Assisi

Well, an exciting day with an early start and a very pleasant train trip from Venice to Florence - speed up to 250 kph in places.  The amazing thing was that we must have come through at least 50 km of tunnels in the last stretch to Florence. Quite an experience at that speed.

Fortunately I had bought our onward ticket to Assisi while we were waiting in Venice, as the crowds in Florence were massive.  We had just over an hours wait for our onward journey.  When the train arrived, there was a mad rush to board and these hustlers literally took our bags and put them in the overhead compartment (no mean feat when they weigh over 20+ KGS each.  We remonstrated that this was not 1st class and another "one" came along and all 3 said there was no 1stclass. I hopped off and found the conductor who confirmed that 1st class was about 5 carriages down.  Rushed back to rescue Vivian & the bags - adrenalin cut in and we just managed to board our correct carriage in time.  To make it worse, a beggar of sorts came through our cabin with a note for every seat asking for money - I threw it in the waste bin.  He was back 30 seconds later to collect his notes ( no money), so I opened the bin and indicated he should retrieve his note.  He did so with the most dagger-eyes you have ever seen.  Sorry, but it was not the day for me or him.  BTW, he got off at the next stop, before the conductor came around.

More tunnels out of Florence and then great scenery all the way to Assisi.  We decided to have a sandwich & coffee at the railway cafe, which was a cafe, pizzeria, bottle store, bar, purveyor of religious items & a casino all rolled into one.  Anyway, good coffee & fresh sandwiches.  Also bought our bud tickets up to Assisi proper (where  we are staying).  The bus dropped us off, at what is the end of town, but is actually a good kilometre away from the hotel.  A big hike and just as well we had sustenance.  Found the hotel, which is really quaint - I think we are on the 4 the floor, as it I's at least 50 steps up.  Luckily the manager carried our bags, even though he underestimated the weight.  He has promised to carry them down tomorrow too!!!!!!

Our room is the attic and is unique with the shower being between the door & the toilet.  Just a couple of shower curtains and a wooden board for drainage.  However we also have the terrace at the top of the building with unobstructed views over the surrounding area.  We feel that we could stay here for a couple of days, but no, off about 10 tomorrow for our next adventure to Rome & Civitavecchia, to board the little Ocean Princess and start our 48 day journey home.

Have walked through the old city to St Francis Basilica.  Absolutely stunning - we did all 3 levels.  I commented to Vivian that I thought it surpassed The Vatican in many ways.  Fantastic.

Probably time to think about food soon, so hopefully this blog will continue when we get to a "friendly" port.

Early cup of tea

Our train

The loft in Assisi

From our front door

The castle from our terrace

View to south east

More view

St Francis basilica

From St Francis'

The lawns of St Francis'

Our hotel is up the stairs to the right of Vivian - our room is beyond the roofline

Venice

Well, we have left the ship and were able to get into our hotel just after 10.00, so while Vivian has a little snooze, I'll try to update some details in our blog.  Clearly the issue is with the sattelite internet connection, as now we are on land, everything is back to normal (fingers crossed), so it seems that I will only be able to post when we get ashore & have free internet.

We arrived in Venice yesterday about lunchtime & there are heaps of other ships in port - most left last night.  Venice was packed and we took the opportunity of locating our hotel - which is no mean feat as it is a closed door in a courtyard, just back from the Grand Canal and opposite the Railway Station. Cute.

We then went to Lynne & Ivan's hotel on the other side of the Grand Canal & only 10 minutes away.  Ivan was talking with the hotel staff and they offered us a free water taxi to the island of Murano, where they make the glass.  It was a bit of a rip-off and we didn't like the style, so walked off.  I don't think we were supposed to do that.  Anyway, purchased water bus tickets and went to St Marks Square.  Really enjoyed the beer, as it was very hot still.

Final dinner was a bit sad although it was great that so many of the people we had met on board were in the dining room so we could say goodbye.  Early night, as we had to pack bags and have them outside our cabin by 11.00.  Up this morning at 6.30 and after final breakfast went to the Premium Checkout lounge and found ourselves off the ship before 9.00.  Took the "people mover" and then walked the 1 km to our hotel.  The kindly receptionist said that the room would be ready in half an hour, so we went to have a coffee. 1. Very strong. 2. Very expensive - 8.40 Euros.  While sitting there, Lynne & Ivan came past, so we have arranged to meet them @St Marks at 1.00.  Ivan wants to climb the tower!!!

So this is up to date with huge holes in our story, but I'll update later and hopefully have this blog in some order, along with photos.  We are off to get a water bus over to St Marks.

Approaching Venice

St Marks

Venice

This ship is actually leaving

St Marks

Our hotel !

Down the lane - railway station across Grand Canal

Administrative update

While I have aimed to post regular updates of our travels,  we re getting a little behind. Plus Princess internet doesn't like my blog, so it seems that I can only post when onshore.

Currently we are sitting in a cafe in Florence, where the temperature at 3.00 is 33 degrees.   Yesterday we had a more relaxing (& a little cooler day in Toulon).  Tomorrow is the big one in Rome.  Keep looking at the blog, as I will update as much as I can - they may show the same date, but will be consecutive.  Oh well., hot to walk down to our bus pickup point.

Montserrat & a catch up - updated with photos

Our day at Montserrat started relatively early (Spanish time) as we planned to catch the 9.36 train, meaning we needed to catch the Metro in plenty of time to allow us to locate the overland train. In reality it was very simple and were waiting along with many, many others to board when the train pulled into the station.  It was just as well we were a lot earlier than we had planned as the train was more than full, with many having to stand for most of the 50 km journey.

We had elected to purchase the TOT (or total) ticket, which included Metro, train, rack railway up to the Monastery, Funicular to the peak of Mt St Joan and most importantly lunch.  Well it was a busy day all around and we thought that it would be a good idea to go up the funicular first (on the assumption that most people would look around the Monastery etc. and the local stalls set up.  Not sure whether we got it right as there we hundreds up the top and we missed 2 return trips - once by less than 1 minute and the other by being 6 behind the cut-off for the full funicular.

All in all it was a fantastic experience and the extra delay was a minor glitch.  When we got down to the Monastery we decided that we should get our lunch and the restaurant was at the far end of the village.  We had assumed the "self serve" lunch would be rolls or something, but no - it was 2 big plates of almost anything you could think of PLUS dessert and a drink.  Certainly well over-filled.

After lunch we went to the Monastery, audiovisual presentation and the museum (all included in our ticket).  Great, but, the museum turned out to be more art works almost identical to what we saw yesterday.  Naughty me though, I had taken photos of the paintings at the National Art Gallery, where there was a restriction on using a flash.  I assumed it was the same here and happily snapped away, until I saw a sign saying "No photos permitted" or something similar.  Given that all the rooms had CCTV, I was luckily that the burly & grumpy security guards did not take my camera from me.

Before we knew it, it was time to get down the mountain and back to Barcelona.  Vivian had a little rest when we got back and
Lynne & Ivan decided to do their own thing for dinner, given the size of
Iunch.  So about 8.00 we went out and walled La Rambla in the evening.  It was like a mad house when we walked up, but a bit quieter when coming back.  Despite the reputation, felt relatively safe but was a bit mm ore scary on the way back to our part of Barcelona.  Even though we were walking past the maim Police Station.

Forgot to mention that we also checked out the Gothic Centre and the Cathedral, which surprisingly was still open.  As we walked in, we were surprised by the number of people facing the back of the building.  We soon established the reason - it has the largest rose window in the world 10 metres of it.  It was magnificent, particularly given the dark background and the glowing stained glass.

Had a pizza at the bar next door and soon to bed.  Have really enjoyed our last day in Barcelona.  Tomorrow is the start of the next phase of our holiday - the mighty Royal Princess.

Note: photos will be added at a later time, when we have better internet connection.

From the train stop

The group

Going higher

On the way down - Barcelona in far far distance

A better view

Going up further - note Ivan's camera

Another busy day

On Sunday many museums and galleries are free, so we decided to make this day our cultural experience day.  After all the activities yesterday, we were obviously more tired than we thought - we slept in a bit so breakfast was a bit more rushed.  First however we planned to take the funicular & cablecar up to Montjuic, which has commanding views over both the city and the ocean.  There is a castle on the point and the rest of the "mountain" is a park/walking/cycling tracks - goes on for miles.  Adjacent at the bottom is the former Olympic Village (time did not allow us to visit).

The highlight of the day was visiting the Museum National D'Art De Catalunya.  Not only were the paintings etc. magnificent, but the whole building a masterpiece.  Time just rushed along.  After a drink for lunch we decided to walk down to "town" and it is a great boulevard (probably not the right description).

Once again, there were some escalators to help us down and someone made a joke/comment to the guy in front of us.  As to be expected he and another couple were from NZ, but not only NZ but Hawkes Bay, but wait there is more - how about Waipukurau?  To add more, they had been over to London to visit a friend, who happens to be the brother-in-law of one of Vivian's bridesmaids (Julie Kynoch).  Now if that was not bad enough, how about that they ate joining us on the Royal Princess cruise!!!!!!!Yep, a very, very small world.

After we parted company and reached the bottom of the avenue (new description), we dropped into the train station and bought our tickets for our visit to Montserrat (Monday trip).  Opposite is the site of the former Bull Ring which is now a shopping centre.  Fortunately it being Sundays, shops apart from food were closed. We took the glass elevator up to the top.  From a distance I had thought that the lift was some sort of crane they were using for the building, but no, it is a permanent structure.  The sign said €1 pp, but Ivan spotted a small sign saying senior citizens "gratis", so said to the disinterested security guard, was looking away from us "is that OK?" to which he replied, still not looking at us "get in".  Some people really love their jobs!

Back home for a rest and freshen up and back to the same tapas bar as last night.  We are getting the hang of tapas now and the meal was even better.  To add to the excitement Barcelona was playing Valencia and all the bars had TVs in their windows.  We were delighted that our team won 3 2.  It was noticeable that the supporters were really vocal when we scored, but when the opposition scored, there was just a deathly silence - so unlike a NZ reaction.

A great night and all set for a big trip to Montserrat.

At the castle

Looking down on cruise ships

View from Art Gallery

Pipe organ in the Gallery

Simple ceiling in the Gallery

Looking back up at the Gallery

The old Bull Ring/Shopping Centre

From the elevator

Watching the game

Tapas

Almost all gone

Yum

So much to see and so little time

Surprisingly we woke at 7.00 on Saturday and decided to make a day of it.  Our hotel is on Av Parallel, which is a main road from the waterfront and not far from the famous La Rambla.  While only a 2 star, it's location and facilities are excellent - even more so the breakfast (included) is certainly a 5 star quality and sets us up for the day.

I have the map of Barcelona downloaded on my tablet - thanks to Trip Advisor and the GPS works to accurately show where we are as we set off exploring.  We thought that we would head to La Rambla, and explored the back streets.  This is where the GPS was invaluable. We walked up to Catalunya Square, which is basically where our friends, Lynne & Ivan from Snells Beach are staying.  They had just arrived from Singapore, so we arranged to meet and start sightseeing in earnest.

Found the Metro system very easy and went out to Parc Guell, but hadn't anticipated that it was a substantial climb from the train station.  Luckily there were numerous escalators on the way.  We climbed further up the hill for spectacular views over the city.  The park etc. was developed by the famous architect Gaudi.  Very, very unusual and unique in the world.

Being a sucker for punishment, we then tracked DOWNHILL to catch another metro to see Gaudi's other masterpiece - the cathedral la Sagrada Familia.  This most unusual cathedral has been under construction for over 100 years and still has much to be done.  The interior is also most striking and the building is a landmark from all vantage points - particularly the cranes where the current work is taking place.

Somehow we still hand enough energy to go out for a meal, and being in Spain decided to eat accordingly - so went to a Tapas Bar, which was very highly rated on Trip Advisor.  This happened to be just down the road & we were well satisfied.  Very tasty and we eventually got back to our hotel and some well deserved sleep.

Tomorrow is another day and it looks as though the weather is going to be as hot (28+30), as it was today.

La Rambla

Catalunya Square

On the metro

City view

Parc Guell

Sagrada Familia (x 3)

Looking straight up

Barcelona

Well, I tempted fate when I posted my last entry.  Just after sending it Hong Kong was struck by a lightening storm - a Code Red apparently, which meant that we were taken away from our comfortable departure lounge and processed through the terminal down to the ground floor as there was to be a change to our departure gate.  All good so far, but it seems there was a total lack of communication within the Cathay Pacific ground staff.  Even the crew were milling around and no-one had any idea when/where if we were leaving.  The time ticked by.

An announcement was eventually made that we would be departing 2 hours late and that if we went back up 6 floors to the food hall we could get 75 HKD food.  Not that we actually needed food, but for something to do, rather than sitting on the floor (yes 100s of passengers, with no seats), we went up with another passenger, a nurse from Havelock North.  The food hall is huge and was mainly of Asian food, which did not appeal.  As we kept walking around, we spotted the Golden Arches, with a McCafe beside it - at least it was "normal" food.  And they had Flat White coffee!!!

Well, it was the best coffee we have had - or likely to have this side of New Zealand.  I had a crayfish sandwich ( no expense spared), so my share of Cathay Pacific's loss was about 45 HKD :-) , Vivian had coffee & a muffin, about 35. HKD.

Time rushed by and we made our way back downstairs to find that confusion will reigned.  We were getting grumpy.  Then, out of the blue, they announced that we were going to board.  With great speed we were sort of processed and boarded a bus for transport to our plane sitting miles away.  Luckily we boarded in between showers.

Turned out to be a full flight, and although we were all aboard and set to go, there was a backload of planes, so further delay until we eventually took off.  The pilot, an Australian assured us that he would try to make up time, but clearly it was only about half an hour.  So, the next 12 hours was devoted to eating, sleeping a bit and worrying about what would happen to our onward flight/bags etc.  Oh, when travelling on Cathay Pacific 777, never be seated in Row 52. The food is served from the front & the back of "Cattle Class" and 52 is pretty well the end of both lines:-)  One meal I got was not even on the menu for either menu, so it was probably a left over from a previous flight designated for the crew.

Our problems didn't improve as we approached Heathrow, as we were stuck in holding pattern and when taxiing in, were further delayed by another aircraft being pushed out.  The long and the short of it was that we disembarked 45 minutes before our BA flight to Barcelona left.  Heathrow is a big airport.

Somehow we followed signs for Transit Passengers to Terminal 5 (we were in Terminal 3).  We ran into what we thought would be a check in facility, but it was a queue (empty) for a bus to take us to Terminal 5. The electronic sign said the bus was leaving in 1 minute. We made it.

It is at least 10 minutes bus ride to T5 - it seemed like at least 10 hours. Thoughts were, where are we going to sleep tonight, what will happen to our bags as they had been checked in at Auckland all the way to Barcelona.  Worry, worry. Made it to the BA counter and most obligingly, we were checked in and told to run to Gate 2 and we may just make the flight - down to T-10 by now.  Oh also our bags would probably come later and we would need to fill out a request when we got to Barcelona.  Not good news.

Next hurdle - &*%#(! airport security).  The strictest and slowest in the world.  Got through sans belt & Vivian shoes in hand, running through departure is funny now.  OK, departure gate (basically scheduled departure),calm, smiling woman says "no more running & no more worrying, enjoy your holiday", the sweetest thing we had heard in ages.  She also said to check with the bloke at the aircraft door re our bags. Well, we did and was able to confirm that they had been loaded. Amazing.  Stress releaved.

Had a good short flight over, sitting with a bloke who worked for BA and has been all over the world.  He was actually Spanish, so gave us some good information and background.  Got through immigration in no time and of course as soon as the baggage carousal started, guess who's bags were first out:-)  Out in under 5 minutes and into a taxi to our hotel.  Got in about 10.30, unpacked a bit, had a showed (yes, after 36 hours flying, we did need one).  Then we went out of the hotel and it was full of activity, as there are numerous eating places around. We just got a coffee & a pastry and watched the activity.  When Vivian found out that it was after midnight, we thought it was time to call it a day.  After all, it was really only a day - a very, very long Friday 30th.

This has been a long entry and I plan to update all the good things that Barcelona has to offer tomorrow.