Cherbourg, France

We stopped at Cherbourg next. Instead of traveling out of the city to see something we decided to stay in the city. (Most everything was very far from the city and we didn’t want to spend most of our time traveling).

We walked from the ship into the town center. We found a tourist center and got a map. Not to far from the info place was a big square with a big fountain and a large theater.

We then wandered done a side street and found a small pastry stand. We bought a baguette, that was still warm. The pastries looked very tempting, but the baguette was wonderful.

We wondered around the city for awhile, just seeing what was there.

We found this really neat shop that we couldn’t resist going into. They had a lot of unique items that were made out of old recycled items. To bad my suitcase is full, I was tempted to buy quite a few things.

We made our way back to the baguette shop and bought another one, then found some cheese, wine and other things for our lunch. Walked back to the square with the fountain and had our picnic.

After lunch we walked some more and found a nice park with a large pond, a tower and a large greenhouse in it.

We then found an umbrella shop. They made the umbrellas there and had a lot of really nice umbrellas.

We then headed back to the ship. It was a great day.

Our next stop is Brugge, Belgium.

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Gibraltar

Our next stop is Gibraltar. We have been there many times, so decided to have a late start. The weather was cold and rainy. We were going to meet a young couple we meet on the ship and then walk over to Spain. 

Gibraltar is a very small country, that borders with Spain. The airport is along that border and cars and people can cross it. When a plane is landing they stop everyone, land the plane and then you can cross again. 

We walked in to town and it started to rain.  We thought it would let up so headed to the border. Then it started to pour. We stopped in a mini mart hoping it would stop. It did let up a little, so we headed out. 

We found an umbrella that had broke and had some fun with it. 

It was exciting to cross the runway.  I had never crosses an active runway before. 

Once on the other side we went through customs ( a booth, where they checked our passports). Walked in and decided to get a coffee. 

The rain started to let up so we started back. We had to go through customs again (a booth), but got our passports stamped. 

On the way back Tim found some balloons and decided to play tour guide. 

We then made our way into the town to find a restaurant we had been to before for a snack and internet. They were packed so we couldn’t get in. After walking around a bit more we headed back to the ship. 

Had a good but wet day.  

Next stop Cartagena…….

Funchal, Madeira

Our first port is Funchal, Madeira. We were here last year and did a tour around the island. It is a very beautiful island. 

Today we decided to explore the city of Funchal. We walked in from the ship.  The island is very mountainous. This is a restaurant on top of a hill, but it looks like it could of been a pirate liar or something. 

We walked along the water and came across this “food truck”. It was smaller than any food truck I’ve ever seen, but was very cute. I’m not even sure how the guy fit in the cab to drive it. He only sold coffee, looked good. 

There were some buckets and this statue 

 Kept walking until we found the area where all doors were painted. Some of them were interesting and some were works of art. (These are all doors into someone’s house or a shop)

We found this canal, I love the way you can find beauty in the middle of the city. 

We wandered over to the fish market, my it was smelly in there 😀

Then off to find a supermarket for lunch supplies. It is always an experience shopping in foreign markets. Every one is set up so differently then our markets back home. There is also a language barrier that makes it fun trying to find something. We finally got everything we needed so we went to look for a place to eat. We usually try to find somewhere with a view, but that isn’t always possible. 

Today we looked for the cathedral.  We found a nice place to sit and started to unpack our lunch. As we were setting up a man walked by with an accordion. Tim gave him a tip to play for us.  He was good and we had music with our lunch. We started to eat lunch and it started to rain. 

There was a nice lady right next to us selling flowers and she had a table undercover, out of the rain. We asked if we could use a corner of her table. She said of course and even moved some of the flowers out of the way to make room for us. We shared some of our chips and cookies with her. She was so nice, we had just had to buy a bunch flowers from her. She made us 2 beautiful bunches and only charged us €6. 

We walked around and found a beautiful street. 

We found a plaza 

And a beautiful garden. 

We then found a coffee shop, had a macchiato and used the internet. 

Started heading back to the ship, taking our time seeing what we could find. 

And now it’s time to board the ship. Had a great day. 

Next stop Gibraltar………..

Aruba

We had been to Aruba before, so decided to make it one last beach day. We walked to beach, and found a nice place to sit and have our picnic lunch.  

  
 

loved this boat with the pelican on top.

 
  
 

walking along the beach

 
    

the gang

 

After swimming for awhile we started to walk back toward the ship 

like the saying on this sign

We walked by this sign  couldn’t resist taking a picture.  
 

We found some internet and catch up on emails, before heading back to the ship. 

On the way back to the ship, Tim and I bought new hats. What do you think? 

  

  
We have 2 days at sea then back to Ft Lauderdale…..

Bonaire

We have not been to Bonaire before so wasn’t sure what to expect. We heard that the beaches were some of the most beautiful around.  

great view

Walked off the ship and visited the tourists info booth. We decided to go Sorobom beach, which was supposed to be the best beach you can reach by taxi. 

getting info

The beach was good, but I wouldn’t say it was the best I had been to. Stayed there most of the afternoon. The beach was small. The water was only 3 feet deep for a long ways out. It was windy and a great place to windsurf, since it was so shallow you could just step onto the board. Had fun watching the windsurfers. Tim, Ron, and Patty swam for awhile. 

 

the beach

  

windsurfing

  

the place we rented chairs from

  

loved the colorful sign out front

 

Saw this guy walking by the chairs

 

cute?

  
We returned to the ship area a little early, so we walked around the town some. 

lighthouse in town

Time to go aboard. 

Next stop Aruba…….

Grenada

Grenada is a beautiful island. We were there on a Sunday so wasn’t much open. 
These guys were playing the steel drums as we walked on to the island. 

 

our ship

  

steel drum band

 

We walked through this tunnel and checked the town out. 

 

sign outside tunnel

  
 

Found a beautiful harbor. 

   
   
Decided that not much was open so we found a water taxi to take us to a beach.   

view on our way to beach

The water taxi guy was very nice. He was willing to take us back to the ship to grab something we forgot. We decided we didn’t need it so just headed to the beach. It was a very beautiful beach. 

  

 

our view from the shade

 
 

We got chairs in the shade. 

bathing beauties

Tim and Ron went swimming and found a lot of starfish. They were really big and heavy. 

   

  

  

   

  

After awhile there it was time to head back to the ship. The water taxi guy was waiting for us. 

   
  

our water taxi driver

 
Time to board the ship. 
Next stop Bonaire……..

Dominica

Our next port was the island of Dominica. We had been here before so after some research Tim found one of the best sight was a hot springs by the beach called Bubble Beach.
We hired a cab who really didn’t want to go there and tried to discourage us by saying we wouldn’t really like it. We soon discovered why he tried to discourage us, the hills were very steep and the cab had a hard time making some of them. 

entrance to the beach

 

rock at the entrance of the beach

 
The beach was awesome. The hot springs were right at the edge of the water. They stacked up rocks right off the shore to help keep the hot water in. Bubble Beach was a quite beach with just us and a couple of locals. There was a “bar” changing room and a “spa”.  
  

Bubble Beach Bar

“Bubble Beach Spa “

“changing rooms”

not sure where this went.

 
  

 

the gang in the hot springs

  
   
 

Tim and I

 
 

the hot springs

 
There was a church they were working on.  

From Bubble Beach we went went a little farther to Scotts Head. This was at the end of the peninsula. 

  
There was a hill with an old fort on top. We had our picnic lunch then payed a $2 “entrance fee”, since it was a persevere and went swimming at a really nice beach. Tim and Ron rented snorkels. They saw lots of fish and a sea turtle. 

  

   
Where we were was neat in that you had the Caribbean ocean on one side and the Atlantic on the other. 

 

On left is the cribbean , the right alantic

 
Time to go back to the ship and try to make hills again. Got back no problem. 

That night on board we had a great tribute band playing in the atrium. Had a great time dancing to Beatles songs. The bands name was Beatlemaniacs. We had heard them before on another cruise and they are really good.

   
 
Next stop Grenada ………

St Thomas

The first day on the ship was at the private island for Princess. We had been there many times so Patty and I stayed on board on the ship, but Tim and Ron went a shore for a swim.  

princess cay (private island)

  

Tim and Ron at princess cay (private island)

 
The next day we were at sea. Not much happening just lots of relaxing and sunbathing.
The first real port we had was St Thomas. As we had all been there before we caught a taxi and went to a beach. 

  
On the beach we rented chairs under the shade of some trees. There was a hen with a bunch of babies walking around. Spent the afternoon there enjoying the sea, lunch and beers. 

  
  
  
We always see the iguanas by the ship. 

  
The next port is Dominica……

On the road again……

Well it’s that time of year again. We are getting ready to cruise to Europe. 

We started our trip early and spent a couple of days in Naples, Florida, with our friends Ron and Patty. This was our first time to Naples, and we were excited to spend time at their house. 

 We got there late the first night and had a wonderful dinner with Ron and Patty and some other friends. 

Then the next morning we went on a tour of Naples. It is a beautiful town. They live in a beautiful place

 

on Naples pier

 
 

on the beach

   

where Ron just to work and we had lunch

   

lunch

 Our other friends Bruce and Susan are going with us, so they got in the second night. We all went to dinner and then got ready for the next day. 

In the morning we all drive to Ft Lauderdale to catch the ship for a 10 day then on to Europe. 

Bologna day 3 / Florence

We decided to go to Florence for the day. It took 1 3/4 hours on a high speed train. 

We have been to Florence before, but never been in to see the real David, so we decided to do that this time. 
Once we were in Florence we had some time before we were able to go in so we found this museum near the train station. 

It was the Santa Maria Novella.
     
   

   
 

The architect was awesome. There were some old relics inside also. 
Then we headed toward the center of town. 

 
     
     Basilica of Saint Mary of the Flowers               

We found a new place to have lunch called Eatily. It was an interesting place. It was a cross between Whole Foods and a restaurant. We had a great lunch. 
  
After lunch it was time to head in to see “the” David. Tim and I have seen the copy at Piazza Della Signoria  but never the original. 

When you first walk in there were a lot of old musical instruments 
   
 

We didn’t have much time so after a quick look we went to find the David.  

  
This is your first glimpse of the statue. On the way in there were some statues that weren’t finished. I found it fascinating to see the process. 

   
   

Then on to the main attraction 😄

  
It was great to see the statue from all sides. The detail was so amazing.

   
 
 
 It is really amazing what Michelangelo could do before he was even 30.

After seeing the David we headed into a long room with examples of plaster models of statutes that were used to show what the statue was to look like once it was carved out. These were works of art themselves,
   
 

After seeing a few paintings it was time to meet Ron and Patty at the Piazza Della Signoria. 

This piazza is interesting in that there is so many statues there. It’s a great place to hang out. 

   
 

   
  

  From there we walked around a bit then headed back to the train and the hotel.

  
(A beautiful restaurant we pasted)
Next stop Modena and Parma