On our way

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Europe 2010We arrived at Vancouver Airport at 3:30; we didn’t depart until 8:30. The airport was nowhere near as hectic as we thought it would be. Noel being the seasoned traveller that he is and me the novice, I had some reservations about boarding and being on a plane for 9 ½ hrs. KLM Airlines was awesome to fly with, they cater to the passengers, food was great and lots of it. They left on time.......... and arrived early, what a novel concept.
I (Noel) couldn’t do the update from Barcelona, technical problems (yeah, like I would be able to fix techie stuff) at the hotel. We are now on the ship just left Barcelona. We are both slowly adapting to the food and jet lag, I guess we are not twenty years old any more.................. our minds may think so, but our bodies have a different idea.
Barcelona is an interesting city, we are going to do some more exploring of the city when we return in 12 days and also when we return at the end of the cruise. Our hotel, the Barcelona Plaza Hotel, is right on the Plaza De Espanya the location of a central monument ( photo).

The hotel looks very plain from the outside, inside it is very nice but definitely European. First morning in Barcelona was cloudy cool with light rain (remind you of any place). It appears most of Europe is still under an usual chill, snow in Rome on Friday??????. We felt quite at home temperature wise, the locals were running around all bundled up, Gerrie and I didn’t think it was that bad. We sure don’t appreciate what we have, ie soft toilet paper, soft towels, curling irons etc.. All the locals are very friendly and try to understand our attempt at their language and to communicate with us in our language.
Saturday night there was a Carnival outside our hotel, the locals say it is like Halloween everybody dresses up. Lots of different costumes, when the parade went to the birds, Gerrie just had to join in. The locals were very accommodating for photo’s including one character that looks like the devil, Gerrie kept a close eye on him.


Sunday we packed up and headed for the ship about 12:30, and got in line with the other 2500 passengers. We were impressed with the ship, but being the first cruise for both of us anything probably would have looked good. Gerrie is still unsure whether to be excited or concerned about living on a ship for the next three weeks. As for me I can’t wait to see some of Rome, Athens etc. Don’t worry guys/gals, I will have Gerrie fit as a fiddle by the time we return.
Picture of the Norwegian Jade in port at Barcelona.

Since we got on the ship on the 14th Feb, we had to do a Valentine’s Day dinner in Le Bistro, excellent meal and service. The soup in the photo is Creamy Lobster Broth, we also had shrimp, salad with crab, salad with beets, avocado & goats cheese,( Gerrie skipped the goats cheese), steak and lobster and finished up with strawberry and chocolate layered Creme Brulee. Wow!!!!!!!!!!!!

Next check-in will be from somewhere in the Mediterranean.
Love Noel & Gerrie

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