ARE YOU FROM PITTSBURGH?

April 10, 2017

We were back on board and heading for lunch when a woman stopped and asked the question (I was wearing one of my Pirates t-shirts).  No, I grew up in Oakland, Maryland which is 2 hours south of Pittsburgh and we had two TV stations, half of them was KDKA ... blah, blah, blah.

Well, the lady’s husband’s uncle was a photographer for the Pittsburgh Post Gazette in the 1960s and 70s and he shot the iconic picture of Bill Mazarowski rounding second heading for home waving his arms, hat in hand as he celebrated the game winning home run, beating the New York Yankees (yes, they did, my brother) 4 games to 3 with the only 7th game walk off homer in World Series history.  I told her we had bought a leaf for the Mazarowski statue – I think she was impressed.  Interestingly she said her uncle-in-law’s photograph was admitted to the Baseball Hall of Fame before Maz was.

I’m not sure what it means when you ask your traveling companion, “Have we been in this cathedral before?” and then when you walk out of the gift shop you look to your left and recognize the toilet area and say, “Yes! We’ve been here!”  Ancient toilets!  Ancient travelers!

I had bought tickets before we left to see the Picasso museum here in Malaga, and when we came out, we were glad we had – the line to buy tickets was 40 minutes long, and we just walked in.  His early paintings are incredible, but then he got into the Romulan Ale (why bless me, Bones, you know this stuff is illegal) and created cubism.  The museum provided an audio guide and some of the buffalo biscuits that they said about his stuff is as weird as some of his paintings.  You can tell the women from the men because Picasso drew exaggerated biffies, sometimes both on the same side.  Beyond that, who knows?  Glad we saw it however.

However, the marble floors really made my hips and back ache.  I had to stop several times and rest, but when we got into the above mentioned Cathedral, in less than 5 minutes, the pain was gone.  Coincidence?  Different flooring?  Miracle?  I’ll go with Door Number 3, Wayne.

Excellent entertainment tonight.  Bonnie remarked that one of the things she likes best about cruising is the outstanding entertainment we get to see that just never comes any where close to Augusta (even if you count Atlanta close – sorry Karen and Frank).  Vincenzo Gentile is a violin maestro.  What an incredible talent!  He received a very well deserved standing ovation.

We arrive in Cartagena at 8 in the morning and sail at 3 – not sure why, except maybe we need the time to make Civitavecchia on schedule.  So I will turn the keyboard over to She Who Must Be Obeyed.

TTFN

Well, ouch!! My leg is bad tonight. Which one you say, well take your pick!

Well, anyway. We got up at 7:30, washed and dressed and went to breakfast. Had baked beans and butter bread for breakfast and again bacon that was as hard as a rock. Can’t they do bacon right. Oh my. Then, back to the room, get some more euros, load up the bag, get a jacket, and a hat and head to deck 2 today , buying a bottle of water as we leave. Oh course we are docked out in the boonies and MILES from where anything is. So it is 4 euros a piece so we can ride the shuttle, because I am not up to walking about 2+ miles into town. No exaggeration there. The shuttle drops us off and we head to the information booth to find our way to the Picasso museum. We have to cross 2 very busy streets, but there are walk lights. They have a timer up to show how long till it changes to walk and then until it changes back. We were patient and made it safely across. While we waited I watched a large ferris wheel like the London eye, that was on our left. Maybe next time we come we will ride it.

Got to the info center, he asked directions and we purchased two magnets for the two
the 2 young people who cook his omelet in the morning because they weren’t going to be able to get off today and the young lady said she always bought a magnet when she got to a new port. So you know your Dad he got her one and one for the young man that works with her. I on the other hand purchased a small ruler to add to my crocheting bag, it said Malaga. Oh by the way we got the directions wrong and had to stop and ask a young lady outside a shoe store, who was sweeping, for more directions.
(Amy you would love these ports, there are more shoe stores than anything. I mean big stores one after another with hundreds of shoes. You would need 3 suitcases to carry them all home. )

Oh well, on with our walk. We found the museum and went right into it since we already had our tickets. After figuring out how the recorders worked, we headed off. Of course your Dad started taking a picture in the first of 12 rooms of paintings, sculptures , etc. And the young lady guard (there was one in every room) came over and said no pictures. There were no signs up telling you not to and the recording we were listening to said nothing. The first couple of rooms had some nice things but after that it got weird. He painted on old doors, pasted stuff of wood etc. Every woman had big bosoms. You always knew it was a she. A lot of his stuff looked like he may have taken a minute to paint it. Some looked like he forgot to paint some of it. There were two works that look like he had use crayons. Well, he worked until he was 90 and everybody says he is a master.

When we left as Dad said the line was well out the door and we talked to someone from the ship a few minutes later and he said that they said it would be 40 minutes till you could get into the museum. Glad we went early. Both cathedrals we visited had beautiful art works and statues. One had a huge pipe organ. It took up 2 whole rooms. They had a lot of stuff blocked off because they are getting ready for Thursday and Friday services. There are always large iron bar walls separating you from all the stuff. There was one huge painting , probably 30 feet by 20 feet, of the beheading of Apostle Paul. It was a magnificent painting, even though the subject was sad.  Large statues and portraits of Mary and Jesus. Along the street there was a man dressed as Jesus holding a large cross (he never moved or blinked an eye) and you could take his picture which many people did. He had a open case at his feet for a donation.

The streets are extremely narrow and mostly only pedestrians on them, though every once in a while there was a car driving through the people. One woman was trying to make a turn and missed it so she backed up almost running over a man pushing a load of boxes up the street. She looked like she might have been lost. There were large groups of people riding bicycles on tours and oh course the segways were out and about.

As we walked back we visited some of the tourist shops, stopped to look at the menu of a restaurant called Sherlock Holmes, and bought some little stuff in the shops. Not much. Won’t have a lot of room in the suitcases coming back. We stopped in one store and they had snickers ice cream bars and guess who bought one for 3 euros. I did get a couple of bites.

Arriving back at the shuttle place we waited with other weary cruisers and boarded the bus when it arrived. It takes about 15 or 20 minutes to get back to the ship. There is a very long gangway that we have to go up but first you have to go through Malaga security. Unload your pockets, take off your jacket, your hat, put your cane on the belt and walk through the scanner. For whatever reason today I did not set it off but I did in the one in Cadiz. Then pick up your stuff and walk onto the ship.  Since it was almost 2 and we wanted lunch we went straight up to the Lido deck and to Dive in for hamburgers and hot dogs. I had some chips, salsa and cheese dip, too.  Then, of course ice cream, back to the room and a nap.

After dressing for supper, we headed to deck 2 to paly a game of cards, he beat me miserably, and then we went off to supper. We sat at s table with a couple and their teen age autistic son whom we have sat with before. Nice people. I only had a cold fruit soup, french onion soup and a baked potato for supper. Nothing looked good. I got apple struddel for dessert but it wasn’t much.

The show was very good though I could not understand most of what the gentleman said because of his very thick Italian accent.
Well, we are getting ready for bed and I have been reminded that I am not writing a great masterpiece so I must stop.

Love, Mom, Granny and Bonnie