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26 days on the Oosterdam-Venice to Fort Lauderdale-Report

Sonora5

By Sonora5,
in Holland America Line

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Sonora5

Sonora5

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We love Barcelona. We have been there several times and it is always enjoyable. We know good restaurants and what the things are we want to do. Beginning a cruise in Barcelona is the best, but this time at least we had two days.

 

The sad part was this was the break point for the two cruises we had combined into one, and some friends were leaving the ship. We said goodbye hoping to sail with them again soon.

 

The first day of our two day stop was a Friday. We had recruited some other cruisers to dine with us at Tickets. Prior to dinner we took the shuttle in ( in my opinion they should not charge for this) and bought hoho tickets. I wanted to shop at Mango for Kids for the grandchildren, other than that we were just going to roam around.

 

The shopping stop was successful, and after some more sightseeing we headed for Tickets.

 

Tickets is one of the best restaurants in the world. It is run by the Adrias, who at one time had El Bulli, which was widely considered to be the world's top restaurant. We had been there before and were eager for another fabulous and entertaining meal. Plus it is always fun to introduce new people to the crazy and delicious cuisine.

 

We met the two other couples at the restaurant-they were already seated with drinks, and we of course elected the smart option of "surprise me". This is where the chef keeps sending small dishes to the table until you can no longer eat more. One of our party was a vegetarian and I knew they would take care of her, and indeed they did. I ordered a glass of cava and we began.

 

There were anchovies, there was iberico ham, wagyu steak (little srips), a bone marrow dish that was exquisite, on and on for about 26 courses. We then elected to move to the dessert room where several delicious desserts were served.

 

Service at Tickets is both leisurely and relentless, so before you know it 3 or 4 hours have passed. We were sated, happy and tired, so grabbed a cab back to the ship where I am sure all 6 of us quickly nodded off.

 

Next: Andorra

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Sonora5

Sonora5

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6 minutes ago, xjust4fun said:

Enjoying your posts and reliving this great cruise............. so much fun......

It was so great to meet you guys! If you have any photos please post, I did not take very many in Andorra.

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xjust4fun

xjust4fun

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3 hours ago, Sonora5 said:

It was so great to meet you guys! If you have any photos please post, I did not take very many in Andorra.

 

I will, although we didn't get to take too many pictures, you know why hahaha ..... , my fav one is still the border stamp on our passport........ I would go back there....... in a flash......

 

Diane

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kapitch

kapitch

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So great to hear from our new friends made on this cruise.  As Diane said...it's wonderful to relive the cruise through your pictures Kathie.  It was an amazing trip, and we hope to sail with our new friends again.  As always, time flew by too fast with so many ports, but we thoroughly enjoyed the 7 days of sea crossing the Atlantic.  The weather and seas were perfect and we hope to do it again.

 

Kathy

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Sonora5

Sonora5

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Such a great bunch of cruisers! Please everyone book the Rotterdam for Oct 3, 2020 TA. I will have some great tours for you! I already got some cool ideas from a friend who has done some of those French ports.

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Sonora5

Sonora5

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Andorra:

 

For our second day in Barcelona we booked a private tour to Andorra. In fact, this tour was so popular that a second group also booked it.

 

Note on private tours: I often engage a tour company and customize my tours. This is what I did for the Andorra tour. I have gotten to do a lot of neat things this way, and I have been fortunate enough to convince other cruisers to join us to keep the cost down.

 

So, for Andorra, I booked with Spanish Trails. I had used them before and been extremely happy. The Andorra trip is not  on their website, but if you email them they will set it up for you. Ask for Andrew to be your guide.

 

 

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Sonora5

Sonora5

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Unfortunately we woke up to a cold and rainy day. We were passengers "In Transit" so could leave the ship when we liked. We had booked our tour to start at 8:30 am.

 

Andrew and Alex were waiting for us as we exited the ship. We were quickly tucked into our vans and headed out. Andorra is about a 3 hour drive from Barcelona, so Andrew had arranged for us to stop halfway at the medieval village of Solsona. We enjoyed a little snack there and took some pics of the very old buildings. Andrew explained to us that they are very Catalan and independence minded in that region. I got a smile from a matron who looked at me quite suspiciously at first when I greeted her with the two Catalan words I know: Bon Dia. (Good day).

 

Our snacks were good, there is a bakery right up the main walk that serves nice things including some delicious chocolate.

 

On to Andorra where Alex took our passports to be stamped after we passed through border control. Always nice to get a nice new country stamped in your passport.

 

The sky was heavy and snow was predicted, and there was a lot of traffic carrying skiers hoping to hit the slopes. We were in the Pyrenees! We drove up and up and up to a place called Naturlandia. Kind of like Six Flags only with nature. This would be a great place to take kids. There is a tobotronc, pony trekking, a big climbing structure, a little track for mini car racing, etc. A nice big lodge as well.

 

Due to the impending snow, however, Naturlandia was closing early so we toured around a little and headed for Andorra La Vella, the capital of Andorra.

 

This is where things got a little sticky. Apparently one couple in the other van wanted to go back to the ship early and started badgering our guides and the folks in the other van. I did not realize what was going on soon enough to nip it in the bud. We did get to have lunch in Andorra la Vella. but did not get to see as much as we would have liked due to this awful couple.

 

I actually thought at first we were leaving quickly because of the expected snow. Lesson learned. I felt very bad for Alex, the nice young woman guide in the other van, because I think this couple bullied her into this rush back to the ship. As we were not sailing until 11 pm, there was no reason for their behavior.

 

Anyway, they will never tour with me again.

 

Back to the ship.

 

Next: Mallorca

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kapitch

kapitch

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You won't believe this...we are already booked on the Rotterdam October 3, 2020 cruise.  It will be great to travel together again, and we will watch for your tours so that we may join your group.  It was the trans-Atlantic portion of that cruise that attracted our attention as we were so lucky this time.  Can't wait to see you guys again!

 

Kathy

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kevingastreich

kevingastreich

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"We did go to Lincoln Center several times and very much enjoyed it, except for the ignorant monkeys who walk by chatting loudly during the performance. I don't care if you are wearing a dinner jacket if you cannot behave yourself!"

 

The way it is set up now, people coming out of the MDR, just having had a great time with good food, drinks and friends, don't always know that there is a performance in progress until they are in the area. Maybe they aren't "Ignorant Monkeys" but just fellow passengers having a good time.

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Sonora5

Sonora5

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13 hours ago, kapitch said:

You won't believe this...we are already booked on the Rotterdam October 3, 2020 cruise.  It will be great to travel together again, and we will watch for your tours so that we may join your group.  It was the trans-Atlantic portion of that cruise that attracted our attention as we were so lucky this time.  Can't wait to see you guys again!

 

Kathy

That is great news! I have already started a Roll Call. There is another couple from our cruise, Tom and Karen, who are also joining us on the Rotterdam in 2020.

 

 

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Sonora5

Sonora5

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Mallorca:

 

Well, you are not really going to get a report in Mallorca. We decided we had been running around too much, and we gave ourselves a sea day. Mr S needed one more day to recover from his cold, and I was ready to chill.

 

We cancelled our segway tour and lounged around. Based on the charges on our statement, I am thinking we hit happy hour pretty hard, and I imagine we played trivia with our amazing trivia team.

 

Mallorca is great, we have been there a few times already and will certainly go again. But we needed a rest day.

 

There will not be many pics so fellow cruisers feel free to post some. I may see if Mike has some from a prior cruise to put up.

 

Next: Cartagena

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