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Published: October 18th 2009
We have just returned from our long anticipated October holiday - the cruise! I must admit to having some misgivings about the idea of a cruise. The concept of 1000 people stuck in a small space with only bingo to entertain them in between visits to cities which barely allow the time for a coffee break didn’t sound that appealing. However, I figured I couldn’t rule it out until I had given it a go. I was surprised to find that I loved it and it was definitely the most relaxing holiday I have had in a long while.
We sailed from Genoa, Italy on a 9 night cruise with an Italian cruise line and stopped in Morocco, Portugal, Gibraltar and 4 separate cities in Spain. The ship - Costa Magica was only 4 years old and decked out as only the Italians could decorate a cruise ship. There were lavish fittings and colour everywhere; marble statues in the hallways and paintings of Italian cities on the walls of all the elevators. A gym, running track, 4 restaurants, 4 spas, a waterslide, a disco and casino in addition to about 6 different bars and a theatre were also amazingly fit
onto the ship. We felt like we were staying in a 5 star hotel.
The food was worthy of a blog unto itself. We were allocated a table for dinner and so had 4 older Americans that we really enjoyed chatting to eat with us every night. The menu would consist of a number of choices of appetizers, soups, primi piatti (pastas), secondi piatti (meat, fish or vegetarian), salads, a cheese plate and desserts. All in all - it seemed easy to eat your body weight in food every meal as everything sounded so great you had to try it! Jamy and I also had the chance to dress up a bit more than we have been used to - there were 2 formal nights and even the informal nights were fairly dressy.
Every day we received a program which would outline the English speaking activities for the day. I was consistently amazed at how the ship managed to coordinate waiters, tours, activities and lectures in English, French, German, Italian, Spanish and a few other random languages. There were only 225 English speaking passengers on a ship with about 2600 passengers embarked so we were greatly outnumbered -
mostly by Italians. Most of the service staff were Philippine, Chinese and Indian and they all spoke English but the English speaking host was an Aussie. The ship had over 1000 staff on board which I found amazing. Each day there would be lectures on history or health and fitness, games, sport (and bingo) in addition to a major show each night which would last for an hour and have singers, dancers, jugglers, comedians or some other form or entertainment for the passengers. As we had a port stop every day but one, Jamy and I found that we rarely had enough energy left to attend all the entertainment and certainly weren’t able to stay up till midnight when the disco started!
We departed on a Thursday evening and after a very amusing lifeboat drill - I’m sure you can imagine 2600 passengers speaking 10 different languages, mostly elderly and not moving particularly fast, trying to find their spouses, get their lifejackets on, get to the right decks and line up in files of 10…. Our first day was all sailing and a great way to begin the holiday relaxing with a run in the morning, spas, and then
a book on the deck. The next day we pulled into our first port - Malaga in Spain. As we were berthed close to town, Jamy and I were able to easily walk into town and explore the place by ourselves. We decided that in honour of my inaugural visit to Spain - we had to find tapas and sangria. The city was small with quaint little alleyways and bars so we were easily able to achieve both whilst wandering around the town. Malaga was Picasso’s birthplace so also hosts the Picasso Museum which contains much of the work he did not sell or kept for his family. After an hour of viewing some very strange pieces, we were no closer to understanding how his mind worked!
The next morning we berthed at Casablanca at about 6am. Although we avoided doing the ship board tours where possible, we wanted to see Marrakesh and the only way to achieve this was by doing a tour. It was a 4 hour bus ride each way from Casablanca to Marrakesh but worth it to see Morocco’s most famous city. During the bus ride it was interesting to see that a country I
had imagined as largely desert is actually very agricultural. We travelled through an area of plains and steppes on the way and on either side of the road we saw farms, predominantly goats and sheep which were watched by young boys. There were also numerous groups of men hunting for birds and on the way back we saw over 4 vehicles driving along the highway with a catch of 5-10 birds tied on a rope hanging out the windows. We also saw many cactus plants which are cultivated both for their fruit which is eaten and the sap for medicinal purposes.
Arriving in Marrakesh I was initially struck by how modern the city was. It is obviously a relatively wealthy city and the townhouses and apartments in the modern part of town would look in place in a new development in Adelaide or Sydney. The main street extends for over 9km and has a garden strip running down the middle with palms and desert style shrubs. Although a Muslim country, attitudes toward women are relatively progressive and we saw just as many women in jeans and t-shirts as wearing the traditional head covering. Unfortunately we only had 4 hours
in Marrakesh and I think we could easily have spent 4 days there. We saw the main mosque before heading to the old town with its markets, bazaars and the former imperial palace. The palace reminded me of the palace we saw in Istanbul - intricate woodwork, mosaics and tiles - and of course a harem! The old part of town was much as I had anticipated - small alleyways with shops hawking everything from pots and pans, tajines, leather goods, spices and jewelry. After exploring these alleyways we were taken on a tour of a traditional Moroccan pharmacy who advocated creams, herbs and powders to cure everything from headaches and herpes to obesity. Despite the relatively cheap prices we decided that if there really was a cure for old age and wrinkles - somebody outside of Morocco would probably have been exporting from this pharmacy by now so we didn’t buy.
Lunch was in a traditional Moroccan restaurant, the ‘Dar Essalam’ where we sat at low tables, drank Moroccan wine and ate slow cooked lamb whilst watching a quite impressive belly dancer perform while balancing a tray of candles on her head. The restaurant was actually used in
Alfred Hitchcock’s movie ‘The man who knew too much.’ Our final destination was the famous square which was as big as an AFL field and had numerous snake charmers and fortune readers. Unfortunately the square really comes alive in the evening so we missed this experience although I’m not sure that I could have dealt with many other hawkers shaking my hand whilst attempting to put a snake on me so that I’d have to pay for the experience. I think the blood draining from my face every time anybody with a snake came near me did curtail their efforts slightly. One of the sadder sites was the monkeys on leashes which were trained to perform or sit on your shoulder for photos as required to get money for their owners. After a much too short stay in Marrakesh we had a slightly amusing journey back to the ship when the bus driver got lost in the seedier suburbs of Casablanca. We could hear the slightly agitated conversations between our tour guide and somebody on board the ship who was ringing every 5 minutes to find out where we were. After a couple of U turns in dark alleys -
quite a feat for a big tour bus..the driver finally asked some locals and found his way back to the ship. The ship was supposed to sail at 9pm and we arrived back at 9.30 were raced through the immigration area and had the gangway drawn up straight after us.
The next day we arrived in Cadiz, Spain where we had also elected to do a tour so that we could head up to Seville. Seville is listed along with Toledo in most Guidebooks as one of the two cities you must visit in Spain. We were not disappointed. We had a small group of 20 that took the 90 minute drive there and learned a lot during the tour. As we drove through the renowned sherry producing area, we learned that the drink was never supposed to be called sherry, but that non-Spanish had so much trouble pronouncing the correct name that ‘sherry’ stuck. The name of the area the grapes come from is actually Jerez which sounds like ‘Herez’ when pronounced by someone other than me.
Seville (pronounced Seviya) is one of the most beautiful cities I’ve visited. The architecture was amazing and the city full
Plaza De Espagna
The Spanish Pavilion for the 1929 Expoof small alleyways and gardens. The narrow alleyways are actually built with a purpose. As the city gets so hot (easily 45 degrees in summer), the high stone buildings are protected from the sun by the adjacent buildings which are built so close. The temperature difference between the open squares and the alleyways was noticeably a pleasant 10 degrees cooler when we were there. We drove into the city and immediately were struck by the unique and impressive buildings lining the main road. Seville hosted the Spanish-American Expo (an early predecessor of the World Expo) in 1929. During the expo, all the Spanish colonies and former colonies had a ‘pavilion’ which was really a large building built in the traditional style. The buildings have since become embassies, university buildings and town halls but are all still standing and surrounded by leafy gardens.
Our first stop in Seville was the Alcazar Imperial Palace which is still used by the current King and Queen of Spain as their ‘holiday residence’ and as it was built in the 14th Century - the oldest European Royal residence still in use. The palace is incredibly interesting as it was built by a Christian King
but in a Moorish style. Apparently he was a fan of the Moorish architecture and it was considered the height of fashion at the time, so the palace looks like it has been taken straight out of an Arabian movie with wind towers, mosaics and domes. The only major difference is that Moorish decorations prohibit using pictures or carvings of animals or people but the Spanish palace does have small Christian symbols and coats of arms carved in places. After the palace we headed to the Cathedral of Seville which is famous as the resting place of Christopher Columbus. There has been some dispute over whether the remains are truly his as the man has been dug up and reburied 5 times. Initially buried near Seville, his remains were then moved to Seville then the Dominican Republic, Cuba and finally back to Seville. In 1995, they DNA tested the remains and compared it with his son who is also buried there and established it was indeed him though only 200 grams were left so perhaps the claim by San Domingo that he is also buried there is at least partially true.
The ships next stop was Lisbon in Portugal.
As there is a great public transit system, we were easily able to explore the major sites in the city by ourselves. One of the dominant features of the Lisbon skyline is the Castle de Sao Jorge so we walked up for a great view over the cities. Lisbon is known as the red roofed city and the houses do seem unique. Many of the building exterior walls are covered with beautiful tiles which we are so used to seeing inside buildings, rather than to decorate the outside. We then visited the Jeronimos Monastery - a beautiful cathedral which houses the remains of Henry the Navigator and Vasco de Gama who pioneered the route from Spain to India. After lunch we headed up to a famous Port tasting bar. Our Guidebook had knowledgeably informed us that ‘once you get past the surly waiter who has probably worked there as long as the place has been open, the port is magnificent.,’ Well, true to form, we walked into this bar and up to the counter where we started looking through the tasting list. The waiter stood adjacent to the bar and ignored us for at least the first 3 minutes. After
deciding that this was getting us nowhere I approached him and asked if it was possible to try some port. He then enthusiastically showed us to a seat where we could pay 7 euro to try a 40 year old glass of port. The serving was more like a traditional glass of wine but was certainly great quality although I’m not sure that many people fork out and buy a bottle. His surliness toward new customers continued and we watched as 2 groups of people walked out after weathering the ignoring stage for a few minutes. Seems the customer must speak first if they were to be considered worthy of trying his ports!
The next stop for the cruise ship was Gibraltar. We only had 5 hours so hired a motor scooter for 20 pounds and headed up the rock. It didn’t have much power so our max speed was only about 30km/h with both of us on board. Gibraltar is famous for its monkeys and it didn’t take too long to find them. Each car-park on the rock was full of the apes and their babies - all attempting and usually succeeding to steal any food in the
vicinity. We watched one jump from a car onto a lady’s shoulder, grab the ice-cream she was eating and take off into the trees in less than three seconds. We visited St. Michael’s cave which is a huge underground cavern full of stalactites and stalagmites and then headed for the Siege tunnels which were excavated by the British Army during 1779-83. There are believed to be about 33 miles of tunnels dug within the Rock - some via hand and some with dynamite. The sheer size of the tunnels was amazing and it was easy to see how they were so successful.
Our second to last port call was a Spanish beach resort town called Alicante and the final port was Barcelona. As in Marrakesh - the cruise didn’t allow us long enough to see nearly enough of Barcelona so we will have to go back! We walked the famous Las Ramblas, a wide pedestrian strip that runs through the town and is lined with flower stalls and street performers and then headed for Gaudi’s famous and still unfinished work - the La Sagrada Familia cathedral. It truly is the most unique looking cathedral I have seen - I’m
quite sure I saw raspberries filling one of the turrets and the color and decorations on some of the other towers looked a little like crazy ice-cream cones to me.
We were very disappointed to finish the cruise and head for home. Although the visits to some cities were too short - the opportunity to see so much in a short time and to relax on board made for a great holiday although we wouldn’t want to eat that well too often - we might have to buy new wardrobes. We visited Portefino - a beautiful town on the Italian Riviera and Lucca - a classic walled city in Tuscany, on the way home. All in all a wonderful and relaxing holiday and we will definitely be looking at a cruise again some time in the future.
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betty carins
non-member comment
send it on to mum
Can you send it to mum as I am not sure how to. Sounds like the life to me. Mum