Genteel Genoa

On the 27th of October we awoke to a grey morning. The sea the night before wasn't as smooth as it had been since the beginning of the cruise but Mrs. Gym had not been bothered by the slight roll that the ship had developed since leaving Monaco.

We anchored just outside of Portofino, Italy. The pastel-colored fishing village seated against the backdrop of the terraced green hills looked familiar to me. I think this little coastal town was the subject of one or more of my mother's oil paintings. We would tender into this little port to start our journey to Genoa.

Unfortunately, it wasn't just a matter of getting on a bus in Portofino and riding to Genoa. We first had to get on another boat to travel the few kilometres to Santa Marguarita Ligura and then jump on a bus to drive to Genoa. The reason for this is that the very narrow and windy roads from Portofino to Santa Marguarita Ligura were not safely accessible to buses. These roads would never be widened either because the area is protected. Portofino Natural Park has been set aside as a nature preserve since 1935 and is now a Unesco World Heritage site.

Today, we would visit three former palaces on Via Garibaldi in the oldest part of Genoa. Each of these  palaces were the homes of very wealthy families in Genoa built in the 16th and 17th Centuries. In each case these palaces have passed from private ownership to municipal property. They are all massive structures containing enormous rooms.  The oldest of the three are Palazzo Bianco finished in 1540 and Palazzo Tursi finished in 1565. Palazzo Rosso was finished in the 1670's. Together the three palaces make up the Musei di Strada Nuova.  Each palace is full of priceless art. We saw art by artists such as Ruebens, Van Dyck, Caravaggio, Veronese and Guercino. We would also see a priceless musical instument called Il Cannone (a violin).

We ate lunch at L'atelier Dei Sapori Liguri not far from Piazza Raffaele de Ferrari. It specialized in Italian food prepared in the Ligurian fashion. I ordered a Minestrone Soup that was more like a stew than a soup but it was delicious and very filling. Mrs. Gym had a tortellini dish with pumpkin and a very strong cheese sauce and she loved it. The area is famous for its bread and claims to be where focaccia originated.

We are getting lots of exercise. Our tours are averaging 5.4 kilometres of walking every day and we are doing doing lots stairs in the ship (we try to avoid the elevators). We have also used the state-of-the-art fitness centre on this ship.

Today, I was on the elliptical beside the Captain whom I had met the previous night at a cocktail party. I was glad to see him there and not philandering and partying all the time. This is because he joked about the Costa Concordia affair at the party and I have to believe he takes his job seriously because I don't want to get my iPhone wet. I hear that they are a bitch to dry out.

Portofino from the ship

getting closer to the quait seaside village of Portofino on a ship's tender

multi-level terraced garden

Santa Marguarita Ligura

the narrow streets of Genoa

Palazzo Rosso

frescos on the ceilings except where there was WW2 bomb damage

it is hard to see here but this is a combination of fresco and sculpture where
the angels leg comes out of the fresco in 3-D

a masterpiece by Van Dyck

a bedroom in one of the palaces where you can see a servant's
door which is well camouflaged in the back corner

Jesus on the left is being mocked by Pontius Pilote. The face of Pontius
Pilot is said to be that of Galileo who had been excommunicated for
declaring that  the world revolved around the sun and not visa versa. It was
then OK to use his caricature in this way. This is a Van Dyck.

There was a good story here but Gym couldn't hear the guide

the Cannone violin was made by Giuseppi Antonio Guarneri and played by
Niccolo Paganini for most of his life because of its unique power and resonence

Giuseppe Geribaldi (1807-1882) played an important role in the
history of modern Italy.

Piazza Raffaele De Ferrari Square in Genoa

Monaco the Microstate

On October 26, 2015 we sailed on calm seas into Monaco and grabbed the only inside mooring for cruise ships, on the pier that juts out from "The Rock". We parked very close beside the royal yacht. This meant we were literally walking distance from the Palace where Prince Albert II hangs his hat. We would however board a bus to see all of this microstate before returning to The Rock to see where the Prince's mom and dad were buried, his sister's house's were located and other key parts of the principality exist.

Monaco has an area of 2.02 square kilometres and is the second smallest and most densely populated country in the world. Only the Vatican is smaller. Other facts that I took note of are that Monaco has the highest GDP per capita, the lowest poverty rate at 2% and the highest number of millionaires and billionaires per capita of any country in the world. There is currently a condo for sale in the Odeon that is listed for 300 million Euros. Its on the internet, check it out.

Our tour bus took us to the highest point in the country to our first stop, just outside of the Jardin Exotic of Monaco. This is a cactus and succulant plant garden that is planted on a cliffside that ranges in altitude from 40 to 98 metres above sea level and at the entrance one is afforded an excellent vantage point of the whole country.

We then descended to the Monte Carlo district and made our way to the Le Grand Casino de Monte Carlo. Part of the route was on the famous Formula One track that is meticulously re-paved each year to keep it perfectly smooth. To humour us the bus driver did a brake stand at the pole position. Then we parked not far from the tunnel that passes beneath the Fairmont Monte Carlo, the hotel in front of Le Grand Casino. From there we walked up to the front door of the casino and were able to tour the inside for ten Euros before it opened to the gamblers.

We left the district of Monte Carlo to go up to the Rock. Again we would park below and ascend to the street level but this time by a series of elevators and escalators that would bring us up near where Princess Caroline's house is located. We would tour the Cathedral of our Lady of Immaculate Conception where Prince Rainier III and Grace Kelly's tomb's are located and then stroll by the country's Supreme Court and its administrative buildings. Eventually we would get to the square in front of the Prince's Palace of Monaco. Mrs. Gym and I then toured the part of the palace that was oen to the public.

We returned to the ship for a late lunch and a nap.

We left Monaco and our prime mooring at 11 pm. There was a bit of a blow coming from the direction of Italy and we were headed straight into it. I was concerned for Mrs. Gym.

The next morning, we would be in Italy.

pulling into our great parking spot

Pince's Palace from the ship

from the highest point in Monaco, we look down on
some of the newer construction, an apartment building

we also can look down at the area where the Formula One race is held

this looks down at the Jardin Exotic where you can see all the
cacti growing on the cliffside

the famous hairpin below the Grand Casino

inside the grand casino (you have seen this interior in more
than one James Bond

it was nice to tour this before it opened for gambling

a beautiful room marred only by all the cameras

the lobby

the front door of the Grand Casino

Hotel De Paris, across the street from the Grand Casino

outside the Cathedral of Our Lady of Immaculate Conception

The tomb of Grace Kelly

the tomb of Prince Rainier

The Prince's Palace of Monaco

color guard

the Palace at night

Sur le Pont d'Avignon

The title of this post is the first line to that popular French children's song that was pounded into my subconsciousness when we first started to take French in school. It came out when I reviewed the list of tours that were possible for this trip. I had to go to Avignon! I had to see the bridge and as it turned out, my desire to see le pont led us to explore one of the only cities in France that still retained its medieval ramparts and a city that was the seat of seven Catholic popes during a time in history when the Vatican was not a very safe place. This tour also took me into the Cote d'Rhone wine region with Avignon only a few kilometres from the town of Chateauneuf-du-Pape.

We awoke the morning of October 25th, 2015, as the ship was slowly pulling into the port of Marseilles. We had gained an hour overnight so we had made it to the port on time, in spite of the helicopter evacuation that slowed us down coming out of Majorca. Although there is probably many things to see right in Marseille we headed north up the Rhone river to our destination, in a medium-quality motor coach. It is about an hour's drive north on a good motorway and once you get away from Marseille a bit the valley greens up and near Avignon you enter wine country.

After arriving in town we circled the old walled city and passed under the famous Pont Saint-Benezet that inspired the song about dancing under the bridge. We then parked the bus just 200 meters or so to the south of where we had passed under the bridge. The bridge itself is not a bridge anymore as only 4 of the original 22 stone arches remain intact. The bridge was originally built of wood between 1177 and 1185 and that original structure was destroyed and replaced by the more modern stone bridge with the roman arches. The 22 arches only lasted until 1669 when a massive flood took the bridge out for good.

We entered the ramparts through the Port De L'Oulle. This is the main western entrance nearest to Pont Saint-Beezet. We then strolled through the narrow streets to the Place De L'Horloge which is in front of city hall. That was our meeting point for the return journey. We then toured around the Pope's Palace and the Centre de Congres, where papal succession was voted on. Subsequently, we climbed up past the Notre Dame Cathedral which is attached to the palace and visited the papal gardens, Rocher des Dom. The guide was very informative and then took us back by a different route to the meeting place where we had some free time before finding our way back to the bus for the return journey.

Our guide provided us with a lot of anecdotes and information dealing with the history of Avignon's time as the seat of the popes but the story that caught my imagination the most was the story of how the first Avignon Pope, Clement V, helped suppress the Templar Knights and stood by, while the King of France, Philip IV, tried to steal that order's wealth. The Templars were the defenders of the Holy Land. They protected the holy sites with their lives for 200 years. Unfortunately, with the donations they received from western European Catholics they became wealthy and it was this wealth that was what 'Philip the Fair' was interested in. The King laid down charges  against the Templars and used torture to make it stick. Hundreds of Templars ended up burning at the stake and the pope did not really do much to prevent it. In the end the Pope abolished the order. Fortunately, Philip did not get any of the wealth because the pope ordered that another religious order get the assets (the Hospitallers gradually got everything). On the way back to Marseille we passed a former Castle of the Templars which is now private property.

We re-boarded the ship and soon set out to sea. The sea continued to be calm all night.

the last 4 arches of Pont St. Benezet

the Ramparts of the Old City and the Port L'Oulle

the square in front of City Hall

the Pope's Palace with the cathedral and gardens on the far left

Our guide, Jose, leading us up to the Pope's garden

Notre Dame Cathedral

Mrs. Gym in front of a very skinny apartment

Chateauneuf du Pape

Made Majorca

Today, I couldn't stop singing Ringo Starr's, "No, no, no song" in my head. And of course, the reason for that is that in the song, a woman that he knows just came from Majorca, Spain; with a 10 pound bag of cocaine. We did not meet that woman today and cocaine was no where in evidence that I could see.

Majorca is nothing like it probably was 30 years ago. Today it looks like the Mediterranean's answer to Honolulu. In fact tourism is a bigger industry here than in Honolulu. The airport on Majorca was more than two times as busy as Honolulu's airport in 2014. I sure did not expect that to be the case. But when your ship is tied up in front of the sweeping panorama of the Palma de Majorca waterfront you can see what looks like hotels and condos for kilometres. Many Spanish working class people holiday on the island and so do many British, French and Scandinavian people. In addition, Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta Jones, Richard Branson and Pierce Brosnan all have a home on the island.

We opted to skip the capital city, although I regret not seeing the Wellver Castle and La Seu Cathedral. We ended up circling behind the city and crossing the mountains that frame the city to see some beautiful coastal villages where current celebrities all hang out and where historic celebrities like Frederic Chopin spent time.

We would ride a narrow-gauge, electric train over the mountains to Soller and explore that beautiful town and then get on a tour bus to make our way over to Valldermossa where Chopin hung out. In between, we would pass through the area where Richard Branson has a high-end Inn and see the house that Pierce Brosnan just built, about a year ago. We didn't see any celebs in person though.

One of the most interesting parts of the tour was the explanation of how the residents of these very dry areas collect water in huge cisterns below their houses. No rain that falls on their roofs runs into the gutter unless the cisterns are full. A sturdy tile roof catches the infrequent rain and it runs down drainpipes into the basement where it is stored until required. The water they collect is used for almost 100% of their daily needs. This is a necessity because there is no fresh water on the island; no lakes and no rivers. The other cool thing is that the entire island seems to be farmed in some way and this is in spite of the fact that the whole place is steep, rocky and inhospitable for modern agricultural practices. For centuries though, the inhabitants have grown olives, citrus fruit and other fruits and vegetables on narrow terraces that are separated by rock retaining walls, all built by hand and all enduring centuries of use by Majorcans.

Tonight, there was some big excitement on board as a guest required a helicopter airlift off the deck beside the running track. I couldn't get close but I witnessed the emergency personnel rappel out of the helicopter to affix a line to the stretcher that was then hoisted up into the aircraft which then flew back to the island. This drama was preceded by a Code Mike announcement over the public address system. This is the second time Mrs. Gym and I have experienced a Code Mike. In 2013, we missed Pitcairn Island because another Code Mike was called on the M/s Marina and we had to haul ass to Easter Island so a lady with a broken hip could fly home. This time we haven't missed anything but we are set back two hours while the rescue took place and our tours tomorrow out of Marseille may be delayed. That's Ok though because Mrs. Gym and I are tired and could use an extra hour of rest.

On to the south of France and tomorrow another song will be playing in my head. This song, I have known since childhood. I will tell you more about that tomorrow. Good night for now.

Wellver Castle sitting above Palma

Palma from the ship

La Sue Cathedral, Palma

The narrow-gauge electric trains that would take us 27 kilometres
through 17 tunnels to Soller. One of the tunnels is almost 3 kms. The line is called the
Ferrocarril de Soller

These train were made in Britain and are well maintained

Soller from the train which entered the valley high above

Saint Bartomeu Church in Soller

After boarding the bus in Soller we drove along the windy
coastal road and took in the sights

 Lluc-Alcari, a honeymoon spot hanging on the cliffs above the sea between
Soller and Valldemossa. This is near Deia, where Branson has a small but very
exclusive Inn. It is also near where Bronsan built his shack.

We had a real Majorcan lunch here in this establishment in
Valldemossa. The meal was excellent.

The garden of the priory where Chopin holed up
for a couple of years in Valldemossa

slightly larger than life-size likenesses of Chopin and his
girlfriend in the priory

Chopin's piano where he developed some of his masterpieces.
Mrs. Gym got this shot off before the buildings security rushed into
the room and told us there were to be no photos in this room.
Kudos!

The valley below Valldemossa - note the terraces

This is a shot of the priory where Chopin stayed

the valley below

another shot of Valldemossa from the road back to Palma