10-22-14. Very calm, foggy, warmer, --- breakfast.  The sea from 16 stories up looks very smooth, no white caps.  

Last night we heard that $40M were spent in two weeks during the dry dock reno. in Rotterdam, that might have included the dry docking it self.  The ship was all out of the water, what is called, on "blocks".  Changes included, adding cabins, relocating a couple of restaurants, some new carpets, and some dining room rearranging.  

The person or persons programming music for the various venues and restaurants has totally missed the boat, the average age on this ship is not 20, more like 50.  So what are they playing MTV stuff and rap for ?  The demographics must be available, besides tunes with lyrics are useless, they interfere with conversations and can't be understood.  What ever happened to good old Musak elevator music, show tunes or do I dare say classical or semi classical ? 

At 8am no one was here in the Windjammer cleaning up tables or serving coffee or juices !?  And what about soft rubber wheels for carts that get noisily pushed around on tile floors ?  

And have I mentioned the elevator numbers being not readable ?  

We went to see the Aqua Show tonight, it was quite impressive.  It started to drizzle a little during the show and many people left, but it soon stopped and we got better seats.  

Thu. 23rd. It continues to be very smooth sailing.  My morning routine went off flawlessly.  B'fast at the Promenade Cafe was not so good, just egg sandwiches, bagels and oatmeal, OJ and coffee.  It's just very good for lunch salads.  The Wipe Out Cafe wasn't any better.  After skipping one day, our acu. #4 was ok but I had to lie on my stomach again and that is always uncomfortable, especially with that claustrophobic headrest.  But after, we had a nice soak in the port side hot tub -- nice !  And for dinner we had Fillet Mignon, very nicely done.  

Friday the weather was perfect, well windy but sun was out and a very blue sky for the first time.  Also for the first time I found potato salad !  in the Promenade Cafe, you just have to look for it.  Now all there is left to find is pickled herring and meatloaf.  

Most people were out today, and deck chairs were hard to come by.  You see this ship is meant to cruise the Caribbean that's why the thousands of deck chairs.  We had such cold weather in the North Atlantic.  

It must be a challenge to design menus with cooked food that was never left the kitchens and must be used to create new dishes for the future ! 

My quest for finding pickled herring or rollmops on this ship has been abandoned.  

Saturday we had our last acupuncture session in the Spa area with a final special topical cream application to maintain the benefits of the treatment.  We didn't buy.  We skipped lunch but had a nice dip in the hot tub overhanging the ocean.  The weather was so-so, with some sprinkles and some sunny breaks.  Sea--calm !   We saw on freighter, also going west and one large black seabird flying high about our ship.  During the night we passed south of Bermuda and perhaps the bird lives there.  

To night is "Cats" night, the musical, at 8:30pm.  We thought we'd get thru dinner at shortly after 7, it was duck tonight, very tasty, and last formal night, and get in line, for Geneva made reservations some time ago on line in Europe.  When a performance is sold out, there are always people that line up to get in after all the resrevationers had been seated, about 15 minutes before show time.  When we got down to the theatre we were surprised to find out that the long line were people with reservation lining up to get in !  Well, the line was so long, it wound around corridors and thru other venues and we were in line for over an hour before we were able to be seated.  Ridiculous !!  I was almost ready to give up.  There were no organized lines, no security to control  line jumpers, nothing, just a great big mess.  But it was really worth it !  The cast was great, the show was great and of course the music and singing was great.  Since this was an recreation of the original full length Broadway show by Andrew Lloyd Webber, on board ship they only had one source of music and that was a guy playing his heart out on a special piano, fantastic.  

My morning routine: 6am go to deck 16 for outside weather check, down to deck 5 for coffee and a couple of slices of bradded sweet bread with Dutch butter, back to the cabin with ½ cup of coffee for Geneva and to report.  

We have one more full day to go and it was spent eating and relaxing.  I'll try to get this on the blog before we get off the ship. 

This is the last writing from the ship.  

Final from ship

Maria Alm 2

Monday, the 6th, 57° at 7:30am, a few high clouds but the promise of a nice day.  

Since we couldn't buy any provisions yesterday, we thought we'd try the in house restaurant for dinner.  I had a French onion soup and two trips to a nice salad bar (small plates), Geneva had a child's portion of her favorite, Schnitzel with French fries and she still could not finish it !!  The portions are quite big.  All this and white table cloth, for €17 or $22. (mind you, restaurant meals generally tend to be expensive here, but what food ! ).  

We ventured out mid morning to get our groceries in Saalfelden, the next large city a short drive west from here.  It was a gorgeous day.  The little settlement where RCI is, is called Hinterthal, then comes a larger town, Maria Alm, and then Saalfelden.  When we came 'home' we had a nice brunch and then I made my traditional vegetable soup that we had tonight for dinner and will last for at least a couple or three more nights for supper.  

The staff here is not especially helpful, tho friendly enough, but not very accommodating.  I bought a wrong map but she wouldn't exchange it or gave me my money back.  To wash clothes here costs 3€ for a washing load and 3€ for drying !!!  That's $7.80 total !  We hope the machines are big enough to hold a good load.  Washing at the RCI in Italy was free, just the cost of the soap.  

Every day tho, a couple of ladies come into our apartment and tidy up, make the beds, change the towels, vacuum the carpeted floor, mope the bathroom and toilet, they touch nothing in the kitchen, nice.

My daily ritual of getting fresh "Semmerln" (breakfast buns) in the morning will continue here, for its a must for most people.  Last Sunday morning we had the breakfast buffet at the in house restaurant, and while it was relatively expensive, 20€ for the both of us, we surely got our money's worth, at least I did.

This morning, Tuesday, we had a wonderful b'fast in the apartment.  I went to the nearest 'Supermarket' down the highway, about 6 miles away, picked up a few items including Semmerln, sugar and Raspberry syrup.  We had everything else to make it a fine morning meal.  

Life here in Europe, including Austria, revolves around food shopping and eating it.  I suppose it's like that everywhere, but I notice it especially here because the food tastes so much better.  And it seems to me that the portioning is different.  People go shopping for groceries almost every day, small amounts, fresh amounts, just what they need for the next couple of days.  Besides their fridges aren't as huge !  Tho portions in restaurants are generous.  And still, the obese or fat people I've seen, I can count on one hand.   

My reporting on this blog of mine is of two types, one is describing what we are doing, the action, what's happening, and the other is thoughts, the whys and observations.  

Maria Alm 1

On this trip I had three main objectives, hi points if you will, to travel on the largest cruise ship in the world and to see what that would be like --- to once again visit our dear friend Runi and family in St. Gilgen Austria, which is always a hi point --- to experience the two RCI condos in Italy and Austria.  All that stuff in between, train, car etc. was a bonus.  

75°F today, mid day and full sunshine, Sunday 9-28-14.  We spent most of the day in St. Gilgen town, the crafts fair was still going on and there were lots of people about.  Always food, always drink and always coffee with whatever.  At home we took a little nap and then had our soup with some wonderful bread.  Church bells were chiming off and on and no work type noises were heard anywhere.  It's Sunday in Austria, a very catholic country. 

Today is my birthday, September 29th. and what a wonderful day it was.  The most memorable birthday I have had.  Our friend Runi and her sister Reingart took us to a small lake nearby, Hintersee, we walked with dog for a while under blue sky and gorgeous mountain reflection in the lake, until we wound up at a little country restaurant in the middle of nowhere.  There we had a little some thing to eat, pumpkin soup, Applestrudel, some caffe, a beer, and I had to eat their special of the day, Hungarian Gulasch with a big dumpling.  It was fantastic.  

You see, here an outing, almost any outing, always includes a stop for some sort of food and drink.

In the morning our hostess at the apartment, gave me a small homemade cake with a real rose in the wrapping, Runi gave me, us, that beautiful outing to the lake, her sister have me a good portion of Appel Strudel and even the dog, Dony, gave me a cookie with a plastic dog on top.  What a wonderful day.    

Today, Tuesday, we took the car for a spin.  We visited another lake in this wonderful Salzburger lake district called Salzkammergut.  The weather was perfect.  Because of my roots, I have to call this my favorite place in the world.  

October 1.   Today, a trip into Salzburg to get our train trip arranged for the 13th. to Rotterdam, with an overnight in Frankfurt.  All taken care of, we will be rolling first class until we hit the boat. 

Oct. 2. we drove to Freilassing, Germany, just across the border from Salzburg, except there is no border, my old stomping ground where I grew up until I was 18.  There we were looking for a special gift. We had lunch there, at a small hotel beer garden.   

A lot of it has changed, more build up, newer buildings, newer streets, newer shops and so on.  I do recognize some of it still, but after all, it's been over 60 years !!!  But it was fun seeing the old place again.  The traffic was bad, like everywhere, too many cars, even tho they are relatively small.

The drive outside the city was beautiful, always is.  My love for this part of the world will never die.  

Today Friday the 3rd. We had our last outing with Runi and dog Dony, we had smoked "Saibling", (a relative to the trout), for lunch, by Fuschelsee, capping it off with coffee and Apfelstrudel, our favorite pastry, at a nearby hotel.  Tomorrow will be travel day to RCI Maria Alm.  

While I was gathering things up in the apartment, Runi took Geneva, in the morning, to a big flee market.  It was outdoors and was stocked with old stuff and new stuff.  I did not go.

We finally left St. Gilgen shortly before 1pm.

We just got to our new RCI place in Maria Alm Austria, a 1-½ hour drive south/east from St. Gilgen, which we turned into a 3 hour one.  The drive was absolutely wonderful, totally enjoyable.  High Rocky Mountains, blue sky, white clouds, a stream running beside us a good bit of the time.  We stopped at a little place called Mühlbach (Millstream) by the Hochkönig (High King) and had lunch.  Delightful.  I must say right now, this is like night and day compared to the RCI in Italy !!! 

Unfortunately the internet connection here is not very good, eventho we have to pay for it. (8€ for 20 hours).   So, for the week that we are here in Maria Alm email will be spotty at best, but receiving mail seems to work better.  Italy wins this one.  

Other than that, the place is fantastic, clean, fabulous location, Austrian style buildings, many amenities.  We had breakfast this Sunday morning in the 'in house' restaurant, with a very well stocked, all you can eat, buffet.  We did get our traditional b'fast Semmerln and much more.  This venue here seems to be quite big and popular with mainly Europeans, for there was much activity this morning with people moving out at the end of the weekend.  This RCI place is billed as a "Family and Sportshotel".  14°C or 57°F at noon, 65°F in the late afternoon.

This afternoon we went for a nice drive to Maria Alm town and beyond to a larger town called Saalfelden.  (They are easily found on Google maps).  The country side is breathtaking and every view a picture postcard.  The leaves are just turning now, they did not show any color when we first got here.  I'd say that it rivals St. Gilgen, but only just !!  Unfortunately we can not send pictures very well, the internet here can't handle it.  Later.  

Here I want to note some of the little (and not so little) mistakes we have made on this trip so far.   --The most recent one, yesterday Saturday, we did not get some basic food provisions for breakfast etc., because today is Sunday and most, if not all, stores and shops are closed !!  But plenty of restaurant are open.

(All tho we did have a nice pizza dinner at the Bistro 'in house' last night).  

--Another one is, Geneva left a jacket with a glasses holder magnet on the train on the way to Salzburg.  --The biggest one tho was not having rented the cars before we left the US.  --I did not buy the transformer/plug, 220/110, for my razor, from the guy in the Pension Stoi in Innsbruck for 5€.  (I can't find one anywhere).  --

Salzburg 3

Thursday, 9-25.  Temp: 10°C, 50°F, cloudy but nice with prospect of sunshine later.  

Today is Marionette Theatre day in Salzburg, Die Zauberflöte, by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.  The show was very good, we enjoyed it a lot.  And my getting there and back home at night, came off without a hitch !  

I'm actually really impressed with the sizing of everything here.  When I described sizes of stuff in Italy, I think that they have gone a little overboard.  But here in Austria (and Germany) things are smaller and more compact for a reason, it seems.  I really welcome smaller fridges, smaller sinks, smaller stores, smaller packaging, etc, because a lot of it makes sense for people here, it saves waste, it saves the environment, people here a extremely green conscious.  The emphasis is on smaller and  compacter.   Everything in the US it seems is so geared for mass consumption.   

Here in St. Gilgen a curious thing happens when it comes to heating.  There is a plant here that burns wood by-products and pellets, for the whole town, to create steam and that steam gets delivered to houses that are hooked up to the system and then they pay for that service by the month.  The initial hook up is expensive if you are not already hooked up, but after that the cost is reasonable.  How smart is that ??

Today, Friday, we decided not to go to the Munich Oktoberfest by train.  The weather was not nice, too many people, my body was aching here and there and I was generally too tired and lazy, besides I was there the last time.  Runi had visitors and we just took it easy, relaxed, emailed, wrote and read and snacked. 

I was going for breakfast material this morning in this strange car of ours.  It is a Skoda station wagon as I mentioned earlier, it has so many bells and whistles that one would have to take a course to learn all their uses.  When you lock it in the evening, it not only locks it, turns off all the lights, naturally, but also folds in the side view mirrors !  At night when you unlock it, it not only unfolds the mirrors again but also has lights on them to show you where the door is and shines the light to get in the car.  Then there is the stopping of the engine every time it comes to a stop at a stop light, very disconcerting.  As soon as you take the foot off the break, the car starts again !!!  It seems hard on the battery but easy on gas, perhaps.  

A most relaxing day !!  

Salzburg 2

The train to Salzburg rolled thru some wonderful Austrian and Bavarian country side, with the emphasis on wonderful.  Fantastically green fields, distant mountains and the occasional villages with their pointy church steeples.  The route took us across into Germany for a brief time before reaching Salzburg and it's newly built/rebuilt Hbf, (main train station).  

Now came the task to secure a rental car.  After asking around, we did finally got a car, a Skoda, a station wagon-type new automatic with built in GPS,  that for the price should have come with  a chauffeur !!!

We had no real problems getting to St. Gilgen except for one curious condition.  The engin would stop for no reason when I came to stop light or stopped for any other reason and I had to restart the thing all the time.  In fact it got so problematic, that I had to call Avis to find out about it.  As it turned out that this problem was not a problem at all.  They said that all I had to do is touch the gas pedal and the engine would automatically restart, again !!!  I think that it is for saving gas while idling.  What a concept !!  Well with price of nearly $8. a gallon it makes sense, except  it would have been nice to have been told about it.  

We got to St. Gilgen ok and to our friend Runi in the late afternoon.   Runi greeted us oh so warmly.  She had coffee and cake ready and later supper, and we gabbed until about 8pm.  At this point, the days are sort of loosely planed and tomorrow, Wednesday, we are going to the annual St. Rupert festival in Salzburg with Runi and her sister.  Salzburg is about a ¾ hour drive from St. Gilgen.  St. Rupert is a saint who created the greater Salzburg area, put it on the map so to speak, many centuries ago.

Runi's friend, Annemarie, in who's house and apartment we are staying in now again, and have stayed for the last three times before, but this time we have the whole upper floor, living room, bedroom, both with a common balcony, kitchen and bath room, with an awesome view of Lake Wolfgang, is simply fabulous.  

After a great night's rest, I got up at 6:30, watched the sun illuminate the lake and later went to the small market to get some fresh b'fast buns called Semmerl, still warm, some butter, cheese and coffee.  I did not want to mess with making coffee here just yet, because I'm not familiar with our coffee maker.  Now we are ready for a fun day in Salzburg.  

The temperature was in the mid 60s°F in the early afternoon dropping to 60 in the early evening.  We drove in Runi's car, an older four door Mazda, and we found the old part of down town Salzburg was buzzing with people.  It is a semi holiday, big businesses are closed but smaller ones are open, after all, they have to make money.  What it was, it was a Fair, a full blown county fair with shooting booths, carousels and food booths.  We walked for a while, then sat down to a nice cup of fine coffee and a snack, and watched the people.  They bought some tickets for a marionette performance of Mozart's "The Magic Flute" for tomorrow evening.   While Runi has shown me how to get there, I'm still pretty nervous if I will make it ok.  We had a title lunch, and they also got us some ready to eat dinner.  We ended the day with going up to the seventh floor of a very popular hotel rooftop coffee house overlooking the Salzach River which flows right thru the middle of town.  

Back home again, I was beat !!!!   By the way  this whole day's outing was a gift for my and Geneva's Birthday, including the Theatre tickets.  

Salzburg 1

We ate in tonight, the rest of my soup with nice slices of fresh bread and butter we got from the market.

As I wake up this morning, I look out of our large window at a beautiful day, watching the white cloud banks scraping across the mountain tops from west to east, saying, today I bring good weather, for after all it's Sunday in Italy.  And come to think of it, other than the odd birds, we have not seen any other form of wild life.

As I went down to the lobby to fetch the latest email, I learned that our good friends arrived ok, last night, their time, at our house in P.O. and I hope are by now sound asleep.  

Here a few more ½ theory items.  Here they have nice and simple wall light toggle switches, but they are less than ½ size from US ones.  There are wooden pallets in the isles of larger markets with sales items on them, but they are ½ size.  

Now I'm sure that in large cities such as Rome, Munich, Berlin and say Amsterdam there are supermarket chains that have larger stuff, but other than that everything I smaller here.  Smaller cars, smaller shower stalls, smaller kitchens, smaller pots and pans, etc.

I think the reason why there aren't  so many obese people in Europe, it's because here people don't buy so much food in one go, they don't buy so large quantities at once, family or not.  They don't stuff their freezers, (if they have one), full of food and then eat it.  

I remember my mother  buying fresh food items every day or every other day, especially meat, vegetables and fruit.  As she would drag me along, she would buy some meat at the butcher shop, the butcher would give me a pickle from the Pickle barrel or a small hand full of sauerkraut which I would eat while my mother shopped.  I don't remember having a freezing compartment in our fridge, I barely remember having a fridge, it was more like an icebox.  When we wanted some ice cream, we would go to the store and get a cone.  I do remember that there were horse driven ice wagons, where a guy would ice-pick-off a smaller chunk of ice from a larger block, swing it on his leather covered shoulder and would take it to a business, or even a home.  We as kids would follow that wagon and get these small ice chips and suck on them, but I regress. . 

A quick evaluation of this RCI facility in Sestriere:  Besides the fact that it is a winter destination and dead in the summer, wifi is very weak, the kitchen is super tiny, the door to the balcony can not be kept closed when you on the baloney, heat available only from 7to9 pm, it has great bunk beds.  

Last day transitioning and moving out of this RCI unit is always a pain.  We had zero luck finding a car to rent on Salzburg on line from here.  So we're going to try getting some help from the car rental places at the airport when we are returning this car in Torino.  We would then catch a bus to the train station and on to the fast train to Milano at 10am.  (well that didn't happen).

Anyway, as the train is speeding thru the Italian country side, parallel  to the Alps, I have a few minutes to recall this morning, always exciting when it comes to moving day.  

We left our RCI crows nest a few minutes after 7am.  We worked it out backwards to hopefully catch the 10am train from Turino to Verona and then on to Innsbruck Austria.  Well, it's was not  exactly to go that way.  We got to the Turino airport ok, to return the car, but all that took a little longer than figured.  Then with a slow bus to the train station but missed the 10 o'clock speedster then took the next one at 11:19.  Well, a well meaning young Italian buck urged us on to a train that arrived on the same track just a few minutes earlier, we got on, but left at 11:06.  We were on the wrong train, a slower train, tho going in the same direction.  The conductor suggested to change train at the next major stop ahead and get on the right train that followed us, it was faster but left later.  We did that.  We are now sitting in the fast train heading for Verona.  Verona came and went and we now are on the train to Innsbruck !  

Innsbruck is one of our favorite places.  I flagged down an elderly local lady who sent us in the direction of a nearby (tree star hotel --- tooooop expensive).  They in turn directed us to a small Pension a block away, Pension Stoi.  A fantastic, new-ish and very clean place with good beds, a bathroom with shower, a view out onto a vegetable garden, and good free wifi !!!  After a good nights sleep, we got ourselves a SIM card, €15. for Austria for one month.  So immediately called Runi in St. Gilgen to see if it worked . . . bingo it did !! Now we are in communication with everything and anybody in Austria.  

(I just looks up, and and it says that our train is traveling 220km/hr,)

We had some coffee and toast at a little cafe, then packed up and walked 10 minutes to the train station.  We are now on the train to Salzburg.

Torino 4

We are waiting to finish with the washing experience and then we will drive 20 minutes to a nearby town called Oulx, that has a larger market to buy a few more serious things, such as sausage meat such as salami or ham to put on bread and butter, also some cheese and pasta to make a pasta dish with.  Maybe some veggies to make a good soup with, etc.  

Well it looks like that this trip will have to wait until tomorrow because the laundry operation has taken too long and the store on Oulx will be closing in about an hour and a half, don't want to take a chance of finding it closed when we get there. 

Thanks to the TOMTOM GPS, to get us here, sure I drove like an Italian, zooming along with all that traffic but that was because Geneva and her trusty GPS was guiding me, I had to watch the traffic and the roads. 

Wifi is strong in the lobby, and charging our devices is no problem if you have the right plug-ins for the Italian/European wall outlets.  Everything else here is very limited, power for the laundry goes off at 9pm, radiating heat in the apartments comes on only between 7 and 9pm, desk service, she is only there in the morning and from 2 to 5 in the afternoon.   After all, this is billed as a Winter Wonderland, and it's now OFF-SEASON.  That suits us just fine, and it only costs us 4K in credits and a $199. one time transfer fee, transferring credits from World Mark to RCI, for one week, 6 days/nights.   

Laundry all done, cost, just for the soap, €1.

We are going out for pizza, which we didn't get last nite, and on the short drive into our little town, we picked up a few more things we will need for b'fast tomorrow morning, at our little "Jolly Market".

Just came back from a very nice pizza dinner.  The fog was covering the road to our little town, a less than 10 minute drive thru thick fog.  But we had a very good tasting Primavera pizza, thin crust with cheese, garlic, tomatoes and fresh basil and we shared a small carafe of red house wine and I also had a soft drink.  The pizza was big enough for two, total, €19. including tip.  This was our second and final meal of the day, we had fresh bread and butter with coffee during the day.  

Waking up this morning, Thursday, and looking out of the window, the place was totally socked in !    We slept in our great bunk beds in a separated curtained off area, because we wanted to have the closed sofa-bed to sit on during the day.  I cooked a simple b'fast agin, eggs, bread and cheese.  Geneva had a yogurt and coffee.  In the early afternoon we went to a little town called OULX back down the mountain, to a small super market where we bought a few more groceries especially vegetables to make a soup with.  The two lane road has quite a few hairpin turns and the weather was very foggy.  On the way we stopped for some gelato.  When we came back to the car,  it started to rain but our feisty little Lancia Y made it just fine all the way "home".   At 6:30pm the temp inside our abode was 71.6°F and 50°F outside.  Since we have been so good today, we are going to get another two hours worth of heat from our radiator in our apartment, from 7 to 9pm.  For supper we had open faced salami and cheese and tomato sandwiches, wine and coffee, which I served in our studio apartment.  

This is morning, Sept. 19, Friday.  I looked out the window and . . . suddenly there's a (green) valley . . . (sing), mountains, ski lifts, no fog !!!  No sun yet, but the fog has moved up about another thousand meters.  9°C/49°F outside and a comfy 69 inside.  As you can tell, I got myself a thermometer.  

I was just thinking, that for the price of a two week car rental here in Europe, one can cross the Atlantic with the largest ship in the world with just an extra $45. (that's without the mandatory $12. a day p/p gratuity).  This guy told us on board ship, he paid $500. for the crossing on the Oasis of the Sea.   Amazing !!

>>>>>The above was published as Torino 3 on Fri 19, from lobby of RCI

Well it's just after noon here, had brunch in our apartment, sent off a couple of emails and published Torino 3 to my blog in the lobby.  Got info on the trains out of Torino where we will have to return the car an Monday am.   With the train on Monday it will be: Torino--Milano--Innsbruck--Salzburg, where hopefully a rental car will be waiting for us, provided we do all our on line reservations right by pushing all the right buttons, and the car reservation god smiles down on us.  

The weather is crazy here today, fog in, fog out, sun in, sun out, rain on, rain off !!  So if you are still asking maybe why did we come here ?  Read earlier on in my blog and you will know.  The gas here is $7.86. a gallon !!!  (€1.60 a liter).  

My soup is slowly boiling away, it contains sausage meat which I brazed with onions, carrots, potatoes, tomatoes onions and I used broth kind of cubes for flavor and seasoning.  

Now the sun is trying to come out.  We will go for a drive again, just to find ourselves in another little hamlet with not much more going on.  But it's peaceful here, a real vacation place, no car noises, no people noises, no plans overhead, no noises.  Oh wait, there was someone hammering about a mile or so away.  

The soup is done, towards the end I put in some tiny shell pasta . . . . and tastes wonderful !

Well, we didn't go for that drive today, perhaps tomorrow, when the weather with its sun god may shine upon us.  

I have this fun ½ size theory, here in Europe almost everything is half the size from the US.  (well, not everything can be judged the way they are here in this condo, but in general it probably could).  Elevators in most say 4 story or so buildings are ½ size, most cars are ½ size, of course we are getting the benefits of smaller cars in the US now too, coffee cups are ½ size, take a regular mug in the US and cut off the top ½, tee spoons are ½ size, the shower stalls are ½ size, most grocery items that come in jars or cans are ½ size, lots of soft drinks are ½ size, that is actually good, but the price is mostly full size, . . . . 

Almost everything here inside a building and out, is made out of good looking stone or ceramic tile or concrete.  Window sills, shelves, counters, floors, walls, surrounds, frames, even some seating.  It certainly win out over wood !  And there are certainly way more skinny people than fat ones here in this part of the world.  Geneva was commenting when we were watching the people walk by on the Rambla in Barcelona, where do all those skinny people come from? 

11am Saturday morning our time.  Song: (Louis Armstrong): I see skies ,oh so blue, high mountains too, clouds casting shadows, they're present too, and I say to myself, what a wonderful world . . . . . 

The weather is beautiful today, just like the day we arrived here in Sestriere.  Temp out side is 14°C, 57°F, after all we are 2,000 meter high, (over 6,500 feet),  but of course hot in the sun.  Today we are going for a drive.  There is some old snow on the high parts of the mountains as well as some new snow dusting at the highest  peeks, 2,700 m+ or 8 to 9,000 feet !  

We went down the mountain, back to the little town of OULX about 20 km from here, Sestriere.  We picked app few little things in the "large" market and on the way back we stopped for a little late lunch.  We came back home a slightly different way, I don't know how that happened, but it was fun, the weather was fantastic, warm and sunny.  This is the weekend, Saturday, and a lot of motor bikers are out, racing up and down these curvy mountain roads, jockeying for position to pass an these two lane roads, f-u-n  😬!  

Torino 3

We are waiting to finish with the washing experience and then we will drive 20 minutes to a nearby town called Oulx, that has a larger market to buy a few more serious things, such as sausage meat such as salami or ham to put on bread and butter, also some cheese and pasta to make a pasta dish with.  Maybe some veggies to make a good soup with, etc.  

Well it looks like that this trip will have to wait until tomorrow because the laundry operation has taken too long and the store on Oulx will be closing in about an hour and a half, don't want to take a chance of finding it closed when we get there. 

Thanks to the TOMTOM GPS, to get us here, sure I drove like an Italian, zooming along with all that traffic but that was because Geneva and her trusty GPS was guiding me, I had to watch the traffic and the roads. 

Wifi is strong in the lobby, and charging our devices is no problem if you have the right plug-ins for the Italian/European wall outlets.  Everything else here is very limited, power for the laundry goes off at 9pm, radiating heat in the apartments comes on only between 7 and 9pm, desk service, she is only there in the morning and from 2 to 5 in the afternoon.   After all, this is billed as a Winter Wonderland, and it's now OFF-SEASON.  That suits us just fine, and it only costs us 4K in credits and a $199. one time transfer fee, transferring credits from World Mark to RCI, for one week, 6 days/nights.   

Laundry all done, cost, just for the soap, €1.

We are going out for pizza, which we didn't get last nite, and on the short drive into our little town, we picked up a few more things we will need for b'fast tomorrow morning, at our little "Jolly Market".

Just came back from a very nice pizza dinner.  The fog was covering the road to our little town, a less than 10 minute drive thru thick fog.  But we had a very good tasting Primavera pizza, thin crust with cheese, garlic, tomatoes and fresh basil and we shared a small carafe of red house wine and I also had a soft drink.  The pizza was big enough for two, total, €19. including tip.  This was our second and final meal of the day, we had fresh bread and butter with coffee during the day.  

Waking up this morning, Thursday, and looking out of the window, the place was totally socked in !    We slept in our great bunk beds in a separated curtained off area, because we wanted to have the closed sofa-bed to sit on during the day.  I cooked a simple b'fast agin, eggs, bread and cheese.  Geneva had a yogurt and coffee.  In the early afternoon we went to a little town called OULX back down the mountain, to a small super market where we bought a few more groceries especially vegetables to make a soup with.  The two lane road has quite a few hairpin turns and the weather was very foggy.  On the way we stopped for some gelato.  When we came back to the car,  it started to rain but our feisty little Lancia Y made it just fine all the way "home".   At 6:30pm the temp inside our abode was 71.6°F and 50°F outside.  Since we have been so good today, we are going to get another two hours worth of heat from our radiator in our apartment, from 7 to 9pm.  For supper we had open faced salami and cheese and tomato sandwiches, wine and coffee, which I served in our studio apartment.  

This is morning, Sept. 19, Friday.  I looked out the window and . . . suddenly there's a (green) valley . . . (sing), mountains, ski lifts, no fog !!!  No sun yet, but the fog has moved up about another thousand meters.  9°C/49°F outside and a comfy 69 inside.  As you can tell, I got myself a thermometer.  

I was just thinking, that for the price of a two week car rental here in Europe, one can cross the Atlantic with the largest ship in the world with just an extra $45. (that's without the mandatory $12. a day p/p gratuity).  This guy told us on board ship, he paid $500. for the crossing on the Oasis of the Sea.   Amazing !!

Torino 2

We are waiting to finish with the washing experience and then we will drive 20 minutes to a nearby town called Oulx, that has a larger market to buy a few more serious things, such as sausage meat such as salami or ham to put on bread and butter, also some cheese and pasta to make a pasta dish with.  Maybe some veggies to make a good soup with, etc.  

Well it looks like that this trip has to wait until tomorrow because the laundry operation has taken too long and the store on Oulx will be closing in about an hour and a half, don't want to take a chance of finding it closed when we get there. 

Thanks to the TOMTOM GPS, to get us here, sure I drove like an Italian, zooming along with all that traffic but that was because Geneva and her trusty GPS guiding me, I had to watch the traffic and the roads. 

Wifi is strong in the lobby, and charging our devices is no problem if you have the right plug-ins for the Italian/European wall outlets.  Everything else here is very limited, power for the laundry goes off at 9pm, radiating heat in the apartments comes on only between 7 and 9pm, desk service, she is only there in the morning and from 2 to 5 in the afternoon.   After all, this is billed as a Winter Wonderland, and it's now OFF-SEASON.  That suits us just fine, and it only costs us 4K in credits and a $199. one time transfer fee, transferring credits from World Mark to RCI, for one week, 6 days/nights.   

Laundry all done, cost, just for the soap, €1.

We are going out for pizza, which we didn't get last nite, and on the short drive into town we picked up a few more things we will need for b'fast tomorrow morning, at our little Jolly Market.

Just came back from a very nice pizza dinner.  The fog was covering the road to our little town, a less than 10 minute drive thru thick fog.  But we had a very good tasting Primavera pizza, thin crust with cheese, garlic, tomatoes and fresh basil and we shared a small carafe of red house wine.  The pizza was big enough for two, €19. including tip.  This was our second and final meal, we had fresh bread and butter with coffee during the day.  

Waking up this morning, Thursday, and looking out of the window, the place is totally socked in !    We slept in these great bunk beds in a separate area, because we wanted to have the closed sofa-bed to sit on during the day.  

Torino 1

Boy, we were so lucky to have figured out how to best get to Turin, because we were just about to go and buy the tickets for the ferry Civitavecchia (Rome), that would have been a big mistake.

Just woke up from a afternoon siesta. . . . 

Back from our dinner outing, we finalized our flight to Turin and printed out our boarding passes.  We are ready for Italy and our RCI condo.  

Transitioning is always a pain, at least for me, packing up, trying not to forget anything, figuring out the next move.  Without breakfast, we rolled with all gear, on a short walk to the Rambla to catch a taxi to the airport bus about €5. away. The airport bus was €10. ea.   ½ hour later we found ourselves in this huge, rather bland airport building, and with our boarding passes in hand, found out where the gate was.  We checked our small roller suitcases at the Ryanair counter, they were FREE, and provided to find something to eat.  I opted for BurgerKing since it was easy to eat.  Geneva had the fries and I the whopper.  Boarding was easy, the plane was full, and after 1 1/2 hours flight, our 11am departure landed in sunny Italy.  

Now here is the stubborn mistake I made by not booking a car either on line at home or when I had a chance to book a car when I booked the flight in Barcelona, thinking that I could just walk up to a car rental counter and get a cheap car, HA !!

We must have talked to at least 5 rental counters . . . . no cars period. . . . Until we came to the last counter, they had a car !!!  Yah, but not heap.  They even rented us a brand new GPS in English, TomTom, one that my trusty GPS navigator called Geneva, was very familiar with.  Before too long we found ourselves on the exit roads from the airport and on to the Autostrada in the direction of Sestriere, a winter vacation place in the For-Alp region of Italy.  Our little British-voiced GPS gal often said . . . then after one hundred yards take the motorway. . . it always sounded like "take the moat away".  After all those motorways, we started climbing on a very scenic road into the mountains.  We stopped for ice cream and finally wound up at the huge ski town of Sestriere, thanks almost entirely to TOMTOM and it's fearless operator.  I mean I had to pay attention to the road and count the number of exits of as many Round-Abouts we encountered.  Once we blew it, but it was immediately corrected by our trusted Brit lady's voice coming out of that device.  

Here is what it is like.  We arrived here at the about 5pm.  The town consists of condos after condos, one of which is the RCI condo.  It is PRIMARILY a winter ski resort town with lifts and green ski runs all over the place !!  But at this time it is mainly DEAD.  Nobody is here except for  some crazy hikers. 

Here comes scary part #1:  We checked in at a very empty check-in desk and the lady could not find our reservation.  It turned out that after a few phone calls she found us listed under FITZGERALD !!!!!!  WorldMark will never be able to completely separate us from our dear friends, we will be for ever joint at the hips.

By now we were hungry.  Luckily a pizza joint was open but no more pizza today, so we had a nice pasta dish with mushroom sauce.  

Now here comes scary part #2:  We came back from our nice dinner and I parked at the place I thought was where we parked before.  We went into that big building and could not find our room!  It's a four story long building and we must have looked a solid half hour for our apartment  #5.  We were beside ourselves and thought that we might have to sleep in the car !!!!  There was nobody here, we have no cell phone yet, and it was cold !  So we looked outside once more and it looked just like where we parked when we first got here. . . .  but upon further examination, as they say,  we found that we were at the wrong entrance, the wrong end of the building, there was another one that looked exactly like the first one.  We breathed a sigh of relief, and yes, there was our apartment #5.  We pretty much went to bed on this converted sofa made into a bed.  It's mattress was actually quite comfortable.  During the night the Valley was completely fogged in, you could only see about 20 feet in front of you.   This studio apartment of ours has a large picture window and a balcony, very nice.  I got up around 7am and started to write, still totally foggy, the temp at this time is 6°C or 43°F and we are at 2,000 meters elevation or about 6,500 feet.  We made a short list of breakfast stuff we needed and I went off into this little town in this little car (it's a Lancia Y, stick shift), to this little store like they all are, called "Jolly Market", it had a little bit of everything, nicely displayed on shelfs and in the back behind glass, the fresh meaty stuff.  While I was gone we asked for help with converting the sofa bed back to sofa mode, Geneva said two people came, and did that, it seemed hard.  This way,

gives us a comfortable place to sit as well as more room.  I cooked b'fast, with fresh buns, beautiful deep yellow eggs, fresh butter and thin ham, made coffee on their little Italian coffee machine on this little gas stove, (but we have a dish washer !!!).  The front desk only staffed in the morning and in the afternoon/evening, remembering that this town is totally OFF-SEASON now !!  One really has to gauge one self with questions and help with those hours in mind.  

This RCI place is high in a mountainside town called Sestriere, and mainly known as a skiing destination, 2,000 meter above sea level.  We had our radiator heating system on when we went out for dinner last night and it made it cosy warm.  

Why did we chose this place you might ask ??  Well there was not much else available with WorldMark/RCI for this time frame and in this direction.  Because we wanted to go back by ship again rather than flying and the ship we considered turned out to be too expensive.  And now that we are going back with same one, The Oasis of the Sea, it is more appropriate about the timing.  After our stay in Barcelona, we needed to fill up about two weeks before and after our friends in Salzburg.  So next stop Salzburg, specifically our friends in Saint Gilgen, another real nice apartment there.  This is really the hi point of our trip.  We stayed with them twice before, so we know what to look forward to.  

Right now it's  the middle of the afternoon, 9-17-Wednesday, and we are waiting for the two little washing machines to finish so we can put it into the little dryer, then we'll have our clothes washed.  Washing doesn't cost anything but the soap is €1.  As I'm looking out of our window I see the fog rolling in, there is nothing to see, in fact the fog is passing right between our window and a fir tree about 20 feet from our balcony.  And of course the town on the little valley is not visible at this time.  It looks like that the long 4 story building, with at least a hundred apartments is mostly empty, perhaps a hand full of guests, judging by the cars.  

Our aircon works fine, have to have the window closed, dah !  Geneva says bed too hard, pillow too skinny and soft, well if we wanted it the way we are used to in at home, we should have stayed home !!!  Anyway we slept fine.  Went out to have a bite of b'fast, then in search of a special artwork by a Spanish artist, for Rick.  Will go there tomorrow.  Today we'll go to buy the ferry tickets to Civitavecchia, Italy.  (no we are not, see below).

I bought a Spanish ham sandwich and a Fanta for lunch, Geneva had a cup of Gelato.  

The sun is mostly out and shining, hung on a blue sky with a touch of whispery white clouds.  Boy does that sounds schmalzy !!  In other words it's quite warm outside, but we come back to a nice air conditioned room.  

Well, folks, we sat down and I made a diagram of our options to get from here to there, from Barcelona to our RCI condo in Italy on the French border.  And it seemed that flying to Turin is the best way to get there.  From there we will get a car to the condo.  It's the cheapest and the fastest.  It means we are staying one more nite here in Barcelona at our hotel, (and who is complaining about that), €86. in addition to the flight of €120. for 2 !!  By the way to get one € (Euro) you have to shell out $1.30.  

I've been trying to book the flight to Turin without much luck.  Our signal in our room isn't all that strong and their website is also doing funny things, we'll have to do it at the airport.  

We just came back from a nice supper.  I had a beer, Geneva a small bottle of white wine, we shared Gazpacho, (cold tomato soup) and Paella (a Spanish rice dish with different goodies in it cooked in a shallow metal pan, very Spanish) and that filled us up !!  As we walked a bit down the Rambla, we stopped to get a hot fudge sundae at . . . where ? . . . McDonalds of course !! And we sat there to watch the people walk by.  This reminds me a little bit of Hawaii when we sometimes went to Waikiki to just sit at a outdoor restaurant and watched the tourists walk by. 

We just noticed one thing and that is, the card key for the new rooms here gets used to turn the power on in the room by inserting it into a special slot on the wall as soon as you get inside the room.  That is a wonderful idea, but when you leave you have to remove it from the slot and take it with, to get back into the room.  But there is one problem, all the devices that are plugged into a wall outlet get their power cut off too, so no charging is going on while you are out of the room.  Now we have to make sure all our devices are plugged in during the night. 

I was finally able to complete my flight reservation with Ryan Air from here to Turin, an hour and a half flight, partly over water and France.  It's the cheapest and fastest way to get there.  Just under $200. dollars one way for the both of us, or €65. pp.  It would have cost us €250. just for the overnight ferry to Rome for me in a comfy chair and Geneva in a bunk bed with others.  And it would have used up one train day, about 12 hours, over night, with at least one train change.  One can see how the flight option won out !!!

There was a terrific thunder storm going on last night around midnight.  We could only see a portion of the sky from our window but it was big but also short.  And it rained hard for a short while.  We didn't want to go out and see how everybody had to scramble, restaurants and the walking humanity !

Third installment

On day 9 we opted to go to our dining room for open breakfast seating.  Big mistake, it was not that good !  The Eggs Benedict was very disappointing and the place was too bloody formal.  But one always meets interesting people tho.  We have a head wind this morning and are only moving at a speed of 17 kts.  The early afternoon air temp was 73°F or 23°C.  Perfect !!  The sea depth is 5,110 feet under the ship and it's draft is only about a mere 30' !!  You can get all this and more info about the ship from Wikipedia.  

Since after a couple of nights in Barcelona, we need to go to Civitavecchia (Rome) and since this ship, after Barcelona continues on to Civitavecchia as part of a 5 day cruise in the Mediterranean before it goes for upgrade in Holland, we thought we could perhaps stay on and take it over to Italy, but NO, you have to take the whole 5 day cruise, cost: $1,800. for two !!! Haha !

Right now we are about a day and a half away from the Straight of Gibraltar and we are docking at Malaga early in the morning on Thursday September 11th.

It's getting more difficult to write things about and from the ship because once you have written stuff, it's all the same the next day except the people we talk to and what we are doing.  Tonight after dinner we are going to a show called, "Come fly with me", don't know exactly what it is but we'll see.  

All the crew, Stewards, waiters and our room attendant lady are so nice and super helpful, they remember your name and in the b'fast buffet, since you can only handle one thing, your plate, they'll bring you anything you want, OJ, coffee, extra this and extra that.  

More later.

END OF THIRD AND MAYBE LAST PUBLISHING FROM THE SHIP, done on 9-9-14

This morning, on the 10th day at sea, 9-10-14, it was quite dark walking along "Central Park" on my way from the front to the "Windjammer" and b'fast in the back.  But I saw the full moon, because a couple of nights ago was Super Moon !  The ocean, for all intents and purposes, is flat, not one little white comb in sight.  I would say the waves are a 'sea' of 2 footers !  

Tomorrow morning it's Malaga and this, the over 236,000 brtons "Oasis of the Sea" will squeeze itself into the harbor of Malaga.   And it's all without tugboats, because it has build-in thrusters in front and two huge swivel power pods, one on each side, in the rear, it could turn on a dime.  It's been said that this boat can lean 45+° and it will right itself !!!  (But I would not want to be on it).  It only has a 30 foot draft!!!   

This morning again, I woke Geneva up by phone at 9, then a half hour later our waiter somehow finds her at the b'fast buffet entrance door and brings her to me, where I am sitting.  Not that he has to because I told her where I would be sitting, but he does it just for fun and surprise of it.  We walked a distance on the "walking deck" to get to the very back of the ship to see the churning of the water making it turquoise from the skews.  

In the area of food, the complimentary pizza place, Sorrento's, is not especially good, the red cabbage in the Solarium buffet is terrible and the Eggs Benedict in the main dining room is quite bad.  Now you guys have heard all of my three complaints.  The rest is 100% fantastic.

Geneva wants to do the "Zipp-line yet, crossing the "Boardwalk", deep below, diagonally.  No thanks.  (Somebody told us that there are two natural fears, one is heights and the other is loud noises, all other fears are learned).  Interesting, but I don't know if it is true).

There are a hell of a lot of people here on this ship that cruise a lot, and I mean a LOT !!!  We talked to a couple where this is their 62nd. cruise in their lives !!!  Some of them 8th, 10th. and 20th and more.  It includes mainly short, one week cruises, thru the Panama Canal, in the Mediterranean and the Caribbeans.  Also Northern Europe and River Cruises in Europe.  

The weather has turned overcast and we sailed thru some rain squalls and it is considerably cooler compared to a few days ago.  

We are looking forward to see land, first Portugal then Spain, more exactly the Strait of Gibraltar.  Unfortunately it will occur around midnight, so all we will be able to see are the lights of . . . .

At the moment we are sitting in the Solarium, in the very front of the ship, deck 15, and having a late lunch.  Then I fell asleep for a while in a deck chair near there.  I went down to deck 5, where Geneva said she would be, there a bunch of people were doing the Mob Dance, under leadership.  It seems to  have been inspired by the dancing in the movie called:  "Friends with Benefits" or something like that.  Very bouncy music and everybody was making body with hand movements in unison.  The dancing part of it was purportedly being shot in NYs Grand Central Station.   

Darn it, it's 5:30pm, ship's time, that means that it's time to get ready to go to dinner and more Foooooooood !!!  And you don't want to not go because it's fun to eat with people you have gotten to know.  Well, here we go.  Great dinner, I had lamb chops with mashed potatoes and fresh veggies, Geneva had Quiche with a cold soup appetizer and baked Alaska for desert. 

Geneva made reservation for the ice show, 'Frozen in time', based on stories by Hans Christian Anderson.  It was very enjoyable !   

After the show I went up on the top deck, deck 16 at about 2am to view the moon and to see some signs of land, namely the very southern tip of Portugal !  And yes, there was a light house blinking its little heart out, near what looked like a number of ships, could also be land installations, not sure.  Our ship has slowed down a lot in order to adjust arrival time.  Cruise ships alway make it to port early in the morning.  We are supposed to pass thru the the Strait of Gibraltar at about 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning in order to  get into Malaga at about 6 am.  We are going off the ship to take a shuttle bus to the center of town, we are not going on any tours, too expensive.  After Malaga, it will take a night, day and another night to reach Barcelona where we get off.   I went up to deck 16 again at 3am, but no Rock of Gibraltar visible but some real bright lights on the starboard side of the ship . . . Morocco !  Then I went back to bed for about a couple of hours and about 5:30am there was land on the port side, we were approaching Malaga, Spain.  I watched the getting in the harbor and the tying up of this enormous vessel.  The weather was sunny and it was getting warm, with just some Spanish clouds hanging out.

Breakfast was started a little earlier this morning because of people wanting to get off and visit the town.  I thing I told you guys that the Eggs Benedict wasn't so hot the other morning and I had told that to the head dinning room dude, so he said he wanted a chance to make it good again and gave me his card I needed to show to the front people when we got in the next morning, which was this morning.  So I did, and you should have seen the way they served me a proper Eggs Benedict, wow !!!  That manager and two waiters made it right, they were all over me !!!

We decided to not go ashore, too hot, too crowded and too much walking involved, my legs can't take those long walks anymore.   So we enjoyed a day when the ship was in port and really wasn't moving, which didn't feel a hell of a lot different from when we were at sea.  

We heard from a German, that a Jewish guy bought a ticket for this passage on an Israeli website or thru an agent there, for $500.  That German fellow said, trust the Jews with a long history of 'diamond trading', to find the cheapest price.   

We were sitting in the Promenade Cafe and Geneva wanted to download an ebook, when she found out that she couldn't do it with our last little time we had left on our ship's wifi we bought for $20.  Geneva was beside herself.  Then we heard that in the port building a lot of people are getting wifi and are on line there.  So we went out and down to just the building and bought for 2€ (Euros), one hours worth of wifi time.  Now Geneva could get books again onto her iPad, whew !!!  Crisis averted.  

Malaga looks nice from the ship, hilly, rather barren and hot.  We watched the ship getting untied and backing out from the small harbor at sunset, about 8pm.  Several people boarded the ship here in Malaga to go on the Mediterranean Cruise which it continues on with, after Barcelona.  Hundreds of Malaganiens  were on the dock to send it off.  It was the first time the Oasis of the Seas visited Malaga.  

Oops, here it is again, almost 6pm and dinner time !!!  Tonight it's casual dress code, so straight from the poop deck into the dining room.  Hahaha.  

I was doing some more writing before I went to bed at 2am, but finally broke down and opened a can of Spite from the fridge, $2.25 a can.  'Cause I forgot to get me some ice before coming to the cabin to make some ice water in my thermos.  I'm always thirsty for cold drinks but have to monitor my intake, and I can tell you that I have visited almost all of the available public toilet on most decks.  

(Times are quite mixed up here on board ship, people do a lot of things differently at a lot of different times).    

Today is day 12, it's seven thirty in the morning, I am in the Windjammer b'fast buffet having a wonderful b'fast, the sky is blue, not a cloud in sight, Spain visible on the port side, the temperature is a perfect 77°F, the sea is flat, and we are rounding the Iberian Peninsular, traveling at a slow 9 kts. to make Barcelona in time to arrive there early in the morning.

One can see much more ship activity here now that we are in the Mediterranean, sail boats when there are towns, and small freighters doing their thing.  It's strange to see such a cloudless blue sky.  

We have this funny thing going here, I get to the buffet about 7:30am, have my b'fast, then do some writing and at 9 I call and wake up Geneva and when she gets here about a half hour later, this one waiter of ours somehow finds her near the buffet entrance door and leads her to me by her hand.  It's funny, we laugh about it every time !!  

I have finally learned how to get to our cabin almost blind folded and, to eat a normal breakfast, 2 eggs over easy, potato wedges, 2 British-type pork sausages, a little corned beef hash and a couple of slices of tomato.  Also a bowl of sweet watermelon chunks for fruit.  The other day they actually ran out of American bacon so they are now serving English bacon instead, haha.  By the way, there are very few kids on this trip so a minimal screaming or strange kids noises.  Aaaaaah.

Every person has a story . . . . and every freighter has a cargo to deliver . . . 

We just talked to couple, they booked their trip in June with 'Vacation to Go' and for the same price ($700.) they got an outside cabin with balcony PLUS a $200 on board credit !!!  

So prices are all over the place depending on when you book, where you book and with whom.

People are also getting good deals by flying one way and going by Royal Caribbean in the  other direction. 

Of course the ship is not full, only 4,200 sold, and there is room for 6,500  !!  But the outside balcony cabins fill up first, even with the cheap fares.  The inside balcony staterooms, that look out onto Central Park, are mostly empty.  (We wouldn't have minded those).  Most useful information about all ship cruising comes mainly from other cruising passengers.

Sitting here at the Central Park venue, one feels like sitting in a large shady open air shopping center with trees and restaurants and people mingling around, not like a ship.  Of course this may be good or bad depending on your likes and dislikes.  

Geneva's activities are mostly reading her e-books, when she is not eating dinner, talking to other passengers or when we go to shows.

So this will be enough for the forth and last installment from the ship, oops no,  this will have to wait and go tomorrow from our hotel in Barcelona, our ship's wifi time has run out.

More from Barcelona.

Well we are off the ship and getting our first taste of Barcelona.  Getting off is always a hassle, packing the night before, putting the bags out in the hallway, gathering all our small stuff, going for b'fast for the last time, waiting for a wheel chair, yes, we have gotten the hang of that because of our very good friends Chuck and Diane, they turned us on to it.  A €11. Taxi ride took us right next to where we needed to be, the Hostel/Opera/Rambla.  It's a place we have been a couple of time before when we were traveling the all hostel route.  It's on a side street right off the Rambla, a walking only thoroughfare with a one street on either side, it's very famous, it goes on for a couple of miles.  Right next to the Opera.

The hostel/hotel has done a very nice upgrade two months ago and the new section we're in is very nice and modern.  Geneva just said tho, that the beds are hard and so is that one and only plastic form-fit-like chair.  But it has a row of horizontal plugs, one for European type, one for all the others like British and American plugs and the third . . . . bingo a USB !!  Direct from the wall.    I took a little snooze, I was tired, yah, getting wheeled, and taxi driven, yah, I was tired.

Back on board ship, Geneva broke her adapter for charging her iPad mini, so as soon as we checked in, she went to a nearby Apple Store, yes, Apple Store, and got an all new cord just for her Mini for €19. it works great in that UBS wall outlet in our room !  

When we are going to be eating out here in Barcelona,  and other places, we will eat wisely, unlike on the ship where food was everywhere at any time, and you thought you'd walk off the extra pounds and where the food actually almost always won.  

It's 4:30 now and the temperature feels like in the mid to hi 70s.  And I feel the difference in my legs when walking, from our trip just two years ago.  

Now that we have fast internet, at least here at the Hostel/Hotel, I will also send some pictures now and then.  Enough for now, we are off to the Rambla and later fishing for some light dinner.  Yes we found a table right in the Rambla, pizza for two, (actually more like 1 1/2), a glass of sangria and a couple of tapas, €21., $27. well it's right up there.  Restaurants are not exactly cheap in Barcelona, on the Rambla anyway.

>>>>>published on Sun am 9-14-14 fr.  Barc. hotel.

Second installment

This day 8 at sea, and yesterday we successfully posted or rather published the first installment of this blog.  It was easy, we went to settings and there it was, we entered our name and created a password then our key number and bingo, $19.95 for one hour.  But luckily we can use it as we need it, it counts down.  Right now we have about 40 minutes left !  So we really could have done it earlier and managed our time and not published such a big blog at one time.  

Anyway, thank you guys for responding, so we know that you got it and the blogging works !!  Keep emailing us, our email comes in every time we get on line to publish on this blog.

We got a little bit of a sea this morning, about 4' to 6' waves, the ship moves a little more from side to side.  Nice.  The weather is cooler and the sea a little rougher with more wind, but very nice, barely noticing the movement.

One of the stewards tells me that tonight we will be able to see Portugal.  Well, it takes about 10 or so days to reach land, say Gibraltar, and from there another couple of days to Barcelona.  So today sometime we will have done 8/12 of the trip or about ⅔, so it stands the reason !  

Just saw another one of those lone, low flying sea birds, dark on the top and light on the bottom, skimming the waves !  And there was even a rainbow in the distance near the horizon.  

I go to b'fast between 7:30 and 8:30 in the large Windjammer Buffet and sit there and eat, and at about 10 to 10:30 Geneva comes up from our deck 11 to the buffet on deck 16 and when one of our steward sees her, he takes her by the hand and brings her to where I am sitting.  

I'm sitting in the Promenade Cafe, waiting for Geneva, she went down to the cabin to get her one-eyed contact lens drops.  At 2:30pm we are doing to see the broadway play "Hairspray" again, they had put it only one time, the evening we left Florida.  Then people complained and they put it on one more time.

The other real fun thing to do on the ship is to talk to other passengers they tell you their story and we tell them ours.  When ever we sit down at a table in the many Promenade or Central Park Cafés, we always sit at a table where an other couple is already sitting.  Or we invite another couple to sit with us.  You most of the time hear the most interesting stories.  Our young dining room steward is from the Philippines, from a large family, when he went home, at the end of one of his contracts recently, his brother had committed suicide and two months later his mother died !!  After that he didn't want to go home on his next leave.  What a sad story tho.  

We are sitting in the Theater at 2:30pm and the Broadway Show "Hairspray" is about to start.  ---  It was funny and well done, too loud tho.  As we were going out to look at the weather, . . . . there in the distance, to the north, were the Azores Islands !!!  The first land sighting since Florida.  

We are sitting with a couple, our age, from England, they got married in Las Vegas, second marriage, 14 years ago !!  We meet a lot of folks that cruise a lot, one couple is an their 62nd cruise, but not all a along as this one.  Another couple cruised around the world, four months, shish !!  They know of some one who has done that for the forth time. Shish, shish !!!

Dinner tonight was just as good as last night.  I had a creamy pea soup, Steak Diane and Key Lime sherbet as desert.  Yum !  Tomorrow, day nine at sea, we turn our watches one hour forward for the last time.  

More later.

On the Oasis half way.

Hi, this is the beginning of it all.  I will write for this blog in PAGES about our trip to and in Europe pretty much daily and post it periodically onto my blog.   

9/3/14

Even tho this is day 3 of our ocean voyage, on this incredible ship, I shall recap.

After a fairly nice and surprisingly legroom friendly direct flight from Seattle, we were greeted by Geneva's son Rick and his wife Karen, (R&K), at the Fort Lauderdale airport for a pre-voyage visit with them.  When we left the air conditioned airport building, the heat hit us right in the face, somebody left the oven door open!!!  It was 90 but felt like 97 !!!   (That's what they say around here in the official weather forecast, . . . it feels like . . .)

It wasn't long tho, before we checked in to the air conditioned Best Western and soon found ourselves sitting at a nice table in a recommended air conditioned restaurant near by.  The food was great, the prices around $12 or less for a fine entrée and the company was wonderful.  

During the next couple of days we picked up a few small items we were still missing, and ate food in an air conditioned mall.  We went back to the same restaurant for dinner, it was that good. It is very difficult for me to imagine how anybody can live here in that heat !  And Florida is full of retired people!? . . . I suppose they all stay in their air conditioned condos most of the time.  

Monday the 1st of September came along fast, and if you think that we were the only ones to stay at the Best Western before boarding the ship, think again, it seems that everybody at the hotel came down to the lobby in the morning, to be shuttled by busses to the dock.  Yes sir-y, that's exactly what happened.  When we stood at the dock and looked up, the ship looked like a high rise apartment building !!!  Getting on board was surprisingly quick, of course we were there quite early, about noon, and it didn't set sail until 5pm.  So we all got herded in to the 'Promenade' on deck five where we had to wait until our staterooms were completely ready.  We were in a place called Cafe Promenade, one of the complimentary restaurants, where we could snack while waiting.

It takes a couple of days to get just basically orientated on this ship, the OASIS OF THE SEA.   It's the largest ship afloat in any ocean.  It takes about 6,500 passengers to fill it.  

It has an identical sister ship called the ALLURE OF THE SEA, but the design is called Oasis Class, and it's considered the flagship.

Here are some one-liner first impressions:

-It seems that every other person in this ship speaks German and many Spaniards going home.

-It takes a lot of walking to get to anywhere.

-Our stateroom is in the front, dining rooms are in the back, walk, walk, walk.

-When on the 'Promenade', it feels and looks like you are in a Mall, stores right and left.

-As I was sitting in the 'Promenade' I said: why is this 'building' shaking? 

-There is a very minimum of swaying, just noticeable, when you are absolutely still.

-Engine vibrations are almost not noticeable.

-There are 11 eating places, including the dining rooms, that are complimentary eating.  

-Looking down into the ocean from the 15th. floor,  it's an incredible cobalt blue.

-There are many people here that look like they should not be eating and some that need to eat more.

They say that we are pushing thru the water at about 20 m/h and unless you are looking at the ocean, you'd think we are standing still.  Looking out of the huge windows of the buffet eating area, nothing but blue sky, white clouds and the deep blue sea !  

There is so much to see and to explore on this the largest ship in the world.  And therein lies the problem.  Too much to see, too much to explore (and too much to eat) !  By the time you get from the dining to our state room, a good 10 minute walk, you are so tired you need to sleep for a while and then eat some more.  

We just met a Mexican couple from Texas, proud legal immigrants, who are taking this boat to Barcelona and as soon as they get there they go to the airport and fly back home to Texas !!!   

Most of the interior of the ship looks and feels like a Mall, with shops and restaurants, with a lot of walking in between.  So, my routine is eating b'fast at the buffet, chatting with other passengers, sitting outside on open deck, some sleeping, some writing, eating some lunch, sitting outside on the open deck, some sleeping some writing  getting ready for dinner, dinner, walking around some, finding and walking to our state room, resting, then eventually going to bed.  

Our state room is quite nice and comfy, a king bed, (two singles tied to each other), a love seat, a narrow desk area, a fridge, nice size closet, generous bath room with a round shower.   I understand and I remember seeing it on this ship-building documentary, that all the state rooms were built outside and the modules then were pushed into place, one after the other.

This monster has seven venues: Royal Promenade, Boardwalk, Vitality Spa, Central Park, Sports & Fitness Zone, Solarium and Windjammer. Each venue has one to six eating places (restaurants, cafés, snack bars), about half are complimentary, a total of 24.

>>We just had a fantastic lunch in a restaurant in Central Park, called the Park Cafe.  Great salads and roast beef sandwiches.  Then resting in a deck chair, walking back to our state room for a little snooze.  I got myself a thermos drink container which I keep full of ice water or some watered down juice of some sort, 'cause I'm always thirsty.  While the inside of the ship is air conditioned, including all the venues, and our cabin of course, the temp which we control, the outside is always in the 80s during midday, but there is a pleasant breeze blowing at all times.

>>Now it's 5:20 and off to dinner at 6, OMG.  The dinner in one our our dining rooms was fantastic as all the food is here.  I had some sort of veal creation with mashed potatoes, fresh asparagus and a special reduction (gravy), Geneva had a Japanese dish.   We strolled back thru 'Central Park' to the front of the ship where we 'live', up with the glass enclosed elevators from dining room deck 3 to deck 11.  

>>As one can imagine, people here are so diverse, not only in nationality or body shape, but also in dress and outward appearance.  One guy is wearing a beaten-up straw-looking cowboy hat, while another comes to dinner wearing a tuxedo and black bow tie.  A couple of nights ago there was a 'formal' dinner in the three floor dining rooms, no tie required but jacket.  

>>About midway thru the voyage, we will try to buy a few minutes worth of wi-fi time and send this blog I have so far, on its way, but I don't know, it might take too long to upload because I think that it will be slow, not enough bandwidth, but anyway, I'll try.

Well folks, this is Friday, the morning of the 5th. day at sea.  Ahhh, how relaxing !!  I'm sitting in the Windjammer Breakfast Buffet, just finished b'fast, looking out to the deep blue sea with white puffy clouds on the horizon, a few light clouds overhead and very comfortable temperature.  And there I saw a BIRD !!!  It was a dark bird, ocean going bird, looked a little like a Cormorant with narrow wings and flying close to the water, where the hell do they live, flying or bobbing all the time ?  Then right after that we saw a high flying smaller bird, looked a little like a pigeon.  Perhaps they hang out on the ship ?!?

A couple told us that there was a small bird that flew into a glass window or divider and it was stunned and the attendant wanted to throw it away, so the lady nursed it back to health and put it in one of the many trees in the Central Park, and there we saw two of them now.

After a few days one becomes more selective as to what to pick off the buffet.  At first it was trying everything.  Also, a routine sets in after a while.  For me it's up at about seven, breakfast at the buffet on deck 16 with a great view and a perfectly straight horizon with not a whitecap in sight.  Then some writing.  Next relaxing on the pool deck in a deck chair, maybe even taking a little snooze, after that lunch, more food !  We've gotten used to lunching at the Park Cafe, because it has such a great salad they make for you with many toppings to chose from.  

There are only 4,200 guests on board, they are serving 1,200 to 1,500 dinners a day, plus breakfast  and lunch !  And there are many restaurants where b'fast, lunch or dinner can be eaten.  Plus 2,100 crew are eating too !  

This, the 'Oasis of the Sea', built in Finland, is four years old.  It normally plies the waters of the Caribbean only, on seven-day trips, all year long.   This is its first trip back to Europe, it's going in for maintenance in Rotterdam for a 16 days upgrading of many areas.  After that it sails, via Southampton, back to Ft. Lauderdale.  We are trying to maybe catch it on our way back, it's the cheapest way to travel across the Atlantic, about $700 plus gratuity ($144. for 12 days /person), which breaks down to $70. total, p/p a day !!  But look what all you're getting -- a nice room with bath, all the fine food you can eat, three or more times a day, entertainment and meeting interesting people.  (And they say, about an average of 8 pounds added to your body weight !). But it gets walked off a lot, because our quarters are in the front if the ship and most of the food is in the back.

Last nite, after a great dinner, meeting our new dinner partners, we went to see a comedy show, with a ventriloquist in the large "Opal Theater", it's free but it requires reservations, he was very funny.  We missed the broadway production of "Hairspray", it was only on the first or second day out at sea, . . . what was that in aid of ?

Here on the ship one can buy a large insulated plastic cup, which you can fill up with soft drinks, fountain drinks, as often as you wish, all day and night.  For the whole trip, 12 days, that will cost you $162 !!!  And it seems that many, many people, including kids, carries one of those stupid cups around.  Here you can also go on a 'behind the scenes' tour of the ship for as little as $150 per person.

An on-board internet connection costs something like $250 for the whole trip, or you can buy one hour's worth of connection for $17.50, (which we will do tomorrow).

>We just had a fantastic lunch in a restaurant in Central Park, called the Park Cafe.  Great salads and roast beef sandwiches.  Then resting in a deck chair for a little snooze, or walking back to our state room for a snooze.  I got myself a thermos drink container which I keep full of ice water or some watered down juice of some sort, 'cause I'm always thirsty.  

>While the inside of the ship is air conditioned, including all the restaurants of course, and our cabin, which we control, the outside was close to 90° when we left Ft. Lauderdale during midday, but now out at sea it's much cooler 75 low and in the 80s for high, and there is always a pleasant breeze blowing.

>Now it's 5:20pm and it's off to dinner at 6, OMG.  The dinner in one our our dining rooms was fantastic as all the food is here.  I had some sort of veal creation with mashed potatoes, fresh asparagus and a special reduction (gravy), Geneva had a Japanese dish.   We strolled back thru 'Central Park' to the front of the ship where we 'live', up with the glass enclosed elevators from dining room deck 3 to deck 11.  

>As one can imagine, people here are so diverse, not only in nationality or body shape, but also in dress and outward appearance.  One guy is wearing a beaten-up straw-looking cowboy hat, while another comes to dinner wearing a black bow tie.  A couple of nights ago there was a 'formal' dinner in the three floor dining rooms, no tie required but jacket.  

>About midway thru the voyage, we will try to buy a few minutes worth of wi-fi time and send this blog I have so far, on its way, but I don't know, it might take too long to upload because I think that it will be slow, not enough bandwidth, so we might only send it, once we get to Barcelona.

Today, Day 4, I looked up in the sky, and there was another sign that this planet is inhabited . . .a jet making its way from Europe to the US.  All plants and trees in 'Central Park' are real, they get trimmed and watered, and there are little live lizards living in the bushes !   Looking around, there are very few things that are straight on the ship, everything is curved in one way or another.  

Geneva lost her key-card, which is a credit card with your personal info on it, with which you can charge anything on it, including drinks 'cause all booze costs money, and you will get a bill at the end of the voyage.  They gave her a new card.  (It also opens the our stateroom door). 

At noon we all turned our watches one hour forward, and we will do this five more time or until we are in sync with the western part of Europe.   As I mentioned, this ship will go into maintenance in Rotterdam, and they tell me that thousands of workers and tradespeople will descend upon this vessel for 16 days and nights to do some major renovation, the first in over four years.  It will take an incredible amount of organization and orchestration to pull this off.  Amazing !!!  

And yes, we have just booked the same ship, the "Oasis of the Seas", back to Fort Lauderdale on October 14th, newly renovated, from Rotterdam via Southampton, after we are finished with our Europe tripping.  We wanted to take another ship back from Rome, but it is now twice as expensive !!!  We got this for the same price as getting over here.  

Tonight's dinner was a formal affair, at least a jacket !  I WISH THEY  WOULD CHANGE THE MENU SOMETIME  !!  (I'm just kidding, there hasn't been the same entrée twice so far). 

So this is the end of day 6 at sea and tomorrow I will send this off.  We are at about the half way point and the next time you will hear the continuation, is when we get to Barcelona, Spain.  

>>>>>It's hard to comprehend how vast and endless the ocean is, nothing but horizon <<<<<

I think that there are a couple of paragraphs in twice, so please forgive, it's too hard to find and to remove the right ones.

END OF FIRST BLOG POSTING (from board ship, 9-7-14).