Thursday 22^nd May 2014

Our second last day on board.

Weather today is not looking good, cloudy sky chance of rain and strong winds.  Expected maximum temperature is 21°. The Captain just announced the sea condition is expected to be rough with 4-5metre swells and 30 knot winds all day. He has for these reasons emptied and closed the swimming pools.

Overnight we sailed past Portugal and round Cabo Finisterre before changing heading northeasterly and into the Bay of Biscay.

Not much to report today, spent most of the time relaxing and having cups of tea.

Tonight is our last formal night and we will have some special guests, Albert, James and Edward joining Joanne, Glenn, Lynne & I for dinner. We actually tried Escargot (snails in Butter & garlic sauce), not too bad but not a dish I would rave over.

The special guests that joined us at dinner were two Princess Cruise bears dressed as sailors, and a meerkat dressed as James Bond.

Albert, James & Edward

The meerkat belongs to Glen & Joanne. Albert & Edward will be coming back to Australia with us and Albert will be going to live with Heather & Mick in Sydney as a reminder of “Grey Funnel & Billy Bob”.

Wednesday 21^st May 2014

Woke this morning to an overcast cloudy sky with light rain. Temperature is expected to be a maximum of 21°.

We sailed into Gibraltar harbour and docked at 8:00am.

After breakfast in our Stateroom we met our tour group at 9:00am for a short bus trip into the centre of the city where we boarded the cable car for the steep ride to the top of the Rock. On the way up the guide explained about the Barbary Apes, (tailless monkeys which live on Gibraltar) and that we were not to feed them. 

 A Barbary Ape

Also to keep any bags and backpacks closed, as they like to forage inside looking for food. I had to dispose of the apples we had packed as the guide said they would be able to smell the fruit. Apparently the Apes are also very fond of sunglasses and jewellery.  

View fro the top of The Rock

Despite the cloud and light drizzle the views from the top were spectacular so the cameras got a workout. One of the amazing views from the top is the airport and runway. The runway is listed as one of the 5 most dangerous in the world and pilots have to be specially trained and qualified to fly in and out of Gibraltar.  The runway is very short with water at both ends and savage cross winds so it is not able to take large planes. Amazingly, though, the runway has the main Gibraltar – Spain road running across the middle of it, so when planes are landing boom gates are lowered on each side to stop the traffic. We actually saw a plane land while we were at the top. 

Gibraltar Airport

 Also from the top we were able to see the continent of North Africa, which is 9 miles across the water.

We then walked along the pathways to St Michael’s Cave, passing many of the famous Barbary Apes which are quite happy to have their photo taken. Legend has it that if the Apes leave Gibraltar, British sovereignty will cease. During WWII the numbers reduced significantly to a point where Churchill issued an order for more were to be found and brought to the "Rock”.

Between 280 & 300 Apes currently live on Gibraltar and the numbers have been gradually increasing over the last few years. The Apes have no fear of humans and when we arrived at the entrance to St Michael’s Cave there were a number of them sitting on the cars, one was actually perched on the external rear vision mirror and only reluctantly moved when the driver shoved him off.

St Michael’s cave is part of a limestone formation (similar to the Jenolan caves) in the Rock. It is set up with sound and light shows and they hold concerts in there as it has excellent acoustics.

St Michaels Cave - main cavern

We continued walking and made our way to the Great Siege Tunnel, constructed by the British Royal Engineers in 1782 by blasting through the rock during the Great Siege of 1779-1783 when Spain was trying to bombard the British from ships anchored in the bay as well as blocking supply ships getting through in an endeavor to starve the Garrison into surrender.

The tunnels are very small and in places we had to duck so as not to hit our heads on the ceiling.

Great Siege Tunnel

 These tunnels are very different to those dug during WWII, again by British Royal Engineers, but we did not have time to do the tour of these. The guide said there are actually 57 miles of tunnels dug into the rock and in fact there are more roads inside the Rock that on the outside.

The tour ended at 1:00pm so we stayed in the Grand Casemates Square where we had a lovely lunch of swordfish cutlets in a tomato sauce with muscles and prawns. We knew we were back in a British area as lunch also came with a plate of chips.

After lunch we walked through the main shopping street before returning to the ship about 2:30pm for a 4:15 departure from Gibraltar Harbour. The sun was out and it was quite warm by the time we slipped the mooring cables and sailed out.

Gibraltar is a very interesting place and we would have liked more time to explore it.

Our wonderful day in Gibraltar concluded with dinner in the dining room with Glen  & Joanne.

Tuesday 20^th May 2014

Forecast for today is cloudy skies, chance of light rain and an expected maximum temperature of 21°.

We will spend al day at sea sailing in a south westerly direction across the Mediterranean Sea towards Gibraltar.

After a bit of a sleep-in we had breakfast in the Horizon Café and then attended the port lecture at 10:00am on Gibraltar in the Princess Theatre. We stayed in the theatre for a lecture by one of the Deck Officers “Navigation @ sea”. It was all about the systems and processes used to navigate Emerald Princess during the voyage. It was very interesting. The very large steering wheels of the past have now been replaced and the one on Emerald Princess is about the size of that in a car. After the course has been plotted and entered into the computer by the Navigator the rest is mostly done by the autopilot. The only time they use the manual steering in for entering and leaving harbour or in emergencies.

All the sitting down made us hungry so we toddled off to the Wheelhouse bar for lunch, the theme was “British Pub Lunch” so we had fish & chips, washed down with a Guinness for me and a glass of wine for Lynne. I finished off with bread & butter pudding. We were joined at lunch by a lovely couple from Southampton, so we spent a wonderful hour over lunch discussing England, Australia, the British Empire and the Royal Family.

After lunch Lynne went back to the Theatre to see the movie “Captain Phillips” which she really enjoyed. I plan on watching it on one of the plane flights on the way home. I spent a restful few hours reading my book and enjoying a whiskey on the balcony.

When Lynne returned from theatre we went to afternoon tea in the Da Vinci Dining room where they served excellent sandwiches (with the crust cut off), cakes and scones with jam & cream - it is the first time I have had marmalade jam on scones. It was now time to get our daily exercise so we did a quick 2 laps of the promenade deck. With our exercise for the day completed it was now time to get changed and head to dinner, (all that exercise builds up an appetite).

It was Italian night in the dining room with all the waiters dressed as Italian waiters, (I wonder if there will be a French night, and if so will they have “the fallen Madonna with the big boobies”, haur haur haur)!!

Monday 19^th May 2014

As we had sailed northwest over night we woke this morning to a much cooler temperature of 15° with light rain.

Not such an early start today so we had time to go to the Horizon Café for a full breakfast from the buffet.

We boarded the bus at 9:00am for a city drive around Marseilles and then on to the Notre-Dame de le Garde, an enormous Neo-Byzantine Basilica that sits on a high hill overlooking the city. The terrace of the Basilica provided 360° views of the city, the sea, and surrounding countryside.

View from the terrace

 The Basilica has a statue of the Virgin Mary on top of the bell tower, which is made of copper and has been gold plated. Inside, the Basilica is beautiful with high domed ceilings and stained glass windows. There were 167 steps up to the Basilica and, yes, the same 167 steps back down. 

Notre-Damede le Garde

Back on the bus to rest our legs during the drive down to the old port (Vieux Port), where we were able to get out and walk around. We saw the fish markets including some fishermen selling their catch, some of which were live in tubs of water.

The old harbour dates back to 600BC and was almost destroyed during WWII. Marseille bay is enclosed and protected by 3 small islands; the smallest and best known is Chateau d’If. In 1634 the Chateau d’If became a state prison and had many famous prisoners - the most famous being Edmond Dantès, the fictional hero of Alexandre Dumas’ book “The Count of Monte Cristo”.

  Back on the bus for the drive back to the ship and on the way we drove past the 19^th century Longchamps Palace, which was built to celebrate the opening of the Marseille Canal.

Arrived back on board about 2:00pm and had lunch at the café.

Fish market

Sunday 18^th May 2014

The Ship sailed into Genoa Harbour and docked at 7:00am.

We woke this morning to blue sky with some high cloud and an expected maximum temperature of 21°, although is seemed hotter out in the sun.

Not such an early start this morning but we had breakfast delivered to our Stateroom as we had to be ready to board the tour bus at 8:15am for our guided walking tour of the cultural and historic highlights of Genoa’s inner city.

We started at the ancient harbour front, which has been newly transformed into shops, eateries & attractions.

Ferrari Square

We then walked through the old medieval area and saw the Cathedrale di San Lorenzo, then the church of Santa Maria dìCostello ( which is the oldest dating from the11^th century), and San Matteo church (favorite of the Doria family and located in a small square surrounded by several Doria palaces. The tomb of Andrea Doria, (an admiral of the Genoese fleet in the 1500’s) is located in the crypt. These old churches are all built with the characteristic black & white marble striped façade.

View of old town from our Ship

The Doges Palace (Palazzo Ducale) once housed the Doges and is now a cultural centre. We walked past the little house where Christopher Columbus is said to have spent his childhood and ended with free time at the Piazza De Ferrari (no not the same family as Enzo), the busiest traffic hub in the city. A lovely fountain in the middle of the square is surrounded by the Stock Exchange, Academy of Fine Arts and a monument to Garibaldi.

Unfortunately as it was Sunday no shops except café’s were open so no retail therapy for Lynne, probably a good thing as, Sunday is supposed to be a day of rest even for credit cards.

Whilst Genoa is very old the harbour area is quite modern as most of the outer harbour buildings were destroyed by bombing during WWII.

Back on board ship about 2:00pm and as Lynne appears to have picked up a cold, she had a sleep while I took some photos of the harbour region. Dinner was at 8:15pm.

San Lorenzo Cathedral