Sanuk Canadian

A Western Mediterranean cruise continues... The fourth day of cruising began with yet another big breakfast and what seemed like our first full day of sunshine. Hurray! Our ship pulled into the third port -- Livorno. From here, many can travel from the coast to several possible destinations; ours would be two of the most popular ones -- Florence and Pisa, Italy. Scenes from Livorno and Florence:  Top: Livorno port, early morning. Bottom left: the train to Florence/ Right: Our goal - the Dome! I hadn't really prepared too much for Florence. We both agreed to head from the train station to the Dome, the city's most famous landmark. I had also pre-booked tickets to the Museum Accademia, where we could view Michelangelo's infamous statue of "David" (sorry, no photos were allowed inside). Dome interior, Livorno town square, the Dome outside: After touring the Dome, on the way back to the train station, we stopped at Gelateria Very Good to eat some ice...

Cruising the Western Mediterranean and enjoying a taste of Europe, continues.... The third day of our cruise was winding down after a rushed tour of Rome. Having seen the sights, it was back to the ship where we could eat and relax. We ate dinner in the Botticelli dining room on Deck 5. Here's my menu... top left: creamy chowder; bottom left: grilled shrimp Dressed up for dining (which I enjoyed doing every night!) ^_^ After the meal, I had made reservations to watch something very Canadian -- an ice skating show! The Liberty of the Seas had a mini ice skating rink on Deck 3 and during our cruise, a special show called "Encore, an Ice Spectacular" was being performed on certain dates. The rink looked like this (pre-show):  The show featured skaters from the U.S, Canada (yay!) and Russia. There were many jumps and difficult lifts. I thought the skaters were all pretty amazing given the small size of the rink and the ship's constant rolling bac...

A 6 day cruise from Barcelona to various ports continues...^_^ After visiting Monaco and Monte Carlo, our ship cruised slowly onward to the next destination. Our next port was a small town called Civitavecchia, but many people (including myself) would travel about an hour inland to....Rome, Italy! ^_^ I prepared a lot before the trip -- reading guide books and reserving online tickets. My friend would be the navigator, having researched train schedules and maps. We caught the local train from Civitavecchia station to Rome San Pietro. Scenes from TrenItalia... (Italian Rail): Top left, to bottom right: 1. Cutenekko in the freezing cold. / 2. Inside the train. 3. How to open the door. / 4. The station, San Pietro. Due to our cruise schedule time constraints, my partner and I agreed to visit four places in Rome: The Vatican, the Vatican museum, the Coliseum and Trevi Fountain. From San Pietro station we walked about 15 minutes to Vatican City. Despite the rainy weat...

Okay! I've had my Spanish siesta; now it's time to get back onboard the Liberty of the Seas for more European Tapas....  The last report from my trip to Barcelona was aboard a cruise ship; we spotted land ahead and pulled into the harbor for the first stop on the 6 day cruise. Where were we...? ...the answer: in France!  Our cruise ship docked offshore, in the lovely French Mediterranean harbor near Nice, (officially called Villefranche). The Citadel from this town was featured in the James Bond movie: Never say Never. (source: LINK  -- At the link, scroll down to see videos scenes from the film.) Bonjour mes amis. ^_^ From top left to bottom right: 1. our cruise ship / 2. View of the village from the shuttle boat 3. Cutenekko arrives in France! / 4. View of our cruise ship from the hill My friend and I joined an excursion via the cruise ship company. We wanted to try what all the Americans did -- join a tour. So we boarded our bus which drove us ...

Cutenekko's notes from her first cruise continue... After settling into our stateroom and gorging ourselves on a delicious meal, we took advantage of one of the first shows onboard -- a tapas tasting of the various musical and entertainment shows to be held during the cruise. Hosted by the cruise director, the mini show was held in the huge Platinum theatre, on Decks 2 ~ 4. Inside the theater: The show included musical performances by the ship's big band, and one performance from "In the Air",  created by Cirque du Soleil. There was also a juggler and an announcement about various activities onboard by the cruise director. It was really fun. ^_^ Let's move on to the next activity.... Something new aboard many Royal Caribbean ships -- Dreamworks movie character "meet-and-greets" and character parades. This parade was held the first night onboard, while our ship left Barcelona. The venue was Deck 5's "Royal Promenade",  which is a ...

Travels in Barcelona, Spain continue... Tapas are small, succulent dishes of Spanish cuisine, which give diners a sense of different ingredients, flavors, etc. The title of this blog series, Degustación de Tapas , means "Tapas Tasting". My trip to Barcelona had been deliciously fun thus far, but the real reason for traveling was to get a "taste" of not only Spain, but also, Europe. After lunch, (see yesterday's post ) my travel partner and I jumped in a taxi and lugged our luggage over to this place: Terminal B at Moll Adossat. Someone taking my picture, while I'm taking a picture! (laugh) What were we doing here? Well, I wanted to get on board this: The Liberty of the Seas. Yay! My first cruise! My friend and I had quite a history together which always involved water -- we had taken harbor cruises together, went fishing, hiked around an island, stolled through an oceanfront park,  and drove along an ocean toll road. As lovers of water, we both...

Sightseeing in Barcelona, Spain continues.... The third day of my holiday was the most exciting. In the late afternoon, I had to be at a specific location, but before that...there was time to explore a little more of this beautiful city! The weather was sunny, so we headed out to the beach. Did you know Barcelona has 4 beaches all within 10 minutes of the city center? To travel to the waterfront, we tried the city metro for the first time. Being a train fan, of course I sneaked some photos of the subway... ^_^ Inside the city metro: Train doors opened...  ...and closed. This was interesting for me: in Spain the train doors have a green button that you have to push to open them. In Japan, the doors are all automatic, so I was quite surprised you have to open the carriage doors manually! After a short ride, we arrived at the station Villa Olympica, closest stop to the beaches area. I am here. The beaches and waterfront were better than I had imagined. Accor...