Majorca and Menorca

Our last 2 islands…. The islands belong to the Balearic chain of islands east of Spain. In spite of their proximity, the two islands have very different personalities. The harbor in Palma de Majorca is full of fancy yachts and 5-star hotels line the waterfront. Mahon, Menorca, on the other hand, has a harbor full of small sailing and fishing vessels and small, family-owned 3-star hotels.

The first picture is across the harbor in Palma de Majorca, with the Cathedral in the background. The cathedral is huge with double flying buttresses. Legend has it that the King of Spain was in a storm off the coast of Majorca and prayed to be saved from the storm, promising to build a grand Cathedral in Majorca. King saved and Cathedral built!

On Sunday we headed out of Palma, into the mountains to visit the village of Valldemosa, shown in the next picture. It is full of quaint little streets, as the second picture shows. Unfortunately, the town is being “loved to death”. Streets are full of tourist and most buildings have been turned into souvenir shops or restaurants.

The most interesting thing about Valldemosa (other than its cuteness) is the imposing Carthusian monastery that sits above the town (shown in the first picture below). It was never finished and, at most, housed 13 monks, but for 57 days in the winter of 1838-39 it housed 2 famous people.  Frederic Chopin and George Sand (characterized in the next picture) meant to have a romantic vacation in Valldemosa. Unfortunately, the winter was cold and wet, Chopin became sickly and Sand found the locals country bumpkins. She chastised the locals in her “Winter in Valldemosa”. Chopin composed some of his lesser-known compositions here. And the romance seemed to end following that winter. While Sand is recognized, Chopin is almost revered. You can buy all of the typical souvenirs with Chopin’s face on them. His bust even installed outside the monastery, as shown in the 3^rd picture, and locals rub his nose as they pass, similar to St. Peter’s toe in St. Peter’s Cathedral in the Vatican.

Before returning to the ship in Palma, we indulged in the best Paella we’ve ever tasted, shown in the next picture. It was preceded with locally grown toasted almonds and Cava, and accompanied by a Mediterranean Salad and some Spanish red wine. We didn’t go hungry….

Yesterday we got up to watch the 7:00 sail into the harbor at Mahon, Menorca. The harbor is 5 miles long, with beautiful scenery. It was pretty enough that we made sure we were on deck when we sailed away at sunset. The picture below shows the down built above the marine terminal.

We then took a bus tour of the island and got a great overview of a really laid-back place. We started at La Mola Fortress, which guards the harbor entrance and is one of the grandest forts I’ve ever seen, with triple moats (one shown in the picture below), lots of cannon sites and big, thick concrete walls. It was never attacked and is best known for its history as a prison—a very nasty prison, where prisoners never returned…. It was also the site of a Quarantine fortress where visitors to the island from 1819 to 1919 were housed for their first 40 days. Spooky, but some spectacular views of the island….

We then travelled to Fornells, a village of fishermen on the north coast. It’s a lovely little whitewashed village, with no public transportation and one beach that must be reached by boat. You don’t go for the nightlife! The next picture is the view of Fornells from the island’s highest “mountain” nearby.

We found a couple of interesting architectural elements in Fornells. The next picture shows the exterior of one house (all houses are white with green trim). You’ll notice a little metal door about 1-foot-square next to the green door. That’s the water door. Northern Menorca is built on granite and there’s no natural water supply. The southern part of the island is limestone and provides the water supply for the entire island. Your water tank is under the house and when you need water you ring up the water company and it’s delivered in a truck and pumped into the water storage tank through the water door.

The next picture shows an interesting downspout that we saw on several houses. The zigzag line on the wall is actually a series of spouts that drop from one to the next. There is little rain on the island, but what does fall is collected and stored using a system of downspouts.

We then drove up to Monte Toro, the highest point on the island (where the Fornells picture was taken). Legend has it that the people in the nearest town below would see a light on the mountain at night. After several attempts, the source of the light was found in a cave—light emanating from a statue of the Madonna. The statue was removed to the town below, but the next day it was gone and once again found in the cave. The locals decided to build a convent and church on the site of the cave, which is shown in the first picture below. During Franco’s regime many religious items from the church were seized and burned. One of the local men, however, managed to save the Madonna and it now has a place of prominence above the altar as shown in the second picture. The crowns on the Madonna and Baby Jesus were added, with permission from the Vatican, from the jewelry of local people when they couldn’t afford the gold to create new ones.

Today is a day at sea and we just passed the Calanques on Corsica—beautiful rock formations. For those of you who have followed us, we visited these on the day we were on Corsica. We’ve now seen them from land and sea.  Unfortunately, as the picture shows, the day is hazy.

Tomorrow we dock in Nice and then it’s home on Thursday. Thanks for sailing with us.

Barcelona

2 glorious days in Barcelona! Sunny, warm, friendly, good food—what’s not to love!

Our first day took us to Guell Park, designed by Gaudi. It was to be one of the first planned urban developments in a park-like setting. There were to be 60 houses, surrounded by this wonderful park. Only 2 houses were built (one where Gaudi lived) and the project was abandoned in 1914. Fortunately, the Gaudi design for the park remains. Picture 1 shows the whimsical entrance, with 2 guardhouse-like buildings. Picture 2 shows Gaudi’s lizard, covered in ceramic (one of many creatures populating the garden).

The next picture is one of the two houses completed—the one where Gaudi lived in very Spartan quarters. It did contain some of his furniture, which was very ergonomically designed.

Following a delightful lunch (and sangria), we went to the Cathedral. Not everyone realizes that you can go to the Cathedral for free in the morning and wander around, but if you wait until after 2:00, you pay 6 euros and get to wander around plus visit the museum, cloister and go up on the roof! Needless to say, the roof beckoned. It contains scaffolding that has been added for walking around (first picture) and the views of Barcelona are great. The second picture shows an interesting perspective of the Sagrada Familia from the Cathedral.

Once back at ground level, we visited the cloister, which has contained 13 geese for 500 years—not the same 13 geese for 500 years, but a constant 13. Most of the current flock is shown in the first picture. Legend goes that  the number13 is chosen for St. Eulalia, for whom the Cathedral is named. She was 13 years old and was tortured by Roman soldiers 13 times before dying. The second picture shows her tomb in the crypt beneath the altar.

The following two pictures show that the Cathedral is typical Spanish gothic in style and oozes gold leaf! The 3^rd picture (sorry, it’s a little fuzzy….) shows the altar, which we found fascinating. It is supported by the capitals from 2 Visigoth columns from the 6^th century. These were found when building the Cathedral.

Our second day in Barcelona was a “rest Betsy’s foot” day, so we just went out for lunch at a favorite tapas restaurant from our trip last year. As the picture shows, there was sangria, chicken and ham croquettes, Spanish omelet with tomato toast and fried green peppers—and more sangria!

Great time!!!

Aix-en-Provence, Marseilles and Carcassonne

Betsy took another “rest her foot” day. The good news is that it is getting better. The bad news is that she missed Aix-en-Provence and Marseilles. Fortunately, Rick did visit Aix. Aix has interesting architecture, some dating back to the Romans in the 4^th century. Aix is also known for its most famous resident, Paul Cezanne.

The first picture is along the Grand Cours Mirabeau, a wide avenue built where the city’s ramparts stood. It is shaded by 200-year-old trees. This is a 17^th  or 18^th century mansion with a wonderful entry. Most of these mansions now house banks and restaurants.  The wide streets are home to beautiful fountains, as shown in picture 2, which is located at the end of the boulevard shown in picture 1.

But the city also has many narrow streets from older times that are great for wandering. The next picture shows a gate into the older, or Mazarin, Quarter, which dates from the 17^th century.

The following 2 pictures are from St. Sauveur Cathedral. It has many contrasting architectural styles from its many additions and renovations from the 5^th to the 18^th centuries. The second picture is from the Baptistry, which incorporates Roman pillars from the 4^th century.

The last picture from Aix shows electric taxis/tourist cars that carry tourists about the city.

While Rick wandered off to Aix, the ship remained in Marseilles and the next picture is a view from the deck, of a 19^th century church—Notre-Dame-de-la-Garde—that sits 500 feet above the city and was built on an ancient fortress. It is known for its beautiful mosaics. Next time….

The next day our ship docked at the small port of Sete, which cannot be accessed by ships much larger than ours. We chose to leave the area and take the lengthy bus ride to Carcassonne—great choice!

There are walled cities and there are WALLED CITIES. This was the latter. It is intact, although the inner city has been spoiled by souvenir shops and restaurants. But it still gives you a wonderful medieval feeling. It was built over the ruins of a former Roman fortress and served as a center for launching crusades in the 13^th century. The “new city” surrounding the fortress was added in the 14^th century, when the common folks were kicked out by the powers at that time.

The fortress has a double wall plus moat for protection. With gates and portcullis’ and a crooked drawbridge to slow attackers down, it was pretty impervious to attack. The first picture is the triple-towered Narbonne Gate, which is the main entrance. Picture 2 shows both the inner and outer walls.  Pictures 3 and 4 show 2 of the many towers, both containing part of the original Roman wall.

The next picture shows the bust of Dame Carcas, town heroine (and obviously the butt of schoolyard jokes, given her name). Charlemagne laid siege to Carcassonne in the Middle Ages for 5 years. Her husband, a Saracen King, was killed during this lengthy battle, so she was left in charge. She put together straw dummies and fired longbows herself to make Charlemagne’s army think there were many people left. When the food got down to a small pig and a small amount of grain, she killed the pig and filled its stomach with grain. She then threw the pig from the ramparts and it burst open upon landing. When Charlemagne saw that the people under siege were feeding their pigs precious grain, he gave up the siege because he assumed they still had lots of grain. Dame Carcas summoned Charlemagne and peace was made. Truth or legend? It makes a good story!

The next 2 pictures show the decommissioned Cathedral and one of the really great gargoyles. The bishop has moved to the town below, so this is no longer a fully-functioning church. It has beautiful stained glass and really gloomy interior.

Finally, we had Cassoulet for lunch. The area is famous for this version, which contains duck and pork sausage, along with the traditional white beans. It was a cool, gloomy day that felt like fall and this dish was perfect. Note: the vegetarians only tasted the meat—it tasted pretty good!!!!

Portoferraio, Elba and Monaco

It was a gloomy, rainy day in Portoferraio on Isola D’Elba, but it was still delightful. The first picture shows our sail into the harbor just before sunrise (not that the sun was going to be readily apparent!) It reminds you of Portofino, although we thought it a lovelier seafront.

Of course it’s hard to talk about Elba without mentioning Napoleon, who resided there for 10 months. We’d always thought he was exiled here by the French government after he was deposed, but that’s not quite right. He was given a choice of 3 islands on which to live: Corfu, Greece, Corsica, France and Elba, France (now Italy). He chose Elba because he loved the people and natural beauty, or so he said. He loved Elba because it was the closest island to the mainland and would be the easiest for escape. The French government also decided that he would be more trouble if they cut him off without a position, so he was titled Emperor of Elba.

He set about making Elba home, assembling 87 staff for his chosen “home” and 1700 troops to defend the island. Although having no money, he lavishly furnished his home and imported plants and trees for his private gardens. He also made changes on the island, which improved the life of the residents. In the rest of Italy today, he is despised for the pillaging of their treasures, but on Elba, the residents think of him fondly for the work he did on the island. After 10 months on Elba he did escape and 100 days later marched back into France and took over the government once more.

His home (as opposed to the summer home he also had fixed up for use when it was too hot in the city…) was located in the fort above the city and had approximately 30 rooms for Napoleon, his Mother and his sister. His wife remained in France with his son and refused to join him on Elba, although he asked her to (rumor has it she was already involved with someone else….) The following 4 pictures show some of the sights on our visit to his home.  Behind and above the harbor, there is a lovely fortified city. The first picture shows what it’s like as you wander up through the narrow streets inside the fort. The second picture is actually the upper fort, inside the fortified city, where the military and Napoleon maintained residences. We didn’t find his home (Picture 3) all that remarkable (and it’s badly in need of repair), but we were fascinated by his private “powder room” , shown in picture 4. First of all, the depth of the seat is very narrow and he was not a narrow man, so we can’t imagine sitting there would be comfortable. Secondly, doing one’s “business” before a large window seems somewhat immodest, until we learned that this was his private garden, which no one visited without permission. We did not go into what happened to anything that was deposited in the hole….

The final picture from Elba shows some of the rocky coastline.

Yesterday we visited Monaco and while we have visited before, the day was so lovely that being out and about was delightful. We toured the royal palace, which is modest on the outside, but very lavish inside, making one wonder where the Grimaldis’ acquired their wealth???? The Grimaldis’ have ruled Monaco since 1297, making them the oldest ruling family in Europe. Their kingdom encompasses a strip of land across along the Mediterranean that is 2 km long. They have the highest per capita income in the world and some of the world’s most expensive property. They are out of space and doing as much as they can to extend into the sea and inside the mountains. Taking a taxi, we went into a tunnel and found a roundabout inside the mountain! They have a treaty with France that provides them with protection and we understand that France can take over Monaco if no heirs are provided to continue the Grimaldi line. Think Albert II had better get busy.

The next 3 pictures show the changing of the guard at the palace, which occurs at 11:55 each day. Rick Steves describes the ceremony as having “all the pageantry of an important nation”. The Palace Square is mobbed for the ceremony, but seemed to disburse quickly following it.

We then had a very peaceful visit to the Cathedral, shown in the next picture, where all the Grimaldi Princes are buried, including Prince Rainier and Princess Grace.

We then had a delightful pizza lunch with our friend Laura (her husband, Jim, was working back on the ship), as the next picture shows, and slowly wandered back to our 200-passenger ship. The last photo shows our ship (on the right) sitting grandly in the harbor. Our room is on the port side, so we awoke to the gorgeous view of Monaco and the harbor and continued to enjoy the view on the back deck over breakfast. By the way, the large ship to the left of ours (and appearing slightly larger) is a private yacht.

On to the poorer regions along the French coast!