CRUISING - Day 3 - BARCELONA

Today we'll visit Barcelona. The ship is here from 9 a.m. until 6 p.m., and once again we'll do our own thing, trying to see the highlights but still having a relaxing and enjoyable day.

Barcelona's beginnings, much like Rome's, are subject to myth and a bit of mystery. The first myth attributes the founding of the city to Hercules 400 years before the building of Rome, thus the name Βαρκινών;. The second myth attributes the foundation of the city directly to the Carthaginian Hamilcar Barca, father of Hannibal, who named the city Barcino after his family, in the 3rd century BC.

Barcelona has several important museums, including a Picasso museum, but we'll pass on those. We'll be concentrating our efforts into thre areas: the Gothic Quarter, the olderst part of the city, the Sagrada Familia, a work in progress, and Las Ramblas, the mostly pedestrian street that cuts through the heart of the city.

Once again our plan will be to start at the furthest point and work our way back towards the ship. This means that our first stop will be the Sagrada Família, which has been under construction since 1882, and is still financed by private donations. It's expected to be completed by 2026. This massive, impressive and over-the-top church was designed by Antonio Gaudi, who's work is spotted throughout Barcelona.  We'll have to take the subway  to get to the Sagrada Familia, but it looks pretty straightforward - fingers crossed! 

The Barri Gòtic ("Gothic Quarter" in Catalan) is the centre of the old city of Barcelona. Many of the buildings date from medieval times, some from as far back as the Roman settlement of Barcelona. Catalan modernisme architecture (often known as Art Nouveau in the rest of Europe), developed between 1885 and 1950 and left an important legacy in Barcelona. A great number of these buildings are World Heritage Sites.  This area is filled with narrow, medieval streets, and the gothic  14th century Cathedral of Santa Eulalia, often called simply Barcelona Cathedral. 

The cathedral is dedicated to Eulalia of Barcelona, co-patron saint of Barcelona, a young virgin who, according to Catholic tradition, suffered martyrdom during Roman times in Barcelona. One story is that she was exposed naked in the public square and a miraculous snowfall in mid-spring covered her nudity. The enraged Romans put her into a barrel with knives stuck into it and rolled it down a street.  The body of Saint Eulalia is entombed in the cathedral's crypt.

Once we've wandered through the Gothic Quarter we'll stroll down Las Ramblas, a 1.2 kilometer-long tree-lined pedestrian mall.  Here we'll find the legendary La Boqueria Market. It's a foodie paradise ithat's a feast for the senses – groaning stalls of every food imaginable in an elegant market hall. It's said you can buy anything here from fresh fruit to edible beetles, but the Jamon Iberico, Manchego Cheese, freshly squeezed juices and pizza make an excellent and cheap picnic.  Hmmmm-  lunch?  

Las Ramblas ends at the dock, so we'll be sure to find our way back on board.

TODAY'S THE DAY!

Yes, today's the day we begin our transatlantic cruise from Rome to Ft Lauderdale.  Because online internet connnections are expensive (about 60¢/minute in a package!), I won't be posting during the cruise, and probably not for a week or so after that.  Once we arrive in Ft. Lauderdale we'll spend a few days with our friend Nedra, then fly to Lousiville.  On Friday the 18th we'll head off to N. Carolina for a long-overdue visit with our grandgirls, then get back to Louisville just in time for Christmas!  Whew!  I guess I'd really better relax and enjoy this cruise!

I'm setting up several posts in advance, mostly on the days we're in port.  I'll tell you a little about where we'll be, but remember, this information will only be what I've read in books or online - once we're finally settled I plan to write my own impressions and will include LOTS of photos (gotta make full use of that new camera!).

Our ship, the CELEBRITY SOLSTICE  will take us to a variety of ports, but we're leaving from Civitavecchia, which is the port city for Rome.  It's located about 80 km northwest of Rome, and has an interesting history all it's own. 
 
Civitavecchia means 'ancient city'.  The modern city was built over a pre-existing Etruscan settlement.  The harbor was constructed by the Emperor Trajan at the beginning of the 2nd century. The first occurrence of the name Centum Cellae is from a letter by Pliny the Younger (AD 107). The origin of the name is disputed: it has been suggested that it could refer to the centum ("hundred") halls of the villa of the emperor.

In the high Middle Ages, Centumcellae was a Byzantine stronghold. Captured by the Saracens in 828, it was later acquired by the Papal States.

The place became a free port under Pope Innocent XII in 1696. The main port of Rome in modern era, it was occupied by the French in 1849. On April 16, 1859 the Rome and Civitavecchia Rail Road was opened for service. The Papal troops opened the gates of the fortress to the Italian general Nino Bixio in 1870.

The massive Forte Michelangelo ("Michelangelo's fort") was first commissioned from Bramante by Pope Julius II, to defend the port of Rome, and was completed in 1535 by Giuliano Leno and Antonio da Sangallo the Younger, under Paul III. The upper part of the "maschio" tower, however, was designed by Michelangelo, whose name is generally applied to the fortress. The edifice, measuring 100 x 82 m, has four towers with a diameter of 21 m. The main tower, of octagonal shape, has sides of 12 m. The walls have an impressive thickness of 6-7.6 m. The fortress was built over an ancient Roman construction, probably the barracks of the classiarii ("mariners") of the Imperial Fleet.

Unfortunately we'll probably see very little of Civitavecchia itself, but maybe we'll get a nice overview from the ship, and a beautiful, twinkly night-time view as we set sail!

Here's our itinerary: 

Tomorrow morning, (or probaly sometime tonight) we'll dock in Livorno, the port city for Florence and Pisa.

THE CRUISE: AN UPDATE!

Ever since we booked our cruise I've been going to a site recommended by our travel agent, CruiseCritics.com.  In addition to cruise deals they also have information and reviews about ports of call, cruise lines and ships.  They also have a message board where we can get info and ask questions about a variety of cruise topics.  There is also a  message board for each cruise line, each ship, and even each specific cruise on any given ship.  What this means is that for the past few weeks we've been 'talking' to the people we'll be cruising with later this month, asking questions and learning a lot. 

Many, many of these people are dedicated cruisers who proudly list their past (and future) cruises along with their name.  These are cruise-savvy people who have lots of insider tips to share, and who are more than willing to share their knowledge. 

If you've read my original post about the cruise you know that we jumped on the $699 per person price for this 13 day cruise.  Not surprisingly, just FIVE days after we booked the cruise Celebrity had another sale for this cruise, and offered outside cabins for just $799!  I called our travel agent to see if we could pay the $100 each to upgrade, but found out that this offer was for new customers only.  I hate it when that happens!  How often do you see deals for cable TV or cellphones that are WAY cheaper than what you, a longtime customer, are paying?!  It's so frustrating that the idea is only to GET more customers, not make the current customers happy! 


Anyway, I kept reading on the message board that people were being upgraded or getting onboard credits (OBC) due to a drop in the prices, and I wondered how that was possible.  Eventually Celebrity did drop the price of our cabin category to $599, and it was a fare that anyone could get, not some 'special' special, so I contacted our travel agent again, based on what the members of the CruiseCritics.com message board told me. 

As I understand it, if the difference in the fares was equal to the cost of the next higher cabin, they would upgrade us, and if not, we would be issued a total of $200 in OBC.  Either way was fine with us, but I was pretty sure we would get the OBC.  Altough we don't plan on having wine with every dinner or making many onboard purchases, I'm sure there will be occasions when we decide to have a drink in the bar or maybe have one load of laundry washed and pressed.  A $200 credit would allow us  (me) to enjoy a few treats without feeling guilty!

Just as we had been told, our travel agent emailed us to say that yes, we now had $200 in OBC!  He also told me that it couldn't hurt to ask for an upgrade when we board.  We'll certainly ask, but you know me, ever the pessimist, I'm certainly not expecting it - and it certainly won't affect the fabulous time we're going to have!

TOUR THE CELEBRITY SOLSTICE

Here's a video showing some of the features of the ship will be taking to the states:

CRUISIN' AT LAST

Back in 1964, when the Beatles first took America by storm, I was a twelve year old girl, more than ready for my first crush and the world of rock 'n' roll.  Like so many other impressionable young girls, I also became immediately enamored of EVERYTHING British.  I loved the accents, the clothes, the music, the humor, the pagaentry, and the history.  Unfortunately for me, being twelve years old meant that my dream of going to England would be a long time coming, and my marriage and children a few years later delayed that dream for even longer. 

Eventually I did get to England in 1985.  and again in 1987, and  1989 - there was just never enough time, so I had to keep going back.  In order to maximize my time in England and the entire 'British' experience, my dream vacation was to fly to England on the Concorde - no way faster to get there! - and then to cruise back aboard the QE2 - the British ship would ease my transition back to the states, giving me six days to adjust to the fact that I wasn't in England any more.

And then in 2003 the Concorde stopped flying!  I was so sad to realize that my ultimate dream vacation would never be possible!  I would however still be able to complete the other part of my dream trip, aboard the QE2 - until in 2008 it too stopped cruising!  Well, there were still other ships doing transatlantic crossings, so I held out hope that one day I could sail the Atlantic.  I was never concerned about any Titanic-type dangers; I was more intrigued by the romance of AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER! 

 

Over the years, especially since we've lived in Italy, Art and I have talked about taking a transatlantic cruise between Italy and the U.S., but it's just never worked out.  I even talked with a travel agent earlier this year when we were in Louisville, and discovered that most of the repositioning cruises for the winter were departing from Europe earlier than we wanted or needed to leave. 

 

I don't even know how the conversation got started the other day, but Art brought up the idea of cruising back to the states in December.  I reminded him of what I'd learned in the spring, but he decided to do an interent search anyway.  Of course he did find some ships making transatlantic cruises in November and December, but they were leaving from England or Spain - no place that was really easy for us to get to.  When Art left the room for a few minutes I did a search of my own, this time entering Rome as the departure port and voila!  there was indeed a cruise leaving on November 30th - a 13 night cruise that - even better- would arrive in Ft Lauderdale.  Arriving in Florida in mid-December has got to be nicer than arriving in New York!

 

We looked through the information about the cruise, checked out the stops, and then took a look at the price.  Gulp!  The ship was a brand new one, and with  CELEBRITY CRUISE LINES, a rather 'upscale' line, to boot.  Imagine our surprise when we saw that the cheapest cabin cost $699!  Yes, it's a small cabin, and yes it's an inside cabin, but how much time would we spend in the cabin anyway, and how useful would a balcony be in December on the Atlantic??? 
 
We contacted an agent, who promptly tried to get us to upgrade - not to a larger cabin, or even an outside cabin, but to a cabin that he could guarantee for us, one that we would know the location of before we left.  But of course that cost extra - $150 EACH to be exact.  Just as with airfare, the $699 fare didn't include taxes, so you have to add that ($120 each), plus the gratuities for the cabin steward, waiter, and bus boy.  PLUS all those shore excursions!  Even if you do-it-yourself, which we definitely plan to do, you're still spending money.  In the end we decided to take our chances with the $699 cabin. 
 

We'll forgo alcohol, and even soft drinks, because they cost extra.  We won't be scheduling any spa treatments or even dressing up for the three formal dinners.  This cruise will be budget all the way, but it will also be the fulfillment of a dream, and 13 glorious days - with stops at places we've never been to before!  Here's a link to the itinerary and information about the ship, the very highly rated Celebrity Solstice:  ITINERARY.

 

The good news is I'll be taking my computer with me.  I'll be able to download and edit photos daily, and write about what we've seen and done as I lounge around, all the while keeping one eye peeled for Cary Grant,or a reasonable facsimile.  The bad news is internet time looks to be rather costly, so I might just have to write some interim stuff to post automatically while we're at sea.  Don't worry, I'll let you know before we leave - how could I leave without using this excuse to say "Bon voyage!"?