Been a While Huh?

When I left Houston on Wednesday headed for Newark and then Rome I forgot my camera.
What an imbecile I felt like. I had the charger , the extra memory cards and batteries ------but no camera.

So I bought a new one at Liberty Airport and read the instructions. But it wasn't till a week later that by accident I found it could do videos. So, no vids till late in the trip.

I got to Rome, Business/First, and took the train to Termini and another to Civitavecchia. I had been to the port a few years ago but I didn't remember it being so far from Termini.

When I got off the train I was not feeling too tired although it was 4 a.m. my time.
Here's my pic at the station in Civi...


Anyway got on board at noon and was thrilled by the elegance of the ship. I stayed awake until after dinner and even went to a show and then crashed. But it turned out to be good because I was adjusted to Greenwich +1 immediately after that.

Next morning first stop was Marseille. The port is full of sailboats and yachts like many towns in the South France are. Vieux Port is a big U shape and you can walk completely around and take a ferry from the tip of the U back to the other side. At the bottom of the U is a fish market on the open quay.





There are coffee shops and restaurants lining the side of the street across from the wharf. I really enjoyed walking around.





Next was Barcelona. The Ramblas on Saturday was crowded and never fails to entertain. How this guy sits here is a mystery........



And in this picture you can see a policeman walking off with a pickpocket/scam artist.


Next day, Sunday, was Palma Majorca. Never been there before. Beautiful city with clean streets and wide avenues with first rate shops. Being Sunday not much going on. I looked all over for Rafael Nadal but only saw a poster..........

Next day was Cartagena. Went there last year (on a Sunday) but this time I was there on Monday. All the shops were open and I was able to buy some refreshments and a few cigars. I went back to the ship and got the banned spirits O/B without a prob. So, even though it was a 1 mile walk to the shop, I went off the boat again and made another run. This time upon boarding I was asked if I had liquor and I said "Just a bottle of wine" and the guy let me go with it. Lucky.

The next port was Lanzarote and while I will show you some pics, it ain't worth a spit. Being 75 miles from Morrocco it is swamped by Africans who have makeshift booths and counters and hawk junky trinkets from one end of the dockside to the other end. About a mile of junk.







Tenerife was the last call before the crossing. Here's a video taken on Thursday as we were leaving Tenerife. and that is a really nice place.


Can't say enough about the difference in quality between RCI (Royal Caribbean) and Celebrity. Food, service, entertainment and just about everything was superior on this cruise.
Here's a couple of elevator shots.


I was particularly enthralled with a group of musicians from Ukraine who performed 3 times a day almost every day during the crossing. The night before arrival in FLL the group played and I was the only audience they had for 40 minutes. While everyone else was packing they played just to me. Finally a few people drifted in for the last 15 minutes or so. Magical! A personal concert. At this point in the voyage the group recognized me since I had been a constant member of their audience for the past 10 days-- 15 or so performances.