Cruising the Mediterranean Seas.

Cruising the Mediterranean Seas…

Omg this floating island is enormous to take us cruising on the Mediterranean seas!! They did say it was a 2yo Italian flagship but honestly, the variety of everything in the world condensed into one floating island is pretty spectacular.

Being relieved of house work, prepping meals & business matters for a week, it’s easy to get sucked into the vortex of cocktails & eating. We did the buffet madness each morning & fine dining in the evenings. The bars were too numerous to count, although we gave it a shot.

My pants still feel okay but I’d be scared to jump on the scales if they were available. (They were in the gym but who goes there????? our boys did, big & small, both had put on 3kgs.) Thank goodness for all our walking.

Actually we only had one sea day in that whole week. It was such a relief from getting up & organized everyday to go exploring. A couple more down days, sea days would have been a blessing.

But there was no way we wanted to miss as much as we could pack in, on these far flung exotic lands. And we were free to roam. So we hustled. Passports & baggage checks at every country.

First stop Palermo & lunch at the palazzo with the duchess. An old stomping ground of mine as many of you would know from previous travels. It was so lovely to again see staff & royalty alike, & give them all a squeeze.

https://foodthatsings.com/duke-duchess/

To these people who looked after me when I spent 3 months in a foreign country, I am always grateful.

It was especially amazing for me to be able to show precious family around, to share some of the secrets & stories of this magnificent historical home.

Next stop Malta. What a gorgeous surprise this island was. Rock walls & cactus hedges. Agriculture & cities coexisting seamlessly. Harmonious use of land. Rich, dense, pretty.

Fertile with basic needs & resplendent with historical evidence.  We jumped on the open topped bus & crisscrossed the land.

Then Barcelona…we love, love this gorgeous girl, her pretty streets, wide avenues of lacey trees & carpets of falling leaves. We loved her amazingly beautiful Gaudi influenced architecture & her energy.

We walked 18 kilometres that day, inspiringly exhausted. This ones a keeper & we will all come back to spend more time one day.

Marseille. Half the group are a bit fluey so after yesterday’s epic wandering we played this day low key. We meandered the cobblestones, sat in cafes & drank coffee, rode carousels & admired castles from afar. Pleasant day, but unexplored city.

One last stop, Genoa. Such a pretty setting on the side of a cliff face. Old melding attractively with modern. So close to the French Riviera, so close to Cinque Terra. We rode the little info train, checking out all sorts of points of interest. We picnicked in a kids park & headed back to the ship.

Feeling the flue, I fell down for a few hours, disappointingly missing the final dinner. Packed for disembarking back in Rome early next morning.

Epic mission undertaken, we need a rest  ???? so it’s off to Vienna for this little family to be welcomed into the fold of our warm & kind Austrian relatives.  In the hope of a white Christmas :))