Sinppu

Our next port was Ibiza.

We've been here before, we spent a week celebrating Lowry's 30th birthday here.

Ibiza is a lot more than the party capital of all party capitals.

We slept late and had brunch in the WJ.

The day was again almost too hot to handle so we thought that we'd find an adventure as close to the ship as possible.

Guess what? We succeeded.

After the lighthouse we followed the road for two minutes and found a place where adventures clearly start.

Today was also the second formal night.

We watched the football game in the casino and had a few drinks.

I went to the champagne bar to get my favourite drink (which I only get on RCCL) and suffered the biggest setback on the cruise.

They didn't have it.

No Key Lime Pie Martini.

I was crushed...and so were the ice and strawberries in my comfort daiquiri.

We saw the show "Invitation to Dance" and it was brilliant. I love theatre and have even studied it in my youth so I dare say I know something about it and Indy has a marvellous cast. This was one of the best shows I've seen on cruise ships and even overall.

We walked through the Labyrinth but didn't stay as it had just opened, was empty and we heard our bed calling. Loud.

Straight on to the MDR food then!

Fried cheese. No, I'm not kidding. Heavy, but heavenly.

Seafood salad. Good.

Goat cheese quiche. Yes, I like cheese. Plenty.

Steak for Lowry. He said it was OK.

Chocolate cake. Or was it vanilla? Ummm...chocolate. I guess. By looking at it, I'd say chocolate.

Now this one is easy! Vanilla ice cream!!

We started day 6 with the progressive trivia.

We reaaallly like trivia and are generally pretty good at them.

In this one we did have a slight disadvantage as the teams that won the best scores had at least 4 people in them and in our team there were only the two of us.

Here we have the Mediterranean. Compare the colour to the Atlantic.

Spot the difference?

Our sea days were spent completely relaxing. We played $1 table games in the casino, read books, slept a lot, watched football and tennis.

We like sea days.

Here is a moment of bragging.

As some of you know, many of the RCCL ships have been built in Finland and in my hometown of Turku. It's always fun to talk to the crew and find out how many of them have fond memories of them (they usually include the fast food chain Hesburger and the bars and night clubs ;))

MDR time tonight.

These were a seafood starter of some kind. Nothing special.

Yellow soup.

Roasted duck!! Lowry liked it.

Vegetarian goat cheese pizza. Wonderful.

Our desserts for today. Low fat stuff, banana roll and lemon cheesecake.

And a girl in a dress that gives you a headache. (Isn't an honest and fashionably challenged husband a hoot?)

The flowers were fascinating.

So if you want to go visit the Gardens, just go up the hill under the cable car and sneak in through an open gate. Or...well it's not sneaking, if it's open, is it??

It was a very hot day again so this offer was more than welcome.

In the photo above you can see one of our favourite crew members, Jose. He worked in the casino and greeted Lowry by name when we were walking past him. We are generally friendly with the dealers because we spend a lot of time in the casino and it's easy for a dealer to regocnize another.

The Botanical Gardens were completely empty so we made our own fun tour of them.

It did turn out to be an adventure anyway as we found some wonderful views right in front of the crashino.

And if you walk through an open gate, you might find soemthing even more wonderful.

Gibraltar is exactly what it is: A British town in Southern Spain.

We liked it, it's unique.

Lowry found that there's a casino in Gibraltar so we set out to visit it.

But as you can see, it'd been closed. :(

On to the next day!

Gibraltar was our next stop. Lowry has been here on a family holiday over 20 years ago but I've never visited.

Gibraltar is very clean, good for walking and had again an abundance of people offering tours of the Rock. We weren't interested in monkeys as we've experienced them in the wild in Bali and they are pesky little things.

Easy to navigate here.

After coming back to the ship from Lisbon we enjoyed some cold drinks and hot weather.

The tennis match was a great bonus.

I clicked with Lisbon and would love to come back here for a longer stay.

This evening was a WJ night again. As you can see, dinners there are quiet.

We went to see the Headliner show today. There were many comedians but unfortunately not all of them were very good.

This chap wasn't too entertaining. His name escapes me (surprise!! No?)

Did you know that water actually is blue and not clear as many people think?

We find it fascinating that oceans and seas have different colours.

Here you can see how the Atlantic is quite dark bluegreyish.

I will return on this subject ;)

sinny

 

Didn't you find going under the bridge surreal? I loved it d

I did!! It was amazing. I also took a video of it.

Lisbon photos without unnecessary comments, part 3.

(This is not an unnecessary comment, might I add. It's an unecessary title.)

Lisbon photos without unnecessary comments, part 2

Here are some more photos of Lisbon. Just scroll through, no unnecessary comments anywhere ;)

Lisbon was the port I wanted to see the most and I wasn't disappointed.

There were plenty of taxis in the port and they would've charged 15 € for a ride to the centre.

We opted for the HOHO bus which was 18 €/person and had two different lines. It's wise to reserve about 3 hours to see everything and a little more if you plan to step off the bus somewhere.

They only accept cash but there is an ATM in the nearest building.

Lisbon was sunny, warm and had a very unique feeling and atmosphere in my opinion (which of course can also be counted as an universally acknowledged truth).

There are so many beautiful houses it's hard to pick a favourite.

So glad to see you back! Looking forward to this review!

Thank you! And to everyone else as well [emoji3]

If only work wouldn't interrupt me the whole time!

Sheep at the gym. ...we'll that's why I've never noticed them ...nearly 70 so not my favourite place . :D

But at least now you know you've had your eyes open, love :D:D:D

I had a blast on Indy.

Never went hungry, thirsty, tired, unloved, poor, wet, cold, hot and all that other stuff you don't want to go when on holiday.

I actually won $35 from the casino. A highlight if I ever had one.

This evening the show was a headliner act, The Bohemians.

They are a Queen tribute act and a GREAT one at that.

We also participated in a Queen Music trivia during the evening and did OK.

We both love Queen so we had high expectations for the show.

And they delivered.

No disrespect to any nationality, but the British sure know how to sing along.

And dance.

And party.

And appreciate an amazing show.

It was a very good day and night.

Lisbon tomorrow, everyone.

I had a vegetarian main course with cheese on it. I do remember liking it!

And Lowry had this Indian...gourmet. He liked it, it was spicy enough for him.

OK now this I know!! Strawberry cheesecake, everyone. Always a hit.

And something low-fat again.

Just to make a point: Lowry isn't on a diet, he just chose the least wheaty desserts and usually the were low on fat as well.

Spain is a very liberal country and they had rainbow flags even in the government buildings (this monster is the police station).

The weather got less sunny in the afternoon and we got back to the ship just in time before the rain shower hit.

This evening it was the MDR again.

We were very lucky and got seated at the same table for two throughout the cruise.

Today the starters were a melon slicy thingy salady...

...and a reddish soup.

Hopeless.

And sad.

Not the foods, my memory.

The views from the fortress were wonderful.

(Sorry for the foggy photos, we didn't notice our camera was sweating too.)

We headed back to the ship after maybe 30 minutes.

We stopped at a café called Puerta Principe. They had excellent Wifi and we ordered drinks. The tapas were complimentary!

It took about a half an hour to reach the hill but we were not in a hurry.

It was a hot day (June...Spain...tends to be like that) so we took every opportunity to rest.

This happy camper found a squirrel. It was funny to watch.

The big shopping centre right at the pier allows you to avoid the first set of steep chairs into the Old Town.

We headed towards the fortress.