Last Villefranche

This cruise is going to be last everything, pretty much.  Yesterday was our last Marseilles, and I went on a tour of a few amazing villages in the Luberon Valley. It was a nice tour, but absolutely freezing!  It was an icy day, despite the sun, with winds at 80-100 km/h.  Yikes!  We were all a bit miserable due to the cold and windiness, but the tour was really amazing.  I think its finally winter here - today its quite cold as well.  As for my last Villfranche, I'm just using the internet at our favorite place with a bunch of friends.  Hot tea is warming me up as we speak.  

Just a recap of the end of last cruise:  I took a walking tour in Corsica in order to avoid crew boat drill, and got a glimpse of Napoleon Bonaparte's house and the cathedral in which he was baptised.  After the tour I ran into a couple of friends from the a cappella quartet and we ate lunch at a little restaurant that had some amazing homemade lasagna.  Yummy.  

In Casablanca, (just for you, Dad) I went on a mission to find Rick's Café, or at least one of the recreations of it.  I brought a boy along with me for protection cause Casablanca....well, its not Disneyland.  Anyway, we found it!  It was a really nice place, and we got something to drink there and sat for a while.  I haven't seen the movie in forever, so I have no clue how closely it resembles the original, but I got a picture of me sitting at the piano.   I hope you're happy, Dad!!

In Barcelona I went on an adventure by myself again - to the CosmoCaixa: a new science museum that is supposed to be one of Europe's best.  It happened to be a free entrance day, which had its pros and cons: the con being the legions of Barcelona's school children running amuck all over the museum.  Despite that, I was pretty entertained for several hours, and even sat through a presentation in the planetarium that was entirely in catalunyan (a variation of spanish spoken in the region).  I understood a couple of words at best....but it was cool.   One of the neatest exhibitions is a section that they have converted into an Amazon rainforest, full of real animals, simulated rain, and even fish in the deep river that runs through it, which you can see through glass from outside the exhibit, like an aquarium.   

At the end of this cruise a lot of my friends are leaving, which will be a bummer.  Metro (a capella), some youth staff, my friend Rob....all leaving on December 1st.  I've decided to think of this cruise as my last cruise, and the transatlantic as just a scenic route home.  I really am already on my way home if you think about it, as we sail into the west.... It will definitely make the time change easier.  I'll gain an hour every night over a week, then only gain three more on the flight home.  So, I'm going home next cruise! :-)  

Adventures in Public Transportation

Ok, time to play catch up again... Now tomorrow is our last Mediterranean cruise!!!  This cruise has really flown by.  In Barcelona I conquered the metro system on my own and visited some far corners of the city, before taking the metro to a funicular to a cable car to the top of one of Barcelona's hills to visit the fortress there.  In Villefranche I took a tour that included lunch next door to Monte Carlo casino at the famous Café de Paris, and also had a brief visit inside the casino, where I promptly lost five euros.  I wanted to say that I'd gambled in Monte Carlo, and now I can.  Who knew slot machines were so hard to figure out and had so many confusing buttons?  Shows what I know.  I had to take a public bus back to Villefranche from Monaco in order to make rehearsal in time, but it was a fun tour.  

In Livorno we had a band outing - we all decided it was a good day to go to Pisa.  To get there, we took the shuttle to downtown Livorno, walked to the bus station, took a public bus to the train station, took a train to Pisa, walked half an hour to the leaning tower, took a bus back to the train station, the train to Livorno,  a bus to downtown, the shuttle back to the ship.  Did you follow all that? You can see why I titled this post as I did...  Anyway it was a lot of fun, and despite a little rain and a close call accident while taking the bus (the driver had to screech to a halt to avoid the car of an angry Italian woman, and several old ladies on the bus went flying through the air and caused a slightly amusing domino effect...don't worry, no one was hurt - although the Italiana who got out of her car to start yelling at the bus was pretty angry - I have a video..hee hee), we got the necessary pictures of us holding up the leaning tower, etc.  And of course, we ate pizza in Pisa. It seemed like the thing to do. 

The next day I finally made it to Rome - my first time this contract.  I went with Liam and Tim, and our goal was to spend a lot of time in the Vatican museum.  Unfortunately, in our rush after taking the shuttle to Civitavecchia and walking to the train station, we got on the wrong train - an express first class to Rome's farthest terminal - instead of the one that stops near the Vatican.  A six euro fine each, a metro ride, a train ride, and a 20 minute walk we made it back to Vatican City.  Luckily for us, there was NO line to get into the museum (unheard of - last time I waited over 2 hours) so we still had time to enjoy the museum and took our time admiring the Sistine Chapel.  Afterwards, we had just enough time to let Liam take a peek in St. Peter's Basilica (he'd never been) before powerwalking back to the train station to catch the 2:57 pm back to Civitavecchia.  Whew...now I remember why going to Rome is so exhausting....THANKFULLY....we had the day off, so once back on board we could just relax.  A bunch of us watched a pirated copy of Dark Knight in my friend Rob's room, which was a good end to the day. 

In conclusion I will say this - I look forward to being in a country where I can drive places myself .  

5 weeks from home....3 cruises from home.

Another cruise begins tomorrow - the last 11 day cruise.  This will be our last trip to Corsica and a couple other places.  Wrapping up this cruise is helping me move on from the depressing event it contained.  We also had an official memorial service for Ron which has helped give us some closure.  The captain even came, which was a nice gesture since he didn't even know Ron.   Marie and I put together a book for everyone to sign and write their fond memories in, which we will send to the family, so they know we cared about him here.  

Today was an absolutely gorgeous day at sea.  I can't remember a better one.  The sea was so calm that you couldn't feel the ship moving, and you could actually see hazy reflections of  the clouds on the water - something I've never seen before on the open sea.  There was almost no wind and the sky was so blue - after rehearsal we knew we needed to be outside, so me, Marie, Liam and Stephan went out onto deck 7, pulled up some chairs, and just enjoyed the beauty of the day while talking.  It was a perfect afternoon.  The evening was even better - just before dinner I happened to glance outside again, and saw the most beautiful sunset beginning.  I went back out to deck 7 and watched it by myself, enjoying the colors in the sky and on the water long after the sun had gone down.  I believe that sunset was a gift from God.

Some other quick highlights of this cruise: Going on an excursion to Cinque Terre near Florence - a group of 5 tiny towns along the Italian coast that are quite breathtaking - and enjoying an awesome lunch (including local sheep cheese and honey, tiramisu, and ravioli with pesto) there with a girl named Juliana who works with shore excursions.  Seeing Avignon and the Palace of the Popes, and the famous St. Benedict Bridge, with Margit - the ultimate tour guide, and Scott, another musician on board.   Marie and I watching the new cast (who will take over tomorrow) rehearse the new show called "Liverpool Knights," and making fun of it a little.  Enjoying an absolutely evil piece of dark chocolate cake in Valetta, Malta, with Marie and Liam.  Having a chocolate shake at the Hard Rock Café in Malta.  Trying out a new and mostly ridiculous but pretty fun workout routine with Marie that she found in a magazine (i'm still sore).  

And lastly, some info - it looks like I will have three months at home, and then do a short contract on Norwegian Cruise Lines, with by friend Andrew Loveridge as bandmaster.  The tentative dates are March 14 - June 14, and the itinerary includes Florida, the Bahamas, and Bermuda.  Sounds like fun!

Just to let you know...

This will be a short post, just to inform you that we are having a difficult time on the ship right now due to the unexpected death of another musician crewmember, who was friend of mine.  Please be in prayer for his family and for the whole entertainment department here as we work through this situation.  I prefer not to discuss the details here, but his name is Ron and he was 53.  Thank you for your prayers.    

catching up....

I think I am waiting too long in between blogs, because I always feel like I have too much to write about.  I finally got around to doing something in Gibraltar this time - me, Marie, Liam, and my friend Tim took the official taxi-tour of the upper rock of Gibraltar - which meant that we were in a big taxi van, along with four German tourists.  It was a lot of fun!  We drove all the way to the top of the rock for some great views, visited St. Michael's Cave (it has nothing on Carlsbad, but it was pretty cool - they've even built a concert hall inside), the Moorish Castle from the 12th Century or something, and of course - the monkeys!! Yes, the famous apes of Gibraltar are everywhere on the upper rock - acting like they own the place and totally unafraid of people.  They were what I most wanted to see.  They bite, so you aren't supposed to try to feed them (they've been known to jump on people and steal the food out of their bags, or just steal the bags themselves...) so I just tossed them a couple of bananas.  There were some baby apes which were pretty cute, but could howl up a storm if they wanted to.  Liam was terrified of the apes and kept a safe distance at all times - Marie and I made him the designated photographer.  It was fun - I might go back there on an excursion if I ever have the time.  Since we are only there from 1 to 7pm and we usually have a rehearsal at 3 or 4 and then early shows, its difficult to go on a shore excursion - hence why we did it on our own.  

The next day I went on a tour of Casablanca - which was interesting except for the fact that it rained so much that day.  One guest fell and broke her wrist on my tour, and after getting on an ambulance she and her husband had an awful ordeal trying to communicate with the local police who gave them a hard time.  I talked with her about it later, and I feel badly that I didn't stay with her or have more info about the ship's emergency numbers....anyway, she made it back to the ship eventually with a cast.  The nicest part of the tour was the fairly new Hassan II Mosque - it is really one of the most impressive and magnificent buildings I have ever seen.  It is huge....wow.  

Yesterday I finally took the Tangier tour - it was my first time off the ship in Tangier.  It turned out to be a sunny day, against all odds.  It was neat to see the rock of Gibraltar from across the straight.  My favorite part of the tour was our visit to the caves of Hercules - the cave opens to the atlantic ocean in a silouette that looks like the mirror-image shape of the African continent.  Really cool.  The other interesting part of the tour was a folkloric show we were taken to - it lasted about an hour and included a bellydancer, child-acrobats (weird!), simulated horseback battles, musicians, percussionists, and a fire-eater.  I'm sure it is all souped up for the tourists' benefit, but it was still entertaining.