The Inaugural Vista's Official Trippingpara Mayhem in the Mediterranean Review

[trippingpara]

As we walked around Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, Lady Trip and I stopped at a little corner deli shop and grabbed a hot sandwich and Coke. It was similar to a panini. Very tasty. It was starting to rain a bit so we sat in an old plaza under a table umbrella and enjoyed the view. We quickly finished our lunch and ran back and caught up with everyone else. Our stop here was fairly short and the town seemed pretty deserted, probably due to the rain. After our visits to Rome and Athens where the crowds bordered on unbelievably, our stop in the south of France was a nice change of pace.

 

From Saint-Rémy, we moved on a bit north to the much larger city of Avignon. This medium-sized city sits on the banks of the Rhône river and its ancient town center is still enclosed with medieval ramparts. In the very center, just off of the river banks sits the crown jewel of Avignon, the Palais des Papes. During the 13th century, Avignon was the head of the Catholic Church. Seven successive popes ruled from here. Even after the popes moved to Rome, Avignon was under papal control until 1791 when the city fell under French control during the French Revolution. And there's your daily dose of useless information. Just think of all the Ships on a Stick you can win now on trivia!

 

Avignon was the other major part of this tour that I was excited about. I just love areas that are oozing in history and Avignon has that in spades! Here are some photos of the general city. I'll get into the Palais des Papes next and our frantic and nerve-wracking trip back to Marseilles.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The walls surrounding the ancient town centre

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[trippingpara]

Here are some more shots of the area immediately surrounding the Palais des Papes...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As you can see the rain was now falling fairly steady

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you just can't get yourself to walk around the wall, might as well just go through the wall!

 

 

 

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[trippingpara]

The main focus of our attention in Avignon was the Palais des Papes. We didn't get a chance to tour the inside of it but it was so large, it took almost all of our time just walking around the outside of it! It was also so large that it was very difficult to get a good picture of it. I had to just get photos of little segments of it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[trippingpara]

More of the Palais des Papes...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[trippingpara]

Although we didn't get to tour inside the Palais des Papes, we did go inside the church attached to the palace...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[trippingpara]

Finally our time in Avignon was drawing to a close. As it neared our meeting time, we started to head away from the Palais des Papes area towards our meeting point. On our way there Lady Trip spotted a merry-go-round. Well, actually it was a bit hard to miss but my lady is a little girl at heart so she wanted to ride it. Since we still had some time (didn't I mention that we are freaks about being early to things?), I figured, why not? I just smiled and said, "off you go. Have fun!" And off she did go.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The ride eventually ended and Lady Trip got chased down as she was exiting the ride for payment. Oops! Guess there was a fee after all to ride it! I didn't see a ticket booth when she hopped on the ride but as I walked around it, I saw it on the other side. Apparently, she skipped the line and hopped on the ride from the opposite side. Thankfully, Lady Trip had a couple Euros on her to pay for it. Sorry about that!

 

It was that time, so we met up with everyone including our guide and started walking back to where he parked the van. On the way out, a couple from our group bumped into someone that they knew that was walking around on a Carnival excursion. They were still out seeing the sights. This would become very important a little bit later on. We loaded up in the van and made a quick stop at the Pont Saint-Bénézet, or as everyone generally refers to it as the Pont d'Avignon. This was a medieval bridge built in the 1100s. The bridge was destroyed and rebuilt many times over the centuries. There were originally 22 stone arches but only 4 remain and those are believed to have been reconstructed during the Avignon Papacy in 1345. So essentially, its a bridge to nowhere with a little chapel built on it. I guess to help with your prayers to actually get anywhere on the bridge!

 

 

 

 

 

 

After grabbing a few pics of the bridge, it was time to hit the road for the long drive back to Marseilles.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[bandjwayne]

Thanks so much for the fantastic review and AMAZING photos! I'm looking forward to setting sail in the Caribbean on the Vista in January. My goal this fall is to learn how to use my camera better so I can get a few beautiful pictures too!

[Shih-tzu]

Lady Tripp looks like she's having the time of her life!! The merryground reminds me if Ile le Groux off the coast of L'Orient in Brittany! Im going to be lost when this review is done..... first thing i look for each time I log on CC.:D

[trippingpara]

Thanks so much for the fantastic review and AMAZING photos! I'm looking forward to setting sail in the Caribbean on the Vista in January. My goal this fall is to learn how to use my camera better so I can get a few beautiful pictures too!

 

 

Thank you so much for such kind words. You will love the Vista! The main thing with photography is like most things, just keep practicing! I came back with just under 8,000 photos. I use an old Marine grunt saying and applied it to photography..."if it's worth shooting once, its worth shooting a hundred more times. Just to make sure that you got it!" If you take as many photos as I do, you're bound to come out with a few great ones amid all of the rubble!

[trippingpara]

Lady Tripp looks like she's having the time of her life!! The merryground reminds me if Ile le Groux off the coast of L'Orient in Brittany! Im going to be lost when this review is done..... first thing i look for each time I log on CC.:D

 

She was having a blast. Don't worry, there's still some more to come. We staying a couple extra days in Barcelona so I still have that to go through. After that, you can read my old reviews until its time for me to write my Sunshine review of Canada. And you can help me write that one!

[trippingpara]

It didn't take us too long on the road out of Avignon to realize that something was wrong. The traffic was extremely heavy and it was CRAWLING!! The upcoming Sunday and Monday were national holidays in France so at first we thought maybe its because of everyone heading to the shore for the long holiday weekend.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our little tour group was starting to become concerned about our ability to get back to the port in time to catch the ship. Our guide kept assuring us that we would make it. Remember that group that one of our members chatted with back in Avignon? Well, I was trying to remind everyone that they were still back there since we left before them and no tour bus had passed us yet. That took the edge off of everyone for a little bit but since we didn't see the bus behind us, we started to get nervous again. Maybe they took a different way, a shortcut that our guide didn't know about. The 'what if's' started to take hold of everyone in the van. Finally, we came up to the cause of the problem...

 

 

 

 

 

 

An accident. Traffic loosened up a little bit after that. But not by much. The traffic was still super heavy and going slow. Our guide called his boss to see if he knew what was causing the delay. For some odd and inexplicable reason, his boss thought he was lying. "There's no traffic," his boss yelled at him. Seriously?? We could hear his boss yelling at him over the phone. Our guide got off the phone and apologized to everyone. "Don't worry," he said. "I'll drive you to Barcelona myself if I have to. You WILL make your ship." He seemed very adamant about that. We then started to call Carnival to see if the agent at the pier could do anything for us. It was about at the time when we spotted a tour bus ahead of us. Our guide saw it too and immediately started to zig and zag his way through the thick traffic and finally passed the bus. I swung my head around to look at the windshield of the bus as we passed it...

 

 

 

 

"Carnival" it said in big bold print.

 

 

 

 

"YES!!!!!" A collective cheer erupted throughout the van. Even the guide was ecstatic. We now knew that we were safe. If we could beat a Carnival sponsored tour then we knew the Vista was still going to be in port.

 

 

 

Now that we were at ease, I could start looking around at the beautiful scenery around us.

 

 

 

But our guide wasn't through yet. He kept zigging and zagging through traffic and managed to pass 5 more Carnival tour buses. By this time we were all relaxed with the knowledge that the ship would still be there. I apologized to the members of our group. Looks like everyone was going to miss the Platinum/Diamond Members party. Sorry guys! Vista was supposed to set sail at 5 pm and we arrived back in port at 6:30 pm. Some of the buses didn't arrive for another hour after us.

 

 

 

Finally arriving into the port of Marseilles

 

 

 

 

 

 

We boarded the ship and practically kissed the carpet, we were so happy to be back! Needless to say, we immediately headed over to the Alchemy Bar for some liquid remedies for our ailments! Low and behold, we ran into some friends of ours who were already having a little get together on the outside deck.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I could not think of a better way to cap off a great day with some great people sharing some great stories over some great cocktails!

 

 

 

 

Coming up...Debarkation and the beginning of our post-cruise vacation in Barcelona...and police in riot gear...soccer hooligans...and naked nuns running down Las Ramblas...oh yeah, we had a good time!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Edited August 9, 2016 by trippingpara

[trippingpara]

That fearful day has finally arrived. We had waited almost a year and a half for this cruise and it was now over. But at least we had a couple more days to enjoy Barcelona before we had to head back to America where reality awaits. To help ease us into our first day in Barcelona, we once again joined our friends CarnieAddict and Lady Carns on a half day tour of the city. Like all of our other tours, we were to meet everyone off the ship.

 

Debarkation was orderly and pretty uneventful. There was no passport control or immigration to go through since we had already been cleared back into the European Union in Athens (that was when we got our passports back). There were a ton of us that were surprised by not having to go through customs. It sorta felt that we just got jipped! But a happy kind of jipping. As usual, we were early so we hung around and just enjoyed the warm and sunny morning in Barcelona.

 

Soon enough we started to see the other members of our tour so we all joined up and found our tour guide. I'll tell ya, getting into a van for another excursion sure as heck makes leaving the Vista a lot easier to handle! Almost makes you forget that you don't get to board her again tonight. Since everyone had all of their luggage and part of this tour was about taking everyone to their hotel at the end, the van had a large trailer hitched up to it. They had a listing of who was going to be dropped off first, second, etc., and they had us load our luggage accordingly into the trailer.

 

We were then off to explore the wonderful city of Barcelona! Our first stop was to the top of Montjuic, the site of the Olympic Stadium and a phenomenal overlook of the city.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The famous Sagrada Familia

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[trippingpara]

I apologize for my delay in writing lately. I just started a new job and it has me extremely busy. I will try to write some more tonight. I'd hate to ruin Shih-Tzu's Saturday morning ritual of reading this review while enjoying some coffee on his back deck!

 

 

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[Shih-tzu]

I apologize for my delay in writing lately. I just started a new job and it has me extremely busy. I will try to write some more tonight. I'd hate to ruin Shih-Tzu's Saturday morning ritual of reading this review while enjoying some coffee on his back deck!

 

 

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No worries...I got posted to a new position as well this year so totally understand. SHE'll enjoy her coffee and reading more just whenever you're ready and able to post more.

Edited August 12, 2016 by Shih-tzu

[mikayla73]

That made for an exciting end to Marseille.

[trippingpara]

No worries...I got posted to a new position as well this year so totally understand. SHE'll enjoy her coffee and reading more just whenever you're ready and able to post more.

 

 

Well, I better to get work then! Don't want Lady Shih-tzu to not enjoy her morning coffee! Plus I better post now while I got a break before my employer sends me back off to some far flung country half way around the world to figure something out for them!

[trippingpara]

That made for an exciting end to Marseille.

 

 

Yes it did! Unfortunately, it was far more exciting than I think any of else cared to experience! Now Barcelona was a bit more exciting in a fun way!

[crusinpsychRN]

Your photos are amazing! Being from Miami where the oldest building is no more than 75 years old seeing these places is amazing. Thank you.

[trippingpara]

The views from on top of Montjuic was just amazing!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mirador de Colom - the statue of Christopher Columbus

 

 

 

The Olympic Stadium

 

 

 

The Olympic Stadium

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next up, the crazy architecture of Catalonia's favorite son, Antoni Gaudí...

 

 

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[trippingpara]

It was time to load up and head back down into the city to see some of the sites from Barcelona's favorite adopted son. Antoni Gaudí was an amazing designer and architect. His buildings were beautiful and crazy at the same time. With one eye, you're like "he's amazing!" and the other eye is going "what was he smoking?!" His designs are all over Barcelona. They range from lamp posts and gates to apartment buildings and hotels to the infamous Park Güell and finally topped off with the awe-inspiring Basílica i Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Familia or simply, the Sagrada Família.

 

We got to see the majority of his work. But for starters, lets visit a couple of his apartment buildings...

 

 

 

Casa Batlló

 

 

 

Casa Batlló

 

 

 

Casa Milà

 

 

 

Casa Milà

 

 

 

Casa Milà

 

 

 

Casa Milà was the last civil work done by Gaudí and it was completed in 1912. As you can see Gaudí was not a fan of straight lines which absolutely threw my Marine-based liner line OCD into absolute hysteria! Yeah, I'm that guy that will get up in the middle of a meeting just to fix a crooked painting in the conference room. Don't laugh, I've actually done that before! I'm also the guy that that has a socks lined up in a perfectly neat row and color coordinated. And you should see my tie rack! Man, the Marines really did a number on my head!! So needless to say, I just don't get Gaudí's architecture. On one hand, it is amazingly beautiful and then on the other he was dropping some serious mushrooms and I just don't get it!! But you can look at these photos over the next several posts and decide for yourself!

 

Coming up...Sagrada Família!

 

 

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[trippingpara]

Your photos are amazing! Being from Miami where the oldest building is no more than 75 years old seeing these places is amazing. Thank you.

 

 

Thank you so much for such kind words. I'm glad that you are enjoying them!

[trippingpara]

The Basílica i Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Familia in Catalan, Templo Expiatorio de la Sagrada Familia in Spanish or Basilica and Expiatory Church of the Holy Family in English or just simply, Sagrada Família. This large Roman Catholic basilica was started in 1882 and Antoni Gaudí worked on its construction from 1883 until his death in 1926. As you can see from the photos below, construction still continues on the site today and isn't expected to be finished until 2026, the centenary of Gaudí's death.

 

We parked the van about a block away from the construction site and walked over to it. Even though it was still early in the morning, the crowds were heavy. Our tour was only a walking tour around the outside, no inside visit. I really wanted to go inside but there was no way you could fit that into everything that was planned on today's tour. Well, I just guess we have to come back again!! Horizon anyone?

 

Once again, I'm convinced that Gaudí was dropping some serious acid or something! Where he came up with these designs is absolutely beyond me. At one second, its extremely gaudy and then at another, its fascinating to see all of the minute detail he put into it. You know what? I'll just let the photos do the talking!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Old meets new. Here you can see when the new part of the church to the left of the photo meets up with the older, darker stone.

 

 

 

The fruit baskets on top of the lower spires

 

 

 

 

Yep, that's a stone Christmas tree

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[trippingpara]

And here is some more of Sagrada Família...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[trippingpara]

There were also a lot of animals depicted on the facade...

 

 

 

Lizards

 

 

 

Snakes

 

 

 

Snails

 

 

 

And the back side of the basilica had a very different look to it when compared to the front...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next up...Park Güell

 

 

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[trippingpara]

Our next stop was Park Güell. The park was originally part of a commercially unsuccessful housing site, the idea of Count Eusebi Güell, who asked his friend Antoni Gaudí to design and build the park. The concept of the site was to create a housing area with lots of fresh air away from the smoky factories of the early 1900s in Barcelona. The problem was the fact that it was built too far away from the nightlife and heart of Barcelona. The wealthy had no interest in living out in the boonies. Whoopsie! It has since been converted over to a park and is a UNESCO Heritage Site. Like the rest of Gaudí's design, I found this park to be both beautiful and gaudy at the same time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sharing some laughs with our good friends, Rosesgt and Lady Rose

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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