November Cruise

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GETTING THERE
This time we thought we would try a different route to the airport, taking some advice from Clark Howard (www.clarkhoward.com). Our previous approach to getting to the JFK Airport has been to rent a car each way; even with the drop off charges this has been less expensive than the $15 per day plus taxes that the Port Authority wants from you to leave your car on their property. Well, I guess the rental car guys have raised their prices because they now want more than the $240 that it costs to park for 16 days. So, the new approach was to drive to our friend’s house (Charlie & Max) and leave the car there. The next step was hard for a guy who likes to drive - we got on the MARTZ BUS at the Delaware Watergap. Price for the bus, roundtrip for both of us, was only $98. After a one hour and 20 minute drive we arrived at the Port Authority in NYC. From here we spent $2 each and took the subway to Jamaica Station, where we spent another $5 each for the Airtrain, which dropped us off at the American Airlines terminal. So, the total roundtrip cost will be $126. This is several bottles of wine better than the $240 to park at JFK plus the $16 in tolls, not to mention the gas; although gas is under $2 a gallon in New Jersey now.
So we went upstairs to the AA check-in counters, and because I am now an American Advantage Gold Card member, we got to use the first class check-in. You need more than 1,000,000 miles on AA to get this status. We also got to use the priority check in lanes through security and customs, so I would say it took 10 minutes for everything, and the airport was crowded. Unfortunately an upgrade on the flight does not come with the Gold Card, so we were stuck in coach. Fortunately it was only an 8-hour flight, a smooth one at that.
We rolled into Barcelona just before 10:00 AM on Monday morning, and took the train to downtown. The RENFE train was very nice, only cost 5 euros, and took 15 minutes to Santis Station. From here we took a cab to the Hilton. Big rip-off; the cab was 14 euros to go 2 miles. After being in Barcelona for a day we have figured out the subway from the hotel to the station. The trip home from the hotel to Sants Station will cost 2 Euros.
We got checked into the Hilton, and I must say that their rooms are worse than any Hampton Inn that we have ever stayed in. I guess we just don’t appreciate what we have in the USA. In fact, even the wi-fi costs 20 euros a day; it is free in the US. Fortunately for us we detected an unprotected wi-fi router just down the street, so we sat in the park and piggybacked onto it to get our email.

BARCELONA
We bought a subway pass, not a bad deal; trips ended up being $1 each - this is half the price of the NYC subway. The subway in Barcelona is very modern, well mapped out, and easy to use - so I guess there are some good points here. They had the biggest fast food dispenser I have ever seen in a subway entrance. So, we headed off to the old town area, Barri Gotic, to have a look at some of Gaudi’s architecture around Cataluna Square. They say if you have only one thing to see it should be La Sagrada Familia cathedral - we missed it on Monday as it is in a different part of town, but we will get it next time - Jo will make sure of that.
After strolling around town for a few hours we headed back to the area of town that our hotel was in. Just down the street there was a huge department store - EL CORTE INGLES, and they had a cafeteria - great food at “REASONABLE” prices - if you consider 45 euros to be reasonable for eating in a cafeteria. Again, we just don’t appreciate what we have; the same meal in a US cafeteria would have been $20. But then when you go to a socialist country, I guess you have to support all of those people who don’t work.
On Tuesday, after breakfast we checked out of the hotel (no, we did not eat in the expensive hotel dining room) and took the subway to the harbor. After a long walk we ended up getting checked in on the Norwegian Jade. I must say that the crew was very friendly and very helpful. They even had free champagne for us as we boarded. We had several glasses after we had dumped our luggage in our cabin. This ship was commissioned less than a year ago and it looked brand new. Maybe new ships are what we will cruise on in the future.

MALAGA
The first port was Malaga. The ship parked close to town, so getting there was easy. We walked past the Bodega Bar El Pimpo (no we didn’t go in) to get to Picasso’s birthplace. This and the Picasso Museum were worth seeing, although there was not very much of his art there - most of it is rented out to museums around the world. A little later we passed a Smart Car - I do believe that this may replace Jo’s Mini Cooper, but only if they have the right color. Malaga was a very nice vacation spot, one that many Brits visit on an annual basis. Don’t think it is for us though, so we got back on the ship and headed off to Casablanca.
CASABLANCA
Casablanca was a long walk to town; the cruise line forgot to tell us that they had a shuttle bus into town. Anyway, we found the local tourist bureau and they set us up on a 3-hour tour that was a lot less expensive than the ones they were selling on the ship. Our tour guide took us to the central market, most of which was food for sale; horsemeat is a local delicacy. From here we went on to see the palace of Mohammed V - quite the palace, but no central air, and I imagine it gets hot here in the summer. The next stop was to the 3rd largest mosque in the world. This place holds 25,000 people inside and another 75,000 outside. It was very impressive, but then it should be because it cost more than $1B. After the mosque we went to see the beach and did a little shopping. The driver was nice enough to drop us off at the ship.

AGADIR
The next day was spent in Agadir. We went to the central market and did a little shopping, along with a lot of haggling over the price. On the way back to the ship we passed their version of Mickey Dee’s; didn’t stop for lunch. There was not much to see in this beachfront town, so we headed back to the ship and jumped into the hot tub. As we left Agadir to the Canary Islands, the sunset was magnificent.
ARRECIFE, LANZAROTE, CANARY ISLANDS
The biggest problem here was that it was Sunday, and everything was closed. We headed into town to have a look around, but it was pretty bleak without anything to see other than the beach, white buildings, and lots of little boats going nowhere. I guess in the summer this is a great tourist resort, but not on a Sunday in November.

LAS PALMAS, CANARY ISLANDS
Las Palmas was a little better than Arrecife; at least the stores were open. One thing that we did notice - there were many traffic and security cameras located throughout the city. In the port there were many ships parked, some of these private vessels looked very expensive. We spent the day walking throughout the city, but we did not buy much as the prices were very expensive as compared to the USA. The next day was an at sea day as we headed toward Lisbon. That night the seas were rough and the crew placed barf bags throughout the ship for passengers to use. This weather was enough to convince Jo that we will not be doing a trans-Atlantic repositioning cruise anytime in the near future.

LISBON
Lisbon was a little different than anything we had yet to see. The streets were narrow, the buildings were old, and they couldn’t be built any closer together if you tried. Many of the old buildings had the addition of modern devices such as air conditioning. I guess they don’t have earthquakes in this part of the world. The city is very hilly, and there are many trams and other devices such as the steam powered elevator to take people straight up the hill. There are tram tracks on just about every street. On some streets there were cars parked on the tracks - I guess if they have alternate side parking in Lisbon, people will be moving their cars on time. In fact, I would have to say that the parking here is worse than in Hoboken. One final comment on Lisbon; there were very few toilet facilities available to the public - not even Mickey Dee had public toilets. We finally found a restaurant that had a PAY AS YOU PEE SYSTEM. You paid 1 Euro and they gave you a ticket that was good for 24 hrs.

CADIZ
The clocks changed last night and we arrived in Cadiz on Thanksgiving. This is the first real overcast day that we have had on the cruise; but it did not rain, except for a few minutes when we were sitting on the front seats of the tour bus. Yes, we took a tour bus, (Hop on Hop off) the one-hour ride around the city was along the bumpy cobble stone streets. Some of these streets are so narrow that a typical SUV would have trouble making it down them. Furthermore, the number of cars in Cadiz makes Hoboken look like a desert. There were many scooters in this city, and they even had their own gas stations - a pump on the side of a main street. We also found tennis to be a big sport here, so Evan when you get to Spain look for the public tennis, but stay away from the drunks on the park bench - there were a few park benches occupied by winos. We took the bus ride again in the afternoon and it was much nicer. We each had our own seat on top of the double Decker bus and the sun had come out. Back on the ship we had our Turkey Dinner for Thanksgiving. It wasn’t great, but then Europeans don’t celebrate Thanksgiving.

GIBRALTAR
This was the only British port on the trip. The ROCK, as it is commonly known was very impressive. The amount of new construction on apartments and condos was also impressive. I guess there is no recession going on here.
We parked close enough to town to be able to walk there. We passed your typical BRIT RESTAURANT (Indian Food) and went on through one of the old gates to the city. This led us to MAIN STREET, a very nice shopping area that included numerous restaurants and pubs. We walked the length of Main Street to get to the TRAM, but when we got there the line was more than 2 hours long, so we moved on. There were many houses that looked like they were glued to the rock almost all the way up the hill. I imagine that there are roads up there but we did not have time to explore them. The city is a combination of old structures and modern buildings. On the way back to the ship we stopped at the MARKET - very traditional, and I guess Wal-Mart has yet to make it to Gibraltar. As we sailed from the Rock, the port was very busy and you could see both Spain and Africa. We also saw the runway, but couldn’t see my Dad’s old office from the time he was here in WWII.

PALMA de MALLORCA
This was our last port of call. Unfortunately it was too windy to dock the ship, so we spent the day at sea. The crew was nice enough to provide us with free rum punch for the afternoon.
The next morning we rolled back into Barcelona and headed back to the Hilton to drop off our bags. We spent the afternoon sight seeing; saw Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia - no shopping as it was Sunday and the stores were all closed - just like in Bergen County, NJ. We did find a nice restaurant for dinner that night.
The next morning we were off to the airport; a short trip on the Subway and then the RENFE train. The flight was a little late, but other than that was OK. We got the Subway back to Port Authority and climbed back onto the Martz Bus. Charlie picked us up at the Gap and we eventually got home at 0100 AM body time.
Over all we had a good trip. We got to see parts of the world that probably would not have taken a vacation to. We also got to realize how well off we are in the USA as compared to some of these other parts of the world.

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Comments

[Martha Horning]

The trip looked great - thanks for sharing!