Cruisemas 2018!

Saturday, Dec 8th - Day 0

Landed after a lackluster flight and almost no sleep. Did get a glimpse of all the attractions at once while we were landing though.

Took a bus into town and checked into the hotel. and the TIIIIINIEST room I'd ever seen. I should have read the travel agent's hotel coding more closely...

It looked like I landed with enough time to make it to a famous hill above the city, so I dumped my luggage and headed up. I wandered in the direction and walked past basically every attraction I had listed to see in this city. Il Duomo, the Giotto Bell tower, the Galileo museum but sunset hit before I was halfway there. Fortunately, sunset is apparently a lot longer than I thought. I made it to the top in time for some spectacular pictures. First is a guitar concert with a backdrop to die for.

So many selfies... But it's understandable why.

And poor David-copy in the background being ignored.

Wandered around up there for around 30 mins and then headed back down for food. The one recommendation I had for a pizza place wasn't open, so I kept walking back towards the hotel. Where I may have captured the best photo of the trip as the light show began on Ponte Vecchio.

And since it was a projection mapped show, I had to stay and watch.

Finding still nothing was open. Finally I checked google to figure out where to find a place to eat early and apparently... Today is the Feast of the Immaculate Conception... Where nobody eats but Jesus?

I don't know, regardless I starved for about an hour and found a place with lesser pizza that was willing to risk heavenly wrath and would serve us early. Finished a giant pizza and then headed up to relax / bed.

Sunday, Dec 9th - Day 1

Woke up really early due to the jet lag and looked around to plan my day and apparently the museum housing David was open at 8, so killed some time then headed over. I wandered around the first room, enjoying the nice sculpture and to a lesser degree all the gold religious paintings.

Headed to the next room and admired two paintings on the wall before realizing where I was.

WOW.

None of my pictures really did it justice. I spent a bunch of time looking at detail, knuckles, veins in his hand, leg musculature, it's just incredible. There were a couple other treasures there too, but nothing quite the same. Nice statue and an entire room of teaching material and works for study.

And if anyone reading this is a fan of Doctor Who, they'll be as terrified as I was to see this little monster...

After David, it was still too early to see Il Duomo's cathedaral, so I went to the Galileo museum. It was incredible to see how well crafted 16th century scientific instrumentation was. Also an automaton that would write stuff in Latin entirely by clockwork.

They had some pieces supposedly used and built by Galileo himself.

The crowning achievement for this museum is an ENORMOUS machine (armillary sphere) that would show and track the position of the planets with the view at the time. With EARTH AT THE CENTER! Everything looked to be geared to show the retrograde motion of Mars too. Super cool. Would have lost my mind to see that thing in motion.

At this point, I realized that I was going to be miserable in such a small room, so I asked if there was a way to upgrade for the rest of the nights and what the charge would be. They looked into it and upgraded me to a deluxe room without charge! This one was just perfect.

Went back to the Galielo museum to finish the rest of the visit and then headed over to l'Pizzaccherrie. Where I was treated to a divine and monstrously large pizza. Definitely going to come back for a second visit.

Couldn't decide what to do next, so I waited in the hour line to get in to see the inside of Il Duomo ().The inside of this cathedral was just breathtaking.

The choir people will understand, but I’m incredibly sad I can't sing here right now.

Wasn't feeling up to walking the belltower, so killed some more time wandering around and went to dinner at a place recommended by the hotel. 13 Gobbi is a lovely little restaurant on the west side of town. I neglected to take pictures, but they make a very rich and filling rigatoni. The guy seemed surprised I was only up for one course, but it was plenty. I told you the pizza earlier was monstrous...

Monday, Dec 10th - Day 2

Woke up later and went to get a reservation to head to the top of the dome since we weren’t allowed to see the inside painting without doing so. Managed to get conned into paying an extra fee for this. >.< So gullible... Managed to shake off my irritation with that and spent the time until the reservation putting together preparations for the website.

At reservation time, I headed over and went inside. Again, it’s hard to describe how huge this building really is. Just staggering.

Perhaps I could describe it with how out of breath I was, because we took stairs all the way to the top! Surprisingly, my knee didn't give me any trouble. Which is good, because there's no easy way down.

The inside of the dome was stunning, I’m glad I chose to give them extra money for it. >.<

And then even more stairs up to very top.

But the view of the city beneath was worth the effort. We managed some incredible luck too because there was no wind. It was just still and beautiful and Italy.

The climb down wasn't nearly as bad and me being me, I got sidelined by the artists selling their paintings and sketches of the city.

And got my souvineer for the trip. This one is etched metal and then pressed to paper. Beautiful, and also astonishingly smart for mass-producing things for tourists. I figure that kind of ingenuity deserves a reward and besides... I liked it.

Managed to stay awake long enough to go to a restaurant nearby and got the BIGGEST Florentine steak they had. Accidentally, there was no weight listed next to the thing. That said, the 2/3s of it I could finish was delicious and the spinach and mashed potatoes were to die for.

Tuesday, Dec 11th - Day 3

Woke up even earlier today, because jet lag is fun like that. Since I was out of things to do, I went to the Bargello sculpture museum. All sorts of stuff there, not just sculpture.

Including some really weird things. Like a gun-sword. And a suit of boar armor. And a multishot pistol.

The building housing it was a 13th century palace and good lord, the high ceilings are incredible. Another place where I really wish I wasn't too conservative to sing in public. Getting kicked out would have been a good story.

Also went to the Uffizi gallery since it was famous. It had these fancy boys out front. Leonardo, Michaelangelo and Dante.

Got to see the Bodicelli masterpieces, some others, an unfinished Leonardo Da Vinci painting.

Then got lost for way too long because they designed the thing as a trap.

But at least they had a nice view from the roof.

I did manage to wander into a Leonardo Da Vinci water exhibit that was temporarily hosted here. Got my fill of science-fanboy looking at actual pages of his codex and the museum's animations of his designs.

Grabbed food and headed back to the room since my back has been bothering me since the flight out. Played my first videogames of the trip and then decided to take another shot at catching the full sunset at Piazza Michaelangelo overlooking the city. And while there were no clouds to play up the color, it was just stunning.

But just because the universe likes to stick it to me, this guy was playing songs I wanted to sing along to.

More great pictures to cap off this leg of the trip.

Headed down and decided another pasta night was in order. This time Pastation (Pasta Station?), and despite looking like something that was too modern and fast to be proper italian food, it was delicious. Dare I say even better than 13 Gobbi. Anyways, this ends up being an early night. Repacking, confirming tickets, trying not to let the stuffyness and scratchy throat turn into a cold. Here's something of the walk back.

Wednesday, Dec 12th - Day 4

Woke up, checked out and headed to the train station for the jaunt to Rome.

Got there way too early so wiled away the time obsessing over the departure board. Got bored eventually and had crappy train station pizza and that was delightful. Train ride was very smooth. Beautiful green rolling hills and more swaths of peach buildings. Since the train was going so fast, I didn't get the pretty river picture I wanted, but here you go.

Got into Rome and chose to brave the metro and a 10 min walk to get to the hotel. Not sure if this was a good idea, my bag is taking a beating on the cobblestones. Hotel seems great and pretty much the same sized room as Florence. Since it was 3pm, I had enough time to hoof it back into town and see a few things. Headed STRAIGHT to the Pantheon.

This building is glorious. Marred somewhat by the fact that it's a Christian church now, but the building can't hide its magnificence behind a few statues and paintings.

Except for this weird art exhibit they also had on display... Weird.

This was over pretty quick and daylight remained so, I headed over to the Trevi fountain. It was cool to hear the rushing waters a block away and know I was in the right place.

And, yes, coworkers, I was really in Italy, please don't make me take anymore time off. :P

The place was mobbed though and eventually I wanted to get away from the crowd. Went over to Piazza Navona because that was recommended for some reason. Very pretty, lots of statues, the usual.

I should really look up why this place is special... Anyways, out of things to do and getting hungry I headed back to the Pantheon and glanced at the menu of one of the restaurants in the square. And that was enough to hook me into dinner on the plaza facing the Pantheon and hugging a heat lamp. Good pasta, good foccacia bread and a decent desert in front of a historical treasure. Couldn't have been a better evening.

The thing looks pretty at night too. Anyways, battery dwindling, I headed back to the hotel. On the way, somehow I stumbled onto the Holy Hand grenade.

Thursday, Dec 13th - Day 5

Got up today and started the long walk over to the Colosseum for threeeeee hour guided tour.

While I was waiting for the tour to show up and grabbing a few early pictures, I was treated to a delightful scam by one of the locals. Started up a friendly chat that lasted at least 10 mins, then tried to give me all sorts of gifts. I had my hands full of presents before the sob story about his lack of job and sick family in Senegal showed up. Ugh. Bailed out of that, but gave him a Euro for the entertainment. I think he was pissed it wasn't more.

With the time approaching, I started gathering with the other likely tour group candidates and chatted with a nice couple from Australia for a while.Tour guides finally showed up and Roxanna was a treasure. She was incredibly knowledgeable and had great stories to tell.

I had decided to pay extra to get taken down below to the crypt. The structures underneath were really well preserved.

More pictures of the colosseum, but not sure they qualify as pretty. Despite being rebuilt by previous popes, it's still really hard to picture what it originally looked like.

It was interesting to see the repairs both past and present. The bricks froze the damage and you can see where it was incredibly unstable at the top.

She took us by the Triumph arch for someone

Then on to the ARCH OF TITUS. No doubt named for the cat.

Up Palantine hill, by the Roman forum, the palace, it's all rubble and bricks and not terribly photogenic. Glad to see it, but I didn't take pictures. Except for this original palace floor.

And the church dedicated to the pharmacist, Saint Laurence!!! Congrats Dad!

After the tour, I headed down to see Circus Maximus, but I have no real addiction to chariot racing, so again, it was just a huge grass stadium-pit. Going to need to watch Gladiator and Ben Hur to properly let this place sink in.

Grabbed some food since I was starving, then started the long walk to the hotel to rest my back. Decided to swing by the Pantheon again, since I can't get enough of that place and ran into a couple from the tour. Had a nice chat and I helped them with directions

Friday, Dec 14th - Day 6

Today was a filler day. Apparently I'd seen everything I wanted to in rome by now, so now I'm grasping at straws. Started walking and first hit the Castel Sant'Angelo.

Headed over to St. Peters square to see the place. It was smaller than I expected. Line for the Basilica was long, so I'm going to come back with the proper Vatican tour later.

Headed over to the Pantheon again, but this time it was RAINING! Got to be rained on inside the building through the hole in the roof. That was pretty cool.

Then I tried another recommended visit which was what's left of the Roman Baths. There's a museum set up there, but unfortunately very little of it actually relates to the baths, most is just a dumping ground for random other statues and coins and things. This mosaic might have been on the floor of the baths?

These statues might have been hung up there?

These are the kinds of tools used to chisel out text.

Also, I made friends with a local! This friendly monster was actually IN the museum. Gave him a few facerubs before heading to more of the exhibit and he followed me through damn near half the rest of it asking for more. Or food. Not sure.

But there wasn't a lot of bath related content to it. So, at this point, I was done with the baths, grabbed food

Ok, I grabbed dessert and then needed to get off my feet again. Was able to coordinate to have wine and then dinner with Dave and Kimmie.

Took them over to the Trevi fountain since it was on their way and I wanted to see it at night. Very pretty.

But so tired. Headed back to the hotel. I'm not sure how I'll survive this much of a walking trip.

Saturday, Dec 15th - Day 7

Got recommendations for things to see for the last day. Smith and Susie had previously visited the Basilica of San Sebastien. No pictures allowed here though. This place is a Church, that when excavating their basement found another church, and when excavating that found another older roman building underneath. Was neat to see such well preserved brickwork.

After that I headed over to the parents recommendation, St Maria Sopra Minerva Basilica. Large and pretty, but it was dark enough by this time that it was hard to see inside. Also no pictures.

Now to kill time until time for the last recommendation. The Bone Chapel! I can only provide pictures I dug out of google to show you because the first part of the tour strictly prohibited any pictures of their dead guys. It was incredibly macabre.

The second part of the tour was of the one of the catacombs under the city. Lots of shelving for bodies, but it was all very ransacked. Only a little bit of it survived due to cave-ins preserving a few rooms.

Really strange night, but I guess I'm glad I tried it.

Sunday, Dec 16th - Day 8

Checked out of the hotel, grabbed a train to the port. Which of course swung by the ocean, so nice views.

But then I made the horrible decision to try and walk to get a little exercise. Less than 2 miles, but the google directions were not good, so it took probably close to 2 hours. Eventually made it to the boat

And rode Schindler's Lift up to my room.

And met up with the people who were awake to have dinner and then crashed early since tomorrow would be an early day.

Here's the destinations for the cruise though...

Monday, Dec 17th - Day 9

Today was the Vatican / St. Peters / Sistine Chapel tour. That's St. Peter's Basilica in the background.

There were lots of ancillary pieces of art that were very cool. This giant sphere was mounted on a bearing and would spin if pushed. A weird pinecone statue. There were some incredible mosaic floors.

A room they called the marble zoo, which was just wall to wall animal sculpture. The vatican was apparently unwilling to accept that the broken statues they pillaged were useless, so they just put whatever heads they found on whatever bodies. Frankenstein sculptures!

This map room was incredibly long, the ceiling was covered in paintings and the maps all showed the perspective from Rome, not North/South. The pope-centric model of the world. :P

Several rooms that stole design ideas from the Pantheon.

The whole experience up until now, however, was crowded and rushed and miserable. But the real reason I was here was to see the sistine chapel ceiling and that room was legitimately mindblowing. No pictures allowed of course, so here's what google has.

And right after that, St. Peter's Basilica. The scale of this room is just incredible.

It was also just dusty enough to make for some gorgeous sunbeam shots

And all these paintings on the walls are actually enormously detailed mosaics!

Seeing it was a little marred by the fact that a lot of this stone was pillaged from the Colosseum, but still... incredible building.

And a really nice view of the square from the basilica steps on the way out.

We then got a middling dinner, but lots of wine for those who wanted it and then a long drive around Rome showing us all the things I'd already seen on the trip. Got back to the ship with enough time to prep a few days of this site and then had dinner with the ENTIRE group of friends that attended this cruise.

That was an absolute delight. The food was really good and company was even better. We then went back to the nightclub for more drinks and more talking. Really good night.

Tuesday, Dec 18th - Day 10

Today was an all day guided tour of Sorrento and Pompei. Sorrento was fine, it was a bus ride to a pretty city overlooking the coast. We had a nice lunch, but it would have been skippable.

Pompei however, blew my mind. (hah) I figured they'd have excavated a few buildings and some pretty mosaic floors and that would be it. There were ACRES of entire buildings unearthed. They think 2/3rds of the city is revealed at this point.

Including an entire upper-class house with intact frescos on the walls.

And etched paving stones leading you to the brothel where you could find an illustrated menu of offerings. :P

Absolutely incredible.

More proof I was here.

Wednesday, Dec 19th - Day 11

Today was astop in Sicily and a visit to the ruins at the port city of Selinunte. The temple standing here is gorgeous!

because this thing was painstakingly recreated out of the rubble in 1954. Here's the temple next to it that was toppled by the same earthquake.

Really interesting to see all the components of this temple on the ground, but not quite what I was expecting. We got back to the ship around 2 and then the rest of the day was for relaxing. Grabbed lunch, kept up the website, had tea with the gang, watched a movie in the room, then drinks in the lounge and a fantastic dinner at he onboard Italian restaurant.

Thursday, Dec 20th - Day 12

Today we are in Cagliari, Italy and I'm on strike. Cancelled my walking tour for the day, and took a day on the ship during a pretty day at sea.

I woke up at a reasonable hour, grabbed breakfast, watched a movie in the room while updating the site, then when the group returned from their excursions at 1, we all met up for lunch. After lunch, several of us talked about going to the ship spa/pools. And that was the best decision I've made this entire trip.

The spa had dry sauna, wet sauna, a freezing winter room WITH SNOW ON THE GROUND, an cold water bucket shower and an enormous heated jacuzzi-pool.

And since we were booking it to Algeria, the water in the pool was sloshing back and forth at least 4 or 5 inches. Which was a really nice and soothing motion, but made it difficult to sit down on the metal bar couch that they also had underwater.

They recommended doing several cycles through the blistering hot wet sauna and cold room and that was just wonderful. I ended up outlasting the group who came down and was here for at least an hour and a half. And did at least 5 or 6 cycles through both rooms. Couldn't feel the cold at the end, I must have been in that one alone for 4 or 5 mins.

I eventually got bored of not having anyone to talk to and headed back to the room to kill time until a massage. Whereupon one of the girls advertised that MarioKart was set up in their room and competition was fierce. I got one race in before I had to leave for the massage, but it was fun.

The Swedish Deep Tissue massage itself was nice, but oddly nothing to write home about. I should have gone for the extra 30 mins of time, but bookings were unavailable.

After that headed to dinner but on the way caught the last half of these two playing in the atrium. They were very good.

and it turned out to be just me, Kate and Derrick. The restaurant food I chose was great, we then went to get drinks at the lounge and this time I stayed late enough for the band. And they were wonderful, but played almost entirely oldies, of course. Ended up leaving when they got to YMCA.

Friday, Dec 21th - Day 13

Today was a late day. Nothing to do but a tour at 3pm, so I killed time in the room, tried to play games and grabbed lunch.

The tour took us to a towering monument to the veterans who died in the independence war here in Algeria.

Incredible 300ft high statue of three palm leaves and several GI type figures.

After that we drove around town, barely got a glimpse of the Notre Dame du Afrique.

And back to the ship. Did laundry, tried to catch dinner solo and was sat next to a good 6 of them, so decided to join anyways. Couldn't take the abba show afterwards, so headed back to the cabin for more game and then bed. And some pretty sailing for almost the last night.

Saturday, Dec 22th - Day 14

Today was an earlier tour of Valencia, and Valencia is a gorgeous town! We had a great brief walk around the city center, saw some churches and fun buildings. Here's the random buildings.

Then we got bussed over to the Valencia Aquarium and even more gorgeous. We ditched the tour and walked ourselves around the park for the two hours available. Saw bunch of aminals.

The penguins thought we were the attractions of the day...

And then headed back to the ship. After lunch on the boat, we did another Spa run and it was just as good and relaxing as the first. After the spa, we did one last large group dinner and all headed back to our rooms. Had to pack since we get booted out of the rooms at 8am tomorrow.

But we got treated to a lovely sunset.

Sunday, Dec 23th - Day 15

As promised, we were booted out of the rooms early and I absconded with all the diet cokes that were left. We killed some time until they needed us off the ship...

and took a taxi to the apartment. Which was just incredible. 4 bedrooms, one is a loft, a lovely balcony and just the weirdest assortment of furnishings.

After dropping off our stuff, we headed to a Christmas market and shopped for a bit. Then headed back to the apartment to pick up Joe and then out for lunch and more shopping.

I can't even begin to describe how weird the Christmas pooper, the caganer thing is here, so just look it up yourself... Wikipedia: Caganer

I quickly bored of that and retired back to the apartment. We finally had terrible-movie night and watched The Meg and then watched Fate of the Furious over pizza. Made for a really nice night.

Monday, Dec 24th - Day 16

I was feeling pretty sick at this point, so I slept waaay in and woke up at around noon. In just enough time to shower, dress and join the gang for the 2pm tour of Sagrada Familia. This church is a towering testament to Gaudi's creativity. The exterior is covered in multiple tableaus, each a separate theme depending on which direction you're standing.

Once you get inside though, it's an entirely different building. And I think I'm not exaggerating when I say it's the most beautiful I've ever been inside.

Instead of Greek/Roman columns, Gaudi designed his to branch away like trees. The roof itself is done up like flowers or a spread of tree leaves.

And I know it wasn't Gaudi himself, but I mistakenly give him credit for the incredible choice of stained glass colors.

Everything is a swath of colors of the rainbow and just drop dead gorgeous in the afternoon light.

We went up to the rooftop spaces, but there wasn't much but a nice view of the city

But I stayed long enough to catch a bit of the organ practice!!! So cool to hear music here.

I went through the gift shop afterwards and managed to find things to put together for the white elephant christmas gifts the group wanted to do.

Tuesday, Dec 25th - Day 17

Today we had a grand idea to go see Gaudi's park. But being all tired from all this travelling, we stayed in playing Mario party or Mario Kart until 1. We got to the park but just in time for them to tell the line they were sold out for the day.

Casa Something

And the casa something which I can't find the picture for...

Wednesday, Dec 26th - Day 18

This time we actually got in to Park Guell. It was unfortunately quite underwhelming. I'm not sure anything could really live up to the Sagrada Familia, but I didn't go in with low expectations. There was some interesting walkways and a nice overhang with his typical curving style. The main attraction is the gingerbread house entrance buildings and the stairs up to a massive columned cave.

Still, very pretty.

Dinner was an incredible restaurant that a coworker of Mulnix's recommended. We ordered Tapas beyond all reason and it seemed each dish was better than the last. We also sprung the trap that the dinner was actually a celebration of Joe's 40th birthday and gave him a Nintendo switch as a present from all of us. I expect he played Civ 6 the entire plane flight home.

We walked home totally stuffed and after an aborted attempt to find Gelato, I gave into shame and instead grabbed a 1/2 pint of Ben and Jerry's from the convenience store freezer and pretended that was something fancier. Totally worth not having to continue walking.

Thursday, Dec 27th - Day 19

Finally flying home. This ended up being way more sightseeing time than I was capable of. Very much ready to get home and actually start relaxing. Unfortunately Delta's idea of premium economy is garbage, so I arrived in a sorry state. Time for another massage...