Today we split up with Ron and Evelyn for our visit to Rome. They took the full day (10 1/2 hour) cruise ship shore excursion that hit all the highlights including the Vatican museum, St. Peters basilica, the Sistene Chapel, the Coliseum, etc. Because Sherry and I had seen the main sights of Rome on previous trips, we took the one hour train ride from Civitavechia, where the ship docked, to do some exploring on our own. We found free wifi in the main Rome train ...

Today was a sea day, sailing east past the island of Mallorca and later between Sardinia and Corsica. The morning was partly cloudy and about 16 degrees, warm enough for me to get some exercise on the jogging track, but that was about it. The weather didn't improve and we spent the rest of the day indoors, just relaxing, partaking in a few of the activities (e.g. a learn to speak Italian class) and taking an afternoon nap. Dinner (formal night) was just the four ...

No, we didn't make a side trip to the Caribbean! I misspelled Granada in my last blog, so the map shows us traveling to the island of Grenada, and I can't seem to able to correct it. Overnight we sailed along the south coast of Spain and by morning we were sailing northeast up the coast towards Valencia. We docked at 1:00 pm. It was somewhat windy, cool (low 20s) and partly sunny. Right after docking we took a 10 minute cab ride to the so called City of Arts an...

Today was embarkation day for our cruise, so we were able to sleep in a little longer. After checking out of our hotel we headed to the city centre. Sherry and Evelyn were interested in doing some shopping but unfortunately for them (happily for me) the area where we happened to find a parking spot didn't seem to have any decent stores nearby. So we decided it was time to go to the ship. There were at least three different entrances to the port and the directio...

Today's day trip was in the opposite direction from yesterday, through more mountainess terrain, to Granada. First stop was the Alhambra, the last and greatest Moorish palace, dating from the 13th and 14th centuries. We spent a couple of hours there, viewing the gardens, Charles V's Palace, the museum there, and the Alcazaba, or "fort" (see pic). Because we didn't reserve an entry time to the Palacios Nazaries days in advance (apparently the most popular "must se...