Gibraltar

On Saturday, July 1, 2017, we awake at the “Rock”, Gibraltar. We relax on board the ship until noon, and then take a tour with 6 other passengers to see the highlights of this very British mountain. We see the lighthouse overlooking the Mediterranean and Africa, the natural St. Michaels cave used by the Allies in WWII but now a concert venue. We drive to the top then see the siege tunnels on the north overlooking the steep cliff down to Spain and the filled in area that made Gibraltar from and island to a peninsula and that now holds the airport (the road runs across the runway so traffic has to be stopped to allow planes to takeoff and land.) We are dropped off at the main square then walk back to the boat.

Almeria, Spain

We wake up in Almeria, and we have planned absolutely nothing for the day. After a late breakfast, we take the shuttle bus into town, which is very much like Alicante with an ancient fort on a hill overlooking the Mediterranean town), walk by the cathedral, quickly visit the local photographic institute and then wander down the seafront promenade. We take the bus back to the ship, have lunch, and then Kathy enjoys the afternoon at the pool while Kurt reads. We enjoy dinner at the Polo Grill (steakhouse!).

Alicante, Spain

Thursday morning the 29^th and we awake in Alicante. We board a shuttle bus for the quick drive to the city center, and wander around lost until we turn on the phone’s GPS to get us to Alicante Segway Tours. We get some instruction in how to drive the Segway (and we both have to get used to using our feet for balance and just use our arms to turn the Segway) and together with a young couple from Brighton in the UK we are off on our Segway tour with our guide Nicolas. We Segway (not sure if drive is the right verb?) down along the beachfront promenade and soon get used to Segwaying through the crowds of pedestrians. We then head up through the old town (Alicante has been occupied constantly for over 2000 years!) and up the hill to the castle (fort) overlooking the city. We enjoy the view and then Segway down the hill. After the tour, Nicolas drops us off at the Taberna Iberica where Ramon serves us a glorious meal of local hams, tapas (croquettes of vegetables, and ham and cheese) followed by a chicken paella and a desert of tiramisu. Another great meal and we walk back to the port for the short bus ride to the ship. Kurt relaxes in the room reading while Kathy heads to the pool for some sun. We enjoy dinner at Jacques’, the French restaurant on board and head back to the room.

Barcelona

We still hadn’t recovered from jet lag and our sicknesses so spent another fitful night. Up too early on Tuesday, June 27, we drove to the airport and caught an 8 AM flight (KLM again) from Amsterdam to Barcelona. We had seen a lot of the city our last visit and so just walked the neighborhood where our hotel, the NH Barcelona Centro, was located. We ate a great tapas meal at the Bilbao near our hotel and then had dinner at Tucco, the same Italian restaurant tucked away in an alley we discovered on our last trip. Each of the two meals we had on Tuesday in Barcelona far outclassed what we could find in the Netherlands. Unfortunately, jet lag and sickness continues for us both, Kurt sleeping from 9 PM until 3 AM and Kathy only sleeping from 3 AM until 7:30 AM. We stayed in the room all morning then left the hotel at noon for the harbor.

Waterland

Unfortunately for both Kurt and Kathy, a fitful night’s sleep from jet lag, exacerbated by the ear infection and cold, followed. On Sunday, June 25, we got in the car and drove through the “waterland” northeast of the city. First we visited Edam, a quaint village where we parked the car, shopped for some of its namesake cheese, wandered about enjoying the relatively few tourists amongst its canals and flowers. The local church bells rang and we followed the parishioners to Sunday worship then wandered back to the car. From there we drove to Manker, an even quainter village but with more tourists. From there we went to Volendam, less quaint and overrun with tourists. We ate at a little restaurant overlooking the harbor and drove back to Amsterdam. We wandered about a bit more and had dinner at. Our hotel is in the old city center which is now seemingly overtaken by tourists seeking alcohol, drugs and prostitution.

On Monday, Kurt walked to his conference (why we came to Amsterdam first) while Kathy did a bit of shopping and relaxing. We then wandered a bit more and did a quick canal boat tour. We had dinner at an Argentinian steakhouse. Honestly, we never did find a single meal in Amsterdam that we enjoyed. We will have to look harder for good food there next time.