Rhonda Bracey: At Random

Sadly, today was the last full day of our wonderful cruise. We’ve met some lovely people who have become friends, even if just for short time. The seas have been calm, the weather warm to bloody hot, and the places we’ve been have all been memorable for all sorts of reasons. Best thing, though, was that my sister has really enjoyed her first-ever cruise and we didn’t have a single cross word between us, which is not bad considering we haven’t shared premises for any length of time since we were in our late teens! We’ve decided to do this again…

But now for today’s port: Porto Cervo, on the Costa Smeralda at the north-eastern tip of Sardinia. We’d booked a shore excursion only a couple of days ago (we had on-board credit we needed to spend), which was an all-day (7+hour) sailing boat journey to the Maddalena islands, including time for swimming etc., plus food and alcohol. We didn’t book until we were sure we could cancel for no penalty if the weather was inclement or the swell was too big—yes, we could cancel up to 24 hours beforehand with no penalty. But when we were in Livorno, we decided to cancel, not for weather reasons, but because we’d be all day in the hot sun, on a small boat, with potentially a group of people we may not like and who might have had too much alcohol. It was 7 hours in the hot sun, though, that was the prime reason, much as we wanted to swim in the beautiful waters here. Also, we had to pack—on a cruise ship, they want your luggage in the corridor outside your room the night before disembarkation (by midnight for us), and we had to get everything back into our suitcases and duffels (including all the new stuff we’d bought), and leave enough in our carry-on luggage for the night and early the next day.

Back to Porto Cervo: This was a tendering port so we took the lifeboat in to shore, and were glad we’d cancelled the sailing boat trip as the swell was about a metre. I’m not sure what I was expecting—perhaps a fishing town with a long history—but that certainly wasn’t what we encountered. This is a modern town full of high-end retail outlets (it’s probably too common to call them shops… think Pucci, Ralph Lauren, Sotheby’s etc.) all arranged tastefully in such a way that you didn’t feel like it was mostly shops. At least, what we saw of the town.

The marina was full of big yachts, which weren’t quite as big as those at St Tropez and Monte Carlo. Everything was expensive, even an orange juice. In Ajaccio in a cafe overlooking the beach, I paid EU5 for a large freshly squeezed orange juice (and nowhere in Italy have we paid more than EU7). In an outside restaurant in Porto Cervo with no view, they charged me EU10 for a *tiny* glass of orange juice, and told us in no uncertain terms that they were a restaurant and expected us to buy food, not just have a cooling drink on a hot day. The snooty waiter snatched our menus, cutlery and napkins off the table with a very disgusted flourish when we said we wouldn’t be eating! He didn’t quite tell us to leave, but I think it was close. We may have been saved by the fact that we were in the midst of talking to an American couple seated at a table very close to us, who’d ordered a heap of food.

Back to that gorgeous water… We’d hoped to find a nearby public beach that didn’t cost an arm and leg to get to or to rent umbrellas etc. at (some private beach clubs charge EU700 per day for a sun lounger and an umbrella and some food and drink!!). We spotted a likely candidate right near the marina so climbed over the rocks to a tiny sandy beach and dunked ourselves into the Mediterranean again. The water was crystal clear, had mostly a sandy bottom, and we could even see some little fish swimming around. But our swim was short-lived as someone came down the marina jetty and shouted at us loudly in Italian, presumably to tell us to get out of the water (there were NO yachts on that side of the marina jetty). By then, we’d almost finished our little dip, so to prevent an international incident we got out. There were no signs of any kind to tell us we couldn’t swim there. No matter. We’d cooled off and ticked another part of the Med off the list.

A cautionary tale regarding Booking.com: While we were in Porto Cervo, my sister got a call from her son who was at baggage claim at Rome airport. He’d gone online to check the address for the accommodation we’d booked back in February/March, only to find out that the booking had been CANCELLED. He’s a quick thinker and an experienced traveller, so he’d looked for another option that would take 4 people in 4 beds for 4 nights, starting tonight, near the heart of Rome—and found a place! There were numerous calls between my nephew and sister trying to figure out what was going on and why it had been cancelled, and me trying to message the people I’d been in contact with back when the booking was made (they didn’t respond for hours). Meantime, we’re trying to check out small photos of the likely accommodation on a phone in the bright sunlight (thank goodness we didn’t do that shore excursion as we may have had no signal there), eventually just telling him to trust his judgement and book it. It ended up being a really nice apartment (thought the stairs to it were killers!) and was cheaper than the original we’d booked and was in an area known for its restaurants. It was a win-win. Later that evening, we figured out what had gone wrong and why it was cancelled. And it’s to do with how vendors on Booking.com don’t seem to be updated with email address and credit card details after a booking has been made and if the client changes either or both these details before they get to the accommodation. In essence:

• Back in February/March my sister made the Rome booking under a Gmail address that was part of her Booking.com profile; she didn’t realise this was the address used as she signed up with them a long time ago. It’s an address she basically never checks… (and she made that booking because her son was arriving a day before us, so he needed to be the main name on the booking, though this had little to do with what went wrong [I’d made all the other bookings]).
• The booking wasn’t an instant payment (pre-paid) one where the money comes out of the credit card immediately.
• Some time after making the booking, her bank issued her a replacement credit card with a new number and/or expiry date, so she checked her profile on Booking.com and changed her credit card details to the new ones, AND noticed that her email address was the old Gmail one, so she changed that to her primary email address.
• But for some reason, all communications to her about THIS booking went to her old Gmail address (I had the same thing happen to me for one of my bookings—the emails after making the booking then changing my email address, continued to go to the old address, which fortunately I had placed a ‘forward’ on to come to my main email address).
• AND when Booking.com tried to take the payment for the Rome accommodation 2 weeks beforehand, as they said they would, they were using the old credit card details, which meant the payment never went through.
• Booking.com sent her a couple of emails to her old Gmail address telling her to contact them re payment, but she never got those emails as they weren’t forwarded to her primary email address, and Booking.com didn’t use her current email address in her profile. (We found the emails when she used my tablet to log in to her Gmail address—there they were!)
• So they cancelled the booking. I’ve been in contact with Booking.com about this practice, but they’ve never responded to my messages. Be warned!

The journey so far (Barcelona to Rome leg)

Porto Cervo

Porto Cervo

Our little (illegal?) swimming spot

2 suitcases, so much stuff!

Passionfruit martinis at our last music trivia game

Livorno is the Italian port closest to Florence, but because we’d been to Florence a couple of weeks ago, it wasn’t on our agenda for the day. In fact, I stayed on board and had a slow day while my sister went ashore to check out the town and the shops… and contribute to the Italian economy… again. It was pretty quiet on the ship as I think most people went to Pisa or Florence.

For the second night in a row our team (2 Scots, 2 Poms and 2 Aussies) tied for first place in the music trivia quiz, but got beaten in the dance-off (we’d have preferred a tie-break question!). We’ve won at least twice at music or general trivia over the past 2 weeks, and got some ship-branded prizes, such as sun visors, coffee ‘keep’ cups etc. My sister was very pleased with her sun visor and wore it often!

Port of Livorno, Italy

Watching the world go by from a sun lounge under the shade at the Conservatory pool

What a lovely place! The dock is about a street away from the town centre, there’s a beach right in town (yep, we went swimming and yes, it was reasonably cold, but very refreshing), it has good shopping and a very long pedestrian-only street full of delightful small shops, and there didn’t seem to be a lot of tourists except those of us from the ship. Ajaccio was the birthplace of Napoleon, but we didn’t feel the need to visit the historic places that celebrated him.

You know how some places just speak to you and you say in your head ‘I could live here’? Well, Ajaccio was one of those places for me. After the high levels of glitz and glamour seen in St Tropez and Monte Carlo, it was refreshing to come to a place that wasn’t so focused on wealth or tourism.

After wandering about town for most of the morning, we walked back to the ship for a relaxing afternoon by the pool.

The journey from Barcelona so far

Ajaccio city centre is on the right, the town beach is on the other side of those buildings

One lone figure in the Mediterranean at the town beach. There were more, and we added another two, but it certainly wasn’t crowded even though it was another hot day. The water was refreshingly cold!

Freshly squeezed orange juice is everywhere in the southern/western Mediterranean and it’s DELICIOUS. This large glass cost EU5 in a cafe right near the beach

A GORGEOUS yellow Vespa! (yellow wasp)

The very long pedestrian-only area, which had hundreds of small shops and cafes

What a day! We arrived in Monte Carlo around 9am, and when we got off the ship we decided to do the hop-on hop-off (HOHO) bus this morning to see the sights because we had a car and driver booked for the afternoon.

First, find the HOHO bus stop, which we been told was right near the ship… it was, but we didn’t see it so we walked quite a way to the next one. EU25 per person, which seemed a lot but a ticket gives you a full day hopping on and off. It was really good value.

We started up top in the open air, but after the hour-long circuit we went downstairs because the direct sun was getting very hot. We stayed on to get off at the casino the second time round, but knew that getting back on again in time to get to the place where we were to meet the car and driver would be tight. So we stayed on for a full second circuit. Bonus! We arrived at the palace just as the daily changing of the guard was happening, so saw it from the bus while the traffic was held up for the ceremony. The HOHO bus is worth it to see all the spots, especially because Monte Carlo is perched on a hillside and there are a LOT of steps and steep roads.

Frederic, our driver (from Ruby Services), met us at the designated time and place in a Mercedes 7-seater van, which had blissful air conditioning (the HOHO bus had none). And off we went. For the next 5 hours, Frederic took us where we wanted to go—Cap Ferrat (where we had a quick dip in the Mediterranean to cool off), Ville de Franche, Nice, and Eze, a medieval hilltop walled village, finally stopping at the Monte Carlo casino that we missed earlier, before taking us back to the ship. We saw a lot of the Cote d’Azur and it is stunning! As are the yachts that are on the water and in the marinas.

Tip: Whenever you hear ‘medieval hilltop walled village’ you can guarantee there will be steep climbs and LOTS of stairs, and that you need to be related to a mountain goat to negotiate them!!!

Another beautiful clear day with light winds and temperatures in the low 30s (in the shade) and high 30s in the sun.

The dock is right in Monte Carlo

Cap Ferrat

Ville de Franche waterfront

Cote d’Azur (Cap Ferrat?)

Monte Carlo casino. Free to go into the lobby but EU20 to go onto the floor

Leaving Monte Carlo around 10pm

Back to 8,600+ steps walked today! We anchored in St Tropez bay around 10am then were tendered to shore. The dock is only a couple of minutes walk to town, so we wandered about town a bit and went down to the waterfront where the big yachts are moored.

We were on a shore excursion this afternoon to Port Grimaud (built in the 1960s, with lots of canals for the boat owners to pull up outside their very expensive houses; we heard that one cost EU23 million!!), and the medieval town of Grimaud. The port town, where we did a canal boat tour, was a bit Disneyland, with fake facades, but the old town was just beautiful, with very few tourists (except our group). Even better, they had an elevator to take you up the worst of the hill to the town itself. There were still some steep areas and steps but not many and relatively easy to negotiate. And lots of shaded areas. Grimaud is a delightful medieval hill town, with a church that dates back to the 1100s. And no tourist shops!

Anchoring in St Tropez bay, near another ship already on anchor

The yachts are right at the waterfront in the main part of St Tropez

More yachts at St Tropez

One of the canals at Port Grimaud

I’ll just take the boat into town… (Port Grimaud)

Two local cats at Grimaud

The ships at anchor, from Grimaud

Typical street in Grimaud

Grimaud

Another ‘at sea’ day today. The changeover of passengers was obvious everywhere we went on board today. So far we’ve only seen 4 faces we recognise from last week, other than the crew of course.

I spent much of the morning figuring out how to use my phone and tablet to record a eulogy for my best friend’s memorial service (bathroom towels came in very handy for propping up both!). Then spent the rest of the morning by the pool, then we went into the air conditioning and the Explora Lounge and completed two 500-piece jigsaws in about 5 hours. A very lazy day, where we walked fewer than 2,000 steps; other days have regularly been 8,000+ steps).

This evening we participated in the music trivia quiz, as we have most nights, but with four new team members (2 from London and 2 from Edinburgh); the previous two from Kansas had disembarked in Barcelona. We came equal 2nd on 80s music, losing by just 1 point. We’ve really been enjoying the evening music trivia nights—they start at 9pm, typically when it’s still light out and the ship has either just left or is about to leave port. We try to get to the 5pm general trivia competitions too, but sometimes we haven’t been on board to make it.

More photos of food that we shared, these from the Med Yacht Club restaurant…

We’re already halfway through our cruise! Lots of people (about 700 we were told) disembarked today, with about the same number embarking for the first time.

We started our day in Barcelona with a 2-hour tuk tuk tour of the main spots. It was an excellent introduction to Barcelona and covered the main highlights, so much so that we felt we didn’t need to also do a hop-on hop-off bus tour or catch the cable car to the top of Mount Montjuïc behind Barcelona.

After the tour we wandered the wide footpaths to two of the Gaudi houses, but the length of the crowds meant we didn’t feel the need to buy tickets and go inside. And I had an amazingly refreshing mint and lemon drink at a cafe while my sister had her usual coffee and croissant.

Barcelona was surprisingly beautiful, with wide streets and footpaths, and LOTS of street trees for shade. We avoided the heavily touristed areas like La Rambla, and thus avoided the pickpockets that Barcelona is infamous for.

One of the Gaudi houses

The famous La Familia Sagrada, designed by Gauci. Note the very wide footpaths and shade trees, which were everywhere we went

Our tuk tuk, with our driver, Diana

Mint and lemon drink – SOOOO refreshing on a hot day with a lot of walking

They told us it would be hot, and so it was. Blisteringly so. It was forecast to be 37 C / 97 F in the shade, so I can’t imagine what it was for the 3+ hours we spent in the direct sun from 1:30pm. Why? Because back in February we booked a ‘Formula 1’ drive for today. It was loads of fun, but the heat and the hot wind spoiled what should have been an awesome day.

Yes, we got the black Batmobile to drive, but because it sat empty in the sun for more than 30 mins, its black vinyl seats burnt through fabric to our skin. The drive was great and we saw some spectacular and rugged parts of the island, but the relentless sun and wind with no cover over the vehicle took its toll and we were more than glad when it was all over. In milder weather, this would have been an experience to remember with great fondness. In fact, Palma is a place I could return to in future, provided it wasn’t in the heat of summer—we didn’t see a lot of Palma itself because we were out and about, but what we saw was nice. And some of the smaller towns looked lovely too. Certainly one to add to the ‘possibilities’ list for future travel—one day didn’t do it justice.

We’d taken a taxi to Peguera, where the F1 tour left from, but couldn’t get one back easily, despite the woman at the tour place trying several times for us. So we skedaddled across the road and caught the public bus back to Palma, for a lot less EU. The bus was air-conditioned so that was a welcome relief from the blistering heat. Even though I was wearing cool linen, the sweat just drenched my dress.

Sadly, this evening we said goodbye to M&D who disembark in Barcelona tomorrow and return to the US (they were on a back-to-back 14-day cruise from Barcelona to Rome back to Barcelona, whereas we were on the next back-to-back of Rome to Barcelona back to Rome). We met them at dinner on the 2nd night we were on board, and have had several meals with them as well as many hours of great conversations. We’ll miss them this next leg.

The journey so far…

Yes, they have special ships that transport other ships (yachts, and there were about 12 on board this ship) around the world

Some of the F1 ‘cars’ (3 wheelers) ready to go

We paid EU10 extra to get a Batmobile. Note the blue sarong I’d bought at Carloforte trying to protect the black vinyl seats from the worst of the sun

There was one main stop along the coast, where we could knock down a couple of very cold drinks and take in the magic views, and try to cool off on the verandah outside

The Batmobile in convoy. Note the lack of sun and wind protection

It was a beautiful calm day for our arrival at Carloforte, which is a port on a small island off the bottom of Sardinia. But it was hot! This was a tender port, which means the ship was too big to dock (or the water too shallow) and so we had to get into lifeboats that took us to the docks.

We’d heard the beaches were great with crystal clear water, but despite waiting in the main street at a bus stop opposite the ferry terminal for 40+ mins in the middle of a normal Friday, we didn’t see a single bus or taxi. So even if we could get to a beach, who knows how we would get back! Short of hiring a car (cost, plus bond, plus credit card required, plus contract only in Italian), scooter or ebike (both too hot), we had no option but to head back to the ship and its pools and air conditioning. (I can see a business opportunity for someone to have a mini bus or two for taking tourists from the cruise ships and the regular ferry from the main island on a loop to and from the beaches.)

We wandered about this pretty little town for an hour or too (there was an open market area under some big shade trees, which was a blessed relief from the heat), but the heat finally got to us. Although it was meant to be 30 C in the shade, it was MUCH hotter walking in the full sun. My $10 ‘el cheapo’ hat is certainly getting used! Oh, and I bought a light cotton sarong as a cover-up, something I didn’t regret later on…

We have an ‘at sea’ day tomorrow as we make our way to our next port.

LOOK at that water—we wanted to jump in right off the ship!!! Tender boat for contrast

Typical street in Carloforte

Market in the shade

The yellow square marks the bus stop in the main road and there was one of the other side of the road too, right outside where the ferries land, but we didn’t see a single bus or taxi the entire time we sat waiting. One person in a shop said there weren’t any taxis, even though the ‘expert’ on the ship had told us the night before that there were and how much they were.