Cruise Day 9 - Dubrovnik

On our way to Venice, we came around under the boot of Italy and into the Adriatic Sea, our first time to this area.  Our stops, Dubrovnik the first, were on the east side of the Sea.

In Dubrovnik, the main highlight was the walled "Old Town" which in today's times is not even 15-20% of the total geographic size of the city. It was a short walk from the bus to the main gate.

One of the many churches in Old Town.

      

One of the palaces in the Old Town, this one has been converted to a museum.

The main street through town had lots of side streets, many of which provided outdoor seating for small restaurants.  The main street itself had many shops along the way.  We did stop in one and purchased a little souvenir!  Only the second one since we left home!

We were fortunate that it was early in the day as the hoards of tourists had yet to make the streets be wall-to-wall people!

  

And, at the end of the main street, the gate to the original Dubrovnik port.

  

After our walking tour of the Old Town, we were back on the bus for a ride up into the hills to a small restaurant, Mlinica Šapro, for a bite of local food, a glass of local wine and a little entertainment!

The entertainers welcomed us into the courtyard on the way to our tables.

And then added liveliness to our "feast" of ham, cheese, bread and wine.


  


From there, we headed back down the hillside and to our ship "parked" in the commercial dock away from Old Town Dubrovnik. We did manage to see the old town from above!

A delightful tour, and, very educational!
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On Board & Day 1

As I post this, we're in Venice about to begin the 2nd cruise/leg of our journey.  On a "sea day" a week ago, I'd hoped to get the 1st post up, however, internet was sketchy and we just got busy!  It's so easy to do!  Hopefully, I'll get better at posting!!

The 1st 2 legs are quite port intensive, the last two have more sea days!  Perhaps then, a chance to post more! 

Day 1 - Barcelona on Board:

On board, as soon as we were on board, we were offered a glass of champagne!!  Ah yes, back at home on Regent!  

As soon as we checked in and got our cabin keys, we headed there to drop our drag-alongs before heading to lunch.  We were extremely pleased to see that our shipped bags were waiting for us!  Luggage Free came through for us again!

And, on the table in the sitting area, a bottle of champagne and a plate of sweets!  Nice!

  

Checked out the closet!  It is quite spacious and will certainly hold the clothing & stuff we brought.

This is indeed our favorite cabin layout!

Day 2 - Sète, France:

Once upon a time, it was spelled “Cette” and though the spelling has changed, the pronunciation is still “set”!  Our excursion today was “Picturesque Pezenas & Valmagne Abbey”.

 The drive to Pezenas was about an hour through the beautiful French countryside.  Having never seen anything like it, we were fascinated by the huge mussel farms in a nearby bay.

On the way to Pezenas, we passed through Montagnac,  a VERY quiet town with no one on the streets.  

One little shop we passed had a sign that, even without knowing French, we could read!!

Before long, we were in Pézenas!

After a walk through the old historical area, we stopped for coffee then headed off again for the Valmagne Abbey.

Valmagne Abbey was our last stop on this excursion. The Abbey began its life in 1138 as a Benedictine Monastery and 20 years later became part of the Cistercian Order.  After the French Revolution when monasteries were destroyed or confiscated by the state, the buildings of this abbey were sold in 1791 to a gentleman who turned the abbey church into a cellar for curing wines.  The sizes of the barrels in the "niches" are only dwarfed by the large barrel in the Heidelburg Palace!!

    

No trip to a monastery turned winery would be complete without a little wine tasting!  And, likewise, no tour would be complete without a pass through the gift shop.  In this case, one and the same.

One thing that caught my eye was this somewhat smaller barrel with a wine cork top!  It wasn't for sale!

Our excursion ended back at the port where our "home" was waiting for us!
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Barcelona

The past few days have been quite busy with getting settled into the ship and visiting a new port every day!  Finally, today, I got pictures out of my camera and began sorting through them, selecting some for posting.  Thus, we're still in "catch-up" mode!  Now on with updates!  rf

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Regent Seven Seas transportation met us just outside the baggage claim area. I'm sure the driver was pleased to see we only had our two Drag-alongs rather than massive amounts of luggage that cruise passengers typically carry!

Walking into the Fairmont Rey Juan Carlos I hotel, we were reminded of the very pleasant

stay we'd had here in March 2014 at the end of our Rio to Barcelona trip.

We had remembered the open atrium lobby area and the "mushroom cap" lighting suspended over the bar area. A delightful area for a few evening cocktails!

Our room was on the 12th floor as it had been before.  That offered the services of a lounge.

From our room and from the lounge just a few doors down, we overlooked a large athletic grounds consisting mostly of polo and the training of the horses.

 
This picture shows the north end of the polo field, the barns and training ground just beside the hotel swimming pool.


At the bottom of this picture is the far side of the polo field. Beyond that are apartments and beyond that is Montjuic and the Olympic grounds from Barcelona's 1992 Summer Olympics.

And, at a slightly different angle, is the soccer stadium and training grounds.  

On arrival Saturday night, we had a glass of cava to celebrate our arrival in Barcelona and the beginning of our wonderful holiday!  We had had dinner on the flight from Zurich so no more food was needed.  As planned, on Sunday morning, we slept in.  Word is depending on one's age, recovering from jet lag can take 12 to 24 hours for each time zone change... we had crossed 5!!

We were up around 9:30am and went to the lounge for the continental breakfast foods they serve.  There was more than enough food variety and besides, it was a short walk down the hall rather than trekking downstairs (on the elevator, of course)!

This being our fourth trip to Barcelona and having seen all the major sites, we chose to stay in and around the hotel all day, sleeping, reading and catching our breaths.

For dinner, once again, rather than go downstairs, the lounge host, Randall, ordered room service for us and had it delivered to the lounge.  He suggested and we accepted, the roast pheasant!  

When the food arrived, Randall served as our personal waiter!  What a treat!  He also ensured our cava glasses were never empty!  The pheasant was DELICIOUS!!

What a warm delightful last night in Barcelona!

Many more cruise folks had come in on Sunday and Monday the Regent Hospitality desk was fully staffed.  We had paid our hotel bill earlier so didn't have the looonng check-out line.  

Buses loaded and we were off to the port, passing the old "bull ring" on the way.

Also, along the way, the statue of Columbus supposedly pointing to America.  In reality, he is pointing to Africa!!  Oh well, maybe the continents have shifted!  Coincidently, it was Columbus Day!!

And before long, we are at the port and our home for the next 70 days was in sight!!

At least a start on catching up!!  rf

From Home to Barcelona

The plane rides and airport concourses are behind us!!  YEAH!!!  We're now in Barcelona having arrived around 8pm last night.  We went to the lounge on our floor for a glass of cava then settled into our room a little after 9pm.  We're spending today in and around the hotel, vegging out, getting ready for the cruise!

Getting from Home to Barcelona:

We had shipped our big bags and a couple of small duffle bags shipped, thus, only had our "drag-a-longs" to watch over during this part of our journey.  We had them packed up and ready to go long before our 4pm departure.

Last things to get done were: 1) get the car in, a challenge in itself!, 2) unplug the garage door opener, 3) unplug the golf cart, 4) turn some circuit breakers off and lastly, 5) disconnect the cable (the loop in the ceiling, top center of photo).

Once we saw that "our" car had left Burger King, Tom took the bags out front while I shut down the computer.  We locked the door and headed out ourselves.

A neighbor came over for a "so long" and took this pic for us!  Thank you Betty!!

Our ride to the airport arrived shortly thereafter.  We were super pleased to see our favorite ExecuCar driver, Bill Glenn!

Tom headed for the car, Bill went for the bags.  I think he was pleasantly surprised to see so little luggage!

After a very pleasant ride to the airport, we checked in with Edelweiss and headed to the lounge they share with American Airlines.  We were only 3-4 gates from "our" gate and had a great view of the runway and tarmacs.  When we saw "our" plane arriving, we packed up and headed to the gate.

By the time we got there, the caterers were in place but it wasn't long before we were boarding.

We settled into our seats for our 7+ hour flight and it wasn't long before we were offered, and accepted!, a glass of champagne.

Shortly after takeoff, we were offered dinner menus.  Some of the items, we didn't know what they were, then we realized we were looking at the German version!!  A page turn and, voila!, English!









A quick look at the screen showed our route, direct from Tampa to Zurich.  We like that we can now fly directly to Europe!!!

Next trip we'll do the same!



.
.First came the butter, salt & pepper.



Followed by a starter.



Then dinner.  I chose the filet, and Tom chose the Sea Bass.
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After dessert, we "bedded down" for the long flight!




When we awakened a couple hours before landing, the map showed the progress!

We had a pleasantly uneventful flight and arrived in Zurich a little before before schedule.  Fortunately, we didn't have checked bags, thus went straight to passport control and on to our 5 hour wait for the flight on to Barcelona!

Other than having to check my drag along, it was way too heavy for drag along on this smaller plane, the rest of our trip was uneventful.

Update - 15 October 2015:
Just wanted to add a couple of pics from the Zurich to Barcelona flight.


The first is a pic of the airport terminal in Zurich. Inside, a VERY impressive terminal!! Shopaholics would go crazy trying to figure out what you really wanted to buy!!  All kinds of shops and LOTS of duty-free!

The second is of the "island" mountains poking out above the clouds.  If I'm not mistaken they are in the French Alps, possibly in the Grenoble area.

We were totally fascinated!  Folks living below the clouds probably thought it to be a gray and dreary day... little did they know what was up-above it all!







Next post will be from ship!!
rf

We're Ready!!

And, our car is on it's way!!

We're watching it... looks like it is currently stopped at Burger King... perhaps for a late lunch or a cup of Joe!!

We'll be off before 4pm!!! WHEEEE!!

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About 16 hours 'til D-parture!!

YEAH!!!  Today, Friday (10/9/15), it was yesterday when I started this!, is the day we fly to Barcelona, actually, the day we begin the trip to Barcelona!

Just checked in for our flights and we were able to move up a couple of rows.  With his long legs, Tom likes to have bulkhead seats. DONE!!!

We have 1 D & 1 G which on this weird configuration are next to each other!  We love it because we each have an aisle seat, thus easy access to the "porcelain"/stainless steel facilities!

Our ride will pick us up at 4pm.  We'll have lots of time at the airport so, if there are any hangups we can take care of them.

Our first flight is scheduled to depart Tampa at 8:25pm and arrive in Zurich 9 hours, 25 minutes later at 11:50am Zurich time.  We'll spend 5 and 1/2 hours in Zurich then at 5:20pm, we'll be on our way to Barcelona!  When tonight we got the boarding passes, we learned that boarding time is 19:35 (7:35pm to us Yanks!)!!

We'll arrive in Barcelona around 7:10pm on Saturday, probably be at hotel by 8pm, Barcelona time, 2pm our time but after some 23 hours from home to hotel, we'll be ready to CRASH!!  Into nap mode I mean!!  We're hoping for no other "crashes"!!!

The hotel is the same one we stayed at in early 2014!  Hotel Rey Juan Carlos...


This is where we plan to have breakfast on Sunday morning!!

SOOO excited!!  From the song "It Might As Well Be Spring" comes the line "I'm as giddy as a baby in a swing"... that's me!!

Maybe more tomorrow!  Who knows!
rf

Less Than 1 Week Away Now!

Color me as giddy as a 3-year-old at Christmas!!

At this time of day as I post this, we are scheduled to be settled in our seats and gaining altitude out of Tampa, or perhaps at cruising altitude, on our Edelweiss flight to Zurich!  From there we'll connect on to Barcelona!

The last time we shipped our bags, they spent the weekend hoopin’ it up in Hawaii, this time those partying little trollops are spending the weekend in Paris!!  Just hope they don’t catch some STD while they’re there!!  Sometimes, I think they have more of an adventure than we do!

After tonight, we'll have totally emptied the freezer, well, except for cookies and ice, and closing the kitchen! We’ll be eating out or getting take-out until we leave!

Our "front" fridge has a frozen jug of water and a box of ice cubes, otherwise it's pretty bare as well!

Full blog site is: http://barcelonatocapetown.blogspot.com/
It has itinerary, et al.
rf