Day 6 - Mediterranean Cruise - Genoa, Italy

 Photos from the ship at breakfast showed a picture perfect city in Genoa, aka Genova as the locals call it.

We got off the ship and walked along the shore admiring the sights and buying some drinks while we got some pics in.

 Ruth Ann and I finally touched the Mediterranean sea and Ken got a pic of the occasion.

We found a tiny shop, which mostly sold cigarettes but I bouht some postcards and a pen, which only worked for the one time I used it.  I'll stick in a refill!

There was a grocery store across the street so we explored there too.  I found a tinned fish for Leon and a whole shelf of Barilla pasta noodles!  My son does business with them so I sent it to him.

A huge pirate ship sat in the harbor, found out later from Matt, our Segway guide, that it was used in the Roman Polanski film, "Pirates", a while back.  Then also used in the movie "Hook" and several others.  it was eventually gifted to the city Genoa.  I'm going to have to look up the Pirates one!

The McDonald's menu had alcohol on the menu!  Crazy!

The ship and backdrop were so pretty!

We climbed a bunch of stairs for an overlook area and a gate was shut.  It wasn't locked so Ken opened it and we went all the way up.  

We were taking pics and selfies when suddenly a policeman came up the stairs and shooed us back down.  

Whoops!  Another encounter with polizia  :)  

We got to the Segway tour office, just under those stairs actually and intending to see 20 people in our group, it was just us 4 along with Matt our guide.  He was great!  He taught each of us how to get on, get off and ride the Segways. 

Each of us got about 5 minutes to practice before we set out following him like little ducks following their mommy.  

He stopped in various spots to give us history of the city and about those spots in particular.  

Banks started here as did paper money.  

The bankers had desks out in the square and if one lost everything, he pulled out an axe and broke up his desk.  The first bankruptcy!

  Prior to Genoa, everyone carried around bags of gold coins.

He took us to the oldest parts where kings had lived.  

It was gorgeous and still in use as housing or shops!  

Statues and art work that dated back a couple thousand years were everywhere.  

As we rode higher up the mountain, 

you could feel like you were going back a few hundred years in time with every level you ascended.  

Then as we came down the other side, it got more and more modern day.

He told us about a famous violinist that was from here around the time of Mozart.  

He was SO popular and quite the womanizer that he called himself "the devil".  

Niccolo Paganini

A lot of people tried to ban him from having concerts and opposed him but it just made people want to see him more.  He was quite the rock star!  Anyway, there is a statue of him in a grand concert hall here and we got to ride the Segways around it as it was in the courtyard of the place.

We stopped in front of a cathedral where Matt told the story of during WWII, while Genova was being bombed, one such bomb dropped through the roof of this church, made from 2 different types of beautiful marble.  It was a miracle as it did not explode!  He said that it's still inside the church to remind the parishioners of God's grace and power.  Amazing story and amazing church!

After the tour, we did a little shopping and saw the fish market stands. There were fresh eels and lots of fish with their eyes still in. ew.  Kind of fish smelling too but you could tell it was all fresh.  Robb would have hated it and encouraged me to move on!

We purchased a lot of souvenirs down this beautiful hall.  Kind of a strip mall, looking for something to eat.  I bought my Genova sweatshirt here!  We ate at a McDonalds that was tucked inside. It had an elevator for seating upstairs.  AND McDonalds over there had salads!!!  I miss the ones in the US.

Ken and Teresa went back to the ship and Ruth Ann and I explored and looked for more souvenirs on our own.  We walked down some streets from the earlier tour and found the cathedral that Matt told us about.  

We wanted to see if Matt was a big fat liar but sure enough!  

The now deactivated bomb is in the corner of the sanctuary with a big plaque next to it.

The Genova aquarium was on the dock area and featuring MOBY DICK La Balena.  I guess they had a whale!  So I took a pic of their advert banner for Leon.  He's in the middle of reading it.

I got a call from work about that time and they needed my help.  We got it straightened out via WhatsApp and they felt bad for calling me.  That's ok!

Ruth Ann was on a mission to get a little surprise for each of her kids and grandkids.  Whew!  I'd need a list if I had as many as she has but she did it!  Just not all at Genova.

We got back to the ship in plenty of time but it seemed like we'd walked for miles.  Ruth Ann and I were on our own and took a few wrong turns.  There are NO straight through streets in Italy.  Be thankful for square blocks in Iowa!  Anyway, we were exhausted and ate at the buffet again instead of in the L'Ibiscus and the cruise ship set off again, this time for Florence, Italy.

End of Day 6

Day 5 - Mediterranean Cruise - France

 Or rather NOT France.

We arrived in Marseille at 7am Monday, but didn't go into the port.  We found out that the dock workers were on strike and there were protesters in port blocking things for political reasons.

So the passengers waiting to get off the ship were sitting in all the atriums grumpy with their luggage all day.  AND the passengers on land, trying to get ON the ship, weren't able to.   The captain came on the speakers every hour or so and gave us updates in 4-5 different languages each time.  He was trying to work something out with the government of France to let us dock but nothing came of it.

He announced that he wrote a "sternly" worded letter to them and we kept thinking and doing the math in our heads.  "If we land now, it'll take an hour to get off the ship with these crowds, an hour to walk around and then another hour to get back onboard..."  hmmm  Then we dropped each of the times in half with each disappointing announcement until it just wasn't worth it.

So the 4 of us spent the day exploring the ship.  

Being that it was chill and winter out, only very brave people attempted the outdoor hot tubs and the pools were not open.  So we found an open table on the deck and talked, sharing photos we'd taken so far.

Over in the corner of the deck, we noticed about 30 kids, found out later they were 15ish yo students from Rome on a class trip.  They were playing ping pong and accidentally hit the ball way off base towards the tables.  A man in a blue jacket was sitting at one nearby and grabbed the ball as it rolled past him. He promptly tucked it in his pocket and refused to give it back.

The kids swarmed around him asking for it and he sat there with his girlfriend/wife all smug and ignored them.  Then he got up and left the deck.  The kids were amazed at his audacity and looked around for help.

THIS is where we came in.  They noticed us watching and came over to see if we could help.  Since Ruth Ann and I had been studying Italian, we caught a bit of what they were asking.  We were stumbling on one word so one girl finally whipped out her cell phone and her translation app. 

AHA!  Chiesto - You already asked for a new ball!  Got it!

Well, they won't refuse two determined grown up women!!!

So Ruth Ann and I went into Mommy mode and said, "WE'LL take care of it!" and we headed out the door to the Savannah bar where the extra balls were.  We got that part translated just fine!

As we walked out, a few of the kids called out after us "We LOVE you!" in English! lol!  Well, we don't have the extra ping pong balls yet, so hold your applause.

After much searching, we finally tracked down the girl guarding all the various types of balls.  She was only instructed to give us ONE ball!  I asked for another pretending not to be with Ruth Ann, but she said, "ONE ball!" and pointed at Ruth Ann.  Yikes!  Okey dokey then!  

The kids were grateful for the ball and swarmed back around the ping pong tables.  We saw them around the ship during the next few days.  And we saw the blue jacket guy at breakfast each day!  What a jerk.

Well, it turned out that we were NOT going to land in Marseille France after all.  We felt the ship start moving around 8pm that night and only afterward 30 minutes or so, the captain made the announcement that we were heading to the next port, Genoa, Italy.  The people with their luggage were given their rooms back and the people on shore were bussed to Italy.  If you were on the FB group for this ship, there were grumblers!!  Which I don't blame them!  I'm sure they missed their flights or work.

Everyone, including us, received $100 each toward onboard credit toward our bills or purchases in the gift shop which was rarely open, but I took advantage of it when it was and got more souvenirs! :)

And poor Teresa and Ken!  This was their 2nd attempt to land in Marseille!!  So they STILL haven't been to France.  The last cruise they were on here, they couldn't land because of high winds so the cruise line took them to Monaco for the day instead.

Third time will be a charm!

End Day 5.

Day 4 Mediterranean Cruise - Still Barcelona & then the Ship

 Day 4 Mediterranean Cruise - Still in Barcelona

Ruth Ann and I are early risers, so around 5, we saw the party stragglers walking home. And then saw some people heading off for work.  That was Sunday morning.  We weren't meeting up with Teresa and Ken until 9ish, so we walked down La Ramblas looking for a coffee.  The lady at the hotel desk mentioned a place but we couldn't find anything local open, however we DID find a McDonalds!  It had an elevator to get to it but we used the stairs down.  The coffee was good and we shared the BEST croissant!  It was super flakey and we made a mess.

We walked back and met up with the others.  We checked out and walked down the alleyways to the seashore.  

Me, thinking I was on a sidewalk, blocked policemen on motorbikes and since my hearing isn't the best, blocked them for a good awkward minute...

I rolled my suitcase along and through what I thought was rainwater and wondered where it fell from as there wasn't a gutter there.  Um no.  

Ken informed me that most likely some party-iers had peed on the wall of the building in an alley.  ew.  You had to be careful.

We found a staircase going down on the sidewalk and Ruth Ann and I ran down it to see the subway system that had made our room rumble in the night several times. We slept through most of them.

Oh, it's just a subway station. hm.

I took a pic of a sign adverting renting a bike would make you faster than a zombie and only  afterwards noticed a homeless person sleeping in a bag on the opposite side of the alley. Whoops!  Excuse me! Yes, I told him that.  Ruth Ann has been picking on me about that ever since.

All the buildings were so close in the alleys with fantastic construction cropping up out of nowhere, that it all looked like a scene straight out of a James Bond movie. 

 A lot of mosaic stuff in shop windows!

We got to the ocean and it was beautiful!  Palm trees everywhere. 

 Our cruise ship was about 5 miles down the coast 

so we found a large enough taxi at the Columbus statue roundabout.  

Below is NOT our taxi.  We each had a suitcase and carry on AND 4 people.  

So even though the taxis are in the order of being hired out, the ones in the cars were gracious enough to let us take the minivan a few cars back.

Teresa pointed out the hill behind where the Olympic village is and was, when the Olympics were there last.  It wasn't far away but we didn't have time to explore it.

The minivan taxi got us quickly to the MSC Orchestra ship. We went through security to get onboard and the walkie talkies that I'd brought got confiscated. Yes, two run-ins with police/security in the same day!  I got them back the next day after they researched them to make sure these kind were allowed.  Apparently certain types are not.  But for your info, the ones you can buy at Walmart are A-OK! 

They didn't work so great anyway so if you were on the opposite end of the ship you couldn't understand the other person at all and there are only so many times, I'll say WHAT?! really loudly.  Oh well.  They got left in my bag for the rest of the trip. If you need any walkie talkies, I've got 'em!

We got onboard the ship and since we weren't able to go to our rooms immediately, we enjoyed some complimentary mimosas and then explored the ship where we got some food up in the buffet.  mmm..   Lots of varieties at the buffet.  Always pizza, burgers and fries for lunches and dinner with loads of other alternatives for meats, prepared a million different ways and in different nationalities.

Around 2:30ish, we were finally able to get unpacked in our cabins and then off to explore some more.  We found the ultimate spot to see the ship head out of the port at the back end of deck 7 in the Shaker Lounge.  We went there a lot over the course of the next week.  The girls and myself got into the MSC app and got set up to message each other.

In our exploration, we found the Shanghai restaurant that had a lot of dishes that reminded me of a game we play with Maddy and Matthew.  It includes Sashimi, Nigiri and Maki to name a few.  We got to sample their sushi later that week.

And then the ship set sail. 

Here was a our view. Perfect!

 I think I was only on the outside deck a few times and got pics of Barcelona from the sea. 

Beautiful!

The sea through our cabin's window was fascinating and a bit mesmerizing to watch. 

 After supper in the L'Ibiscus dining room, we found an ABBA tribute party going on so the girls and I hung around and sang along dancing from a balcony up above. He and Teresa got their picture professionally taken later by a the photographer who was always trying to pull us into photos after a 7 mile hike in Italy...  NOT looking my best right now Thanks!

We enjoyed a show in the Covent Theater on deck 6.  

It was a tribute to 80s and 90s music.  So fun!  

One young woman sang Whitney Houston's "I will always love you" in Italian for the first verse and then in English. 

It was beautiful!

End of day 4!