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Day #10: Cagliari, Sardinia

Mar 10th, 2014 by

We arrived in Cagliari to a beautiful morning and departed the ship shortly after it was cleared by the local authority.

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Cagliari is a rather hilly town with most of the major sights located on top of the hill around or inside the of castle walls. So, we undertook the hike, which was a bit steep in places but was generally pleasant in the cool temperatures.

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We visited the remains of a Roman amphitheater and let Emerson play in a park before continuing to the modest yet enjoyable archeological museum.

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After the museum, we strolled through the old town and visited the Cathedral, which was perhaps one of my all-time favorite churches in Europe. Opposite the Cathedral was a museum featuring (primarily) Italian minimalist and op art, which is a personal favorite style of mine. This made for an unexpected and welcomed diversion from the normal diet of old religious art on offer in Italy… :-)

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We then walked back down the hill and through town before returning to our ship. All in all, Cagliari was a very pleasant surprise as we didn’t have a lot of pre-existing expectations going into this port.

Today’s box score: +1 “county” (Sardinia)

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Day #9: At Sea

Mar 10th, 2014 by

Today was our one and only day without a port visit. While I don’t generally love such days, it was a nice respite from our sightseeing. Libby and I enjoyed the jazz brunch in Le Bistro.

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Emerson also tried out Splash Academy (the ship’s kids’ club) for the first time and loved it. Otherwise, we mostly spent the day relaxing, reading, and playing with Emerson. For dinner, we ordered NCL’s 24×7 pizza to our cabin — it was pretty uninspiring.

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Day #8: Valencia, Spain

Mar 8th, 2014 by

If yesterday was a tour de force in efficient independent travel, today was almost anything but that. In all honesty, I didn’t do a great job of preparing for the ports on this trip, figuring we’d figure it out as we want along… of course, this has been my modus operandi for years now. So, why change?

Unfortunately, my guidebooks had limited or no information about Valencia. So, we started at a bit of disadvantage. As a result, I just arranged for a $12/pp. shuttle offered by Norwegian to take us into the historic district of town (some distance from the pier). This seemed like perhaps a dumb move (as the shuttle schedule was fairly limited and $48 would be a lot of cab fare), but it turned out to be accidentally brilliant (as the cabs drivers had a strike / protest in the middle of the day)!

While logistics made out planned visit to the science museum and planetarium impractical, we enjoyed strolling around the historic center of Valencia. We visited a number of churches, including the cathedral, which Emerson always seems to particularly enjoy. We also visited the Mercado, which I think rivals Barcelona’s La Boqueria. We bought citrus, strawberries (and then more strawberries at Emerson’s request), and orange juice — all of which was delicious.

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I was also especially enamored with the public citrus trees that perfumed the city. I picked a tangerine and ate it (not sure if that’s allowed or not) much to Libby’s chagrin. But, it seemed like the thing to do.

Libby’s parents took a bus tour of Valencia from the ship, which allowed them to visit the Cathedral as well.

For dinner, we all had an excellent meal at Cagney’s, the ship’s steakhouse.

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Day #7: Barcelona, Spain

Mar 8th, 2014 by

I often liken cruise travel to tapas — you get a lot of small plates of different places as part of one meal. Sometimes the dishes are new and exciting. At other times, they’re a favorite dish that you return to again and again. Without a doubt, Barcelona is familiar comfort food for our traveling soul.

To make the most of our day, we hightailed it off the ship as soon as possible and grabbed a taxi for Park Guell. Given the excellent weather, we thought it a good day to see Gaudi’s fanciful park for the first time (it’s one of the few major sights in Barcelona we’ve missed on prior visits). It did not disappoint any of us.

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We then hoped in a taxi to La Sagrada Familia, which Mom had never seen. While I showed Mom the church, Libby and Emerson played in the park across the street.

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From there we walked: into and through the Eixample to view the Modernista architecture and upscale shopping, down into the Barri Gotic for more Modernista architecture and a visit to Barcelona’s cathedral, over to Las Ramblas for some shopping and lunch (tapas!) at La Boqueria market, further down Las Ramblas to the waterfront, into the docklands, over a bridge, and back to our ship about an hour before “all aboard.”

Here’s a view from atop Barcelona’s cathedral:

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Aside from Parc Guell, most of this was familiar to us. But, we had a great day — like visiting an old and cherished friend.

While we were out galavanting on foot, Libby’s parents took the ho-ho bus around town for a motorized tour. They’d been to Spain before but not to Barcelona. So, this gave them a good overview of the city.

In the evening, we all met up for dinner at Jasmine Garden.

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Day #6: Toulon, France

Mar 5th, 2014 by

We arrived in Toulon to clear skies and a crisp morning. Actually, we docked across the bay from the city. To reach Toulon, one would need to take a water shuttle provided by NCL. However, Toulon isn’t exactly teeming with touristic splendors… so, you’d need to transfer to the train station for a 1+ hour journey to the better sights Provence has to offer. With wait times, you could easily spend 2+ hours each way.

Given that, we opted for one of the ship’s shore excursions: a day trip to Aix-en-Provence. This involved a somewhat lengthy but scenic bus trip the 70 or so kilometers to Aix. Upon arrival, we took a two hour walking tour of the city’s mostly minor sights. The city is quite charming.

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Ultimately, Aix is an environment to immerse oneself in… to taste the produce, smell the flowers, eat the food, drink in the atmosphere. It’s a place to stroll and linger.

In the end, I was happy for a small taste of Provençal life, but I was left unsatisfied by the brevity of the visit. So, we’ll certainly have to return here sans cruise ship.

We had dinner last night in Le Bistro, the ship’s French restaurant. Other than a somewhat lackluster onion soup, the meal and wine were superb, including a delectable chocolate Napoleon as the final course.

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