts!

The entertainment tonight was another show by the hilarious magician/comedian who continued to baffle us with both his wit and slight of hand tricks.

Tonight we sail back to the mainland of Spain with a stop at Cadiz, Spain.

Total steps for the day:  9,433. Not bad.

 

We have been to Malaga previously so I looked for a tour that explored other nearby areas and found one called:  “Tasty & Romantic Malaga” which promised some tasty tapas and a serenade by a local tuna group. No, it is not a group of fishes. In Hispanic countries, a tuna is a group of university students in traditional university dress who play traditional instruments and sing serenades. The tradition originated in Spain and Portugal in the 13th century as a means for students to earn money for food. We have heard such groups in the past and always enjoyed them.  Food and music-cannot get much better that that!

Malaga was founded by the Phoenicians in the 8th century. We were driven to a lookout overlooking Malaga for a spectacular photo stop. From there we were driven to the old town section for a walking tour that included seeing the house where Pablo Picasso was born in 1881 and where he lived until 1891 when his family moved to France.

From there we were escorted to a small wine & tapas bar where we were served a small plate of tapas while being serenaded by a local tuna group. These singers were not college students like those of old but they did sell CDs (Yes, I now own one) to supplement their incomes. We enjoyed a good 20 minute concert of familiar famous Spanish songs, that did not include La Bamba (bummer).

It was then back to the boat for our daily trivia competition. We seem stuck on getting only 11-13 of 15 answers, beat by the same group who always seem to win! Cocktails and snacks were used to sooth our battered egos.

Before dinner a local Spanish dance group, featuring a male & female dancer, backed up by a singer and guitarist,  put on a marvelous show for us. Both dancers were sweating by the end of their performances. They were great.

Dinner tonight was back in the Compass Rose main dining room.

The evening entertainment was performed by a UK singer (Karl Loxley) who had appeared on the UK version of the Voice. He was quite good.

We were supposed to go to Casablanca tomorrow but Morocco has been shut down to cruise ships, so we will be visiting the Spanish colony of Ceuta, located next to Morocco on the African continent.

 

We were able to sleep in- hooray! I am quickly finding out that this itinerary will be very busy, with little opportunity to simply veg out and enjoy the ship. Days at sea offer the chance to relax, attend lectures, play bingo(!), visit parts of the ship you have yet to explore, go to the spa, try your luck at the casino, etc. etc. Here are some photos I took to give you a better feel for what the ship has to offer.

There is a history professor (Dr. Joanne Ferarro, San Diego State University) on board who is offering a series of lectures on Spain which I plan to attend. Yvonne and Marlene opted to try their hand at bingo. I later learned that Yvonne won the first game, earning $44, this making our trip less expensive (hah).

Everyone went their separate ways during the day, which included amps for a few of us.  We met up for trivia (still not winning) and cocktails later in the afternoon in the Observation Lounge which had become our favorite hangout already.

Tonight’s dinner was in one of the three specialty restaurants aboard:  Pacific Rim, which focuses on seafood with an Asian twist. We had heard it was not that well liked. We loved it!  Who could not love lobster, lobster and more lobster!

Tomorrow we are in Malaga, Spain.

 

The last time we were in Barcelona was 2009. At that time we were traveling with friends, Ron & Marlene Massa, who are on this cruise with us. The highlight then was certainly touring the Sagrada Familia (designed by famous Spanish architect, Antoni Gaudi) church which was still under construction (which began in 1883). I do recall we were able to tour inside but it was nowhere being finished. We vowed to return to see the completed church, which was hoped to be done by 2026, the 100th anniversary of Gaudi’s death. Well, it is 2022 so we are a few years too soon but were eager to see the progress made since our last visit. Good news and bad news:  Construction progress has been made BUT because the church is funded only by private money and Covid has limited visitation by paying tourists so the 2026 date will not be met. Hopefully we will live long enough to see it when it is completed.

Backing up a bit.  Because it has been 13 years since we last visited Barcelona we opted to take the 7.5 hour tour called:  “Barcelona’s Iconic Landmarks” which will hit the highlights of the city (and includes lunch!).  Again it was a modest sized group (~ 25) but we were again disappointed that the local tour guides did not have those “whisperers” listening devices that makes it so much easier to hear what the guides were saying. (Many of us did subsequently complain to Regent about them not being available). Perhaps Covid has impacted the ability of local companies to have them.  We managed to hear most of the conversations by staying relatively close to the guide. We first went to the site of the 1992 Barcelona Olympics where there was a grand view over the city.

After some picture opportunities we were next driven to El Poble Espanyol, a recreated traditional Spanish village built for the 1929 International Exposition. This was new to us. Think of it as a Spanish version of EPCOT without rides. Each section of the village was built using architecture from the main regions of Spain. In these areas were artisan shops and restaurants and in some places there was live music. It was interesting and a lot of fun. It was here we were treated to a leisurely, classical Catalan Spanish lunch and had free time to shop (yes, Yvonne and Gael found

handmade scarfs that called out to them) before re-boarding our bus for the continuing tour.

 

We drove past the famous Gaudi apartments/homes that he designed:  Casa Batllo (1904-1906) and Casa Mila (1906-1910). They were certainly outrageous designs at the time, and probably would be considered that even today. He was WAY ahead of his time.

We then abandoned the bus for a walking tour by the UNESCO World Heritage Sagrada Familia (Holy Family), a Catholic minor basilica still under construction. Because of Covid restrictions and huge demand for tickets to view the inside we were only able to view the church from the outside.  We did walk completely around the exterior and received a detailed explanation about what the design is trying to portray. The church is bold; it is exotic; it is beautiful! It is typical Gaudi!

 

The last portion of the tour was a walking tour of old Barcelona and the gothic quarter, including the Catedral de la Santa Creu i Santa Eulalia.

Tired after the long day (12,096 steps!) it was back to the ship for much needed refreshments, dinner and a production show by the singers and dancers.

We vowed to return for a more leisurely visit to Barcelona and hopefully to see the completed Sagrada Familia. Tomorrow is a day at sea.  Hooray, a chance to relax!