2013 Mums World Cruise

Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Sunday 7 July 2013 - Cork Ireland

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We arrived in Cobh, the port city of Cork, at 8 am. I have booked a tour to the Waterford glassworks today. It is interesting to see how it is all done. The town of Waterford is one hours drive from Cobh so we get t see some of the green Irish countryside.

And it is green! Especially after visiting some of the earlier places on this tour. Some of the old buildings along the route were made by the vikings, it is almost like being home.

Waterford Crystal was founded in 1783. While waiting for our guide we had a look around the showroom. Some beautiful pieces! We saw some 'sculpturs' inside as well, including a viking ship about 1m long, beautiful. All pieces to be cut are marked in black pen and most are cut by hand. You would need a very steady hand not to damage anything.

All pieces are checked several times, if not good enough it is smashed and goes back into the oven to be melted and start again. Very interesting how they blow a blob of glass and turn the pipe to cool it while using various tools to shape it. If neccessary it gets reheated and reshaped. Then it is cut off the pipe and passed on to the next station. Further on if it is a vase or bowl they get marked and cut.

While walking along we saw some of the beautiful pieces. A grand piano with stool. The keys were marked and the black keys were sanded and looked white in the glass. At the end we were back in the showroom. So many beautiful pieces, so many beautiful prices! The Viking Ship costs 42.000 Euro, did not have enough in my pocket.

On the way back to the ship, we drove to Lismore to see the castle, only from the outside, and have a look around town. There was a mark on a stonewall, saying it was 36 meters above sea level. There were many stonewalls in Ireland.

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Friday, July 5, 2013

Thursday 4 July 2013 - Lisbon, Portugal

Mum is doing the Lisbon City drive

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I did the easy tour in Lisbon, a 2 hour City Drive. I took some photos, but cannot remember all the names of the places we saw. We did drive through a street where there were a number of embassies. I recognized the flags for Iceland, Denmark, Norway, and Spain.

Our first stop was the Belem Tower (Bethlehem Tower) buit in the 16th century and the starting point for many of the big voyages of discovery, like Vasco da Gama's journey to India around the tip of Africa. Not far away is a replica of the seaplane which started at this point and flew non stop to Rio de Janeiro, forgot the date.

Also in this park is the Monument of the Discoveries depicting many of the famous explorers arranged on the prow of a ship. From here we drove up on one of the hills around town to see the Edward the VII Park made to commemorate his visit to Lisbon.

After returning 'home' I had a bit of lunch and a rest before listening to the Princess Choir. Considering there are only a couple of semi-professional singers in the choir, they are very good.

pic from google images

Wednesday 3 July 2013 - Cadiz, Spain

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After docking in Cadiz we boarded our bus for a one hour long drive to Jerez (pronounced 'herez'). We had a female driver and she could drive the bus OK. There were many olive groves and vineyards on the way. Jerez is a much bigger city than Cadiz. We had a drive around town before arriving at the Royal Andalusian School of Equestrian Art. There was no official show on today, but we were welcome to watch the horses being exsercised, some outside in a big yard or inside the porposemade arena.

They were gorgeous looking, smooth fluid movements, flowing mane and tail. No photos allowed inside the arena, but we could take photos outside in the yard. We were also escorted into the tackroom and had a talk about what they were doing. They keep 124 horses at the school, all boys. The mares and foals are kept at a stud out in the country. Only geldings are performing.

We had time for a cappucino and a snack before the bus left. The coffee came in a tall glass with no handle, was very hot I could not hold it so grabbed a few serviettes and wrapped them aound the glass. The coffee tasted very nice. The cookie I got with it I took onto the bus to finish on the way to the Bodega for our sherry tasting.

First we were escorted into a huge hall with 600 litre barrels stacked in 4 levels and there must be thousands of them. I can never remember the numbers. The man showing us around originally came from Holland. He came for holidays and forgot to go home! Upstairs we could see over all the barrel stacks to get an idea how many they had. Further on we were showed the Picasso Gallery. The owner had been collecting drawings and paintings by Picasso for many years and had decided to display them here.

Downstairs again we got to try 4 different types of sherry. There is the dry one, semi dry, creme, and sweet, I probably liked the creme best, it is sweet, but not too sweet. So it is time to return 'home'. A nice relaxing drive through the country side again back to Cadiz where we said farewell to our tour guide Jorge (call me John) and Anna our driver.

Arriving in Cadiz

Barrels by the thousands

In training

Hexagonal tower

huge wine glass monument

Morish Gate

Mosque in Cadiz

Our sherry options

Palace at the Horse Academy

Monday 1 July 2013 - Barcelona, Spain

Decided not to do a day trip in Barcelona. A day of rest on the ship.

Sunday 30 June 2013 - Monte Carlo, Monaco

Mum decided to cancel her Monte Carlo trip as the last few days had been quite busy and day of rest was needed.

image from google pics

Saturday 29 June 2013 - Florence/Pisa, Italy

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Our last stop in Italy, Livorno is the port city for Firenze. Our bus left at 7.30, so a early start again. A small group again today, 26 people, there is another bus doing the same tour as us, which turned out to be a good idea.

Nice countryside from Livorno. Big round hay bales, olive groves and vinyards and also market gardens. Very flat for the first half hour and we saw some canals presumably for irrigation.

Our first stop is the Accademia home to Michelangelos Statue of David. Another que. Only som many people are allowed inside at one time. I don't know the number, but say 50 in, 50 out etc. We had to send our bags through metal detectors and x-ray arches. I can bypass as I have a pacemaker. Sometimes they pat me down or they let me pass through. Maybe I look innocent enough. David is gorgeous and Mchelangelo was only in his twenties when he made it. From here we walked to the Duomo and Baptistry.

The Duomo or Santa Maria del Fiore is the largest masonry dome in the world. It was built in 1430 without internal scaffolding!! I would like to se someone doing this today. Seeing the doors to the Baptistry opposite the Duomo Michelangelo exclaimed "They are so beautiful that they would grace the entrance to Paradise". After another walk to Signoria Square, Florence's government offices with a collection of statues, including a copy of David.

We made our next stop the Uffizi Museum and Gallery. Originally intended to house offices for magistrates, it is now full of medieval paintings. It is one of the oldest and most famous museums only rivalled by the Louvre, thanks to the Medici family who started this collection.

Not far from here is the Ponte Vecchio, the Old Bridge, with many shops on both sides which originally housed butcher shops. Very easy to dispose of "leftovers" in the river Arno. These days it has only jewellery shops. A short walk takes us to the bus.

The Baptistry

Ponte Vecchio

Palazzo Vecchio

Il Duomo

Countryside outside Livorno

Friday 28 June 2013 - Rome , Italy

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In Rome I am doing Trevi fountain, Spanish steps and Pantheon. A fair bit of walking.

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We arrived in Civitavecchia this morning to lovely walking weather, which we also had in Napoli yesterday. It is mostly sunny with some clouds and 23 degrees. Not like Petra in the high 30's. Apart from Sea Princess there were another 4 cruise ships in the harbour.

We had an extra hour this morning, the bus left at 8.00. It took 1hr 20 min to reach Rome from the port. We started at the top of the Spanish Steps, much easier to walk down. We walked slowly so all could follow, we had a large group of 50 people. Yesterday the group was 27. There were photo opportunities along the way a we had to walk the whole way. Next stop was the Trevi fountain. It was packed with people so we photographed a lot of peoples heads too. The fountain is amazing, every night workers collect around 3000 euros and dollars which are donated to charity, so it goes to a good cause. There were also many beautiful buildings on the way.

Our next stop is the Pantheon. This was built over 1800 years ago in a cylindrical shape, amazing how they could do it. without computers, cranes and all that we use today. Another walk took us to Piazza Navona. It was full of cafees and street vendors. We found these all over Italy. Many were black people selling bags, scarves, pictures, reproductions of paintings and movie stars. I saw 3 people buying the 'Joker'

I am sure the population of Rome must have doubled. There were people everywhere. We had lunch in a small cafe in a narrow side street. Beautiful again. Lasagna Primavera, no meat but beans and small cubes of carrot, tomato and mozzarella, Veal roast with steamed vegetables and guess what? Gelato again, cassata this time.

After Lunch we met up with our bus and were taken to the Vatican, and you guessed, another walk. Foot traffic only in the Vatican. There was a long que to get in, but it moved reasonably fast, only took us half an hour. The inside is beautiful, no argument. We had time to look and take photos and met our guide for our walk to the bus and heading home. We all call it home" now, not just "the ship". A quick dinner and back to the cabin for a lie down. Tomorrow is another "walking tour". Many of the tourist city centres are for foot traffic mostly, some taxis and of course the carabinieri, the police.