OneSixtyToOne

Mercury is in retrograde

If you click on the FMA23 promo link above there are some SA 2023 fall cruises included near the bottom of the page. Edit: Try this link

Mediterranean Quite Season FMA23 Offer FMA23: Offer valid on bookings made from May 5 to May 31, 2023. $25 deposit plus up to FREE airfare valid on select Nov & Dec 6, 2023 departures of Cities of Antiquity & the Holy Land; Dec 20, 22, 2023 & Jan 3, 31, 2024 departures of Mediterranean Antiquities; Jan 10 & 24, 2024 departures of Ancient Mediterranean Antiquities. Call for details. Prices are in US dollars and for US residents only. Air does not have to be purchased to get cruise/tour offer. All fares reflect cruise taxes, port taxes and fees. Additional restrictions may apply. Airfares vary on other itineraries, gateways and departures. Air offers not valid on Alaska, Hawaii, San Juan and Mexico City; call for details. Book by May 31, 2023. 2023: Pay in full by May 31, 2023. 2024: Pay in full by Jul 31, 2023. Offer expires May 31, 2023.

On our recent stop in Venice, a jazz combo was playing that in St Marks square. IMG_0762.mov

We were just on the Sky. To DW's dismay, all they had was Stevia and the old fashion saccharine tablets in a pink package.

I have a fairly soft mattress at home and found those onboard were fine. I've read you can ask the stewards for a mattress topper if it's not to your liking.

We will be in London next month and have been making our plans. Many sites were on timed tickets because of COVID restrictions but that has now passed.

Here are some of my "dailies" Naples - Pompeii Naples - Herculaneum Split Dubrovnik Corfu

Great Lakes sale Offer GLC23: Offer valid on bookings made from May 3 to May 31, 2023. FREE roundtrip airfare plus reduced cruise fares valid on select Jun–Aug 2023 departures of Great Lakes Collection; May 15, Aug 5 & 17, 2023 departures of Canadian Discovery; May 26, Jun 9 & Jul 7, 2023 departures of Undiscovered Great Lakes. Call for details. Prices are in US dollars and for US residents only. Air does not have to be purchased to get cruise/tour offer. All fares reflect cruise taxes, port taxes and fees. Additional restrictions may apply. Airfares vary on other itineraries, gateways and departures. Air offers not valid on Alaska, Hawaii, San Juan and Mexico City; call for details. Book by May 31, 2023; pay in full at time of booking. Offer expires May 31, 2023. https://www.viking.com/promotions/us/en/expedition/GLC23/20230503/undiscovered-great-lakes.html?contid=30002025432_1000209554&utm_id=email_vrc.54804942&cid=EML|RSP|999|vrc.54804942&utm_source=email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=55presale Also one of my favorite lecturers, Russell Lee has a new video on Viking TV https://viking.tv/tv/this-week-on-viking-tv/tuesdays/get-acquainted-with-the-great-lakes-with-guest-lecturer-russell-lee?contid=30002025432_1000209554&utm_id=email_vrc.54804942&cid=EML|RSP|999|vrc.54804942&utm_source=email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=55presale

You only really have one day to explore Barcelona. You'll arrive in Barcelona in the morning and overnight there. Since it is an overnight there is no time requirement to be back onboard. Deadline for luggage to be placed outside your door is aprox. 10:00 PM. The next morning you must leave your stateroom at 8:00 AM and your bus will depart shortly after that. Not sure if your Madrid extension will do a tour of Barcelona before your train connection or if you will be taken directly to the train station.

The Mark and Luke towers were completed last December. The largest, the Jesus Christ tower, won’t be completed for a number of years. https://aleteia.org/2022/12/15/sagrada-familia-finishes-towers-of-evangelists-luke-and-mark/

I’m sure they can accommodate you. Tickets to enter the church is controlled by the church. They are just purchasing them for you. Tickets sell out so the sooner you book the better.

I was in Europe on the Viking Sky two weeks ago and when I accessed the Viking web site to check prices for a future cruise there was only the option to call Viking. I don't think their portal handles anything outside of the US, Canada, UK, and Australia. They all have different legal requirements and pricing. You should call them or go through a travel agent.

Today's email. River Cruise Promo extended until May 31 https://www.vikingrivercruises.com/search-cruises/index.html?contid=30002025432_1000209554&utm_id=email_vrc.54801202&cid=EML|RSP|999|vrc.54801202&utm_source=email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=55presale

Day 15 - Saving the Best for Last Our last full day in Barcelona began with a sunrise breakfast at the top floor of the Nobu hotel. The food was nothing special but the view was spectacular. Several weeks ago we arraigned a tour with Barcelona Day Tours for our last day of our Viking post cruise extension. Their highlights of Barcelona tour had options for “beat the line” tickets for entrance to Park Güell and La Sagradra Familia, two sites that were on our list of must see venues. I have nothing but great things to say about Barcelona Day Tours. We exchanged emails several times over the past weeks to work out details of our tour. They are a family run business and were very helpful throughout the process. Our tour guide Javier was excellent. He was knowledgeable and entertaining, probably the best guide we’ve had on this trip. Please note that tickets sell out quickly for entrance to the the basilica so if you want to go inside you need to plan ahead. The tour overlapped somewhat with Viking tour from the previous day but Javier was a superior guide and added much more colorful commentary to what we were seeing. We stopped for a photo op at the art museum, drove through the Olympic Park area and the Olympic village. Javier pointed out the Columbus statue was suppose to be pointing at the New World but that would have him pointing at the mountains so an artistic decision was made to have him pointing towards the sea…. and Asia. We also learned about the history of the construction of Barcelona. As a defensive measure no building was allowed within cannon range of the old city walls. After this became untenable a master plan was developed in the 19th century giving us today’s grid plan, wide boulevards, and chamfered intersections to accommodate the never built street car lines. After a drive by some of Gaudi’s houses it was off to Park Güell. On the way we learned the history of the park. Named after a person, the closest pronunciation in English would be Park Way. The concept of the park was to build what today would be a modern housing development with a very restrictive HOA. At the time it was high on a hill, well outside the city limits of Barcelona. As a reaction to the Industrial Revolution, the idea was to live in a holistic environment with clean air and in harmony with nature. The problem? It was in the middle of nowhere in a time when ornate homes were a display of wealth and prestige, which were pointless to build if no one saw them. In the end only three houses were built, one for the owner, one for the architect Gaudi, and one for the lawyer. Park Güell is another Gaudi masterpiece of modernism and Art Nouveau’s synergy with nature. Gaudi’s home. I must comment on the park benches. They are the most comfortable public benches I have ever sat in. Most park benches are impossible to sit in for more than a few minutes. These were the opposite. Gaudi designed a lumbar support into them that is not only artistic but is actually functional. The man was a genius. Once again the dragon motif can be found at in Gaudi’s design, the back of a dragon and the iconic salamander. After about an hour in this fabulous park it was off to La Sagradra Familia. After a tour of the outside of the basilica and the street entertainment, we bid farewell to Javier for our timed entry into Gaudi’s stone forest. IMG_2415.mov Inside the basilica is amazing. The capitals of the columns branch like tree limbs with light fixtures placed below them like knotholes in a tree. The color of the columns is caused by different types of stone with different density. They are used to support exteriors towers of different heights. The yet unbuilt main tower will be the tallest and require the densest stone. The massive reddish columns will be used for this. The east sunrise side is the nativity facade representing life while the west sunset side is the passion facade representing death. The colors of stained glass on each side play with the light from the sun as it makes its way from sunrise to sunset basking the basilica in an ever changing rainbow. From the cooler colored east to the warmer colored west, it’s quite the visual experience as the day passes by. There is also a museum and workshop under the cathedral that you should visit. Knowing that it would take generations to complete, Gaudi made detailed drawings and models of his design. His work continues to this day with the goal of completing this extraordinary building exactly as he envisioned it. In today’s workshop they are using 3D printers to create models of the elements that still need to be constructed. Gaudi also built a schoolhouse to educate the children of the workers. It was moved next to west facade where it is open to visitors. Today was a marvelous experience that concludes this fantastic odyssey. Tomorrow it’s a 4:00AM wake-up call for our very long journey back to California.

It was the optional Viking excursion.

Day 14 - Farewell Viking Sky Today we leave the Sky and begin our post-cruise extension in Barcelona. It's always sad to leave a Viking cruise ship but we were excited to continue our exploration of Barcelona. Hotel check in at Nobu is in the afternoon but our departure from the Sky was at 9:00 AM so we departed on what is essentially the included Barcelona excursion. If you book the Barcelona extension there is no need to take the included tour while on the ship. It will be redundant. The tour takes you on a highlights tour of the city with a couple of stops for a photo ops and a bathroom break. FYI tour buses are no longer allowed in the vicinity of La Sagrada Família so you can only see a glimpse of the basilica from blocks away. Olympic torch The Arc de Triomf was built as the entrance to the 1888 World's Fair. The restroom break was at the Catalan National Art Museum which offers a spectacular view of the city. Our tour guide told us the rest room visit would be spectacular and she was right. They are located adjacent to an incredible assembly hall with one of the largest pipe organs in Europe, Bullring below the Museum Restroom break On our pre-cruise extension in Venice there were 180 people. This post-cruise extension has a similar number. The hotel was not not prepared for three busloads of people checking in at the same time. We were routed to an upstairs meeting room to check. We waited in line for over an hour. When we finally checked in we were informed that our room wouldn't be available for another 2 hours. This essentially took away a half day of two day extension. We decided to walk to the city's bullring which is located close by. Bull fighting is no longer permitted in Catalonia and the ring has been converted to a shopping mall with a ring of restaurants around the top of the building. There is an elevator on the exterior that charges a fee to go to the observation level. Our tour guide told us if you go inside the mall you can take the escalators to the top at no charge. The inside is quite a renovation. It's a sleek modern design with a food court on the bottom floor, shops on the main floor and an interactive central platform for kids, a multiplex movie theater on the next level, and a ring of restaurants on the top observation level. Central platform IMG_2244.mov View from the bullring roof After a very late lunch we returned to the hotel and finally made it to our hotel room. The room was very nice and the hotel is located next to the central train station. It's a vary convenient location if you are traveling to or from Barcelona by train. Paris is only 6 hours away by high speed rail and Madrid is 2.5 hours. If we were doing an independent land excursion, this is a place we would consider staying. After a long day we decided to rest up for our final day in Barcelona. Tomorrow we have an independent tour scheduled to visit Park Güell and La Sagrada Família.

Link to Promo AES23

Link to EAN23

At the Canadian visitor center at Juno the docents are all young people, purposely the same age as those who lost their lives there.

Day 13 - The Full Gaudí Experience We sailed into Barcelona at sunrise. As I stated in the roll call for this cruise, Barcelona is the main reason we booked this trip. On a 2019 cruise, our ship was forced to leave port early and instead docked in Taragona. Our Gaudí excursions were cancelled and a modified Barcelona highlights tour was substituted. I told DW that we would return someday to visit the sites of Antoni Gaudí's magnificent architecture. Today is that day! Knowing that it would sell out, the first tour I booked for this cruise was the privileged access excursion to Gaudí's Houses of Modernism. It did not disappoint. After a quick drive by some of Gaudi's other buildings, we arrived at Casa Vicens before opening time. After taking some photos of the facade, we were led into the courtyard where we had coffee and a snack. Viking was the first group to enter the property and this allowed for some amazing photos to be taken, uninterrupted by a throng of people. This is the first house Gaudí designed. It marks the beginning of Gaudí's artistic career and is considered to be one of the first masterpieces of Modernism. Art Nouveau drew inspiration from organic forms, evolving elegant designs resembling the stems and blossoms of plants. You can clearly see this in the gate, where palm leaves were used as the inspiration. The inside of the building is stunning. The smoking room is a work of art. Its ceiling reminded me of The Alhambra. Everywhere you looked, you saw something amazing. This is a must see for anyone visiting Barcelona. Our next stop was Gaudí's most famous house, the iconic Casa Batlló. It was a timed entrance and due to crowds we could not enter early. Our tour guide showed us some other amazing houses on the street. Next door to Casa Batlló, the courtyard of that house now has an entrance to a candy store. In what was originally the kitchen, the appliances are still intact. (You can also use their restrooms.) Casa Batlló is amazing. Its exterior motif is that of a dragon. St.George is the patron saint of Barcelona and dragons are found throughout the city. Gaudí used them in several of his designs. The interior is full Art Nouveau design. No straight lines, everything flows like an object from nature. It's a masterpiece. In the central light shaft of the building, Gaudí used lighter blue tiles at the bottom and darkened them as they rose to the top. This has the effect of balancing the light intensity. The back porch and roof area are also amazing. After an almost 5 hour tour we were back on ship for lunch. We had docked at the closest pier to the port entrance. Barcelona can accomodate 6 cruise ships. The rest were docked in a far off area that requires a shuttle bus to get to the entrance. We took advantage of our prime location and headed to the statue of Columbus and the start of Las Ramblas. the iconic boulevard of the city. Here we walked the entire length and took a detour to wander through the market and the old town area. Taking a snack break with some spiral potato chips. Picasso facade After a long day we went back to the ship for dinner and to pack for disembarkation. Stay tuned because we are on a post cruise extension and there is still more Gaudí to come.

ACH stand for Automated Clearing House. It's an automated fund transfer using your bank's routing number and your account number, an E-Check. It's the opposite of direct deposit.

Day 12 - The Corsican Connection Today we dock at Marseille. We didn't feel like taking a multi hour bus ride to the far flung regions of Southern France so we opted for the included tour. Founded by Greek settlers, Marseille is the oldest city in France, as well as one of Europe's oldest continuously inhabited settlements. It is the 2nd largest city in France and has a huge industrial port, the 5th largest in Europe. We began our tour with a traffic detour. Luckily it was not protesters. The protests over the recent changes to the retirement age are scheduled for tomorrow. There was heavy traffic due to the departure of a number of ferries. Our driver took an alternative route through the worst part of the city. The tour guide began telling us about the history of the heroin trade and how from the 1920s until the 1970s nothing was done about it because so much money was being made. She segued into talking about the movie "The French Connection," which we learned was re-titled "The Corsican Connection" for domestic consumption. The other connection was that this part of Marseille looked just like NYC in the '70s or maybe worse. The scale of the graffiti was unbelievable. The sides of skyscrapers had multi story graffiti painted on them as if someone repelled down the sides to do their tagging. When we finally entered the more tourist friendly areas I was able to take a few shots from the bus. After passing the picturesque port we drove down the coast for a few photo stops. There are some rocky islands off the coast, one of which has a fortress, the Chateau d'If, that was used as a prison. Similar to Alcatraz, with strong currents surrounding it, there is a legend of an escape from the island. This inspired Alexander Dumas, who then used it for the setting of "The Count of Monte Cristo." During a stop I was asked to review a play. The call stands. Touchdown! The bus then took us to a viewpoint below the city's hilltop cathedral. Unfortunately the sun was directly in our eyes and you could not see anything. Not a good tour to take early in the day. We eventually ended up at the old port and City Hall, where I did snap a picture of the cathedral. The rest of our free time was a complete waste. The guide walked us blocks to some small shop selling locally made products. When we inquired about restrooms we were told to buy something in a café or try and find the local shopping mall. After some discussion our guide reluctantly led up to the shopping mall. By the time we returned to City Hall it was almost time to leave. This excursion was a complete waste of time. We should have opted for one of the multi-hour bus rides to somewhere else.... anywhere else. Needless to say we won't be returning to Marseille. The only thing of value was the bit of trivia I picked up about Alexander Dumas. Speaking of trivia, due to dinner reservations our regular team couldn't make it tonight. Instead DW and I competed as a two person team AND WON! Our fourth win on this trip. The victory came down to a tie breaking question about the distance from the earth to the sun, a number I've retained since childhood (93 million miles). The host commented that he rarely sees two person teams win. So maybe that Dumas trivia will come in handy one day? IMG_1838.mov IMG_1839.mov

William the Conqueror is a direct descendent of Rollo, who is buried in Rouen Cathedral. The cathedral actually has a display inside relating to the Vikings. The Normans are proud of their viking heritage. Rollo was hired by the French king to protect Paris from the Viking raiders. He was given Normandy, married the King’s daughter and converted to Christianity. We took the Viking Normandy river cruise a few years ago and visited the cathedral. If you take the Commonwealth tour of the D-Day beaches, one of the stops is to view the tapestry in Bayeux. It also stops at Juno beach and the Pegasus Bridge, which you may recall was a key scene in the movie The Longest Day. Since most people take the Omaha Beach tour, the Commonwealth tour that we were on only had 8 people, two of which were ship’s crew. On our recent cruise, the tapestry lecture was given twice.

Day 11 - All for F1 and F1 for All Monaco was listed on our documents as a tender port so it was much to our surprise to wake up to find ourselves docked right across from Monte Carlo, the elite district of Monaco (think Beverly Hills in relation to Los Angeles). The famous casino is the building in the background with the scaffolding. The annual Formula 1 race is at the end of the month and the temporary stands were being erected for the event. It seems the whole principality was preparing for the event. Buildings were being cleaned, new asphalt was laid for the race, trees were being trimmed, flowers were being planted, everything looked immaculate. It's the cleanest city I've ever seen. F1 finish line. Today we took one of the best included walking tours we ever had with Viking. The guide gave us the history of the principality as we walked to the top of "The Rock" where the royal palace sits. We walked along the base of the Rock and navigated a series of escalators, elevators, and stairs until we emerged at the Oceanographic Institute (more on that later). From there we traversed Saint-Martin Botanical Gardens, gaining altitude and we made our way through the beautiful flora overlooking the Mediterranean Sea far below. The view and the gardens are awe inspiring. From the gardens we emerged at the Cathedral which we entered to view the tombs of Princess Grace and Prince Rainier. Since it was right after Easter, the tombs were still adorned with crosses made from palm leaves from Palm Sunday. From the Cathedral we made our way through narrow streets and emerged at the Royal Palace about 45 minutes before the Changing of the Guard. This gave us time for a photo op from the two overlooks, a rest stop, and some souvenir shopping before we took a front row view for the change. Interestingly, when security sees children in the crowd, they invite them to sit on the ground in front of the barrier and the adults, giving them an unobstructed view of the ceremony. IMG_1665.MOV The view from The Rock is spectacular We inquired about visiting the palace and were directed to the gift shop where we found that you can buy a combination ticket to both the Palace tour and the Oceanographic Institute for 25€. Since the Institute was open until 7:00 PM, we decided to buy the tickets, return to the ship for lunch, and make our way back to the Palace for the tour, then end our day at the Oceanographic Institute. It worked out better than I could have imagined. Lunch view from World Cafe The palace was amazing. The Oceanographic Institute was really impressive. As you may or may not know, Jacques Cousteau was its former director. He invented the SCUBA (Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus) and pioneered the use of small research submersibles, one of which is displayed outside. I'm a former museum president and IMO this is one of the best uses of exhibit space I've ever seen. The bottom levels are aquarium tanks with an outside cliffside tank for sea turtles. All pretty amazing. The upstairs exhibit area had several permanent exhibits but the temporary space has a multimedia presentation on the Arctic and Antarctic that need to be seen to be believed. Do watch the video to see the effects. As you touch areas of the projection on the walls and walk around the floor you'll see the ice cracking below your feet, swarms of krill form around you, and wildlife appearing to peer at you. It's an incredible experience. I really loved this museum. IMG_1787.MOV IMG_1782.MOV IMG_1783.MOV After a long day we walked back to the ship and from our cabin we viewed a night sail away from a fantastic port of call. Tomorrow we dock in Marseilles. IMG_1786.MOV