Here are some final pictures from the cruise part of our trip. First, here are some pictures from our day in Barcelona. We took a tour that highlighted the architecture of Gaudi, who is famous for his crazy funky buildings. We mostly spent time at Sagrada Familia, a church designed by Gaudi that is still under construction, estimated to be finished in 2026. It's not often that you get to see one of these huge cathedrals under construction, so that was really cool. The second big place we visited was a master-planned community designed by Gaudi at the turn of the 20th century, that was basically a failure. Only two houses were ever built! But those houses, oh, man. You'll have to watch the slide show to see. ;-)
It rained the entire morning of our tour, but the sun came out towards the end. I really enjoyed that short visit to Barcelona, and look forward to going back some time.
I didn't take a lot of video with the small camera during the cruise because it was just going to be impossible to upload it, but I did take a few. In this first one, Carter is "playing" the piano in our room on the ship.
Here is Carter checking out the dance floor in the ship's teen club.
Here is a video of Carter playing in the fountain on the pool deck, something I wish we'd thought to do earlier.
And Julie, yes, those are little baby deck socks we ordered online. They work pretty well!
And here's a little video of our last sailaway, from Livorno, Italy.
We took more video with our video camera, but we'll have to convert that before we can upload it. The internet here is still not very fast, so I probably won't try to upload any of that until we get home.
We're having a fantastic time in Rome so far. In fact, today at lunch I realized I hadn't thought about the cruise ship at all since we got to the hotel. Doug says he feels more relaxed now than he did on the ship, in some ways. I just love this city so, so much, and it feels fantastic to be here again. I'll make a post with pictures and more updates about this part of our trip later.
Showing posts with label cruise2009. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cruise2009. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Monday, May 4, 2009
Cruise, part 6!
Sorry I haven’t posted in a while. The internet on the cruise ship was SO slow, and it was expensive to keep trying to upload pictures at those prices. Now we’re in Rome and have high-speed internet again, so I’ll try to catch up!
Since my last post, we had a sea day, visited Barcelona, Spain; Marseilles, France; and Livorno, Italy; and then ended our cruise and went to our hotel in Rome. The last few days were really relaxing, and we tried to take advantage of everything the ship had to offer.
After two weeks on the ship, Carter was really getting used to life onboard. As far as he knew, this was our new home, and he adjusted right to it. He enjoyed crawling all around the penthouse suite and the deck, and even got into the lovely habit of letting us know when he was ready for a nap or for bedtime by crawling into the bedroom and calling for us! Here are some pictures of him on the ship during the last few days.
Playing in the bidet, a perfect height for Carter.
“Who you lookin’ at?”
Babies aren’t allowed in the big pool, but we have a private “pool” all our own!
Looking out at the streets of Barcelona on a wet day. I have lots of Barcelona pictures, but I'll have to post them later. It was a really cool city, and a place I definitely want to visit again.
Looking out at the ocean from the wine bar, a favorite spot of ours.
Carter checks out the sunset.
Rikki, our butler, sets the table on the veranda for breakfast.
Carter in Marseilles, France. We had planned to take a tour, but decided to just walk around on our own instead. There is a beautiful waterfront there with a market.
Carter and Mommy in Marseilles.
This was Carter's first time riding a carousel. (Marseilles)
At a restaurant in Marseilles. He was reeeally tired, though, and about 30 minutes after this picture was taken our lunch was cut short. :-/
Playing with Daddy on the lawn.
Playing in a fountain. I wish we'd done this earlier, because he really enjoyed it! The last day we had planned to take a train from Livorno up to some pretty seaside towns, but Doug had developed a cold and really wasn't up to it. It was just as well, as we actually enjoyed spending the day relaxing. We didn't even get off the ship, it turns out. Can you believe it?
With Paula, his babysitter. Carter loved Paula. Whenever he saw an Asian woman on the ship, he would stare at her to see if it was Paula. The last couple of times she came, he even cried when she left!
With Ruben, our favorite bartender. He was so sweet to Carter.
Where else but a cruise ship could you sit at the bar with a baby?
With Rikki, our butler. Rikki, by the way, was Cruise Critic's 2008 Butler of the Year. For good reason!
Hanging out on the veranda for the last sailaway.
“Do we really have to get up this early?”
“Bye-bye, penthouse suite!”
And so our cruise ended. I have more pictures to post of the places we went, but I'll post those later. I also have a handful of videos I can finally try to upload.
We're now in Rome, and we're about to head out to dinner. The hotel room we're in is very nice, but not nearly as spacious as the last room we stayed in! We met up with Michelle, Carter's nanny, this morning, who happened to be in Paris the last two weeks. We offered to bring her down to Rome this week in exchange for some babysitting, and she happily obliged. So Doug and I will get a little time to hang out together like we did in the old days. :-)
Happy Birthday, Dad!
Since my last post, we had a sea day, visited Barcelona, Spain; Marseilles, France; and Livorno, Italy; and then ended our cruise and went to our hotel in Rome. The last few days were really relaxing, and we tried to take advantage of everything the ship had to offer.
After two weeks on the ship, Carter was really getting used to life onboard. As far as he knew, this was our new home, and he adjusted right to it. He enjoyed crawling all around the penthouse suite and the deck, and even got into the lovely habit of letting us know when he was ready for a nap or for bedtime by crawling into the bedroom and calling for us! Here are some pictures of him on the ship during the last few days.
Playing in the bidet, a perfect height for Carter.
“Who you lookin’ at?”
Babies aren’t allowed in the big pool, but we have a private “pool” all our own!
Looking out at the streets of Barcelona on a wet day. I have lots of Barcelona pictures, but I'll have to post them later. It was a really cool city, and a place I definitely want to visit again.
Looking out at the ocean from the wine bar, a favorite spot of ours.
Carter checks out the sunset.
Rikki, our butler, sets the table on the veranda for breakfast.
Carter in Marseilles, France. We had planned to take a tour, but decided to just walk around on our own instead. There is a beautiful waterfront there with a market.
Carter and Mommy in Marseilles.
This was Carter's first time riding a carousel. (Marseilles)
At a restaurant in Marseilles. He was reeeally tired, though, and about 30 minutes after this picture was taken our lunch was cut short. :-/
Playing with Daddy on the lawn.
Playing in a fountain. I wish we'd done this earlier, because he really enjoyed it! The last day we had planned to take a train from Livorno up to some pretty seaside towns, but Doug had developed a cold and really wasn't up to it. It was just as well, as we actually enjoyed spending the day relaxing. We didn't even get off the ship, it turns out. Can you believe it?
With Paula, his babysitter. Carter loved Paula. Whenever he saw an Asian woman on the ship, he would stare at her to see if it was Paula. The last couple of times she came, he even cried when she left!
With Ruben, our favorite bartender. He was so sweet to Carter.
Where else but a cruise ship could you sit at the bar with a baby?
With Rikki, our butler. Rikki, by the way, was Cruise Critic's 2008 Butler of the Year. For good reason!
Hanging out on the veranda for the last sailaway.
“Do we really have to get up this early?”
“Bye-bye, penthouse suite!”
And so our cruise ended. I have more pictures to post of the places we went, but I'll post those later. I also have a handful of videos I can finally try to upload.
We're now in Rome, and we're about to head out to dinner. The hotel room we're in is very nice, but not nearly as spacious as the last room we stayed in! We met up with Michelle, Carter's nanny, this morning, who happened to be in Paris the last two weeks. We offered to bring her down to Rome this week in exchange for some babysitting, and she happily obliged. So Doug and I will get a little time to hang out together like we did in the old days. :-)
Happy Birthday, Dad!
Friday, May 1, 2009
Pictures for Cruise, part 5
Here are the pictures that were meant to be posted with the last post, when we were in Cadiz, Seville, and Malaga, Spain. This will be picture-heavy, so apologies to those who read this blog as a feed on LJ. I don't think there's a way to do a cut!
4/28/09: Cadiz and Seville
Doug and Carter watching the ship dock in Cadiz, Spain.
Cathedral in Seville, Spain.
Jenn and Carter admiring the cathedral in Seville.
Ceiling of cathedral, Seville. Carter: "Wow!"
Carter feeds his daddy a cracker during lunch in Seville.
Carter and Jenn, having lunch in Seville. Note the huge plate of fried anchovies!
Carter would rather be crawling around the streets of Seville.
Beautiful plaza in Seville.
Local residents dressed colorfully for the Feria de Sevilla, a week-long festival.
Beautiful gothic building in Seville
Carter checks out a playground in Seville
4/29/09: Malaga, Spain
Carter watches the ship dock in Malaga, Spain.
View of Malaga from a hilltop.
Cathedral in Malaga.
Jenn and Carter checking out the cathedral.
Street view in Malaga.
Narrow old lane, built in the Moorish style, Malaga.
Carter sleeps on the bus, yet again!
Back on the ship, Carter plays in the grass on the roof. That's a feature of the ship we've really used a lot more than we expected to!
Carter checks out a hole on the putting green.
Today we're in Barcelona, and I'll make a post about that sometime tomorrow. The internet issue seems to have been resolved, yay!
4/28/09: Cadiz and Seville
Doug and Carter watching the ship dock in Cadiz, Spain.
Cathedral in Seville, Spain.
Jenn and Carter admiring the cathedral in Seville.
Ceiling of cathedral, Seville. Carter: "Wow!"
Carter feeds his daddy a cracker during lunch in Seville.
Carter and Jenn, having lunch in Seville. Note the huge plate of fried anchovies!
Carter would rather be crawling around the streets of Seville.
Beautiful plaza in Seville.
Local residents dressed colorfully for the Feria de Sevilla, a week-long festival.
Beautiful gothic building in Seville
Carter checks out a playground in Seville
4/29/09: Malaga, Spain
Carter watches the ship dock in Malaga, Spain.
View of Malaga from a hilltop.
Cathedral in Malaga.
Jenn and Carter checking out the cathedral.
Street view in Malaga.
Narrow old lane, built in the Moorish style, Malaga.
Carter sleeps on the bus, yet again!
Back on the ship, Carter plays in the grass on the roof. That's a feature of the ship we've really used a lot more than we expected to!
Carter checks out a hole on the putting green.
Today we're in Barcelona, and I'll make a post about that sometime tomorrow. The internet issue seems to have been resolved, yay!
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Cruise, part 5, sans pictures
This is the first time I've managed to get online in two days! The internet on the ship has been spotty and slow, and uploading pictures is just impossible. I don't know if it will get any better soon, but I'll keep trying.
In the meantime, I can at least tell you what we've been up to. The last time I posted was when we left Lisbon, Portugal. The next day we stopped in Cadiz, Spain and had a tour up to Seville. That was a pretty fun day! The bus ride up to Seville took an hour and a half, but Carter fell asleep on the way up and slept for over an hour, so he'd had a good nap by the time we got there. There is a festival going on this week, and the locals dress up in beautiful traditional clothes. There were all these women walking around in the colorful dresses with ruffles at the bottom. It was really interesting! We visited a cathedral, had a nice lunch of local ham, cheese, and fried anchovies, and walked around until the bus left. Carter slept all the way back to the ship, which made it all pretty easy.
That's been one of the surprises about this trip so far, actually. Carter does really well on bus tours! We weren't sure what to expect, but he really enjoys riding on the buses. He sits in my lap and looks out the window, pointing at things he sees and signing "tree" every time he spots one. After about 15 minutes, he settles on my chest and goes to sleep, and will sleep for an hour. That means that on some tours, I've stayed on the bus during brief stops while Doug got off to take pictures. But it's okay. :-)
Carter has hit some new milestones since we've been on vacation. He seems no closer to walking, but he's started pointing in the last few days. As you may recall, that was something I was concerned about, but he just started doing it all of the sudden. Maybe he was waiting until he had something interesting to point at? He still signs "tree", "light", and "want", but will now say "wow" and "bird", both generally accompanied by a point at the thing that's caught his interest. When we walk around cathedrals, he will lean his head back to look up at the high ceilings, point up, and say "wow". It's so cute! "Bird" happened spontaneously. I'm not sure if that's a word Michelle has been working on, or if he just picked it up, but when sea gulls fly around the ship, he'll point and say "bird".
During the night on Tuesday night we passed through the Straight of Gibraltar, which I was sorry to miss. Yesterday (Wednesday) we were in Malaga, a small port city on the Mediterranean coast of Spain. We took a short bus tour in the morning, most of which Carter slept through, and then walked around in the town a bit. We headed back to the boat for Carter's nap, and then spent a good chunk of the afternoon watching him crawl around on the rooftop lawn. He LOVED that, far more than any of the things he'd seen in two days in Spain!
Today is our last sea day, followed by three more port days before our cruise ends in Rome Monday. I'm dreading the end already! Of course, we're going to spend another 5 days in Rome, so it's not like we're going home right away, but still, I don't want this vacation to be over! We've been planning it for so long.
So as I write this, we're all hanging out on the deck, watching the Mediterranean Sea slowly go by, with a glimpse of the coast of Spain about 25 miles away. I'll try to post the pictures eventually!
In the meantime, I can at least tell you what we've been up to. The last time I posted was when we left Lisbon, Portugal. The next day we stopped in Cadiz, Spain and had a tour up to Seville. That was a pretty fun day! The bus ride up to Seville took an hour and a half, but Carter fell asleep on the way up and slept for over an hour, so he'd had a good nap by the time we got there. There is a festival going on this week, and the locals dress up in beautiful traditional clothes. There were all these women walking around in the colorful dresses with ruffles at the bottom. It was really interesting! We visited a cathedral, had a nice lunch of local ham, cheese, and fried anchovies, and walked around until the bus left. Carter slept all the way back to the ship, which made it all pretty easy.
That's been one of the surprises about this trip so far, actually. Carter does really well on bus tours! We weren't sure what to expect, but he really enjoys riding on the buses. He sits in my lap and looks out the window, pointing at things he sees and signing "tree" every time he spots one. After about 15 minutes, he settles on my chest and goes to sleep, and will sleep for an hour. That means that on some tours, I've stayed on the bus during brief stops while Doug got off to take pictures. But it's okay. :-)
Carter has hit some new milestones since we've been on vacation. He seems no closer to walking, but he's started pointing in the last few days. As you may recall, that was something I was concerned about, but he just started doing it all of the sudden. Maybe he was waiting until he had something interesting to point at? He still signs "tree", "light", and "want", but will now say "wow" and "bird", both generally accompanied by a point at the thing that's caught his interest. When we walk around cathedrals, he will lean his head back to look up at the high ceilings, point up, and say "wow". It's so cute! "Bird" happened spontaneously. I'm not sure if that's a word Michelle has been working on, or if he just picked it up, but when sea gulls fly around the ship, he'll point and say "bird".
During the night on Tuesday night we passed through the Straight of Gibraltar, which I was sorry to miss. Yesterday (Wednesday) we were in Malaga, a small port city on the Mediterranean coast of Spain. We took a short bus tour in the morning, most of which Carter slept through, and then walked around in the town a bit. We headed back to the boat for Carter's nap, and then spent a good chunk of the afternoon watching him crawl around on the rooftop lawn. He LOVED that, far more than any of the things he'd seen in two days in Spain!
Today is our last sea day, followed by three more port days before our cruise ends in Rome Monday. I'm dreading the end already! Of course, we're going to spend another 5 days in Rome, so it's not like we're going home right away, but still, I don't want this vacation to be over! We've been planning it for so long.
So as I write this, we're all hanging out on the deck, watching the Mediterranean Sea slowly go by, with a glimpse of the coast of Spain about 25 miles away. I'll try to post the pictures eventually!
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Cruise, part 4
I had this all ready to go last night, but the internet link on the ship went down. Here it is a bit later than I'd planned. So now I'm posting it at 8:00 am, which is about 1:00 am back home.
We woke up Monday morning finally on the continent of Europe, coming into the harbor of Lisbon, Portugal. So we’ve crossed the Atlantic on a ship! Crazy, eh? It was chilly this morning, but good to see the hills of Lisbon.
We got dressed and went down to the ship’s theater to await the start of our tour, which was titled “Lisbon by Tram”. They were slow getting everyone out, and our tour started an hour late. But Carter was amazingly patient, even though the theater was crowded and hot. He practiced going up and down the stairs and was sweet and charming to everyone.
We finally got going and took a bus through the streets of Lisbon to the point where we got on the tram. The tram was lots of fun and went up and down steep hills, through narrow streets. They fed us lovely local pastries and glasses of port wine. Carter seemed to really enjoy the ride.
We got off the tram after about 15 minutes to check out a beautiful view of the city.
From there we walked down the hill to check out a church. By this point, Carter had fallen asleep, and stayed asleep for a good 45 minutes, despite being walked around on hilly cobblestone streets, by car horns honking, a loud pipe organ playing inside the church, etc.
From there we got back on a bus for another 2 hours. That 15 minutes was all we got for the tram, apparently. It was nice, but not exactly what we were expecting. Still, we got to see a lot of the city and Carter was extremely patient and a good tourist.
Here Carter is checking out the old-fashioned stone pavement.
And in keeping with Portugal’s maritime heritage, here he is looking at a gigantic anchor.
We’d hoped to have lunch in the city, but it was pretty cold and the port (where our tour ended) was a ways from the charming part of town. So we got back on the ship and ate there. We went back to the room, and Carter once again took a nap through most of the departure, conveniently allowing Doug and me to enjoy the champagne and chilled shrimp Rikki had brought us.
We wrapped ourselves in coats and watched the city fade away as the ship departed. It was really, really cool.
Carter woke up eventually and joined us on the veranda.
We’re halfway through, and I am seriously SO used to this sort of travel now. I can’t believe I will have to go home in a week and won’t be waited on hand and foot. I’m really going to miss having a butler who organizes everything you want. I mean seriously, we just order the gourmet food we want, and it’s delivered to our room at the time we want it, with the table beautifully set. We don’t have to clean up after ourselves, even after Carter. Our room is cleaned 3 times a day, laundry is done, all travel arrangements made. It’s like all the inconvenient parts of life are done for you, just leaving you the enjoyable parts. Who wouldn’t enjoy that?
Today (Tuesday) we’ll be in Seville, Spain. I’ll try to post more pictures then.
We woke up Monday morning finally on the continent of Europe, coming into the harbor of Lisbon, Portugal. So we’ve crossed the Atlantic on a ship! Crazy, eh? It was chilly this morning, but good to see the hills of Lisbon.
We got dressed and went down to the ship’s theater to await the start of our tour, which was titled “Lisbon by Tram”. They were slow getting everyone out, and our tour started an hour late. But Carter was amazingly patient, even though the theater was crowded and hot. He practiced going up and down the stairs and was sweet and charming to everyone.
We finally got going and took a bus through the streets of Lisbon to the point where we got on the tram. The tram was lots of fun and went up and down steep hills, through narrow streets. They fed us lovely local pastries and glasses of port wine. Carter seemed to really enjoy the ride.
We got off the tram after about 15 minutes to check out a beautiful view of the city.
From there we walked down the hill to check out a church. By this point, Carter had fallen asleep, and stayed asleep for a good 45 minutes, despite being walked around on hilly cobblestone streets, by car horns honking, a loud pipe organ playing inside the church, etc.
From there we got back on a bus for another 2 hours. That 15 minutes was all we got for the tram, apparently. It was nice, but not exactly what we were expecting. Still, we got to see a lot of the city and Carter was extremely patient and a good tourist.
Here Carter is checking out the old-fashioned stone pavement.
And in keeping with Portugal’s maritime heritage, here he is looking at a gigantic anchor.
We’d hoped to have lunch in the city, but it was pretty cold and the port (where our tour ended) was a ways from the charming part of town. So we got back on the ship and ate there. We went back to the room, and Carter once again took a nap through most of the departure, conveniently allowing Doug and me to enjoy the champagne and chilled shrimp Rikki had brought us.
We wrapped ourselves in coats and watched the city fade away as the ship departed. It was really, really cool.
Carter woke up eventually and joined us on the veranda.
We’re halfway through, and I am seriously SO used to this sort of travel now. I can’t believe I will have to go home in a week and won’t be waited on hand and foot. I’m really going to miss having a butler who organizes everything you want. I mean seriously, we just order the gourmet food we want, and it’s delivered to our room at the time we want it, with the table beautifully set. We don’t have to clean up after ourselves, even after Carter. Our room is cleaned 3 times a day, laundry is done, all travel arrangements made. It’s like all the inconvenient parts of life are done for you, just leaving you the enjoyable parts. Who wouldn’t enjoy that?
Today (Tuesday) we’ll be in Seville, Spain. I’ll try to post more pictures then.
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