Venice to Galveston 2012
Albuquerque – Venice – Civitavecchia – Livorno – Cannes – Barcelona – Lisbon – Ponta Delgada – Ft. Lauderdale – Galveston – Home, Nov. 26 – Dec. 22, 2012
Having enjoyed Venice and our cruise last year, we decided to do it again!
Our trip started with a rush. I was outside doing a some last minute watering of our shrubs when my cell phone rang with an automated alert from American Airlines that our departure flight had been moved up 45 minutes. Our orderly departure turned a bit less orderly.
We were using our frequent flier miles so we did not have any choices in our routing, indeed we were lucky to get any flights that worked. American put us on a little regional jet with overhead bins large enough for a lunch box but not a normal carry on roller bag.
We flew from ABQ to LAX which was really in the wrong direction to get to Europe.
Our Albuquerque airport is small and familiar but LAX is neither. We landed at a remote terminal and had to be bused to the main AA terminal then walk to the next building which was the International Terminal. Next we took a longer bus ride to a really remote terminal for Iberia Airlines. We flew in an Airbus A340 which is a large plane that fortunately was lightly loaded. Carol and I each got two seats which helped a lot for comfort on the 11 hour flight. Iberia served us a nice dinner with two little bottles of good red wine each! After dinner we used Kevin's trick of an Ambien tablet to help us get to sleep. It worked so well for me that the flight attendant had to poke me to wake me up for breakfast.
The Madrid airport is also a bit of a challenge with International flights arriving at one terminal and a train ride required to get to the other side of the airport for internal Europe flights. We got separated for about an hour and wondered if the other was behind or ahead. We each went on ahead and happily reunited near our departure gate. Carol did a bit of shopping in the duty free stores to score some libations for the rest of our vacation.
We arrived at the Venice airport after dark and in the rain. Carol used her new global cell phone to call the rental agency to advise of our arrival and make meeting arrangements. A short taxi ride took us to the wharf to get a water taxi across the lagoon to our apartment on the Grand Canal.
Me in the water taxi and still damp from the rain
Bruno was waiting for us on the end of the dock and helped us with our bags into the apartment. Unfortunately, after traveling a day and a half to get 1/3 of the way around the world, we arrived at 5 minutes after 8PM and had to pay a 50 Euro late fee. This late fee was stated on the rental agency web site however, we still thought the agent was merciless about the 5 minutes.
Carol had cleverly packed items for a late night dinner in the apartment and spared us having to go out again in the rain :-) We were eager to stretch out in a regular bed after so many hours of travel. The next morning we were jet-lagged and got a very slow start to the day. I checked the Venice weather reports and got this disappointing news; rain Thursday through our departure on Sunday.
Fortunately we had packed rain jackets and umbrellas. However, we soon learned that there was another impediment to leaving the apartment, high tides flood our exit hallway! I had checked the tide tables before our trip and saw that the highest tide forecasted would only flood 10% of Venice. What I did not realize was the our apartment was within that 10% :-(
Carol was ingenious enough to improvise a solution to the high water involving just some plastic bags and some elastic hair bands.
It is best to avoid contact with lagoon water.
Here is a tour of our apartment. Our arrival and departure were via the dock on the Grand Canal
then through this large door into the hallway.
Fortunately our apartment was elevated 4 steps above the hallway. I am standing at our entrance.
Our street exit leading to the city was this narrow alley.
The alley opened out to this larger walkway. We saw no automobiles for 5 days in this city.
We would have breakfast in the apartment then take a walk to explore the city and find a place for lunch.
On the way back to the apartment we would stop by a bakery, a produce stand or a little shop for something sweet for breakfast and a some eggs.
Carol laughed to see that eggs were sold in packages of four or six.
Our tiny kitchen.
Our dinner in
Our living area
We had pre-purchased a week long pass on the vaporetto, the water bus.
Here is a vaporetto loaded with passengers
If it was necessary to merely cross the Grand Canal from one side to the other, the way to do that was the tragetto, a gondola like craft that cost 2 euros.
Notice that most of the locals stand in the tragetto.
The most expensive way to travel short distances on the canals were the gondolas for about 100 euros for an hour or so.
A tranquil side canal
How do you read this clock?
Here we are doing a very tourist thing of posing for a picture with the campanille (bell tower) and St. Marks Square in the background.
Galileo Galilei famously demonstrated his telescope to the Doge of Venice Antonio Priuli on August 21, 1609 from the Campanile. There is a plaque commemorating this event at the viewing area of the tower. He stood at the top of it with his telescope to be the first person to ever see mountains on our moon, the phases of Venice and to observe 4 of Jupiter's moons.
Night view of Venice from the Accademia Bridge.
On Thursday, our one day in Venice without rain, we decided to visit the island of Murano to see the hand made glass objects. While not far away, it did require some local knowledge to get there. First was a short walk to the St. Angelo vaporetto station to ride under the Rialto Bridge to the Ca D'Oro station then a walk across the narrow part of Venice to the lagoon side and the Fondamente Nova Allalaguna station to catch a short ride to Murano.
Here is the vaporetto route map
On Murano we found a pleasant walkway lined with glass shops and and occasional fornace or furnace.
Carol purchased a small glass Christmas tree which the shop carefully packed into a box filled with little foam beads for protection.
We have heard that the Chinese have copied the products of the Murano glass blowers and now most “Murano” glass being sold is actually made in China. This may be another situation where cheap copies drive the original artists out of business.
Directly across the Grand Canal from our apartment was this building.
Carol read in a guide book that the first floor would have been a work shop or factory. The windows have steel bars but are otherwise unadorned. The second floor with the window boxes would have been the showroom and sales. The 3rd floor with the extra high ceiling and window shades would have been the owners residence and the top floor with the little windows would have been the servants quarters.
A nice view of the Rialto Bridge
A perfect place to give your true love a kiss
Here I am with a seagull on the Rialto Bridge getting weak Wi-Fi reception on my cell phone. I needed Wi-Fi and GPS with Google Maps to locate a restaurant frequented by locals and a few tourists in the know. The Alla Madona was not far away but was located down a minor side street. The food was good and moderately priced by Venice standards :-)
We tried the cuttle fish with ink, a dish that tastes way better than its scary looks :-)
Our time in Venice has come to an end but wait, this is not so sad because our cruise will just be starting! Matteo has shown up in a light rain with the water taxi and Carol is waiting on the dock of our apartment.
Our bags are loaded and we start off.
The rain becomes heavier as our cruise ship looms into view.
The Crown Princess is 951' long and carries about 3000 passengers. It has twin propellers each driven by a Siemens electric motor of 19 megawatts maximum output.
(19 megawatts = 25,480 HP)
Later we learned that about 800 passengers from the previous 12 day cruise of the holy lands had continued onto this segment for a combined 32 day cruise.
Our ship was finally loaded and we cruised out of Venice about 11 PM.
Carol tries out reading on our balcony but it is a bit cool. Should be much nicer in a couple of weeks when we reach the Gulf of Mexico.
Later we begin to acclimate to shipboard life at the Captain's champagne party.
Carol has adorned our bath with a bit of greenery
Cruising past Mt. Etna on Sicily, one of Europe's most active volcanoes.
This is Stromboli, an active volcano island with a town located precariously at the base.
Our first port of call was Civitavecchia, a port which serves Rome. After the ship had docked, we walked about ½ mile to the train station and bought round trip tickets for Rome. The train was a double decker and we got seats on the upper deck in hopes of a better view however, the windows were plastic and dirty so the viewing was not great. The train arrangement was with pairs of seats facing each other and so closely spaced that you were always bumping knees. The train was reasonably price at 18 Euros and got us to Rome in about an hour.
From the Rome station, we walked about a mile down side streets. We stopped at a little hole in the wall shop and bought some clementines and a pear juice drink for refreshment while resting on a park bench next to a “water fountain”. I put water fountain in quotes because it was not like fountains in the U.S. which are almost universally metal structures with push buttons to start an upward flow of chilled water. This fountain was made out of stone blocks with a short metal pipe protruding horizontally out a few inches near the top. The water ran continuously and you just leaned over and turned your head sideways to drink.
We continued to walk through the park and the Coliseum came into view through the trees. The view was very nice as the park was on ground about 1/3 of the height of the Coliseum and the view and picture taking was much more satisfactory than standing on the sidewalk at the base of the Coliseum and craning your neck back to see all of it. We paused and took a lot of pictures of the Coliseum and the Forum then walked in what we hoped was the direction of the Trevie Fountains while generally keeping to side streets.
The happy tourists!
Note the concrete reinforcement on the left side above.
Judging from the cracks, it looks like the reinforcement was really needed!
Rome seems to have ancient ruins everywhere you look.
The Arch of Constantine is a triumphal arch in Rome, situated between the Colosseum and the Palatine Hill. It was erected by the Roman Senate to commemorate Constantine I's victory over Maxentius at the Battle of Milvian Bridge on October 28, 312. (When have you seen the year date written as only 3 digits?)
Carol consults the map.
Carol knows a little Italian and that combined with her fluent Spanish aided us in asking for directions. We eventually arrived at Trevie Fountains which were crowed with tourists. We asked one of them to film us as we did the obligatory toss of three coins over our shoulder into the fountain. This is supposed to mean that you will return someday. (What it really means is that the guy that cleans the fountain gets a lot of change :-)
Trevie Fountains
We saw this funny looking little street sweeper.
Next we thought about walking to the Spanish Steps but we were not sure of the distance and getting a bit tired, we decided to catch a taxi back to the train station. The driver dropped us off at the front of the station but to our chagrin, the train to Civitavecchia was a half mile hike. We got to the right train and had another cramped ride back to Civitavecchi arriving in the rain. Luckily we had carried our umbrella which is foreign equipment for desert dwellers. We walked back to the gate at the port and boarded a shuttle bus back to our ship arriving damp and tired but satisfied with the day's sights and accomplishments.
Departing again after dark, we headed for Livorno, a port which provides access to Pisa and Florence. At Livorno we found a congenial driver with a 9 passenger tourist van. When the van had filled with passengers for 40 Euros each, we drove to Florence stopping first at Michelangelo Square, a high overlook of Florence and a photo op.
Carol noticed this interesting practice of lovers attaching padlocks to a scenic place that they had visited.
Driving down into Florence and crossing the river Arno we photographed the Duomo, the Campanile (bell tower) and the Ponte Vecchio (old bridge). The Duomo is a fantastically large domed cathedral engineered by Brunelleschi.
The Duomo was begun in 1296 in the Gothic style to the design of Arnolfo di Cambio and completed structurally in 1436 with the dome engineered by Filippo Brunelleschi. The exterior of the basilica is faced with polychrome marble panels in various shades of green and pink bordered by white.
The cathedral complex, located in Piazza del Duomo, includes the Baptistery and Giotto's Campanile. The three buildings are part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site covering the historic center of Florence. The basilica is one of Italy's largest churches, and until development of new structural materials in the modern era, the dome was the largest in the world. It remains the largest brick dome ever constructed.
Ponte Vecchio (old bridge)
The bridge spans the Arno at its narrowest point where it is believed that a bridge was first built in Roman times. The Roman piers were of stone, the superstructure of wood. The bridge first appears in a document of 996. After being destroyed by a flood in 1117 it was reconstructed in stone but swept away again in 1333 save two of its central piers. It was rebuilt in 1345.
It has always hosted shops and merchants who displayed their goods on tables before their premises.
It is said that the economic concept of bankruptcy originated here: when a merchant could not pay his debts, the table on which he sold his wares (the "banco") was physically broken ("rotto") by soldiers, and this practice was called "bancorotto" (broken table; possibly it can come from "banca rotta" which means "broken bank"). Not having a table anymore, the merchant was not able to sell anything.
During World War II, the Ponte Vecchio was not destroyed by Germans during their retreat of August 4, 1944, unlike all other bridges in Florence. This was allegedly, according to many locals and tour guides, because of an express order by Hitler. Access to Ponte Vecchio was, however, obstructed by the destruction of the buildings at both ends, which have since been rebuilt using a combination of original and modern design.
We found a cafe with Wi-Fi in a hotel and enjoyed a good coffee and pastry at a tiny table. We wondered where Italy gets its coffee as it seems to be very good everywhere that we tried it. (With the exception of the coffee on the ship which is not good). Fortified, we walked the streets for a bit admiring the pastry and gelato shop windows.
Gelato is the Italian word for ice cream.
An elegant sweet shop
Then we admired the jewelry shop windows.
We entered the cathedral when we came to it.
They don't build churches today like they used to.
While I was gawking at the very high ceilings and elaborate floor patterns, Carol spotted Anna Bargellini and her sister, Beppina. This was serendipitous as we knew Anna was visiting Florence but via email with her daughter Clara learned that Anna would not be available as her cousin, Valorie would be visiting her the day we were in the city. Turned out that Valerie wanted to come into the city and see the cathedral also.
Later we wandered into another square and admired the larger than life size replica of the statue of David.
The tourists having a great time in Florence
Too soon it was time to return to the van for the visit to Pisa before returning to the ship. The tower of Pisa is still leaning at 14 degrees away from vertical. Supposedly the foundation has been fortified to stabilize the tower.
Galileo Galilei is said to have dropped two cannon balls of different masses from the tower to demonstrate that their speed of descent was independent of their mass.
We entered the cathedral adjacent to the tower and admired the elaborately embellished ceilings.
We also saw a statue of the she wolf that legend says nursed Romulus and Ramos who had been abandoned in field. The story goes that Romulus killed his brother then went on and founded Rome.
Romulus and Remus are the twin brothers and central characters of Rome's foundation myth. Their mother is Rhea Silvia, daughter to Numitor, king of Alba Longa. Before their conception, Numitor's brother Amulius seizes power, kills Numitor's male heirs and forces Rhea Silvia to become aVestal Virgin, sworn to chastity. Rhea Silvia conceives the twins by the god Mars, or by the demi-god Hercules; once the twins were born, Amulius has them abandoned to die in the river Tiber. They are saved by a series of miraculous interventions: the river carries them to safety, a she-wolf finds and suckles them, and a woodpecker feeds them. A shepherd and his wife find them and foster them to manhood, as simple shepherds. The twins, still ignorant of their true origins, prove to be natural leaders. Each acquires many followers. When they discover the truth of their birth, they kill Amulius and restore Numitor to his throne. Rather than wait to inherit Alba Longa they choose to found a new city.
Romulus wants to found the new city on the Palatine Hill; Remus prefers the Aventine Hill.[2] They agree to determine the site through augury but when each claims the results in his own favor, they quarrel and Remus is killed.[3][4] Romulus founds the new city, names it Rome, after himself, and creates its first legions and senate. The new city grows rapidly, swelled by landless refugees; as most of these are male, and unmarried, Romulus arranges the abduction of women from the neighboring Sabines. The ensuing war ends with the joining of Sabines and Romans as one Roman people.
As we were preparing to leave Pisa we saw the tower bathed in the warm light of the setting sun.
Our next port of call was Cannes, France. Lacking a wharf large enough to accommodate the 951' Crown Princess, we stood off and used the ship's tenders to reach shore.
Cannes harbor was full of sailboats and luxury yachts. Likewise the streets were lined with luxury cars.
We found the venue of the Cannes Film Festival
I was surprised to see Ferraris available for rent.
We came to a park where Carol found public Wi-Fi and checked her email and posted a picture or two to Facebook. I admired the buildings and plants.
This fruiting palm caught my interest.
Carol with "friends"
Our time in Cannes was brief but the chill made us content to return to the “mother ship”.
Next port of call was Barcelona where we had made arrangements to meet Daniel and Paquita and their son Javier Sanz, an exchange student that had lived with us for a few months during one year of high school in Albuquerque. We took a taxi to the Hotel Colon and waited for them in the lobby. After catching up with each other's news, (Javier has his own dental clinic and is working long hours), they took us on a walking and driving sight seeing tour.
YouTube video of procession
Daniel treated us to a wonderful lunch with good wine and among other items, some curiously large anchovies. All too soon, it was time to return to the ship and Javier was able to drive us right through the port and up the the Crown Princess that loomed over the car. They gave us a gift of two nice bottles of wine packed in a wooden box. We look forward to enjoying them. Thank you Daniel, Paquita and Javier!
Back on board we had a last view of Barcelona with its aerial tram and a new structure they jokingly call the suppository :-)
We were cruising past the prime meridian and out of the Mediterranean headed for the Atlantic. Here is my sweetheart on deck watching for our passage through the “Pilars of Hercules” with the mountain on the port side being in Africa and and familiar “Rock of Gibraltar” on the starboard.
This is the Africa side
This is Gibraltar
We had a day at sea before our next port of call in Lisbon.
Carol and I were up and dressed and out on the balcony to watch our arrival in the Lisbon port. We cruised under a bridge that is said to be modeled after the Golden Gate except this is a double deck bridge with vehicles on the top and trains on the bottom deck. Once in the harbor, the ship turned 180 degrees to be headed out before using the bow and stern thrusters to push us up against the wharf and secure the lines. This maneuver gave us a nice panoramic look around. Lisbon was the first new port on this cruise for Carol.
This statue of Christ the Redeemer is said to face its pair in Rio de Janeiro.
As we disembarked, we encountered the usual collection of tour bus operators and taxi drivers each vying to offer their services. We picked a congenial taxi driver that spoke good English and were off for a sightseeing tour of the old part of the city.
Narrow streets and very steep walkways
One unusual feature we noticed is many of the buildings in the old part of the city had tile of various patterns decorating the exterior walls.
Our taxi driver took us to a Ginja bar where we all drank a shot of Ginja, (cherry brandy with cherries). We had to be careful because the cherries still had pits.
Next, he took us to a shop that specialized in anchovies. Carol bought a dozen cans.
After our introductory drive around, we got out of the taxi at a popular pedestrian street.
Carol bought some roasted chestnuts to snack on as we walked along.
We were pleased to see the black and white stone sidewalks with interesting patterns like we saw last year with Scott and Marccus in Rio de Janeiro. This apparently is a typical thing in Portuguese cities.
We saw a number of mimes performing including this one with an amazing levitation act.
We stopped in a typical restaurant packed with noisy Portuguese and had a nice calamari lunch.
I was amused to see the the Museum of Beer but we did not go inside as it was time to head back to the ship.
Departing Lisbon, we saw the Monument to the Explorers.
After sitting through dinner, Carol and I would frequently take a breezy and refreshing walk on the open deck 7. As you can see here, few others did this so we often had the deck to ourselves.
Our arrival in Ponta Delgada in the Azores was celebrated by this fire boat spraying two large jets of water.!
This was an ideal day for us because the port was small and located very near the city center. Thus we could easily stroll around with no need for taxis. We were amazed to see people swimming in December right in the harbor water.
Carol talked to 3 ladies in their swim suits and they said they swim nearly every day all year around in spite of the water being only 17 degrees Celsius or about 63 degrees F.
We strolled along near the water front and the tourist areas and saw the carriage ride service. We had gone for a carriage ride last year in Valparaiso, Chile so this time we just watched.
It was nice to see how clean most of the cities were that we visited.
We were surprised to learn that one of the major cash crops here were pineapples!
Because this was our last European port, we wanted to use up the last of our Euros, (really not difficult :-) Carol liked going into the small grocery stores, the city open air market and little shops that sold locally made items.
I saw a bottle of 20 year old port for 57.98 Euros or about 75 dollars US.
One grocery was selling box wine, not unusual except for the size, 10 liters!
You may have seen the tiny “Smart” cars appearing recently in the US. I noticed an electric “Smart” bicycle in a shop window for 2,990 Euros or about $3,890 US.
I also noted a bicycle in a shop window gift wrapped for Christmas.
We again sampled the local cherry brandy called Ginja.
Carol saw an accordion shaped bottle of it and bought it for Dr. Smith, our neighbor who plays the accordion.
A woman at the city market told us about a good restaurant serving seafood and marked its location on our map.
It was a good recommendation and we each enjoyed a wonderful grouper lunch and happened to sit next to 4 of the singers and dancers from the ship.
Having succeeded in our mission to use up all of our Euros, it was time to head back to the ship for our six day crossing back to the USA.
Our captain announced a depression in the north Atlantic and that we would be experiencing some “lumpy bits” as he described the sea conditions. We took some motion sickness pills and had no problems. The next day a table mate said he was tracking our course on his GPS and it looked like the captain was cruising about 20 degrees more southerly than a direct line to Ft. Lauderdale. Presumably this was to skirt the depression. Note our ship's track as a faint red line below the depression.
YouTube video plowing through the "lumpy bits"
December 14 and our second day at sea. The white caps are gone and the weather is warming up. We like to watch for sea life but so far have only seen two dolphin.
We have started seeing a lot of this brownish stuff in the water. I assume it is drifting seaweed of some kind.
We liked the nicely appointed dinning room.
We had pre-specified late seating at a table for two but soon found a congenial couple that we dined with for the rest of the trip
Bill and Pita are from Houston so the cruise will end very near their home. We liked our waiter, Joseph. This is lobster night.
Sometimes we would walk the deck after dinner to be refreshed by the cool breeze.
Some nights the breeze was really strong
The Crown Princess had a nice theater where we enjoyed lectures and evening floor shows.
We have found ways to enjoy our sea days.
I had to be careful about getting too much sun.
We have arrived in Ft. Lauderdale for a much needed refueling after crossing the Atlantic. Notice the gangway at the bottom and all the tour buses beyond.
A beach art made of thousands of plastic water bottles.
Best to lotion up before getting sensitive areas burned :-)
Ft. Lauderdale is called the "Venice of Florida" because they have dredged canals like the teeth of a comb so you can park your car in front and your boat in back.
We admired an odd specialty shop with big shiny binoculars, elaborate trunks and clocks and an occasional nipple or freckle.
Walking around gave us an appetite and we were fortunate to find a cafe with excellent escargot.
We saw some nice homes as we made our way back to the port.
Nice to have Coast Guard protection
Guy in goofy hat trying to take self portraits as we cruise out of the harbor.
YouTube video of our "sail away" while Carol finishes a cell call before we are out of range of Ft. Lauderdale
Miami skyline and setting sun
Friends frequently ask what there is to do during all those days at sea. The basic answers are;
Sleep late
Swim if the day is nice
Read, watch movies, do email or attend lectures
At 3 AM on Dec. 21, 2012 (the end of the Mayan Calendar), the ship diverted from our westerly course toward Galveston and headed due north.
The captain announced a passenger had a medical emergency and he was maneuvering the ship within helicopter range from New Orleans.
About noon the helicopter arrived and passengers were restricted from the forward decks. Many of us crowded to the rear top deck for a glimpse
of the evacuation. Being buffeted by the strong wind and jostled by other passengers plus the movement of the ship made photography difficult
but here are some of the scenes;
Helicopter arrives and circles the ship
Door is open
YouTube video (click icons at bottom of YouTube window to adjust picture resolution and size)
Passengers crowding for a view
Lowering the stretcher with an assistant
Hauling up the ill passenger. Blankets strapped over her to protect her from the rotor blast
Retrieving the assistant
More of these appeared as we neared Galveston
A couple of Southwest flights and we were back in Albuquerque.
What a great trip. It is nice to travel and nice to be back home!