While we have a day in the Red Sea, I thought it time to record our first cruise on the mighty Royal Princess.
Day 1
Had yet another superb breakfast and packed our bags, ready to say goodbye to Barcelona. My understanding was that we could drop our bags at the port entrance and later get a free shuttle to the ship. We also decided that it was too hot & hard to wheel our bags down, so elected too take a taxi. The hotel kindly arranged this and our driver was a smart young woman - somewhere money changed hands between her & the hotel, but who cares.
I was wrong (again), and we found ourselves traveling a number of kilometres through the port, over the bridge and down to the pier, alongside the very large Royal. Men descending on our taxi and scooped up our bags and before we knew it, w were waving our green priority boarding pass and being processed. A minor hiccup was that Vivian's card was in someone else's name. This was soon rectified by the ship's IT Manager - Dean from Christchurch.
Well, by now it is only 11.30 and boarding is not due until 2.00, but as we know, official times mean nothing so we were onboard and in our cabin (stateroom) just after midday. Our luggage was there too, so we unpacked before lunch. Once again, an amazing coincidence as we were checking out the shop. We were down in the International Cafe, when an English voice calls out "are you stalking us?". It was Julie & Tony from Bath in UK, we met on the Diamond in February. Hate to think what the odds would be of 2 couples from opposite ends of the world meeting up twice in a year.
Caught up with Lynne & Ivan, who about 12 cabins away and after the usual lifeboat drill, it was time to go and find out about Anytime Dining. We have always had set dining, do this was a new experience. Having read some horror stories, we were surprised how easy it was when we said that we were happy to share with others. After a while we got so friendly with the head waiter that she saved us special tables each night. Being friendly & polite goes a long way.
Day 2
Today we arrived in Toulon (France). We docked across the bay from Toulon proper, but once again I had done my research and refused to pay the ship's price for a ferry ride across. By now we had been joined by more kiwis from Christchurch, Karen & Merv. Well, we set out to walk to the town along from the dock, where there was an information centre where we could buy tickets to cover ferry, buses & cable car. Well, I may have been right, but not today - the info. centre did not open. Not deterred, we walked a bit further, had a drink and worked out where the ferry left from. Caught the ferry and arrived in Toulon town, where the information centre quite happily sold us the aforementioned tickets. Just cost an extra 2Euro for the first ferry across. Still a lot cheaper than Princess transfer.
Took the bus & cable car up Mt Faron, with great views over the city. Not much else to do, so we went back to town. Karen & Merv had had enough of Mahurangi Tours so went to have lunch, Lynne wanted to go back to the info. centre, where there was a market (later to find that the market closed about half an hour before we got back down from the cable car. Ivan & Vivian and I took a city tour on the little train. Very interesting. Toulon is the centre of the French navy and as well as all the ships including the aircraft carrier Charles deGaulle, most of the beach front ( apart from the centre of town) is defence property.
We all met up and took the ferry back and found a shortcut back to our ship. Had a late lunch on board. Pleased to be back in airconditioned comfort. I am feeling a bit run-down, but pleased with what we have seen, as Toulon was an unknown.
Day 3
Another early morning and my cough has started and feeling a bit heady. Today is a big day, with tour to Pisa & Florence. Our tour guide was excellent and gave us lots of information along the way. We went past the US Defence base, which is the largest outside of USA, and is home for all Mediterranean & Middle East activity. The base covers many hundreds of acres and was taken by US as reparation after WW11. Apparently activity takes place at night and there is an air force base across the road. From here you can see Pisa.
Had about an hour in Pisa - I was not feeling too good and later on the way to Florence I felt like fainting. Not good, however kept going for the team. In Florence we were on our own, however our objective was to get to see the original David. We had tickets for 1.30 and although we found the Academia, we could not get any sense out anyone as to how to turn our e.tickets into entry tickets. Eventually some kind tourists pointed us across the road & from there on it was easy. We were in and out in less than half an hour, as really there was little else to see, particularly after everything we saw in Barcelona. David was impressive at 4m high - I did think that his hands were disproportional ( too big).
Following this we went our separate ways and Vivian & I had a late pizza & beer before heading off to the river to admire the bridges and back to our bus. I think we were last bus to leave and pretty well last back to the ship. We sailed soon after. Both of us were exhausted and we went straight to bed without dinner and slept through. Tomorrow is another big day - Rome.
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