Here we are back in our turnaround port of Southampton, on another very crispy cold morning. The sun is shining, though, and it should start to warm up soon. It is hard to believe it is May already!! Now that it is officially the first of May, I can say that we sign off next month! The countdown is on....and we are daydreaming about our vacation in England together.
The end of last voyage got a bit interesting, with one brand new port and a change of itinerary. First, Valencia. What an amazing city! I went on a bus tour because Nick was stuck on board, and was really pleasantly surprised by the city. It has amazing and interesting architecture everywhere, and also a shiny, modern, Gaudi-inspired "City of Arts and Sciences" which includes museums, public event spaces an opera house and gardens. Wow. The center of the city is all very stunning architecture as well, a bit older, and there is also a gorgeous seafront promenade. I learned that both Formula One and the Americas Cup races are held here from time to time. Apparently for such events locals will rent out their balconies for 2,000 euros a day! We had free time at the Central Market, and I decided to buy some of the famous Valencia-grown oranges. I only had three euros, so I asked for 3 euros worth of them. It turned out I had to to stop the vendor after only 2 euros worth, as I already had a huge bag of 10 giant oranges!! And they were incredible....I made lots of fresh orange juice all week (I've inherited a tiny plastic juice extractor). I also tried the local horchata drink, made of tiger nut milk, water and sugar. It can be found at Mexican restaurants in the States, I myself have had it before, but that version is rice-based instead and can include milk. Valencia is the place it originated, and uses tiger nuts exclusively (vegan!). I tried a small glass with the usual accompaniment of "fartones", sort of like sweet, soft breadsticks. Yummy! Anyway I was overall very impressed with Valencia, and would love to come back, have a chance to explore more and share it with Nick next time.
So now about our change of itinerary. We were scheduled to be in Gibraltar, but due to high winds we weren't able to dock. We got right up to the dock before we had to turn around. It was disappointing to miss Gibraltar as I really love the port. The guests were very disappointed, but as usual when things go wrong, the crew was ecstatic to find out we would be able to get to Cadiz early and have an overnight there! Spain is a country where people stay out late eating an drinking, especially on the weekends, with entire families and kids out past midnight into the wee hours. It was the perfect place to be for us, because we don't finish work until 11:30pm and most other ports this would mean everything would already be closed. But not in Cadiz! It was a festive-feeling Saturday night, full of locals enjoying tapas and drinks in the local bars and cafés, with their kids kicking around soccer balls in the plazas. We found a great little place that had a huge menu, and tried out a few local dishes. They even gave us hot fresh bread! Hard to believe it was nearly 1am at that point! What a nice night. Sitting at a restaurant at night is one of those humanizing, keenly-longed-for pleasures of the cruise ship employee. It is wonderful not to worry about getting back in time for work or all-aboard.
Today we begin our Baltic voyage, across to St. Petersburg, Russia, and back. We will hit all the capital cities along the way: Stockholm, Copenhagen, Tallinn, Helsinki, and a few smaller ones. Looking forward to it!
The end of last voyage got a bit interesting, with one brand new port and a change of itinerary. First, Valencia. What an amazing city! I went on a bus tour because Nick was stuck on board, and was really pleasantly surprised by the city. It has amazing and interesting architecture everywhere, and also a shiny, modern, Gaudi-inspired "City of Arts and Sciences" which includes museums, public event spaces an opera house and gardens. Wow. The center of the city is all very stunning architecture as well, a bit older, and there is also a gorgeous seafront promenade. I learned that both Formula One and the Americas Cup races are held here from time to time. Apparently for such events locals will rent out their balconies for 2,000 euros a day! We had free time at the Central Market, and I decided to buy some of the famous Valencia-grown oranges. I only had three euros, so I asked for 3 euros worth of them. It turned out I had to to stop the vendor after only 2 euros worth, as I already had a huge bag of 10 giant oranges!! And they were incredible....I made lots of fresh orange juice all week (I've inherited a tiny plastic juice extractor). I also tried the local horchata drink, made of tiger nut milk, water and sugar. It can be found at Mexican restaurants in the States, I myself have had it before, but that version is rice-based instead and can include milk. Valencia is the place it originated, and uses tiger nuts exclusively (vegan!). I tried a small glass with the usual accompaniment of "fartones", sort of like sweet, soft breadsticks. Yummy! Anyway I was overall very impressed with Valencia, and would love to come back, have a chance to explore more and share it with Nick next time.
So now about our change of itinerary. We were scheduled to be in Gibraltar, but due to high winds we weren't able to dock. We got right up to the dock before we had to turn around. It was disappointing to miss Gibraltar as I really love the port. The guests were very disappointed, but as usual when things go wrong, the crew was ecstatic to find out we would be able to get to Cadiz early and have an overnight there! Spain is a country where people stay out late eating an drinking, especially on the weekends, with entire families and kids out past midnight into the wee hours. It was the perfect place to be for us, because we don't finish work until 11:30pm and most other ports this would mean everything would already be closed. But not in Cadiz! It was a festive-feeling Saturday night, full of locals enjoying tapas and drinks in the local bars and cafés, with their kids kicking around soccer balls in the plazas. We found a great little place that had a huge menu, and tried out a few local dishes. They even gave us hot fresh bread! Hard to believe it was nearly 1am at that point! What a nice night. Sitting at a restaurant at night is one of those humanizing, keenly-longed-for pleasures of the cruise ship employee. It is wonderful not to worry about getting back in time for work or all-aboard.
Today we begin our Baltic voyage, across to St. Petersburg, Russia, and back. We will hit all the capital cities along the way: Stockholm, Copenhagen, Tallinn, Helsinki, and a few smaller ones. Looking forward to it!
1 comment:
I learned that those famous Valencia oranges are the stock from which the Spanish brought orange trees over to plant at the California Missions. If not for those trees, California may not have become famous for oranges!
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