October 5, 2017
Alicante, Spain was a nice stop. We were only in port from 8 to 3:30, and we stayed off from 9:30 until 1. A world record for us. It is an easy city go get around in, at least to see what I had picked our for our excursion.
We went to an incredible fortress called the Castle of Santa Barbara. It is on a hill/mountain over 400 feet high with incredible defenses and walk ways carved from the solid rock. It is hard to imagine all of that work being done by hand labor. There were some incredible views of the city and the Mediterranean Sea. I took about 100 pictures and will include some in the blog closer when I get home. They will of course be available for this year’s cruise calendar.
We then went to the Basilica of Santa Maria and the Cathedral of St. Nicholas (no relation to the December 25th guy that I know of). We got to the Basilica about 11:30 and there was a mass scheduled to begin at noon. When they do a service, they stop the tours. A walking tour from the ship arrived there about 10 till 12 and I heard the guide apologize to the walkers that they would have to slip in and out quickly. I don’t know how to describe it, but there was a huge silver platform with posts around the side which held up a covering. Very ornately decorated. We guessed that it is used in the Good Friday procession as a place for the Virgin Mary. There is a life-size statue of her in front of the pulpit that we guessed is carried in her “carriage.” It was a beautiful place of worship. St. Nicholas featured two huge brass doors with ornate work. These were not the place for ingress and egress however. A rather ordinary, but large wood door, around the side gave us admission.
Well, to the title of tonight’s blog. We ate with Wayne and Barbara who have not only been there and done that – he was a speaker for Holland American and a genius programmer for IBM who worked on Watson and sailed with numerous movie stars and retired and stopped doing guest speaking because they preferred to pay for their cruises so they could earn all the perks and have better staterooms. Bonnie said, “If we sit with people like that tomorrow night we are having a table for two for the rest of the cruise.” I rather enjoyed it. I kept asking leading questions so they could ship the bull. If was quite funny and they never caught on. They liked talking about themselves. Ptweeetttttt!
Well, it’s Bon’s turn so ...
TTFN
umph! I was awake before him and played on my phone till he awoke. Then we showered, dressed and went to breakfast. I had fruit and a chocolate muffin with OJ. He took a couple of pictures off the front of the Lido deck before we went down and collected our stuff. We took our drivers license for photo ID because the Holland America cruise line always keeps our passports because we are part of the crew. I guess they think we are going to jump ship when we are in port. I don’t like it but I tolerate it.
We rode a free shuttle into the edge of the dock( tomorrow the shuttle costs 5 euros each round trip) and walked up to the town. About a 5-10 minute walk. We stopped at a small kiosk so I could buy a paper, 3.20 Euros, and asked how to get to the castle at the top of the mountain. She said there was an elevator to the right down the street. So off we went. We found the line for the elevator and cued up. It took about 15 minutes to get to the head of the line. There stood a lady waiting to sell us tickets to ride the elevator. I had noticed a sign outside that said people over 65 rode free. So we showed our drivers license and the date of our birth and she sent us on down a LONG tunnel to the elevator. We walked and cued up at the elevator door. Now you know I don’t like elevators and the idea of riding one traveling through solid rock to the top of a mountain was not my idea of fun. But I got on when it was our turn and rode it up. It was a long ride! On top the view was well worth the ride. I even found a cannon for Mac. We enjoyed our walk around though it was extremely rocky and at times very steep walking. After looking at most of the fort we headed back to the elevator to ride down. Just as scarey.
When back on the street we headed to the churches, stopping in several small shops to buy a couple of souvenirs. I even bought a new t-shirt, which I don’t need, but it had a picture of the fort on it. After the churches , which both had huge pipe organs and they were very beautiful and ornate, we headed back to the ship. Your Dad stopped and bought a gelato cone of vanilla with pralines and caramel. I did not. We found the shuttle and rode back. Oh course to get on the ship you have to go through a metal detector and of course I had to be wand and patted down.
After getting on the ship we headed up top for lunch. He had bunless hot dogs and I had a “spicy chicken salad” sandwich. Only it wasn’t chicken salad. It was sliced chicken with avocado on it. Yuck. I took off the avocado added mayo and ate it. It was good. Then I had an ice cream cone. We went back to the room and napped intermittently for me. The captain came on about 3:30 talking about the trip to our next port and woke me from my nap, so I decided to go out quietly and watch sail away. It was fun. Some lady came nonchalantly on board at 3:50 ( all aboard was 3:30) and then we were able to sail away. I got to watch the pilot leave our ship and jump onto the pilot ship as we sailed out into the ocean. Very cool. It was right below where I was standing.
Then I went back to the cabin where he was awake, having been woken by the guest relations desk calling for the lady who was the last person on board. We dressed for dinner and headed off for dinner, unfortunately with a couple who talked and talked and talked. Anything you did they had done it better and sooner. Oh well!
Since the man had 2 entrees and we had to wait till he finished the second one, which he said was overcooked fish and undercooked rice, until we could get dessert we missed the first show and had to wait for the second one at 8:30. I, by the way, had half a chicken! And a baked potato for supper and a hot fudge sundae for dessert. Very tasty.
The show was a British comedian and he was very, very good. Really enjoy the show. Well, he is tired and going to sleep so I have to go. We are headed to Malaga tomorrow.
Love Mom, Granny and Bonnie
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