Magic 7-night June 2018 - Mediterranean Cruise from Barcelona to Rome

[anricat]

Naples
June 22, 2018

This was another big day of sightseeing! Earlier I mentioned that Emmaline had been corresponding with a girl her same age from our cruise meet group. For our excursion today we would be sharing a private excursion with her and her family. We actually did something similar in Alaska, which is how we met Heather and her wonderful family. It worked great to share the cost of a private excursion, but still keep it small and do what we wanted to do.

For Naples, I couldn’t choose between Pompeii and Herculaneum so I set out to find an excursion that would do both. We ended up booking with a company called Pompeiin for a private tour of both with a licensed guide (they’re very strict about tour guides in Italy) and a wine tasting lunch.

After breakfast in Cabanas, we disembarked with the Bush family at 8:30 and met up with our driver to start the morning at Herculaneum. Our guide met us there and took us in just as they opened at 9, which was great because there were hardly any other visitors. Herculaneum is an incredibly preserved site, though it’s not as large and grand as Pompeii. Whereas Pompeii was covered with ash and debris from the top down, Herculaneum was filled in with mud and volcanic sludge that flowed in from the bottom up. As a result, there was no weight bearing down on all the buildings, in addition, this preserved many organic structures like a boat, roofs, beds and more. The preservation at the site is astounding. You can go into the houses that still have roofs and second stories and it really gives a sense of how the people there lived day to day.







Herculaneum was a seaside town for the wealthy and there are some incredible mansions there with elaborate frescos and mosaics. We went into a number of houses and saw the boat houses where piles of skeletons were found as people flocked there trying to flee the eruption. We were all in absolute awe.









We left Herculaneum at 11:15 and made the 15 minute journey to Pompeii where we explored with our guide. While the preservation at Pompeii isn’t as good as at Herculaneum, it’s impressive for it’s vast size. Pompeii itself was a bigger city, but also there is more of it unearthed. Herculaneum is, regrettably buried under a large portion of the modern city and therefore, cannot be excavated further at this time. Pompeii on the other hand has been largely unearthed and it’s enormous. We were there for two hours and only saw a fraction of the city. If we didn’t have the guide I’m certain we would have gotten lost.







I will say that I think we spent overlong at Pompeii. It was very very hot and after awhile, we largely saw the same type of thing repeatedly and I think we all got a little burned out. Our guide, however, was fabulous. She was so enthusiastic about all things Roman and had vast knowledge about the subject. At 1:30, tired, hot and hungry, we left Pompeii for lunch and wine tasting at Bosco de Medici Winery.

Lunch got off to a bit of a shakey start as it wasn’t clear how the menu worked or what we would be eating or drinking or what the girls were going to have. There wasn’t a menu so we weren’t sure what was going on. It ended up that we had several courses with wines to taste with them. After we cooled off and started to eat, we enjoyed the meal and Roger enjoyed the wines there, even buying a bottle to take home.



After lunch, we went for a tour of some of the vineyards on site (the rest are on the slopes of Vesuvius). It’s a beautiful site and we enjoyed the walk around the grounds where they also grow lemons and tomatoes. Our time there ended and we climbed into the van for the return to the ship at around 4:30.

Once onboard, we started packing up since we would be leaving in the morning. It was hard to believe we were already at the last day on board! This cruise definitely felt like it went faster than any before. While we packed, Emmaline found some other activities, attending some games in Promenade Lounge and meeting Mickey in the atrium. At 6:00 we went for our final dinner aboard the ship, back in Lumiere’s again.



After dinner, Emmaline left to go pursue some activities around the ship. She said she went to “Who Wants to Be a Mouseketeer” and then attended “Disney Dreams” in the Walt Disney Theatre. Again, Roger and I weren’t interested having seen it multiple times. (Emmaline can watch the same thing over and over again and enjoy it every time - more power to her!) While she was at the show, we finished packing and then Roger went for a walk on deck 4 while I worked on my trip report, paid off our bill at Guest Services and returned Emmaline’s bracelet for the kid’s club. Eventually we all returned to the room for bed, since we had to wake up somewhat early to disembark on time.

 

[anricat]

Disembarkation in Civitavecchia and Rome
June 23, 2018

Disembarkation day dawned and nobody was in a very good mood. We really didn’t want to get off that ship! The only good news was that the night before, our head server offered to find us a table if we wanted to come for second seating breakfast at 8 AM. Otherwise, we could have gone to Cabanas (early seating dinner means early seating breakfast on the final morning which is…early).

We got to see our server one last time even though he wasn’t really the server for the table we were seated at. Breakfast was nice and we finished up, used the restrooms and walked off the ship around 9 AM. We made our way to the shuttle bus that would take us to the entryway of the port (the port in Civitavecchia is really long). After getting off that bus we found the bus that goes to the train station for 2 Euros. We could have walked, but with our suitcases and knowing we would have some walking on the other side we sprung for the bus to the train station. We arrived at the train station and I bought us some “BIRG” tickets which would get us to Rome and be valid for transit around the city once we arrived in Rome.

We took the train to Ostiense station and then followed the signs to the Metro (which is at an adjacent station, but it feels like the same station as you never go outside or anything) to pick up the B line towards Rebibbia. We took the metro two stops to get off at the Colosseo stop. We walked outside and Emmaline’s jaw literally dropped at the site of the Colosseum and I’m pretty sure she said “Whoa!!” It is an impressive sight, I agree.

We made the walk to our AirBnB but we were a little early so we stopped in a little grocery store and picked up some water, juice, fruit, eggs and cereal for breakfast the next morning. We left there and continued to our apartment which I somehow had the wrong street number and walked further than we needed to. We got our stuff dropped off and tried to cool off a bit while we waited for Dru to join us. Dru and I have been friends for many years and I was so excited to see her since we don’t get to very often since she moved to Switzerland (where her husband is from).

She arrived not long after we did and after we all regrouped, we headed out for some lunch. We checked out the first place I had looked into but it was closed on Saturdays so we went to the next place but it was a tiny little counter and not much else (we needed to sit at a table and have A/C) so we found another place nearby call Valare and it was really quite good. They had a special with pizza, bruschetta and a drink for €10, which seemed like a good deal considering how close to the Colosseum we were.

After lunch we set out for the bus stop to ride over to Castel Sant’Angelo, which was a place we had not visited on our previous visit to Rome. After getting off the bus at our stop, we made a short detour to get some gelato from one of my pre-approved gelaterias. It was very good gelato, perhaps my second favorite from the trip. From the gelateria we walked over to the Roman monument/mausoleum/fortress/papal hideout/papal residence/museum.





There were a lot of people milling about outside, but once we got in there really weren’t many people there, which was nice. We paid our entrance and began our exploration of the fortress. Emmaline got our her Mission: Rome book and began her quest to find the items listed in the book like she did with Mission: Barcelona.



As I listed above, at various points throughout history, Castel Sant’Angelo has been a variety of things through the time it’s been standing. Originally the tomb of Hadrian, other Roman emperors were also interred there. Eventually, the building began to crumble with the decline of the empire. Later, the popes converted the structure into a castle fortress and was connected to St. Peter’s with a secret passageway (it’s not really a secret anymore). The structure houses some elaborate rooms commissioned by a couple of different popes and include receiving rooms, a bedchamber and more for popes in residence.



The way the museum is set up to guide you through the entire building is really nice. You guide yourself from room to room with the help of numbered signs and directions leading you further and further to the very top where there is a sweeping view of the city and St. Peter’s Basilica. Every time we’d come to another level we would all say, “Wow! look at this great view of the city!” Then we’d go up another level and say, “Wow! No, this is the best view!” Then there would be yet another level. It was pretty cool. Eventually we reached the very top and then from there we made way down again through different rooms and areas of the fortress. You can see the secret passage (it looks like a wall) in the photo below on the lower right side of the photo.






We really enjoyed ourselves. It was a fantastic mix of different time periods and Emmaline also enjoyed it. I think this is a very underrated attraction in Rome and we were really glad we went.









After leaving there, Emmaline spotted a carousel so, of course we had to make a stop so she could ride it. Then we made our way to the bus stop where we waited approximately for-freaking-ever for a bus back to the apartment so we could clean up for dinner.



For dinner we were very happy to be heading back to our favorite restaurant in Rome, Ristorante Tema. We ate their twice on our last visit, discovering it quite by accident. We didn’t have Yelp or Trip Advisor or even smart phones back then so we sort of just wandered in one night and had an incredible meal. When we arrived, we told them that we were back after 13 years and our server seemed surprised and genuinely grateful and then presented us with some beautiful bruschetta on the house. We had a lovely meal and after made our way back to our apartment via a bakery where we picked up an assortment of items, most of which weren’t super amazing. It was really the only dessert let-down we had in the various patisseries and gelaterias we visited.

We came back to our apartment and got things ready for our early outing the next morning to see the Colosseum.

Note: Some of these photos were taken by Dru.

 

[TestingH2O]

I love how you are visiting all those carousels! What a cool thing to see in all the cities. I wanted to find the one in Cannes, but we were having so much fun at the beach, we didn't make it.

PS - you are putting me to shame with how quickly you're getting this report finished!

 

[anricat]

I love how you are visiting all those carousels! What a cool thing to see in all the cities. I wanted to find the one in Cannes, but we were having so much fun at the beach, we didn't make it.

PS - you are putting me to shame with how quickly you're getting this report finished!

Spoiler alert! I have one more carousel to come!

We had several flights where I worked on them. I have three more flights coming up (Rome -> Geneva, Geneva -> London, London -> Austin) in this report which is where I worked on a lot of the cruise days. I got up to Naples before I got home. I'm quickly catching up to myself, though. I've only got one more day to post that's written so I need to get cracking!

 

[FSU Girl]

I just came across your trip report. I'm about to do some binge reading. European cruises are so much fun! Your part about London will be especially helpful since we are going to spend a few days there before our honeymoon cruise. And I love your daughters name, if I ever have a girl I want to name her Emmeline. I never met anyone with that name before so that's really cool

When it was time for our London Eye reservation, we went over and got right on with our timed tickets I had purchased in advance. It was a great day for the Eye which no cloud cover or haze or anything. We could see really far. Emmaline was pretty underwhelmed by the Eye and I think it might have been more fun if we had that iconic view of Big Ben and Houses of Parliament (which were also somewhat obscured by equipment and scaffolding).

Are tickets bought in advance required for this? That's too bad that Emmaline was underwhelmed by it.

I didn’t really talk about why we were in London in advance of our Mediterranean cruise. When checking out airfare, it was really insanely, ridiculously expensive to fly to Barcelona one way and then back home from Rome one way. We looked at round trips into either Barcelona or Rome and those were cheaper, but not by very much. They also had a lot of stops. I couldn’t get a good flight into Barcelona without making either two stops or having really long layovers, usually in London. Then Norwegian announced nonstop service from Austin to London starting in March and I looked into it. Their prices were really really good. But then with their partners, we were looking at another really long layover in London because the flight to Barcelona wouldn’t be until 4:25 PM. Ultimately, we decided that splitting the travel into two days and not spending 7 hours sitting in the London airport would be better for our sanity and overall adjustment to the time change. At the end of the trip, I was really happy with how we arranged it. We loved our time in London and it really did make the travel overall so much nicer to just have one long non-stop for the transatlantic portion of our flying. I mentioned we sprung for Premiere class and it was about the same as the round trips we were looking at on British Airways to/from Barcelona. We perhaps ended up spending more money with the overnight hotel, food and transportation, but like I said, we had a lot of fun in London so I call it a win.

Flights to Europe can be so expensive. When I did a cruise out of Barcelona a few years ago we had a 7 hour layover at JFK, it was awful. And our plane ticket was more expensive than the actual cruise we were taking. I'm doing a bit of the same thing for my upcoming cruise because we want to spend a week in Paris, but our cruise leaves from Dover we are going to fly in and out of London instead of one ways.

Back at the hotel, we grabbed our luggage and turned back around again to Victoria station to take the train back to Gatwick for our flight to Barcelona. Our flight to Barcelona was mostly uneventful except for the three bros behind us having some kind of party the whole time. They were completely aggravating and boisterous the entire flight. Upon landing, when these 30-something blokes ran at full tilt toward baggage claim, I turned to a guy who had been near us on our flight and said, “and people think Americans are loud and vulgar…” His response was, “I apologize on behalf of the British people.” We smiled at each other with a little chuckle. I guess there are idiots all around the globe.

That's annoying, good thing it wasn't too long of a flight. I found more British people in Barcelona than Spanish people when I was there. Apparently it's where a lot of them go for quick cheap vacations.

I wasn’t sure what to make of Gaudi before we visited Barcelona, but now I definitely appreciate his work. His love of nature and organic style, the fact that he thought about form and function and that he appreciated both the beauty of simplicity and could also make something unique that had a lot going on. In his time, while he was successful, he was a little ahead of his time and not appreciated by everyone.

I'm glad you enjoyed Sagrada Familia it was such a cool place to visit.

What a cute picture! That's really nice that they had photographers from the ship on the dock.

Soon it was time for dinner and our first time in the new restaurant, Rapunzel’s Royal Table (which was super fun - the Thugs are fantastic).

I'm so excited to try this new restaurant. I really didn't like Cariocas that it replaced and I've heard such good things about the Rapunzel restaurant I'm glad they made the switch.

The architecture is gorgeous.

• Drive from Livorno to Florence - scheduled: 9:15 -10:45 (1.5 hours), actually: 9:25 -11:20 (nearly 2 hours)

• Drive from Florence to Pisa - scheduled: 2:45 - 3:45 (1 hour), actually: 2:45 - 4:10 (nearly 1.5 hours)

• Drive from Pisa to Livorno - scheduled: 5:00 - 5:30 (30 minutes), actually 5:10 - 6:00 (nearly 1 hour)

Those are really long drives. I find that's one of the biggest downsides to a Mediterranean cruise since all the ports are so far you spend a lot of time on buses and not in the actual cities.

 

[FSU Girl]

Herculaneum is an incredibly preserved site, though it’s not as large and grand as Pompeii. Whereas Pompeii was covered with ash and debris from the top down, Herculaneum was filled in with mud and volcanic sludge that flowed in from the bottom up. As a result, there was no weight bearing down on all the buildings, in addition, this preserved many organic structures like a boat, roofs, beds and more. The preservation at the site is astounding. You can go into the houses that still have roofs and second stories and it really gives a sense of how the people there lived day to day.

I'm so excited you went here. I've been to Pompeii twice, but never Herculaneum and have always wanted to see it.

Wow! It's so well preserved they still have the roofs on the buildings? That's incredible.

Herculaneum was a seaside town for the wealthy and there are some incredible mansions there with elaborate frescos and mosaics. We went into a number of houses and saw the boat houses where piles of skeletons were found as people flocked there trying to flee the eruption. We were all in absolute awe.

I definitely will be going to this city if I ever get back there. It's so amazing to me what could be preserved for all this time. I've always been fascinated with the city of Pompeii, but this one deserves to be as famous as well.

Rome is my favorite Italian city. I've been twice and can't wait to go back. Your whole cruise was fabulous! I don't blame you for not wanting to get off the boat, the last day is always the hardest you want to just stay on the ship forever.

 

[anricat]

Are tickets bought in advance required for this? That's too bad that Emmaline was underwhelmed by it.

Welcome and thanks for following along!! We bought tickets in advance for a specific time and walked right on which was worth the upcharge, definitely. There was a really long line of standby riders. And there were almost no people in our car. They only put people from the advance reservation queue in our little car and it was very few at the time we went. I will say that while it was cool, I'm not entirely sure it was worth the price tag. Honestly, if I had it to do over again, I would have chosen to go into London Bridge. I think we all would have preferred that. I mean, it's a cool view, but I'm not sure it was as cool as the price we paid and it feels a little gimmicky. It's funny because I thought DD would prefer it to the other activities in London, but she absolutely loved the history and museum-like stuff way more on our trip.

 

[cindianne320]

Thanks for the detailed report! We plan to do a similar itinerary in 2020! Bummer that Incredibles 2 wasn't shown. We were on the Fantasy when it released and got to see it. I also don't like the same show 2 nights thing they have going on, and expressed it in the online survey and comment card.

 

[anricat]

Thanks for the detailed report! We plan to do a similar itinerary in 2020! Bummer that Incredibles 2 wasn't shown. We were on the Fantasy when it released and got to see it. I also don't like the same show 2 nights thing they have going on, and expressed it in the online survey and comment card.

They did eventually show it on the afternoon of our sea day, but yah, it was a bummer not to have it for an evening show. We would have liked to do some of the other activities that afternoon. If they are gong to have this double show thing, they need additional activities. A lot of evenings we sort of felt like we didn't have a lot to choose from during those times.

 

[anricat]

Rome
June 24, 2018

Buckle up because this post has a lot of photos! The Colosseum is just super photogenic. Anyway, we got an early start to our morning because we had a tour booked for the Colosseum (including the Underground), Palatine Hill, and Roman Forum with What a Life Tours. I initially wasn’t planning on booking a tour for this, instead my plan was to do the Colosseum (and the other stuff) on our own and try to get tickets for the Underground directly from the Colosseum’s website on release day. Unfortunately, I was unable to secure them even though I was actually paying attention for this one. So I found a tour company with a few slots left and booked it. In the end I’m super glad we did because it was fantastic. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Back to our morning!


We ate breakfast in our apartment. We had everything we needed in the little kitchen. We packed up and left our apartment to meet our tour near the entrance to the Metro next to the Colosseum at 7:55 AM. Once everyone was accounted for and we all had our little earphones on so we could hear our guide, we set off for the entrance. It was already really chaotic and we had to wait while lots of credentials and tickets were checked, then security and then we waited some more before we were let into the Arena floor (the rebuilt stage area). The Arena floor was really cool because you could look up and see what it would have been like to be on that stage. Our guide was really great and gave us a lot of information that we didn’t have last time (since we didn’t have a tour last time).



When we were done there and it was our turn to go down into the Underground. They only let a very small number of people in (in our case, our group and one other group) go down at a time. The Underground area is really cool and I’m glad we got to go down there. We got to see a little canal that they used to bring boats in during the short time when they would flood the Arena and have mock naval battles (which just boggles my mind). We also got to see a reconstruction (that works) of an elevator that they would have used to bring animals in cages up to the Arena. The guide painted a picture of darkness, sweat, blood and fear in those underground tunnels.









Then we went up to the main area of the Colosseum see the other sections and look down on the Arena floor and the Underground and she gave us more information about the Colosseum under the Romans as well as some later use by Christians and also information about restoration, cleaning and preservation.









The Colosseum has been recently cleaned and it looks fantastic. Below are two photos from our trip in 2005 so you can compare with the first photo in this entry. You can see in the below photos all the grey and black all over (those aren't shadows). Now it looks so much nicer. Apparently it was paid for by a man that owns a company making very expensive shoes. They still need to do the inside (so it still looks like this in places inside) but it's definitely a huge improvement.



After we were done there, we headed for the Palatine Hill where we saw many aspects of the ancient palaces there. Having been to Pompeii and Herculaneum, I felt like I had a better picture in my mind as to how these spaces might have looked at one point in time. There’s only a fraction of their former glory left, but what remains is still incredibly impressive.











After walking around there, we moved down into the Roman forum, the center of commerce and pubic life in ancient Rome. It’s so vast and it’s hard to imagine what the space looked like in ancient times. Again our guide gave us so much information and detail about everything. She was clearly very passionate and knowledgeable. One interesting thing I noticed when she was talking about the ancient Romans was that she used the pronoun “we.” I don’t know why I particularly noted this. When I think about my ancestors, I don’t typically use that pronoun, but I thought it spoke to the pride of the Roman people in their heritage.







After the tour, we walked back towards our apartment. We were very hot and hungry and it was a toss-up if we should eat or go to our place first. Food won out and we found a place with A/C and had some pizza and sandwiches. It wasn’t the best meal we had while on our trip, but it was fine. After lunch we went back to our apartment for a few minutes while we planned the afternoon activities.

Feeling refreshed and ready for more action, we made our way to the bus stop again to head over toward the Pantheon and Piazza Navona. Of course, we needed to find some gelato first. We first went to a place on my list that was also a recommendation from a friend of Dru’s. When we arrived, it was a madhouse: people were everywhere and there were lines snaking around the place. I finally discovered that one was a line to get a number to place an order. Then once you had your number, you had to wait again for your turn to order. Nope! We left and found the runner-up behind the Pantheon. It was quite good and we all agreed that we were more than satisfied with it.

I remembered feeling so odd about the Pantheon the last time we visited. It’s so Roman and ruinous on the outside and then inside it’s this fancy looking Christian church - such a strange dichotomy. But it’s still standing and more or less in tact thanks to Christians who preserved it and it also houses the tombs of some important leaders of Italy, which I didn’t know previously but learned in Emmaline’s Mission: Rome book. We also learned about the holes in the floor for water to drain out when rain comes in through the hole in the roof. It’s a really cool book!

The line to get inside the Pantheon looked crazy but it moved quickly and we were inside for a little while to find the items in Emmaline’s book and take some photos. Luckily all knees and shoulders were covered so we didn’t have to worry about that. Some others were buying shawls from the street sellers outside.

Next we walked over to Piazza Navona and took in the fountains and we all learned more about the main fountain in the square which has representations of four major rivers (in the form of men) around it. We also learned that there are markers around various parts of the plaza (and slightly further afield) that show flood lines from previous floods in the city. (Again, this is all from the children’s scavenger hunt book which I highly recommend if you have kids and you’re headed to a city that has a corresponding book.)

After this we were pretty tired out and went back to our apartment and relaxed for a bit. We did some packing and I think Emmaline and Dru may have had a dance party (or that was the next day, I’m not sure, but a dance party definitely happened at some point). After a bit it was time to venture out for dinner and, it being Sunday, both my first and second choice restaurants were closed. So we found another place near our apartment. It was fairly basic inside, but the food was actually quite good and we were the only people in there. We may have gotten a little overly loud playing a rousing game of “Heads Up.” Emmaline also invented a game we all played using pieces of paper she had made cards from and some little Disney emoji figurines she bought at Disney Store Rome (which we had visited earlier in the day before going to the Pantheon).

After dinner we ate some Italian cookies in our apartment that we had purchased earlier in the day at the grocery store down the street. They were better than the cookies we had spent a lot more money on at the bakery the night before. Then we got packed up and ready to leave the next morning.

Once again, Dru contributed some great photos to this post.

 

[FSU Girl]

Rome is hands down my favorite city in Europe. I've been there twice and can't wait to go back. We had thought of going there for our honeymoon, but decided not to since I've been so many times before.

I am so jealous you got to go to the underground part of the Colosseum. I'm not sure if it was available the first time I was there and when I went on a cruise it wasn't included in our tour. Ancient Roman history fascinates me and its so cool that all of this is still standing.

Below are two photos from our trip in 2005 so you can compare with the first photo in this entry.

I was in Rome in 2005. I spent a month in Italy and did a two week cruise to the Greek Isles with my parents. How funny we could have been in the same place at the same time.

This area must have looked so magnificent when it was all still standing at its prime.

 

[anricat]

I was in Rome in 2005. I spent a month in Italy and did a two week cruise to the Greek Isles with my parents. How funny we could have been in the same place at the same time.

This area must have looked so magnificent when it was all still standing at its prime.

Wow, that is funny that we were both in Rome in 2005! I agree, I love it there so we were more than happy to head back.

I can hardly imagine what the forum must have been like! It must have been amazing to the people of that time.

 

[anricat]

Travel Day
June 25, 2018

This isn’t the most exciting day of our trip, consisting mostly of hanging out and travel, which was fine. We were ready for a break from being tourists I think. Though Roger did get a little sightseeing in, so I’ll let him guest blog his portion. You see, this is the part of the trip where we split up. Roger needed to get back to work as his vacation time is limited. My work being more flexible, I arranged for Emmaline and I to travel back to Geneva with Dru to stay with her for a couple of nights.

We got up and ate breakfast and Roger’s flight being earlier, we said goodbye and he took a car to the airport around 8 AM to head back to London. From there he would do some sightseeing before his scheduled flight the next morning back to Austin. Dru, Emmaline and I had a leisurely morning of goofing around including making a carpool karaoke video of “Baby You Can Drive My Car” using the chairs from the table and a plate (for a steering wheel). It’s about as silly as you’re imaging it in your head. I also tried to set my hairdryer on fire by not switching the switch on the side to change the voltage. Oops. I get to order a new one of those! Luckily our apartment had a hair dryer and my diffuser actually fit on it (whew) so no frizzy hair for me.

Our car to the airport arrived around 10:30 and we had an uneventful journey to the airport. Our flight was about an hour delayed, however, which was sort of a bummer, but it wasn’t a very long flight so that was nice. Also, Vueling (Spanish discount air carrier) has the least amount of leg room I’ve ever seen on an airplane. Not sure I would choose them again!

We arrived in Geneva and took pubic transit to Dru’s house where her husband Nils was waiting. I was so happy to meet him, never having met before. Nils and Emmaline got to know each other over a game of chess and Dru made fondue for dinner. We had a lovely dinner as the beautiful sun set and we enjoyed the view from the balcony.



Meanwhile in London…

My flight on Easy Jet was easy and uneventful. I hadn’t thought about flying over lunch but luckily buying lunch on the plane was a very reasonable price and pretty good. I was also able to buy my Gatwick Express ticket on board which I knew would save me some time at the airport.

After arriving at Victoria Station I wheeled my heavy, wine-laden suitcase with a broken wheel much further than our first hotel had been, which was frustrating but I was happy to arrive to my hotel to my small room, turn on the air conditioning to rest and cool off for a little while.

My plan was to check out the Imperial War Museum so I hopped on a bus nearby (thanks to the Citymapper app for directions) and made it easily. Admission to the museum is free though there are plenty of opportunities to donate. The exhibits cover the 20th century with the largest being for World War I and the Holocaust, though also plenty of World War II equipment and artifacts as well as some more modern pieces. The building and exhibits are well laid-out and I enjoyed my time there, though the Holocaust exhibit was very emotionally heavy.

I caught the same bus back toward my hotel, stopping in at a wine shop for one last souvenir bottle. After a brief relax at the hotel, it was about dinner time so I went out to a pub for a burger (hadn’t had one all trip), chips and some stout, which was all very good. After dinner I stopped in a grocery for a few breakfast snacks so I could eat something in the morning before I could get something more substantive at the airport. I went to bed early since I needed to get up early to catch a train, but a few hours later, disaster struck.

 

[mindreader]

Hello!

I'm Chris, the mind-reader you saw! Just wanted to say thank you for coming to my show and for your kind words! I'm new(ish) to Disney Cruises and love performing on them, the audiences are always a real delight, so I'm very very happy that you enjoyed my show!

Chris

 

[fredandkell]

I'm enjoying your trip report - we will be doing many of the same things in a few days, even the flight from Barcelona to Geneva! Did you spend more time in Switzerland, and if so, what cities, and are you going to write about them? I hope so, as that's what we're doing!

 

[anricat]

I'm enjoying your trip report - we will be doing many of the same things in a few days, even the flight from Barcelona to Geneva! Did you spend more time in Switzerland, and if so, what cities, and are you going to write about them? I hope so, as that's what we're doing!

We only stayed in Geneva, but I'm about to write about our full day there. There are so many more things I wish we could have done, had we the time. Be aware that many things close very early early, like 6ish so plan accordingly.

 

[anricat]

Hello!

I'm Chris, the mind-reader you saw! Just wanted to say thank you for coming to my show and for your kind words! I'm new(ish) to Disney Cruises and love performing on them, the audiences are always a real delight, so I'm very very happy that you enjoyed my show!

Chris

Hello! I'm glad you had fun with your performances. I hope that you get to perform on the big stage at some point. I thought your show was really intriguing. It would be nice for even more people to see it.

 

[fredandkell]

We only stayed in Geneva, but I'm about to write about our full day there. There are so many more things I wish we could have done, had we the time. Be aware that many things close very early early, like 6ish so plan accordingly.

Well I’ll make sure to write about my Switzerland experiences for your future benefit, then! We will be in Bern, Berner Oberland (Mürren) and Zürich.

 

[anricat]

Geneva
June 26, 2018

I woke up at Dru’s house and all was quiet. I turned on my phone to find several messages from Roger. He was supposed to fly home from London, but he had been taken ill overnight with a variety of symptoms, mostly GI related. There was no way he could travel. Between the two of us, we had only one computer and one SIM card that could make calls (his European SIM was data only). I started by calling Norwegian airlines. They told me I could rebook over the phone for a fee or online, still for a fee, but not as much. I logged in on the computer and rebooked the flight for two days later (Norwegian only flies between Austin and London every other day). As it happened, this was the flight Emmaline and I would also be taking home so I moved our seats so we could all sit together.

Then I had to work out hotel. He had already contacted the front desk at his current hotel, but they had no vacancies for the next two nights so then I was working online and over the phone to try to find somewhere he could move to with an earlier check-in time. Nobody could guarantee anything, but the Doubletree said that if I made a reservation, they would put a rush on getting one of those room categories cleaned and ready. He arranged to get another hour at his current hotel so we had a little more wiggle room. So we booked him into the ridiculously expensive DoubleTree Victoria Station. From there I started the claims process with the trip insurance company, then sent the paperwork over to his current hotel, called them and asked them to print those up for him to have. Then I found a nearby urgent care he could go to. Whew!

After all that, I was pretty hungry and Emmaline had woken up hungry in the middle of all this process so Dru ran to the store to grab a variety of yummy things for breakfast. She came back and we all split up some pastries and had some cereal. We had a general idea of a few things we wanted to do for the day, but we were mostly playing it by ear and we were a little later setting out than we had anticipated since I spent a chunk of the morning dealing with the crisis.

First, we decided to set our for the Telepherigue du Salève, the cable car of Mount Salève. We took Dru’s car the short drive from their apartment over to the base of Salève and purchased our tickets. There were very few people there and we only had a few other people in the cable car with us. We rode up to the top of the mountain where we were greeted by an incredible view of the city below. The weather was beautiful and perfect and we took it all in.





From there, we made a short hike in the opposite direction to a different vista. The hike was probably about 20 minutes and it wasn’t too technical. My foot had had a day of rest the day before so it was doing fairly well. Up was actually a little easier on it than down was, though down was faster, obviously. The meadow on the other side at the end of the hike was like something out of a fairy tale: a beautiful green meadow with tiny wildflowers, buzzing bees, blue skies and a gentle breeze. We stopped and had some snacks there. We arrived back to the cable car and rode back down the mountain and then drove the car back to Dru’s house where we found some lunch. After some salad, fruit and cheese for lunch, we set out this time using public transit for the city.



I’m going to pause for a moment to tell you we did a lot of walking for the rest of the afternoon and early evening and took some buses and trams and things and by the time we got back, it was sort of all a whirlwind so Dru sat down and made some notes about our day so that I could write this up. So along the way I’ll pass on some of her notes as we go through.

She noted that we took the bus to Terrassière and then walked along the lake but the fountain (the very famous fountain in the lake) was off. Dru notes “injustice!” We took in the sights and people along the lakeside, including some swans, a funny dog playing fetch in the water who, when his owner stopped to take a phone call brought us the ball instead. Of course, we couldn’t leave our new friend hanging so we threw the ball for him until his owner became available again (and then some). Then we came upon a little beach with a swimming area and a sandy playground made from recycled rubber (looked like bicycle tires) and Emmaline played there for a bit.









From there we took the bus again to Rive and we set off in search of treats. Emmaline spotted a little cart in front of a shop selling macarons and ice cream called Ladurée. Emmaline got ice cream and Dru had a macaron/ice cream sandwich (of which I tried a few bites and it was amazing). We walked over to a nearby square with a carousel near old town in Place de la Madeleine. We watched the carousel while Dru and Emmaline ate their treats and then Emmaline had a go on the carousel. I’ve lost count on the carousels, but we definitely hit at least one in each country except England. If I had known it was going to be a thing, I would have sought one out there, too!





After the carousel, it was time for me to have a treat so we went to Martel and I ordered several little two bite pastries there: a mini Opera cake, a mini eclair, and a tiny raspberry tart, along with a couple of chocolates. Of course I shared a few bites with my companions, but I couldn’t help think of poor Roger in his hotel room in London feeling awful. We left there and went into a nearby store for some souvenir shopping before walking across the river (where we saw a really cool black swan on the way) in search of a pubic piano so Emmaline could play a little. There were lots of public pianos all around as part of a temporary installation, I believe. Emmaline played what pieces she could remember on the colorful piano before we walked back across the river.







From there we set out for the Horloge Fleurie (flower clock) then walked all around Vielle Ville (old town) and saw the beautiful streets and the cathedral where we found a friendly cat and sat down to rest for a bit and give him some attention. By this time, it was past 7 PM and we were hungry so we spent some time trying to find something to eat. Everything was either not what we were looking for, way too expensive, or too long of a wait. Finally, exhausted, we stumbled into Starbucks and had some toasted sandwiches and a salad that were actually surprisingly good (and cheap). Though I felt a little odd eating dinner at Starbucks, everyone was happy and fed so it worked out.







From Rive, we hopped back on the tram and then made the short walk from the stop over to Dru’s apartment where we got all our things packed and ready for the next day and our flight back to London.

 

[TestingH2O]

Carousel! What a beautiful visit.

Poor Roger. Hope he recovered quickly enough to fly with you all.