Amy & Andy’s Excellent Adventure 2024 Part 2: O Canada Edition/Days 3 & 4 (9/10 & 9/11)

Where We Saw Highlights of Halifax, But Can’t Seem To Count 10 Of Them As Promised, and

An Interesting Visit to Cape Breton (Sydney)

Day 3 Halifax

To everybody out there who really like Halifax, apologies in advance. We found Halifax to be: Ok.

We booked an excursion through the ship called “Top 10 Highlights of Halifax”. Knowing absolutely nothing about Halifax, this sounded like a great idea. It was an all-day excursion, so we assumed there’d be some kind of lunch break.

As the bus left the cruise terminal, our tour guide began describing the sites around us: a grocery store (“Different from *your* grocery stores!” – because you can by legal marijuana), a junior high school, and a few other equally mundane buildings, all on our way to our first stop: the cemetery where some of the victims of the Titanic were buried.

There are about 100ish Titanic victims buried in this cemetery, some of whom were eventually identified, and some not. Each of the bodies that were buried in this cemetery were had a number assigned to them as they were pulled out of the water. The graves are not in number sequence.

Apparently there was a real person named Jack Dawson (per the John Cameron movie from 1998), but his full name was John Joseph Dawson. Since he was in the 3rd class level of the ship, in reality there would be no way for a 3rd class passenger to ever meet a 1st class passenger. But that’s the stuff of movies, literally. We managed to pass by his headstone without taking a photo, mostly because we were in a group of 50, and we didn’t even see it.

This is a photo of the headstone of the “Unknown Child”:

When the bodies were retrieved from the water, their clothes were removed and burned. The person tasked with burning the clothes plucked a pair of children’s shoes from the top and kept them in his attic. Fast forward about 80 years, the family house was sold and the shoes were donated to the Canadian Titanic museum. After much detective work, the shoes were finally identified as belonging to Sidney Leslie Goodwin, who died at the age of 18 months with the rest of his entire family.

You might just be able to make out from this photo that the Titanic victims’ headstones are lined up in the shape of a ship’s hull:

Next up was a long (1 hr+) out to Peggy’s Cove, a beautiful little lobster fishing town, known for it’s fresh lobster rolls and scenic lighthouse.

When we arrived at Peggy’s Cove, the tour guide told us we had an hour before returning to the bus.

It had been 3 hours since the last bathroom break (before we left). The line at the bathroom was formidable. It was also after 1:00, so we had the issue of what to get for lunch that was not lobster (which we don’t eat). We ordered take out turkey sandwiches at the coffee shop that took 20 minutes to arrive. Of our 60 minutes, we had already spent more than half of it just taking care of business.

Andy was able to capture a photo of a schooner going by, apparently something that is a bit rare:

If we’d had more time, we would have been able to wander around the pathways just a bit, but after finishing our sandwiches, there was barely enough time for another bathroom break before getting back on the bus.

We headed back to the city for our next stop. We were dropped off on a street in (what I’m guessing?) downtown Halifax:

We wandered up and down the street a bit, bought something in a shop the tour guide recommended, and then went back to the meeting spot at the entrance of the Halifax Public Gardens. The Halifax Public Gardens were established by the Nova Scotia Horticultural Society in 1834. It’s one of the few remaining examples of a Victorian garden in North America.

Here’s the gazebo restored to its original colors:

This a photo from the “Wedding Bridge”, where people come to stage their wedding photos.

These succulents are dug up every year and kept in the hothouse over the winter

At some point it started to rain, so the group sped up to exit the garden and board the bus.

The bus drove to the top of the Halifax Citadel National Historic site – a 19th century fort. It doesn’t look like we have any photos of the view from the top (the bus didn’t stop and we were on the wrong side of the bus).

That was the end of the tour. It was a pleasant enough day, but not a “wowza”.

Day 4 Sydney

Because we booked this cruise kinda “last minute” (for us anyway), many of the ship’s excursions were already booked up for some of the ports. Sydney was one of them. Instead we booked a private tour through Ventures Ashore. This was our first time using this company (usually we use Viator or ToursByLocals).

Possibly there was some confusion on the company’s end – we met our tour guide, Bill, right on time after disembarking the ship, but he seemed to think there would be more than two of us. Nope, only us two. And when I handed our voucher to Bill’s boss when we exited the cruise port, the boss said he tried to call me. I had no calls from them on my phone, and I had wondered about that.

Good news: it didn’t matter and we were on our way.

The first thing we learned was that Sydney was on an island called Cape Breton. Who knew? Sydney is the only city on the island, though there are towns and villages.

It was a good hour to our first stop: the tiny postoffice in Christmas Island (which is not really an island), Nova Scotia. We’ll be getting our post card that we mailed to ourselves with the “Christmas” postmark.

Next up, the Highlander Village, where a small village was reproduced (maybe some of the buildings were authentic?), and re-enactors dressed in period costume worked in each building (similar and an on a smaller scale than Colonial Williamsburg in VA). Each house seemed to be in a different year in the history of Cape Breton. We spoke to a young woman in a one room log cabin house who’s story was set in 1850.

In another building, we spoke to a carpenter. There was an antique carriage in the work shed.

And here’s the pig. She was busy doing pig things.

Andy visited a couple of buildings that required climbing uphill and/or steps.

I think this was the general store, maybe?

Our tour guide had sorta mentioned we had about an hour, but between totally losing track of time and me having to walk a good chunk of the trail (the transport chair doesn’t do well in gravel), I’m pretty sure we had been gone about 90 minutes when we finally surfaced. Well worth the time.

It was about lunch time as we headed to Bedeck, where Alexander Graham Bell had lived with this family. Because we were running late, we opted for a diner instead of the regular spot he brings his customers. Good food, and we were in-and-out in 30 minutes! We were back on track.

Our tour guide dropped us off at the Alexander Graham Bell museum, where we spent at least an hour, maybe a little more.

Bell was a contemporary of Thomas Edison and Guglielmo Marconi; sometimes their work overlapped.

Bell was involved in the invention of the hydrofoil in the earliest history of flying in Canada:

We had seen a tour group from our ship in the Highlander Village. They had followed us to the diner in Bedeck, and we saw them once again coming into the museum as we were going out. Our tour guide said he’s always happy when he’s just ahead of a ship’s tour group, because then he knows that the ship won’t leave before that group is back on board!

On the way back to Sydney, we stopped a couple of times for scenic photo ops.

Just before returning to the port, we drove through one of the Native American reserves. Their leader, Chief Paul, has done such a good job of improving the lives of his people on the reserve, there’s a running joke (or maybe not) that the city of Sydney wants to recruit him for the next mayoral election.

We had a fantastic day in Cape Breton. It is stunningly beautiful, with super friendly people who are very happy to see tourists!

Tomorrow: Sea day (which is when I’m writing this blog).

Amy & Andy’s Excellent Adventure 2024 Part 2: O Canada Edition Days 1 and 2 (9/8 and 9/9)

Where We Manage To Board The Ship Without Incident

And Spend A Splendid Day In Penobscot Bay

Day 1 was pretty easy.

The only confusion we had was when we arrived at the specified parking lot for the cruise port. There were no signs telling us where to go or what to do, only a machine that wanted to charge us money for something we had already paid.

Eventually a guy (who’s native language is so obviously not English) who sort of pointed us here and there to park. Fortunately, the ship’s shuttle showed up a few minutes later and we were on our way.

Possibly one of the smoothest cruise check-ins ever, with not one hitch and no more than a minute wait any step along the way. We had been warned by the cruise line NOT to show up before our allotted time or we would be turned away. I seriously doubt that would have happened. But our timing was perfect – we arrived exactly at 2:00 anyway.

After boarding, we dropped off our stuff in our room, then grabbed something to eat at the buffet.

Our bags showed up around 4:30 or 5:00. We started unpacking, which is when we noticed this room has almost no storage – 5 drawers to be shared by two people for 11 nights.

At dinner we met our table mates. When I made the reservation back in March, Celebrity gave me two options: 6:00 p.m. or 8:00 p.m., so I picked 6:00 p.m. I had no idea this meant we were assigned a table with the same people for the duration of the cruise. We haven’t seen this since our very first cruise in 1980. The deck 4 restaurant is assigned seating. Deck 5 is for “come whenever” seating. If I had been given that option, that’s what I would have picked.

Good news: the people at our table are very nice, and I’m sure it’ll be fine to eat with them. It’s just…odd.

For a first day, it was pretty good. Not nearly as crazy as the first day on the NCL ship in May; of course there a far fewer people and a much smaller ship.

Day 2 Rockland, Maine

Late yesterday afternoon, we visited the Customer Service desk, which was actually very helpful. We upgrade our wifi package so as to make it useful (this was not clear when I bought the package online a few months ago). And we also asked if we could request to sit at or near the front of the bus for all of our Celebrity booked excursions.

This morning we tested this process. And it worked! It was an entertaining challenge to toddle down the steps of the gangway to the tender boat (a/k/a life boat), but I was able to do it and also climb into the tender. This is the second time we’ve seen steps to a tender gangway – the last time being on the NCL ship last may.

When we arrived at the Rockland tender dock, we had a little bit of a wait for our bus to arrive. And when it did arrive, our stateroom number was on the front seat! Yay!

It was an absolutely perfect weather day – clear skies and temps in the low 70s. We had a scenic drive up to Mt Battie, where we had a panoramic view of Penobscot Bay:

Andy wandered around a bit to a nearby tower:

After 20 minutes of beautiful scenery, we got back on the bus and drove to Camden. We bought a couple of sandwiches for lunch before we made our way to the bay to board the schooner that would take us on a two-hour sail.

The Appledore is a schooner with two masts. We were 46 passengers in total – we had no problem finding a seat. We saw the captain and two crew members; apparently there are more crew members around, but we didn’t see them.

We sailed for 2 hours in the glorious sunshine!

Crew members managing the sails. Passengers were recruited to “help” raise them.

This is the lighthouse that is on the Red Lobster logo

Once we were out into the bay, you could ask to “drive” the boat. This was Andy’s turn. I wondered why the boat was doing weird things….

It was a fantastic afternoon! I just wish I had remembered to bring my sunglasses and visor. The sun was super strong!

Random side note: this morning we realized this was the first time either one of us has been in Maine.

We’re off to dinner soon, followed by the evening’s entertainment.

So far, so good!

Tomorrow: Halifax (and I think a time change to Atlantic Time)

Day 11 Amy & Andy’s Excellent Adventure 2024 Part 1 – Cannes

Another “Day at sea in port” + Cannes + Nice and Eze

I opted for a second day on board ship. We had received a notice that there were steps involved to board the tender. Since I’ve been to Cannes a couple of times before, I was fine with staying on board. I found a good spot in the empty cafe, caught up on blogs, and the servers brought me an endless supply of club soda.

Meanwhile, Susie, Janet, and Stefania went ashore. They had a marvelous lunch. That’s their photobombing server.

Then they went on the little train that goes around Cannes. The film festival is alive and well, and generating traffic.

Andy spent the day on an excursion to Nice and Eze. First he had lunch. This I wish I had been there for.

Driving through Nice, the tour guide pointed out a glimpse of Elton John’s house perched on the mountain.

The arrow is pointing to Elton John’s house

Walking around, he saw some interesting statues.

Inside the Cathedral of Sainte Marie Sainte-Reparate

And, of course, the beach:

I loved Eze the last time we were here. It is crunched into the mountainside. Lots of steps. Lots.

And lots of art everywhere.

The obligatory church photo.

The view from Eze is marvelous.

A view of Eze on the way down the mountain. The square pinkish building is the church. Behind it is an old fort destroyed by Louis XIV in the 15th century.

On the way back from Eze, the tour stopped at a perfume factory. I can’t begin to tell you how glad I am I missed this. I’m allergic to most fragrances (to put it mildly). I would have had to stay outside.

The last tender was supposed to be at 3:00 p.m., but Andy’s tour was running late. This is the advantage of booking a tour through the ship – the ship had to wait and provide the tender.

Tomorrow: Palma de Majorca. I will be back on the trail. We’re supposed to have a private tour starting at 1:00 p.m., but as of dinnertime, Janet hadn’t heard a confirmation. We figure the worst case scenario, we take the shuttle into town to have lunch and go shopping.

Since WordPress tends to use the last photo in the blog as the cover photo, so I’m repeating this here, because I think it’s a better cover photo than the one just above.

Day 10 – Florence

Where Some Of Us Have A Restful Day Off

And Others Choose To Climb Towers

This is going to be pretty short, as nothing much happened.

It was great to have the day “off”. The four of us spent the day hanging out by the pool. I caught up on some blogs. My knee was feeling much better – I was able to walk a bit, albeit still very slowly.

There really wasn’t much of anything to do in Livorno (the port city) anyway. Every time we looked up “things to do in Livorno”, the results pointed to “go to Florence.”

Andy went off on his “Climb The Tower Of Pisa” excursion. The first/last time we were in Pisa in 1999, the tower was closed. I remember there had been cables holding it up, and sand packed into its base to keep it from falling faster than it already was. Since then, the source of the falling was determined and rectified, and the tower fortified.

The bell tower on the right, the church, and the bapistery (round building) on the left

He walked all the way up to these great views.

And of course, the requisite Tower Pose

After he came back to the ship, we spent some time by the pool.

It’s now the time to begin preparations for leaving the ship and going home. We had all received our luggage tags for disembarkation on Sunday; though we’re all on the same flight to NY from Barcelona, somehow we were in two time frames. A visit to Guest Services straightened it out – we’re now all in the same group.

Tomorrow: Cannes {Andy and Tom are going on two different excursions. Janet, Susie, and Stefania will be taking the tender into Cannes to have lunch. Because there are steps involved with boarding the tender (13 to be exact), and my knee isn’t up for any kind of distance walking, I’ll be spending another “day at sea in port”. I’ve been to Cannes twice before, so I’m fine with not visiting this time.}

Day 9 Amy & Andy’s Excellent Adventure Part 1: Roma

Where We Have An Amazing Whirlwind Day In Rome

And Then The Second Thing Went Wrong

Just A Little Bit

Five of us were on a private tour for Rome today – a whirlwind “see all the important things” day. Our driver and tour guide, Paolo, picked us up right on time outside the gate. And he had a step stool to help us get into the van.

Once again a black Mercedes van, this one had the six seats facing each other. Andy and I faced backwards; this was occasionaly annoying when he pointed to things that were behind our heads.

It’s about 90 minutes from Civitavecchia to Rome, and a little further to downtown. First stop: the Trevi Fountain. Even before that: gelato! We have fallen way behind in our gelato quota for this trip.

A couple of us threw the required three coins, to make sure we come back some day and spend a little more time. We had just enough time to finish our gelato.

Next stop: Spanish Steps

Only ten minutes at the Spanish steps – we were on a tight time table. Next stop: the Colosseum. I didn’t realize this tour would include time to go in and walk around.

Titus’ arch greets us as we approach the Colosseum. Somewhere on here is the depiction of Romans carrying the Jerusalem menorah into Rome. We checked both broad sides and didn’t see that scene. It might have been on one of the short sides. We didn’t have the time to figure it out.

Titus’ Arch depicting the ransacking of Jerusalem in 70 CE after the fall of Masada

This is what we were looking for:

The confusion around where we were supposed to go were colossal (see what I did there?). Andy and I were separated from the others for a bit, but we eventually found them.

Andy and I went up to the second level

Next was lunch. Paolo took us to a restaurant obviously known to him, and more confusion ensued. We didn’t realize lunch was included. The servers wanted to bring us a “tasting” menu, but we all knew that wouldn’t work. We all had specific food requirements that we knew a tasting menu would fail (no pork, shellfish, olives, yada yada). We ordered off the regular menu instead – everything was excellent!

After lunch – the real biggies – the Vatican Museum (unfortunately, not enough time for the cathedral).

Our Vatican tour guide was a little weird. He obviously knew his stuff, but seemed oddly indifferent to the mobility issues a couple of us have. He would say: “This is the last elevator, but after this it’s flat”. And then there would be steps. He would insist we do the steps, even when there was an elevator. At one point, the museum staff insisted we take an elevator, even as the guide dashed up and down steps. Even after that particular elevator, there were still more steps down.

In 20/20 hindsight, if I had had an accurate and clear understanding of the path to the Sistine Chapel, I most likely would have made a completely different decision from following the guide blindly up and down steps. But every time I asked about more steps, the guide would say, “Just a few more, just a few more”.

There was one statue that had actual glass eyes. Our guide explained that some statues did have eyes – typically the statues we see and think of don’t, possibly because the glass cracked and broke over the centuries.

Apparently one eye is blue and one eye is brown, but we couldn’t get close enough to see that. Fun that the guy’s head and hand covers just the right spot.

Here’s an interesting tapestry. See if you can see the effect in the photos. As you walk past it, it seems like Jesus’ eyes are following you. The first photo is from the left of the tapestry:

I think the optical illusion only works in person, IMO.

This is the point where things go just a bit awry. The guide had mentioned that we had to go down to the Sistine Chapel – we were on a one way path leading to it. So I asked – is there an elevator. He said, “No, not on this end.” So how many steps are we talking about? “Just a few, just a few”. I said, “Are we talking 5 or 6, or a couple of flights?” “Just a few steps more, just a few”.

Well, “Just a few” turned out to be 3 full flights of steps, a looong way down. I took it very slowly, but I knew my knee was unhappy.

I made it to the chapel; no photographs are allowed, so take my word for it that’s amazing. The guide had spent some time outside explaining the different sections. Here’s a photo of the sign:

After a few minutes, it was time to go. That’s when I realized I couldn’t put weight on my left knee. And we weren’t allowed to use the rented wheelchair in the chapel. With a great deal of help, I hobbled to the other end of the chapel and plopped myself into the chair.

And there was an elevator! Which either he had decided not to tell me about or had been so confusing in his description of things that I hadn’t figured out what he was saying.

The elevator took us straight back up to the main lobby of the museum. I *think* possibly that if I had wanted to use the elevator to see the chapel, I would not have been able to go through the rest of the museum. HOWEVER, *if* I had clearly understood exactly how many steps would be involved (going through the museum and down to the chapel), I might have opted to just do the chapel.

Unfortunately, it was too late.

As I managed to climb into the van for the ride back, the guide said, “I so sorry if I brought this on you!”. Too little, too late.

Note: I had looked up the Vatican museum’s accessibility options. The museum’s website said that most of the museum was accessible, though not all of it. Unfortunately, there had been nothing specific as to the location of elevators or any description of the stairs down to the chapel.

The day had been going soooo well!

The lack of a Florence excursion was now looking like a blessing in disguise. The four ladies would have “a day at sea in port”, while the guys went off on their excursions. We all needed a break, and my knee would have an opportunity to recuperate a bit, leveraging all my doctor proscribed meds.

{Final note: by bedtime, I was able to stand again and walk very, very, very slowly}

Tomorrow: Florence

Day 8 Amy & Andy’s Excellent Adventure 2024 Part 1 – Naples

Where We Take Our First Non-NCL Excursion To Pompeii And Amalfi

Trigger warning, in case you’d rather avoid photos of dead bodies!

We booked a private tour for Pompei, Amalfi, and Ravello, because none of the NCL excursions were viable – all were too difficult in a group setting.

We booked the tour through Viator, something we’ve done many times. The driver, Lucca, arrived at 8:00 a.m. – a half hour earlier than what was on our ticket. But he was patient. He said he was right outside the gate.

We walked off the ship and walked out the gate. No Lucca. As a matter of fact, there were no drivers at all.

Turns out we hadn’t even begun the journey to find Lucca. The ship terminal in Naples is HUGE. Walk down here, turn left there, into the terminal, down another hall past shops, down the elevator and out the door.

Nope, not far enough yet.

Walk through the parking lot through a gate. Nope, not that gate.

Walked through the final gate, and there was Lucca holding up a sign with my name. I guess there’s “gate” and then there’s “gate”.

I had sent info to Viator pertaining to our trip (e.g. we needed a step stool to get in and out of the van), but Lucca had been told nothing. But he went with the flow. He recommended that we skip Ravello, because Ravello is perched at the top of a very high and steep hill. Fine with us!

He drove up a mountain road in the pouring rain on the way to Amalfi. At one point, we hit a goat traffic jam

A rather beleaguered mountain shepherd dog popped out behind them, looking a bit exasperated as the goats went every which way. That dog has a tough job.

As we descended on the other side of the mountain and we approached Amalfi, the rain cleared up and the sun came out.

Amalfi is a beautiful!

We had lunch in a cafe in the main square. We had a great view of this interesting fountain.

After lunch, we were on our way to Pompeii.

We had our own private tour guide in Pompeii. Unfortunately, I didn’t catch his name. He was marvelous – obviously very knowledgable. He easily adapted his itinerary to accommodate us slow walkers.

We first went through the museum.

These are actually plaster casts of the bodies found under the ash.

Vesuvius’ eruption in 79 CE is the first historically documented volcanic eruption. The people of Pompeii were buried under volcanic ash, not lava. Most people died breathing Vesuvius’ toxic fumes as it erupted.

Next stop was the large amphitheater. The acoustics are perfect. When you stand in the exact center of the ring, your voice can be heard everywhere.

Then we made our way to Pompeii’s streets.

Most of Pompeii’s sidewalks are flat. You can see the huge cobblestones in the middle of the street that were typically covered with water, garbage, and sewage. People crossed streets hopping on stepping stones that you can see in this photo. To make it easier for people to walk along the streets, most of the crossings going north/south now have metal grating connecting the stones making a flat surface.

Dining room – three sides that held three beds each for a total of 9 people, who ate reclining. The number 9 is for the 9 muses.

As we headed to the exit, we stopped at the smaller amphitheater

There was a bit of traffic on our way back to the port, but we still made it in plenty of time for all-aboard. Of course, we had to re-trace our steps through the gates, parking lots, elevators, hallways, and finally, the terminal.

What a fantastic day!

Tomorrow: A marathon day in Rome, seeing all the things…

Day 7 Amy & Andy’s Excellent Adventure 2024 Part 1

Where Five Of Us Have A Pleasant Drive Around Messina, Sicily And A Fabulous Lunch. One Of Us Hoped To Hike Up Mt Etna, But Didn’t

And I Realize I’ve Forgotten To Mention The First Thing To Go Wrong

It’s always a little unnerving when there’s an envelope waiting for you when you get back from your days activities. The others had spotted theirs first before dinner a couple of days ago. We didn’t see ours until we went back to the room for the evening.

As I type this on May 23, I don’t remember which day that was. But, one of the reasons I’m in our room catching up on blogs is because of the contents of the letter.

Back on the first way we arrived, we had noticed that none of us that had booked the Norwegian “accessible” excursion to Florence including a visit to the Uffizi to see the David. We all had to make special trips to the excursion desk (open only between 6:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. (i.e. dinnertime)) to get the tickets printed. Susie had an especially difficult time getting the ticket for an excursion she had paid for.

SOOOOOO – the mysterious envelope waiting for us just a couple of days after all that effort? Contained a letter informing us that our Florence excursion was *canceled*.

We scrambled for several days to find an equivalent replacement. I found one that might work via Viator, and we submitted the request to purchase. However, since it was only 2 days off, it was no surprise that there were no drivers available.

We also looked at “things to do in Livorno”, the port where the ship will be docked. Any search brought up “Go To Florence”.

None of the other NCL excursions were viable. They all involved way too much walking and/or taking a chance on finding cabs or ubers exactly when we need them. Plus, the available tickets for the Ufrizi were either way too early in the morning or way too late in the afternoon.

Susie, Janet, and I have been to Florence several times before, but this was supposed to be Stefania’s first visit. Ugh.

Back to the story of Messina.

We obtained our bus stickers and headed to the bus, where, to my surprise, the seat reservation sign was waiting for me on the front seat! Except it had “Mt Etna” printed, then crossed out and “Messina” written in by hand. I guess they had printed it off for Andy’s excursion by mistake.

We started the drive along the beautiful coastline towards the strait of Messina, where we had a photo op

Our tour guide, Julia, told us the strait’s mythological creation story of Scylla and Charybdis, the origin of the phrase “between a rock and a hard place”. It’s only 2 miles from Messina to the mainland, but the tidal currents are very strong, making it difficult to build a bridge. There’s been talk of a bridge for literally millennia. Julia said the current Italian government is once again working to build a bridge across the strait.

She talked about the Sicilian flag, that has a Medusa head at the crux of 3 barefoot, running legs:

Medusa is protecting the island by threatening to turn enemies to stone. This flag is similar to the Isle of Man flag that we saw last summer.

An earthquake in the early 1900s destroyed the entire city. All of the buildings except two have been built since then. One of the big changes the city planners implemented was wide streets (by European standards, anyway). There are none of the tiny, cramped streets typical of many European cities.

The new city was built on top of the rubble of the old one. This is a photo of a church that was one of the two structures to survive. It’s several feet lower than street level – at the original level of the old city.

We next visited the Duomo. First we visited the treasure – a two room museum.

This is the main nave.

It was hard to hear her inside the church – we were not provided with headsets. I missed a lot of what she said.

Our tour was timed to make sure we were outside precisely at noon to watch the mechanical clock do it’s thing. I did record all 12 minutes of its performance. I haven’t figured out yet how to post it (maybe YouTube when I get home).

The lion on the top tier lifts his head and roars, then the rooster on the second tier crows, lastly the figures under the rooster circle around to a familiar tune I can’t remember or name at the moment. I think the figures on the lower levels dance on the quarter hour.

It was truly marvelous. And at least it wasn’t wrapped in scaffolding like the clock in Prague when we were there last.

The tour ended in there. We walked a short distance to a cafe to have lunch. Julia mentioned we should have 3 foods while in Messina: pasta with clams/mussels, cannoli, and Sicilian ice cream (I think she called it gluta?).

The cafe didn’t have an English version of their menu, so we sorta made do with google translate. The server provided us a QR code to the online menu that we could switch to English (after we figured out how to do that). I didn’t find the English translations much help.

Susie and Stefania had the pasta with mussels and clams that they said was fantastic. Janet had a pasta with a pistachio sauce that was also fabulous. I had something called braciolotto that seemed to be some kind of a hamburger like thing? The server said the meat was beef. There were serval small patties on a giant bun. I think the others had a better lunch.

I did have a cannoli. It was amazing, sorta making up for the sandwich. It was HUGE.

As we started walking back, we happened to see Andy on his afternoon run.

We were so close to the ship – we could see it hovering over the other buildings in the port, but we couldn’t seem to get there from here. I think it took us about 10 minutes, but it seemed a lot longer.

At dinner, Andy told us his Mt Etna excursion was very disappointing. Two hours of driving and only one hour on the mountain, with no hiking or walks. Several people came expecting to hike up the mountain. Apparently that would have taken another hour. Considering the entire excursion was 5 hours (most of that driving) and they arrived back hours and hours before all-aboard time, it seemed silly that the excursion couldn’t have been extended to allow for people to hike.

At this point, we had kinda resigned ourselves to a “day at sea while in port” instead of any Florence adventure. This kinda turned out to be a blessing in disguise.

Tomorrow: Naples (Pompeii and Amalfi)

Day 6 Amy & Andy’s Excellent Adventure 2024 Part 1

Sunday, May 19: Corfu, Greece

Where Four Of Us Spent Some Hours On A Bus Driving From One Scenic Spot To Another, Desperately Trying to Stay Awake

And The Other Two Saw A Palace (Of Sorts)

We tried a new strategy today to be able to get on the bus as soon as possible: we would get our bus stickers as usual, but then I’d immediately start walking to the bus.

The meeting place to pick up the bus stickers was the comedy club. When we arrived, the line was all the way down the hall. This did not look good. Someone else saw us standing there with our chair-cane things (I should take a photo of it; it’s very popular), and told us we could just barge into the room and get our stickers – that’s what she did for her sister.

So we did.

I started the trek towards the bus – which hadn’t arrived it. It was already warm, and it was a long long. Apparently I could have asked for assistance (euphemism for “wheelchair”, but I was under the impression that was not allowed except for certain circumstances. As I trudged along the pier, an NCL person told me that because the buses were parked so far away, I could have taken advantage of the assistance. It would have been great to know that.

The bus was just arriving as I made to the end of the pier. An NCL person asked to sit to wait for it to park. Which I did. But then they didn’t tell me it had parked.

No matter – the rest of my crew had just shown up and we were the first ones on the bus.

As the bus filled up, an NCL person handed a piece of paper to the tour guide. She looked at it and seemed completely confused. I saw what it was and exclaimed: “That’s for me!” This didn’t seem to help her, but she gave me the piece of paper. It was the reservation for the front seat of the bus that we had arranged for on the first day on the ship that hadn’t worked on the previous two excursions. Third try is the charm?

The Seat Reservation Finally Works – Just a Couple of Minutes Late

The tour guide was very nice, but she had a very soothing voice. And it was a little warm. This combo resulted in a struggle to stay awake.

Bottom line: I only remember 3 things out of her entire monologue:

Corfu is very old
Corfu was never conquered by the Ottoman Empire
Corfu was once a part of the Venetian empire. You can tell by the Venetian Lion emblems all over the island.

That’s about it.

Our firist stop was at Bella Vista (“beautiful view”)

The little bitty Island on the left is Mouse Island

Driving back down through Corfu, we saw an old fort. No idea if it had an actual name. The guide always referred to it as Old Fort.

We continued driving up to the top of Corfu. The towns were incredibly tiny. This town has two traffic lights – one at each end of the town. You get to wait 7 1/2 minutes for your turn to drive down the single one-way street.

Single lane street with its traffic light

This is view from this last scenic view point:

Then it was time to go back to the ship.

On our way back, we passed by the Church of Holy Mary Madrakina, an historic church in Corfu. It is an extremely popular location for baptisms. So popular that people make reservations more than a year in advance. Andy was able to get a photo of a celebration at the church.

Once again the warmth and the guide’s soothing voice made it extremely difficult to stay awake. Though sometimes watching the driver manage those incredibly tight turns did get the adrenaline flowing for a bit.

Meanwhile, the guys went on a walking tour of Mons Repos Palace. I got the impression it wasn’t much of a palace. But there was a cat.

We had time to hang out for a bit before dinner. You’ll notice that I never mention the evening entertainment. That’s because we hadn’t gone to one yet. The shows just don’t sound interesting, which is weird for NCL.

Tomorrow: Messina, Sicily, Italy

Day 5: Amy & Andy’s Excellent Adventure 2024 Edition Part 1

Day 5: Where We Roam The Ancient Streets Of Dubrovnik, Croatia, But Do Not See Any Dragons

We’ve always heard great things about Dubrovnik, and at last we could find out if all those things were true.

We were booked on a tour on a special bus meant for easy viewing of all the sites. Last night, there was a new ticket in Andy’s name in our room that showed a change to the time and meeting point. There didn’t seem to be such a ticket for me. Everybody else in our group confirmed the new ticket. Uh oh.

We were out on the pier earlier than the designated time, because we needed to talk to someone about my missing ticket. The NCL person at the pier thought I was asking to join the group; eventually she figured out the problem was the missing new ticket.

Except it wasn’t really missing – it was stapled to Andy’s ticket. I don’t know why they did that. It would have been a bit easier if there had been two separate tickets on the desk in our room.

On this excursion, the driver didn’t do anything except drive. There was no tour guide. The driver handed us ear plugs. We plugged ourselves into the bus. We listened to a recording for the next two hours as he drove us along the scenic route to Dubrovnik.

View of our ship from the hills around Dubrovnik

When we arrived in Dubrovnik, it was obvious many other people had the same idea. It’s early in the travel season, and yet it was already super crowded.

If you’ve read my blog before, you know there’s always at least one bathroom story involved. For anybody new to my blog: there’s always at least one bathroom story involved.

There was a public bathroom a couple of blocks away. Of course there was a line, and I joined it. Then the Bathroom Lady called out to me, “LADY LADY COME COME”, so I followed her off the line – through the exit turnstile and past the 1 euro coin machine. So I stood in the next line for the women’s room.

“LADY LADY COME COME”, she called, and grabbed my arm sent me into the men’s room. The stalls, of course, had doors from floor to ceiling; no problem. I came out and there were a couple of guys at the urinals (what urinals? what guys? I didn’t see anything…), so I quickly washed my hands and dashed out of there.

This is not the first time a Bathroom Lady steered me into the men’s room to help me get through the line. And not the first time the guys in the men’s room didn’t pay any attention to me.

We had lunch at a restaurant right by the fortress.

The food was fabulous, our server was great, and it was a beautiful afternoon. Another adventure climbing down and up two flights of stairs for the bathroom, and it was time to roam.

{Note: much, much later in the evening, we realized our server dumped a bunch of bogus food orders on our bill and added an extra 20 euros. So much for our wonderful server}

We followed the crowd into the fortress and the center of Dubrovnik old town.

“Game of Thrones” was filmed in Dubrovnik – I could definitely see why. Many of the shops had “officially licensed Game of Thrones merchandise” that seemed to be mostly refrigerator magnets. Otherwise, no sign of dragons.

If you look to the upper left, you’ll see a staircase. It cost extra to climb up there.

There were super narrow side streets that had steps as well. Andy and Tom decided to climb one of those instead.

Andy in the red cap is on the left. Tom in the red shirt is on the right.

Tom took this photo from the top of the stair case

A photo of Andy taking a selfie at the top.

We took the shuttle bus back to the ship – the price of the shuttle was included in our ticket. If we hadn’t had a ticket, it was $20 each way. Another nickel-and-dime cost.

Tomorrow: Corfu, Greece

Days 3 & 4 Amy & Andy’s Excellent Adventure 2024 Part 1

Where We Reluctantly Leave Venice, And Venice Is So Sad To See Us Go, It Cries Buckets Of Tears

That Is: It Rained. A LOT.

AND

Port 1 – Split, Croatia

I’m combining Days 3 and 4 into one post in an attempt to catch up.

Day 3 – Transfer to the ship

Thursday, May 16 – Departure Day. I don’t think any of us really were ready to leave Venice, but alas, it was time to transfer to the ship and begin the actual cruise.

I had booked a driver through Day Trip – I really like this company. They sent me constant updates as to who our driver was, passed along the request for some mechanism to help us climb into the Mercedes mini-vans (they are ubiquitous here in Europe – if you’ve ever seen one, these vans have a very high step up into the car.

Our assigned driver, Boren, also did a great job of keeping me informed. He even sent me a photo of the step-apparatus that he concocted to help us climb into the van. Is this not amazing?

Apparently he was bringing passengers from our ship (docked in Trieste) *to* Venice, before he picks us up to take us *to* the ship. Unfortunately, as I mentioned above, it was pouring out. Mix that in with the usual traffic around Venice, and Boren ended up being almost an hour late.

Another challenge was that he was not allowed to park in front of our hotel, so he spent extra time looking for a parking spot. When he finally found one, it was across the street in a different parking lot. Andy went out to find him and noticed the sea of black Mercedes mini-vans, making it a fun game to pick out exactly the right one.

Fortunately, a hotel staff member told Boren to bring the van up to the front of the hotel. And so he did. We Tetris-ed ourselves and our luggage into the van, and off we went!

The Italian Country Side As We Zipped By

Boren was fabulous – we made it to the ship in Trieste in about 90 minutes instead of 2 hours. I had requested assistance at the cruise port, so as we were saying goodbye to Boren, cruise ship people swarmed in and loaded our luggage onto carts. Thanks to the assistance, we were able to bypass the Very Long Line that snaked its way into the cruise terminal.

Look at the size of this ship! For sure the biggest one we’ve ever been on:

View of Trieste From The Path To The Ship

Even though Norwegian Cruise Lines (NCL) sent us FOUR separate emails to watch the 90 second safety video, we were required to go to our muster station and check in. It is not clear how we’re supposed to know where our muster station is from the code on our key cards.

THERE ARE *A LOT* OF PEOPLE ON THIS SHIP. AND THEY ARE VERY NOISY. DOESN’T HELP THAT THERE WAS A BAND PLAYING IN THE ATRIUM AS WE MADE OUR WAY TO OUR STATEROOM.

Oh, my apologies for shouting, but, yep there’s a whole lot of people on this ship. The elevators were jammed; it took a few tries to get into an elevator to go to our floor. After we plopped our stuff in our stateroom (which is very nice and roomy for a cruise ship), we made our way to the O’Sheean’s Bar (get it? Oh-shee-an? Ocean?) to meet with our group and finally have lunch at 3:00 p.m. The bar was even louder than the general hallways, but we were in a good spot – in a booth by the window, so there was no one near us. After lunch we dispersed to unpack.

I think all of us had oddball things wrong – in our room, the towel bar fell off on one end and I was missing one of my NCL excursion tickets. Susie’s room had (still has) a broken closet door. Stefania was missing ALL of her excursion tickets. All of us were missing the same ticket – the accessible excursion for Florence. Oddball things, really, but annoying.

We met up for dinner at the Manhattan room – one of the “complimentary” dining rooms, meaning – it’s included in your fare. Or most of it is – we noticed that the included options were limited (and a little boring), so if you wanted a filet mignon: $25 extra, please!

I ordered chicken piccata. Andy ordered the strip steak (included). Neither of us were impressed with the meal.

Good news! Our stateroom was very quiet all night, even with the huge storm outside.

Day 4 – Split, Croatia

The group was split for Split. {Pun intended}.

The women were on an “easy” bus tour to Trogir (a town about an hour from Split), and the men were on a tour of Split itself. Our excursion left at 7:30 a.m. – which meant we were up at Oh-Dark-Thirty. Considering the elevators are in a perpetual rush-hour state, there really wasn’t enough time to go up to deck 16, have breakfast, and make it back down in time.

Plus, yesterday, Andy went to the Excursions Desk to ask if they could reserve a front seat (or near the front) on the buses for our NCL excursions. Unfortunately, that did not work. There was no reserved seat.

The day was off to a rocky start.

Fortunately, the woman who was sitting in the front seat was by herself, and she invited me to sit with her.

Our tour guide for Trogir (pronounced troe-jir (I think)) was wonderful. He promised that the walks from the bus would be short and that he would walk very slowly. Typically when I hear this, I know it’s all from the POV of a tall young man. But he was indeed correct – it was less than 1/3 of a mile from the bus to the Trogir town square, and he did indeed walk very slowly, such that I had no problem keeping up with him.

Trogir is a scenic and ancient little town.

A part of the tour group opted to follow the tour guide to the other side of town. We opted to stay and have some breakfast. I had the most amazing chocolate croissant! It was relaxing to sit in the square in the beautiful weather and eat delicious food!

Eventually we made our way back to the bus. The next stop was a mill where we were going to have a snack of local traditional foods and wines. Apparently the constant winds are great for producing excellent prosciutto. The snack consisted of cheese, prosciutto, olives, bread, and two different wines. I had some cheese and bread, but the ham, olives, and wine I left to everyone else.

Soon we were on our way back to the port. It was only 12:30 – a long day already. There was much discussion about going back into Split, but it was a long walk to the taxi stand to take a taxi into town; then we’d have to reverse the process. Lunch and lounging sounded better.

Andy and I have a strong memory from when we were in Split in 2010? 2011? That the ship was docked right up close and personal to the town. Maybe it was a smaller ship?

Andy and Tom took a different excursion that included a walking tour of Split.

I will come back and add a caption when I find out what this is

I’m guessing this is a city/fortress/castle wall

Split is a beautiful city. The citizens are very proud of what they have accomplished – many olympic and professional athletes have come from Split. Probably an attributing feature: people from Split are ridiculously tall.

I’m going to finish this up for now before we go to dinner. I’m going to leave this here:

Tomorrow: Dubrovnik (a new-to-us city)