Day 23/24: London's calling

5/4: en route to London
5/5: London to Paris.

Our just over 24 hours in London was amazing.

Tuesday was a travel day.
The electricity had come back on at 6 am and like we predicted, all the lights. Good morning! We slept in anyways then got our stuff together and checked out of the padilla guesthouse in Barcelona. We decided to head back to the boqueria market on las ramblas even though it was raining. We had well I had read about these pastries called xixos at pinoxto but they were all gone by the time we got there. We found something similar at another stand, grabbed some more fruit juices (so awesome) and headed to the airport.

After an hour train, then walking to what seemed to be the farthest away terminal possible, we boarded.


Very bumpy 2 hrs later, hi London! Easyjet really was simple.


Then on to a bus for 1.5hrs! However it was a great way to see some country. Look like drive backwards!





Screeched into Victoria station, got comletely lost, then finally found our street. Quaint.


It was about 7pm after we checked in to easyhotel Victoria ( we did it all - plane bus and hotel by the easy co. Really good value and true, easy). We decided to just walk around. Headed to buckingham palace and green park. Ecstatic to find these!


Then headed to Harrods. London shuts down early, they were closed by 8 but it was still cool to peek inside.






Only thing open that wasn't arm and a leg :(


Back to our hotel. Had to take pics in phone booth on our street.


The next morning we got up really really early, hauled on our backpacks and headed to the train station kings cross st pancras. Morning commute on the tube is CRAZY. It was worse than a sardine can and having backpacks didn't help.
Kings cross is massive and very extinsive but we quickly dropped our bkpks in storage and hit up the tube again.
We started at Westminster. We walked out onto the Thames and saw this.


Turned around and saw this towering above us. We were even in time to hear the bells.


Made our way up the thames and in to trafalger square. The national gallery is free so we popped in. I snagged a very inconspicuous shot of one of my faves.






Walked some more of to st pauls cathedral and grabbed some lunch. My fish and chips were all I thought it'd be. Yum!





We headed down the millenium bridge (just like in Harry potter) to the Tate modern. Again, free!!! Awesome collection. Especially loved the Warhol room.








We wanted to see the borough market but we got a little lost. Stumbled on this which was very neat. We had just past the touristy globe when we left Tate.





Our train to Paris was in a couple of hours so we decided we didn't have enough time to continue on to see the tower because we wanted enough time to do the British library. We got back on the tube and headed to kings cross again, walked across the street and we were there. This is my favorite museum/library hands down. Their main room is the treasures of the British library room and that had the best collection of books, documents, plays, and music. Stuff from the beattles, Lewis Carrol, shakespeare, the 3 codex, magma carta, etc. Everything was in its own case, temp regulated, sensored, and the room was even guarded. We spent about an hour in just this room which was probably the size of 2 living rooms. You had to be a card holder to get into the actual library with the rare books and absolutely no one was allowed into the kings stash which was a vault in the mid of it all with floors and floors of books.
Sneaked a shot of the codex.


We spent too much time at the library so we raced around the corner, got out bkpks, checked in, thru customs, then finally on the train. It would be hard to not guess where we were headed. Everyone was speaking French.
The train was heaven after a full day of walking. I reviewed some French podcasts as I watched England disappear and France begin. If it wasn't for the few minute Chunnel of darkness, I wouldn't have even known it happened.














Thanks eurostar, hi Paris.


I'm gonna be honest, I instantly missed London. Everyone spoke English and the city was colorful, clean, exciting, friendly, big but quaint, busy but slow paced. I enjoyed the parks everywhere and the fact that elephants statues were everywhere made it seem too coincidental. The food was great too.
My first impression of Paris. Dirty and scary. Perhaps because of the hour - 10 pm, I don't know. We hadn't experienced any sketchiness so far in our travels (even in Barcelona where I read it was the worst). On our metro home, we saw so much graffiti, beggars (on the metro), and rowdiness. Id like to say our metro experience has improved in paris but id like to add the smell of pee. But i learned you cant judge a city by its metro. Once off the metro, we got lost again and a few people (especially one man and his son ) helped us find our way. The area is very nice in the 16th arrondisemont and our neighbor is the former president of France so our street is 24/7 guarded by police. We dropped off our stuff in a very cute studio (complete w bathroom tv and kitchenette) all to our self, grabbed some groceries, and then passed out.

Day 21: Hitting the ground running

We are in Paris now and thinking about our first day (5 days ago) in Barcelona seems forever ago.
5/2: Barcelona Spain

We were anxious to get our "travels" started but sad to leave the comfort of the ship. It was nice to come back to it, sit in the jacuzzi, go to the dining rooms, see people we knew, etc.
Sunday morning, we got off the ship, went through customs (first stamp in passport !) and joined a bunch of people confused on how to get to the city. After a lot of waiting and chit chat w fellow cruisers, we got on a portbus and headed to Las Ramblas. We experienced our first encounter with the metro. Interesting. We got off at the sagrada familia and the view knocked our socks off. (no pic on phone). We got completely lostbut eventually found the Padilla Guesthouse. It is a b&b in a pretty good spot just 5 mins from the s. Familia. Our host was pretty much the only person we encountered with good English.



After shrugging off our backpacks (endured them for 2.5 grueling hours) we immediately took the metro to Placa de Catalunya to get tickets for Montserrat. After we had to go to another station to take the train. When we got to the station, I misread the sign and we missed the Once-hourly!!! Train by 1 minute. I was so exhausted and frustrated i might have cried. I admit nothing. Since we had an hour to kill, we went loooking for food. We saw a bunch of people in a hole in the wall so we went in. No English speakers but A lady ahead of us tried to helped us out and we were able to get some food (pointing is very helpful). Had lunch on the train. Best croquetas we've ever had. We were surprised to find the ride (1hr) to be very scenic.


Exhausted.








Had to take a cable car to the top.


Surprisingly I did not get vertigo.


Gorgeous breathtaking cathedral.





Black virgin.


After we walked around Montserrat a bit more, we headed back to Barcelona and tried to meet up with a friend from the cruise. We went to a cool street with lots of bars and restaurants filled with locals.
Cool church in mid of it all.





We couldn't find him so we set out for some dinner. Found sandwich&friends, didn't seem local but packed with locals. Had to try another hamburguesa. Best hamburger of my life with this smokey mustard and cheese sauce.
We got back to our b&b around 12 just when it started to rain...

Day 20: May Day in Cartagena

5/1, cartagena Spain

We docked here around 7am and only had a few hours in port. Since it was may day, kinda like our labor day, we went out around 9 and just wandered. We saw a friend from our cruise walking back to the ship and he told us that he had been late to the ship the night before and it left without him. So crazy, he had to take buses and trains through the night to Cartagena.

In our wandering, we found another roman theater and quiet placas. One building was open so we peeked inside. I think it's their town hall.








We also tried some crazy good chocolate y churros. Bs got the photos.

After, we walked up their beachfront promenade and then it was back on board.








This was our last night on the ship so we went to dinner, said goodbye to friends we made, went to all the farewell shows and parades, played bingo (we did not win the $6000 jackpot!), and played in the casino ( B tried blackjack for the first time!). Barcelona tomorrow!

Day 19: Spain!

4/30, Malaga Spain

This was officially the start of our trek around Europe even though we were still on the ship. As a result, I was too frickin excited and did not sleep one wink. I'm not exaggerating. I saw the minutes tick by. At around 5:39 am, I decided I'd just wait to watch the sun come up. I figured itd be nice for Spain to introduce itself to me that way. At 7, I got up and tried to sneak past B without waking him but I had a fit with the noise and made a ton of noise. We went out but there was a huge (beautiful) hill blocking the sunrise :( oh well, still nice.



Good morning Spain!


We walked the 3/4 mile to town. Saw some interesting things along the way. Boats we wanted to steal. Cats basking on cars. Huge dumptrucks and trains (construction on port).






Dad, what kind of fish are these?



We wandered around the streets again. The city was very busy and There was a ton of very eurochic people walking around. We toured the Picasso museum (Malaga is his birthplace) which was very nice and refreshing to see his earlier work (before it got Picasso-y). It is a very pretty city. Lots of trees and great looking streets.















We saw that one hill had a very commanding fortress so we checked it out. Great views of the city and they were excavating a roman theater - cool.


For lunch, we checked out an extremely busy tapas bar. Again, gastronomically fantastic. We got paella, a patatas omelet with queso, and a hamburgesita. These hamburgesitas arent american burgers. They are just bun and meat and if you want cheese. Someone tell me how they do it. The meat, how they cook it of spice it, so delicious. Washed it down with some fantastic sangria. I'm not usually a fan but it was muy muy bien.


Then went back to the ship. The walk back was brutal and I was really crashing from no sleep so I passed out. Buffeted it for dinner (surprisingly great Greek food that night) and then walked around the ship.

More sea days for funner

After Portugal, it was back on the sea for two days. I wish it had been longer because we had sooo much fun. We were in very calm waters so we took part in as much as we could. We miniature golfed it, did some art, B was part of a vollyball tournament (and won), went to some shows, ate all 3 meals and went to the dining room (yum)!, and "played" in the casino.


Travelocity had given us a nice credit for booking w/ Amex so we splurged and had fun and used their ridiculously expensive laundry service. One night, I had a bit of luck and won a variety of gifts at 007 trivia (shirt, casino cards, free bar drink, and match play vouchers). I won at roulette with my last voucher. Woo !


On Thursday night/Friday morning, a ton of people and us included hung out on the ships helicopter pad while we cruised by Africa. It was past midnight, very cold, very windy, but very cool. It had been foggy all day so it was likely we wouldn't see any land but there was almost a full moon that lit up the landscape just enough to see Morocco on our right and Spain on our left. We really couldn't make anything out but we saw lighted hills and most of the boats in their waters. Most tried to wait for Gibraltars rock but we just couldn't see clearly enough and so we went and hung put in the royal promenade cafe. About an hour later we overheard someone say we were passing it so we went outside and we were passing the gibraltar lighthouse. It was pretty cool.
Poor camera just couldn't do night shots.





It was 2 in the am at this point and we are going to be in Malaga Spain at 7. Let the games begin!

Pelican poo anyone?

Day 16: Azores, Portugal

4/27, tues, ponte delgada, Azores, Portugal (San Miguel)
Happy bday dad!

Seeing land after that 5 sea day stretch was amazing. There was a chance that we were not going to be able to port because of the swells in port but right on schedule, at noon, the captain steered us into port safe and sound.






We watched as we neared the port and dropped anchor. Everyone was taking pictures, even onlookers who had walked to the dock. See them on the bottom left?








We didn't book any excursions through the sea or independently (unlike almost everyone inboard so we heard) and just set out to explore the city.

We walked to a fortress that was guarded by a Portuguese man-of-war ;) and the city center, well we think it was.



Relaxed in some beautiful parks hidden around crowded streets.






For some reason we thought the day was a Sunday which we should have known better as our ships elevators remind us everyday (I didn't really get this until a few days into our cruise -I thought the elevators were named the days of the week - honest mistake right?)


We thought it was Sunday even after we saw school being let out. We even wondered if they had school on Sundays in Portugal. Worst part we didn't realize we were there on a Tuesday until thursday. Anyways We really just walked and walked and walked. We found some great cobbled streets to meander, and shops to browse when it rained randomly ( very confusing weather that day - sunny cloudy rainy stormy all within a few hours). I noticed there were lots of men just standing in the doorway of their shops smoking. Almost everyone in this city was smoking actually. Explains why every shop had a very elaborate cigarette vending machine.











Happened upon a pet store complete with fish gerbils and a chipmunk!


Poor Portuguese chipmunk :(

for lunch, after running back to the ship for our debit card to get euros (the crew lied, stores weren't taking credit cards) we stopped into a busy restaurant and pretty much just asked for whatever was good. O-m-g! I was given Mista de Carnes and B got Peotinhos de Fra. It was soo good. The seasoning on my meat ( which I'm not sure what types of meat it was it might have been goat which is very popular there ) was incredible - spicy, smoky, just delicious. Still thinking about it.

After, we found some wifi then walked around a really interesting indoor center before heading back.

J