Days 1-3: Travels, "Voyager of the Seas" and a Day at Sea

Well, gentle readers, here I sit, in our den, to begin the tale of our Mediterranean adventure.  To do our story justice, I have decided to tell you of our journey in chapters, so let us begin!

(Editor's Note: I finished writing this post and I realized I might have gotten a bit wordy, however, for those of you with shorter attention spans, or busy lives, feel free to just scan the pictures - we took almost 500, so there should be lots to see each post!)

Day 1: Travels

We left on Friday, June 18, on a 12:30 flight to Dallas, which left us plenty of time in the morning for some last minute errands to pick up some Euros, buy a few more tour books, clean up the house, etc. Our flights to Dallas and Madrid were pain free, albeit long. Here is David, waiting at the gate in Dallas:

Unfortunately, we missed our connection from Madrid to Barcelona, and after being shuffled from the American Airlines counter, to the Iberia (local operator's) counter, and trekking around the Madrid airport with all of our luggage, we managed to get booked on a later flight.  We had planned to arrive in Barcelona on Saturday morning and have a full day to tour, before leaving on the ship, Sunday morning, however, our earlier flights were ultimately to ensure we made it on the ship in time, which we did, so mission accomplished.  With the delays we got to our hotel in central Barcelona around 5:30 in the afternoon.  We dropped our bags, and did some sight-seeing near our hotel.

A few months ago, I had read this book (which is a fantastic, fun, fast read):

(Editor's Note: So I have taken to re-reading my posts before I post them to fix typos, spelling errors, etc., and I just realized that the above statement is overtly alliterative - but I feel that all three adjectives properly describe the book, and thus felt compelled to leave it unchanged.)

Which describes the antics of a gentleman by the name of Michael Tonello, who moves to Barcelona and buys and sells Hermes products on eBay.  As we wandered the city streets, we came upon the Hermes store often mentioned in the book.  Unfortunately it was closed both this evening and when we returned a week later, but here I am:

Interestingly, we happened upon at least three more Hermes stores in various cities, most of which were frequented by Michael Tonello!

After a quiet dinner at a lovely restaurant, complete with a fantastic bottle of wine, we called it a night.

Day 2: Voyager of the Seas

The next morning we had breakfast at the hotel, which included chocolate croissants (my favorite!) and various cured meats and cheeses (along with more traditional American breakfast items such as toast, eggs, sausage, etc.)  We then took a cab to the port, where we saw our ship for the first time:

(Editors Note: This picture was actually taken several days later in France, but seemed to fit well here for story-telling purposes, so please forgive my lack of sequential order.)

We boarded the ship (a much simpler process than we had feared) and had a delicious lunch in the "Windjammer Cafe" - the main buffet dining room on board.  We spent the rest of the day exploring the ship, booking a spa appointment for our Day at Sea, and settling into our state room.  The following is a picture looking from the ship's deck out onto the city of Barcelona before our departure:

For those of you who have cruised, we were in a standard interior stateroom with a king sized bed.  We had both been concerned that the room would feel too cramped - but it was really quite nice and well set up.  We had a delightful stateroom attendant in our hall, Eniko, who made up our room each day and did the most wonderful towel-animal creations such as this elephant:

Here I am, frightened (or perhaps preparing to attack) either a bat or a pterodactyl (a debate between David and I that still continues):

A pig:

David posing with a monkey on his shoulder:

Lounging with a pensive pig:

For dinner each night, we ate at the second seating (9:00) in the main dining room with two other couples, a British couple in their late 30s or early 40s who we enjoyed quite a bit, and an older couple (late 50s perhaps) from California.  In the interest of full disclosure, I will tell you that on more than one occasion we went to the buffet dining room at 6:30 when it opened to have a pre-dinner or early dessert.  Seriously guys, the food was awesome.

The first night had very high seas, but fortunately both David and I did just fine (the same sadly cannot be said for a good deal of the ship).  Other than rolling around a bit in bed - we slept wonderfully each night - since we had an interior stateroom, there was absolutely no light in the mornings.

Day 3: Day at Sea

On our day at sea, I got up early for a spa appointment consisting of a facial, eye and neck firming treatment and massage - it was HEAVENLY.

We did end up switching to swim suits and visiting the hot tubs and lounge chairs again in the afternoon.

I also tried my hand at $1 Single-Deck Black Jack and managed to double my initial investment the first time at the table (sadly a few nights later, I lost about 75% of my previous winnings - and then decided to call it quits while I was still mildly ahead).

And that is were we shall leave our story until tomorrow, but I will leave you with a little teaser for tomorrow's tale.

The Isle of Capri...