Day 15, Monday April 30, Return Home

It's been 2 weeks since I slept in a bed that wasn't moving. When I
went down to the lobby for coffee I found that yesterday's perfect
weather had turned to rain. Most of my junk was still in the big bag
but there still was some packing to be done. My taxi left the hotel
just before 7 and I was checked in at the airport about 7:30, walked
around some, and went through security and passport control just after
8. I was booked on a 10:45 USAirways flight to Philadelphia, and we
loaded pretty much on time. Barcelona airport seems quite large and
modern, but the wide open spaces are supplemented with little seating,
about 40 chairs in the gate area for a flight holding 260. A lot of
people were left standing around.

Things on the plane started out rather awkwardly. We had quite an
elderly lady at the far end of my row who the crew apparently decided
was too frail to fly, and a wheel chair came and took her quite
unwillingly off the aircraft. The process delayed our departure about
40 minutes, but we had good winds and reached Philadelphia pretty much
on time. That's not to say it was uneventful. We had 2 additional
medical situations and the doctors and nurses on board were rather busy.

I'm not usually a big reader, but I got a new kindle for Christmas with
a book now loaded. I left home at chapter 5, was too busy to touch it
on the train and on the ship, but resumed reading on the flight and am
now on chapter 22, more than half way through. I'll have to make some
changes since I usually only read when I'm flying, and hope to be
through for the year.

Philadelphia turned out to be something of a zoo. I had an hour and 40
minutes for my connection and needed nearly all of it. Between
Immigration (actually brief), baggage claim, customs, baggage recheck,
security (the worst I've seen in a long time), and transferring to
another terminal I was among the last to board my flight to Baltimore.
The second flight was a 50-passenger Dash 8 turboprop, quite a change
from the huge A330, but the flight was short and on time, arriving at
BWI about 4:15 and home 5:15.

My parting shot today will be a late Bon Voyage to one of my fellow
passengers, Claudia, who spent 1 night in Barcelona and is now on the
Voyager of the Seas bound for Dubai, the kind of crazy thing I often
do. As I write this it is actually almost 3AM Tuesday in Barcelona, so
my Bon Voyage is really quite late but Bon Voyage anyway.

Roy

Day 14, Sunday April 29, Arrive Barcelona

We pulled up to the dock in Barcelona, just in front of the Epic, almost precisely at 6AM.  I had booked a half day tour with Barcelona Day tours with an 8:30 meeting time, and requested an 8am departure from the ship.    The announcement that the ship had been cleared I think came about 7, and I went to deck 4 Epernay dining room to await departure.  The call came about 7:50, pretty close to the expected time.  Once in the terminal, those with EU passports went straight to baggage claim while the rest of us had perhaps a 15-minute line to get out passports stamped.

Baggage delivery was by airport-style belt system.  I think there were 3 belts serving about 4 tag numbers each, so arriving at baggage claim much before or after your number was called would probably entail problems.  I was curbside about 8:20.

The tour was generally well run but meeting the guide was a bit awkward.    They had several groups and when you registered you were assigned a group named for the first person registered in that group, so you could be looking for a sign "John Smith Group" without knowing who John Smith was, the sign did not identify "Barcelona Day Tours" and the guides knew nothing about anything except their own group.  It would be much easier if Guide Bob would know "Shiela has the John Smith group and she is over there".

Our group of 11 placed our luggage in about a 20-seat bus and headed off to see the city on a tour with 3 stops.  Our first visit was Park Guell.    This was started in the early 20th century by Gaudi, architect of the Sagrada Familia.  Gaudi had intended this to be an exclusive neighborhood but thought it was too exclusive for public transportation, and the project failed after selling only two houses.  The park sits on a tall hill and includes a large open theater with great views of the harbor.

Our next stop was Sagrada Familia itself.  This massive basilica was begun about 1890 and is not expected to be completed until about 2025, the 100th anniversary of Gaudi's death.  The Basilica was dedicated November 7, 2010.  I had arrived that day on the Wind Surf and of course the area was totally restricted, so this is the first time I actually saw the Sagrada Familia.  When completed, some towers will reach a height of 170 meters.  We walked around the structure but did not brave the lines of people waiting to get in; they completely circled the block.

Our Final stop was on Mont Juic.  There are a number of historic and modern structures here, most notably many of the venues used for the 1992 Olympic Games.  There are also fantastic views of the harbor there.

I was the second person to be dropped off at a hotel (Barcelona Center).    I took an afternoon walk around the old city and early evening walked over to Sagrada Familia for some pictures as our stop this morning was too close for good pictures.

Well, as a parting shot my latest adventure is almost over.  There have been some highs and lows, but we are always richer for having tried.

Roy

Day 13, Saturday, April 28, At Sea, Smart Casual

My final full day on the Solstice started out cloudy. The sun rose soon
after the 7AM completion of my walk but could barely be seen through the
cloud cover as a busy sea day opened.

There was a crew talent show at 10 with several singing, dancing, and
instrumental acts. The 11AM hour was particularly busy with a Cooking
Competition in the Solstice Theater at 11 and an 11:30 3-point shooting
clinic with Steve Javie on the sports deck. I opted instead for the
11:15 nautical not demonstration in Celebrity Central with Staff Captain
Panagiotis. While knots were discussed he also covered line throwing
and other seamanship activities. He also passed around a number of items
including a section of mooring line which looked quite large next to my
leg. This is a program he devised and I hope Panagiotis will be one the
rising stars at Celebrity; I think he's really earned it.

The Hot Glass auction at 12:15 raised $2,400 for the Corning Glass
Museum scholarship fund and $1,000 for breast cancer research.

Brooks Aehron performed a classical music concert at 3 which became
something of a comedy of errors. A string broke on the piano (one of
the keys which uses 2 strings so all was not lost) and he did a piano
concerto where the orchestra parts were on CD, and the CD broke down
midway through ending the piece. The concert was still enjoyable.

After the final diner in Blu there was a closing variety show including
the Stars of Solstice, Nicola Loud, and Nik Page, ending with Nicola and
Nik combining for "Time to Say Goodbye", and then packing for me.

Today's parting shot is Captain Berdos' final life lesson for this
voyage: If you think you're too small to have an impact consider being
in a dark room with a mosquito.

Roy

Day 12, Friday April 27, Malaga, Spain, Formal

I woke briefly about 2AM, and we had lights from both sides of the ship
seeming very near. We may have been passing by Gibraltar or a narrow
portion of the Strait of Gibraltar but we appeared to be within about 3
miles of land on each side.

When I rose for the morning and went out on deck again, the lights of
Malaga were getting closer in front of us. We pulled into the dock
around 7:30AM, snuggling in between the mammoth Voyager of the Seas and
the microscopic Sea Dream I, quite a contrast.

There were about 40 people registered for my tour "Caves of Nerja". We
left the port about 9AM for about a 45-minute drive East along the
rugged coast to the town of Nerja, where we had about 45 minutes to
explore the oceanside town, before out 10-minute transfer to the caves.

The caves of Nerja were discovered in 1959 by several farm boys, and
were quickly developed as a tourist attraction. There are 5 large
chambers totalling 2 miles in length but only 3 are open to the public.
The spaces run from very small to some rooms that were likely 100 feet
tall and perhaps 80 feet wide. The first of the rooms are about 20 feet
below the surface with other rooms much deeper. The description said
"strenuous" with "more than 100 steps", likely something of an
understatement. After I started counting I climbed 150 steps and
probably a total near 250 (another 250 down), so everybody got a pretty
decent workout. There was sufficient (artificial) light to see the many
calcium formations but the lights were not really good for photography.
At one point some of the columns were at a strange angle due to an
ancient earthquake.

We left Nerja about 12:30, returning to the ship about 1:30. I walked
into town for lunch, then stopped at the cruise terminal to upload video
of our entry into Lisbon using the wifi there:

http://youtu.be/30QhQEksTEU

As I returned to the ship a Cake Decorating Demonstration was in
progress in the Grand Foyer.

We were the first ship to sail away at 6:00 and I went immediately to
Blu for a salad entree. As I ordered we were still backing out into the
harbor and starting to pivot when the nimble Sea Dream, which had
already turned around, came by us and moved ahead of us on her way to
her next port. I was a bit distracted with studying the menu as Captain
Berdos gave his sailaway update but I didn't hear anything to indicate
anything other than a pleasant night. On the final formal night of the
voyage the Captain also posed with passengers for photographs between
dinner seatings.

The Stars of Solstice also gave their final (and I thought best)
headline show of the voyage, Ghostlight, featuring music of Broadway.
The show concluded with an inspiring selection of music by Andrew Lloyd
Weber.

As today's parting shot, sometimes what seems like a trivial event can
go far beyond the expected. Five boys notice a small hole in the round
and a cave 2 miles long is discovered, something that enriches our lives
today.

Roy

Day 11, Thursday April 26, Seville Spain, Smart Casual

What a difference a day makes. Yesterday was a nasty drizzle; today
started out a bit chilly but was overall a fantastic day with sun and a
high of 26C (about 80). We lost our final hour last night as we are now
on Barcelona time, and I overslept again but rose at 5:15 Lisbon time,
not really too bad.

As we approached Cadiz our target was clear as we could see Costa
Atlantica marking our destination. We docked about 8am, and I left on
my tour, Legendary Seville Without Lunch, about 9. Seville is an inland
port for vessels MUCH smaller than ours (PERHAPS Silversea or Seabourn),
and is about a 90-minute bus ride from the port of Cadiz. There is
evidence of civilization there 8,000 years ago, but the city is
officially about 3,000 years old. It was home to an international
exposition in 1929 and many of the buildings from that exposition form a
vibrant part of the city's life today. Our first stop was the Spanish
Pavilion from that exposition, a massive pavilion which holds government
buildings and a huge public garden.

We spent most of our time in the ancient city of Seville. The cathedral
there was originally built as a Mosque and was converted to a Cathedral
in the 13th century, with the ancient minaret extended with a bell tower
on top. There is a lovely garden on the grounds and the building itself
has a large open space surrounded by several chapels and also a huge
pipe organ with about 7,600 pipes.

Leaving the Cathedral we explored the (former) Jewish section, a lovely
area of small shops and narrow streets. We visited the Alcazar Palace,
an eclectic combination of many architectural styles from arabian to
gothic with a wall dating from Roman times, many mosaic tiles, and
ornate plaster moldings. There is a large garden but we did not see
anything like living quarters. This is apparently still officially a
palace but seldom actually used by the royals, the last visit was for a
tennis tournament a few years ago.

We returned to the ship about 4:30. As we were approaching the port we
passed some of the walls of Cadiz, an ancient city in it's own right. I
took a short walk along the waterfront but reboarded the ship about
4:45, with a wonderful Fillet Mignon in Blu.

This evening's headline entertainment was another case of deja vu all
over again. Nicola Loud is a violin virtuoso I last heard on the
Crystal Symphony about 6 months ago. She plays all forms of music, from
traditional classical to jazz to country fiddle and Broadway. As she
did on the Symphony, she pressed the horn section of the Orchestra into
service as vocalists. Unfortunately she played to a lot of empty seats
at least in the first show as the show's end coincided with our all
aboard time. She promised us another performance, most likely as part
of the farewell show Saturday night.

As the show ended Captain Berdos came on the PA with our sailaway
update. We expect light winds and moderate seas tonight on our way to
Malaga. We should be passing through the Strait of Gibraltar sometime
close to 1:30am.

As today's parting shot I find the violin a vexing instrument. I love
classical music but generally find music for solo violin dull and
dreary. I find it amazing that an instrument so dull by itself can
produce such beautiful music when several of them work together, or
sometimes in the hands of a Nicola Loud.

Roy

Day 10, Wednesday April 25, Lisbon Portugal, Smart Casual

When I woke today I could see the lights of Lisbon in the distance and
by 6AM Cascais was on our port side. We passed under the Pont 25 Avril
about 7 and docked about 8, under cloudy skies (the sun did appear very
briefly). There are several cruise terminals in Lisbon and we docked
just upstream from the center of town. It is my 4th visit to Lisbon but
the previous times I have spent the majority of my time in Cascais and
Sintra.

I had booked an audio walking tour of Lisbon. We were fitted with maps
and ipods and went out pretty much on our own, exploring some of the
sights and pedestrian streets. A guide led us to the official starting
point, Commerce Square. This large square next to the waterfront is
surrounded on 3 sides by massive yellow buildings, but the square itself
is under construction and we couldn't really go there. We walked up Rua
Augusta through the Triumphal Arch to Rossio Square. Lisbon is built on
a steep hill with an upper town, we passed Elevator de Santa Justa, one
of several ways for pedestrians to get to the upper level.

From Square Figueira we looked out at St. George Castle in the distance
and passed by the Church of Sao Domingos, where a fire years ago has
left behind a dark feel to the interior. We continued through Praca dos
Restauradores to a funicular which led to the upper level of town. I
walked the hill, arriving at the top just before the funicular started
moving. The view from the Miradora at the top was beautiful. By this
time a drizzle was starting and I stopped for lunch and internet at
Rossio Square on the way back to my 1PM return to the ship. I went out
a second time around the port area but the drizzle was now becoming more
like a steady windblown rain and didn't stay long.

The weather was pretty nasty when we left at 5PM. I had hoped to get a
picture of Commerce Square from the water as we sailed away but didn't
realize the ship was moving until late. We did get a view of the
monument to mariners through the fog as we made our way down the Tagus.
In his departure message Captain Berdos prepared us for rough 8-foot
seas this evening.

This evening's headline entertainment was Goronwy Thom, a juggler,
unicyclist, and comedian. As today's parting shot, this was not a good
day to visit Lisbon. While I'd have liked better weather, I'm lucky
that I've had better opportunities to visit this vibrant city. I was
also fortunate that I don't live here. Most readers here are probably
North American and would likely be no happier than I would to have a
chilly drizzle on July 1 or July 4. I wish the people of Lisbon would
have had a better day to enjoy their celebration.

Roy