We had two terrific days onboard ship, Sunday stopping for a day in Toulon, France. We took it easy and went for a walk around the harbor in the old city. There wasn’t a lot going on but there was a huge open air food market with farmers selling fruit and veggies from the countryside. The area around the old city is a big commercial harbor and it’s also the major Mediterranean port for the French Navy.
On Monday we did an all-day tour from the Italian port city of Livorno. Florence is the closest major city but since we’ve already spent a week there a couple of years ago, we took a side trip to Pisa and the Tuscan walled city of Lucca. It rained most of the day and the umbrella I brought from home gave out, so I bought my second umbrella of the trip.
In Pisa, Mary & I were both surprised how far over the Leaning Tower was really leaning; it didn’t seem safe to me to let people up on top. When looking close we could see that the Cathedral and Baptistery were also leaning, just not as much. We both liked Pisa but thought that Lucca had more interesting things to see.
We love it onboard the ship, it’s comfortable (especially the bed) and the food is great. On Sunday we had a nice steak dinner in one of the better restaurants and tonight we ate at the 24 hour hot buffet when we got back tired and partially wet from touring in the rain all day.
The first language for everything onboard is English and the currency is US dollars, not what I expected from a cruise starting in Spain. The captain mentioned tonight that four passengers who took a private tour missed tonight’s sailing. He said he hoped they had a good camera to take pictures of the ship leaving them behind. They’ll be responsible to make it to the next port on their own to catch up. I like his sense of humor.
The only negative so far has been the internet and phone. Internet connection is by a slow and spotty satellite; some nights I can’t connect at all and other times it’s too spotty to download e-mail or to upload pictures. My I-phone hasn’t been able to get a signal in France or Italy, but Mary’s phone has had better luck if you need to get hold of us by voice or text. My apologies if the blog entries fall behind, and I’ll wait till I’m in a hotel in Venice to post pictures to my Flickr page.
Nite nite all, an early day again tomorrow.
Beautiful!! Can't wait to see more pictures! :)
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