Cruise: Spain, Italy, UK, France (October 8 - 19, 2017)

Mediterranean Cruise

Flew to Paris (France: Bonjour) then flew to Barcelona, Spain (Hola) - sailed from there to Alicante, Spain - Cadiz, Spain - Gibraltar, UK - Sete, France - Marseille, France - Livorno, Italy (Ciao) - and finally, Ajaccio, France

Our route 🚕 to Moscow airport, ✈ to Paris, 🚆 to the centre of Paris, 🚆 back to airport hotel, ✈ from Paris to Barcelona, 🚌 to downtown Barcelona, 👫 to cruise shuttle bus,🚢 for 10 nights, 🚌 to airport, ✈ back to Moscow (via Paris)

Day 1, Oct. 8th: Paris, France

Taking the train into downtown Paris!

The famous Notre Dame de Paris Cathedral (aka 'Our lady of Paris' Cathedral). This is the most visited site in Paris (10 million tourists / year). We were lucky, it wasn't too busy. Work on the cathedral started in 1163. It took 182 years to complete (in 1345). The interior is 425 feet long, 150 feet wide and 115 feet tall. It can hold 5000 worshipers!

Beautiful internet shot of the whole building - we missed getting this shot - didn't go on that side of it. 😕

Inside the grand cathedral

The stained-glass pieces were huge & incredible!

Model of Notre Dame Cathedral

A lovely, leisurely walk along the Seine River

A random rock climbing opportunity! I saw this little kid doing it, which, of course, encouraged me to do it! 💪😜

Back of the Louvre- the famous pyramid from the Tom Hanks movie "The Da Vinci Code" - I didn't quite get the point location right (you can see the pained look on my face from Craig saying "move this way, move that way"... think I was a little tired! lol). The Louve Museum is the largest art museum in the world. It was originally built as a fortress around the year 1200. We did not have time to go inside, but we're ok with that - The Hermitage in St. Petersburg was large enough for us!

Tom Hanks photo from internet

The mini Arc de Triomphe by the Louvre. Beyond the arch is the Place de la Concorde and nice park walkway towards the Champs-Elysées

When we saw the Eiffel tower for the first time from a distance (further away than in this picture) we honestly didn't think that was it! I thought it was a radio tower! lol Kind of like when we saw the Bolshoi Theatre for the first time - we didn't recognize it.

The real Arc de Triomphe - built in 1806 and 1836 and is located at the Western end of the Champs-Élysées. It's located in the world's largest traffic roundabout and was built in honour of those who fought for France (in particular, those who fought in the Napoleonic Wars). Since it is triumphant, I figured a jump shot was in order. You have to stand basically in the middle of the street to get this shot and people line up to do it.

Photo from internet showing a climate protest. We were not there during the protest, but in the picture above this one we are standing where the red dot is on the picture. The crazy things one does for a good photo! 🙀

Alas, we are close to the Eiffel tower and now we truly recognize the iconic structure!

Killing time waiting for our 8 pm time to go up in the tower

The lights came on and every hour and for 5 minutes white lights flash

The Eiffel Tower was constructed from 1887-89 and although initially criticized, it's now a global cultural icon of France. The height of the tower is 324 metres - so quite a bit shorter than Canada's CN Tower. The Eiffel tower is about the height of an 81-storey building.

View of the Seine from up top at night

Au revoir Paris! Je t'aime.

Day 2, Oct. 9th - embarkation day 😁

A view of some of the pallets of food for the ship

Main dining room at the back of the ship

1st stop, Oct. 10th: Alicante, Spain

 Alicante is a historical Mediterranean port ruled by the Romans for over 700 years. It was also a battlefield many times over. Tourism is big here with over 80,000 cruise ship passengers annually.

Statue of Icarus in the marina of Alicante.

The beautiful marble walkway very close to the marina and the start of our free walking tour.

The quaint streets  - it was a cute town

The "mercando central" or Central Market

After our walking tour we decided to climb to the top of the Santa Barbara Castle.

Beautiful views on the way up - our cruise ship is the one on the right with the "X" on it. This looks like I'm standing in a very dangerous spot, but really I'm not.

Selfies with a real camera really aren't easy!

My soldier boy standing guard - guess Spaniards are shorter!

You so strong baby!

Our camera on a self-timer looking down the barrel of this cannon.

The beach was beautiful here! Lots of soft sand with very few obstacles in the water and several nudies along the way including a 90 year old lady. We didn't have our bathing suits for this, but honestly should have - would have been a perfect way to end the day after climbing the castle.

Craig enjoying the sunshine and the heat

View of castle from the ship

Internet panoramic photo of Alicante.

Back on the ship in time for dinner! Heaven forbid we miss out on a free meal aboard! :)

Smallest appetizer ever! Needless to say, Craig ordered several others to fill him up!

October 11th: Day @ sea

2nd Stop, Oct. 12th: Cadiz, Spain

 In Cadiz we ditched the guided tour and did a self-guided walking tour (Craig's awesome at those). Most people went to Seville from this port, but we are glad we just wandered around on our own here.
Cadiz is a port city in southwestern Spain and is sometimes considered one of the most ancient cities still standing in Western Europe. It is the home port of the Spanish Navy also.

Cadiz Cathedral built between 1722 - 1838. It was built with the money from the trade between Spain and America, so it's sometimes referred to as "The Cathedral of the Americas"

That's a LOT of silver!

Going down into the crypt

Going up in the tower (we love our tower climbs)

Giant rubber trees - cool!

Beach in Cadiz - we brought our bathing suits to swim here, but it wasn't great - lots of rocks, so we decided against it.

Great internet photo of the Cadiz Cathedral 

 

For you Aunt Judy...😘

Enjoying his beer & olives after walking around

Gross! Sea urchins.

3rd stop, Friday, Oct. 13th (oooh, scary)💀: Gibraltar, UK

Gibraltar is a British overseas territory located on the southern end of the Iberian Peninsula and shares a border with Spain. Across the passage is Morocco. It's weird coming into this port because it feels very Spanish and the British accent seems strange to hear. At the bottom of the rock of Gibraltar is a densely populated town of 30,000 people (Gibraltarians and other nationalities). Gibraltar was captured from Spain in 1704 by an Anglo-Dutch force and subsequently ceded to Great Britan in 1713. It was an important base in WWII as it controlled the passage to the Mediterranean Sea (only 13 km's wide). It is still a point of contention with Spain who asserts a claim to the territory.
 

Below - "The Rock" from the ship as we entered port. Beautiful! 

I didn't pack very well for this trip - the forecast said it was supposed to be only about 20 degrees in all ports, but turned out to be much hotter than that in most. This means I ended up wearing the same thing several times.

Excited to go up!

LOVE it! It was fascinating to me to be so up close and personal to these curious, human-like creatures - the Barbary Apes of Gibraltar

Here it looks like he's contemplating life, but in reality, he's probably seeing if someone up there is being fed and he's missing out.

Comfy? They have such soft looking hands and feet!

Beautiful views from up top! Awesome views, awesome day!

So, Craig totally deserved this! lol They warned us that if you open a bag or eat food there that the apes would be on top of you trying to get at it. So, what did Craig do? He opened his backpack and immediately these two little guys were on him. I was trying to get a photo quickly, but missed some great shots unfortunately. These two aren't too bad though. Notice they're right in there. Craig also fed them (totally illegal - I believe a 500 pound fine), but he apparently could not resist. They say that at least one person a day gets bit because when people feed them, many come running and fight over it and if the human happens to get in the middle of that... watch out!

Craig being so thoughtful to bend down to get the apes off his back... even though they can jump from much higher than his shoulder height! 🙉

 They're very playful little guys - here's one playing in the fountain

Shoot! Why didn't you tell me to put my hand in the hole Craig!

Adorable!

 I love this shot! They're SO agile! I kept thinking as they jumped over things that they were going to fall to their death, but they had absolutely no fear.
 

You don't look so happy big fella...  🐒

 I could have watched the apes all day - they're so fascinating, but we had to move on.. next on top was St. Michael's Cave. It was very beautiful and impressive, but they had too much lighting effects and music - it would have been better a little more natural.

 

You so strong again!

 After the cave we started walking down the mountain. We had paid for return tickets in the cable car, but we wanted to explore more on the way down. We saw these poor suckers walking up (a steep and long walk), so Craig was sweet to give them our tickets so they could take the cable car back down.

 This is awesome being so close to nature. I'm a little leery (as you can probably tell by my expression), but still loving it!

This guy is awesome just chillin' on the railing

 I could have gone without seeing a sign for snakes!

 Craig & the big guns

 

 Bye bye (or should I say toodle-oo) Gibraltar, it was awesome visiting!

Oct. 14th: day @ sea

We participated in a unique dance party called "Silent disco". Everyone wears headphones and have a choice of 3 channels. Green was the DJ, blue was 50's and red was disco. So, everyone was dancing and singing according to whatever channel they chose to listen to. Other than the area being too well lit, it was fun and unique. It was funnier though when you took your headphones off and you can no longer hear any music, just people singing off key to various tunes! Good job Celebrity for coming up with this concept! Craig was a little under the weather that night (he caught my cold), but he was a trooper.

We did get up after a few minutes and dance!

blurry, but you get the idea

This is a martini bar - the counter is ice.

Craig's almost nightly treat in Cafe al Bacio

4th Stop, Oct. 15th: Sete, France 

 Known as the Venice of France because of all the canals, Sete is a cute little town of about 50,000 people. Here we decided to get a little exercise and walk to the top of Mont St. Clair. Most of the shops were closed (Sunday), so shopping was out. The day started out a little cool, but we quickly warmed up as we began the assent up very steep roads and then stairs. A nice view from the top and then back down the mountain and back to the ship for lunch!

I should have moved to the side so you could see the long staircase.

Next up, stop # 5: Marseille, France

At the port of Marseille Craig had a big day planned for us and 6 others (he arranged it through cruisecritic with provence-connection-tours.com).
We were so silly, the group was waiting for the announcement that we had cleared the port and could go ashore. You'd think after several cruises we would know that they don't make any announcements over the PA before 8 am... so, we were supposed to meet our guide at 7:30 am, but we hadn't heard anything. About 7:50 Craig looked outside and saw that people were getting off the ship! It wasn't the smoothest of starts, but a little after 8 am we were off and the sun was just coming up over the mountains. Simon, our guide, was a young ginger-man (not from Paris, people from Marseille aren't so fond of people from Paris). He was pretty chilled (until we discussed politics and then his inner potty mouth came out). We really enjoyed our tour with him that day along with Tammy & Kelly (Winnipeg), Al & Marcia, Roger & Connie
Our tour started in Marseille. We drove up the winding streets to the Basilica of Notre Dame. 

It was still pretty hazy when we arrived at the top, but still a lovely view of the city.

The sun peeked over the mountains burning off some of the haze and lighting up the buildings

 

The Basilica of Notre Dame - Marseille

Inside - I like the unique two-tone stone

 

 

The Marseille Cathedral you can clearly see from Notre Dame Basilica

The sunbeams peeking through the clouds as we were heading down the hill from Notre Dame

After seeing the basilica in Marseille we all jumped back in the van to Aix-en-Provence (about a 30 minute drive from port of Marseille). The small hotels here were former residences of the elite families of the day. The names of these hotels are the family name of those who once owned it.

Group shot in an old courtyard in Aix-en-Provence

A beautiful tutu in a gorgeous ballet shop in town

Craig being Curious George by asking Simon questions about the arch

Nougat candy seen everywhere - it's made with sugar or honey, roasted nuts, whipped egg whites and chopped candied fruit. Not really my thing, but it was quite popular and looked nice! 

 

Church in the beautiful old town of Aix-en-Provence. We loved wandering around the streets, seeing the markets and shops

Craig found this awesome spot in the market where they sold fresh salami, bread and cheese and at one end you could get this awesome sandwich made. The black thing with the plug is a heater which is heating up the cheese block below and warming the baguette on top! For about 5 Euros we enjoyed a delicious, fresh sandwich

Craig anxiously awaiting his sandwich... along with several others

Another group shot... behind us is an "AIX" sign - for Aix-en-Provence

From here we headed to Cassis (apparently people from here do not pronounce the "s" on the end and only Parisians do). The best part, in my opinion, of this area was visiting it from above on top of Cap Canaille cliff. Here, there are zero safety measures and apparently it is a common site for people wishing to commit suicide. It offers amazing views of the bay in town with the amazing turquoise waters.

Not going to lie... my legs were shaking a little as I posed by the edge of the cliff. No jump shot here!

Although you can see the shadow of Simon's arms in this photo, it's my favorite because you can see the shoreline of the town of Cassis below

Are they leaning forward because they're chicken? 🐔

Happy selfie!

The only picture from town worth sharing. Although it was cute, it wasn't all that picturesque (to me). We would have enjoyed a nice seafood lunch here, but MAN, it's expensive!

Sunset as we sailed away from Marseille and enjoyed our lobster dinner that evening!

Next stop #6: Livorno, Italy


We've been to the port of Livorno before on a cruise (and stopped in Pisa), so instead of going to Florence like many other cruisers did, we chose to see Cinque Terre with a quick stop in Pisa. Craig arranged this tour also - it ended up being 3 vans with 23 people. 2/3 vans would stop at Pisa after Cinque Terre. On our bus were Tammy & Kelly again, Geoff & Joanne (Toronto), and Joanne & Elton (USA). It was over an hour to get to Cinque Terre, but it was a beautiful drive. We arrived first to Riomaggiore - walked down the hill through town and from there took a ferry (I think it was about 11 Euros each for that ticket) on our own to Vernazza. Beautiful views from the water - much better than taking the van. We wandered through that town up to our waiting van. From there, Juliano (our desperately-seeking-love-driver) drove us up, up, up to Corniglia where we had a yummy seafood/pizza lunch. I had some fresh spaghetti with garlic and olive oil (amazingly tasty for something so simple) and added scampi to that. Yum! After lunch, because we were heading to Pisa, we didn't hit the 4th of 5 towns - Manarola. Instead, we did a quick pitstop in Pisa just to try to get that perfect shot with the tower again.

Views along the way to Cinque Terre (meaning "five lands)

Italian Navy port along the way

Steep cliffs - the sticks are the "fence" along the road. They had a cool little monorail system for the farmers to get around to their cliff side vineyards

Internet photo of the monorail system in Cinque Terre area - wouldn't want his job! What happens if the engine fails?

Internet photo - I swear the colours are touched up in all Cinque Terre internet photos because the colours aren't as vibrant in person. Although we really did love it, we were a teeny bit disappointed because the colours were more subdue than we expected.

The vineyard terraces along the cliff-side in the Cinque Terre area

One of the great couples we met on the ship: Joanne & Geoff from Toronto. We hope they will invite us to come visit them at their cottage in the Muskoka's. 🤞

Cool narrow staircase in Riomaggiore

Craig matches the landscape!

Another one of the great couples we met on our trip: Kelly & Tammy from Winnipeg

Beautiful view of Riomaggiore from near the ferry embarkation spot

Our ferry is coming, but we managed to get a few pictures in before it arrived

View of Riomaggiore from the ferry. That cement slab on the bottom right of picture is the spot where you catch the ferry.

Oops! 🙀 Pulling a "Marilyn Monroe" with my skirt because of the wind on the ferry

We made it to Vernazza

Some of the gang of 3 vans for lunch in Corniglia

The core gang

Craig made the van stop to take this photo that shows all 5 of the 5 "Cinque Terre"s

Approaching the tower in Pisa

 

 Still didn't QUITE get the angle right.

 This photo is for you Francine & Alain... Craig by the pizza station with his medal

 Last stop # 7: Ajaccio, France

 Since the dock was on our side of the ship, I stayed in the room and Craig went out to take the picture of me in our room

 We had a Russian man take our photo with the ship and our room is highlighted on the ship

The beach in Ajaccio was gorgeous with soft sand and very few obstructions in the water. Craig went for a refreshing swim.

 Proof he got in!

 The town is quite cute - we really enjoyed it much more than we were expecting to. The Napoleon museum is here, but we didn't go in.

 After the wonderful last port day in Ajaccio the core group all met up at the back bar right after lunch where we stayed until 5:30 when we had to go get ready for dinner! Many Bahama Mama's were consumed

 After dinner we met again in Café al Bacio. Craig liked Tammy's "big hair". She tried to make it look like he had some, but it didn't quite work.

 Some of us were way more drunk than others as at least one of them consumed an entire bottle of wine with dinner after Bahama Mamas all afternoon. Fun end to a fun vacation!

Craig hired a taxi through "Bob's Limousine" (not a limo, but a van) for 8 of us. All went smoothly and we were at the Rome airport in no time (approx. 45 minutes) at 45 Euros per couple instead of way more through the ship.