Independence Med Spain cruise June 28th-July 12th repoooooort

[Sinppu]

It did turn out to be an adventure anyway as we found some wonderful views right in front of the crashino.

 

 

 

And if you walk through an open gate, you might find soemthing even more wonderful.

 

 

 

 

[Sinppu]

The Botanical Gardens were completely empty so we made our own fun tour of them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Sinppu]

The flowers were fascinating.

 

 

 

 

 

So if you want to go visit the Gardens, just go up the hill under the cable car and sneak in through an open gate. Or...well it's not sneaking, if it's open, is it??

 

 

It was a very hot day again so this offer was more than welcome.

 

 

In the photo above you can see one of our favourite crew members, Jose. He worked in the casino and greeted Lowry by name when we were walking past him. We are generally friendly with the dealers because we spend a lot of time in the casino and it's easy for a dealer to regocnize another.

Edited July 28, 2014 by Sinppu

[Sinppu]

MDR time tonight.

 

These were a seafood starter of some kind. Nothing special.

 

Yellow soup.

 

Roasted duck!! Lowry liked it.

 

Vegetarian goat cheese pizza. Wonderful.

 

Our desserts for today. Low fat stuff, banana roll and lemon cheesecake.

 

 

And a girl in a dress that gives you a headache. (Isn't an honest and fashionably challenged husband a hoot?)

 

[Sinppu]

We started day 6 with the progressive trivia.

We reaaallly like trivia and are generally pretty good at them.

In this one we did have a slight disadvantage as the teams that won the best scores had at least 4 people in them and in our team there were only the two of us.

 

 

Here we have the Mediterranean. Compare the colour to the Atlantic.

Spot the difference?

 

 

Our sea days were spent completely relaxing. We played $1 table games in the casino, read books, slept a lot, watched football and tennis.

We like sea days.

 

Here is a moment of bragging.

 

 

 

As some of you know, many of the RCCL ships have been built in Finland and in my hometown of Turku. It's always fun to talk to the crew and find out how many of them have fond memories of them (they usually include the fast food chain Hesburger and the bars and night clubs ;))

[Sinppu]

Straight on to the MDR food then!

 

Fried cheese. No, I'm not kidding. Heavy, but heavenly.

 

 

Seafood salad. Good.

 

 

Goat cheese quiche. Yes, I like cheese. Plenty.

 

 

Steak for Lowry. He said it was OK.

 

Chocolate cake. Or was it vanilla? Ummm...chocolate. I guess. By looking at it, I'd say chocolate.

 

Now this one is easy! Vanilla ice cream!!

[Sinppu]

Today was also the second formal night.

 

 

We watched the football game in the casino and had a few drinks.

 

 

I went to the champagne bar to get my favourite drink (which I only get on RCCL) and suffered the biggest setback on the cruise.

They didn't have it.

No Key Lime Pie Martini.

I was crushed...and so were the ice and strawberries in my comfort daiquiri.

 

We saw the show "Invitation to Dance" and it was brilliant. I love theatre and have even studied it in my youth so I dare say I know something about it and Indy has a marvellous cast. This was one of the best shows I've seen on cruise ships and even overall.

 

 

 

We walked through the Labyrinth but didn't stay as it had just opened, was empty and we heard our bed calling. Loud.

 

[Sinppu]

Our next port was Ibiza.

We've been here before, we spent a week celebrating Lowry's 30th birthday here.

Ibiza is a lot more than the party capital of all party capitals.

 

We slept late and had brunch in the WJ.

 

The day was again almost too hot to handle so we thought that we'd find an adventure as close to the ship as possible.

 

 

Guess what? We succeeded.

 

 

After the lighthouse we followed the road for two minutes and found a place where adventures clearly start.

 

 

 

 

[Sinppu]

Don't think it looks like much?

 

 

Well you'd be right. It doesn't.

 

But if you persist....

 

 

...you find this.

 

 

 

 

[Sinppu]

There was just the 3 of us on the hilltop.

 

 

 

It was quiet and well, you just couldn't beat the views.

 

 

 

Cloudy weather is a bugger, isn't it? :mad:

 

[Sinppu]

We spent a while talking about our holiday here in 2008 and pointing out places we remember. We also watched the planes. We love planes.

 

 

We also noticed a boat that wasn't probably as happy as we were.

 

 

We went back to the ship in no hurry.

 

 

 

[Sinppu]

Back on the ship it was definitely time for ice cream.

 

 

We set ourselves in the orderly queue and Lowry made a good use of his McDonald's work experience as a teenager.

 

 

We played a round of minigolf as there wasn't much of a crowd.

 

 

And here is the happy winner. I beat the Mr. with 8 points which was pretty surprising. He's usually the aiming master in our family.

 

 

(I was soooo tempted to make a crude joke there...nnnggghhhh. Survived it.)

 

Board games were also available in the card room but we never got around to make use of them.

 

 

Lowry being all man-like and interesetd in pipes.

 

[Sinppu]

Sailing away from Ibiza.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Sinppu]

This evening our dinner was in Johnny Rockets.

 

 

The cover charge has gone up to $5.95 pp but we got the same treatment and good food for it.

 

 

And the fun we had was worth a lot more than the extra dollar.

 

 

 

 

And in honour of our American friends, we indulged in a 4th of July cupcake.

 

Tomorrow for the biggest surprise on this trip, Valencia.

Edited July 28, 2014 by Sinppu

[Adayatatime]

Loving it xx

[Sinppu]

I just noticed that the itinerary in the first post is wrong :eek::o

 

Ibiza was on Day 7 but and it moves the rest of the ports one day forward. Otherwise it's correct.

Sorry about that :D

 

I also want to thank everyone for your nice comments.

We have a lot of fun cruising and it's nice to hear that I'm able to communicate that to everyone here on CC as well :p:cool:

 

So on with the show -to Valencia muy bonita.

[Sinppu]

In Valencia (and all of Spain, really) public transport is cheap and reliable and well worth looking into.

 

There was a shuttle bus to the centre but we thought that the price of $18 pp was downright ridiculous.

 

Right down the pier there was a FREE local shuttle that took us to the terminal building.

 

 

 

Just follow these signs on the road...

 

 

 

...and you find the local bus stop.

 

 

Bus number 4 will take you to the Old Town for 1,50 € pp. It takes about 20 minutes.

 

[Sinppu]

Now we didn't know much about Valencia but it did surprise us (and we heard later on that many others as well) with it's beauty and very soothing atmosphere.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another hot day.

 

[Sinppu]

I really wanted to stay in Valencia. People deserve to know about this absolutely wonderful city.

 

 

 

 

 

Around this church were a lot of small streets and alleys that were completely quiet and had quite a magical feeling.

 

 

[Sinppu]

The bus number 4 leaves from this square and the stop is clearly marked.

 

 

When you see these buildings on the left-hand side, prsee the button.

 

 

And if you end up here, you have gotten off on the right stop.

 

 

Then you just walk back to the terminal building and take the FREE shuttle bus. Couldn't get much easier or cheaper.

 

The drivers might not speak English and it's good to have small change (5 or 10 € note or coins) but showing how many people you are with your fingers and saying "billetes" (bee-yet-tes) will help.

 

That wasn't at all condenscending, was it? ;)

[Sinppu]

So. MDR again.

 

Escargot for me.

 

 

And something I really wish I could remember what rolls for Lowry.

 

Strip steak for both of us. This was the only time I had red meat on the cruise and it was OK. I'm not a vegetarian, but I never eat chicken or pork, do sometimes eat fish and seafood and on occasion beef and game.

 

 

This honey-walnut pie was to die for. Absolutely wonderful.

 

 

And Mr. Low-Fat strikes again.

 

And the girl who had no idea her dress shrank when the camera was taken out. I swear the hemline was three inches longer when I looked in the mirror.

 

[Sinppu]

We didn't really know what to expect from Mallorca.

It has had quite a bad reputation in Finland as an island where all dorky people go on holiday, get boozed up, sunburnt and behave badly.

 

 

Mmmhmm. Rrright.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well ok. The sunburnt part I can believe.

[Sinppu]

Here it is very easy to DIY again. Just outside the terminal building is a HOHO bus stop.

 

 

 

Local bus to the city centre is 1,50 € and the HOHO was 16 or 17 € pp.

 

 

We went with the HOHO although our first choice would've been these really cute Tweezies. They seat two (small) people.

Lowry was a bit disappointed because we couldn't rent one as it was Sunday and the office wasn't open.

 

 

But he got over it in the HOHO quickly enough.

 

 

If you take the local bus, it will leave you here.

 

[Sinppu]

The HOHO takes about 2 hours and you get to see a lot of Palma.

 

We soent maybe an hour in the centre before getting back on the bus.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Sinppu]

Love the Spanish.

If you hit a lamp post and your mirror falls off, you pick it up and put it back on.

 

 

Problem solved.

If you don't know what to do with your earphones, here's a solution or two.

 

 

 

Easy, right? No stress, amigo.

 

Palma is famous for its cathedral and Bellver castle and you can stop to see both.