Friday, October 23, 2009
Dubrovnik, Croatia
Aren't the orange rooftops just picturesque - this was one of our favorite places. Marty loves the shipping history here.
Messina and Taormina, Sicily 10/22/2009
Marty here- As our cruise approaches the mid-way point (we have been sailing for 6 days), we now are calling Messina, Sicily. Very much a maritime crossroads, with many, many ships & ferries in this very bust port (makes Marty very happy). The Dream docked port side to and we were ahead of the MSC Fantasia. Messina was right outside our balcony stateroom and very busy with many little cars running here & there.
Terrain was very hilly and then mountainous, with volcanoes not too far away (e.g. Mt Etna). We got oof the shiop & immediately boarded a bus for another coastal town called Taormina. A little bit of logistical snafu on where & when we got to board the bus, as the bus did not show up right on time and then could not get close to us on the dock because all the other tour busses were leaving. Finally, down the dock, we met up with the bus & driver and we shortly after on our way.
Amazing that they get these large buses up the hilly/mountainous narrow, winding roads, but they do. The road and highway went through tunnels into mountains and crossed long elevated bridges…very scenic! Not too bad a drive and we arrived Taormina. Cool Sicilian town built into & along the mountains.
We made a point to visit the Greek Theatre, and we got some great still pics & video. Rest of thr time, we wandered around mainly along the main street and did a lot of window shopping. We stopped and had lunch at, believe it or not, an Irish Pub! Marty had a local Messina “birra” (very good btw, and the label had a ship on it-> made Marty very happy), Jeanne, for some reason, thought she was on a western Caribbean cruise and was in Cozumel, because she had a Corona with lime??!! For lunch, we had some freash Breshetta and also yet another pizza, this time Sicilian style, which Jeqnne & I both agreed, was the best so far. Lots of mozzarella cheese that was cooked (mmmm…yum), Fyi, the pizza in Dubrovnik was also VERY good. Crust was excellent and pizza of very good size.
So, at 2:30pm, we re-boarded the bus and rode back to the ship in Messina. No funny andedotes here, like in Venice. Everything went smooth, except the weather, We had gray skies, cludy & periods of rain L. Also, humid (reminded me of Houston!). Overall, Taormina was very cool and we enjoyed it very much. I had a wonderful pistachhio gelato on a cone…the best pistacchio I have EVER tasted J.
Back on the ship, we relaxed up to sail-away. I went up to Serenity (adul area) and bubbled away in a hot tub, way up on deck 14. What a way to say good-bye to Messina, Sicily!
Till our next adventure -- stormy seas on the way. More to come!!
Marty and Jeanne
Terrain was very hilly and then mountainous, with volcanoes not too far away (e.g. Mt Etna). We got oof the shiop & immediately boarded a bus for another coastal town called Taormina. A little bit of logistical snafu on where & when we got to board the bus, as the bus did not show up right on time and then could not get close to us on the dock because all the other tour busses were leaving. Finally, down the dock, we met up with the bus & driver and we shortly after on our way.
Amazing that they get these large buses up the hilly/mountainous narrow, winding roads, but they do. The road and highway went through tunnels into mountains and crossed long elevated bridges…very scenic! Not too bad a drive and we arrived Taormina. Cool Sicilian town built into & along the mountains.
We made a point to visit the Greek Theatre, and we got some great still pics & video. Rest of thr time, we wandered around mainly along the main street and did a lot of window shopping. We stopped and had lunch at, believe it or not, an Irish Pub! Marty had a local Messina “birra” (very good btw, and the label had a ship on it-> made Marty very happy), Jeanne, for some reason, thought she was on a western Caribbean cruise and was in Cozumel, because she had a Corona with lime??!! For lunch, we had some freash Breshetta and also yet another pizza, this time Sicilian style, which Jeqnne & I both agreed, was the best so far. Lots of mozzarella cheese that was cooked (mmmm…yum), Fyi, the pizza in Dubrovnik was also VERY good. Crust was excellent and pizza of very good size.
So, at 2:30pm, we re-boarded the bus and rode back to the ship in Messina. No funny andedotes here, like in Venice. Everything went smooth, except the weather, We had gray skies, cludy & periods of rain L. Also, humid (reminded me of Houston!). Overall, Taormina was very cool and we enjoyed it very much. I had a wonderful pistachhio gelato on a cone…the best pistacchio I have EVER tasted J.
Back on the ship, we relaxed up to sail-away. I went up to Serenity (adul area) and bubbled away in a hot tub, way up on deck 14. What a way to say good-bye to Messina, Sicily!
Till our next adventure -- stormy seas on the way. More to come!!
Marty and Jeanne
Day at Sea - Wednesday
October 21, 2009 Day at Sea
This is Jeanne - It started out with a 7:50 wake up call for our 8 am pilates class. Okay, that was a killer, my muscles may be sore the rest of this trip. But we had all these extra spa amenities with our room so we wanted to use as many as possible. We have full use of the mineral pools, saunas, and heated chair room. We also got a couple of free classes like yoga and pilates so we thought we try it out. It took me 3 days to recover from yoga and now I think it will be another 3 or 4 to recover from pilates. It’s a low impact workout but very intense. Carnival was taping and photographing the session for a marketing promotion. It will be interesting if we end up on a brochure and very funny since we had never done pilates before.
Marty and Jesse ventured to the pools and the water slides today while it was sunny. It’s still not too warm but it was nice this morning and got cloudy this afternoon. Kirsten and I just taped them so they could have memories of the slides. Then we played Bingo again and other games. Tonight is one of the big shows and some country dancing.
Tomorrow we head onto the island of Sicily. We will write more after our tour of Messina and Taormina. We may even see the volcano - Mt Etna- early tomorrow morning while it is still dark as we cruise into port. More to come. Marty will try to get pictures posted soon.
But first Marty with a funny story - a continuation of Venice...
Yet another funny anecdote that happened in Venice. After I proposed to Jeanne, we were walking back when this old, short, tooth-missing flower guy, comes up to us looking to sell yellow & red roses. 2 of the roses were still in decent shape, but the others left a little to be desired. Anyway, flower guy hit me up at the perfect time, as I had JUST proposed…so. I HAD to buy Jeanne these roses.
I told flower guy 5 Euros but told him I only had a 20 E bill. He said he had change..”no problem”. I gave him the 20, he gave me the roses then only 5 E back! I said, “hey” where is my other 10 E? He then grinned with his front tooth missing grin, and proceeded to pat me and Jeanne on our shoulder and said we “were very nice”. When I again said, “where is my 10 other Euros?’, he simply turned and walked away!!
My reaction was not of anger, but I thought it simply funny and just another anecdote that happened to us in Venice. Just the sight of this small old man walking away without a word was priceless. He got a good tip for those dingy roses…however; as it marked Jeanne & my engagement to each other, these were the most beautiful roses in the world and this was a humorous memory we will always have!!
Love Ya -- Marty and Jeanne
This is Jeanne - It started out with a 7:50 wake up call for our 8 am pilates class. Okay, that was a killer, my muscles may be sore the rest of this trip. But we had all these extra spa amenities with our room so we wanted to use as many as possible. We have full use of the mineral pools, saunas, and heated chair room. We also got a couple of free classes like yoga and pilates so we thought we try it out. It took me 3 days to recover from yoga and now I think it will be another 3 or 4 to recover from pilates. It’s a low impact workout but very intense. Carnival was taping and photographing the session for a marketing promotion. It will be interesting if we end up on a brochure and very funny since we had never done pilates before.
Marty and Jesse ventured to the pools and the water slides today while it was sunny. It’s still not too warm but it was nice this morning and got cloudy this afternoon. Kirsten and I just taped them so they could have memories of the slides. Then we played Bingo again and other games. Tonight is one of the big shows and some country dancing.
Tomorrow we head onto the island of Sicily. We will write more after our tour of Messina and Taormina. We may even see the volcano - Mt Etna- early tomorrow morning while it is still dark as we cruise into port. More to come. Marty will try to get pictures posted soon.
But first Marty with a funny story - a continuation of Venice...
Yet another funny anecdote that happened in Venice. After I proposed to Jeanne, we were walking back when this old, short, tooth-missing flower guy, comes up to us looking to sell yellow & red roses. 2 of the roses were still in decent shape, but the others left a little to be desired. Anyway, flower guy hit me up at the perfect time, as I had JUST proposed…so. I HAD to buy Jeanne these roses.
I told flower guy 5 Euros but told him I only had a 20 E bill. He said he had change..”no problem”. I gave him the 20, he gave me the roses then only 5 E back! I said, “hey” where is my other 10 E? He then grinned with his front tooth missing grin, and proceeded to pat me and Jeanne on our shoulder and said we “were very nice”. When I again said, “where is my 10 other Euros?’, he simply turned and walked away!!
My reaction was not of anger, but I thought it simply funny and just another anecdote that happened to us in Venice. Just the sight of this small old man walking away without a word was priceless. He got a good tip for those dingy roses…however; as it marked Jeanne & my engagement to each other, these were the most beautiful roses in the world and this was a humorous memory we will always have!!
Love Ya -- Marty and Jeanne
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Dubrovnik
October 20, 2009 - Dubrovnik, Croatia - on the other side of the Adriatic we spent the day. This city and country is spectacular. All the stone buildings with orange terra cotta roofs. It is the cleanest place we’ve been. This village was bombed back in 1991-1992 by the Serbians. They have cleaned up, rebuilt and it is the first really friendly place we’ve been. Everyone was nice to us and helped us, even teaching us a few words. It is also very clean. There is a wall around the city. This is a very old port city which has been active since the 1500s probably longer than that. We visited the maritme museum and several old churches and cathedrals. The city is built completely in the hills so everything is a maze of step up and back down into the center of the “Old town” - very cool. We definitely got our exercise this day. Such a wonderful place, this is one country we would definitely like to come back to and visit for a longer period of time. The scenic views are breathtaking and relaxing.
We did have a funny story here too - The public restrooms in Italy charge a fee of 1 or 1 1/2 Eurose which is equal to 2 dollars or so just to use the facilities. amazingly they are clean, but the idea of paying and using a turnstile is pretty funny. In one of the small towns - Amalfi - there was a little old lady collecting the money ane this is an old town, so the accomodations were not modern, but still okay -- you just didn't know where the money was going for sure. But the funny part was she was handing our the paper towels and you could only get one piece. Then we go to Croatia - there is a public restroom near wher the buses leave you. Only the rooms are very small - there are 5 stalls - 4 of them literally have only a hole in the ground with a vent and handles on the walls. I lucked out with the one stall that had a real toilet but I could hear all the women talking and laughing. It was the funniest thing. Needless to say, I really did not drink much in Dubrovnik all day. Ha! Ha! Ha!
Tomorrow we are at sea! Till our next story
Lots of love to everyone!
Jeanne and Marty
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