Vacation.Cruise3

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OK, finishing up the cruise pictures. We made a few stops along the way. After leaving Sint Maarten, we took five days to cross the Atlantic. Gotta tell ya, even on a ship that is the length of three football fields and taller than the Statue of Liberty, one does run out of things to do...at least things that one would want to do. I'd heard about the tendency of that salt air to "shrink" the passenger's clothes. Knowing that, I spent a fair amount of time in the gym on the treadmill and then also committed to taking the stairs rather than any of the readily available elevators. Now, you'd think there wouldn't be that many stairs on a ship, but the Carnival Freedom had twelve decks...and that's a lot of stairs. My cabin was starboard, aft...in the far rear of the ship on the right. My daily restaurant and the gym were port, forward...front of the ship, on the left. That was a hike everyday. A couple of days, I went to the 24 hour pizzaria on board, ordered a pizza and took it back to my room. I thought to myself, 'if I were at home, I would have had this delivered!'

Anyway, the ports...after arriving in Europe waters, we first stopped on the island of Madeira, Portugal, in the city of Funchal. Madeira is just off the northwestern coast of the continent of Africa...within eyshot of Tangiers. I knew this going into it, but the frustration of being in a new country for only 8 hours is beyond comprehension. You know, they don't even stamp our passports?! Not sure how Homeland Security would feel about that. However, if you ever need to relocate annonymously, just go on a cruise and get off the ship and don't get back on. You can just disappear into the masses. Of course, not speaking Portugese might be a problem. Funchal (foon-CHAHL...the cruise director insisted on pronouncing it FUHN-chul...grrrrr) was a beautiful city. In each of the ports, I opted to not go on the we'll-hold-your-hand-and-spoonfeed-you-what-we-want-you-to-see-and-then-charge-you-eighteen-times-what-you'd-pay-if-you-did-it-on-your-own excursions that the ship offered nauseatingly frequently. Did I mention how I felt like I was trapped in a bad rerun of the Home Shopping Network? Everyone was very nice on the ship, the crew I mean, but if they got the sense that you were one of those who wasn't there to shop, they moved on to larger fish. Anyway, I went to the botanical gardens, rode the cable cars up and down the mountains, walked through a market. 'No, no thank you. No goat testicle for me today.'

Back aboard ship, my friends and I had made reservations to dine in the Sun King Restaurant, the "6 Star Restaurant" available to those who were willing to pay (here come's another favorite cruiseism) "a nominal fee." At least prices were still in dollars on the ship. Have you met my Euro? Wow...more about that later. The restaurant was truly phenomenal. Probably the finest meal that I have ever eaten. You can see some of the pictures in the blog. It was difficult, but I did manage to consume my entire 24 ounce porterhouse steak, medium rare, with bleu cheese. Man, was it awesome.

The next day was a sea and about midnight we passed through the straight of Gibralter. The closest thing that anyone could make out were the very faint lights of northern Africa...its the black picture that I have. We then stopped in Malaga (MAL-a-gah), Spain. I think I'm the first of my family to go to Spain. You know, I didn't have to spell my last name once while visiting?! Wow...what incredibly beautiful people I am finding both in Spain and in Italy. Without exaggeration, 90 percent of the people look like they walked right off of the pages of a magazine...from cab drivers to the homeless to business people to students. It is really amazing. I think they must do live airbrushing in Europe like we tan in the States. I was off the boat early (still couldn't shake that rocking sensation) and headed for the Picasso Museum, the birthplace of Picasso, coffee, coffee, coffee, walking the street, and cafes...just being in Spain. It was a beautiful day. I've actually had quite a few of those. That's enough blogging for now. Next stop, Italy!