We only had 3 hours to explore the city before we had to leave for the cruise ship, we headed out with a map, a camera and started walking. We had breakfast at a charming cafe, the waiter brought us menus in Spanish, I wasn't about to ask "what's this?" I was going to be daring and try new things so I was planning on pointing to something on the menu. The waiter must of seen our pained expressions and brought us menus in English. Spaniards have coffee and a roll for breakfast and then have a large afternoon meal, you could tell we were in the tourist district since there were bacon and eggs on the menu. I had a ham and cheese baguette with a spread of tomato and olive oil, so continental. The ham was much like prosciutto, it was delicious. Gary ordered the Americano breakfast.
Here are some of my favorite photos from our walking tour of the city.
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| The view from our room. |
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| My Sweetie with his pipe. |
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| La Rambla, the happeninest place in town. |
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| Those are fallen leaves swept up and carried away in a mini Mini Van. |
The architecture alone is worth a trip to this city. Here's some whacky buildings:
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| A lovely museum |
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| Harry Potter's abode? |
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| Is the Sphinx nearby? |
It was time to make our way down to the harbor. The port was full of cruise ships, summer is very busy in the Mediterranean. We were delighted by the easy embarkation, we were aboard the ship in less than 10 minutes. Time to find out about that missing luggage of ours. I headed to the passenger service desk and was immediately helped by Roberto. He was so kind and helpful, he told us that the luggage should be delivered in the next few hours. Roberto gave us complimentary toiletry bags, he told us that Princess would wash our clothes daily if the bags didn't appear and that Gary could have a free tuxedo rental. I briefly hoped they didn't show up just to see Gary in the tuxedo, of course his lovely bride would be in the t-shirt, flip flops and shorts that she boarded in. I can just imagine the photographers face when we had our picture taken on formal night. Dear reader, you will probably tire of the many times I tell you how wonderful the service was on this ship.
Princess allowed us to board with 4 bottles of wine, Royal Caribbean would of had us drawn and quartered or at least arrested. I checked online before the trip and they allow one bottle of wine per person, we pushed the envelope and they didn't push back. We bought the 4 bottles from the little store by the hotel so even if they confiscated some of it we spent less than 10 euros on 4 bottles so we were good.
When we met our room steward and told him of our anxiety over the luggage, he reassured us that if Princess picked it up then we would definitely receive it. Ignacio (he was from Mexico) said he would make sure we got the luggage and he would personally bring it into our room. Sure enough, it did arrive as promised.
Here's a couple of shots of the Ruby Princess:
The boat parked behind us:
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| They let anyone on this ship. |
We were aboard with our luggage, the hassle of getting here melted away like a snowstorm in the Sahara. After the emergency evacuation drill we headed to the deck for the sail away party and in honor of Ignacio, our new best friend, we had a couple of Dos Equis.
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| The party band |
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| A Latin Rumba, very sexy. |
This was our first experience with Any Time Dining the good points are obvious but you don't get to know your table mates (that could be good or bad) and the waiters don't know you and can't anticipate your every want the way they usually do. Dinner was good, throughout the cruise I noticed that the food doesn't compare to Celebrity but the service surpassed them by a country mile (whatever that is).
Because we were still recovering from our jet lag or because we're old (you pick but I'm sure it's the former), we went back to the room after dinner and fell asleep.
Next stop Monte Carlo!
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