10/30- Barcelona again

Two days at sea – we kept ourselves busy with….what….who knows! But we did.  Did have some great sunsets though!

We’re all packed and ready to move into our new room.  Hoping the occupants get out early so we can move our stuff ourselves (so much easier than having the cabin attendants do it – and head off into Barcelona by our 8:30 debarkation time. 

All works according to plans – and we have our luggage stored and are off the ship in no time.  Today we are being smart and taking the port bus to Columbus circle. We normally walk – but we’re sort of done with that – especially because we have no plans but to walk around this morning – so why add an extra mile or two to our already planned exercise?

As we grab the blue bus out of the port, we look around at all the ships sailing in.  There are 5 – 4 of which we’ve been on in their old incarnations as either Celebrity or NCL (Mein Schiff Mercury, TUI Horizon, TUI Zenith, Thompson Dream).  That’s pretty incredible!

Our plan is to go back to the Mercats Provisional when they are open – this is the real farmers’ market – not the touristy Boqueria – it’s the one that was closed on Sunday when we were here last. It’s a nice walk through some of the little neighborhoods of Barcelona – through Rambla Raval with this great cat statue.

Then onto Avenue Hospital and finally to Ronda Sant Antoni where the markets are located.  We stop on the corner of the street where the markets begin for a cappuccino and internet. Both excellent!  And cheap – so far, cheapest cappuccino we’ve had.  Fortified and up to date on any news (not much – but we’re up to date!), we had into the markets.

This place is great.  Long, long rows of every food you can ever imagine. And the pe0ple! We are jostling with all the old ladies of Barcelona trying to get space at counters to see what’s on offer, while they are haggling away with the vendors.  And, oh, the food! Sausages we’d love to take back with us, meats, cheeses, prepared tapas, then the seafood section!  Huge shrimp, live octopus and other un-identifiable seafood objects.  So much better than Boqueria!

Then the next set of stores are all clothing. Great bargains here too!  Shame we don’t need anything – or have room to take anything home.  Oh well – next time – now we know where to shop.

We circle back to La Rambla, walking through some great picturesque neighborhoods – like this one street that is ablaze with color – from the hanging laundry.

We cogitate going for a very early lunch with some of our free beer coupons – but it is really early (like 10am) so we ditch that idea and just head strait to Carrefour for supplies.  We avoid the opening rush (remember – they stand in line to get into the store in the mornings!) and wander around, collecting our instant coffee (yay, kettle in the new room), sausage, chocolates and soda.  We just love shopping here, get a load of the ham hocks they have – in the grocery store!  With the hooves still on!

Wow.  Ok, stocked up, we’re sort of done here. We’ve nothing else to do and no reason to stick around for lunch when we know we can go back to the ship and eat for free. Also, since we already have our luggage, we can unpack and get organized. So we wander down La Rambla, marveling at the architecture (this church we’ve not seen in scaffolding since we’ve been coming here) …

….watching the people/statues and the crowds, and onto the Port bus.   Then onto the ship in a jiffy – being transit passengers lets you skip all the lines.  Nice!

Into our new cabin – it’s awesome.  We got the deal on this one – 2 bedroom, 2 bath suite with a huge living area and balcony. Plus a full size tub and walk in closet.  This crossing will be great!  We can hang out in here when it’s too crazy outside – and have somewhere to just relax and read and blog instead of always having to fight for space in one of the lounges.  We’re looking forward to our 7 days at sea!

Sail away is uneventful, great weather, smooth seas.  Then onto our 1 day at sea before Malaga.

10/27–Kotor after the climb

After our successful expedition, we walk back down the 1350 stairs counting each one down on the way to Pivo (beer!).  Perfect day for a hike – it’s about 70 degrees, hardly a cloud in the sky, and as we descend the mountain, the sun begins to set and the temperature starts to cool.  Couldn’t ask for a better day.

Meandering through the lanes and alleys, we continue to take pictures along the way. 

We finally stumble upon the Local Town Pub.  Perfect!  Wine for me, Pivo for Ed, we cool off – quite literally – while we enjoy our refreshments.

It’s still early, so we continue to explore the town – it’s really quite tiny and enjoyable to walk around.  A couple of stores, a few more photos, and we end up at the church square and Pescaria Dekaderon. 

Right on the square it’s the perfect place for another drink – and the “Montenegro Plate” – basically antipasti with a Montenegro twist.

We relax and take more pictures…it’s just that kind of place!

It’s getting dark and chilly, so we head back to the ship, watching the waning light play across the buildings and highlight the mountain in the background.

After nightfall, you can see the fortress and stairs lit up from the ship.  We climbed that!  What a great way to end a great day.

10/27–Kotor

It’s a beautiful day and a beautiful sail into Kotor Bay.  We love this place, it is so pretty, little towns rising from the shores of the bay and creeping up into the hills.  It’s so lovely.

Just gorgeous!

We get tender #4 again, and are in town fairly quickly, not as quick as the Villefranche tenders, but still no issue.  Our plans today are to climb up to the Kotor fortresses and Castle of St. John, which sits atop the wall that rings the city and the cliffs of the Hill of St. John – so we’ve got no real time challenges today.

Off the tender, we fight our way through the gauntlet of tour vendors and through the gate into the old town.  We head straight to the back wall of Kotor, underneath the arch behind the church of St. Maria of the River (which we will visit after our climb),  snapping pictures of the town buildings and narrow little lanes on the way to the stairs up to the fortress.

3 euros each for the exertion!  It’s worth it though.  1350 steps that wind up and up and up around 1300 feet above Kotor. The scenery is spectacular.  The climb our afternoon gym! The first 20 minutes get us past the guy sitting on the steps selling water and soda (very smart!) and finally to the bastion of St. Rocco and the church of Our Lady of the Health, which is supposedly 1/2 way up. 

People were there selling water as well.  Enterprising – and talk about great exercise every day getting up there with a cooler full of drinks.  Unless there is some other way up we don’t know…hmmmm….

At any rate, upward we trek.  Through the fortifications and walls toward our next stopping point,  the little fortress and Cartarini tower. 

Our exertions are reward with fantastic views over the town and down into the bay.

We scramble up these steep stairs and into the little fortress on a plateau beneath the main fortress for more great views – and a well needed water break (we brought our own from the ship btw).

The last part of the climb is sort of scary – lots of areas without a wall along the stairs, so nothing to stop you from toppling over – but we make it to the top and congratulate ourselves with our water – and walking through the castle of St. John overlooking the town.