LIVE from the Prinsendam - 24 day Med Rivieras & River Explorer - please join us

[cruisemom42]

1 hour ago, kazu said:

Good afternoon from Barcelona.

 

We did it everyone!!!  We successfully took the train to Tarragona.  Paco, our guide was waiting for us and we explored the ruins and the magnificent cathedral, had a bite in the mercado and then successfully took the train back to Barcelona.

 

Thank heavens we planned to take cabs.  The little Prinsendam was docked the furthest I have ever seen a ship.  OMG.  No one could have walked it.  NO ONE.

 

Now, to find where I left off and bring you up to date as much as I can.

 

 

 

 

 

Yay!!!  Was holding my breath that nothing went wrong for you.  I am so looking forward to hearing more about your day!

 

Your earlier posts & video of the fado and the flamenco have me singing and tapping my feet. 

[kazu]

1 hour ago, cruisemom42 said:

 

Yay!!!  Was holding my breath that nothing went wrong for you.  I am so looking forward to hearing more about your day!

 

Your earlier posts & video of the fado and the flamenco have me singing and tapping my feet. 

 

Hopefully if internet is kind, I can catch up a bit tomorrow and then share.

 

It was truly fabulous cruisemom.  Excellent, excellent guide who peeled the onion layers.  Amazing.  

 

sitting in the Crow’s Nest a tad weary - LOL.  Tarragona has HILLS - hug HILLS.  After all Romans had to showcase things at the top - right?

 

Thank you again for all of you help ❤️.  I read your notes thoroughly and even asked the guide on a couple of things.

 

The posts of Tarragona might be very long when I get there.  Too many pics.  Too lovely and incredible.  So glad we did it 😄 

 

 

 

[DeeniEncinitas]

I’m happy you had a great time on your adventures in Tarragona.

Glad you made it back and up in the Crows nest👍

Enjoy dinner look forward to your blog later on.

Denise😊

[kazu]

let’s  see, I’m only two days behind now, right?  LOL.

 

Our next day was Ceuta.  OMG what a beautiful, beautiful spot.  It’s the entrance to the Med.  Technically in Africa and called the Spanish Morocco.  They have huge fencing and very strict passport control and security to make sure that Spanish Morocco remains that only those that should be in are.

 

One ship’s tour had quite the time coming back and another going.  (Passengers from a South American locale needed Visas and didn’t have them for those going). Not sure why the delay for those returning.

 

Us? No Morocco for us thank you.  We’ve been there and done that and were more intrigued with the Spanish Morocco.

 

The port area is exquisite as you walk out.  I saw flowers I had never seen before.  I’ll show you them again when we came back.

 

 

 

Pics are not uploading well at all right now.  You’d think half the ship would be in bed by now but that doesn’t seem to be the case.

 

Of course I had to take a P’dam pic (I took a few) but we’ll show you this one and then my favourite one tomorrow.

 

 

 

This port is exquisite.  If you happen to have an itinerary there - GO.  You can do Morocco and or you can do what we did and stay in Spanish Morocco.  After we passed this was when I was asked for the TV interview.  Her English was halting as would be my Spanish in this town (they have their own dialect) so I turned her over to DH.

 

 

This town is loaded with statues - statues to every great Roman poet - the list goes on.  You’ll see more and then I said I can’t take another statue pic - and then I did.  LOL.  

 

Here is the one we saw first.

 

 

 

 

Internet is being a PITA tonight - didn’t want to take my IPad on the train and touring so let’s hope it’s working bright and early in the morning.

 

Hang in there, we’ll get there.

 

We have been in truly delightful ports.  I love surprises and we’ve had a lot of them between Ceuta and Tarragona.

 

 

[kazu]

 

 

Ceuta:

 

This church was really interesting - quite beautiful inside and so simple outside.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The simple outside.

 

 

The doors - big but not that big as people back then were shorter.

 

Well this has taken far too long so I will try again tomorrow.

 

 

[DeeniEncinitas]

Sleep well Jacqui!! Love the photos so far

and a good picture of Jose.

Take care

Denise😊

[Himself]

Jacqui I am not saying much but following your voyage with great interest.  All the best to you.

[kazu]

4 hours ago, Himself said:

Jacqui I am not saying much but following your voyage with great interest.  All the best to you.

 

Thank you Father.

[kazu]

I already posted the pic of DH being interviewed so I won’t repeat it 😉 

 

Ceuta is a lovely, lovely spot.  We were happy to explore the town and there were a ton of nice surprises.

 

This store makes tons of Samana Santa stuff.

 

A bit of a glare from the glass but I found it quite interesting and enchanting.

 

 

In the middle of town - some archaeological remains.  They right next door to the museum.  Normally the museums are closed on Monday but because the bishop was coming, they were waiting for him and were kind enough to let us visit.

 

 

 

I couldn’t believe it when I saw a restaurant was had the same name as a HAL flagship in Spanish Morocco so I just had to take a pic.

 

Remember I said this was statue city?  This is just one of them.

[DeeniEncinitas]

Thank you Jacqui for the updates pics! 

Surprise they had a restaurant named after HAL ship! I would of taken a pic too!

6:15 am here and I’m up with coffee and looking at CC!

Have a great day

Denise😊

[kazu]

This statue is HUGE.  It is just outside the port as you enter the town - the pillars of Hercules - We could actually see the rocks of Gibralter from the ship and here in the port.

 

 

I just couldn’t resist this shot of the p’dam.  She was nestled in with so many sailing ships.

 

 

Of course, we had to go to the mercado.  

 

Quite large and interesting - just a couple of shots.

 

 

Fantastic statue - up close and not so close

 

 

We stopped for a little bite (only tourists there 😉 ) and discovered this olive oil.  Since we are going to Malaga anyways, we’ll pick it up there.

 

Took a pic so I don’t forget to buy it 😉 

[travelnap]

Great pictures Jacqui, thanks for taking us along with your trip.

[kazu]

This is the menu from our little stop that day.

 

 

We had the two sandwiches second from the bottom.  You can’t complain when there is white asparagus in a sandwich, can you 😉 

 

 

The little restaurant where we dined:

 

 

Remember how I said there were a ton of statues here?

 

There’s a statue to Hippocrates, Plato, Socrates, generals, the list is endless.

 

 

 

[kazu]

Such a pretty mosaic - my picture doesn’t do it justice.

 

 

I told you there were a lot of statues in this town.  It got to the point I stopped taking pics of statues - LOL.,

 

 

There is a fortress here that has been really well preserved.  Full credit to the people of Ceuta for protecting their heritage.

 

 

Loved this at the church and couldn’t resist a pic.

 

 

Pretty, pretty Ceuta:

 

 

[kazu]

At the port area:

 

 

Remember the flowers I showed you earlier?  THey are fully open now 🙂 

 

 

Farewell to pretty Ceuta.  It really is a nice place to visit whether you choose to do Spanish Morocco (Ceuta itself) or head into Morocco.

 

 

This building at the port is really cool.!  It was built to look like a ship.

 

 

[ski ww]

Just paying catch up, great pictures. Love the shot of the pastries, that's my down fall.

[kazu]

Every sail away the Prinsendam has some lovely appetizers.

 

They try to gear them to the port so I grabbed a pic of our sail a way appetizers from Ceuta :

 

 

Sailing away:  I think someone was trying to give us a send off 🙂 

 

 

And of course, our pilot boat:

 

 

We were at the Pinnacle that night and I won’t bore you with every Pinnacle food porn pic but our amuse bouche was quite interesting (truffle oil with mushroom IIRC)

 

 

The shrimp were HUGE in the shrimp cocktail

 

 

Here is the current Pinnacle Grill dinner menu.

 

It is scheduled to change on the 24th (our turnaround day) so I will share the new one with you when it happens:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[kazu]

7 minutes ago, ski ww said:

Just paying catch up, great pictures. Love the shot of the pastries, that's my down fall.

 

Thanks Allan 🙂. I’ll try to get more pastries for you 😉 

[kazu]

59 minutes ago, travelnap said:

Great pictures Jacqui, thanks for taking us along with your trip.

 

Thanks kindly.

 

Glad you are enjoying.

[StartrainDD]

Jacqui, the sail-away appetizers are sadly vanishing from most of the ships.  It is wonderful to see that tradition continues on the Elegant Explorer.  Where are these being served?

 

Looking forward to catching up with you in less than a week!

[kazu]

Today is a MUCH needed sea day, so even though the pics take longer to load, I”m playing catch up.

 

Even people who don’t like sea days were glad we had one today - LOL.

 

Everyone has done lots of walking and tomorrow is another early day (tender port).

 

So, only two ports behind - our next day was in Cartagena.

 

We had a lovely dinner though and thought I would add a bit of food porn for those that might be feeling deprived 😉 

 

 

 

 

 

Welcome to Cartagena.  Always a nice visit here:

 

 

 

Yes, this is a person 😉

 

 

[kazu]

36 minutes ago, StartrainDD said:

Jacqui, the sail-away appetizers are sadly vanishing from most of the ships.  It is wonderful to see that tradition continues on the Elegant Explorer.  Where are these being served?

 

Looking forward to catching up with you in less than a week!

 

Lido deck Arie 🙂 

 

Also FYI - our lunch after the meet and greet is all done.

 

It took a duo effort - Andrea put the pressure on after I asked 😉 

[StartrainDD]

1 minute ago, kazu said:

 

Lido deck Arie 🙂 

 

Also FYI - our lunch after the meet and greet is all done.

 

It took a duo effort - Andrea put the pressure on after I asked 😉 

Thank you!  We are so looking forward to the trip!

If anyone has the freedom to adjust plans, prices on the May 6 leg of the Prinsendam's farewell tour should be looked at!  Sure wish we could stay onboard!

Arie

[kazu]

Of course we had to stop and savour the flavour and get some wifi 😉 

 

 

Good beer too 🙂 

 

Stores on the bottom and apartments on the top.

 

 

 

 

Loved this statue sitting on a bench.

 

 

The market - we found it.

 

 

The olive place has been around a long time.  She let us sample and yes, we bought 😉

 

[kazu]

24 minutes ago, StartrainDD said:

Thank you!  We are so looking forward to the trip!

If anyone has the freedom to adjust plans, prices on the May 6 leg of the Prinsendam's farewell tour should be looked at!  Sure wish we could stay onboard!

Arie

 

Don’t tempt me 😉