Travels And Tribulations

May 3, 2023

Today we lead off with Blogging Bonnie.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAC!!!!!

Our room is at the front of the ship and right over all the equipment for docking. Our cabin literally shakes when the ship starts docking. The noise etc continues for about 45 minutes. I awoke this morning to my bed rattling, haha! It also does this when we leave. Great noises. My bed buddy with his ear plugs sleeps through it all.

We had our 7 hour tour to Valencia and Albufera with lunch yesterday. I gave it a one star. We first rode for 30 minutes to get out of the port docking area which is miles from the city, actually in the cargo area. They have moved all their cruise ships docking to that area. Then, we drove through a small part of the new area with museums, opera building, aquarium etc. Then, we went to the city of Albufera which was about a 45 minute drive past 30 or 40 miles of plowed fields where in about a month will be the rice fields, lush and green. The town of Albufera , which buses cannot drive into, is a town of nothing but restaurants. Probably 50 or 60 or more. Literally, I am not kidding. We were served a family style lunch with a salad of tomato and lettuce, small potatoes, and a hush puppy kind of thing, a huge plate of mussels, then a large plate of paella. The paella consists of their famous rice, chicken, green beans, lima beans and seasonings. The paella was tasty. Dessert was tiramisu. There was one glass of wine per person and one large bottle of water for a table of 4. Lunch was okay. I ate the salad and dessert and a little of the huge serving of paella that they gave each person. Any other drinks were extra. David got a cup of espresso which was 2 euros and he said it was excellent. Then, we were told to either stand on the corner or somewhere for 45 minutes till we would take the boat ride. The guide disappeared back into the restaurant. Really. David sat at one of the tables outside and was told he needed to order a drink or something He said no and continued to sit. There was absolutely nothing to do. All the restaurants were basically closing and you just found some shade and stood! Until it was time for the boat ride.

The boat ride was on a large flat bottom boat that held about 25 people and there were two of the boats that took us out on a large lake with green water surrounded by long reeds. It isn't fresh water and its not salt water but something in between. This is all in some kind of national park of Valencia. Nice ride, cool refreshing breeze but very hard on the bottom and the back while riding. After the boat we walked back to where there was a different bus. Boarded the bus and traversed back the way we came to Valencia. By now very heavy traffic in the town. We were headed to the old city center for a 2 hour walking tour. This was my favorite part of the trip except for the fact they did not provide head sets so you could hear the guide. You could not hear at all because of the traffic and crowd noise and the size of the group. We got 30 minutes of free time in the end. We used our time to visit a beautiful church and get gelato. Then, back to the bus and the ship. About an hour ride. The port was really very far from the town. We got on board the ship at 9:20, both exhausted.

Today we are in Mallorca. There is a local shuttle for 10 euros each and we are going to do that. We have been here before. But again we are going to be at least 30 minutes from the town. All the ports are parking the cruise ships far away from the towns. We also have a $19 each way in Marseille. We cancelled our tour in Florence and Pisa because it was to be 10 hours and that is the day before we get off. We decided we were not up to it. So we will try and get a shuttle into the port city where you go from to Florence. Florence is a long way from the port so we will try and visit the small city where the port is if there is anything to see.

Now for our day in Mallorca. We caught the shuttle about 10am for a 20 minute ride to town. From where the shuttle stops is you could see the Cathedral de Palma Mallorca just across the road and up the hill. So off we set toward it. We have been here before. It is a massive structure and beautiful inside. So we walked up the steps and to what looked like the entrance. This town is plagued with the same thing as Rome. There are street sellers galore. They have there blankets spread out on the ground and their wares that are for sale. There is blanket after blanket with knock of LV, MK, Gucci and any high end purses you can name. There also are hats, or sunglasses or magnets, paintings, pictures and I could go on and on. The problem is they blocked the places where it is designed for you to walk.

So after getting around all of this stuff and by them, we get to the door and find it is for pre-purchased online tickets only. UGGGH! We ask a young man at the door and he says go down the street we just navigated and make two right turns and we will find a ticket place and entrance. So off we go passing by a number of horse and buggy rides that are also sitting up here. There is a lengthy line of people waiting to buy tickets. So we queue up and make our way to the ticket window inside. The cost is 9 euros each but we pay only 7 because we are old. As we are in the queue line we notice there is a gelato place just to the left of the line. YUM! So into the church we go and it is very crowded. I rest on one of the benches while he gets his pictures. Then, we find the WC (for all of you non world travelers that is the water closest or bathroom) because mother nature is calling. Of course the exit leads you into the gift shop. We make a few purchases. Then out into the street to find the gelato. He finally decides which way we should go and after 3 left turns, aha, there it is. We make our purchase (me: amarillo and nutella and he: oreo and amarillo). I had seen some souvenir shops and after looking into several of them I found one that I wanted to visit. I made a few purchases.

Then it was back down the hill and off to the shuttle. The last shuttle was to be at 2:45 since all aboard was 3:30. We got on about 12:20 and got back at the ship about 25 minutes later. It would have been a very longggg walk to have made. It was a well spent 10 euro ride. Arriving back at the ship of course it was through local security. AH, my favorite thing. As usual I set the thing off. And as what has become the custom they had to pat down my chest. I am buying a sports bra that has no hooks!! I got patted and massaged and patted again on my boobs. I sure hope they enjoy it, I don’t!!!

Back on the ship we went to the Windjammer and had some lunch. The salad that I made was not very good but I ate some of it anyway. We then went to 270 and played cards. After one game he was ready for a nap. So he went to nap and I went to watch sail away. It was interesting because about 3:40 the captain announced he was waiting for the pilot and longshoremen to arrive so we could leave. Strange. It was 3:55 before they arrived and only 2 longshoremen came to release a total of 4 sets of lines. It was after 4:15 before we actually started to move.

So I watched for a while then at 4:30 I came to the cabin. He was sound asleep though I don’t know how. He had his ear plugs in and didn’t hear me come into the room. I let him sleep to 4:45 and then woke him to get ready to go to supper at 5.

Supper was bowtie pasta with a tasteless tomato sauce. Of for some good Italian spaghetti sauce. The have an excellent Italian specialty restaurant which costs $59 per person, where they serve you a humongous amount of food all of which you can not possibly eat. We had a substitute waiter tonight because the usual waiter was “sea sick” we were told. He was a lot of fun to kid. It was his first time in the dining room I think. Dessert was a panna cottee and appetizer was shrimp cocktail. Not much on the menu I liked.

Tomorrow night is to be “formal night” “dress classy”. I am not. I did the first time and almost nobody else did. They are having surf and turf (lobster) but I am only going to eat turf. David can have my lobster.

We played another game of cards after supper and he won!! No show for us tonight. Now in our room. Oh one of our purchases was two bags of potato chips. There are none to be had on the ship! We will have them maybe tomorrow.

Well, goodnight for now!!

Love you all Mom, Granny and Bonnie

* * * * *

Okay. Let me tell you what really happened.

First, I don’t sleep with earplugs unless there are loud noises when getting ready to sleep, or unless I am awakened to loud noises, or unless it is naptime. I guess I was extra tired for the scene described above, because I missed it.

The lunch at Albufera was excellent. Most of the 12 people at our table picked at it. I counted when it was over and only 4 of us cleaned our plates of the delicious paella. The dessert – tiramisu – was a curious choice I thought for such an obvious Spanish meal. I was glad that the 3 other people at our section didn’t like mussels, because I helped myself.

And the espresso was excellent! Would that I could drink so fine a coffee every day. We used to have an espresso maker, but I think it went into a yard sale.

Let me amen the part about not being able to hear Edgar, our host and tour guide. When the bus stopped at the ship, I asked the Entertainment Director, who was the Royal Caribbean person charged with herding cats, to wait for me off the bus. I’d introduced myself to him earlier, and he was waiting. I told him about the missing earphones and he said 4 other people had mentioned it, and he would talk to someone about it. Whoopeee! Well, maybe it will help the next excursion to Valencia and Albufera (with Lunch).

No offense to the salespeople with the counterfeit purses, sports wear, sports cap, etc., but they are a tribe of folk from North Africa that you see all over southern Europe, at least the parts where we’ve been. Evidently they are legal, or tolerated, in Mallorca because they set up boldly and have lots of wears on their blankets. In Rome, the blankets are smaller, the goods fewer, and at a signal of the approaching Carbonarii, they are invisible. Not so today. I watched one young woman start haggling at 35 euros and bought the MK for 22 euros. On our way back to the shuttle a man was being accosted by the seller who cut the price automatically to 22 euros. Must be the going rate. First price, Mister. Not last price. Your price, Mister.

My blog buddy said she is not formal – true – and not classy – false.

The cruise card competition is now 3-7 her favor. I led this afternoon and lost, but won tonight with a score on my last hand of 345. I don’t think I have enough time to get even.

Bonnie told you about finding two ducks hidden on the ship. A couple days ago she found two more. We happened to be following the lady who hides them, and picked them up as she passed by. Here is our growing collection of ducks – two towels and 4 rubber duckies.

As she said, the best part of yesterday was the half hour in the old town square, going into another beautiful old church. This one is actually a continuing house of worship. As we were leaving the priest went to a small chapel on the side of the main sanctuary to hold vespers, or perhaps with the hour, complin.