Back in UK

Our European leg had come to an end ! We'd checked out our friendly b&b with it's claustrophobic lift and navigated our way back to Via Travestere train station along narrow footpaths with 2 unco-operative suitcases !

Barely 30 minutes later we were at Rome airport settling in for a long 5 hour wait for our Squeezy jet departure. 

After a 2 1/2 hour flight (about all that is bearable on a budget fligh !) we stepped off our plane to a cool and overcast UK evening and set about driving to Devon via a services stop near Taunton.

After a long day on the go we finally arrived in Honiton (our 2nd home) to be warmly welcomed by Monikas family. One week to go !

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Rome

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Rome

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Rome

As far as city touring plans go this one was pretty laid back ! Head in the general direction or Rome, find the Tiber, walk to the nearest identifiable ruin then continue walking in the direction of the Vatican hopefully not getting lost down one of the myriad of narrow alleyways before finally looping back to our starting point in Trastervere.

The first part of the plan worked well. From our accommodation in Trastervere we made our way on to Via Trastervere before crossing the beautiful Tiber river on a sunny morning. From here we soon picked up the amazing Circus Maximus now a park for wandering locals but then a 200, 000 seat amphitheater for racing chariots the obvious forerunner of todays Italian car driving habits.

From CM it was just a short distance up the road to the famous Palantino and Coluseum easily identified by the thousands of holidaying tourists queueing for entry. Trying to take a picture here without people stepping into the camera shot was almost impossible !

Our real joy in Rome though was simply just wandering down the narrow alleyways and past the squares / piazzas with architectural gems seemingly on every corner !

With some lucky navigation we made our way on to Fort de Angelo and then on to St Peters where the day before the Pontiff had delivered his Easter message to thousands of Pilgrims

Taking in our surrounds we finally left St Peters and walked back to Trastervere (admittedly a fairly lengthy walk) to complete a tiring but hugely rewarding 15km circuit !

Trastervere

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Rome

How could you not know that you were in Rome  / Italy ! The accordion player playing romantic tunes from his open shuttered 3rd floor appartment window gave you a strong enough clue as did the chaotic abondoment (called parking in some countries) of small bodied cars but the real give away as we perused the lovely Travestere district were in fact a pair of Granny's extra "large's" fluttering around like a huge main sail in a stiff ocean breeze on a washing line outside an appartment window !

We'd sadly disembarked our cruise ship mid morning having arrived at Citivecchia port an hour outside Rome and set about enduring the trials and tribulations of travel on an Easter Sunday to Rome central.

2 buses and 1 train later we somehow made central Rome bidding farewell to our Australian travelling buddies Nicci and Jamie and made our way again by train to the Travestere district where a 2km walk and a claustrophobic 5 floor lift ride we finally arrived at our homely b&b our refuge for the next 3 nights !

After a short rest we set about re-energising ourselves by taking a walk to the nearby historic Garibaldi Monument with its fabulous panoramic views over old Rome !

On a sunny holiday afternoon the vantage areas iincluding nearby fountains and grassed areas, were pretty well packed with locals lazing around amidst piles of rubbish that would not have qualified the area as 3rd rate back home, !

Still the views well and truly made up for it with terra cotta roofs and the domed churches of nearby Rome providing a timeless landscape.

Walking the area we even secured a distant view of St.Peters before turning back having well orientated ourselves for future explorations!!

After 2weeks of being waited on hand and foot we had to find our own meal for the evening not too difficult an exercise with restaurants and cafes every 20 or so metres in the Travestere area. Although the food may not have been that great the atmosphere of dining alfresco amidst the old style buildings and squares of made us look forward to savouring our time to be spent in Rome !

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Malaga

One of the worlds oldest cities (2800 +years) and the centrepiece of Spains famed Costa del Sol, Malaga welcomed us into port on a beautiful sunny Easter morning.

We disembarked following a lovely seaside promenade into downtown Malaga. It was respectfully quiet, today being good Friday, with only a handful of the many coffee shops and restaurant's en route open. Walking into the city centre on impulse we jumped on board a horse carriage for an orientation ride around the citys' s parkland and water front areas. With everything momentarily quiet this was an enjoyable experience as our driver in broken english pointed out the many areas of interest !

With our bearings sorted and our carriage driver happily paid, we walked past Malaga's imposing cathedral and begun our climb up steep marble style paths to the Gilbralfaro fort (originally a light house)  a 10th century design with outstanding views over the port of Malaga !

After numerous pics we descended to find that the city had awoken in our short absence and become a teeming mass of humanity enjoying the holiday and Easter celebrations.

As the hordes appeared so did the heat with temperatures quickly climbing as we made our way back to our ship past shops and one very poignant photographic display of images taken during the refugee crisis when families put themselves at risk trying to make landfall in Europe. Anyone seeing these images could not be anything but compassionate to their plight !

Back on deck it was time for a late lunch and a couple of berry smoothies as we set sail from our last port en route to Rome !

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Madiera

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Madiera

It would make a great trivia question - name the country that honours a bald headed pot bellied politician and has named its airport after a still playing soccer player. Admittedly the politician was Winston Churchill (who painted here in the 1950's) and the soccer player is 4 times world player of the year Christian Ronaldo but even without these two Madiera seriously punches above its weight in terms of history, scenery and tourism adventure opportunities.

We disembarked right on 9.00a.m. to find Daniel of "Daniels Taxis" waiting for us directly outside the port. Daniel has a heap of great reviews on trip Advisor and shortly after meeting him we just knew this was going to be another fantastic highlights tour !

Beating tbe ships tour buses out the gate we were soon climbing in our Mereedes 8 seater taxi out of Funchal up impossibly steep roads to the lovely commune of Monte with its church not only providing panoramic of views of  Madiera and our cruise ship from its balcony but also being tbe final resting place of the last Austrian Emperor exiled here at the end of WW1.

From the church we took the steep steps down to the start of Madieras famed wicket basket toboggan run. 2kms down a very steep road in a wicker basket with no brakes controlled only by 2 men with a steering rope and extra grip on their shoes to help slow the basket down !

Monika started screaming straight from the start more i guess in antjcipation as the descent thankfully was not too worrying except for cross over roads where a solitary observor sat in his chair to help prevent us being wiped out by crossing cars. Thankfully he was on the ball!

From Monte we made our to a lookout with great views of Funchal and the coastline. Here you could clearly see the tropical nature of the Island.

We headed next climbing on circuitous roads to the stunning Nuns Valley (Cural das Freiras) originally settled by nuns in a mountanous valley to avoid raiding sea pirates. The road en route provided for incredible views all round including a precipitous valley area referred to as a mini grand canyon . Here hundreds of feet below you could see walking tracks clinging to the sides of cliffs running from tbe Ocean up this steeply sided valley !

We reached the incredible lookout overlooking the valley and the village many hundreds of feet below. Here you could also see the old road  which is no longer in use after a landslide 7 years ago.

Gobsmacked we left to head back down the same torturous route before climbing once again. The landscape here showed just how fertile the island is with bananas, sugar cane, vineyards and just about every known vegetable growing !

We moved on to Cabo Girao at nearly 600 metres high of some of the highest sea cliffs in Europe with breathtaking views particularly when standing on the overhanging glass skywalk that had both Monika and self treading on warily !

Wowed again we descended to a Cornish look alike fishing village called Camara des Lobos famed as a favourite haunt of Winston Churchill who came bere to paint whike recovering from ill health in 1950. The fishing village is connected with a lovely pronenade walk that goes all t thege way to Funchal making this a popular destjnation for an afternoon or evening meal

Our route back took us through the main tourjst aea complere with its 5 star hotels and high rise appartments. Madiera has grown on the tourist radar over the years partly because of its warm climare, partly becahse of the fame of Christian Ronaldo, partly because of its collection of stunning walks and partly because of its festivals with its new years eve fireworks recently voted one of the worlds best !

This is a stunning island and for us a must return to destination !

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Tenerife

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Tenerife

 It probably wasn't the perfect way to start the day I thought as I stood on our balcony watching the volcanic island of Teneriffe loom out of the mornings pre dawn impressed by it's tropical appearance before realising that I was providing a beautiful silhouette in my "birthday suit" to the nearby tug pilot guiding us in ... exit quickly stage right !

After dressing and being well fed (despite MSC's chaotic breakfast) we disembarked to be met by our guide for the day Felix a Tenerife local complete with his 8 seater mini van !

Felix in a very short time identified himself as a congenial walking encyclopedia filling us over the next 7 hours with facts ranging from geological and political history, to culture,  to local fauna and flora, to the effects of local weather patterns and an effort to capture cloud moisture to even island drift and erosion which he believes will place the Canary Islands under water and close to the African continent n about 10 million years or so !

Our first stop on our tour was a cafe out of Santa Cruz in the nearby hills near La Laguna the islands original settlement. Here we had an amazing local coffee called a Barrachito, a coffee with 7 distinct layers of ingredients iincluding cinamon, condensed milk and some form of cointreau laceced liqueur ! Even Monika who is not into coffee reckoned that this was tge perfect way to start the day !

After coffee we headed inland climbimg circuitous roads towards the Unesco listed Mt Tiede national park. The views here were stunning. Up front you had an increasingly volcanic landscape while down below you had precipitous views of the beautiful coastline 

After many photo stops we finally reached the El Tiede plateau a landscape of former small vocanoes, petrified lava flows and different forms of volcanic rock including basalt, the quartz looking obsidian and the lightweight pumice stone formed by consolidated volcanic ash !

The centre piece of all of this was of course Mt Teide itself the 3rd highest volcano in tbe world at 3, 800 metres which geologists say extends another 4, 000 metres under the sea ! Mt Teide amazingly has a cable car running right up one of its sides which is unusual in a nationa park. Just over a month ago these same cable cars came to a halt because of a mechanical issue causing over 100 tourists to be rescued from over 60 metres up with many having to stay overnight in one of the Mountains cabin shelters !

After being awed by the incredible scenery we escaped the tourist hordes and descended back the same way out of the national park to a local restaurant for lunch where we indulged in local food and unfortunately for me a local beer which just about put me to sleep 

Rightfully indicating that we'd need to wakk lunch off Felix dropped us off at La Laguna with its historic builinds proving evidence of the early 17th century Spanish settlement. The mall area and brightly coloured buildings provided a lovley back drop on this sunny day.

Once done our final stop off was at Tenerife's incredibly shaped Opera House an obviius estranged relative of Sydney !

Our fantastic day ended with us being dropped back off at the port by Felix complete with a parting gift of bottled cloud water new to tg5e list of recent Tenerife innovations !

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Cassablanca !

The romantic notion of docking in an African port was kind of taken away by opening our cabin curtains this morning to a haze filled sky (Monika says smog) and an eye fill of worse for wear shipping containers !

Cassablanca is a large and important port and a huge city of over 4 million people and for us signifies our first time in Africa !

We avoided the disembarkation rush by once again taking a class with our Cuban stretching torturer. I have to say it was pleasing to have others in the class this time sounding like they were dieing instead of me !

Following the gym and with time to kill, I took advantage of the less than crowded ship (most passengers had shot through on planned excursions some travelling 3 hours one way to Marrakech !) by jumping into a pool deck spa before realising that i was wasting valuable "smoothie" drinking time and headed back to the bar !

We'd decided that we couldn't miss out on at least setting foot ashore so took one of the MSC organised bus shuttles just after midday to the amazing Hussan 2 Mosque. This was HUGE ! The Mosque and surrounding area can accommodate up to 100, 000 people and has the highest minaret in the world at over 200 metres (important info for all those interested in minarets!)

Walking around the area gave a great feel for perspective and an interesting insight into local life with many locals hanging around a rubbish an debris filled ocean front !l

Our 2nd stop took us along the beach front to a local shopping mall. Most interesting here was not the mall (although it did have high level security checks for those entering) but the ocean side that showed hundreds swimming and surfing highlighting the fact that Morocco has a moderate muslim society (mainly !)

Not getting off at the mall we journeyed back on the bus to the central part of town past Ricks Bar (a take on the movie Cassablanca) to Cassablancas main bazaar a labrynith of small alleyways with vendors competing with each other to sell mainly touristy stuff like knock off designer bags, sunglasses, belts and other clothing !

Appart from this there didnt seem to be much else to do so we headed back to our ship for a late lunch .

The evening passed with Monika enjoying an excellent (she reckoned) on board opera show while I worked away in the gym.

The cocktail and dinner hours soon followed while the ship waited in port for the last passengers to arrive back from Maraakech - the last ones to boarding the ship late at 10.30p.m. to the bronx cheers of on board passengers !

Tomorrow is another day at sea while we make our way to the scenic Islands of Teneriffe and Madiera !

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At Sea Again !

There is probably only one thing worse than having large numbers of Italians on a cruise ship and that is having large numbers of talians on a cruise ship with large number of kids (unfortunately for us the school holidays!) Being an Australian though comes with some advantage. As a race we are pretty ingenious and not afraid to call a spade a spade so it is usually with a degree of calmness that I approach the scrimmage line that signifies that you are about to enter the food buffet area where people like to pretend that they are fighting for the  last food left on the planet !

To survive the scrimmmage i have learnt to use fellow passengers as shields following close enough behind so that any conflict will be their problem not mine. Failing that I find deploying elbows AFL style to take out any space interlooers to be fairly effective or if feeling a bit more diplomatic i simply remind the predominantly Italian and Germans passengers (under my breath) of their limited success in WW2 !

This cruise is a little different to those that we've taken previously in that we spend 4 days at sea meaning that finding activities other than fighting over food is essential to remaining sane !. The gym has predictably become our no. 1 destination as we try vainly to limit the damage of excessive food and alcohol . Situated at the front of the ship the gym has full length glass windows providing for great views while one sweats away in the sauna like conditions !

The nightly entertainment shows also help to occupy some time with the beautiful 1, 500 seat auditorioum hosting high class acrobats, reasonable dancers and according to Monika world class Opera singers !

While at sea you can try out the casinio and slot machines if bored, the cigar room if inclined or maybe the library or the card rooms for a bit of piece and quiet The sports bar has satellite tv and a 6 euro a game billiard table while, for the younger at heart there is a mini bowling alley and a small 4d cinema -  yep the ones with moving and squirting seats etc.!

There are heaps of bars and lounges and a half dozen shops supposedly duty free or you can simply settle for the standard cruise fare by heading to the pool area for a swim or spa if you don't mind someone sitting on you lap on  the busy days!

Not surprisingly most head for the open air deck top to catch the early rays of Spring. For us though we often search out the quieter levels where you have half a chance of scoring a waiter / waitress !. If all else fails though we can simply retreat to our cabins balcony where we can just relax and keep one eye open for any Somali pirates !

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Barcelona

This was one of those days that you just knew was going to be tight ! For some reason MSC had only sceduled just over 4 hours at port in Barcelona - take away times to disembark and return, add on a delay or two and all of a sudden you found yourself with under 3 hours to tour this expansive and architecturally beautiful city.

We'd elected to take a shuttle bus organised by MSC and advertised as dropping you in the city centre but unless the city was under water dropping us not far from the ship in the waterfront area meant the advertising was "bu....hit. This was not a great way to start with time limited and a fair bit of walking to be had !

On a lovely day (20 c) the pace was on from the start as I led Monika through the busy but delightful Gothic quarter before making our way over distance to within a km or so of the Familia Sagrada - The Gaudi inspired church that has been over 100 years in the making (hopefully to be completed in 2026 the Centenary of Gaudi's death)

Realising that we would't have time to tour inside, the fact that i'd visted before and more importantly that Monika was knackered, we turned back to La Rambla (Barcelonas famed pedestrian mall) stopping at a couple of Gaudi creations en route. Taking photos on the fly we battled the crowds and walked the occassional atmospheric alleyway before making our way back to our cruise bus stop having covered over 10 kms in the short time frame !

Back on board i could complain about the lack of time to see such a beautiful city but there's food to be had and a drink with my name on it coming my way !

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