Shhhhhhh Dover is closed, Brighten is busy. Plymouth is pretty.

As we started our tour around Dover, we found out why it was so quiet......is was closed.  Hahaha. We went to see the castle, closed - We passed the First and Last Pub - closed. Walked up on the White Cliffs and part of the trail was closed, and you cannot be hungry before 8:00am as breakfast places do not open until 9:00am!  We did manage to walk across the White Cliffs to the other side with a view of France in the distance and rolling green hillsides where local farmers and the sheets and donkey's.  On the way back you have a choice of walking high or low.  We chose to go low, on a path that appeared to be the most traveled.  After passing a hobbit hole, and trekking through the Shire, we came to a dead end, essentially, the path was closed as well!  It was a 25 foot vertical wall that you would have to scale to get to the road.  I tried to do it, but it was slippery mud, and slide down wiping out Mark.  He did everything possible not to land on top one me, and stop me from sliding over the cliff.  We laughed and could not believe that this will used path ended up know where.  We decided that this is where all the homeless people and the drug addicts must live.  We turned around and took the high road.  Just a side note - went you are on the White Cliffs your cell service changes to France, so make sure roaming is turned off!  We then hit the road to Brighton.

Driving is still a little bit off challenge as thier roadways are about the size of the pathway along the bow river.  This is considered a dual lane highway, with trucks and busses on either side.  I do pee a little each time a truck is barreling towards me, at 60 mph, which what they seems to think -have loads of room to get by - shesh!

The coast has lots of little villages,  with Hastings begin the one that stood out for both of us.  Though we did not stop there, the views going through city centre were beautiful and looked a little like Monte Carlo without all the yachts, fancy cars, and the weather!

Made it to Brighton.  Unlike Dover, Brighton was not closed and a very busy Centre!  We chose a hotel in the middle of it all, just steps away from the pier.  That had it good points and bad.  Getting there was interesting, thank god Mark could navigate from anywhere on this earth, and once we arrived it was worth it.  Had a huge fish and chip supper, walked along the Pier and surrounding area then headed back to the hotel for the night to  decide what tomorrow would look like.

Portsmouth, where we were born, was to be our next stop, but we decided that we would just have a quick look and continue on.  Had a great full English breakfast in Cosham, where Mark was born, and continued on. Plymouth was the destination!  We moved of of the coastal roads, as it would take days to get anywhere.  We arrived in Plymouth 4 hours later.

Plymouth is spectacular!  Again we chose a hotel within walking distance of the Pier and the city centre that had free parking, that is now important to us!  Parking is tricky.  Little did we know that the parade was made for clown cars, so it will be interesting getting out!  It was raining when we got there, so we just starting walking towards to Pier, but the wind was blowing a gale, so back into town to find a quaint little bakery and had a scone, Devonshire cream, jam, hot chocolate and coffee.  By the time we had finished, it had stopped raining, and the sun was peaking through the clouds! We continued walking around. It was a good mix of old vs new, even made Mark go into a shop!

We heading back down to the pier, and the views were spectacular!  Thank you weather gods for cooperating.

Today maybe Penzance for us - we have learned that the kids are now on spring break here, so it could become alittle busier............plans may change.

A Strange Vibe

Dover is a quaint seaside town with a strange vibe. Our hotel is right on the front, on a street that gives the impression of an off-season tourist town. It is soooo quiet -- a sharp contrast to the hurly burly of M25 traffic. But this is also a busy ferry terminal, so when we walk over just a couple of streets, there is constant stream of cars.

Those cars aren't stopping. The shops seem to be struggling to get any business. No doubt this is in part due to the off season, but it must be hard for many of them to bring in custom at the best of times. The high street was all but closed down by 6pm, not that it was really very "open" to begin with. This led me to quip "Dover... the town that never wakes...".

The castle on the hill is very imposing, and we hope to check that out today. As is usual all over the UK, we kept running into heritage buildings of all sorts as we wandered aimlessly. Dover seems to have more churches per square foot than most, with many converted to more industrial purposes.

Wandering aimlessly is our goal for this trip, and the Iphone's navigation map makes that easy to do since it seems to lose track of our set destination from time to time. We were wandering in circles for a while, but we now know the general solution when lost: just take that Effingham Street...

Dover done in a day!!

We made it here with no glitches or hiccups.  LHR was deserted, and we just sailed through in record time.  Off to the car rental place, and was happy to get a Mazada 3.  Mark could almost fit in it, and we could hide our luggage as we go on the road trip.  The only bad news, it the car is brand new, and has not been enjoyed by others!  What this means is all the rim dents will be mine as I get used to parking.  The good news is you can park in either direction, so many turns will be in order, so I will always park on my side.

Dover is a little town, and pretty. Our hotel is right on the waterfront so we can see the white cliffs of Dover and the castle from our window.  Our hotel is an old building that has quite a slant in the floor, so we trek up and down a hill just to go the the toilet. Lol.

The weather has been so good, I have been forced to pull out my sunglasses!  Walked around the town, which becomes deserted at 6:01pm, have a lovely dinner (thanks mum and dad) Mark and I managed to stay up until 8:00pm!!!!

Doing the castle this morning, then we are on the road...........but before that we are in search of the best full English breakfast...........can't you just taste it?

When we have better wifi I will upload pictures!

The Final Prep!

Mark and I are off for a 10 day adventure back to England.  Back to where we were born, played, and went to school. It is just him and I with no fixed itinerary, maps to get us through the back roads of England from Dover to Penzance. It will be a little bit of "Call the Midwife" with a smattering of "Coronation Street" to end up at "Downton Abbey".  Five days on the road, and four days in London - this should be a memorable experience..................The sunglasses are just wishful thinking.  Just throwing it out to the universe for a least one sunny day!!!!

Furnace Creek, Death Valley

We ended up taking the 395 from Lake Tahoe to Vegas.  This should be on everyone’s bucket list if you like to drive.  We started in mountains, and ended in the desert.  It was worth the 10-hour drive.

When we started off in the morning, we did discuss whether or not to go through Death Valley because of the extreme heat warning.  Tim being Tim – we are going! This is a once in a lifetime experience.  I gingerly agreed, and followed. 

The views were to die for, and the road kept you totally engaged with the twists and turns.  About two hours into the drive we came to a summit of one of many passes, and as you reached the top, looking down was a huge lake nestled in was looked like a volcano plume. We had no idea that it was coming, and wished we took a picture, but it becomes problematic when you are traveling at 80mph, and fly but the only scenic look out point.

The heat started to crank up a bit by Bishop, California so it was now top up for the rest of the day.

Well……..it was time; the Death Valley sign was right in front of us, and no turning back now.  It was a cool 37 degrees C, so I thought we would be okay. 

The road itself is like riding on a rollercoaster.  No sure how someone in the passenger seat would survive.  It was so fun, and the temp was now 43 degrees C.  As we head through the desert in is like you are on the moon.  There are quite a few big hills. You go from below sea level to 5000ft above sea level.  At the highest point, there is a pull out you can look down the whole valley.  It was like a mini Grand Canyon, but the coolest thing was as we were standing in the 45-degree heat, an American Fighter Jet did a fly by in the canyon.  It was the best thing ever to see that.  He did a little flip, and everything.  Total Top Gun.

Now…..to the pit of despair –Furnace Creek.  Hottest place EVER!!!  I truly did not believe that it could get that much hotter, but is so did!  52.5 degrees c.  We got out, and it was like a blow dryer on hot blowing on you.  I really loved the signs to they had posted as you went back up in altitude.  Turn off air conditioning for the next 10 miles to prevent over heating.  Ah nope, that is not gunna happen!!!  I was actually panicking because this is the first time in this trip that my engine temperature gauge moved.  If it to over heat, I am in the middle of nowhere, not a busy road at all.  (could be that the smart people did not go through Death Valley)  I was going to melt in the middle of the desert.  We did make it through, but the cars were definitely cranky.  I was never so happy to see 47 degrees C in my life; which was the temp all the way to Vegas from there.

Once we arrived in Vegas, we were greeted with a frosty cold beer, and Tim and I discussed that was probably a bad move going through Death Valley, and our friends agreed.  We can say that we have done it, and don’t have to do it again in the summer

Now please enjoy this brief interlude, because what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas!!!!

Oregon. Idaho, Oregon, Nevada, California

What a drive from Baker City to Lake Tahoe.  It was so boring; we thought we were going to poke our eyes out.  Here are the “highlights”

1. It does get too hot for the top down.  We have decided that 33 is the max
2. Wondering if your car is going to melt at 42 C.
3. You should never hear the same song twice in one day on satellite radio!
4. Was never so happy to see a little shack on the Indian Reserve in Nevada, in the middle of nowhere that served hot dogs! 
5. If you have ever driven to Regina, Saskatchewan….that had more to see than this leg of the trip.
6. Was sooooo happy to see our hotel in Lake Tahoe 11 hours after we started.

Lake Tahoe

We took a break today and stayed in Lake Tahoe, on the California side.  This place is amazing.  Our hotel was close to a little town called Truckee.  This was the coolest little town.  It has the Banff vibe, but it is a functioning Heritage Park.

All the building are historic, and have been restored.  Right down to the old school gas pumps, though they didn’t work, added charm to the whole thing.  The restaurants were quaint, and the food was nothing short of spectacular.  One thing we are doing from now on is sharing a single serving of whatever.  We keep forgetting how big the USA portions are.

Of course what would a trip to Lake Tahoe be, without going to the lake?  It is the clearest lake we have ever seen.  You can see the bottom, and the fish swimming in it.  Kinda sucks for them!  There is so much to do there.  Hike, boat, bike, paddleboard.  It would worth staying at least a week here, just to do everything.

Now is the time to start the final leg to Las Vegas.  We have asked around, and the consensus is the 395 the whole way.  It would appear to be like our first day of driving, which was great.  This will take us through Furnace Valley, of which the forecast high is 127 F by the tine we reach it today.  This will be officially the hottest place I have been.  Might be a little frightened to get out of my car.  Vegas or bust baby!

All the small towns USA

First full day of really driving, and drive we did.  We sailed down to the border at Cranbrook, and waited in a line to what seemed took forever.  They were checking everyone’s trunk/camper/everything.  Tim was first up……or lord what could possibly happen.  At one point he pointed at me, and I was thinking to myself, what has he said?  I can’t get out of the car to save him.  After about 1 min, he drove away – wait what?  No search???  My turn – this really big mean guy just reached out his hand for my passport, and said,  Why does he have such a nice car, and you have this???  What? Really? Did he just say that? Next question.  Do you guys race?  No, I said, he has a 427 and I clearly have gerbils in my car.  Yeah, I guess, he said.  Gave me back my passport, and said enjoy.  God Bless America.

We continued on to Sandpoint, and stopped for lunch.  At this point Tim said his GPS was not working.  Really? Your car is new?  It turns out that he just did not know how to turn it on.  Gwendolyn the GPS was up and running.  She gave us three routes to Baker City.  Main interstate, “Shortest”, and some other random one.  I picked “shortest”, and let me tell you in was not the “shortest”, but so scenic.  We could not have asked for a better driving route.  Though it added 2 hours to our already 9 hours of driving. It was worth every minute. (which I can say now, but I was pretty cranky for the last 45 mins. – again separate cars awesome for times like these)  One of the best things was driving through the Canola field, the smell was just glorious, the sun was shining, and Tim and I were the only ones on the road, top down, and just flying.  AWESOME

We pulled into Baker City, OR and our first hope was our cars would be there in the morning when we woke up, or not up on blocks.  We were trying to come up with a plan.  Well, lady karma is our friend.  We pull up to our hotel, and see 10 really nice cars in the parking lot, corvettes, Porsche, Shelby Mustang.  WTF what is going on?  Well it turns out there is a car show this weekend!  We just pulled in next to all the other cars, and just smiled.

It was a spectacular day, the only bad thing was Tim made me wash my car at 9:00 at night to get the “bugs” off.  Really?  Last time I checked, we have 14 more hours of driving. Nope you have to get them off, so they don’t bake on.  It’s official, he is now a full fledged McSweeny.  My dad has trained him well…….

Ah - I told you so!

Day one, we just drove to the cabin.  The highway was open, and I cannot tell you the devastation of Canmore and Banff, but I am even more impressed how they got the road in shape for travel so soon.  As I drove by, at the speed limit, I yelled thanks, and good work to all the workers!  It is truly an unbelievable feat what they have accomplished.

With a minor slow down at Canmore and Banff, we continued on our way.  I guess that this point I should mention that Tim and I had a conversation about approx speeds for different legs of the trip.  We decided that 145 km/h would be on Highway 1 and 105 km/h would be our speed for the 93/95 to Radium.  For those of you who don’t know, if you are caught going 30 over the posted speed limit in BC, they impound your car on the spot for 7 days.  They also do not provided transportation to the nearest town either.

During our glorious drive down Highway 1, we had a few new BFF’s that just tucked in behind Tim and I and followed us the whole way to Castle Junction.  It was quite funny actually.  There were small tears in their eyes when we merged onto the Castle Junction turn off.

Tim had settled into a speed of about 115 km/h, and I just let him go.  I just chilled at 105 top down listening to music, on the other side of the highway was a Porsche Driving Club, must have passed 50 Porsche’s going the other way.  Just gave them a quick wave, and continued on.  This just proves that Porsche’s are better than Corvette’s.

Finally caught up to Tim, and just cruised up to the top of Radium hill at which point I knew I would lose Tim once again.  This is one of Tim’s favorite roads to drive Mach 300 on.  He managed to pass all of the big trucks, and had a clear road in front of him.  A couple of RCMP passed us going the other way up the hill. Apparently, Tim took this as a sign from god that he could go really fast.  With that, he activated the GOPRO camera, so he could relive each curve in the road.  Good thing he did, cause he caught the flashing lights on the other side of the road coming after him.  The RCMP spun around, and pull him over.  Just then, I came upon the flashing lights.  I knew it was Tim.  I pulled over in front of him, thinking for sure that his car was going to be impounded.  The RCMP asked Tim why I pulled in front of them.  He replied……….oh, that’s my wife!  Bless the RCMP, he did not impound Tim’s car, and only gave him a warning and $130 speeding ticket.  I think that the RCMP felt a little sorry for him, as Tim had to deal with me at the bottom of the hill.  I TOLD YOU SO!!!!  We are 2 hours and 22 mins into our trip and you have a @#$%#@@ speeding ticket!!!  And that is just another reason why separate cars are good.  Allows you time to cool down.  (ps – mum and dad, we really did not go that fast J)

The night before CHRISTMAS!!!!

Yes, we are off tomorrow morning.

The weather has cooperated, and highway 1 is open. I was going to call Nenshi to say chop chop on the highway as we are leaving tomorrow, but in his awesomeness, it was not necessary.

Packing will be interesting as our combined truck space is about the size of a bread box,  I guess full body bedazzling will have to do for vegas as not much will fit in the trunks.  Play list for me is intact.  Of course Boston's More than a feeling will be on a continuous loop for the first 30 mins, then Pink Floyd, The Wall will follow.  After that it will just be SIRIUS radio.  Tim has the radar/jammer, but his comment to me is "How fast do you plan on following me"  which means I will lose him in the first 3 minutes as he will be going 160 and my max is 130.  Good thing our walkie talkies have a 40 km range....... Wish us luck!!!

Travel Day

Phew we made it.  It was a nice surprise when we got to the Calgary Airport, and my mum had upgraded us to business class, yup the pods with the full beds!  Not too spoiled!  We all had a brown cow, yes Vhari passed for 18, cheers to the trip, light dinner and slept until on hour before we touched down at LHR.  We breezed through security, as we all have EU passports, and onto Paris.  The question was…..will all our luggage make this trip???  The answer was yes, so we jumped in a cab and headed to our apartment.  I can’t tell you how frightening that was!  Just to let you know that no one pays attention to lanes, or traffic lights. (do they have traffic lights in Paris?)  At one point we where sitting in a intersection with a huge bus on one side of us, cars all over, traffic lights were red and an ambulance with full sirens coming behind us – oh lord help us!!  We managed to get to our apartment safely, and after lugging our luggage up 4 flights of stairs that are the same as at the leaning tower of Pisa, home sweet home.  After a quick dinner we all crashed into bed, resting up for the next 5 days in Paris.

Kind of a Big Deal

T minus 12 hours before we board the plane for our trip of a lifetime.  Just by sheer chance we ended up being interviewed by CTV about our trip.

http://calgary.ctvnews.ca/calgary-family-prepares-for-london-trip-1.893175

We have all of our passports - Canada-EU, and our new best friend Nexus, in order to hopefully jump some airport lines.  My only hope is that my baggage makes it this time!  Mind you, we land at LHR first, so at least we can speak the language!    Fingers crossed that it will be in Paris when we get off the plane.  Good news is my dad is at home to troubleshoot any problems we may encounter, and my husband sell insurance for lost baggage!!!!

Hold on tight - this is going to be quite the ride!

In the beginning......

Wow - reading from last year, it may be hard to beat that last trip, but Vhari, my mum and I will give it our best.  Just leaving the cabin to prepare for the big trip.  Empty suit case, in order to refill in Paris and London, credit card, and a tooth brush.  Seriously, what else would we need?

Oh - It's not over...Travelling back to Rome

Travelling Back to Rome

One would think that our adventure would have ended yesterday as we were just heading to the hotel today to leave in the morning.  Well not so much.  The day started like this.  I get up look in our mail box for our final bill.  Glanced across to see that the kids had mail too.  Kinda wierd, both rooms are billed to our room.  There was an envelope with Vhari’s name on it.  Instead of waiting for her to open it – I just ripped it open to see what it could be on the last morning.  Well, don’t you know that it was a thank-you from the Signature Shops for her $867.00 purchase of jewellery from last night.  I ran into her room, woke her up and said “WHAT THE F#$%!!!!” She had lost her card for about 45 minutes yesterday, and well you can figure it out.  I remember rumbling something at Tim and bolted downstairs.  I think that I skipped the first two floors of steps before my feet hit the ground the first time.  Upon arriving at the front desk it was all I could do not to lose all my marbles, and explained in a somewhat non-confrontational voice that this was an error.  After a great debate, the Shop Manager, and a couple of front desk people they removed the charge. (I think that they started to believe me when I asked them to review the security camera from that time, and I was happy to wait) .  I did a quick review of our bill to make sure that everything else was okay, and noticed that we were not charged for our disembarkation to the airport.  Now I have lost all my marbles and snapped all the happy colours of crayons.  She found our forms and apologized, but could do nothing at this point because they were unsigned, but it is okay for a 15 year old to purchase close to 900 worth of jewellery. Really?? Are you kidding?  OMG we were on our own.  We had a sense of what is would be like as we witnessed it from the first leg of the cruise. (that is why I purchased the disembarkation)  Let me put this picture in your head.  You see a big ant hill and you poke it.  That is what it looks like when you disembark on your own.  After 30 minutes we finally managed to get our bags on the bus that takes you to the port terminal.  At this point we looked for a cab – none to be found (we knew this from before)  Tim and I decided that we would take the PUBLIC train into Rome, and get a cab from there.  Remember the ant hill poking – well the train station was about times 20 worse as 3 cruise ships docked that morning.  Tim asked for the express train, and first class. (yup still a princess on public transit)  Well we got the milk run ticket in cattle class.  Can you imagine the population of Calgary trying to squeeze on the C-Train with full on luggage?  Oh yeah – did I mention that it was 36 degrees today.  The kids felt sick from the heat, and have never ridden public transit like that before.  We sent them into a stinky somewhat air conditioned car.  Travis was able to get a seat (well – vhari’s seat) as he thought that he was going to pass out. Vhari had to stand for an hour with some guy who has not bathed for 1000 years, and two women who chewed gun like a camel.  I think Vhari actually puked in her mouth a little in utter disgust. The stink eye was out in full force from them both.   Tim and I stood at the door with the luggage and about 20 people in a 5 by 5 space.  I swear to god that we were on a train from Deli, India.  After an hour on this train, and more people getting on I had to get off the train.  The first stop that looked like it was close to Rome I made everyone get off.  Grabbed the wrong suitcase, had to jump back on to switch them before the train left.  The silence was deafening between the four of us.  We walked out of the terminal (god knows where we were and how far we had to go) found a cab.  Watch him put our huge luggage in what appeared to be a smart car, we all piled in and he took us to the hotel.  I did not care if it was 200 Euros, (it was only 40) I was not getting back on a train.  Phew we made it.  I took us a while to start talking to each other again..........  I can only hope that it will be totally uneventful to the airport tomorrow morning.  We have a free shuttle that picks us up at the door, loads the luggage and the airport is only 5 minutes away.  Wish us luck.

Last Port

Palermo, Sisley

I was sick today and stayed in the cabin the whole day.  Here is what happened in Palermo from Tim.

Vhari and I decided to go into town.  There was a bunch of horse drawn carriages at the end of the pier, but we decided to walk. We were aiming for the big church built by John the Great in 2 billion BC.  Shopping was quite spectacular.  You could get a custom suit made for 60 Euros, BOOS and Blueberry cologne for super cheap.  My label whore daughter with have nothing to do with the I love the Cabana knock offs.  We found a big mall, and went into it because it had air conditioning.  She found a shirt that was 55 Euros, but would not buy it.  We walked over to the big church, which was spectacular from the outside, asked Vhari is she wanted to see the inside.  She gave me the stink eye.   I took her through the ghetto part of the city, and Vhari was soooooo not impressed.  We went back to the department store that she saw the shirt.  One the top floor there was a restaurant called the Mozzarella Bar.  We had the world famous mozzarella salad and prosciutto ham.  It was the best mozzerlla we have ever had.  I ended up buying the shirt for Vhari for coming with me for the adventure.

Naples, Italy

I’m back – feeling way better.  Travis tended to my every need yesterday.  It was nice to have a man slave.

Today is our last port, Naples.  We have heard so many bad things.  There has been a garbage strike for 7 years, 1 out of 3 people are unemployed and people in other parts in Italy will not travel to Naples as they feel unsafe.  Woo Hoo we were so excited to dock here, could hardly wait to see the slums/garbage.  This was also the birth place of pizza.  After a family discussion the kids did not want to get off the boat.  Vhari wanted to hang with her friends and Travis was ready to go home last week, so we let them stay on board.  Tim and I off on an adventure!  We decided that we would take the ferry over to the island of Capri.  Simple one would think.  That is what we thought.  We bought our tickets for the 10:00a ferry to take us over.  You have to understand the size of this port.  There are 5 different companies that ferry and your ticket give you no clue on which boat you go on.  We lined up at one, nope wrong line.  We were moved over to another line.  (It is now 10:00a)  Nope that was not the line either.  Thinking that this was a little complicated we checked a sign on when ferries return from Capri to Naples to make sure that we could get back on the ship on time.  The signs made it look like we would not make it back....... We asked at the info desk, they point at a boat that was just loading (it is now 10:20a) said that was it and through us a schedule for return trips.  We were the last to get on the ferry as they lifted the gangway behind us.........no turning back now.  Thoughts went through our heads how the kids would manage when we don’t return.  We just hoped that Holland America would help them a little.....no money......no parents......no clue what was going on. 

We made it to the Island of Capri.  It reminded us of Santorini.  A village nestled in the mountains.  Quite beautiful.  It turns out that there was three ways up.  Taxi, gondola, walk.   (we did not know this at the beginning)  I found some stairs and started walking up.  Thinking that is would take us up a block off the busy pier street. Nope not the case.  (I need to say at this point that is was 36 C) These stairs took us to the top of the town.  Imagine you are in a hot yoga studio, without dry weave clothing on.  Tim and I were dripping by the time we made it to the top.  (I usually wear some sort of lululemon short if I know that we will be walking – not today I had the Old Navy shorts on and sweat so much I looked like I peed my pants)  Anyway – we made it to the top, and it was so worth it.  The town and the view were spectacular.  We were in the company of my old friends. Chanel, Louis, Jimmy Choo etc – Tim was in full cardiac arrest when he saw the shops.  We looked for a place to eat.  I could smell wood burning from the oven, I followed the smell.  I know that I have said that each meal was better than the next – this was really great.  The balsamic vinegar was like a reduction.  I could have just drunk that.  The pizza was great, and my salad was amazing.  The beer was icy cold.  Tim also really peed his pants when found out that the Edge from U2 and Mariah Carey had eaten there as well.  He took a picture of the pictures that were posted all over the restaurant.

After lunch we headed back down, hoping there was a chance that we would make it back.  We hit the ferry with 5 minutes to spare before departure to Naples.  Made it back to the ship on time.  We will go back to Capri and stay at least a week.

It is hard to believe that we have been away for 26 days.  We are all still talking to each other. Have awesome memories, and looking forward to our next adventure.   We sat around trying to remember all the places we have been and in what order, like they do on the amazing race.  Well, we could not do it.  Thankfully we have this blog to look back on and the itinerary to remind us where we have been.

Day at Sea /Tunisia

Day at Sea

Not much to report other that I won again at Bingo.  Yup, $160 big ones.  Tim just about crapped his pants, and I could not believe it either.  We just hung out today, lying around the pool, eating and napping.  Just a normal day.

Tunisia

The good news is that we could not see any smoke in the distance from Libya.  The guide was telling us that Tunisia currently does not have a President since the rebels started taking over Libya. 

We had a beach day in Tunisia.  They took us to an upscale hotel that we could use the beach and the pool area.  It was really in the middle of nowhere, and really could not imagine why anyone would stay there.  Anyways, we have the pictures of us riding camels on the beach.  The camel was so mad that it had to get up and down so many times.  Tim being that last one to ride, the camel was just growling that he did not want to get up again, and the camel guy was yelling back.  Quite funny really.  We hung out at the beach for a while until Vhari had discovered a bunch of dead crabs on the bottom of the sea.  Off we went to the pool.  Swam around there for about an hour then back to the boat.  From what we saw of Tunisia it seems to be a little bit of a shit hole.  Kinda reminded us of Turkey.  You have to barter for everything.  That just takes up too much energy at this point of the trip. J

Palermo tomorrow and then Naples.  I have to saw that I am ready to come home.  This has been an outstanding trip, but it is true that there is no place like home.

Notes by Tim

I really can’t comment on Tunisia as I really never saw it as the people on the bus would not take an extra 10 minutes to tour around. Tunisian beer was really good.

Barcelona, Spain

Barcelona, Day 2

It started off we all went on one of the open air tour buses to see a little bit of the city.  We saw a few sights.  More churches, fountains and monuments.  We had to at least say we saw a little of Barcelona.  We came to a mall that had over 150 stores and that is where Vhari and I left the boys – see ya!  We looked through all the stores, and the mall had free wi fi, so again we got caught up on what is happening in our world.  Internet on the ship costs three billion dollars a minute, so we now seek out cafes/malls/restaurants with free wi fi to keep in touch.  Not much to be had at that mall so after a spectacular lunch of Burger King – yes, burger king in Spain we hopped back on the bus to get to the main shopping plaza.  We went to every possible store as the sales are here as well in August.  Vhari found some great buys, and would still be there if the ship was not leaving today.  We shopped from 11:00 – 6:00. Phew.  At one point Vhari wanted to go down one of the side streets.  I said sure and followed along.  As we went a few meters in, we discovered that we had picked hooker and crack head row!!!! That is a life lessons that requires no explanation.  We were too far in to turn back, and could see the end.  Vhari was white knuckling everything she owned, and walked faster than an Olympic walker.  I wanted to stop at a liquor store on the way back to the main street but she would have none of that.  Once we made back to the plaza we stopped in an open air cafe for a beer and sangria to people watch for a while.  That in itself is an event.  I finally convinced Vhari that it was time to head back to the boat, and she finally said okay.

I can’t really say what the boys did today, and Tim does not want to type anything.  So I say, they went on the bus, saw some stuff, ate at McDonalds and went back to the ship for a nap.

Palma de Mallorca, Spain

Off to the Water Park we went today.  The funny thing was that it was a Western theme.  It looked like Heritage Park crossed with the Stampede.  We felt quite at home and laughed at everyone thinking how unique this was.  They even had their picture taken with a cowboy hat and a toy gun.  Yee-haw!  Went on every slide played around in the water, and had a great time.  None of us could tell you anything about Mallorca, I am sure that there is a lot to see here as there were cabbies wanting to take us on tours.  They were quite deflated when we said we are going to the water park. 

Interestingly went we pulled into the Port of Mallorca there were two Canadian Navel Ships in port.  Not sure why they are here, but if anyone is looking for them here they are.  Would that not be half of the Canadian Navy in Spain?  When pulling out of port an Italian Navel ship was pulling in.  Hmmmmmm???  We did get a notice that travelling outside of a group in Tunisia is not recommended because of the unrest there.  Maybe that has something to do with it.  As my mum is reading this......know that we have booked a tour through the ship in Tunisia and will not be travelling alone!  Sea day tomorrow.  Perhaps more bingo, shuffle board, gym, Texas hold’em, how to make your lanyard sparkle – the excitement is killing us!  All we know for sure is that we won’t see the kids until sometime in the afternoon when they get up!

Barcelona, Spain

Barcelona, Spain Day 1

We finally did it!  We had a true beach day!  This time we took a tour through the ship.  There is something to be said not to have to book, haggle, and research anything.  Just show up and they do all the work.  We opted for the one titled “Strolling through Sitges and bathing at the beach”   There is quite an interesting fact about Sitges, but I will just continue for now.

About a 50 minute drive and we were there.  All piling out of the bus our tour guide herded us like sheep to form a little group to follow him.  The four of us looked at each other, and ditched the group.  We just went to the beach.  They have quite a cool concept in Spain/Greece.  There are chairs and umbrellas that are there that you rent for the day.  Greece was reasonable at 10 Euros for 4 chairs and two umbrellas.  Spain on the other had been super expensive.  For the same thing it was 36 Euros for the day.  Bah – Tim will just have to work harder when we get home.  It was a nice beach. The sand was super hot, but there were nice waves coming in to play in.  Vhari and Tim were in heaven!  They were always easy to find as Vhari’s legs were the only thing that were usually out of the water.  She was forever driving or just hanging upside down. Travis and I just chilled in the shade drinking slurpees.  The beach was packed with beautiful people, and a lot of the women were topless.  This was something that was totally freaky for Travis and Vhari.  Tim also gave us a running commentary on which ones should be covered up. Haha.  Also, we noticed that there was a lot of really attractive men in little Speedo’s walking around all greased up with sun screen – tanned, toned.  Well here is the interesting fact about Stiges....it is the number one vacation spot in the world for same sex couples.  If you could have heard the blue haired ladies on the bus ride home......priceless. 

We had a quick shower and dinner on the ship before heading back out into Barcelona for the night.  Travis opted out for this (he made the right move) It was a Mecca of shopping with some cool buildings thrown it.  It was unbelievably busy as 6 other cruise ships are here as well.  All they have told us for the last couple of days is watch your belongings in Barcelona.  You can imagine that I had the death grip on my bag as we walked around last night.

The ship had shuttles available to take you back to the ship.  When we arrived at the pickup point, there were 200 people waiting in line for the bus.  I walked up to the front of the line, and there was a sign that the shuttled stopped at 10:00p (it was now 9:55p) I went back to Tim, and we listened to everyone bitch about the bus service, and they would give Holland America a piece of their minds......then Tim “SAVED THE DAY” as he sang for the next 30 minutes and took a cab back.  9 Euros – home safe and sound.  Just on a side note – Vhari rented a movie when we got back, and she just sat there in amazement of all the passengers yelling at the front office about the bussing situation..........we were all going to go down just to watch that – that would be a movie we have not seen.

Tomorrow we are splitting up again.  As noted above we did find the shopping area so I will be following around Vhari in 33 degree heat as she finds the perfect outfit gripping my bag jet again with the death grip.  The boys will find the train tour have lunch, and just hang out.

Monte Carlo

Monte Carlo, Monaco

A day with Vhari and Julie

I now know what the extremely rich looks like.  As we pulled into port, the yachts were unbelievable!   Who has that kind of money, and how can I get some.  Vhari is trying to think how she can make 500 million so she can live that life.  We split up today so the girls could shop and the boys did not have to be tortured.   We were all about the shopping thinking that there was something that we could actually afford.  Well, we found it and it was called lunch!  We had lunch across from the Casino on designer row (I think that this was the most expensive lunch to date....our drinks were more than our lunch  bahahaha!). Louis/Prada/Salvador/Cartier/Chanel etc were across the street from us on the plaza.  The good news was we had internet there so Vhari was able to catch up on life at home. We went into Louis V., and I really should have bought another wallet as I have had mine for over 20 years, but I cannot part with it because my mum bought it for me and it has too much sentimental value.  Maybe one day....... or that is just proof for Tim that I should buy all designer stuff as it lasts a life time.    Monte Carlo is very cool in itself, tiered like Greece.  We had a look at real estate and you could get a dump on Dive Street starting from 600,000 Euros. (I don’t think that it has a bathroom)  We saw the train that took people around Monte Carlo, and laughed that Tim and Travis was probably on it.......and they were!  Travis looked so happy (not), and Tim really was!  We really tried to buy something, but it was not in the cards.  The mother in me found the grocery store and bought chips/candy for Vhari and Travis.  Shampoo/razors/deodorant/mouthwash how lame is that.  I made Vhari walk through the traffic tunnel to get there as it was quicker.  She was so not impressed.  Off to Barcelona tomorrow for two days.....maybe our luck will be better. 

A day with Tim and Travis

I decided to make Travis lead the day. We pulled into port on out tender (rescue boat that takes you to port) about 9:30 am. We took the escalator to the Oceanic Museum and Travis still qualifies as an infant. He did not think much of that but my wallet said Yahoo. Inside was Jacque Costou’s pickle jars filled with squid from 1950. Boriiiing.  I kept looking for the shark that bit off Philip’s head.  Downstairs was quite a nice aquarium.  We finished that and right outside was a little train that took you all around Monte Carlo for 8 Euros, Score. On the train we could see all the tourists dyeing in the sun. I love to see others suffer. I’m melting. I was really enjoying this until I ran into Julie and Vhari shopping in the most expensive part of Monte Carlo.  We walked down the hill directly to the F1 store and bought a jacket, toque, and ball cap. The nice lady told is about the best pizza place called the Royal. We went there for lunch and it was fantastic. I got a tear in my eye realizing I was sitting in Monte Carlo with the rich and famous with number 1 son on the promenade having the best beer and pizza of my life. While sitting there 6 Bentley, 5 Ferrari, 2 Porsche, and 1 maseratti went by, all driven by really ugly people. I am now sitting on the deck drinking wine from Tuscany thinking how much overtime I will have to due to pay for this.  Well I always say when you are dead you are dead for a long time.  Ps I really did go to Monte Carlo 30 years ago, I don’t care what my family says. TimmerO

Pisa/Florence

Wow what a day!  We thought that we jammed a lot in when we saw Rome, but Florence we just barely got started.  Our day started at Pisa.  We were able to get tickets to walk up the Leaning Tower.  294 steps in the blistering heat, every minute was worth it.  I cannot tell you how weird it felt walking up the steps.  It was a little vertigo-ish.  The last 20 steps to the very top of the bell tower were freaky.  It was really steep, and narrow.  Once at the top the view was amazing, and walking around it had its own sensation.  We found a shady spot at the top had a quick cool down period then headed back down.  I have to say that this has now become one of our favourite sites.

Off to Florence we went.  We saw the statue of David (can you all just hear Tim say – Hey that’s me!)  I did not know that it was so big.(Tim got in trouble twice for continuing to take videos)  Pretty amazing sight.  We saw all of the top sights – too many to list.  We hired a private guide again and was worth every penny. There was no way we could have done this on our own.  We would love to come back and spend a week in Florence.  We drove through the shopping district and Vhari and I peed a little when we saw all of the shops.....I guess we will just have to come back next year. J

It is amazing to me that what we eat at Italian restaurants at home, are nothing like what they eat here.    The food is very fresh/simple ingredients and not over done with garlic.  Tim had the classic Tuscan dish which was wild boar in a tomato sauce.  He said it was absolutely delish.  We walked by a little market and Vhari bought some cherry tomatoes still on the vine and strawberries.  They were both so sweet.  They actually tasted like tomatoes and strawberries.  Italian’s are all so skinny, and eat so well.  I guess it is true - real food in moderate portions is the way to live.  It is very rare that we see any fast food restaurants here.  We also stopped at the best gelato restaurant in Florence – yum-a-yummy

As we usually do, we bought a bottle of wine from the region to drink this evening.  Our guide picked it out for us – should be good.   Off to dinner for us.  We are going to try to make it to at least 10:30 tonight before going to bed.  Man, we are always so tired..........

Civitavecchia

Civitavecchia, Italy

The intention was to find a beach and hang out for the day.  That really never happened.  Unlike all the other ports with a thousand cabs waiting to take you everywhere; here there was none.  We walked for about 20 minutes in the scorching heat to see if we could find the shuttle/taxi, but no luck.  We do not even see the end of the port.  A few other couples were wandering around too.  Not sure what happen to them, but we decided to just go back to the ship.  With most everyone having disembarked we had the ship to ourselves for a few hours.  The only bad thing is now the crew serves for the next 48 hours to help ward off Norwalk.  I guess that is good, but now you have to ask out loud for one of each dessert.  Yikes.

The kids have to meet new friends as most of them left today, so they are just sticking with us.  It is nice hanging by the pool, drinking fruity drinks, and watching all the newbees trying to figure everything out.  We are off the see the Leaning Tower of Pisa tomorrow among a billion other things.  After tomorrow, it will be beach days until the end of the cruise.  We have had quite enough history for one trip.

Notes from Tim

The eating continues.......They had the nerve to drop off a plate of chocolates to our room just to push me over the edge!!!