Honeymoon Hijinks

The cruise was F.A.B.U.L.O.U.S. We were on the Norwegian Gem which is their newest ship -- only one year old. We had a mini-suite with a balcony and I was surprised at how big the bathroom was (we even had a tub!) and how much storage room we had. There were 10 restaurants and 11 bars on board and we only ate in the main diningroom once for dinner. We didn't like it. It was too big and the staff were too harried to make the evening pleasant. They were just moving people in and out of there as fast as they could.

As a result, we opted for the specialty restaurants: Mexican, French, Italian, Asian and Steakhouse. We ate at the Mexican restaurant twice we liked it so much! We ate at the Steakhouse for my birthday and it was really, really nice. They even had a cake for me (which we never ate). We also had brunch at the French restaurant (as well as dinner one night) and it was excellent. We had to pay an extra cover charge for the specialty restaurants ($10 to $15 per person) but it was worth it for the intimacy and the very attentive service.

We went to an art auction our only day at sea (the first day) and bought two prints which are being shipped to us in the next month or so. We didn't buy any jewellery or anything else on board except for booze and internet. I bought a few things for myself -- a silver filagreed Maltese cross in Malta, a Murano glass heart necklace in Nice (cheaper than in Italy!), a Barcelona ball cap, Herbes de Provence and Olive soap in Nice, pasta spices in Sorrento (Rob bought himself a new belt). We didn't go too crazy buying stuff because we were pretty close to our luggage allowance coming over and didn't want to go exceed the amount and pay extra baggage charges going back.

Our trips off the ship were great! We booked private tours in Malta and in Naples. The tour guide in Malta, Flora, was wonderful. The tour guide in Naples, Massimo, was a bit of a joke because neither of us could understand him -- his accent was so strong! LOL He took us to Positano and Sorrento, which were lovely and we skipped Naples altogether as we hadn't heard anything good about it at all.

Rome on our own was amazing! We took the train from the station which was about a 10 minute walk from the port. The trip took 50 minutes and then we grabbed a taxi to the Coliseum. The price of the train was €37 and the taxi was €15. The entrance fee to the Coliseum and Forum was €9 Euros each so we did the whole day for around $100 CDN. The cruise ship wanted almost $300US each for the same type of trip on a bus which would have been slower. We did the same thing in Villefranche and caught the local bus into Nice for €1 each way.

The hotel in Barcelona for our first night (Hotel 1898) was incredible and we loved it there! It was right on Las Ramblas which we walked a lot. The apartment in Barcelona was a little shabby but in a great location. We walked everywhere and saw a lot of sights: Palau de la Musica, La Sagrada Familia, Parc Guell, Barceloneta (the beach!) and Plaza Catalunya. We even went into a big department store called "El Cortes de Ingles". I would like to go back to Barcelona and stay closer to Las Ramblas. It is a beautiful city and the public transportation works very well.

By the time we got to Amsterdam, I was ready to come home. Living out of a suitcase is not my idea of fun and there were just too many flights for my liking but we had nice weather and the apartment was better than Barcelona so we walked around quite a bit and got a nice feeling from Amsterdam. I don't know if we will ever go back but maybe. We didn't go to any of the museums so that is something that I would like to do eventually. There are bicyclists EVERYWHERE there and I found that a bit of a pain in the ass, trying not to get run over by them all the time. On our last night, we had dinner in a really cheerful Tapas restaurant right around the corner from where we were staying so that was definitely a highlight.

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