Blog # 13 - Cruise Ends & Paris

                                                           Blog # 13 - Cruise Ends & Paris

               Looking forward to a great dinner. The flowers on wall are actually leather

                                    We love watching all of the port activity

         Depending on dock availability and harbor depth we may have to take a tender to                 reach land. These tenders carry up to 150 people.

                                A quiet place to chat and catch up with friends

                               Last dinner on the ship with Artie and Lynn

                        A few times the restaurants offered reblochon cheese after dinner. 

Jerry would often ask for it. Most of the servers did not know this type of cheese and would bring a variety of other cheese thinking he wouldn't know or would accept what was served. It became a laughing matter as servers scurried around trying to please.

We love this cheese and discovered the duty free shop at the airport sold it. We purchased some. Delish!

                            Our last night at sea - the moon lights of the ocean

         Entrance to main dining room: "Party of four? Would you like window seating?"

                                                     Beautiful main dining room

                                                            Fancy, formal breakfast

                                    Heading to one of our favorite places - Paris!

                        This building's architecture is a true sign we are in Paris

  Our hotel offers more than we can eat for breakfast: Quiche, fresh squeezed orange juice,      eggs any way we want, a basket of French breads and pastries is over the top

If we had time, sitting on our balcony and having coffee in the morning or a glass of wine in the afternoon would be perfect! Not enough time on this part of the trip.

 Our favorite thing to do: Day or night - Take a picture in front of the Arc de  Triomphe

   Extraordinarily expensive Dior designer's clothes. We noticed that stores now post prices        in the store window to keep "looky-loos" from wasting a salesman's time.

                             This is what was displayed on Sunday at Louis Vuitton

                            Overnight, the store windows were changed. Amazing!

                The building in the background will soon become a Louis Vuitton hotel

                                A funny place for a marching band to play music

Went for a stroll - came across a beautiful apartment building and flowers in front of a local restaurant. 

Discovered statue in a small park which represented George Washington and the help he got from the French during the colonial war.

                                             We didn't do a lot of "touristy" things - 

                We just strolled through neighborhoods and enjoyed the beautiful day.

                                                                "Champs" =  Fabulous street

Dinner at Chez Andre - a local place where we have previously dined. Yes, we started our meal with French onion soup. A nice bottle of (French, obviously) wine hit the spot! Arlene only had a sip. Jerry had a couple of glasses. We offered what was left to another table. They were surprised and quite happy about the unexpected "gift!"

                                    Dinner with new friends: Paul and Sue

Following a lengthy and fun dinner, we got together with Sophie - a daughter of dear French friends and a long-time friend of our daughter, Heather. When Sophie was about twelve, we did an exchange where Heather and our son, David, spent time with our friends in Paris. Sophie came to our home for a visit. We've shared wonderful family occasions over the years.

            The party is over - time to go home. The airport lounge is well appointed.

                                       The plane is filled with fuel and ready to go

                    As our plane headed to the runway, we passed the Concord

                                Maybe we should continue on to Tahiti!?!?!                                  

                                        A little bubbly before we take off

    Seated and buckled up, here we go...

                                                    Up, up and away---heading home

                                                            A funny ending

We were greeted at LAX by "travel assistance" airport personnel. Arlene was wheelchaired to an area where she was transferred to a tram. After a short ride, she was transferred again to a wheelchair located in the baggage area. In each case, her boarding card was scanned to ensure that she would be transferred from one part of the airport to another without getting "lost" or taken to the wrong area of the airport. It turned out, as we landed, so did 150 other folks needing assistance - mostly from India. There were not enough airport personnel to process all of the wheelchair passengers. After a half hour of waiting, realizing, we would have to wait for at least another hour, we decided to leave the wheelchair and retrieve our luggage without any assistance. It took a little effort but it saved time. We're guessing that the airport personnel are still looking for a "missing Arlene!"

                                                         *************

                                              This was one of our better trips!

 Great food

                                                    Unique food presentations

                                              Beautiful art pieces throughout the ship

                                                    And, this trip was a test. 

Could we manage many physical and medical obstacles? We lugged a bit, climbed stairs and actually survived the ordeal. We went from I hope we can to I think we can and then ultimately to We know we can!

                       We're looking forward to another traveling experience.

                                                      Blog # 12: Palma de Mallorca

        Unlike Ibiza which was dry, somewhat desolate and uninviting unless you 

               want to spend twenty-four hours in clubs, Palma was quite a surprise  for us. 

    There was lots of foliage with a combination of semi-tropical and mountain feeling

Nestled in a valley was a small and beautiful village

                                   Ornate and historical churches are always interesting to see

                                                            Majestic skyline

     

                                          Photo op in all directions

                                                                Pretty town square

     Very (local) farmer's market - school children made home-made sweets to sell/generate          money for their school. The pastry cake was delicious! If we were not eating on the      ship, buying local cheese, meats and pastries would have been a special treat for us!

               Standard uniform? Most meat/cheese vendors throughout Europe wear black. 

                                   The olive seasoning/aroma was intense - very inviting!

                                                                Interesting shapes

This was the only manhole cover in the village that did not have a blue sticker on it - certifying that all was okay

Part of the our touring included taking a small, historical (1920's era) electric train.

Although this was a real train and locals (as well as tourists) use it for transportation             between port towns and the inland area, it still gave us a feeling of taking a 

Disneyland train ride

The train was a little rickety as well as noisy as it "clicked and clacked down the railroad track..."

                                                                    Still, it was a lot of fun

                                                                        All a board...

                                    We passed miles of lemon and orange groves

                   Small villages were below us as the train chugged up a mountainous area

                                                                    This might be a hotel

                                                                    Palma's cathedral

                                         This could be one the largest cathedrals in Europe

                                                    Enjoying our last lunch on the ship...

                                                                 ...and the view

Our cruise has ended: The Barcelona cruise port could not handle the quantity of boats and all of the tourists. we had to leave the ship at Tarragona which is an hour drive to the airport. Our bus driver got lost as he tried to leave the port and find the freeway. Once heading in the "right direction," he took the slow road to the airport. To make matters worse, rather than first stopping at Terminal 1, for some inexplicable reason, he started dropping people off at Terminal 2 which meant he had to do a lot of back-tracking. Our one hour ride turned out to be two hours and possibly missing our flight.

        Checking in was tough. There were (only) three agents serving Air France, KLM and Delta flights. The check-in line was a "mile long" and we were at the end of the line. After thirty minutes and the line not moving, Jerry had an idea. He found an agent who was sensitive to our situation; especially since Arlene couldn't stand for lengthy periods of time. The agent put us at the front of the line, gave us priority check-in, waved the overweight and allowed us to use the "Fast Track" security process. If it wasn't for the agent's help, we would have missed the flight.

                                             Flying over Paris - final approach to the airport

                                                             Jerry gets to ride along with Arlene