Montserrat, Spain

Sunday, April 17, 2010 Montserrat, Spain
      Larry and I enjoyed a continental breakfast Sunday morning before heading out to the tram. We found our way to the below ground subway where we finally found the train out of the city to the unusual mountain formations in Catalonia. It took us about three hours to arrive in Catalonia. Here we caught another tram that took us to the top of the mountain where an unusual monastary had been built right on the side of the mountain about 7000 feet above Catalonia. Montserrat is a spectacular Benedictine monk mountain retreat. It is not only of significant religous importance but the natural beauty surrounding the monastery is simply breathtaking.

From the train in Catalonia looking up.

It is hard to believe that they build this Cathedral and Monastery within these rock so high up in the mountain.

      After going into the massive Cathedral , we viewed an art exhibit by one of the monks. His work was fabulous. We enjoyed walking several of the steep paths that led further up to the top of the mountain, but had tremendous views of the valley below. The day happened to be Palm Sunday and many, many people were there with a limb of greenery attached to their belongings in honor of the day. Hundreds of candles had been lit in an area beside the Cathedral that was carved out of the mountainside indicating the large number Catholics who had visited there that day. This area warmed up 20 degrees due to the candles heat. It was quite a site.

Gorgeous waterfall coming down the mountain in front of the Monastery.

Outside the Cathedral

These guys had been scaling the mountains...I would have liked to have seen that!

Lots of gold inside of here.

One section of the hundreds of candles that had been lit during Palm Sunday.

The artwork of

Part of the Monastery

What an amazing view!

       The plumbing in Europe is not quite like the United States. There were five water spouts coming out of the side of a man made fountain. We did not partake in drinking this; although, many were. We have only been drinking bottled water since we arrived in Spain. 

Drinking from the many fountains from the water flowing down the mountain.

We enjoyed hiking up the hills seeing statues and plagues dedicated to many monks as well as the fabulous views.

      Since Catholics like to partake of the fine vintages, we decided to join them in support of their cause during the train ride back to Barcelona. It was a long ride home and we arrived back around 11:00pm. Larry kept me out late that night...and we had to catch an early flight the next morning to Vienna, Austria, but Montserrat had been quite a sight to see and we were glad that we made the trip to enjoy the Spanish countryside.

Barcelona, Spain

Saturday, April 16, 2011 Barcelona, Spain
      After breakfast we left the Liberty of the Seas at 9:30 AM to stand in line for almost an hour waiting for a taxi to take us to our hotel. We passed the time by having a nice conversation with a gentleman and his wife who live in Mexico. Finally we were able to get a taxi and made our way to our hotel arriving around 11:00 AM.
      We took a tram and then an underground subway to the Barcelona City Center called "La Rambla". We had many warnings from a lot of people before coming to Barcelona to be extremely careful due to the large amount of pick pockets in this area. We were told that Barcelona was the "Pickpocket Capital of the World". Once we arrived at La Rambla we could see why this could occur so easily because it was very, very packed with people. This was a very popular area for tourist and the locals. We tried to not get into the large crowds that were walking the street shopping and watching the sidewalk acts to avoid bodily contact with others. This area had unique European apartments that lined the wide sidewalk with shops, sidewalk cafes, and carts of merchandise on the lower level. It was a great area to just people watch and many were sitting in the cafes doing just that. Nice size trees lined the sidewalks and down side streets. Alleys opened into large court yards with many restaurants. Large fountains were always found in the center.

"La Rambla"...what a busy area!

Getting a drink from a fountain, for us it is a no-no!

This is a street act...put a coin in the bucket and it will ride it's bike for you !

One of the many fountains that are in the center of a square.

Motorcycles lined the streets beside La Rambla.

      We walked all the way to the end of La Rambla which ended at the pier where large ships docked and the Barcelona Aquarium sits. We crossed the street and were able to see a tall sail ship of long ago with the full moon in the back ground. Lots of people were still out and about enjoying the nice evening. We have been told that the locals eat dinner at 9:00 or there after and then spend much time in the local bars singing and dancing the night away. Larry and I were ready to head back to our hotel around 10:00, due to all the time changing that took place on the ship getting here. It took us about an hour after changing from subways to trams to get back to our hotel. We had had a long day and were glad to get into a nice bed to sleep and dream about our trip to Montserrat on the coming day.

Barcelona has tropical weather...today was a perfect 74 degrees. 

The tall ship with the moon high in the sky.

Wish we had more time...we would love to take off on one of these bikes for a ride around the city.

This is the way back to La Rambla

Valencia, Spain

Friday, April 15, 2011 Valencia, Spain
     Today began by watching the Liberty of the Seas dock while having breakfast. It was amazing to see this little red pilot boat scoot around our hugh ship and seeing the Liberty whip around and wind up at a dock. Our excursion today was taking us on a tour of the city of Valencia, one of the oldest ports in Europe and the third largest city in Spain.
     We boarded the bus and the guide discovered that half of us were English speaking and the other half were German so he really had his work cut out for him repeating everything twice .
     Around 11:00 we drove into the new, more modern Valencia. Valencia's Turia River kept flooding the city so they rerouted the river to flow south of the city in the 70's and made the area where the river once flowed into what they call a green land...parks, soccer fields, and lots of modern architectures....Imax Theater, Science Museum, Modern Art Museum, Oceanographic Marine Park and Aquarium, Opera House, Planetarium...The buildings have some of the most stunning futuristic architecture created by Valencia's own architect, Santiago Calatrava.

This is some of the most modern architecture that we have ever seen.

It almost looks space age!

The outdoors areas were nicely landscaped with dozens of waterfalls and statues. All the surrounding buildings outside of this were tall 10-12 story modern sky scrapers that looked like apartments.
      Next we walked across the street to the Fallas Museum. Every year around March 12-19th, one of the most popular fiestas in all of Spain occurs called the Las Fallas. The festival begins with parades, bullfights, dancing in the street and fireworks. Each barrio creates one enormous paper mache figure(s) of anyone well known. It is judged with only one of the three hundred and fifty becoming the winner. Each winner has been displayed in this museum since 1930. The rest of the figures are burned simultaneousely on the last night of the festival and legend has it that the last one to go out will have good luck through the year for the neighbourhood that constructed it. This must be a sight!


 These are examples of the paper mache figures that have won in the Las Fallas Festivals in the past.

       We boarded the buses and said farwell to the modern Valencia and traveled about ten minutes into the historic or old Valencia. We passed the Plaza de Toros, one of Spain's largest bull rings. Bull fighting is one of the nation's oldest and most deeply ingrained traditions. It is considered an art rather than a sport. This area has to be the heart beat of the city because people were everywhere. Little combo bands were playing music as well as an accordian player. People were everywhere... eating paella (a rice dish with chicken and seafood) and tappas on sidewalk cafes, shopping in the markets, and drinking a beer and eating olives. It was a lot of fun to watch it all with the European style apartments reaching 4 or 5 levels to the sky above the places of business.

 Beer and Olives, yucky...yucky...yucky!

The Bull Fighting Ring, Plaza de Toros

      Right in the middle of this was the Silk Market, a building that looked every inch a castle with it's turreted roof founded in 1483. Around the 16th and 17th century, this was the place where silk and textile products were made. (And I thought silk only came from the orient.) Its interior resembles a church and has large columns and ornately carved doorways. The merchants in Valencia must have been wealthy because this structure certainly had an impressive facade. It is one of the finest examples of classic Gothic architecture to be found in Europe.

The Silk Market

Inside the Silk Market...really high ceilings.

This looks like a castle, but it is part of the Silk Market.

      From here we walked down the street to the Plaza del Mercado, hugh indoor market. The inside looked more like a church than a market with its high domed ceiling, stained glass windows and massive wood carved doorways. If you worship food then this is your own Cathedral, the largest indoor market in Europe with over 8000 square meters of space offering every type of fish , meat, fruit,and vegetable that you can imagine. We saw octopus, live eel, and the hugh famous Spanish hams that take two years to cure. It had plenty of delicacies strange and familar, and it was busy, busy, busy. 

Inside the Plaza del Mercado, the largest indoor market in Spain.

Spain is known for their hams that take two years to cure.

For a minute we thought we were home!

     Walking down a few narrow alleys we came to the Valencia Medieval Cathedral, right in the center of the city. It dates back to the 13th century and was built on the original site of a Roman Temple. The interior styles reflect that of Roman, Gothic and Baroque. Larry and I payed 4 euros and climbed the steep, steep octagonal bell tour built in the 1300's. It rises over 160 feet into the sky and has the largest bell weighing over 10 tons. Climbing the tower afforded us a beautiful view of the city and a chance to regain our breath. Whew!!!!

Valencia Medival Cathedral

The tower we climbed

That is one big bell!

One of the fantastic views from the top of the bell tower.

     On the way back to the bus, we saw one of the two entrances of the city gates that remain from the original wall that at one time surrounded the city. It was impressive to see that it was in excellent condition. We wondered why they had destroyed the wall leaving only this entrance. It looked like something that you would see in a movies, except it was the real thing. I was amazed.

One of the two remaining originial gates that opened to the old city of Valencia.

Although Valencia is famous for its magnificent orange groves  (we did wee orange and lemon trees lining the streets) and the beauty of its long beaches, we did not have a chance to see them... Maybe next time. We returned to the ship in time to board and wave farewell to one great city. Tonight we must pack and get ready for the next phase of our trip....Two days of touring Barcelona, a flight to Vienna, Austria, and then a train ride to Budapest, Hungary. We can hardly wait for the next part of our adventure to begin.

Malaga,Marbella, & Puerto Banus, Spain

Thursday, April 14, 2011 Malaga, Marbella, & Puerto Banus, Spain
     The Liberty of the Seas docked at Malaga, the second largest port in Spain at 7:00 AM. Larry and I had breakfast in our room to get ready quicker for our excursion that left at 8:15. Folks who were walking into the town of Malaga had about a 45 minute journey (close to 3 miles). We boarded our bus right off the ship and headed into the city of 600,000 which was experiencing the morning rush hour. Malaga is the birthplace of Pablo Picasso.
     The bus took us first to the center of Malaga where we could see the beautiful Central Park...full of tropical trees and flowers.... very lush and maticulously maintained. The guide pointed out numerous Mudjar and Gothic architectures such as the Alcazaba Palace (a historic castle built in the 11th century as the residence for the Arabian Kings), Gibralfaro Castle (an ancient Moorish fortress that sat up on a hill over looking the Mediterranian) and the Malaga Cathedral built over two centuries ago on the site of a former mosque. It features 17th century carved choir stalls, fine pictures, and 103 individually carved saints. They have preserved the old buildings that date back for centuries, but right along side of those buildings there are modern high rises like we see in the US. This region of Spain looks quite prosperous and is a vacation spot for all the surrounding countries. Twenty-five percent of the residents are from other countries other than Spain.
     Moving along the busy four lane highway, we continued on to the city of Marbella, home of Antoino Bandaraz. Here we walked through even narrower allys (than in Cadiz) admiring the beautiful displays that the shops had along the way

A wide variety of shops from fabrics, hardware, clothing, shoes, toys, housewares and small cafes were around every turn with beautiful flowers and greenery along the way. We also saw another Cathedral that had the most exquisite chandoliers from Italy.

Fountains and statues were intermixed during our walk. The Moorish influence in the architecture was evident especially in the tile work.
     We loaded the bus and journeyed on to Puerto Banus, the boat marina of the rich and famous, namely Julio Iglesius and princes from Saudi Arabia. Here we walked amoung the yachts from London, Gabralter, and Russia viewing a bust of Don Juan at the end of one dock. Whitewashed condomiums and villas were stacked on top of exclusive shops and streets where Peogeot, Fiat, and BMWs were parked. All cars were small. We enjoyed beautiful landscapes and views of the jetty leading out to the Mediterranian Sea with a tan colored beaches running up the coast.
     After spending about an hour walking through shops and down docks, we boarded the bus and headed back to our ship. The bus unloaded us in a brand new terminal where we had to pass through the metal detectors of Spain. Many of the excursions were returning about the same time as ours causing a long line to form in the front of the building. We must have looked honest because the policeman flagged Larry and I on through the door down another path that didn't nuke us for metal nor scan my bag. It was nice to just move along. Inside there were many duty free shops...we mossied through a few and then decided to walk to the end of the pier, past our ship. The port had built a long sea wall creating a man-made dock that provided lots of protection from the merging sea. We enjoyed the sun and fresh air, taking pictures along the way. Once we returned back to the boat around 1:30, we jumped into our swim suits and headed for the upper deck to catch a few rays. It was toasty to soak in the sun and read a book...Larry enjoyed his bluegrass on the MP3 player. After dinner we went to see the Three Tenors Show. Although the three guys had fantastic voices, we weren't sold on Opera so we tiptoed out and went to the 70's and 80's sounds of a four man band in the Spinks Lounge on the deck below. They were a great band...almost as good as the Halfways.
     It was another fantastic day!

Cadiz, Spain

Wednesday, April 13, 2011 Cadiz, Spain

       Today the Liberty of the Seas pulled into the Cadiz dock at 10:00 AM. Cadiz is situated on a sliver of land that was jutting out into the Atlantic Ocean. After a nice healthy breakfast (The Three Bear Special) we headed down the dock toward the famous Walls of Cadiz , built during the 17th century. Cadiz may be the oldest inhabited city in the western world with more than 3000 years of history. Christopher Columbus departed from Cadiz on two of his voyages with one of those voyages discovering the Americas. By the 18th century, Cadiz had become the wealthiest port in Western Europe, importing gold and silver form the New World and exporting local specialties, cork and sherry.
      It was another picture perfect day of 74 degrees with nice breezes blowing. Cadiz is situated on a peninsula with the famous "old" wall running between the Atlantic Ocean and the city. We walked to the Plaza de Espana featuring beautiful architecture and monuments before actually walking through the parks and taking in the ocean views along the wall.

The old wall is behind me.

Plaza de Espana

The walkway along the wall....the wall is keeping the Atlantic Ocean (to the right) out of the city.

Larry needed a rest from all the walking.

The old city wall offers many panoramic views. Fish of good size could be spotted in the clear blue water. The delightful aroma of spring flowers could be smelled all along the wall. We stopped at a sidewalk cafe to quench our thirst and then continued on to have lunch at the beach, Playa de la Caleta. Many people were out enjoying the sun and the water. After lunch we continued on to the Cathedral, one of the many architechturally notable buildings that was finished in the 19th century.

Walking toward the Cathedral Dome.

 Several construction styles are evident of the Cathedral due to the phases and influences at the time that it was being built. The Cathedral was built with gold from the New World. We enjoyed having free WIFI on the steps of the Cathedral.

      The streets of Cadiz are brick cobblestoned and most traffic runs beside the wall walkway. Other small allys traversed through the middle of the town with lots of shops and sidewalk restaurants with tables, unbrellas, and chairs.

Narrow alley

 One that we stopped at had an accordian player serenading the tables of people eating. Above the shops are several floors of apartments with the short veranda double doors that are typical European style....the kind that you can walk out on but are not roomy enough to place a chair.

Here we heard the most musical birds sing from cages out on the verandas. These allys ran continually throughout the inner parts of Cadiz. Occasionally a motor bike or a small car would run through the ally scurring the pedistians to the sides. There was hardly enough room for the people to get out of the way for the car to come through. All of the cars that we have seen are very small, no SUVs or vans. 

It was scenic as the sun changed postions during the afternoon and it was unique to watch the shops reopen at 5:00 as the owners returned from their 2:00 PM siesta closing. Banks closed at 2:00 for the day. The post office reopened at 5:00 and remained open until 8:30 in the evening.
      On our walk back to the port we noticed two others ships that had docked as well as ours...Holland America and Aidablu.
      As the ship pulled away from the dock at 8:30, the sun was setting showing multiple shades of orange and red and pink...picture perfect. At midnight tonight the Liberty of the Seas will be passing the Rock of Gibralter, the narrow eight mile pass between Spain and Morroco.

Santa Cruz, Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain

April 11, 2011 Santa Cruz, Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain

     We arrived in the Port of Santa Cruz, the capital of the Canary Islands, around 8:00 AM. Tenerife is the largest of the Canary Islands and is located 180 miles west of Africa. After our seven day cruise across the Atlantic Ocean, Larry and I embarked on a excursion to see the number one sight of Tenerife, the "National Park Las Canadas". The bus drove through the city of Santa Cruz showing us many businesses and residential areas. When we boarded the bus we could see that Tenerife was very mountainous, with high jagged peaks and small communities sitting in the narrow valleys. The bus went down two lane paved roads that wound around the mountains where we saw grape vineyard and terrace gardens of potatoes, tomatoes, cabbage, and corn. Many of the residents have a terrace garden because everything is basically brought in by ship and they enjoy having the fresh vegetables that they can grow on their own. The temperature today was perfect... 74 degrees. Our guide said that this is the typical temperature  and that many Englanders and Germans come to the Canary Islands for vacations each year. Tourism is the number one business. During our drive we saw many tropical tree, palms, oranges, bananas, and kumquats. The terrain changed five times. After leaving the city, we went to the terraced areas, and next to the woods called La Esperanza Forest with tall green pines rising to the sky. Here we stopped to take scenic pictures of the clouds below that were forming from the Portugese trade winds and Mt. Teide, a volcano that erupted over a thousand years ago. Mt. Teide was over 12,000 feet and had snow on the top. It was beautiful against the blue sky. We also saw a unusual rock formation that looked like a daisy although it was called the "Rose".

     Again we boarded the bus to ride even higher into the mountains, and arriving at the National Park. Here the terrain changed again to a mixture of volcanic rocks and plants that were beginning to flower. We stopped again at a restaurant and had tea and binkies, a vanilla shortbread cookie. We had an enjoyable conversation with another couple from Hawaii and Great Britian who had just bought a third home in Orlando. Why would you need a third home? Their flight from England to Hawaii is 24 hours and they need a place to stop over and rest between the two. The restaurant also served a hot chocolate and coffee. After this short break we went back to bus to ride  past a gondolla ride up to the top of Mt. Teide which acended 3000 feet in eight minutes and would take you about 200-300 meters from its crater. We were told that it would take about 30 minutes to walk to the crater at that height due to the air being so thin.  We were astonished to find that the ride carried 40 people at a time. I am glad that we were not taking that ride.

     The bus progressed on to an area that had unusual rock formations and another volcano that had blown its top completely off. We climbed steep steps and then rugged terrain to the highest part to take pictures down into the flat dormant crater. This area is refered to as the moon surface because of the volcanic rocks.This area is also famous because the movie, "Clash with the Titans" with Liam Neilson was filmed here.

       Next we road back out of the park and took a different road heading back toward Santa Cruz. We passed a national conservatory with the largest telescope in the world and back through another forest of tall Tanerife Pines that had survived a forest fire. The guide told us that the pine was able to always withstand fire because of its hard wood. Evidence of fire appeared on the trucks with the bark being black. The guide told us that the needles would reappear within a couple of years after a fire.

     After passing through the forest we, came to another unusual land formation called "A Piece of Cake" . Here we saw a layered slab of land that looked like a giant's slice of cake with various layers of chocolate and vanilla. Also the clouds had formed a larger barrier between us and the sea below. It was a beautiful sight and very unusual.

     We journeyed on passing homes, more vineyards, terrace gardens, and the airport. It was a beautiful day with lots of sunshine . We were surprised that when we arrived back at the ship, the clouds that we had seen covering the city had left, leaving a gorgeous day behind. We decided to walk down to the cyber cafe and try our luck at checking the email. The service was much much cheaper than the ship, but the connection was very weak. We walked toward the town and enjoyed taking picutres of the marina and flowers that were on the island. It turned out to be a wonderful day off the ship.

The internet is not working well, so I will add more pictures once we are in a better service.