Transatlantic Cruise and Spain ports

1. Transatlantic Trip to Europe 2013
   Preparation for a trip…the agony and the ecstasy.  You can’t complain because you are going on a month long trip to Europe by ship, but at the same time, you have to think of everything that you might need in that time frame, plan everything and make sure the parts work seamlessly or with huge cracks.  The only pleasant part about preparing for this trip was getting together for goodbyes and the goodbye that we got from Michigan.  Saturday morning we went to Coffee and friends to say goodbye to everyone in Sunset Shores and get hugs and well wishes.  We got some errands done and then prepared to become professional smugglers.  We went early to Steph and Mark’s to cork a bottle of “wine” for the trip because you can bring two bottles of wine on a cruise and this one was going to be bourbon for John on the trip.  I must say that while I played Barbies with Viktoria and Stephanie cooked, Mark and John made a very professional looking bottle of wine for us to take with us.  The most priceless moment of the night was Mark telling the story of Viktoria getting in trouble on the playground for hitting.  Stephanie pointed out that the kids had been told not to hit each other, but no one had said that they couldn’t hit themselves.  So, when asked what she had gotten in trouble for with some boys on the playground, Viktoria replied, “Hitting myself in the nuts.” After great food with great fellowship, see above photo, we went off to the last hockey game we will attend of this season at Ferris.
      Western Michigan is the rival for Ferris and we have lost 10 straight meetings with this team.  To say that things got physical early, would be putting it lightly.  I got to see Dr. LaFleur at the game , our dentist (which is much more pleasant when he’s not working on your teeth) and got toffee from one of the hockey players’ mothers simply because John had tortured her son last year in class.  Then the game got interesting.  To say that this was the worse officiating I had ever seen would be to reveal my bias and my short memory of replacement refs in the NFL this season, but it was close…The picture that John took of 5 Ferris players in the box at one time, does not even show the two players that had already been kicked out of the game in this one scuffle.  After much yelling, a goal in the last two minutes, and a thrilling shoot out, Ferris pulled off a win over the number one team in the CCHA which was brilliant and a thrilling beginning to a long vacation. 
   
   
   
   
   Day 1  Leaving Michigan
   I woke up earlier than the alarm which is pretty common when there is a trip to go on, but the weird thing was the sun was up by that time…in winter…in Michigan.  I have gotten so used to waking up in pitch black that this was the first time that I realized that the days are actually getting longer even if the temperature is getting into the single digits.  With plowing done on Sat and several more inches expected today, Michigan obliged us by making it easy to want to get the hell out of there.  Ali was kind enough to not only provide door to airport shuttle service, she even brought fruit cocktail cake for breakfast complete with utensils.  We were able to get to GR in good time and it only started to look ugly when we got to the airport.  After bidding our awesome chauffeur adieu, we checked a bag, got through security and waited for the plane to arrive after our departure time.  With 3 hours in the Baltimore airport for a layover, we were able to be blasé about the whole thing, but I’m sure some others were getting ancy.  Once we finally boarded, you can see the nice neon green that the paint the wings with de-icer up here before you leave the ground (those of us from the south, can’t imagine such a things).  Baltimore has a very nice airport that I have never been to before, so we had a pleasant layover with a big meal which was fortuitous as it turned out.  We arrived early in Fort Lauderdale and being used to Atlanta, DC, Europe’s transit systems, we had decided to take the Tri-Rail to Miami where are hotel was for the night.  We were able to catch that the halftime show was about to start on the Superbowl and then realized that it would be 30 minutes for the next shuttle bus to the rail station as it does not run through the airport like the pictures and map on the internet shows.  And once there, we would be catching a 9:30 train that would be the last of the night and an hour later than arriving at the station because it was a weekend.  This was all a bit irksome, but still not bad until the shuttle didn’t come…and didn’t come, but at least there were other people waiting for it with us.  Another traveler from out of state, thought that this would be easy like us and we struck up some conversation with him. 
      All of this led to the truly interesting part of the first day because our shuttle arrived about 15 minutes late with the a lost son of Mario Andretti at the wheel.  Not only did he have the radio on full blast to catch the game, but he left the curb before anyone was seated and drove at a pace that was alarming in a pick up area of an airport.  We had a couple more stops and the mere millimeters between us and other cars, buses, shuttles, people made John just say “wow, wow, WOW” several times.  There was much honking, yelling, and feeling like we were already in Europe with this man at the wheel taking us around at breakneck speeds.  All this time, the radio is making it clear that power has gone out at the Superbowl which makes the entire experience one of the surreal. 
      Arriving at the rail station, we are able to get our tickets and take up conversation again with our fellow traveler who is a Pentecostal pastor from West Virginia dressed like a mafia boss.  He did say that he was reluctant to buy Sean Coombs “Puff Daddy” suits until he realized how comfortable they are.  Yes, we had a meaningful 45 minute discussion about officiating funerals, congregation sizes, and such ….this is why one travels… the train was impressive when it finally arrived and full of people as you can see from the pictures.  Still, another 30 minutes to another shuttle bus that took us to Miami airport where we called the shuttle for our hotel which was another 30 minutes and you get the picture.  We landed at Fort Lauderdale at 7:45pm and entered our hotel room at 11:30pm, but decided that it was training for using public transport in Europe when we got there. 
      Rant:  I had a premonition while acting as travel agent that I had gotten the wrong dates for the cruise, for a hotel, for a plane flight and when you are booking multiple things on multiple days at multiple websites in which some use the US way of dating : 2-4-13 and some the European way: 4-2-13, there is bound to be a glitch right.  Well, it came early this time…the Miami hotel could not find us in the computer when we got here even though we had our hotels.com confirmation and it was John that noticed that I had booked the hotel for 3-3-13 not Feb 3…we did decide to alert the check in clerk about this and luckily, they had a room, the rate was cheaper tonite than the night we booked and we were able to cancel the hotels.com reservation with very little problem.  It all went to our advantage and that bothers me on a fundamental level, because this can’t be the glitch if it didn’t cause any suffering.  I had many observations about airports and people and mankind while on the first leg, but I’ll leave those for when there is nothing to report on the ship and fill time with those things.  For now, we get on our shuttle to the port and get on our ship where we will not have any internet.  So, John will have to be my ear again for all my little observations and thoughts until I can pass them on to you when we get a connection again.  Jo
   
   
   

   Day 2 Getting on the Ship
                   We chose our hotel because it had a shuttle from Miami airport and a shuttle to the port and apparently everyone else in the world did too for the same reasons because the bus that arrived to take us from the hotel to the port could fit 50 people and all their luggage underneath and they still needed to take two trips.  We were in the first bus, but used our morning time to eat a little bit of breakfast and walk down to a Valero station for diet coke to take on the ship with us.  On the way there in the Miami sun, I realized that I had not brought any sunglasses.  You get so caught up in overcast days with snow on the ground and days that end so early, you forget that the sun is still shining somewhere and most likely will be on some days of this trip.  So, another trip back to the Valero station because I decided that there was most likely a much cheaper selection there then on the ship and given my propensity for losing sunglasses, the cheaper the better.  Having gotten morning exercise we got onto the bus and had a lively driver who acted like a tour guide on the way to the Port of Miami which was fun.  We were not supposed to board until 12:30, but reached the station at 10:30am and were let in to get through security.  We got our wine and scotch smuggling through security and then got to wait to board the ship.
       During this time, I was finishing one of the few books I brought with me “A Thousand Days in Venice” to get ready for being in that city and John was eyeing Funyons in a vending machine.  I have asked repeatedly if John was excited about this trip over the last few months and have always gotten lukewarm responses with the statement that he’ll be excited when it gets here, but the purchase of some funyons before we get on a ship that serves gourmet food all night and day made him ridiculously happy.  And, being John, he made sure the whole terminal got to see how much he wanted those funyons. 
                   We got the obligatory pictures taken, the information we needed and hit the lido deck for some food since there had been no dinner the night before and no real breakfast that morning.  You can see how nice our stateroom is, by far the biggest one we’ve been in on a ship and a total mistake when the cruise line gave us the room next to the one that we had booked.  Good happenstance and we felt pretty lucky.  I thought with the time that we had on this ship and having cruised twice before, I would be more calm about boarding this ship and finding things on it, but it was not to be.  I am always like a hyper chihuahua when we first get on a ship and want to see everything.  The Carnival Destiny, soon to be the Carnival Sunshine, was on its last voyage before a major renovation and I think that this was evident.  The ship is clean and there are some very nice spaces in it, but the library was bare except for 25 foreign language books.  I had finished my book that I brought with me and was going to leave it in the library, but another passenger came in and was horrified by the lack of books.  It seemed that they had counted on the ship’s library for the voyage, so I gave them my love story about Venice.  Thankfully, I have my tablet with many books loaded on because of my coworkers who got me an Amazon gift card after brain surgery.  I was able to load up classics about the places we were going like Death in Venice and Ulysses and then added some good new books that looked interesting.  This has been a real lifesaver because I have since seen my Venice book twice more since that first day in other people’s hands and it is being passed around, which is good.  We have had the tablet for a while, but it doesn’t seem to be as handy as the laptop in our daily lifes, but it is pulling its weight now.
                   We went to our room and got on our bathing suits to take in the sun.  If what I have heard about transatlantic cruises is true, this might be the only sun we see on this trip.  I have to say that I was not a sun worshipper until I moved to Michigan and feeling the warmth invade your body as you lie there and drowse was wonderful.  I always forget how comforting sunshine is and we soaked up as much as we dared being as white as we are.
                   We went to the Welcome Aboard show to find that our cruise director is a better comedian than the ones that they paid to get on the ship and went to our late dining to find that the entire ship wants early dining.  On the previous cruises we have been on, it was 50/50 those that wanted early vs. late, but we are with an older crowd because you almost have to be retired to take this cruise.  There a lot of people in their 50’s, but they are all retired too and I can’t say that I understand how they are retired at 55.  I thought the days of early retirement were over since most likely these people will live another 30-40 years.  Since they retired so early, they will most likely live even longer than those of us that work until the mandatory age. 
                   I got a nice migraine that 4 ibuprofen and lying down for 30 minutes finally killed enough to get up and see us leave the dock in Miami at midnight.  The picture of cops on the beach as we left Miami beach was too perfect to be contrived as everyone says how violent this city has become.  I thought that the Intercontinental hotel whose lights portrayed a woman dancing in a suggestive manner was even more indicative of the city than the police force, but that’s enough bashing of Miami.  I waited one day to write this entry as I was busy looking at the boat on the first day and already can’t keep straight one day from the next as days run into each other at sea.  So, I will attempt to keep some order to these entries, but no promises are made.

   

   
   

   
   Day 3  The First Day at Sea
                   We engaged in my favorite part of every cruise that we have taken and got breakfast in bed delivered to the door.  We got up and went to the deck to work on John’s paper while I read.  We had our coats and ear warmers with us, but still got so cold we had to move down to the covered area.   John had forgotten to take Bonine, so looking at the computer made him a little motion sick.  He went back to take a nap and I went to craft time and made the ugliest butterfly suncatcher, but met a nice snowbird from Grand Rapids area.  Got John up for tea time, which is something that we have always enjoyed on previous cruises as they make scrumptious little desserts to go with it.  On a ship with an international clientele and an overcast lido deck with wind whipping past at a very cool temperature, this was a bit over what the cruise line had expected.  They rallied and fed us all, but it was a muffled roar over the piano when John and I are used to 4 other people with us on the Carribean cruises. 
                   Day 4 and 5 at sea  The sun came out today and we had to get a move on to get up to the deck with resource materials and tablet to get a space in the sun.  There were still plenty of places open as the wind still makes it so that you have to wear a coat, but you can feel the sun warming your face.  I’m giving up on keeping the days straight and am going to go over parts of the ship.  The casino…. As usual, John is lucky and I am not.  We played the slots on the first day of the cruise as my brother who worked for Royal Carribean at one time said that they pay out more on the first day in order to catch you for the rest of the cruise.  Well, John seemed to find the one that was paying out while I found the one that lost money.  He went back by to waste some time and won some more money while we were waiting for the comedy show. 
                   We have been doing the things that we wanted, but have been put off by the crowds in a lot of places.  We’re all stuck on the boat and that makes everything more crowded… there is no port yet and it is impossible to spend a lot of time up on deck because of the wind.  So, everyone is coming to classes and shows and dinners.  We have met a lot of nice people who are all veteran cruisers and virtually no one is going home when we dock in Venice.  Everyone we have met is staying on for a while at least in Venice or elsewhere.  We have been polling all of these cruisers on their favorite lines and cruises and it seems that Celebrity is winning the race of the best cruise line because of their service. 
   We watched the sun set from our window in our room.  We’ve watched it from the top deck, but missed the other two nights because of clouds and some miscommunication that involved not getting the camera from the room, I hope that we get some more because I do enjoy them.  We went to waltz class and knew more than was being taught in the class, so we were able to brush up our skills and dance well.  John doesn’t appear to be having any withdrawals from social media, but he does bemoan the fact that his facebook hockey team is most likely not in the top 10 anymore. 
                   One of our favorite things about cruising is eating dinners with others and we were placed at a table for 6 that only had 4 of us at it.  The couple was nice, but made it clear that they wanted to move to the early seating and were gone the next day.  So, we had our waiter move us to another table with a couple from Canada.  Between hockey, travel, and other similar interests, this should work out for the duration of the cruise.  Kay also blogs about their travels and we compared the desire to send our information with the amount of money that it costs to get connected to the internet in the middle of the Atlantic and neither one of us feels that our readers will mind waiting.  Kay states that not only is it expensive, but it takes forever to connect and get something sent, so you end up using a lot of time to send one thing. 
                   There was a whiskey and stogies tasting at the lounge and John was able to get 4 generous fingers of whiskey and half off a huge cigar for $14, which is reasonable off a cruise ship with what they were pouring.  He was a bit toasted after that, but gamely followed me around while I took him other places, before being poured into bed.  He picked his cigar on the basis that it had a glass case that he could put his other cigars in to keep them for later which he didn’t include in his packing.  Live and learn. 
                   Slept on the deck in the sun today.  We still had to wear jackets and stuff, but it felt good to just lie in the sun.  Now, be aware that it was 75 degrees on the sea today even though we have turned north some and we still had to wear jackets up there.  That’s how fierce the wind is.  I shudder to think what can happen in hurricane season when there is some wind coming off from Africa, I’m thinking that my mother might never leave the cover of the ship that she and my father are taking across the Atlantic in the April.
                   We went to the orientation to the ports that are coming up and didn’t learn much new except for the fact that Antonio Banderas is from Malaga.  I knew that Picasso was from there and his heirs have created a museum there for his work, but I don’t think that there is a museum to Banderas yet, but there should be.  Looking at our progress on the video screens, we are currently almost to the mid-Atlantic Ridge and there is nothing around us for many miles.  The Azores are ahead, but we are not stopping there.  We are 33 degrees north in longitude which would put us up in New Jersey I would think if we were still in North America. 
                   We keep having to set our watches forward one hour every two days because we are crossing time zones and I thought that this would be an advantage of the cruise over flying to Europe because you are avoiding jet lag, but it feels like I can’t keep up.  I seem to be lagging behind the time changes as it feels like getting up in the spring on the first day after we spring forward and having to go to work with a slight hangover.  We have not been drinking enough to end up with that fuzzy feeling in the mornings. 
   Day 5 at sea, halfway to Europe
                   Well we are closer to Europe now than North America (if you’re not counting the parts of Canada that stick out into the Atlantic).  About the Atlantic, I had read up on it and was prepared for the Atlantic that I had seen in my youth and seen on tv with the gray water, kind of menacing look to it, but have been surprised that the water has been so blue.  If anything, it reminds me of Lake Michigan with cobalt blue color, small white caps, and water that foams off the ship with a look like cream it’s so frothy.  The Atlantic seems to mirror the sky more than other bodies of water that I’ve seen because the only time it looked like what I expected was on an overcast day with the wind whipping past.
                   We stayed up last night to hear our comedian that performed earlier in the week play Beatles songs for 3 hours last night and that was a lot of fun.  During Yellow Submarine, he made a spoof of the captain’s announcement that we hear every day at noon.  He put on the Italian accent and gave the longitude and latitude pointing out that if you looked left and right all you would see is a lot of water.  It was a dead on impersonation and pretty much sums up our position right now.  This was fun in a lot of ways because not only are we (John way more than me) Beatles’ fans, but we were complimented for our singing by guests next to us, I got all of my requests played and told on many occasions that I made good ones, and we had to move to a bigger auditorium on the ship because the crowd had swelled so much.  The club was more full than any other night that I had seen in there and everyone would sing along with the songs.  I told John that this would have never happened if we weren’t all stuck on this ship together and he pointed out that it wouldn’t have happened on a 4 day cruise either.  I have to give the staff some credit because this is a Carribean ship that does not do transatlantics often and they are making some good adjustments.  They are letting people suggest groups and activities to the point that there are now knitters that meet every day, pinochle and bridge groups and they have taken all the books that they had in their shop and put them in the library when people complained about the lack of books.  And they’re letting things like comedians do Beatles’ sing-a-longs which has been one of the highlights of the time on the ship.
    Day something at sea  We had a bit of rain, but the captain is trying to go around all the bits of bad weather in order to give us some sun on this cruise.  The wind was whipping past so fast that they closed off the front deck to walk on, but left open the mini golf deck on 10 that John and I thought that they were going to blow off.  You felt like you could fall into the wind and it would hold you up when some of the gusts hit and there was a point where I told John that we needed to get off because the wind was so stiff that I tripped.  When it wasn’t scary, it was fun to be blown about like that.  John looked like the Michelin man with his jacket puffing up with wind.  
                   Our days have started to take on a routine that involves going to the top deck to soak up sun while John works, followed by clouds and wind that force us downstairs.  We attend lunch, which has its ups and downs depending on who we get placed with for the duration of the meal.  This is usually a very pleasant experience as we get to meet new people from lots of different countries with various tastes and interests, but can go horribly wrong when you get that one person that thinks they know everything and feels moved to proclaim it.  We were seated at lunch with a couple from Australia, a couple from Charleston and a couple from Hawaii at lunch and from the beginning it was apparent that the guy from Hawaii in the Ferrari shirt was going to be a problem.  He had no qualms about talking about the real estate he bought before getting on the boat at $400,000 when I started to tune him out and talk to the woman from Australia next to me who was reading an interesting looking book.  Somehow, gun control in America got brought up and he made it clear that gun control was going to lead to everyone in America getting robbed because no one would have guns to kill people with as a deterrent to thieves.  Besides the ridiculous logic this employs, I pointed out that the government is not looking to take the small handguns and hunting rifles from people and his wife pointed out that he had somewhere else to be and he stated “She’s trying to save you”.  He also threw out the “logic” word, said I didn’t know my history and got the entire table in an uproar that made the Australians very interested.  They had a mass shooting several years ago and the government started buying back peoples’ guns and they just gave them up…so, they can’t grasp what the hell our country is doing with all the talk and stuff.  I have to admit that it is hard to explain to someone who lives in a country without guns and doesn’t feel the need for them. 
   Which leads me to a rant:  When you are on a cruise ship or any other pleasure social situation with people you don’t know, stay away from the politics, religion, etc. topics that cause such vociferous responses in people.  Stick to the mundane, the fantastical, or the common things like arriving in Europe together.  Everyone doesn’t need to know about your divorce, raising three kids on your own and your son’s cancer in the course of 15 minutes at tea time.  I know I’m sending this out to people that have heard all this and more from me, but I count you guys as friends and past the small talk part of the relationship…let me know if I’m wrong about that and I’ll try to shut up.  Save it for the second day of knowing someone like we did with our dinner mates, Kay and Richard. 
                   So, it’s a cloudy, cold day on the Atlantic and we are in the promenade deck overlooking the ocean doing our usual work and reading when we see twins walk past us.  I couldn’t help exclaiming, “Oh my God, they’re twins” and making John look.  He said, “Thank God, I thought that I was seeing him everywhere!” which was exactly my concern as well.  This was one of those guys that you can’t miss, who likes to talk to everyone and you feel you run into him more often than a ship this size would warrant.  All you feel is vindication when you see that there are two of them and you are not losing your mind. 
   The ship has been a good break from reality, but people keep trying to force it on you.  We have no internet connection by choice and the refusal to pay the outrageous sums for the slow satellite connection.  The TV is mainly stuff like our shows on the ship, how to protect yourself against norovirus, and shore excursion information because of being in the middle of the Atlantic.  But people still keep telling us about things like the Pope stepping down, which, I have to admit, is extremely interesting information and something that it was worth knowing.  The Carnival cruise ship that has had a fire and is stranded in the Gulf, I didn’t need to know about on another Carnival ship in the middle of the Atlantic…Also, it is somewhat gratifying to find out about the major snow storms that have been hitting the homeland, while we are safely on a fire ridden, accident prone fleet because we might die at sea, but at least there will not be snow.  John has pointed out that I sound gloomy, which is frightening because if my own husband doesn’t know when I’m using sarcasm, who else is going to know?  He says that I need to add “LOL” to my stuff, which being a Luddite, I refuse to do.  So, my good friends, you will have to use what you know of me and infer the LOL at the end of my sarcastic remarks that are meant to be funny.  If you are having trouble distinguishing between them, ask Melinda at my work place because she is a soul mate of sarcasm that never seems to need a reminder that I’m just joking. 
   Moving on, it has been funny to see the comments that come out of the veteran cruisers every time some staff make a comment about Carnival’s safety record (“Can they count that now with that fire?”), the captain made a comment about being from Sicily and getting to go past his homeland (“I hope he doesn’t want to go too close”) because of the Costa Concordia wreck that is also a cruise line under the Carnival umbrella.  I imagine that the crew has had to weather their share of these snide comments, but they are fun.  Also, people are starting to ask about going past the wreckage of the Concordia which they are still trying to get out of the Mediterranean.  John has been disappointed by the fact that they will go past Gibraltar at 1 am in the morning and he will only get to see lights in Africa and Gibraltar on either side of the ship, but no view of the rock or the straits really.  Now, I have to convince him that we shouldn’t rent a car in Malaga and drive back to it.  I don’t know if it is still an outpost of England anymore and we don’t have our passports anymore because the ship has had to surrender them to Spain before we can dock and unload.  So, one of the big highlights of the trip has been taken from us, but hopefully even at 1 in the morning, it will feel momentous to be going through this historic space…
   Oh NOOOOO, John has the tablet computer and has started a Stephen King novel, which means that I will never get to read again and I am subjected to him not wanting to go places until “let me finish this chapter” and little comments while he reads like “Uh oh” “Oh my God” and “Whoa” etc. while he reads because he can’t believe the twists and turns in the plot and is waiting for the other shoe to drop as it inevitably does.  I might be the first person to starve on a cruise ship because I couldn’t get my husband to attend lunch or dinner because he was stuck in a book…the only good part is he absentmindedly will touch my hair or rub my neck while he reads, which might make it worth it.  Plus, it is Fat Tuesday today and I should just stop eating for Lent anyway….

   
   
   
   We had a great Mardi Gras with beads being thrown, a Paris show in the theater and comedy night.  I can’t walk down the hall without weaving to the sides as the ship moves and these dancers are leaping, jumping, in high heels, and on small stairs in different sets.  I don’t know how they do it and what particular skill you look for when you are having tryouts to figure out how to move with the ship.  John is not feeling good tonite and is afraid that he is getting sick.  I told him to drink some scotch to kill off any germs and bed all day tomorrow so that he is ready for our first day in port.  He had mentioned that he felt that he was getting cabin fever, but he doesn’t have a fever and I think has gotten too much wind while smoking cigars on the Lido deck as he worked.  Hopefully, some self- medicating will do the trick.
   
   
   Malaga Port
   We could not have had better weather on this day.  I couldn’t sleep because I was so excited to get on a boat in Miami, but get off in Spain.  John was trying to sleep in, which made sense since we couldn’t get off the boat until 10:30am anyway as everything took longer than expected.  We were offered a bus that would take people into the city center by Carnival that cost $23 a person and we decided we would go for a local company or hoof it.  We found a local bus that took us out of the port and back again to city center for 4 euro which was much more reasonable.  John said that the offer from Carnival made him want to not cruise with them anymore because it was so ridiculous.  I did wonder if they are required to offer things that are too expensive so that there is local business in order to use the port, but I digress. 
   Malaga seems to be a very pretty city and I got distracted by their beautiful cathedral that is surrounded by gardens and fountains which were very peaceful. 

   

   We skipped going in because we only had 7 hours and I was more interested in Alcazaba which is a Moorish palace next to the ruins of the Roman theater that leads up the hill to the Castillo Gibralfino.  The Cathedral is definitely on the to do list next time and by being distracted, I walked us right past the part of the town that had the banks where we could have withdrawn money with a fee.  So, we had to go back and then go back, etc , I’m an idiot. 
   Alcazaba was beautiful and awesome, we took our time in there and got turned around several times, but didn’t want to miss anything that it had in it.  I’ve included some pictures to give you an idea of the detail work and the colors that were present in this place.  It must have been beautiful in its heyday.  We took a break to hit a pharmacy, grab some snacks and try to connect to the internet, but it would require registering and then other places near the port that were supposed to have WiFi (which we were told by our Mexican Spanish instructor is pronounced “whiffy” in Spanish, hysterical to hear and more to ask for) were all broken, conveniently.  Which I think is strange that everything broke down at the port on the day that our cruise ship came in, but whatever.  With the amount of people that we kept running into in the city center from our own ship trying to find WiFi, I would say that mine was broken too.
   More Malaga
   I’m sitting on the promenade looking at the Mediterranean Sea as I write this rest of Malaga part and it is so amazingly calm after the Atlantic.  I could feel when we entered the sea from the ocean because the ship did not rock as much even though it was the middle of the night.  We had an incredibly calm crossing of the Atlantic and I’m thankful for that.  And that ocean is worthy of much more respect than I have given it because I sit here and think “the Med”, the sea that Caesar crossed, that Egyptians and Phoenicians plied, that was the heart of civilization for so many peoples.  I do have to say that I hold this sea as special and I have been excited to learn that this will also be the sailing of other seas that I have only read about in history books like the Ionian and the Adriatic.  But I digress, after having a quick snack of chips and nuts, we went on to Castillo Gibralfino which had a quite a walk uphill.  The path was sloped river rock and was very steep.  I thought that I was preparing for walking, standing, climbing in Europe prior to getting here, but this was different because of the slope.  My calves burned so bad that I had to stop 12-14 times on the way up for small breaks and stretching them.  When we came to stairs, I could do that better, but the slope was killing me.  John carried the backpack and always had to wait for me, but we passed several people who said that the climb was worth it.  We had bought tickets for Alcazaba and the Castillo in a conjoined ticket since they are attached to each other by a defensive wall, but even John said that it was only 3 euros each we would be wasting if we stopped at the halfway point and went back. 

   
   But the halfway point had an observation deck that had outstanding views of the Med, the bull ring, and the city, so I was more determined than ever to get to that Castle, besides Alcazaba was so fabulously decorated that the Castle must be even better, right?  Wrong again, it was just a rock fortress with a major defensive barbican wall and observation towers around cisterns.  No interior rooms or castle in the conventional sense.  Don’t get me wrong, this was awesome building and views, but sparse compared to what we had been through.  We went through every part of it though and I wouldn’t leave until we had found the Airon Well, which the map said was “deserving of attention”, but we couldn’t seem to find it.  After much looking at the map and mumbling and walking, we finally found it under some trees in a park like part of the castle that we had overlooked.  The well is dug through 40 feet of bedrock in order to get water to the armory and it was definitely deserving of attention because it was astounding to think of it being dug without dynamite, etc and was scary to look over.  With that item completed we were able to climb down from the castle with it feeling like my toes were going to come out the front of my shoes because of the incline.  We came down to the beginning and got some Malaga wine that is supposed to be sweet in nature and our requisite cheesy memento from a place that we have been.  We got back out to the main square and tried again to find WiFi anywhere, wasn’t happening and I decided that you, my dear friends, were not worth wasting the time in Europe over and we boarded the bus to get back out to the port.  At the port while we smuggled in our wine, there was WiFi to be had in the terminal that is why you got the parts that you did.  John was able to update a little bit of facebook, answer a couple of emails and it was time to get back on the boat.  We went straight up to the Lido deck to watch us depart and this didn’t happen for an hour and a half, which meant that we were able to get pictures of the cathedral, Alcazaba, and Castillo lit up at night.  When you see that the castle is where a 40 story building would be, you can see how this was beyond even what I had been preparing for as it was two leaning towers of Pisa tall.  I can do one…
   Back to the ship after Malaga
   I am so grateful for a place that feeds me, has a bed and shower for me and hot tubs after a day of walking through Europe.  This is much better than having to find a hotel, having to find a restaurant when all you want to do is fall into bed.  I don’t like having to crush everything into the time that you are in port, but the cruise has it advantages too.  Since John is still fighting something off, we spent the day at sea in bed sleeping in, getting room service, and watching news, movie and reading books.  I did get up and put on my bathing suit to spend a half hour in the hot tubs to soak my aching legs and feet after lunch, but only that and sunset over the Med has brought us out of the room.  We got to hear about our table mate’s trip to the caves in Nerja that are some of the biggest caverns that housed neolithic and paleolithic peoples in them, but the parts with the drawings and tools are not open to the public yet.  These caverns are monstrous from the pictures and were only discovered again in 1959. 
   Barcelona
   We got caught off guard by how fast they got clearance and the gangway down to get off the ship, but were still some of the first people off the ship.  We took the city bus from the port to the column of Columbus, then got into the metro station, got a ticket for 10 rides and went to La Sagrada Familia first.  The line was already there to get in and it is Feb.  It was cold and drizzly, but a Saturday also, so most of Barcelona was also out and riding the subways.   It was gratifying to see the look in John’s eyes when we first came out of the subway because this church by Antonio Gaudi is, well, I’m at a loss of words as are most people.  I told John that I have a love/hate relationship with this church because it is unspeakably ugly because it looks like a mud-dobber’s nest if you are familiar with such creatures, like it was left out in the sun and rain a little.  The intricacy and the amount of detail is awe inspiring though and it is most certainly like no other church that you are going to ever see anywhere else. 

   
   I was amazed at how much work has been completed on the church since I was here 18 years ago and gratified to see that they are trying their best to stick with Gaudi’s intentions, since he died before it was completed and was too much of an artist to commit anything to paper about his intentions.  We decided not to go inside, since this is a quick, see it all, kind of a day and went next to the Palau de Musica which was closed to the public because of a private event.  So, that sucked, but we at least found out that tours cost 17 euros, so maybe next time just see a concert there.  In walking around the building, we decided to get in to the Barri Gothic part of Barcelona and ended up at the Gothic Cathedral.  We lit a candle, listened to the choir, went through the cloister, which was home to several pretty ducks and some koi, and climbed the roof for some great views of Barcelona. 
                   We walked around the back of the Cathedral and found the Roman columns that belonged to the first part of Barcelona that has been excavated recently.  Found some more orange trees in blossom and moved into the metro again to come up by Parc Guell, but decided the hike was too much, got a pastry in order to go to the bathroom and then returned to the metro.  We went to Montjuic to get some pictures of the beautiful buildings out there.  We definitely left a lot to see next time with a lot of Gaudi left that we didn’t see.  At the end of our day, we came back to Placa Catalunya to spend the next few hours on the Las Ramblas.  Which leads me to a rant:
   Why do places that you remember fondly and build up to others never present themselves well when you are showing them off?  I have made much of how beautiful Barcelona is, how laid back, how it is my favorite European city to John and it turns out to be a drizzly, cold day that does not seem to relate to the city I spent such great times in 18 years ago in the summer.  Shocking, I know and I shouldn’t have expected the same city, but I would have liked for it to have been slightly more amenable.  It’s just not the type of city that you can only spend a couple of hours in because it requires so much more. 
   Anyway, Barcelona still presented itself well and John definitely wants to go back and that is a given.  We ended up back at the bus stop to go back to the port by 3:30pm when everyone is due back on the boat by 4:30pm.  We stood in a line that made it clear that the first bus would not get us all back and no bus came and no bus came and no bus came to the point that at 4pm, people started walking for the ship.  I can’t convey how far it was from the beginning of the port to our ship which wound around, went over a bridge, up, down and was about 4 miles.  So, the rest of us decided the ship wouldn’t leave us as there were some crew in line with us and decided to wait it out.  The bus finally came and filled itself to the gills, returned to us at 4:25pm and we filled it to the gills again.  We arrived at the terminal at 4:30 to find a long line to get through security.  So, for the first time ever, we were late to return to the ship, but we had about 200 people that were late with us and shore excursions were coming back after us.  How about everyone needs more time in port when that port is Barcelona? 
   Leaving Barcelona
   We went straight to the room once we got back on the ship and put on our swimsuits to watch us leave Barcelona from the hot tubs that sit on the Lido deck which was very hedonistic feeling.  Had a good dinner with our table mates and were on our way to bed, when we decided to go by the casino.  We have not been lucky since John’s original luck much, so have been using our winnings sparingly.  On the way to the elevators we were stopped in our tracks by the man playing piano in the atrium bar.  He was playing the Tori Amos version of Losing My Religion by REM.  We stayed around and got some drinks until his set ended as he was so good and playing all of our favorite songs.  That was a good end to the day.
   Got to sleep late, got up to get the passports back, go to Italian lessons, and then lunch.  Sat by some Texans, Michiganders, Dutch people at lunch which made for a lively crowd.  Back for a nap, then watching the sunset over the Mediterranean. 

   

   Got to see a great singer again for the entertainment before dinner and if anyone wants a treat, look up Karl Morgan who is Welsh on youtube somewhere.  We were glad we went.  We have taken a few firsts for the next couple of stops.  We booked a shore excursion for our Rome stop to see what one is like and have hooked up with some other cruisers to plan our own group excursion to Pisa.  So, this could be horrifying or awesome, just don’t know yet.