Disembarkation, London, & Goodbye

One final post to bring us all back to San Francisco, which is where I am now.  It's about 4 a.m. and I 'm awake either because of time change/jet lag or because of my ongoing insomnia or both perhaps.  In any case, it's about 1 pm in Europe, so it's not surprising my body thinks it should be up.

Disembarkation was of course bittersweet.  Fond memories of our cruise flooded us but it was time to say goodbye to the Queen Mary 2 and allow our steward, Gabriel, to prepare our stateroom for the next guests who are, as I write, crossing the North Atlantic towards New York.

Allen asked me, on our last full day at sea, how I would rate the ports we called in and here is my list:

1.  Barcelona--by far this marvelous city is in 1st place
2.  a tie between Lisbon & Florence--Lisbon was charming and I definitely wish to go back; Florence was comfortable and felt like an old friend revisited.
4.  Rome--This grand capital of the world would have been higher but it was so hot and seeing the Sistine Chapel was such a grueling event that it dropped in my estimation.  I definitely would like to return though and see it at a more leisurely pace.
5.  Monaco--A very pleasant visit to a very pleasant albeit very rich place.
6.  Gibraltar--Interesting and worth the visit, but it's so tiny and there's not really much to see once you've see the rock.

Some fond memories remain with me: the acting classes with RADA, the two afternoon teas we attended, the Sistine Chapel, a long leisurely lunch with a friend in Florence, coming down from the top of the Rock of Gibraltar in high winds, the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, over the top stage productions on the ship &, oh, so many others.

Our day in London was relaxed and pleasant.  We found our way to the Twinnings tea shop via the Tube only to discover that it was closed for remodeling.  So we couldn't shop for tea from the same company where the Queen (the person, not the ship) does her tea purchasing.  But we found a bus that took us to Harrods, the enormous department store which was very, very crowded, mostly with gawkers just like us.  We did make a few purchases though to bolster the British economy, though the amount we actually spent will do little to bolster anything.

We had dinner in the neighbourhood of our hotel after which Allen & I went to a local internet point to print out our buording passes for the flight home.  In the morning, we found our way to Paddington Station where we caught the Heathrow Express for a 15-minute non-stop train ride to the airport.  There of course, we bid our farewells to London and Europe and started our 10-plus hour flight back to San Francisco.  Ir seemed like a terrible long flight and there was a good reason for that: it is a long flight.

But now we're back, safe and sound with cats who are very happy to see us and barely leave us alone. 

Thanks for reading what ever parts of this blog that you have done.  I'll be posting more pictures to my Flickr account at some point in the near future, so if you'd like to see those, drop me an email and I'll send you the link.

Peace,
Gerry

Final days at sea.

It is morning of the final day of our cruise; all good things must come to an end, I suppose, but I sure wish the end weren't so soon.  I think I could stand a few more days aboard this magnificent ship.  I'm putting up some pictures from around our floating home away from home.

The past two days have been at sea days; no ports of call…just sailing from Barcelona to Southampton.  So I've had fun just being on this ship: relaxing, reading, taking part in the various activities offered, and, of course, eating.  According to a key ring that I bought for myself yesterday, the Queen Mary 2 is 1,132 feet long and about 135 across.  She can carry 2,620 passengers with a crew of 1,253 totaling 3,873 people aboard.  Her maiden voyage was in 2004 (which is when Marilyn & I did the North Atlantic crossing).  According to the report from our Daily Programme, the largest number of crew on our voyage comes from the Philippines while the most number of passengers are from Great Britain. 

Yesterday, I did my third and final RADA (Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts) acting class and got a certificate to prove it even.  The classes covered a variety of acting methods using voice and body to express character and status.  On this final day, we got to use some of what we had learned with a monologue from Shakespeare which was very fun.

We've also gone to the planetarium on board ship to see a the shows there.  The QM2 was the first ship to have a planetarium; the shows came from the American Museum of Natural History and NASA and talked about the immensity of the universe.  Not a bad thing to consider when one is at sea in the immensity of the ocean. 

We also went to afternoon tea for the first time on Thursday; a lovely English tradition of tea and goodies at 3:30 in the afternoon.  I think we enjoyed it so much that we'll be repeating that particular activity again today.

Last night's entertainment was a show by the resident singers and dancers called Viva Italia.  It was, to put it mildly, over the top, but in a good way.  The costumes alone really were quite amazing.  There are four singers and 12 dancers who perform the various shows.  I had the pleasure of running into & meeting one of the dancers a few days ago.

I also took a class on Wednesday in the computer learning centre.  They offered classes throughout the voyage but I only made use of one class; about using Photoshop Elements to fix photographs.  Unfortunately, the next class was too full for me to take it so I remain ignorant about the use of layers in Photoshop Elements.  Alas.

As I said this is the final day so I don't know when my next posting will be put up.  If I have a chance to write again, I'll do so; otherwise I'll post again once again when I'm back in San Francisco.

Ahoy!

Monaco & Barcelona

We are heading back to Southampton where we'll arrive in 3 days.  But before our leisurely days at sea begin, I need to catch up on the past couple of days. 

On Monday, we were in Monaco, that tiny country on the Mediterranean famous for its casino.  Called the playground of the rich, I can see how it got its name.  Evidently not just anyone can become a citizen and real estate is very expensive.  It's a pleasant enough community to wander around though.  We had to anchor in the harbor and take the tenders into port, so Allen and I did so early in the morning.  Monaco is more than Monte Carlo, we discovered.  There are different sections to the country which is hugs onto the side of a hill rising from the sea.  One can see why a Grand Prix would be so popular here--the streets curve and wend their way up and down the hill and look like a bit of a spaghetti bowl.  There are several public lifts (or elevators) to get folks from one part of town to another.

Allen & I decided to wear shorts since it was a warm day, but that meant that we weren't allowed into the big casino there.  Oh well, there went our chance to strike it rich.  But we had a pleasant day wandering around until we had seen enough and then headed back to the boat. 

I've long had a desire to visit the tiniest countries of Europe ever since I learned they existed when I as in high school--Luxembourg, Lichtenstein, Andorra, San Marino, Monaco, & Vatican City.  With this trip, I've realized a part of that goal with my visits to two of those countries.  I guess I'll have to get the other 3 on another voyage.

Yesterday, Tuesday, was our last port of call on this cruise, Barcelona.  And what a city to end with.  This was our first visit to Barcelona (as indeed it had been for all the stops except for Florence) and it made me want to return.  It's a beautiful city with lovely scenery and fascinating architecture.  In fact, the highlight of this entire cruise will very likely be the visit we made to the Sagrada Familia church which was designed by the Barcelonan architect Antonio Gaudi.  Gaudi lived in the 19th century but was years ahead of his time in his architectural visions and designs.  Throughout Barcelona there are many striking Gaudi buildings, but the pinnacle is the Sagrada Familia, a church that is still, more than a hundred years later, under construction, such is the scope of this edifice.  Rising from the ground are several spires; the sculptures look modern and exciting, telling, at one entrance, the passion of Christ and, at the other, the Nativity.  Inside and out, scaffolds rise and workers are busy doing whatever is necessary to erect a building such as this.  It is clear that Gaudi was a person of deep Christian faith who made sure that the Nativity entrance was completed before his death to inspire the workers to continue this sacred place.  Allen & I took an elevator part way up one of the spires for views into the church and out over Barcelona.  I shan't quickly forget those vistas across this tempting city and into this holy ground.

We spent the rest of the day wandering the streets of Barcelona.  Marilyn had heard about a cafe that served excellent hot chocolate & churros but alas we were unable to locate it, missing another treasure that we'll have to come back to find.

Now we are at sea, heading south down the eastern side of the Iberian Peninsula before we turn through the Straits of Gibraltar once again.

Ahoy!

Firenze!

It's Monday morning as I write and I'm sitting on our balcony looking at the rising sun glittering off the buildings of Monte Carlo in Monaco.  We arrived at this port overnight, coming only 100 miles from our previous port, being Livorno.  So allow me to catch you up on the events of Sunday, our port day in Livorno.

Livorno is the closest port to Pisa and Florence.  We've already been to both Pisa & Florence already; this is the only stop on our voyage that were are familiar with.  So it felt a bit like a homecoming.  In fact, the main event of the day for us was going into Florence on a hour and a half coach ride to meet with our friend Christiana Farina, who was the owner of the villa and apartments we stayed in a few years ago in Tuscany and Florence.  So indeed, it was not only a homecoming, but also a bit of a reunion.  Having already spent so much time in Florence, we didn't feel the need to rush about and cram as much in as possible.  Instead we had a very pleasant leisurely lunch near to the Duomo (Cathedral) with Christina.

That was followed by a bit of shopping and then back to our coach to bring us back to the ship.  Compared to the hectic pace of Rome the previous day, this was a very relaxing and pleasant day.

Back on the ship, we had time for one of our "elegant casual" (jackets, no ties) dinners and then the comedian show following, which was very fun.

Ahoy!

Roma

Saturday was a busy, exhausting, but very good day.  It was our day in Rome and in the few hours we spent in the Eternal City, we packed a lot of visiting in.

We had booked ourselves on an excursion from the ship.  Cunard offers a variety of excursions from each port ranging from those that are very scheduled and guided all the time to basically shuttle buses on which you are on your own once you reach your destination.  Because Civitavecchia, the port for Rome, is about 55 miles away, most people on the ship going into Rome booked one of these excursions.  The one we booked was in the middle range; a tour in the morning until about 1 p.m. and then about three hours on our own. 

Once we disembarked the ship and made our way by coach into Rome, we met up with our tour guide, Roberto, who drove us through the city a little bit and very briefly explained its history.  The coach stopped and we got off near Capitol Hill, where Rome's city hall now sits.  Behind it lies the ancient Roman forum, the meeting place for centuries of ancient Romans.  We walked parallel to the length of the forum on one of Rome's busy streets stopping to see or hear about another ancient ruin.

The highlight of the tour for me was our final destination, the Coliseum, the ancient and huge entertainment center of the first few centuries A.D.  Of course, only a part of the wall stands that enclosed the Coliseum but standing looking at it and imagining those who entered the gates and what must have been going through their minds as both participants and spectators went into that arena.  We did not have the opportunity to go into the Coliseum but spent some time outside it before heading back to our bus.

The bus took us then to St. Peters Square in the smallest country in the world.  This was exciting for me for at least one reason: I have a dream of visiting the smallest countries in the world some day and Vatican City, as the tiniest at, I believe, 1.6 square miles, is the best place to start.  Marilyn, Allen, & I forewent the chance to go into the basilica of St. Peters, the largest church in Christendom, instead opting to go into the Vatican Museums in order to see the Sistine Chapel.  The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel was frescoed over a period of four years by Michelangelo, the great Renaissance painter.  Michelangelo was not necessarily very skilled in frescoing when he began this monumental work, but he learned the craft quickly and to marvelous results.  Getting to the Chapel is a bit ridiculous: one has to wander through almost the entire series of museums in order to reach it.  Everyone travels the same route and there are plenty of crowds traveling those galleries filled with paintings and sculptures and ancient maps and all sorts of other artwork.  It's an exhausting and, in our case, hot process leaving one little energy to actually enjoy the tremendous gem that is the Sistine Chapel when you reach it.  Part of the joy though was going through the several rooms frescoed by Rafael, which were done at the same time the Michelangelo was working on his ceiling.  Eventually though we did find our prize which turned out to be smaller than I expected but still no less grand.  The ceiling was restored to its original grandeur and vibrant colors in a restoration in the 1980s and 90s.  At the center of the ceiling is the famous creation of Adam as God reaches out a finger to instill the spark of life to a reclining Adam.  As exhausted as we were and as crowded as it was, it was hard not to be awed by this exemplary work of art.

Leaving the museum, again through a byzantine labyrinth of unavoidable galleries, we found ourselves outside again and in need of a quick meal to sustain ourselves for the coach ride back to the ship.  A fast pizza sufficed for each of us and we scurried, as much as we can scurry, back to meet our coach.  Naps on the hour plus ride back seemed to be the order of the day for most of us and we got back just in time to refresh ourselves a little and then go to dinner.  The evening following was fairly low key as we just strolled about the decks of the ship, had a drink in one of the many bars onboard, and then trundled off to bed, not before heading into an at sea thunder storm, something I hadn't experienced yet.

Today, Sunday, we are heading into Florence, a town we are all familiar with already.

Ahoy!

A bit of Limestone and some time at sea

What a couple of days it has been.  Yesterday was our day in Gibraltar, the home of the rock.  Situated at the end of the Mediterranean, it has served as an important and strategic base for whoever held it.  Which, of course, is why the British wanted it and got it in the Treaty of Utrecht in some century past & have held onto it assiduously ever since.  It's a very small bit of the United Kingdom on the very edge of Spain, which has not always made Spain all that happy, as you can imagine.

It's famous, of course, for the Rock of Gibraltar which looms over the tiny town below at 412 metres (which is, um, quite a lot of feet--it's pretty high up there).  We did not have a berth in Gibraltar, which means to get to shore, we had to take tenders (for you land-lubbers, that's the little boats we use to get from ship to shore).  So Allen & I set out and got on a tender and walked about 25 minutes down Main Street with the cable car base as our goal.  We were accosted at a couple of points along the way by those offering us tours who were tenacious and lied maliciously we found out.  But we found our way and waited in line for about an hour to cram into a cable car (not like the San Francisco cable cars--this was the kind that lifted through the air on a cable) which lifted us up to the top of the Rock.

Up there we had views into Spain and over the Straits of Gibraltar to Morocco in Africa.  We saw several of the famous apes that inhabit the Rock, legend of which says that when the last ape leaves Gibraltar, the British will no longer rule there.  The apes are kept in very good health.  (Also, on top of the Rock was the funniest restroom sign I've ever seen, which I've posted here.)

While we were on top, the wind picked up making our cable car ride downwards to be very interesting.  We were swinging and swaying as we made the six-minute descent.  Not only that, but our tender ride back to the QM2 was quite choppy.  It made me glad that the ship I'm on most of the time is very, very big.

Back on that very big ship, we had dinner and then went to the evening performance which was a magician, Philip Hitchcock.  He was very entertaining and kept us both laughing and amazed.

Today was an at sea day, which meant sleeping in, and relaxing through the day.  I attended another workshop by RADA about using our bodies to express ourselves as actors which again was very fun and informative.

The highlight of the day was sort of funny though.  Before we left on this trip, at least a month ago, we had the option of celebrating a special day that occurred within 60 days of the cruise.  Since Allen's and my anniversary of our wedding was just in August, we decided to celebrate that event on this trip.  So I called and selected a date and then sort of forgot about it.  Well, this afternoon, there was a card from Cunard wishing us a happy anniversary addressed to "Mr. Foster & Mrs. Brague."  Okay.  Then at dinner, our waiter and some of the other wait staff approached our table with a small cake with a candle in it that also said "Happy Anniversary."  They approached the table and put the cake in front of the only and very surprised heterosexual couple at our table and broke into a heavily accented rendition of "Let Me Call You Sweetheart."  The cake was intended for Mr Foster & Mrs Brague of course, but naturally the staff assumed that it was for Karen and Richard (whose 42nd anniversary was only three days after ours).  It was all very funny and we brought to the cake back to our room and the three of us (Marilyn, Allen, & I) enjoyed it with some of the leftover Prosecco from our wedding reception.

All in all though a good two days.  Tomorrow we dock early and head into Rome.  Stay tuned!

Ahoy!

Asea & Lisbon

It's been a busy couple of days!  Our first full day on the ship was chock full of activities for us.  We started the day with a wake-up breakfast appetizer, as we've come to call it.  (We can order coffee & tea and a small danish to be delivered.  It's our alarm as well as something to get us started for the day.)  Then comes the real breakfast at the buffet--yum!  We went to the safety drill so we'll know what to do should there be an emergency.  Following that we split up and I attended the first workshop given by RADA, the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts.  There are six members of RADA on board who give workshops and will also perform.  The workshop was energizing and fun.  I hope to attend the other two workshops that they offer.  (If I do go to all three I get a certificate signed by all six RADA members!)

The three of us met up again for lunch and then went to separate activities following.  I chose the exciting activity of doing laundry.  What fun, what excitement…but now there are clean clothes to wear.  Following that big time, I met Allen at a workshop about digital cameras.

Then followed our first of six formal nights.  So we all got ourselves into our dress-up duds and off to dinner in the Britannia Restaurant, the largest of the three restaurants on board.  Of course formal means a variety of things--Allen was in his tuxedo, I was wearing my black suit with a bow tie.  Marilyn had on a lovely ensemble of black slacks and blouse and a brown and black cover.

Then came the entertainment time…Appasionata, a mostly dance program that ranged from tango to swing.  After a stop at the late-night buffet for a snack, we all tucked ourselves in for bed.

Because today we woke early to be on the top deck to view Lisbon Harbor as we entered and docked.  A bridge which is quite similar to the Golden Gate Bridge spans the entrance to the harbor.  As we approached the bridge the sun started to appear on the horizon and rose as we neared.  It was a beautiful sight.

We had a quick day in Lisbon, the capital, of course, of Portugal.  It's a very old city with an interesting history, including a disastrous earthquake and fire in 1755, which they believe (for those of you reading in the Bay Area) registered as a 9 on the RIchter Scale.  Yikes!  Marilyn set off on an excursion that Cunard offered but Allen & I were on our own.  We took the shuttle bus to the old part of the city and walked around there finding one of the elevadors that moves people from one level to the next in this very hilly city.  At the top of this elevador was a the shell of a large church that had been destroyed in the earthquake and fire. (A helpful sign told us that the fire came along and "ruined the church stuffing"!)  The shell is now an archeological museum which had some intriguing items.

After a brief respite with a drink and the special little custard pies that are famous in Lisbon, we wandered up the street and took one of the funiculars down to another area of the city.  We walked along a broad tree-lined boulevard and enjoyed the gardens and people we encountered.  After a quick subway ride, we took ourselves back to the old section of town for a bit of shopping (not much buying) and some lunch.  A little more wandering and then we found our way back to the place to meet our shuttle bus once again.  

Lisbon is a charming city and as Allen has already written on a postcard, if San Francisco were in Europe, it would be Lisbon.  Just from this taste, I know I'd like to return for a longer time to get to know Lisbon and Portugal better.

 

PS--This blog program is not really cooperating--I have no idea how it's going to end up.  There should be four pictures, and the text shouldn't be underlined.  Who knows if it will come out that way.  Sorry.