Review: Western Med Jade cruise Nov. 1 -12, 2014

[QuattroRomeo]

Toulon, France

 

I booked Provence Private Tours for our day in Toulon, and created a group of 8 through the roll call. The company contact, Delphine, was prompt when we emailed back and forth to set up the day and she was very accommodating when I asked to extend the length of the tour. Our driver/guide was Johan, and he was an excellent driver. He handled the van with 8 of us very well, and despite the awful weather we always felt he drove safely and skillfully.

It absolutely poured rain for most of the day, and was a little bit cool. Johan told us that the day before, it was so hot and sunny that he went to the beach..not sure we needed to hear that! It was not great walking from the ship to the parking lot- there was no shelter at the dock at all. Fortunately, I was able to spot our name on the sign held by Johan, and we quickly piled into the van.

 

Our tour first visited Sanary-Sur-Mer, a small seaside town, which DH and I loved; we visited the seafood and farmers' market, where DH tasted the biggest oysters ever, and we also tried some sausage, cheeses, and grapes. Funny how food can look so picturesque in a market- it was beautiful here:

 

 

 

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DH and one of the women on our tour thoroughly enjoying the oysters!!

 

 

 

 

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If it had been a nicer day, there was everything you could want for a picnic! Hopefully next time..

 

 

 

 

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We walked through the town a bit and looked in the beautiful shops and a bakery, where I had to buy some croissants. The bakery smelled so good! And the croissants were just-melt-in-your-mouth good.

 

 

 

 

 

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Shortly after those photos, we were caught in a downpour, and had to run into the nearest shop for cover. When it let up a bit, we made a dash back to the van, and Johan drove us to our next stop, Le Castellet.

 

Le Castellet is a small but charming hilltop medieval hamlet. Only a few shops were open to visit, due to the season and the rain. There was also an 11th century humble church that was interesting to see. The shops had olive oil-based soaps and many souvenirs, including ceramics, which were depicting cicadas, as they are there in large numbers every summer!

 

 

 

 

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This shop had beautiful essences, candles, and aromatic soaps with unusual (but good!) scents:

 

 

 

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Our next stop was at Ott Winery in the countryside. It had a small wine shop and the wines we tried were excellent. We got some of the blanc de blanc, and had it later with dinner on the ship. The country there was beautiful.

 

 

 

 

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Finally, we visited Cassis, another seaside town with shops and restaurants. We all set out on our own for lunch. Three of us braved the walk in a downpour to reach the restaurant at the end of the marina, La Vieille Auberge. We enjoyed a seafood lunch and excellent local white wine. Unfortunately it was a very stormy day, so many shops were closed in each place and it wasn't really possible to just leisurely stroll around. So we took our time with lunch, watching the rain pour down on the marina and the huge waves crashing in on the rocks and splashing over the lighthouse.

 

 

 

 

 

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Apple and lemon desserts:

 

 

 

 

The deserted main street for shopping!

 

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On the way back we stopped for a view of the limestone quarry near Cassis. Limestone quarried here has been used world-wide, including its use in the base for the Statue of Liberty!

 

Nearby are the Calanques, where limestone cliffs jut into the sea and create narrow ravines between them. Calanques boat tours are often offered in the area, you might have read about them in some potential excursions; but today,everything was cancelled. I remember seeing signs for Calanques tours in Sanary-Sur-Mer as well.

 

 

Back to the Jade!

 

 

Post Script about the tour with Provence Private Tours:

The tour was certainly very enjoyable and considering the conditions outside, I think we saw quite a bit! However, I had assumed that Delphine would be our guide, after months of emailing with her, and was therefore a little surprised when the person waiting for us at the ship dock was somebody else. Not that there was anything wrong with our guide- Johan was professional, informative and a capable driver! It was just not what we had expected.

There was also supposed to be a combined olive oil sampling and wine tasting stop as part of our tour; however, when Johan called them to say we were on our way, the farm said they had no oil being bottled and nobody available to conduct a tasting! Johan was able to find the Ott Winery, who opened to us for a brief tasting at the last minute, but no olive oil. So that was a bit disappointing.

[QuattroRomeo]

Barcelona, Spain

 

We have been to Barcelona a few times and planned on a more relaxed pace here. A couple of months pre-cruise, I booked our one and only ship excursion, a half-day tour taking a morning drive to Freixenet winery. On the way back we had the choice of returning to the ship, or being dropped off at Placa de Catalunya. So we planned on the latter, deciding that we could go to either Sagrada Familia or Picasso museum, or both.

If anyone has successfully taken the Freixenet winery tour, we would like to hear about it! For, as I feared, they called our cabin to say it was cancelled...12 people had signed up and their minimum was 24... This is why we hate booking ship tours- you book well in advance but they cancel only 24-48 hrs before the tour itself..why smaller vehicles cannot be substituted is beyond me...anyway, we decided to go to Sagrada. Try as I might, the internet connection on board was terrible, so I could not get through to book tickets in advance. We decided to just go and see how bad the line up was.

 

We bought the round trip ticket for the shuttle bus, which dropped us off just in front of the World Trade Centre. Columbus monument is a short walk from there.

 

A good website to see the port facilty is: http://www.barcelona-tourist-guide.com/en/transport/cruise-port/map-of-barcelona-port.html

 

We walked up to Placa de Catalunya, took a bus, and got off in the area of Sagrada. We stopped in a little spot for a sandwich and then headed for the Sagrada, where we stood in line for tickets. It took about 45 minutes to get tickets, but then we went right in. Although we had been in the city before, we never quite made it inside the Sagrada! It was great to finally experience it. Beautiful ceiling, columns, stained glass and sculpture inside and out. Even if you are not particularly religious, this church is worth a look- like no other church you have ever seen! We stopped in the gift shop afterward, which had a really big assortment of items and actually lots of good books. Worth a peek

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The Sagrada Familia is perpetually in scaffolding, as they continue to add on to it!

 

 

 

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Downstairs, there were some working areas, models, and displays of the building plans.

 

 

 

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When we left, we had some challenges trying to find the right bus to take back. Between trying to read the route maps in Spanish and talking with helpful locals, we figured it out, but then it took forever for our bus to come by. Our afternoon was pretty much done by then; I did stop in at a Starbucks because I knew I could get a large coffee..always a problem in Italy..so I made the most of it here! We walked back to the pier, boarded the shuttle bus and returned to the ship.

 

The shuttle bus is a must if you are doing your own thing in Barcelona..it is a VERY long walk from the ship to town. We did notice a few hardy types walking back ...can't imagine it myself…our feet were tired enough!

 

The port terminal (where you board the ship), and the road leading to the shuttle drop off point:

 

 

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Valencia, Spain

 

We joined a roll call excursion for this port, to enjoy a day with Suzie, of "Tours in Valencia". The tour was divided into 2 parts- first we saw the City of Arts and Sciences, then we had a tour of the old town, with tapas tastings along the way.

 

Suzie used a series of taxis to get our group from port to the City of Arts and Sciences. The modern structures there are huge and unusual. Being November, there were no crowds and it was easy to stroll from building to building, while Suzie gave us some background.

 

 

 

 

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The Science building was open, so we went in briefly and had a quick look around. It is worth a visit to even the washroom in here - what an ultramodern space! I popped into the gift shop as well for a little souvenir.

 

 

 

 

 

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Sorry duplicate post

Edited March 11, 2015 by QuattroRomeo

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We moved on to the Opera House building, which looks like a space helmet from one angle, and the surface of it was not white like I had remembered from photos, but bare metal. Suzie explained that it was originally covered with white ceramic pieces (mosaic) when it was built, but the pieces kept falling off! So the surface has been stripped and they are testing different types of adhesives. You can see the test patches in one of the photos.

 

Looking back at the science building:

 

 

Opera house toward the back of the photo:

 

 

 

 

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The high rise apartments in the area are required to build in complementary design to the Arts and Sciences buildings, so they look like this:

 

 

 

We rode the 'cone' elevator down to street level, where we took taxis to the old town for the tapas tour.

 

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The next part of the tour included intermittent, multiple! stops for bites to eat, during our stroll about the old town. While Valencia is a big city, the historical centre is quite compact, so there wasn't a tiring amount of walking there; I believe most people could enjoy it. There are a lot of sit-down breaks during the tour, and Suzie did not rush anyone.