Phillipsburg, St. Maarten

Tuesday, November 5, 2013 Phillipsburg, St. Maarten
The ship tied up to the docks at 7:00am...right along side three other ships.... Disney Fantasy, Liberty of the Sea, and Norwegian Epic. Our ship was the smallest of all...it sort of looked like the baby ship next to the Liberty of the Sea. When we walked off, we just kept looking back and saying...We took that little ship across the great big Atlantic Ocean! Amazing!

St. Maarten is a shopper's paradise! We walked into the town of Phillipsburg...about a mile along groomed sidewalk with tall palm trees. We arrived into the town along with a bunch of other folks from the other ships. We walked down Front Street, a mile long stretch that was a mixture of bars, hotels, shops and the beach front with lots of well groomed beach front on the Great Bay.

St Maarten had crystal clear aqua blue waters and white sandy beaches with a background of green mountains. Not a bad place to relax and enjoy the day!

Back in the 17th century, Dutch settlers started harvesting salt from the Great Salt Pond (directly behind the city) and sending it back to Europe, making the island known as the "Land of Salt." St. Maarten is the smallest island in the world inhabited by two nationalities. The island is split in to with the Dutch in the south and the French in the north. Interestingly, the French call the island " Saint Martin".

We went down a block from the beach and walked the mile of shopping on Back Street....Of course we had to stop and shop! It was too much of a temptation. This was one of the better island that we have ever visited. It was clean, smelled great everywhere, and all the buildings appeared to be freshly painted and modern.

After taking lots of pictures we went into the local McDonald's to send some emails and check the phone messages....as well as recoup from the heat that was outside. By 1:00 we started heading back to the ship to enjoy some quiet time before the ship set sail at 5:30. It is an enjoyable time to have the ship to yourself in the afternoons when docked in port.

We were the first ship to set sail out of the dock in the evening. Travelers on the other ships were out on their decks and on top looking down on us.

The ships all had a farewell horn blowing contest and all the passengers were waving good by. It was fun and exciting to be outside on top of our ship as we pulled out of the harbor. The sun was setting making it the end of another remarkable day.

St. Maarten was a great destination. We enjoyed the people, the scenery and our time off the ship.


 
 

Crossing the Atlantic from Lisbon, Portugal

Tuesday through Monday , October 29-November 4, 2013
We experienced a fantastic crossing of the Atlantic Ocean going from east to west for the first time. On the first day of our trip we experienced 30 foot swells so there was a lot of rocking and rolling , but the remainder of the trip was perfectly calm, blue seas during the six sea crossing days.

What have we been doing?

Walking the quarter mile track...usually 3 to 5 miles everyday.

Watching movies on the outdoor big screen and in the theatre...White House Down, The Man of Steel, The Lone Ranger, After Earth, The Great Gatsby  

Going to see great shows in the evening...our favorites were Stephen Bayliss, an outstanding British singer of pop hits, Nick Lewin, comedian-magician

Going to lectures about cars of the future, our destinations, speaking Spanish, future fuels, pirates of the past

Reading....The White Dress, The Husband's Secret, A Captain's Duty, The Drop

Listened to some great music, especially a talented musical trio from Manilla, Phillipines who played American top 40's

Experienced a total solar eclipse...which hasn't happened in five hundred years. From our spot in the Atlantic, it was dark and dim during the morning. After 12 noon, the sun was so bright.

Swimming, Biking in the gym, sitting in the hot tub and the sun

Doing crossword puzzels and sudukos

And last but not least....relaxing! No cooking! No Cleaning!

Lisbon, Portugal

Thursday, October 24, 2013
Kristy took us to Dullas Airport where we took off on British Airways at 7:00 pm. Excellent flight.. very smooth but difficult to sleep in an upright position. We watched a movie "42". Great biography about Jackie Robinson.



Friday, October 25, 2013 1st day in Portugal
We landed at Heathrow Airport in London at 6:30 am. The flight was about 6.5 hours with a 5 hour time change. Here we boarded TAP Airways at 8:30 am landing in Lisbon, Portugal at 10:30am. From the airport we took the metro using the red line and changing to the green line to the Indentation Station to our hotel. We checked in about 12:30pm and went right to bed. It had been a long night without much sleep. We got up to have a little dinner. Larry was ready to paint the town; however, I had not recuperated from the sleepless night...I continued to nap the evening away ...dreaming about what was to come.

Saturday, October 26, 2013 2nd Day in Portugal

How fortunate we were to wake up to a day that it was not raining. The Portuguese had told us that it had been raining for the past week and this weekend was supposed to be great weather!



We enjoyed a little breakfast of fresh rolls and a ham omelet at a local cafe called "Capri" (specializing in baked confections)

and then started on our way toward the city center. We enjoyed walking through a park with water fountains of various shapes and sizes.

We continued our walk to a square where a farmer's market was set up with little individual tents of cheeses, honey, fresh breads,

 jewelry, sangria,

 

 

olives,

 



cork products, and other interesting venues. (Portugal produces more than half of the world's supply of cork. Wine corks are produced from cork trees as well as belts, shoes, jewelry, purses, and other products.) We walked past the Tower of Lisbon which had a long line of visitors waiting. By taking an elevator to the top you could view the red roofs of the city.

Passing many restaurants and shops we arrived at the waterfront. Here we enjoyed seeing the gateway to the city  and the yellow palace which appeared to be the center of government....Lisbon is the capital of the country.

 

 

 It was situated on a square with a popular walkway along the waterfront. A stage was set up in the square for a band to play music that we enjoyed during lunch in the awesome weather. We meandered back up, up, up, up one of the seven hills of Lisbon looking for Trolley 28, a vintage trolley car WHEW! Shop keepers were  closing their store fronts...it was siesta time....at 1:00 in the afternoon.

The trolley was late arriving due to a protest that was taking place. We enjoyed talking with the locals while waiting for about half an hour. Boarding the trolley we rode throughout the city seeing many of the sights that we visited during our spring trip to Lisbon.

The trolley dropped us off at our hotel. From there we went to a little Portuguese Restaurant to have a salad, and grilled chicken dinner that came with fries and rice (of all things). Luckily, we arrived just as the restaurant opened at 6:30. While we were served, a long line continually formed out the door, the locals waited patiently for their dinner...little did we know that we had chosen such a popular place. Grilled foods are very popular dishes in Portugal....our last cruise served grilled meats and kabobs out on the deck as a farewell to Lisbon celebration.

Sunday, October 27, 2013 3rd day in Portugal
We rose to a beautiful sunshine. We had a quick breakfast at Capri

and then were off to the city center to catch a train to Sintra, a quaint village about 45 minutes outside of Lisbon. Here we met a couple who were going to be traveling on cruise ship...what a small world! Anyway we had an enjoyable time talking with them during our train ride. Upon arriving at Sintra we could see the castle on the hillside, the seaside in the distance, a couple of cathedrals and a couple of palaces.

The place was very popular to stroll around on a Sunday afternoon and we enjoyed the statues and art work along the way. The gardens and European structures had given Sintra the title of being one of the most romantic places in Portugal...and it really was.

Music was played on the sidewalks. The sights were scenic from every direction. One of the most striking structures in the vista was the 15th century National Palace, the oldest surviving royal palace in Portugal.

It is still used for official receptions today. After visiting the town, we tackled the 30 minute hike up the hillside leading up to the thousand year old Moorish castle ruins.

Winding pathways of old, old structures and walls followed the upward grade toward the ancient castle. You could imagine the reason for building up on the hill, because you could easily see who was coming by land or sea...the Atlantic Ocean.

Our wonderful day in Sintra ended when a teenage tourist girl tried to slip through the train gate on Larry's card. Larry got through, but her head got caught in the gate...Larry to the rescue. He jumped upon the machine and used his legs to pry the gate open a tad so that her wedged head was relieved of the pressure of the gate. The gate finally opened after about a five minute wait and we imagine that young lady will not go through another gate on someone else's ticket... we bet she had one heck of a head ache that night.

Monday, October 28, 2013 4th day in Portugal and Departure on the Vision of the Sea
Everyday the sun can't shine and it choose today to take a break off and on. After breakfast, Larry went to purchase a portable CD player. He found one and hurried back to hotel just in time for the noon check out. We had a quick lunch and then boarded the metro...taking our luggage down one long flight of stairs to the underground station...no elevators or escalators in the older parts of the city. We rode the green line to the end and then boarded the 714 bus for about a 5 minute ride to the ship. The rain stopped while we were on the bus making our short walk from the bus stop to the ship a smooth little journey. Check in at the ship was quick without a wait. We got to our room around 2:00 to unpack and then ventured out for a tour of our ship, Royal Caribbean Vision of the Sea. 5:00 we had the safety meeting and 6:30pm she set sail out of the harbor passing under the replica of the Golden Gate Bridge and by the Statue of Christ.

We have seen a statue just like this one in East Timor that had been placed on the hillside when Pope John Paul arrived on the island. We are also planning to visit the famous Christ Statue in Rio de Janeiro in February.




We waved good bye to all the twinkling night lights of Lisbon thinking about all that we had seen over the past few days. Would we want to spend more time in Portugal? YES! The country is easy to travel through, a combination of old and modern, and definitely not touristy. Portugal is culturally diverse. We saw many Africans (with traditional dress)...because Africa is so close.

   So if you like friendly locals, exotic old architecture, castles, mosaic tiles, scenic red roofs and inexpensive wine....Portugal is just the place for you.

After dinner, we attended the welcome aboard show and then shuffled off to bed for a night of heavy rocking and rolling. We were experiencing the aftermath of the storm that had hit Great Britain with the gale force winds. The captain announced that all the ladies needed to put their stilettos away for the first day at sea because it was going to be a rough ride.