We had it all

Oh yes, Florida gave it all to us: sunshine, sitting outside in 75°F/24°C at 10 pm at night in shorts and t-shirt. – And then it said goodbye with thunderstorms, torrential rain, spring flood and tornado warning – yes we had it all – and we still didn’t want to go. But we had to.

So we departed yesterday, spending half the day in the cinema and eating out, had a pleasant business class flight from Miami to Düsseldorf, and then a less pleasant one from Düsseldorf to Berlin. Temperature difference 35 degrees Celsius and about 40 degrees Fahrenheit. Snowy white here. Looks nice, but feels wrong.

Washing machine is running, T out shopping, me unpacking, well we are back, sort of…

J

I love Florida

On Tuesday I went for a long walk, from the Beach to Howard Birch Park (my favorite) and then onto Barnes&Noble and Whole Foods via some Starbucks who offer a Vivanno Smoothie here, which is milk, water a whole banana and a little chocolate with no added sugar and a dream in this weather.

So here are some impressions from this walk:

J

Note to myself

Yes we have arrived on good old American soil

got our SUV

and a nice hotel Hyatt Place:

Spacey rooms, Pool, quiet, a freezing entrance hall, an A/C from the last century which blows your head away when you turn it on – and a breakfast area designed for 5, but used by 50 people.

The weather is in the high 80s F or 29°C – in the shade, so hotter than any summer in Berlin this year.

We should have kept that in mind when we headed for an Einstein Bagel Breakfast on a short stroll round the corner:

Note to myself:
there is no short stroll in America

Note to myself:
It is blazing hot even at 9 in in the morning

Note to myself:
The seats inside are always taken

So after being totally exhausted from breakfast, we headed down to Sawgrass Mills Shopping Mall for – who would have guessed – shopping, and a nice lunch at the Grand Lux.

J

Paraiso Perdido – Paradise Lost

We had to leave the ship, nobody wanted to, but we finally arrived in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. (and would we really want to go on a Caribbean Cruise with 600 children?) – So we were expelled of Paradise – but fortunately thrown into the loving arms of Florida.

Yes, we have been “turned” as J put it so nicely.
We had been CVs (Cruise Virgins) – obviously the only ones on the ship, since the majority has done 15, 29,.. cruises.

And although I have been very skeptic, a cruise definitely is appealing. And why is that? Let’s get a little bit into details and describe the daily routine on sea days.

You get up at the time of your liking, maybe with sunrise from your balcony, then you can have breakfast in your cabin or join “ the others” on deck 14 for self service – which is the five star version of it. You can have nearly everything there, muffins, bagels, all sorts of bread, eggs scrambled, cooked, Benedict, ham, sausages, fruits and salad – an overwhelming amount of employees looking after the counter for the immediate refill, or heating your bread as you like it – or the swarm of helpers cleaning the tables. Of course you can sit outside, you will always meet some friends or new acquaintances to chat with,

Then the difficult choice of what to do next – meanwhile your cabin has been immaculately made (bed, bathroom, they also hoovered) – I normally went for reading outside on the balcony looking on the water and the sun (even without it is nicely warm and we have snuggle blankets as well) , T was normally meeting with friends, or we were having a massage or a shave treatment, pedicure, manicure in the Spa Area.

Now comes Food again: the deck 14 now has changed the food and you have a most diverse warm cuisine ( Shepherd's Pie, Spaghetti with many sauces, curries, meat in different varieties, salads – made or put together by yourself – chili, and deserts…..)

But I always had to hurry to get to my lecture about the Great Explorers of the Sea (Columbus, Magellan, Cook) at 1.30 pm by Dr. Kathleen Wulf, Professor Emeritus of USC (university of Southern California).

And afterwards I always had my quality time with C, a dear friend, which I see too rarely, him living in the US, chatting up and having a cookie.

Meanwhile T was onto Ship’s Bingo or Card Games, Domino, a lot of activities within the “Friends of Dorothy” group on the ship (for the really unsuspecting: this is the gay crowd on the cruise, and you won’t believe how many there are)

At 4 pm come the Schnickkedönschen (Cheese and fruits), we won’ t live hungry lives, will we, brought directly to your cabin.

Afterwards T dashes to the gym for workout, sauna and swimming (dipping) in the pool – while I relish on the balcony, reading and enjoying the most beautiful sunsets.

Come evening we will go to the Grand Epernay (or T even half an hour earlier for Cocktail with the Dorothies), that is the Dining Area where everybody is seated at 6 pm or second seating 8.30 pm, our time. Let’s just say it was the social event of the day, all 12 meeting at the table for getting up on news of the day and enjoying a 4-course meal, with small portions and definitely not to my liking, since the kitchen and the choices could definitely not compete with the self-service on deck 14.

On the three formal nights we evaded the Grand Epernay and went to the Tuscan Grill (yes, there are a lot more restaurants on board, we won’t starve), excellent steak and Italian cuisine. Either as a tête-à-tête or with our friends D².

Of course during the Dinner the cabin has been made, you received the daily newspaper of activities on the ship for the next day, a little chocolate on the cushion (not hungry to bed!).

Then you could meet for Cocktails or see a show on stage – or just retire, definitely not hungry, to bed.

J

Bem-vindo a Portugal, bem-vindo a Funchal

What a fantastic greeting for the sailors and so not catholic. Yes, we arrived in Funchal, Madeira. Finally home, at least a little bit. No problems with languages or culture.

– And an organizational disaster. It took us 1,5 hours to finally leave the ship and they extended the already short stay therefore for 0,5 hours. That was the worst of a long line of going ashore problems we faced. Don’t think that only because it says being at a port from 10 to 17 actually means you got that time. No no no. At least 15 to 30 minutes to set up the gangway and 15 minutes before leaving you have to be on board. There goes your first hour. Then imagine 2800 people leaving the ship on only 2 gangways, yes that is another half hour at least – and then: you are not in the city, you are at the harbor, miles away if unlucky and that means another 30 minutes, either waiting for the unorganized shuttle buses or walking or –like we did: save the time and take a cab.

So there we were, 15 minutes after leaving the ship taking on our shopping mall outside Madeira, beautifully built into the mountain. And there we were looking for books, presents, newspaper and little things (like an extension cord which then led to a confiscation on board) and of course freshly baked Pasteis de Nata (custard tarts) for all of us for the 5°clock cookie time. Packed like donkeys we headed back the same way (taxi) to the ship to free ourselves from the goodies. Torsten wanted to stay on board while I went on foot exploring the city, where of course all shops were closed, like we suspected.

Here are some images of the small town of Funchal which simply is lovely. The whole scenery reminded me of the Black Forest only with tropical plants (banana trees seem to be weed here).

lovely gay Christmas decoration

a river running through the city

sea promenade

- coming back to the ship, my husband was already waiting for me

and now six days at sea.

J

one day at sea – no time at all

Yes, one would think that after 5 days of touring and exploring, this day would only been reserved for relaxing and taking it slow. – No way!

I had to make an appointment with my husband to have at least a lunch together at 2.15 pm to see each other.

First thing you have to get used to on board: no communication via mobile. Try it, it’s not that easy, if you’re used to it. Once separated you can not be sure when you will see each other again.

So after a refreshing hot stone massage (during which T had his facial/shaving/…) I was having´a lecture on Portugal, very nice, very concise. Actually something for the brain which I didn’t expect. Normally from the cruise director it’s more selling and fun, fun, fun. Don’t get yourself bored or have a minute of not doing anything. You can occupy yourself 24/7 with dancing, bingo, Spa, cocktail classes, language classes, shows, cinema, martini bars – and fortunately you don’t have to do anything at all, and just sit on your balcony enjoying life.

T can tell you more about the Friends of Dorothy activities, here are some interior pictures:

J

Cartagena - Karthago

When I first heard the name Cartagena, I didn’t know anything about the city. Until my birthday when we met my old friend T and his lovely wife J. He just told me that it was Cartago - and it all came back to me:

Hannibal, elephants over the alps, fighting Rome, Hasdrubal, Hamilcar, the three Punic Wars – from that point on it was the most interesting stop for historic reasons for me.

It is today a very small town, surrounded by bare hills, very Mediterranean and reminded me a lot of Israel.

They are still discovering ancient remains since the last 20 years, and one might think that they actually haven’t cared about their history for a long time

Pictures of the Roman Amphitheatre are still on T’s cam, so you have to wait for that.

The Punic episode was not that long, but ist is fascinating and while visiting the Punic Walls (old stone remains) I took some pictures of the exhibition:

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After the first museum T was bored and went discovering the shopping opportunities and drinking the chocolate, which actually is made from real chocolate.

The only thing I discovered while promenading was a weapon store which actually sold machine guns, displaying them in the window.

J

Barcelona

and well a bit of yesterday as well to brag about, really.

Due to the fact that J and I had already packed almost 60 kilos of luggage we had no desire to bring any formal clothing onboard and to rent a tux for 130 USD per person did not sound very reasonable either.

For those of you not familiar with cruise ship, there are usually formal nights on board that require you to wear a suit or a tuxedo – but this cruise ship has other option so we went to a signature restaurant with our friends D&D yesterday.

And … IT … WAS … ABSOLUTELY … FANTASTIC

here are just two pictures – the food was mouthwatering, the service well a bit too much really – since you pretty much were taken care of five waiters… :) But let me tell you Kobe beef meetballs are just amazing!!!!!

But today’s stop was Barcelona – this was our second time in Barcelona – and yet again we only visited for the day.

J was feeling a bit under the weather so we took a taxi up the city to the Sagrada Familia by Gaudí – as we did not get to see that last time. It has been a work in progress ever since they started building and it was awesome – here are some pictures from the out and inside.

We walked further, bought a few things here and there and we are both certain that we are going to come back to Barcelona in the future.

The last mile we thought why not catch a cab, the walk to the ship wasn’t the nicest – so I had some time to take pictures from deck 15…

mhm yes, we have a Basketball court…

and a heliport.

Off to dinner soon – well a cocktail with the friends of Dorothy’s first, really. :-)

T

The Filthy Rich

Today our Cruise Ship anchored near Villefranche sur Mer a village located between Nice and Monaco on the Cote d’Azur.

Right before breakfast I got our tender tickets to go the mainland – compared to yesterday the sail over was easy as 1-2-3.

J and I went separate ways today, as he was very keen on visiting the little Chagall museum in Nice and I was very keen on visiting Monte Carlo in Monaco.

He said that he enjoyed Nice, even though the city is not as nice as one might think. I guess it also depends on where you get to go if you like four hours per city.

My arrival in Monte Carlo was impressive. The train station is inside a mountain and you need to take lift up 11 levels to get outside.

Elevators and escalators are very common in Monte Carlo as the city as well as the Principauté is actually very small – but built into a mountain

this gets you a bit of an idea what I mean…

Everything was very clean and very effective. I had to go into a shopping center ( yes, I know – twist my arm it was terrible LOL ) and OMG – the Filthy Rich went shopping. I have never seen so many people wearing fur coats, displaying tons of jewelry and getting drinks from their servants…

It really is something else and I would like to spend some more time with J at the Cote d’Azur as it seems to be a very nice place to be.

I did a bit of a workout to make sure that I don’t gain any weight on this cruise. So a bit of swimming, and an hour in the gym should at least let me keep my weight!

While I am typing this on the balcony of our cabin err Stateroom the sun is setting. We will depart Villefrance in about 20 minutes and then it is off to Barcelona. J is trying to set out agenda for Barcelona and this is the few from the balcony as the day ends.

At 7 pm we have dinner reservations at the Tuscan Grille and are looking very much forward to this culinary highlight.

T