Finally there, Civitavecchia Italy April 13, 2014

Sunday, April 13, 2014 

 

 

    I think Stevie was the only one who slept well last night. I was up since 4 AM, Hannah got up at 6 AM and Steve tossed and turned all night. We ordered room service breakfast for 7:30 AM and we were scheduled to disembark the ship at 8:30 AM. We left our room when our number was called and made our way to luggage pick up. After that we walked to a shuttle bus stop to take us to the port exit. There we went into McDonalds to wait for our transport to the hotel.

 

Off the ship for good, we are waiting for a shuttle bus to take us to the McDonalds in town where the hotel owners will pick us up

 

   After the shuttle to McDonalds,  I went to a little information center across the street to call our hotel. Domenico (the owner) came to pick us up a little while later. He and his wife Irina run the Bed & Breakfast. They have two boys Luca (5) and Alesio (4) and are expecting boy/girl twins. They are very nice and the kids played together. It is so neat to see kids play together even though they cannot speak each other’s language.

 

Hannah and Stevie playing with Luca

 

 

View from our room, Hannah is talking with the non-English speaking maid, in English

 

Idea 1 from Stevie for the blog: Make sure you do the best you can.

Idea 2 from Stevie: Make sure your blog is good.

Idea 3 from Stevie: Try to get to the Czech Republic quick.

    Also, while I was at the information center, the woman there told everyone that there were no trains that the railroad workers were on a strike. Domenico and Irina have not heard about this. They checked online and it seems that the strike is scheduled for May 3. We will walk to the train station later to be sure but hopefully it was a false alarm and we will be able to take a train tomorrow.  Our plan is to stay in Civitavecchia today and relax, arrange for accommodations for Monday night and go to Rome tomorrow.

 

Strikes are common in Europe,  the day we landed in Italy the trains were on strike.  After a two day break, they went on strike again.  At some point while we were there, the people who service the ATM machines went on strike.  At the first available train, we bolted out of Italy before the people who make the air went on strike.  Arrivederci, we will take our money elsewhere.

    We relaxed at the hotel a little bit and then walked into town. We went by the train station that was deserted except for stranded tourists who were trying to figure out how to get around. After the train station we looked for a restaurant. Steve and I ordered spaghetti and Stevie had steak.  The meat sauce that we ordered with the spaghetti has maybe a tablespoon of ground meat.  I hate the fact that we have been relying on McDonalds and Burger King a lot but it is so hard to order a gluten & dairy free meal for Stevie in a place where hardly anyone speaks English. Also, to get a steak, it costs close to $20 without any sides. Drinks (including water) are also pretty expensive. So it is challenging to get a decent meal with the kids in a restaurant that does not make you go broke. 

American made Italian Food = 1         Italian Food = 0

After lunch we walked back to the shore near the port. There was a little playground and a carnival. The kids got to ride 3 little rides.

Statue known as "Unconditional Surrender"

 

 

Those are the biggest panties in the world

 

    We stayed in town until dinner time but instead of a restaurant meal, we found a small grocery store. We bought some tuna cans, fruit, chips and pop-corn for dinner. It was actually nice to have regular food instead of eating in a restaurant.  Hannah fell asleep a few minutes before we got back to the hotel. We carried her back to our room and put her straight to bed. Stevie insisted on sleeping with Dad so I ended up on the other single bed in the room. We took showers and got some sleep.

Cruise Summary

   Our ship arrived in Civitavecchia in Italy in the early morning hours on Sunday, April 13, 2014. We have travelled  a total of 4,838 nautical miles (about 5,564 land miles) to get here. Here is a brief breakdown of our journey from the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.

Fort Lauderdale, USA to Ponta Delgada, Portugal - 2,877 nautical miles
Ponta Delgada, Portugal to Cadiz, Spain - 932 nautical miles
Cadiz, Spain to Almeria Spain - 242 nautical miles
Almeria, Spain to Cartagena Spain - 130 nautical miles
Cartagena, Spain to Civitavecchia, Italy - 657 nautical miles

Here we are in Civitavecchia waiting for a bus to the port exit

Sailing the Middeterranean Sea and Saying Goodbye

Saturday, April 12, 2014 

   It is Saturday morning and the kids are still asleep. Since today is a day at sea and no rush to go anywhere, we are not waking them up. Steve is watching TV in room 4107 waiting for Stevie to wake up and I am playing with the computer in the girls’ room 4109 as the TV tends to wake Hannah up and I do not feel like straining my eyes to read the close captions.

  Yesterday water got in our underwater camera and the memory card got wet as well. We had hard time reading the memory card on the computer but once it dried enough, we could copy the pool videos from it. Of course, now we are suspicious of it and would prefer to use a memory card that never got wet. We had another card in our bag but it is full of pictures and videos from 2011. I moved them off the card so that it could be used.

   I also discovered only yesterday that there is WiFi in our room and that we can check e-mails from our room rather than going to the library. We still have to pay per minute but I never thought to check because I read that there is no ship-wide WiFi.

   Also talking to other parents on the ship, we are told that the Queen Mary 2 we will be sailing back to the US is much nicer than this. It is hard to imagine a nicer way to travel.

   Hannah went to Club HAL for a little bit before lunch and then both kids went after lunch. Steve and I have been gathering our things and packing. Steve also entered a Black Jack tournament but did not have much luck. When Club HAL closed at 4 PM for dinner, we met the rest of the families for a pool party. It was great, the kids loved swimming and playing in the hot tub. 

   Adriano drew a map for us of what to see in Rome and suggested a place to eat. He will also check if his dad has an apartment available to spend the night on Monday.

   We ate dinner in the Lido restaurant and then the kids went to club HAL while finished packing.    When we came to get the kids at 9 PM, they were glued to the TV watching Despicable Me. Steve and I went to Crow’s Nest and spent another 45 minutes visiting with the other parents. We all went to pick up the kids at 10 PM when Club HAL closes and they got to say their good-byes. Hannah and Kristy were especially sad parting their ways.

Last Stop in Spain - Cartagena

Cartagena, Spain – April 11, 2014

   Like the previous two days, we got up at 9 AM to eat a big breakfast before heading to town. We did not catch anything on TV about Cartagena so we had to rely on the little brochure provided by cruise line and the information desk just outside of the ship. We got off the ship around 11 AM. It was cloudy, about 70 degrees and pleasant day for walking around town.
  The lady and the information desk recommended going to the castle that sits on top of the hill right across from the port. She also recommended a playground atop another hill after the castle. We were directed to a lift to the castle. We were thinking the “lift” was a sky-ride or a chair-lift type of thing but when we got there, it turned out that it was truly a “lift” or as we would call it “an elevator”. The charge was 2 euros for an adult and 1 euro for Stevie to ride up (Hannah got to go for free). I think this was the first time any one of us paid for the use of an elevator. At the top of the structure was a narrow metal and glass bridge that connected the elevator tower with the top of the hill.

The lift tower with the walkway

On the walkway

   The nice thing was that they developed a set of side-walks that lead up to the top that Hannah could ride in the stroller. Of course, you could also walk up the stairs. When we reached the open area in front of the castle, we got a nice view of the city. We could see the Roman theater from the 1st century just below us. The castle itself was built in the 13th century and was occupied until the 18th century. After that it was not maintained and it was obvious that several repairs were done only recently combining modern architecture and materials with the old.
  The most interesting feature of the castle were the water cisterns that are now open to the public to walk inside.

1st century Roman theater discovered in 1988

New theater right next to the old one

The hill among all the buildings has a nice playground but we are running out of time to make it there

Inside the water cisterns

 

 

Downtown Cartagena

Stevie was expecting the big giant to jump out at him

Dinosaur eggs

Memorial for the victims of the terrorist attacks in Spain in 2004

   This area of Spain was quite similar to the prior stops we have made, very dry, almost desert-like. The landscape reminds me of Wyoming.
  The funny thing is that everywhere we go, people from the ship recognize us and comment on Hannah’s excellent swimming skills.
  We got back on the ship around 1:30 PM and ate lunch. After lunch we rested in the room and got ready to swim.
  We stayed at the pool until about 6 PM, took showers and ate dinner on Lido deck. The kids had pizza (they make gluten & dairy-free pizza for Stevie). After dinner, we dropped the kids of at Club HAL and we went to the Casino to play Black Jack for a while. After about an hour we went to check on the kids. Stevie was ready to do something else, Hannah refused to leave because her friends were at the club. We walked on the promenade deck and played shuffleboard. We checked on Hannah twice to see if she wants go back to the room. The answer was no so we went to the library to play chess. We picked Hannah up at 10 PM when she had no other option because Club HAL closes at 10.
It is hard to believe that tomorrow is the last day of the cruise. Time just flies when you are having fun.

Still hopping on Spain

Almeria, Spain – April 10, 2014

We got up at 9 AM so we would make breakfast. They finish serving breakfast at 10 AM. While we were getting ready, we watched information about Almeria on TV. The La Alcazaba looked very interesting and we decided we would like to see it. It was a Moorish (Muslim) fort built atop a mountain overlooking the city in the 15^th century. We got off the ship around 11 AM. The weather was very pleasant and sunny. The walk to the Fort was a 20 minute uphill walk so we took a cab, it cost 5 euros.

 The Fort was very large and  impressive. The fort had a sophisticated system of water cisterns and plumbing that was part of the original structure from 500 years ago. Inside the fort were beautiful gardens. We climbed all the way to the highest point to see some amazing views of Almeria. It was also interesting to see the size of our cruise ship in comparison to the buildings.

 

We walked back to the ship. On the way we stopped to see the Cathedral that was also very impressive. Unfortunately, we could not go inside. There was a small playground right across the street from the port. Stevie and Hannah loved playing there. We returned to the ship around 2:30 PM, ate lunch on the Lido deck, rested in our room for a little while and then went swimming. The water in the pool was very warm. We stayed in the pool for at least 2 hours. They had a festival with a barbeque around the pool which made it quite crowded. However, no one but us and another family were in the pool.

 



We ate dinner by the pool and then went to change into regular clothes. We took the kids to a magic show that was on the Main Stage. We stayed only for about 30 minutes as the show was more comedy than magic. After that, Hannah wanted to go to the kids club (despite the fact that she was very tired) and Stevie wanted to play chess in the library. After we picked Hannah up, we went to the room, got a few snacks from room service and watched a movie.  

 

 

 

 

 

Our kids ran into some of their Hal Club friends in town

We hopped onto Spain

Cadiz, Spain – April 9, 2014

We planned to get up at 9 AM in order to make breakfast on the ship. Stevie was having really hard time waking up in the morning. But once he woke up, he was happy to go. Hannah woke up before Stevie and on the right side of the bed. She announced we should go “hop on Spain” and then she said she would like to live in Spain.  The weather was warm (around 70 degrees in mid-morning and it was 90 by the afternoon) but very very windy. The wind made it cold enough that we were comfortable in light jackets most of the day.

 

 

 

The kids were happy to get off the ship for a while and continued their tour de playgrounds

 

When we got off the ship to hop on Spain, we were directed to a small tourist information stand right across the street. We asked if there were any playgrounds for kids and were directed to the Parque Genoves Gardens. The lady at the information stand also told us about a café near the beach that had free WiFi. We walked to the Plaza de Espana with the monument of the Constitution of 1812 and took a few pictures. From there we headed to the shore and followed it around the island until we got to the Gardens. It was a pleasant walk but Steve’s knee was hurting and that was not fun for him. Even before we made it to the gardens, we walked through a couple of manicured parks. It is amazing how every little inch of this island is built up and covered with rock or concrete. All the parks are manicured with just enough dirt around the trees.

 

 

 

Walking through the gardens on way to playground and WiFi

 

 

 

Kat and one of the many huge Ficus trees in the garden

 

One park had two HUGE trees that had leaves very similar to magnolia trees but not quite as shiny. It is possible they were ficus trees too. We were not sure what they were, but they were impressive.  The kids loved the little playground in the Gardens and we literally had to drag them out of there. I think we should call our trip “The Tour of Europe’s Playgrounds” as the playground seems to be the high light.

After the stop at the playground, we walked over to the café with free WiFi. We ate lunch there but it was disappointing. I ordered something with goat cheese and roasted bell pepper. What I got was a slice of bread with jam, a circle of goat cheese and a small piece of green bell pepper on top. Steve and the kids ordered hamburgers. We were not sure what kind of meat it was and the boys ate it, but it had rather suspicious color and texture. Odds are it was not beef.  The buns were burnt from the grill.  This rather disappointing meal cost about $50.00 for lunch.  Traveling around Europe for 6 weeks is much like living at Disney World for 6 weeks.  The only difference is that Disney would be less expensive. 

We used the WiFi to check e-mail. The waitress took our picture with the iPad and we e-mailed that as well.  After lunch, we went to another playground right next to the café. The kids loved it again. After a little play time, we went to see the Castillo de Santa Catalina across the street.

We walked back to the ship the same way we came, stopping at the playground in the gardens.  Hannah was getting tired and I had to carry her some because we forgot to bring the stroller. By the time we realized it, we were already off the ship and did not want to go back to get it.  We returned to the ship in mid-afternoon and went swimming.

 

Land Ho, we made it across the pond

Ponta Delgada – Azores, Portugal – April 6, 2014

It was great to see land after a week in the Atlantic Ocean. Unfortunately, the weather was not very cooperative. It was cold, raining and very windy. We were told by some fellow travelers that it is common to see fog and rain in the mornings in the Azores. They also told us that there was a Burger King with free WiFi in the port. We decided to go to the Burger King so that Stevie could load his telepods into his game (he has not been able to do that on the ship since internet access is so expensive). Of course, we felt compelled to buy lunch there so our first meal in Europe were hamburgers from Burger King.

 

 

First order of business was internet that wasn't costing .75 cent a minute.  Stevie loaded his Telepods on the Ipad and Mommy checked and sent emails at Burger King

 

 

 



 

We ran into one of the kids friends "Dionne" at the popular hamburger restaurant

 

 



 

 

Stevie was a great help.  He pushed Hannah all of the Azores and most of Europe

 

 

 

While in the Burger King, another family we got to know came in to check their e-mails. They were going back to the ship and offered us their umbrellas. With their umbrellas, we were able to make a short walk to the Gate to the City.

 

 

Hannah invented a new sport called “stroller surfing”. We stopped to take a picture and Hannah was sitting in her strolled holding the umbrella … and the wind was moving her along.

 

 

 

Kat and Hannah in front of the gate to the city of Ponta Delgada – Azores, Portugal

Steve and Stevie getting out of the rain

 

 

We are hoping that the weather will cooperate during our next stops. We brought clothes for cooler weather but rain makes it very hard.   Stay tuned for more.....