Calgary - August 15

Made it home!

Frankfurt, Germany – August 14

Stadel museum

24 degrees, lots of cloud, a tiny sprinkle then partly sunny

It’s been much too long since we were inside a museum, so today was the day to rectify that. On the banks of the Main river, is a bunch of Frankfurt’s museums in the museum district. We decided to go the what we figured was the main art museum, The Städel. The collection was bigger than I expected.

backs of paintings

We spent a couple of hours in there and could definitely have spent longer. We got the audio guides, which draws things out – in a good way. Art spanned from Renaissance to modern. An interesting part of the museum was an exhibit of the reverse sides of paintings – this showed how much information the backs of paintings actually contain. The most

more backs

interesting thing about this museum to me was that it was ‘the’ place for contemporary art during pre-war years, over 700 piece of art were confiscated by the Nazis because they thought these pieces were ‘degenerate’.

Lunch was in the old town in one of the squares -

apple wine bemble

Römerplatz. I had potato ‘dumplings’ which were more of potato pancakes to me with green sauce…all very good and Chris had the special…cordon bleu. With our food we had a bembel (traditional clay pitcher) of apple wine…again very good. The atmosphere was great…good server, great weather (not in a lather for once), good food, good people watching.

Frankfurt is currently having an apple wine festival. We had to stop after lunch for an apple wine. I had a

lunch...more green sauce

rosé this time, which I didn’t love as much – sweeter. Had I noticed before I ordered, I may have had a ‘hamsterpisse’! Hamsterpisse is apple wine and some kind of beer I think. 

hamsterpisse

In the evening we decided a bit too late to go out for food…by the time we got any place the kitchens were closed…a pitcher of beer and nachos were the best we could do.

Frankfurt, Germany – August 13

Frankfurt's financial area

22 degrees, rain, then clear, then blustery, then cool

After a lazy morning, partly being lazy, partly avoiding the rain, we hit the road. We ended up at Frankfurt’s Kleinmarkthalle, which is a market with typical market fare, except for the quality…this wasn’t typical. I’ve never seen such beautiful, well presented produce in all of my life! It was

fairy tale fountain

incredible. The cheese and pastries were pretty incredible too. Then we found ourselves in a section for pet supplies and gardening supplies – I’m pretty sure I’ve never seen more seed pack in any garden centre at home. There of course were every kind of wurst known to Germany. There were also food stalls that you could get food to eat at the

cathedral within the destruction

moment – similar to home.

That was on the first floor or floor zero as it is in Europe, then we made it to the second floor which was filled with more restaurant style places - we had an Italian lunch. This is also where the WINE was, and was there every wine! I’m not really sure I still don’t understand how it worked exactly. Each of the small restaurants (and by small I mean room for less than 20) also served wine kind of to-go. People would come by get a glass of wine and either drink it there just

cathedral

standing around or would take it to a stool area overlooking the first floor. People also took these glasses of wine to the smoking area which was PACKED. I wonder if it was always packed or if it was the time of day. People also return their glasses. Glasses of wine ran from about €2.50 to €4.50 (3.75-6.75). A super interesting place.

The Frankfurt Cathedral was very near there, so we popped in. It is an interesting place mostly because of how it avoided complete

destruction during the war. It isn’t particularly ornate inside as other churches we visit can be.

Next was a bit of required soccer shop shopping, followed by the necessary grocery shopping. I found the smallest salami balls…Chris wasn’t sure we should buy them as maybe we wouldn’t eat them all…as I write this a few hours later…they’re GONE – and they were delicious. In addition to the usual purchases, we got some new chips…Western – that’s German for BBQ and 4 beers to do a DIY

the tiniest salamis ever!

in-room tasting. We both agreed there were slight differences between the beers, but not a lot.

On the way back to the hotel I needed a loo, so instead of just hurrying back, we found another drinking establishment which we were sure would have ‘facilities’ – we were right.

In the evening we crossed Frankfurt’s river Main. We walked along the river for a bit which was quite a busy place. There were people picnicking, drinking,

DIY beer tasting

biking, jogging, smoking their own hooka pipes (can’t say I’ve ever seen people smoking their own) and basically enjoying the evening, even though it was a bit blustery. The sky was super interesting tonight and made for some cool shots of the Frankfurt skyline.

Our destination across the river was Sachsenhausen, the area to find apflewein pubs – and we did. Although we were here around 9, we may have been a bit early, or it was a Monday – either way it wasn’t overly

apflewein and green sauce

hopping. We found a place that was relatively busy and sat for our first apflewein. Apflewein or apple wine, is very comparable to a very dry cider. I being a cider lover to begin with really liked it, Chris liked it too. It is served in typical glasses with diamond etching apparently to prevent

found the bread

slipping when held by greasy hands…kind of gross. I had schnitzle and Chris had tiny wurst and another handkase. I was looking to try the Frankfurt green sauce, which came with the schnitzle. The green sauce was tasty – it’s a creamy sauce made with at least 7 different herbs. The handkase was supposed to some with bread and butter, which we thought the waitress had forgotten until she showed us that they were hidden under the plate –

hilarious, the 3 of us had a good laugh after that.

We hopped for another apflewein someplace else on the way, but everywhere seemed to close around 10.

Frankfurt, Germany – August 12

cool bubbles busker - kids loved it

27 degrees, sunny with a breeze, not humid

Every city we visit seem to have free walking tours, and Frankfurt is no different. What was different is that they weren’t promoting any other pay tours. Of course they always explain that you can decide at the end of the trip how much you think the tour was worth and tip what you would like. Apparently, some people on today’s tour thought it wasn’t

spiderman

worth anything – brutal. Some people figure a 2.5 hour tour isn’t worth a penny – again…brutal.

This tour was described as the ‘alternative’ Frankfurt walking tour. Most of the tour was what we would expect of a typical tour…history, monuments, stories, buildings, but this tour also focused some on drugs and prostitution. This focus took us through the seedy part of Frankfurt, through the red light district, past Crazy Sexy (Frankfurt’s largest of its 20 or so brothels), past a safe

book burning memorial

injection site across the street from 3 people using drugs – these 3 people didn’t seem to care that a group of 30 tourists was streaming past them. We were asked not to take pictures. It was very interesting, basically a block away from the regular, everyday Frankfurt.

The rest of the tour was pretty tame in comparison, but interesting and fun nonetheless.

handkase

The guide showed us 2 of the 7 Spiderman statues distributed all over the city. Kind of quirky and odd – apparently Frankfurt is referred to by locals as Main-hattan, so an artist decided to add Spiderman’s to the skyscrapers.

What is very interesting about Frankfurt is that it was almost completely destroyed in the war. It doesn’t look like it though because the city decided to rebuild

pre-music

itself to look like it did pre-war, so there are old looking buildings that aren’t so old. 

 – this isn’t unique to Frankfurt, we saw this in Munich also. What is unique to Frankfurt is its monopoly on German skyscrapers, it has 13 of the tallest 15 in Germany.

Although we did see a memorial to the Nazi book burning which was very interesting, we heard very little about the Nazi and the war. That omission in itself was interesting.

After the tour we thought we better have some German food and

beer. I had Handkäse, a speciality of the Frankfurt area – the name comes from the traditional way it used to be made…with you own hands. Apparently, it can also be called Handkäse mit Musik (hand cheese with music) the music is played by your body subsequent to eating the cheese and especially the raw onions served with it – German comedy…hilarious. It was just OK, not particularly delicious, but fine.  Chris had a sausage sampler…finally had us some sauerkraut – not my favourite.

tribute on city hall to the apple wine 

Rome, Italy to Frankfurt, Germany – August 11

Hottish…again, doesn’t really matter when it’s a travel day, 22 when we arrived in Frankfurt…not blazing heat…glorious

So…it’s a travel day. I’m not really sure if I would think I’m ready to leave the ship and move on if I didn’t actually have to leave. Generally, I think I’m ready to leave when I have to…I get my head around being someplace for as long as the trip is and that is that. 

Because our flight to Frankfurt wasn’t until 3:00 we didn’t have to get up very early – however, not very early was 6:30 as we had to

looks like the Bow behind me

get out of the room by 8. We stayed on the boat until 10, but that was basically to kill time so we didn’t have to kill it at the airport. We saw the boat we spent the longest on when we were in Asia a few years back in port with us - nostalgia!

The drive from the port at Civitavecchia to the Rome airport was about 40 minutes. We pre-booked a car to pick us up. Pre-booking a nice car is about as much as a cab would be and apparently getting a cab would be tough.

2 hours on the plane, a couple more episodes of Mad Men and a less than desirable turkey meatloaf sandwich (just weird) later and we were in Frankfurt. The subway to the central station in Frankfurt was about 15 minutes and then 5 minutes walking and we were at the hotel. The hotel welcomed us with a glass of champagne, so that was a great start!

We are experiencing over and over that hotels we visit are much more form over function – Roomers Frankfurt is no different. I love a cool looking place and want things to look chic, but...come on! The biggest issue I have is that there is no where to put your stuff - no drawers…I NEED a drawer. Especially in my bed side table…I guess I should be lucky to have a bedside table at all…I remember a hotel without one of those all together! Anyway…this place is cool looking and the location is great, so… Oh, yeah…we specifically picked this hotel because it has AC…I suppose it technically does, but it’s not exactly cold. If this was the first European hotel I’d stayed at I’d chalk it up to being 'European', but I’ve been in plenty that can get very cold, in fact our hotel in Sevilla was freezing and it talks a lot for me to say anywhere is freezing. Internet is included and is great - so I'm happy about that!

After a bit of unpacking we headed out for some food…pizza and wine. The world over just likes Italian…we are no different.

Livorno / Pisa, Italy – August 10

the Leaning Tower

25 degrees, hot, not overly humid

The Leaning Tower of Pisa was the main attraction today. It didn’t disappoint! We actually had to drag ourselves out of bed for an appointed time, but we did OK. Actually, we (maybe just I) had a bit of a

random outdoor frescos

slow start due to my competitive spirit…the booze package we’ve

purchased for the duration of this 7 day cruise is making me want t

random building decoration

o get my money’s worth! We’ve been keeping track and every day we’ve come out ahead…yesterday was no different, but I was moving a bit more slowly this morning.

Anyway…once we were mobile it was about a 30 minute bus ride to Pisa from Livorno where the port is. 30 minutes is just fine for a bus ride, any longer and it’s too much.

The area around the tower was a lot busier than I expected, but not so much that it impeded our enjoyment of our tour – maybe that was because of the 6 other cruise ships in today. Each of the ships has about 3000 passengers! I suspect most people would go to Florence from here, but still…a lot at the tower. There were 37 people on the tour and that was a LOT! I’m pretty sure that is the biggest paying tour we’ve ever been on. The guide was

pricy beer, but look a the view

good. She had a bit of a microphone that amplified her voice and we do a good job of being near her. Although the guided part of the tour was only about an hour, by the end of the hour there were only about 15 of us left with the guide – this was great.

After we saw the tower, heard the explanation and visited another square with the guide we were on our own. We wandered a bit and had a €7.00 (10CAD) beer – definitely the priciest

violinist

beer on the trip so far. It was nice to sit down, especially when we were about to find a spot right in front of the tower. By the time the tour was over and we drove back to the boat it was lunch.

Today is the last day on the boat, tomorrow we head to Frankfurt for the last city of this trip. That means tonight is filled with packing and getting to bed early.

The evening entertainment was a guy playing an electric violin. This is the second time we are seeing him this trip...very cool.

Mom - I think you're right about Chris' message...he thinks he is being subtle

Genoa, Italy – August 9

30 degrees, blazing sun that turned to haze

Today is another day we opted to not take a ship’s tour. Having had been in Genoa just last year, and considering the offerings, we decided to do our own thing. This meant another slow morning, I’m not sure how tomorrow will go when I have to be up and out for an actual organized tour.

woke up to this outside out deck

This morning we woke up in Italy and the land of huge yachts. OK, so we figure we’ve seen more and bigger, but not on this trip. There were a few

right outside our window this morning.

main church, went inside last time

It doesn’t seem to me that Genoa is on the where-to-visit-in-Italy bucket list. Most of the tours are designed to get people out of Genoa. We toured the town last year, but didn’t feel like doing it again, or spending a lot of time on a bus to see something out of town. So…we took it easy this morning and walked into town. Today’s walk in was about 10 minutes through the port – not much to see, but no problem. The area nearest the port wasn’t exactly posh, but not really seedy, just nothing for tourists – very local. We made it into the part of the old town with shops, restaurants and bars.

random street 

We remembered a lot of these places from last year and even found the place where we had lunch last year but didn’t stop. We finally settled on a place that wasn’t anything special, but the beer and pizza hit the spot.

The humidity has definitely returned today, so by the time lunch was over and we walked back to the ship I was ready for a cook drink in the ship’s lounge! Good thing is…no matter how drenched I get with laundry

gotta love the beer and pizza lunch!

service included there’s always clean clothes.

Although we weren’t sailing this afternoon (which was too bad) it was the perfect temperature for a late afternoon nap on our balcony. We were staying far away from the pool deck. Although we avoided the sun yesterday and stuck to the shade, the reflection of the sun still got us. We should have known this from experience, but sadly we didn’t and both of us are a bit red today.

Diana – yup, the room is HUGE. I think there’s more storage than I have at home. Name That Tune was a lot of fun.

Dave – we missed a John Farhnam Austrailian song I didn’t even recognize, the wrong Billy Joel title, didn’t know that “Here I Go Again on my Own” was by White Snake, also thought Careless Whisper was by Wham! but apparently it is only George Michael – boy did we feel like a couple of dummies!

Marseille, France – August 8

27 degrees, thunder and lightening in the morning, turned into a hazy sky by the afternoon

evening show program

Marseille is a town we’ve been to before – last year actually, so we decided to stay on the boat today. Not only have we been here before, the port is a 30 drive into town. There is a shuttle

this is as close as we got to Marseille

available for 8USD each way, but we thought ‘let’s not bother’. It was nice to be on the boat while most people were on shore. Lunch was peaceful as was the pool. Until the band started playing…not exactly peaceful, but fun.

Sail away was around 5:00. A quick nap in the room and we

the band and Chris to the left

were on the go again. Pre-dinner drink and music, dinner, a musical production show, then a bit more music, then a bit more music and the bed.

Day at Sea, Crown Princess – August 7

not a bad view

25 degrees, some cloud and haze

Today is the second of our 2 sea days on this cruise. If being outside on our deck as we sail is my favourite thing about being on a cruise, sea days have got to be #2. We tend to do very little - we are not ‘joiners’.

I could certainly fill a bunch of time if I had access to the internet.

saw an other turtle

At sea, means pretty much disconnected, so this post will hopefully get posted tomorrow. Our portable wifi ahs been pretty excellent so far…we know if wouldn’t work at sea, but didn’t realize it didn’t work in Gibraltar…interesting.

If we actually wanted to do something this ship definitely has more going on compared to other cruises we’ve been on. This is almost like a Mexican resort in terms of things going on. A person could definitely be busy from morning to night, doing things like trivia, listening to live music, dancing, playing silly games like

shows the room pretty well - Chris on the deck

‘Elevator Roulette’. If we are to actually find an activity to join it would be trivia (particularly Name the Tune), listening to live music, watching the evening ‘show’ – (last night was a comedian), or playing in the casino.

Today we took advantage of our deck until we or the sun moved so that the heat was too much, then we ate, drank, napped, blogged etc. In the evening we played 80s Name That Tune…we did pretty well…got 45 out of 50.

After dinner we watched a violinist, had another drink and headed to bed. When we got to our room we realized that there was an electrical storm going on outside. We decided to get one last drink and check out the storm on the top deck. Once we got up there it was pretty awesome…there was also a bit of rain which added to the ‘mood’.

Gibraltar – August 6

 25 degrees, very foggy in the morning, cleared by mid morning, fog rolled in again around 5:30, hot during the tour, but not at all humid and quite pleasant.

Gibraltar, the small British territory, is actually somewhere we’ve sailed past. Years ago, we sailed from Lisbon to the Mediterranean

caves

of course through the Strait of Gibraltar and past Gibraltar. We didn’t stop then…today we did. When we woke up we were already docked and could see nothing due to the very thick fog. It didn’t take long to burn off.

Todays’ tour was an afternoon one, so we took it easy in the morning and spent time at the pool. By 12:30 we had climbed a small bus and were on our way with a guide who was hands-down the most talkative guide we have ever had. I think she pretty much talked non-stop from the time

caves

the tour started until the time it ended…I suspect she is still talking…very informative I suppose, but WOW!

Gibraltar is very small – 3 square miles, one mile being reclaimed land! The landing strip for the airport crosses a main road here. Apparently, 16 flights take off or land here each day, and the road is closed each time a plane lands. I’d say

macaque with our ship in the distance

we saw about half of these flights today, super close right from the boat. From one vantage point we stopped at along the tour we could see Africa only 14 miles away and Spain even closer. We could also easily see from one side of Gibraltar to the other.

We first visited St. Michael’s Cave. This place is huge, developed, easily accessible with stairs everywhere and not much for having to duck – I mention this because we’ve visited

family meal

some other caves in our travels that aren’t as ‘developed’ – I guess

this is Britain after all. There was a huge central cavern with just as huge stalactites and stalagmites – and this is just the part visitors are allowed to see. This place was used as a hospital during WW2.

Next stop was the Apes’ Den. Before we even got to this second stop, we had already

seen a few of Gibraltar’s apes. The apes (sometimes called Barbary Apes but are really tailless monkeys called Barbary Macaques.) Apparently there are about 260 of these in Gibraltar - they aren’t super interested in the humans and are relatively calm, we’ve seen other monkeys that were a lot more energetic and interested in interacting with humans.

Great Siege Tunnel

Throughout the whole afternoon, we probably saw about 20 or so of these apes.

The last and longest stop today was visiting “Great Siege Tunnels”. These are tunnels British soldiers carved out of the ‘rock’ during the Great Siege of 1779 to 1783. This is where my knowledge pretty much stops. The guide was super interested in telling us extreme detail of this place and all of the stories that go along with it, but it didn’t take long for me to get a bit bored and stop listening – just a bit too much detail.

road, crossing the runway, Spain in the distance

And that was it…our time in Gibraltar. We had hoped for some time to wander around in town, maybe hitting a pub for a pint, but there wasn’t any time. Our tour ended about 3:45 and we were sailing again by about 5:00.

Our evening was spent as most of them on board are – pre-dinner drink, dinner, post dinner drink

Rock of Gibraltar

with an activity or 2 thrown in there. Tonight was the first night I sat outside on our deck before going to sleep. There are many things that I love about being on a cruise but being outside on our deck as we sail (particularly at night) has got to be top 3 – not really sure what the other 2 would be, maybe this is #1.