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Villefranche and Nice, France, pix.

The Tour de France, finishes in the checkerboard square in Nice this year due to the Olympics in Paris (which seems appropriate).  F1 Merch shops.  Pictures of me surfing compliments to Dale for taking them.  🤣

Barcelona, Spain the day of an insane amount of steps.  Sagrada Familia is so beautiful and unique amongst Baroque cathedrals.

Sorry for the delayed pictures, but it is just so much more tolerable for me to do it from home with super fast internet.  The internet in our cabin at the aft 9390, had virtually no internet in the cabin, but you could surf on the balcony.  Our second cabin 1878 had internet better but not awesome in the cabin, and none on the deck.  Which is nuts.  

Here are pix from Valencia, Spain specifically La Pepica paella restaurant. Plus a view of our future transportation choice.   

Malaga Spain

Ponta Delgado, Azores Portugal pictures.

Padua and cathedral pix.

Back on the bus, and within a few miles the bus came to a halt, and traffic stopped whizzing by.  The bus guide finally tells us that there is an accident further up the road.  We didn't move an inch for about 30 minutes.  While we were stopped an older lady on a practical bicycle passed us.   we passed her about 5 times after we started moving slowly for the next 30 minutes.  The bus guide was telling us it was a good thing we stopped at the bathroom.  I was thinking if we hadn't spent 20 minutes there we might have missed the accident stoppage, or at least have been closer to it with less time working around it.  😆

We reached Padua and apparently there were two buses of insane people who booked this tour, so we were given the option (it was lunch time now) of doing the full tour with no break for free time or a shorter tour with 50 minutes of free time.  4 of the insane people on our bus chose the full tour.  I was very impressed with Padua and in particular the cathedral dedicated to St. Anthony.  We are not Catholic, but nobody does cathedrals better.  This particular one was about as spectacular that we have visited.  Our tour guide (not bus guide) was, again very proud of her city (a general trend, I think all the guides are related to Donald Trump as every place is the best, largest or most spectacular of all🤣.  We walked by the tomb of St. Anthony, and the faithful touched the tomb (he is renowned for healing), then we visited the relics chapel, which was pretty spectacular.  Apparently, about 30 years after his sainthood in the 13th century a bishop opened his tomb and found his tongue, larynx, and jaw completely intact without any sign of decomposition.  This was supposedly proof that St. Anthony was a miracle.  The skeptic in me (and boy am I😆) wonders if the bishop actually found this or just displayed it.  What I mean is did they do genetic and other testing to verify it was St. Anthony's parts or that the items were 30 years deceased. (sorry don't mean to offend, that is the problem with miracles for skeptics) Regardless, of a miracle or not, they have enshrined these items inside glass inside a massive display.  Which regardless of the miracle it is amazing to look at an over 700 year old anatomical item.  The church is very beautiful, and I highly recommend a visit.  

The city is home to a major university of 70,000 plus students (per tour guide).  The list of former professors is amazing including Galileo.  The tour ended we searched for a bakery, or restaurant to get a takeaway lunch. We struggled to find anything simple, but we did find a coffee shop that would rival anything in Vienna (my standard for coffee shops) with prices to match.  We finally found a small shop and had a couple of sandwiches and a coke.  These were probably the worst food we found on the whole trip doing these kind of lunches while on tour.  Not horrible, but we would not order these again.  

Got back to the meeting point and rejoined the bus.  About 30 minutes later we were dropped at the airport.  One problem was we arrived around 3PM, but couldn't check in until 4:30PM so we found a bar and had a couple of Aperol Spritz.  Check in was a bit of a mess, as the young ticket agent, completely stripped the backs off the tags so the tags stuck to the handles, and required me to cut them off later.  Then we had to explain what my bag with my FlowRider board was.  She then declared it was oversized, and instead of having someone from the airline pick it up, she directed me to the opposite end of the large terminal to drop the bag after she attached the tags.  So, another long walk.  Our 7:30 PM flight was about an hour in the air and we arrived in Frankfurt at 9PM.  

We made the mistake of taking the train where or hotel the Hyatt Place was located at the first stop.  It was on track one and while I could find an elevator that took us down to tracks 2 and 3, after a long search I couldn't find one.  The tickets were reasonable 2.25 euro each way pp.  I finally just bit the bullet and lugged luggage down the stairs (not good).  Checked in and we were offered the regular breakfast at 30euro pp for 15 euro pp, if we booked now.  We declined as we were planning on being out of the hotel by 6AM (when breakfast started).  We were given two vouchers for beer, wine or soft drinks at the bar.  We went to the room, dumped the luggage and then took the elevator down and got two wines that we finished in the room. The alarm hit hard at 4:45AM.  

Dressed and showered, I booked an Uber for 18euro (since I have the Amex platinum card I get $15 a month of Uber free).  So, we are standing inside the hotel lobby with our luggage with multiple taxi's parked in front.  One came in and offered to take us, and I said we already had an Uber booked, he insisted for a while.  I found this a bit uncomfortable, and I am surprised a hotel like Hyatt allows this.  Anyway the driver arrived in a few minutes and off to the airport. 

At the airport we checked in and deposited the luggage, went off to do the tax refund process which is a complete scam as they make it very challenging to actually get your VAT back.  The customs office before security was closed, when it opened at 7AM they directed us to the customs on the other side of security.  Why have both?  Stupid, brilliantly evil system invented by government.  After security we found the next customs office after a short wait we finally got the stamps and deposited the envelops in the box next door.  Who knows if I will get a $50-60 refund on my credit card.  I, honestly, look at reclaiming VAT as a waste of time and effort with only a marginal chance of getting your money back.  

Thru security, then a breakfast of a cherry pastry and a water.  We really will be cutting bread off the menu here at home for a bit.  The food in economy plus on United was pretty good as the omelet, potatoes, spinach and muffin served an hour into our flight was one of the best tasting meals we had for breakfast on the whole trip.  Which says something about my general toleration of food in the WJ.  

jc

Last day of the cruise, was Tuesday morning, we had to meet for a 7:15 tour called Padua with airport drop off. I bought it pre cruise after booking our flights home about 330 days ago.  The tour I think was slightly discounted, and cost $170 pp.  I knew nothing of Padua just knew it would drop us at the airport after the cruise.  

So, off to the star lounge to wait for the cruise after the final WJ breakfast.  Got the call to go claim luggage about 7:30AM.  Our group was pretty small about 25 people, and our luggage tag 45 was all together so very easy to collect.  We had a bus guide, and it started me thinking why did most of the other 20 some people book this tour?  The bus tour guide was offering to call hotels and make arrangements for people who were taking this tour to drop them off at Marco Polo airport, but they were not flying home immediately, they were going to spend time in Venice.  Surely, there were options that would take you to at least the train station in Venice or the bus parking lot?  He went thru the bus on the 90 plus minute ride talking to everyone on the bus to help them confirm or make lodging or transportation decisions.  At this point, I concluded people are insane and I am on a bus of them.😜  

The drive was about an hour in, when one passenger told the bus guide that he needed the bathroom, we stopped at a bus parking area with small shops, bar, and a toilet with a line 3 buses long.  We wandered, and I took pictures of a lovely vineyard next door.  

Split old town.  See what I mean?

Split Croatia, is a really well preserved Roman town (old town).  The city is pretty much intact from those times (it is better preserved than almost anything in Rome).  We again did a RCI tour, which started with a drive of about 45 minutes to go up the Cetine River in the town of Omis.  We then had about 45 minutes in the old town (since it was Sunday morning, other than a few small shops and restaurants everything was closed.  Another nice walled city, again, I believe Venetian.  We wandered the streets and then back to the meeting point.  Got on a small wooden boat and took a 45 minute ride up the lovely river.  We passed a bunch of little fishing houses and platforms on the side of the river.  I could see trout in the river when we got to shallower water up river a bit.  We passed under a bridge with tunnels on both side, saw people rock climbing, and doing a zip line on the ride.  Eventually, we arrived at a restaurant on the side of the river where they served us a light red and white wine, sparkling water, bread, cheese and prosciutto.  Took advantage of the bathroom before heading back to Split in the bus.  

Split, as I mentioned is an amazingly well preserved Roman city. By far the best I have seen.  It was built starting in 283AD by a Roman emperor (not going to butcher his name but it started with a D who built his ruling city in Split).  We did the 45 minute walking tour with the very enthusiastic guide (who clearly loves his city).  After we had a lovely gelato and Krystal bought a dress in a little shop.  Then walked back to the ship for about a 10-15 minute walk.  

Pictures of Omis and the Cetine River and our enthusiastic guide with the hat with the black band.  Krystal wished we had done the zip line. 

5 minutes ago, Ocean Boy said:

Seems like the time went by pretty fast. When do you get home?

landed here yesterday at 2:20PM.  Went to the grocery store and Sam's while the lovely and hard working Krystal did laundry.  Got to Sam's her car was about out of gas, and they had all pumps closed, parked to go into Sam's realized my wallet was downsized during the cruise and all of the regular life cards were still at home.  So, after parking went back home to get said cards.  😜  

Bought a rotisserie chicken and lots of stuff to hopefully eat healthier for a while, ate dinner at 5PM watched, an episode of Survivor, fell asleep on the sofa, before it ended.  Krystal went to the neighbors to give them some Garrett's popcorn we bought at O'Hare for picking up our mail and to get the mail, but I had no clue.  (I need to sort thru that mess).  I went to bed and slept like a dead person until 1:47AM... woke up, tried to go back to sleep and came downstairs, to do bill paying online, load the last of photos on my Mac, made coffee, and now posting to you all.  

jc

Sailing out of Kotor Bay heading to next port of Split Croatia.

Kotor 

Perast, Montenegro

Kotor, Montenegro is a lovely little walled city in the old town.  I believe most of this area is medieval of Venetian design.  

Sailing in (and out) as I mentioned looks like you are in a fjord.  It is not, but visually very hard to tell the difference.  We booked a tour thru RCI pre-cruise, and we visited the Lady of the Rocks Church in Perast (about 15-20 minute bus ride) after a short boat ride.  It is an interesting church located on an island several hundred yards from the dock in Perast. After we had free time in town, which doesn't have a lot of shops or that much to see, we spent most of our time having a lunch at a small restaurant on the street front with a couple of decent local wines. After we got back on the bus to go back to the pier, the tour included a walking tour of the old town (which is where the ship is docked).  It had rained while we were having lunch (good timing) and it started trying to rain some more in Kotor, so we quickly handed in our radios to the tour guide and went off on our own.  Krystal had bought some VOPE jewelry on our last cruise to Aruba, so we went off looking for a Dameo Jewelry store, that supposedly carried that line.  We found two stores in the wandering narrow streets and neither store had heard of it.  😆  Yay!  Money saved! China Ching!

At this point we have seen so much of the same tourist stuff that we are completely uninterested in most of it.  So, after about 90 minutes we headed back to the ship.  

On another point Kotor is full of cats including a large courtyard in the old city with dozens if not over a 100 cats with boxes and food bowls everywhere.  Krystal misses her cat and takes lots of cat pictures.  

Since, I am home I can somewhat easily add some photos.  

Kotor old walls 

I am glad that RocCruisers replied, because this is the first time I have logged into CC for a few days.  You know how it is on a port intensive cruise where you are in port the last 3 days in a row, and you have to figure out how to pack everything up after 34 nights (1 pre cruise).  For those wondering how close Ravenna is to Venice it is not close.  I, personally would not do a flight from Venice much before 3 or 4 PM we chose 7PM which is probably a bit too risk adverse.  If we weren't so burnt out, they have really improved that airport since we were last there in 2004.  Lots of shops a bit light on restaurant options, but not bad.  

jc

It is raining as we pull into Kotor.  I haven’t really been outside, but it looks like we could be pulling into a fjord in Norway, Alaska or Chile?  Except I can see cypress trees.🤣

Yesterday was a bit of a mess, personally, as Krystal and I were sitting on our balcony drinking Prosecco (bought in Piraeus) playing travel sequence and listening to a playlist called boat music (ie my standard playlist for when we are at the lake on the boat).  I got a text from a former co-worker, that my best friend from my life in business had passed away.  He was 66.  We had talked a couple of months ago, while we were still in our Airstream, about getting together this summer for dinner or maybe he and the wife would come down to our lake house for a weekend.  I had promised to get back in touch to make arrangements after we got home from this trip.  I suspect he already knew he was in bad shape now that I think back on that phone call.  People when you want to say something to someone close to you say it.  I wish he would have said what was going on.  Not that it would have changed anything, but… sigh.

Needless to say, with this news and the regular news I am a bit down today.

As Evita Peron would say, don’t cry for me.

I am fine, we will have a nice day mucking about in Kotor in the rain today.

ciao

jc

AS this morning from 10-10:30 I got one ride, MW from 10:30 to 11:30 again one ride.  Probably the last surfing on this definite non unicorn cruise.  There were at least 30 people in the MW/boogie boarding session.  I said goodbye to as many of the sports staff that I could find.  

Tomorrow Kotor, then Split we will visit the next day.  I had to give guest relations our passports since we have never been stamped entering the EU.  The clueless lady a guest services didn’t seem to understand what we were doing, so, we have a receipt for our passports, but not sure when we get them back.  

jc

Hi LB

I just downloaded the X app and it now shows me Elite plus on the app and elite on the X website.  Typical RCI IT department

The beach in Mythos bay is now on my must do things before I die list.  I will post pictures later of the beach from way up on the cliff road.  Beautiful

JC

I like traveling to Greece, but we had not been to Agrostoli (celphalania) or to Chaina (Crete) before.  I really liked both islands way more than Santorini or Mykonos or even Rhodes.  I really want to come back and visit these places on a land trip.  They are so much less over crowded and more beautiful (IMHO and YMMV).  Sitting in the little harbor at Fiskardo, and looking at the Lagoon catamaran, failing at backing in to the harbor it a spot about 1 foot too small for it, and my yearning to do a charter was pretty high too.  Although, it was a laugh watching them try to wedge it in, with boats on both side loading fenders which of course makes the hole smaller.  There is no chance the lovely Krystal will let me fulfill that fantasy though.  

No surfing yesterday since Advanced was later as well as my excursion later, they really needed to switch those around.  When we returned to the ship it was pretty late, and they had the boogie, then mixed then AS starting at our dinner time.  Today could easily be my last surfing day.  AS at 10AM for 30 whole minutes then 90 minute mixed wave.  Haven’t looked at the afternoon schedule, but trends indicate it is not optimal.  🤣  We have tours tomorrow in Kotor and again the next day in Split.  Then the whole flying home thing kicks in.  K, bought at dress at Fiskardo and wore it to dinner.  

Ciao

jc

13 hours ago, lovesthebeach2 said:

My celebrity status is showing Elite+ now too!  So who has a list of what the benefits are?  We’re on Adventure now on a sea day and internet isn’t that great to try to find it. 

Mine is not, just checked, although it shows me with an inexplicable number of Captain’s Clubs points. It shows I have 153 points.  I did 2 X cruises last one was in 2000.  My memory was that the conversion was 30 points per cruise ie I should have 60 points.  I just applied for the Silverseas (doubt I will sail with them but who knows) and got this reply.  

12 hours ago, mil76 said:

Mixed wave is pure evil.

Totally agree, although if it follows AS and is followed by Boogie it is not horrible, but the other way around it is a complete cluster.  Example yesterday.  Show up at 4:50PM for 5PM mixed wave.  There is a dozen plus people in line and then some not actually in line, but in line with their spouse (hard to tell when you show up).  So  it is hard to figure out for both the sports staff and those in line the actual count.  So mixed wave starts, and most are trying to get the blue band.  Because most of them can’t surf, they fail instantly on their two tries, but because the staff wants a 10 on the survey they give them each 3 tries and not 2.  Which means when AS starts at 6pm for 30 minutes, the last of the triers is on the wave at 6:11PM.  Which means I was the last on the wave at 6:29PM doing a 3 minute ride.  I got in 5 rides with just 3 of us in line for the last 18 minutes.  That is evil.

Something weird on this cruise.  All of the bar staff have moved around.  So my favorite bartenders are at bars I don’t go to.  Which sucks.  Plus on the 15 night, they never gave me a ticket for the diamond drinks.  They started to at the end of the 11 night, and now they give me one for every drink.  For example, I had no drinks used on my card, so I got a glass of Gran Marnier with 5 shots at the bar at deck 4.  No problem except, I also got 5 tickets to sign and to tip on.  They have always had to run the card each time separately for each drink, but 5 tickets is nuts.  Whomever is their process guru is a complete idiot.  The patrons are waiting for an extra minute or two while the staff slides card punches multiple screens and tabs on screens 5 times, when they should easily be able to change from 1 to 5.  Not a problem if you are the only one there but when I am doing it, there are usually 5 people standing there all of them wanting a drink. I think giving the tickets increases the tips (i know it does for me, as I don’t carry money around, I give my favorites a 20 at some point and now I don’t even know where they are).  That is all the bean counters care about, because who knows if those $ tips on the sheets ever get in the bartenders hands.  I bet the $ bills do.  

Today we have the best of Cephalonia tour.  No AS until 9AM which is when we are to meet our tour in the theatre.

JMHO and YMMV

jc

So, we didn’t get off the ship in Mykonos part two.  They had no surfing at all in the morning, and Advanced stand-up for 9PM.  There is no way I am sober or awake enough to surf at 9PM.  I went up when boogie board was almost over and mixed wave starting around 6PM and the line was 20 deep.  I turned around and headed back to the cabin.  Last of our 6 BOGO nights in Giovanni’s last night.  It is good, but definitely not worth full price.  My steak was medium when I ordered medium rare.  So, tonight back to the MDR.  Giovani’s has been like a ghost town most nights.

We did a tour today to Kournas Lake, Arkadi Monastery and Rethymnon old town.  It departed at 7:30AM, another reason for no 9pm stand-up!😜  The tour was pretty straight forward, went to the largest fresh water lake, I didn’t know they had mountains with snow on Crete.  Then the monastery, and finally the town for shopping and lunch on our own.  Lots of bus time, but we really liked Crete, would happily spend some time there.  

This afternoon, they have mixed wave for an hour at 5PM and AS for 30 minutes at 6PM.  I guess I will try to see what happens at 5:30PM.  Tonight is formal night.

jc

Short update, Mykonos was cold and windy.  60s with 30 mph winds most of the day.  Did 8AM stand-up for an hour in my wet suit.  Just me and staff for the hour.  We originally had a Viator tour booked but cancelled on the advice of the Pins saying that there wasn’t that much to see that you couldn’t just do on your own.  So, we went to town on the water taxi 2 euro pp each way.  Shopping was exactly like everywhere else, except the purses said, Mykonos instead of Santorini, Rhodes etc.  The little streets were crowded.  We eventually worked thru the old town and got to the historic windmills took some shots and returned to the tender line beating the big rush to get back to the ship.  Pretty uneventful.  Krystal doesn’t want to go ashore again today as we return to Mykonos.  

Yesterday was Piraeus (Athens) we walked into town after getting our new sea pass cards, about 12,000 steps round trip.  It was a bit better than we expected.  I put the Zara store near the city center in my map, and we shopped along the way, but didn’t buy anything.  The Zara store apparently was scheduled to open on May 19, 2024 according to the shop window, but they missed that deadline.  So no Zara.  After we found a little grocery store and bought our two bottles of wine got back in time for lunch in the MDR.  Turns out B2B cruisers get the Key Lunch on deck 3.  Which confused the man with the list of key people for a second since we were not on his Key list.  

After lunch, I went up to the FlowRider expecting a crowd.  It was about 1:15PM about 15 minutes after the mixed wave started.  I was about 10th in line, that has not happened one time in the previous 26 days.  All but one of those had a blue band.  Another first had happened.  I am guessing that there will be 20+ blue bands on this sailing.  I made about 3 runs before the real line started, and went back to the cabin, to watch the Indy 500 a day late.  Apparently, my local NBC affiliate dumped the race about half way in to go to wall to wall coverage of local thunderstorms and potential tornados.  Which did not make me happy.  So, I had to switch to Peacock, since I don’t have the premium package, every so often I had to watch some silly ad for a minute.  Continued the race after dinner in Giovanni’s made it to the Will Power crash before turning it off.  

Went to the crown lounge for a coffee this morning, and just now finished the race, and now updating you on the cruise.  Congrats to Joseph Newgarden, h*ll of a pass.  I, also watched the Monaco GP prior to the 500 and it was a snooze fest.  I love the history, but it is not really a race track, just a qualifying track which is spectacular to watch.

Anyway ciao till later

jc