France - Provence and Monte Carlo (sort of)

Our tour from Marseille took us first into the country, to Chateau Val Joanis, for a visit to the acclaimed gardens and lunch, and then to the town of Aix-en-Provence.

Sunflower fields. The lavender is already finished for
the year - too bad.

Chateau Val Joanis now is home to a winery as well as the gardens. The land was the original home of Jean de Joanis, who was secretary to King Louis III of Naples in the early 1400s. From the mid 1700s to 1910 it sat in disrepair until it was purchased and refurbished by the Arnaud family. That family died off and the chateau was bought by the Chancel family in 1977, and they started the vineyard and winery. It was Camille Chancel who established the gardens, which have been on the register of Remarkable Gardens in France for over 10 years. The Chateau is now owned by a Dutch family who plan to make the old bastide, or gated house, into a boutique hotel once it is renovated.

A small plot planted in the traditional Provencal fashion,
not trimmed or set in rows. This isn't done in the fields
as they use a large mechanized harvester.

The gardens. French gardens don't have a lot of flowers, more hedges
and trees, and most are designed by garden architects.

After a delicious lunch of slow roasted chicken that included vegetables from the garden, we headed off to Aix-en-Provence. The town is larger than we expected, and with the tourist season in high gear, it was also quite busy. The old town centre seemed plastered with shops, stalls and umbrellas so it wasn't really all that easy to walk around. Not to mention that they seem to love motorcycles over there, and they aren't restricted like cars, so we spent some time keeping out of their way as well.

The next day in Monte Carlo we turned into an 'in port sea day'. We had been to Monte Carlo before and, although some of our fellow passengers had said a trip to Eze and some of the other towns nearby to see 'how the other half lives' would be a nice day, we needed the break. Obviously, even that break wasn't enough as we are writing these blog posts from home at the end of the trip! We did, however, take some photos of the yachts and of Monte Carlo.

We also had taken some photos of our Oceania Suite when we boarded, so we thought we'd include them here. Now, just because we didn't go anywhere didn't mean we did nothing. After breakfast at Waves Grill on the pool deck, we did our 2 mile walk on the jogging track, spent 45 minutes in the gym, and then hit the pool for half an hour. So we felt we deserved an afternoon of not doing too much. We did, however, work on the blog.

Looking in from the entrance.

The Media Room - TV with Blu-ray player, huge selection
of music and a video game console.

Bedroom with sliding door to the Jacuzzi on the balcony.

This bathroom was huge!

The balcony. A very comfortable spot both
during the day in port and at sea.

Dining area and wet bar. We did have breakfast en suite one
morning and it was nice to have all the room.

We deserved to relax a bit after the tours and our morning of
exercise.

We haven't mentioned the specialty restaurants on the ship yet. There are four of them, providing a real variety at a level of quality and service that is every bit as good as our experience with Crystal. We were given two reservations in each one, and our butler suggested that we book them on the first day and make alterations later if we needed them, since it would be almost impossible to make reservations later on. The restaurants were: Toscana, obviously Italian; the Polo Grill, a steakhouse; Red Ginger, Asian; and Jacques, the French Bistro that features dishes of Jacques Pepin, who is the Culinary Master for the line.

 

Monte Carlo - it seems that all they do is build one
apartment tower after another here. Where do they
find all the people to buy them?

A few of the private yachts around the
harbour.

Larry working on the blog

So we hoped we would be ready for the next two days of long tours in Italy, and an early morning on Sunday for the flight home.

More Spain - Ibiza and Barcelona

Our first all-day tour was the island of Ibiza. We had always heard so much about it and how popular it is as a tourist destination for northern Europeans, so we thought we'd look the whole place over. Our day included a stop for traditional paella lunch in one of the small towns.

As in all of our previous stops, it was a very hot and humid day; not that we were complaining, but it becomes rather draining with the out-of-the-bus, walk around to see sights and take photos, get a little free time, back-in-the-bus schedule. When we both had sweat running down our faces from only a half-hour stroll, it was a bit much.

Ibiza is the smallest of the Balearic Islands, which also include Mallorca and Minorca. Oddly enough, the tourist season here is from mid-May to mid-October, as they do get cooler weather in winter. Because it is a small island, the Mediterranean Sea regulates the temperature but it does drop to 6-10 degrees C during winter and is then also quite damp. There is very rarely any snow on Ibiza, but Mallorca does get enough to have a ski season so all the winter vacationers go there instead. Tourism is pretty much the only industry on Ibiza, so our guide explained that almost everybody works long days, sometimes multiple jobs, during the season and has to make enough to get them through the winter.

Ibiza is known for beaches and partying, and that was certainly evident on our tour. We stopped in a number of small towns, and they were all bustling except for the artists' village of St. Gertrudis which, being up in the central hills, was very quiet. All of the seaside towns were full of tourists, a lot of them British, trying to get away from their iffy summer weather. There are some towns that were predominantly built up independently by British and German tourists, and they each still have their own different ambience even though there isn't the same separation any more. The best way to describe the day was;  "go to a small town, look at the beach, got to another small town look at the beach, go to another small town, look at the beach and have lunch, etc, etc, etc...." .

The salt flats. Ibiza produces up to 700,000 kilos of natural
sea salt every year. The only other industry on the island.

A small beach near Ibiza Town, so called to differentiate
it from the island.

The countryside up in the hills.

This 'egg' has a sculpture of one of Columbus's ships
inside...Ibiza is just one of multiple places that claim
to be his birthplace. Too bad he never wrote it down
anywhere.

Our paella lunch. Was OK - not the greatest we've ever had,
but not bad

The latest water toy - a paddle boat that looks like a car,
with a slide on top. No, we are not getting one for the pool!

Back in Ibiza Town. The harbour, and the old town on
top of the hill.

Not the best picture, but this condo building has different colours
on the balconies and in the flowers for each level. Also quite
the price tag, as it comes with a yacht berth and a few other perks.
Apparently Shakira would be one of your neighbours if
you bought here.

After another pleasant evening on the ship, Tuesday morning found us in Barcelona, where we awoke to a most unusual (for this trip) sight, overcast skies!!!! The first clouds we had seen since leaving Lisbon a week ago! Still plenty warm and humid though, and the clouds burned off rather quickly.

Our tour was Gaudi's Barcelona and the Colony of Guell. Antonio Gaudi was the most prominent Spanish architect of his time and designed many buildings in his unique style, including what is probably the strangest looking church in the world, La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona. Our tour started with a drive out of the city itself and into the surrounding hills to Colonia Guell. In the late 19th Century the Spanish industrialist Eusabi Guell established the "colony" as a new location for his family textile business and commissioned his friend Gaudi to design the buildings. The complex included his factory, housing, a church and theatre for his workers and was located well outside of Barcelona and away from the unrest of the period and the "socialist" unions that were beginning to spring up in an effort to improve the abysmal working conditions of the time. His thinking was happy workers would be more productive workers, and by all accounts his factory prospered.

Gaudi's designs are famous for his use of flowing lines and natural shapes, there are almost no straight lines in any of his buildings. He also believed in using natural stone and wood, and using whatever material was close to hand. He also believed bigger is better, so most of his buildings are huge! The church he designed in Guell was to be very large, but unfortunately for Gaudi, his benefactor Guell died when the church was only partially built, and his family, tired of subsidizing Gaudi's design fantasies, stopped work where it was. To this day partially completed columns and stone work sit where they were left in a field beside the church. The church as it is today was actually supposed to be the "basement" and crypt of the larger church, and as you can see from the pictures, the design and materials are unusual.

Above the church door. The only Gaudi ceramic mosaic we saw.

The stained glass windows with ceramics. Gaudi was
ahead of his time - the larger windows actually opened
in sections as well.

Inside the church at Colonia Guell. Looks
fantastically different.

No, there was nothing wrong with the camera - that post IS crooked!
Remember Gaudi had a real dislike of straight lines anywhere.

The main square in the colony. Guell's statue stands in
the centre.

Gaudi moved on from Guell and took over the planning and design for a grand, new church already being built in Barcelona, the Sagrada Familia, or Sacred Family, or as Larry refers to it, "the ugliest church in the world"! To achieve his natural lines, Gaudi actually used gravity in his planning process. He would suspend light chains from the ceiling and adjust them until he achieved the look he wanted. We actually saw the model he used for the church in Guell, the chains hung over a mirror so you see the "finished product", which is about the only way to "see" the finished product.

The Guell church, hanging from the ceiling....

...and through the mirror. The black chains on
the inside show the actual structure that was built;
the rest was what he had designed. Over the top,
or what??

La Sagrada Familia has been under construction for over 100 years!!!!!! They are hoping to have everything complete for 2026, which would the 100th anniversary of Gaudi's death! Somewhat appropriately, he died in front of the church when he was hit by a truck as he looked up studying the work!!! Since Gaudi's design includes 18 towers, one of them 172 metres high, and so far only eight have been built, there is much doubt that the 2026 date is realistic.

Three sides of the church depict the life of Christ, with one side representing the Nativity, the opposite side the Crucifixion (these sides are mostly complete) and a third side Glory. That side is a blank wall at the moment and would include the main entrance to church at the top of a grand stairway. Of course, as our guide pointed out, completing that side will require destroying the apartment blocks and stores/businesses in a four block area to accommodate the stairs alone! He doesn't see it happening, and if it ever did, it would take until at least 2050 to finish construction!

They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so behold the pictures below and you decide!

Gaudi's original work. The part to the lower right was the original
gothic style church that was already under construction when
he took it over. He finished that and then started with
his own design.

The Crucifixion side - we mentioned the last time we saw
it that some of the Roman soldiers look like
Imperial Stormtroopers from Star Wars.

On the right, the house that Gaudi designed, which is
now an art museum. Apparently he also
didn't use any straight lines on the inside.

This was again a Gaudi design; a private house that is now a
hotel.

The one thing that Monica wanted to see was the place that ALL of the cruise lines show for Barcelona in their brochures - the Park Guell. This was also designed by Gaudi, and features his mosaics in the forms of walls, benches, animal figures and the like. It looks like it should be quite spectacular. The problem is that the park authorities are very strict on ticket sales and capacity control. You have to purchase tickets 2 or 3 days in advance, and there are no refunds for unused tickets, so the cruise lines and their tour companies don't take shore excursions there. The cruise lines should all have photos of La Sagrada Familia instead - they never miss that! Oh, well, another reason to come back to Barcelona.