Riviera: Canary Cruising Live

[LHT28]

enjoying your adventures

I would be too stressed also

but you were lucky to find the guide to get to the palace

[Sea42]

The taxi would have been worth the extra money for me!

[the mice]

If I am using public transport on a trip (we've done mostly independent land trips), I use Google maps and copy the map and directions into a word document and print it out. I have notes of bus/train numbers/times I don't want to trust my phone for directions on the fly. Did that once trying to find a restaurant for dinner - got lost for 20+ minutes with a tired, hungry, cranky husband - lesson learned!

[RosieCanberra]

Wow Pete! I'm loving this thread.

[Skyring]

Dateline: Tangier, Morocco

 

A pleasant trip along the coast to a seaside resort with a range of handicrafts. Returning to the ship with our booty (bags of peanuts and some nifty bronze light fittings), I poked my head out on our balcony and noticed some work being done below.

 

One of the lifeboats had been swung out and was being tested on its falls. Of more interest was a section of buckled plating that had been stripped of paint.

 

Presumably this is the dent from Tenerife mentioned earlier in this thread.

 

 

After lunch, hull and deck had been freshly repainted.

 

 

And the lifeboat took a jaunt to photograph the "repair".

 

 

By way of comparison, here's another boat swung out a little further aft. Nope, big buckles in the side aren't a regular feature.

 

 

Our poor battered barky!

[MicCanberra]

Late to the party but am enjoying the review Skyring. :)

[ShopperfiendTO]

Re: Sintra to Lisbon

 

I can imagine the stress of the uncertainty and time ticking away and so glad that it worked out for you!

 

I know hindsight is 20/20 but did you know that Oriente is the main train station for Lisbon and so there would have likely been a connecting train going directly to Santa Apolonia station very shortly after your train from Sintra arrived at Oriente?

 

In case you end up there, this situation is similar for Porto as well, with its Sao Bento (analogous to Santa Apolonia) and Camphana (analogous to Oriente) stations.

[Skyring]

Re: Sintra to Lisbon

 

I can imagine the stress of the uncertainty and time ticking away and so glad that it worked out for you!

 

I know hindsight is 20/20 but did you know that Oriente is the main train station for Lisbon and so there would have likely been a connecting train going directly to Santa Apolonia station very shortly after your train from Sintra arrived at Oriente?

Ack! I didn't know that. I looked at the actual map and the distances seemed rather huge.

 

Oh well. Next time!

[Skyring]

It's a sea day today, and I have been totally lazy. Apart from climbing up and down a million stairs and doing a kilometre or so in the gym.

 

And a load of washing. Three coffees in Baristas, brekky in a very crowded Terrace Cafe and lunch in a not-so-crowded Grand Dining Room.

 

And a pleasant dinner at Jacques. A nap in the arvo, a bit of reading, a bit of looking at the sea.

 

Dolphins spotted in the morning, possibly a whale as well.

 

And on the port side, Spain busily making its way past.

 

The corridors are beginning to fill with luggage, people are hassling reception for this and that, and we are patting ourselves on the back for taking the next cruise. For us, tomorrow in Barcelona won't be the chaos of disembarkation or embarkation, but just another port day.

 

We'll have lunch with friends at a nice restaurant we know, maybe do a bit of shopping, stroll aboard mid-afternoon, and maybe think about doing an update.

[MicCanberra]

Sounds like a nice day on cruise to me. Have fun in Barca.

[garycd]

Skyring,

 

Excellent commentary and pictures!

 

Please advise what camera you use. We currently need to upgrade and impressed with your photos!

[Emma Chisit]

Skyring,

 

Excellent commentary and pictures!

Please advise what camera you use. We currently need to upgrade and impressed with your photos!

 

I agree - thanks … love the photo of the Lanzarote group, makes me laugh…so joyful.

And thanks also for the Vueling post. We have to get from Barcelona to Bari at the end of a cruise in October. Vueling had many terrible reviews - but the alternatives are complicated. Had been putting off booking in the hopes of some other solution, but after reading your post we just went ahead and booked (and have joined their frequent flyer programme as well! )

[Skyring]

Sounds like a nice day on cruise to me. Have fun in Barca.

Got in before dawn. Very pleasant to not be scarpering around like mad things doing the luggage and leave thing.

 

Had a pleasant day shopping and having lunch high on Montjuic with a couple of rivercruisers you might know.

 

 

[Skyring]

Skyring,

 

Excellent commentary and pictures!

 

Please advise what camera you use. We currently need to upgrade and impressed with your photos!

 

Most kind.

 

My good camera is a Leica Q, and for everyday a Leica 109.

 

 

I heartily recommend using Lightroom and some presets, especially for making dark silhouettes into visible images. A little skill goes a long way in improving dodgy shots.

[Skyring]

The end of an excellent first day of a fresh cruise. Shopping and lunch in Barcelona in one of my favourite restaurants high on Montjuic with an amazing view.

 

Came back to the ship for a whole fresh group of cruisers. Average age has dropped about ten years, I think.

 

Cruise Critic Meet and Greet, ably organised by LindaB. We poked our noses in once we had stowed our lifejackets, but bailed out after a bit. A bottle of cava and a lot of walking had fair dome us in.

 

Sunset was spectacular:

 

 

…and the afterglow lit up the clouds above Spain beautifully:

 

 

Finished off - for we two at least - by a boisterous piano concert with a bit of jazz, five very talented musicians and a drummer. "There's a reason he's behind bullet-proof glass," I murmured to my wife.

 

No, just kidding, they were all fabulous.

 

Loving Oceania. They certainly run some very efficient ships.

[garycd]

Most kind.

 

My good camera is a Leica Q, and for everyday a Leica 109.

 

 

I heartily recommend using Lightroom and some presets, especially for making dark silhouettes into visible images. A little skill goes a long way in improving dodgy shots.

 

Skyring, Thanks! Really love that last set of two pictures of the ocean (sunset and clouds.)

[MicCanberra]

Great pics Pete. Hope you and K are coping with the cruise life, you know it is addictive.

[Skyring]

Great pics Pete. Hope you and K are coping with the cruise life, you know it is addictive.

Yeah, I could certainly get used to the money gushing out of the bank account like this...

[roothy123]

I stumbled onto this post while looking to see how the enhanced internet was working. I see it is; thanks. And I'm loving your photos and posts. It's even better because I've been eyeing that same cruise for a year now. We were in Lanzarote and Santa Cruz de la Palma on another Oceania cruise (without Tenerife) and absolutely loved both places, especially Lanzarote and the volcanoes and park. If someone is looking for something to do and is adventuresome, I'd recommend renting a car at both places (Lanzarote to visit the volcanic park and more, and Santa Cruz). There is a great car rental place for both (CICar), and the roads were excellent. We also love Lisbon, and I want to visit Sintra if we get back there.

 

Thanks for doing such a great job with your narrative and photos! Glad you're enjoying the cruise and the O experience. We certainly do! (We're pretty much lifers."

[Skyring]

I stumbled onto this post while looking to see how the enhanced internet was working. I see it is; thanks. And I'm loving your photos and posts. It's even better because I've been eyeing that same cruise for a year now. We were in Lanzarote and Santa Cruz de la Palma on another Oceania cruise (without Tenerife) and absolutely loved both places, especially Lanzarote and the volcanoes and park. If someone is looking for something to do and is adventuresome, I'd recommend renting a car at both places (Lanzarote to visit the volcanic park and more, and Santa Cruz). There is a great car rental place for both (CICar), and the roads were excellent. We also love Lisbon, and I want to visit Sintra if we get back there.

 

Thanks for doing such a great job with your narrative and photos! Glad you're enjoying the cruise and the O experience. We certainly do! (We're pretty much lifers."

Loving it! No huge crowds, no hordes of screaming kids, the food and service is excellent, and I love the cabin. And everything else, I guess.

 

Lanzarotte got a bit of a rap from the port presenter. Made it sound like a blasted wilderness full of dismal people inhabiting a desolate landscape.

 

I was inspired by the reality. The people have overcome any number of obstacles to create and maintain their environment. The blight of condos and resorts and advertising has been kept at bay here through some extraordinary efforts.

 

The national park has a road that curves tightly through some of the more interesting parts. Into a crater, along a collapsed lava tube, and so on. It is restricted to tourist coaches, and private cars forbidden. One lane with as little disturbance to the 280 year old lava beds as possible. The drivers have to be pretty good to keep a big vehicle on the narrow road, often with a steep drop on one side and a jagged rockface on the other.

 

The downside to Lanzarotte was that I went into town on a Sunday afternoon to buy some beer for my balcony drinks, and the place was pretty much closed up tight apart from cafes. Found a tiny market - about the size of my cabin - in the poorer part of town, and I clinked happily all the way back to the shuttle.

[roothy123]

We really enjoyed Timanfaya National Park - the landscape was out of this world!!! We didn't stop to do a camel ride, though! I kind of wish we had, but there were some other places that were calling us. The wineries surprised me, and there was a place called Tias where I would love to live. Here's a link to a picture I took: http://www.pbase.com/roothy123/image/157255895

[Mura]

+1 Roothy! We loved the park when we were there in 2013, and we also avoided the camels ... but that was more because we'd have run out of time!

 

It was a wonderful day.

 

Mura

[MicCanberra]

Nice pics Roothy.

[Skyring]

Last full day of the cruise today. Our tour reads "Leisurely Cannes", but apparently there's some local festival going on, so it may be a little more frantic than advertised.

 

Yesterday we anchored off Portofino and tendered in.

 

 

A lovely but tiny place, with a road in so narrow and bent that tour buses weren't allowed in, so we had to take a ferry to get to the next town along.

 

Which gave me the opportunity to get some shots of the place.

 

 

The main street is the only street, running along the front. We were in constant danger, just walking along.

 

Stacked full of yachts, with charming little waterfront cafes and clubs. I'll bet this place rocks as the season progresses.

 

 

I got a tiny paper cut on my ring finger as we checked off the ship. The guy on the gangway spotted the blood - only a smear - and in the wink of an eye had pulled me aside, whipped out the first aid box, pulled on a rubber glove, wiped the area down and expertly applied a bandaid.

My self-help would have been to lick the affected area, apply a sterile wipe of my hankie, and stick it in my pocket out of sight.

Got to hand it to Oceania, they run very efficient ships.

 

(As a friend commented elsewhere, "Lucky you were docked, a medical evacuation can be expensive.")

[Skyring]

The road up to Genoa for our tour offered some spectacular views up the mountains and down the cliffs. We took the Autostrada, and that was much better, although there was some impressive engineering and tunnelling on display. Some great views over Genoa as we came in, but I didn't have my camera ready, instead we have a view of housing also with views.

 

 

We looked through three palazzi, all with some great art inside, but although that sort of stuff can excite me, it didn't, and taking pictures of pictures never gets any better than looking them up online. Let's just say that if you wanted to make a buck in Old Italy, you painted for the church or some wealthy patron.

 

People watching was much more fun!

 

 

 

 

Yeah, gypsy vendors all over the shop. You want to buy a pair of genuine Bay-Rans, this is the place.

 

George Clooney has a lot to answer for:

 

 

But the umbrellas - in many shades - really made the place: