After a
little more than a month of working at Harvest Time Bible Camp (HTBC), we went
on a cruise to Spain, Italy and the Greek Islands with my sister Barb and her
husband Gary. It was a good time to
leave HTBC because it was time for the plumbing, electrical, roofing and siding
subcontractors to do their work without us getting in the way. We had planned
this cruise when we went on the Australia/New Zealand cruise in 2018.
Barb &
Gary had taken a cruise from Tampa to Barcelona. We had planned to meet them in
Barcelona for a week before boarding the Royal Caribbean cruise to the Greek
Islands. This was always on Gail’s
bucket list, so we booked the cruise with them.
Of course seven days in Barcelona would allow us to see a lot of that
city, but since we did not know the language, Gail found a 3-day Costa cruise to
use up some of the time. So, we spent 3 days touring Barcelona, then 3 days on
a Costa cruise before boarding our Royal Caribbean cruise. It definitely kept
us busy. I will cover these all in this blog. First will be the touring of
Barcelona, then the 3-day Costa cruise and then ending with the 14-day Greek
Island cruise.
Part 1 –
touring Barcelona, Spain
We arrived
at the apartment that we had rented, got settled and then walked to see some of
the sights. The first one we went to was a famous church there called the
Sagrada Familia. It was unique in the sculptures and that many of the items
were in color. They were renovating a good bit of the church, so there was a
lot of scaffolding and cranes around about 75% of it.
Gary is
known for his love of ice cream, so we did have to get a picture of him with a
big ice cream cone.
Gail kept
wanting a picture of a bakery, so we ended up with a lot of bakery pictures as
well – I will only show one.
After eating
in Barcelona and catching up on some sleep, we caught a hop-on/hop-off bus the
next day. This allowed us to see most of Barcelona’s sights and hear commentary
as well about what we were seeing. We saw statues, fountains, the old bull
ring, ports and many other “tourist” sights of Barcelona. We saw a statue of
Christopher Columbus, but he was not pointing in the direction of the new
world. I will just add a few pictures to give an overview of what we saw.
We walked
down the main tourist street and saw all kinds of vendors. Barb and Gary even
had a caricature done of them. I always did like seeing some of the “living”
statues of which there were many. We ate that night in a very quaint Spanish
place – 5 Guys. Yes, we went all the way to Spain and ate at 5 Guys.
The last
full day we traveled to Montserrat. This was a Catholic school about an hour
out of Barcelona. We had to take a cable car up to the top which was not Barb
or Gail’s favorite part.
The
children’s choir sang in the sanctuary and the place was standing room only.
The church was typical Catholic detailed architecture. The most striking
feature of the church was a lofted golden statue of Mary which people would
stand in line for hours to see. They would spend 10 or 15 seconds in front of
the statue and then move on.
The scenery
to Montserrat was beautiful as it was nestled in the mountains. We took the
train back to Barcelona, ate again at 5 Guys and slept the night getting ready
for the Costa cruise the next day.
Part 2 –
Costa Cruise
We booked
the Costa cruise because with food and lodging, it was just as cheap as staying
a few more days in Barcelona. Besides,
we were able to go to two more stops that were not on the cruise to the Greek
Islands. Seemed like a good idea. Of course, we did not realize that Costa was
the cruise line that one of their captains capsized a ship a couple of years
ago and 34 people were killed. Still we were able to go to Savona, Italy and
Marseille, France. We sailed on the Costa Favalosa and traveled to Savona,
Italy.
As with any
port of call on a cruise, as you get off the boat, you are met by venders. Gail
thought it was me putting my arm around her, but it was actually a vender which
about scared her to death. It was pretty cool, so Gail and Barb actually did by
a scarf (but from a different vender).
The city was
obviously Italian. The taxis were all green, white and red like Italy’s flag.
The city had some new areas, but the old city was mostly old stone buildings
with arched walkways in the main part of the city. There was also a large
cathedral that had paintings behind the altar and on the ceiling.
We then
sailed overnight to Marseilles, France. This
is considered to be near the French Riviera. We took a mini train to see the
city and its most famous landmark, the Basilique of Notre Dame and the golden
statue of Mary above the church. The scenery overlooking the city was beautiful
with the blue water and the all the buildings.
The Costa
cruise then sailed back to Barcelona. A few thoughts about the Costa cruise. It
was easy to see that the Costa Cruise Line was more European than Royal
Caribbean that we typically cruise. The food was European in nature and it was
not available at all times like RC. The decorations around the ship were
significantly different. Don’t know if we would go on another Costa cruise or
not. However, when you consider the cost of hotels and meals in some of the
cities, it many times is cheaper to cruise. The other different thing about the
Costa cruise was a room service fee which we did not expect. It was not in the
paperwork and was totally unexpected. In Royal Caribbean, you pay tips and can
give more if you so desire, but with Costa, it was mandatory and put on your
bill.
Part 3 Royal
Caribbean cruise
The first
day of the RC cruise we stopped in Cannes France. This was the time of the Cannes
Film Festival. We were able to see a lot of movie stars, but unfortunately they
were all on billboards. As is usually the case, the architecture was a mixture of
the very old and the modern. Technically
Cannes is on the French Riviera and there were a lot of boats in the waters
none of which we could afford. We took the Petite train around the area to view
the sights of the city. Here are a few pictures from Cannes:
From Cannes
France, we cruised to the port of Florence, Italy. We took the excursion to
Pisa to see the famous leaning tower. How sad that the first sign we saw as we
stepped off the bus was that the tower was not leaning that day. Picture 21 The
story of the tower was interesting as the architect was so embarrassed by what
happened, that he did not put associate his name with the tower. In reality,
that leaning tower probably has brought more visitors to the city than if it
had never happened to begin with. Here is a picture of Gary pushing it back
into place so we could get our group picture with the tower in the background.
The excursion also included a boat trip and tour on the nearby river.
From Pisa,
we cruised to Rome. What a crowded place. We went on an excursion to the middle
of Rome where we caught a hop on – hop off bus. We did see the outside of the coliseum.
It is large to say the least. The
streets are narrow and the architecture everywhere was amazing. Would really like
to be there when there is not so many tourists.
From Rome,
we said for a couple of days to the Greek Isles. We did have to make an
emergency stop on the way as one of the passengers had a serious medical issue.
So, we did make a quick stop at Sicily. From there it was on to Athens, home of
many of the Greek gods. It was here at Mars Hill that the apostle Paul preached
about the “unknown God” which was Christ. It is interesting that the Parthenon
and many of the structures to the ancient Greek gods are around, but the
ministry of Paul there is almost forgotten – at least by those who still don’t
know God. We did the “highlight of
Athens” excursion.
As you look
out over some of the ruins, you can see just how big Athens is. It is a huge city with the official
population over 700,000. Again, the
architecture is tremendous at the parthenon and throughout the city. You begin
to see one of the normal sights of Greece as well with the white buildings and
blue roofs.
Pictures
29,30,31,32,33
From Athens
it was on to Mykonos, Greece. Most of this city is just on shore. It is easy to
see the color scheme that is all around the Greek Isles, white buildings. One
of the most photographed sites shows the 5 windmills all in a row on the
island.
Again on the
boat and cruise to our last Greek island, Santorini. Santorini is a more hilly island and most of
the buildings are high up on the hills. We took a boat and a bus up to Fira.
The city is wall to wall buildings and again the iconic white building with
blue top. It was a long way from the top to the shore. Most took the cable car
up and down, but since we had gone by way of boat and bust to Fira, we decided
to walk down – about 300 steps. Sounds easy, but it was still quite a hike.
On the way
back to Barcelona, we stopped at Malta. We took a 4 hour tour by taxi. One of
the better bargains of the trip. The man took us to all the main attractions.
The boats at the shore were very colorful. We went into the old walled city of
Medina and then to a glass factory. If he spoke better English (ow we knew the
native language, it would have been even better. While I was in Medina, I must
have gotten into trouble (see the picture). Beautiful island.
We enjoyed
the trip and would go back again. We sailed back to Barcelona and then back to
the good old USA.
