No Free McWee

Aug 31st

The ship was serviced by tender at Monaco about 1 k off which affords us a better view of the whole area.

Erica gets travel sickness in a heartbeat so even though the ship was ready stable all night from Livorno, she'd had a queasy night and the 5 mins in the tender took some courage. We wandered around Monaco on foot looking for the Bus stop that would take us to Nice.
The business to own and run in Monaco? Yacht repairs.

There were, to my surprise, severeal unsecured wireless hotspots, so we hijacked one to check emails and google the bus routes.

Theres only about 10 main streets in Monaco, but you wouldn't want to climb them all looking for a bus stop. The very 'Fronch' looking terraced apartments adorn the streets and seem to compete with each other for 'Fronch-ness', its kind of hard to explain. The bus to Nice costs 1E and they run about every 15 mins. It is just the most spectacular drive along the winding coastal cliff line. There are several towns in protected bays along the way, all have enormous yachts sitting in their harbours, all have the French terraces with flowered window boxes.

An hour in the bus later and we, armed with bags and towels, headed for the beach on foot from the bus station. After a bit of a tizz over directions we popped out onto the French Riviera proper!
The water was copper carbonate colour which graded to copper sulphate colour as you looked out.

For those who forget high school chemistry, its the bright aqua marine, graded to the deepest saturated blue. But that was where the attraction ended, the beach, amply supplied with tourists, was made from big white pebbles, and the volleyball area had imported sand.

Not feeling hot enough for a swim we elected to find drinks instead. A short walk back found a little market place with umbrellaed tables in front of bars, we chose one and settled into a bit of local / tourist watching over a nice amber Leffe. Sunshine, market buzz, sun dresses & French terraces. Are we really here?

The locals seem to have a problem stopping the pigeons from taking advantage of the many buildings, so the gutters and sills have been armed with vertical spikes of wire, and once in a while (although unknown to us at the time) they set off gas guns in the square. Just as I got up to make space for the next Leffe, a gas gun was set off, it was close to us and loud, and I was nearly ready to make space for the next meal.
There was a bit of chatter, the tourists behaved a little like the pigeons for a moment, but we quickly settled back to watching the sun dresses again.
As with all days we have to stick to a timeline, the ship sails with or without you so we grabbed a snack on the fly and wandered back though the little alleys, past the shops, to the bus terminal.

The ladies decided a restroom was necessary, so elected to brave the bus terminal facility. That paid facility was quickly deemed entirely unsuitable, so a McWee was chosen as the alternative. That didn't come free either, as only paying customers get to use the Maca's toilets here in Nice!

The bus was already nearly full when we left the terminal.
At the port in Monaco we located a supermarket, stocked up on Leffes and some other essentials and reboarded the ship.

We have been having our evening meals in the restaurant, sharing a table with Erica and Pete, and the food standard has been excellent. The portions are small but there are 5 courses you can have so no-one leaves hungry. All of this, of course, is paid for.

Early on I chose a three bottle wine package for the restaurant, a Sav Blanc for the fish dishes, a Californian Zinfandel for the meat dishes and a unknown Australian Shiraz for the bigger meat dishes and what's left. If you order wine in the restaurant for the cruise they recork it and keep it for you for the next night. You have to pay for all alcohol on the ship, and it can be pricey. That's why the 'Old Smuggler' we bought in Livorno and smuggled on board has been a source of amusement since. The stateroom fridge has had all 'non-essential' items stored elsewhere to make room for the sixpacks that come on board after our shore excursions.

The white wine was sharp as a razor, so we had to finish that fairly quickly, and that California Zin made it through two sittings, as it was nice but not moorish.
After Monaco we steamed all night and next morning to reach Barcelona. The four of us are getting relaxation time when possible so for this day (Wednesday 1/9) we elected to stay on board and just chill.

Sheryl, not content with being still, had to find something to do, so signed us up for access to the spa facilities on board, and has been off there enjoying the hot bubbles whenever possible.
The ship itself is fun to explore, we discovered 10 forward (yep, thats where it is), a lounge that faces forward on the ship and has leather recliners to boot. Should be spending some quality time there.

But... dont drink the water.....

Barcelona the next day was much fun. I set myself the task of seeing some of Antonio Gaudi's work and Barcelona is set in a valleys in front of substantial hills. Exploring on foot seemed to be the least favoured option so we four took a hop-on-off bus tour. Gaudi's Park Guell up the hill from the city required a lot of climbing roads and stairs but it was packed with people, performers and buskers, and is a relaxing and really interesting garden to stroll through. The Temple Sangrada de Familia in the middle of the city is just astounding.

Barcelona has many interesting aspects. It has Gothic buildings, plenty of history as a mediterranean port for 20 centuries, so that shows through, plus the 20th Century influence of Gaudi and the 1992 olympics. Patches of Barcelona remind you that they haven't got it all sorted out, there's the occassional unmistakeable smell of open drains like in Bali.

With Pete looking for tapas to experience, and once we were within coo-ee of the ship pickup point we set out to find some spanish fare. We tried the Alice White Australian red that night, the one we never heard of, it turned out to be a blend of Australian grapes bottled in California, but it did have a picture of a Kangaroo on it. It's not to shabby a red either, like one of those McClaren Vales we have recently tried. Not sure why its mentioned here, no-one will ever get the chance to try it.

Clouds on the horizon at dawn looked like sky scrapers in the haze as we steamed into Palma de Mallorca. I was trying to discern that for a time. The four of us have settled into ship life, low effort, a little exploring, relax when possible.

Mallorca is the famous and favourite spanish resort of the pommy tourist. Hotels are stacked up in front of the many beaches here. The island is substantial, but has lots of rugged coastline, and mountains that could be explored, but not by us.

We scooted in to Palma for a supply run, fortunately you dont need a port bus. Only about 500m from the port entrance theres a substantial shopping centre. There's the ususal toxic waste vendors outside, Maccas and Subway. Inside and underneath its like any Australian shopping centre, hairdressers, beauty , travel agents, and a Carrefours. This supermarket chain is everywhere in Europe and Asia, and they have the best stuff. There were more cured ham legs hanging up there than you see in christmas week, and the biggest selection of cheeses. Pete was stumped for choice of a suitable spanish wine, all going for under 5E. A 9 pack of Heinekens cost all of 4E, that's about $6.

The beauty parlor offered, amongs its long list of 'hair removal' services (in Spanish, with spelling from memory)- Labia Superior. We kind of sniggered about that for a while, as children do.
The exit from Palma was entertaining, everyone knew about it. As we had spun around in the harbour basin and chosen our exit, the Captain put the foot down, meanwhile the harbour pilot boat raced out in front. A little wooden fishing boat (not unlike the African Queen in design, but smaller), with 1 guy in it putt-putted straight across in front of the Noordam perpendicular to our path. The harbour pilot had already peeled off after warning him, but he kept putting, while the Cruise ship Captain blasted the fog horn repeatedly. He was undeterred. His boat would have passed under the shadow of the bow. I didn't think of the African Queen reference until just now, suppose his boat had two big torpedoes out in front!

As we watched, a plane seemed to leave about every minute from the airport. Apparently this is quiet for the resort because the poms are all broke.

En Route to Africa.
The next day and night we were shipbound, as the steam to Africa takes about 40 hours. But theres plenty to do on board, so we did. In the spa, find a bar, la-de-da. Its all good.
Sheryl and I met up with some people who live not far from us, our kids went to Davallia Primary school together. Keith will remember Nick Cornish, and Dean will remember Rowan Smith. Chloe may remember the families.

Their respective parents are on board, and will leave the ship with us on Wednesday. It was good to catch up with them. They have all had similar experiences as us, thought they've been on board for the extra 10 day East Med tour as well. They have done the tours, packaged and 'on your own', electing for the open top busses and the self walking ones, they seen enough churches and ruins. In addition they have, like us, suffered the 'Cruise Bloat', access to too much delicious free food. Having said that, we caught up with them in the bar that night for several bevvies, and quite a few laughs.

Today is the 5th of September it's day 7 of the cruise.

We woke in Africa as the ship was in its last minutes of docking. Camels sit patiently on the dock waiting to transport our tourists up and down the dock for a photo opportunity. Tunis sits around a large lake (probably an estuary), that opens into the sea at the harbour. Its a large city, rendered concrete buildings crowded together. This info was all gained from the sanctity of the cruise ship and the tourist guide on repeating loop on the TV in the stateroom. We have been given guides to our landing locations, and apparently Tunis can be a little confronting, the hawkers are not easily dissuaded. Sheryl was reluctant to leave the boat, and the only thing I want from Africa on this trip is to say I have been there.

Its warm here, the pool is inviting and there's enough to do on board.

It feels like you kind of have this protective tourist bubble around you, you can venture forth from the ship and take it with you, and you feel sort of looked after by it. If you don't stray to far from the main drags, its kind of a secure and safe feeling.

The ultimate decision was, stay put. So we did. Apparently the bubble wasn't enough.

September 6 , Trapani Scicily, day 8 of the cruise.

The ship has berthed in the middle of the city, to the sound of car horns beeping, and dogs barking, and locals waving from the street. I can see over the roof tops of the buildings from the stateroom balcony. Better get dressed!