Wheels on the Go

Time to go shopping! I am on the search for 2 things – leather gloves at a store my friend Leah recommended and merino wool from Italy. The leather glove store is near the Spanish Steps so we will give seeing them again and another try! The knitting store that I found is in the Jewish District of Rome, which I understand is pretty interesting so that is our next stop on our shopping day! Allons-y! So off we walked to the Spanish Steps and voila! We could see them from the top this time! Very cool view from the balcony – there is a 2nd tier balcony about 20 steps down and then the actual steps down to the bottom, however we are going to take a different way down – I hope! Sidebar – on May 10th, an “out of town tourist” drove a Maserati down the Spanish Steps. No idea how he managed to take the “wrong turn” that he said he did. That was some strange driving! They were repaired by the time we saw them on the 12th. So instead of going down to the street the way we did the other way (lets call that the long way) we took the shorter route this time – a VERY steep road that goes up right next to the Spanish Steps! Boy was I glad we were going down it! At the bottom I started looking for the gloves shop as it was right on the main boulevard. Low and behold – it is now a jewelry store! That does not happen very often I am told – families own stores for decades. We had walked past a glove store about 10 stores back so we returned there and asked the gentleman about where the store Leah recommended might be and it closed 2 years ago and the man retired. So saying I was in a glove store and it smelled fantastic, I decided to buy my gloves there! Just as Leah had mentioned – they look at your hands, squeeze your fingers and go get you your gloves! Normally, women are helped upstairs on the 2nd floor by the “madam” however that was not happening for me in this small store so they brought the gloves to me! They put baby powder on my hands (they were a bit sweaty from my walker) and on they went like a glove (no pun intended)! WOW – they feel like butter on my hands! SOLD! While in the store, Andrew found the taxi stand and we were off this time to the Jewish neighbourhood. We arrived right when the wool store had closed for their “siesta” time so we walked around, had a beverage, checked out a textile store (their prices in Euros are the same as I would pay in Canada – such as $10 CDN for cotton is 10 Euros for cotton) and then the Wool shop opened. The lady spoke no English. With my very basic Italian, I was able to pick up 10 burgundy and 8 lilac 50g sport weight yarn and 3 mohair burgundy 100g fingerling weight yarn, all made in Italy and all beautiful for 100 Euros! We then walked, as we were nearby to the Ponte Fabricio, which is a pedestrian bridge that crosses the Tiber river onto a small island where there is a church. We were planning on going to the Trastevere neighbourhood for dinner which is where the next bridge off the island takes one too. However we found that the restaurants would not be opening to 7:30pm which was another hour and a half, and as it was our last night in Rome, and it was a nice night, I wanted to get a sunset picture of the Coliseum. So instead looking on my phone (I got a cheap European phone and SIM before we left so I could use it for driving directions and situations like this) there was a bus stop nearby that a single bus ride would take us to the Coliseum. How hard could that be – the busses do have wheelchair signs on them! Alas, I am still hurting from the bus ride several days later! We took the 118 bus and I went to the back door where the wheelchair sign is and the ramp did not come down. I know that the bus driver saw me as I had signaled him to stop as I had seen others do. The step up to the bus was about 3 feet high. I did not know what to do so Andrew put my walker on the bus and grabbed me and yanked me onto the bus as a lady in Italian yelled at the bus driver to stop (he had started moving the bus) as there was a disabled person getting on. Yikes! No wonder the concierge told me not to try the busses! I sat in the accessible location and buzzed the wheelchair buzzer when we needed to get off (you would think that would be a signal for the ramp??? But no, I had to fly on my magic carpet off the bus and Andrew basically had to catch me. Enough said. No more busses! At the coliseum, we hung around for a while and took some pictures – Andrew got a great one using my old phone and then we went across the street to a “natural” restaurant where on top of GF pasta they had GF pizza too and to top it off – GLUTEN FREE Tiramisu! I was in heaven! Comments on pictures to come very soon!

Another tour I had been looking forward to after our “Coliseum at Night” tour was cancelled on Sunday night. I am perplexed how so many centuries ago that the Romans and other countrymen could build such structures so high in the air! Let’s get started! Our day started early – we had to be at the Parthenon again at 10am. The people of Rome are not an early bunch – you can definitely separate the tourists to the city dwellers at that time of the morning! Even our taxi driver I do not think was awake! We got to the Pantheon, had a bit of an issue with our tickets (they did not get the note that I had written on my booking that I use a walker) as the guide did not know what to do, however I was prepared and had read up about taking the elevator in the Coliseum so I thought we would be okay. She gave us a tour of the Pantheon, which was great and filled in some holes of information that we had from the previous day. Then we walked to the edge of the International Forum – which is connected to the Roman Forum. Elevator to go down here – check! Everyone went down the 40+ steps to the underground and the guide sent security to assist me with the elevator. It would go up and down no problem – with somone in it? NOPE! So I had to walk down the stairs, with Andrew’s assistance. It was very painful after our previous 2 days of escapades! The tour leader assured me that everything else would be accessible and it was – I was very thankful with that! Tough going at times on the road stones, however within the Roman Forum and Coliseum there were either raised platforms or concrete floors. So she led us through all the interesting relics in the Forum area – which is still under restoration – even now! We eventually made it out the front gate and down the road to the Coliseum where we all skipped the line (LONG LINE) and went right in to view its amazing structure. You have to have quite an imagination to understand what it all would have been like if the tallest structure still was in place – what a steep climb for the commoners to sit! Most of the seats were for “important” people – mainly men. After a tour, our guide left us and we spent some time looking at the building ourselves and then departed. Had some fun trying to get away from the Coliseum from an accessibility standpoint – the Coliseum is sunken down and we had to find a road to get us up to the main street that goes by – again, mostly stairs are around the Coliseum with no elevators next to them that we could find. Finally found a way and found a taxi to make it back to the hotel. Went for dinner again at the restaurant we went to on Sunday night that the hotel referred us to and had another great GF meal! That potato/octopus salad is really good! How do they make the octupus so easy to eat? They boil it with wine bottle corks! The things you learn when you ask questions… Captions to come…

I had planned this day to take it EASY, starting with breakfast in the room (as I could not reach the buffet, the Front Desk Manager and I came to an agreement this was the compromise), with our Vatican Tour on Monday and our Coliseum and surrounding sights walking tour on Wednesday… Well, that is NOT how it turned out to be! We logged over 12 km walking around the city! Starting off at the Spanish Steps, which was within walking distance from our hotel, we knew that another “Fast and Furious” movie was being filmed in Rome, thanks to our driver from the cruise terminal to the hotel. He wants to be a driver for the movie stars! However we did not expect it to being filmed at the top of the Spanish Steps today! So we got there and were promptly told to view from the bottom instead – so more walking downhill, which was good in a way…until you need to go back up! Next on Lynda’s walking tour was the Trevi Fountain, then the Pantheon, and the Piazza Navrona where we stopped and had a gelato and Andrew a beer. Rome was turning out to be hot – 27 degrees C! Next on the tour was to walk the Ponte Vittorio to view the Castel Sant’Angelo. We were one bridge down the Tiber River and not on the Ponte that leads directly to the Castel, however I was losing steam at this point and once we got our viewing completed from Vittorio, we found a taxi (which took about 30 minutes of searching) and returned to the hotel. We had leftovers from breakfast – fruit, cheese, crackers (GF of course!) and some GF cookies I had purchased for dinner as we were exhausted and had an early morning on the 11th for our Roman Highlights tour! Again, comments to come…

After a good breakfast with GF items and being warned not to take the bus as they are not accessible (which I did not understand as every bus I saw had a wheelchair sign on it), we taxied over to the meeting point for our Vatican Tour that I had booked through Viator. I really wanted to see the Vatican after seeing the Sistine Chapel visit in Vancouver a couple of months ago, however I was quite frustrated with my inability to tour the Vatican as a person who used a mobility device and pay for a “regular” tour. So we had to pay for a private tour for Andrew and myself so that we could be escorted to the proper area to take the stair lift down to the Sistine Chapel. We did miss part of the Vatican Museum as that I understand is not accessible and the benefit being the way we entered the Sistine Chapel was the way the Pope enters it and other people exit – so the ceiling was the right side up for us! Unfortunately there are not pictures to be taken inside the Chapel so I have to leave that to your imagination and what you can see on the internet. Entering the Vatican the tour guide paved the way for us, I had to register as a person with disabilities and show my accreditation that I am rated greater than 80% disabled (which I have which was interesting to obtain in Canada as we do not really “label” how disabled a person is), and we were in for free! Very nice – this apparently is common in Italy – if you have a significant disability you are given access gratis. Not knowing how other tours worked, here is what we did. We looked at St. Peters Basilica from the terrace, along with the Vatican Gardens. Then we went to the Pinecone piazza area where there are pictures of the Sistine Chapel for you to study and talk about. They do this so that the guides can speak and answer questions as no talking is allowed in the Chapel. As we had just seen and listened to this, we got through this part pretty fast, including a comment from the tour guide saying “don’t you want to take pictures”? I guess she fully did not understand about the traveling Sistine Chapel visit! Then we went into the museum, the long, very long hallway! I do know that normally people see this AFTER seeing the Sistine Chapel as at times we felt like salmon swimming upstream as most of the visitors were streaming towards us and not with us. What a gorgeous exhibit – you will see all the pictures below. I just loved the art work! Then down the stairlift and a long a one way tunnel (which they controlled who was going in each direction) to enter the Sistine Chapel from the Pope’s view or exit for the regular people touring. After this it was back up the stair climber, back down the LONG hall and we decided it was time for refreshments and we parted ways with the guide. I had noticed though some other parts of the Vatican that had elevators so after our drinks and walk around the garden, we went back and saw the Egyptian exhibit. It was just as well done as the other parts of the museum – in fact there were some pieces sponsored by a Canadian group there! Our guide, before leaving us had told us that St. Peters closes at 7pm, which is 30 minutes after the Vatican. So we decided to push it and walk there (there is no direct route between the Vatican and St. Peters anymore) and guess what? No line! Up the elevator for me and into the BEAUTIFUL church! Now I know why they wanted it as the highest point in Rome – words cannot explain enough how gorgeous it is. I hope my pictures do it justice! At this point I was exhausted, had walked over 15km in the day and needed to get back to the hotel – so we took a taxi back! We had dinner in the restaurant and called it an “early” night for Roman standards! Captions to come…

After 21 days we are now off the Nieuw Amsterdam and on our own in Rome! Having to find our own food, things to do – what an adventure! To make the transition easy, I had booked a driver to take us to the hotel from the cruise port. We never got his name however he picked us up in a Mercedes van (which is good as with the walker it adds to our luggage) and escorted us to our hotel – the Westin Excalibur in Rome. Now, before we go further, I need to explain how we are staying in some 4 and 5 star hotels along the way as they cost upwards of 1000 Euros a night in the rooms that we are given. Due to previous travels and my unfortunate trips to the USA last year, there was a benefit and I reached very high tier in the Marriott program after staying way over 75 nights in their hotels so, I have lots of Marriott points which I could use on this trip. That also gives me priority room upgrades – generally bigger rooms as you will see starting in Rome. So now back to the Westin, which is a 5 star hotel and WOW was it nice! Except for one thing – there was a difference between what they say on the Marriott website for accessibility and what we actually found. I do not call a hotel “accessible” if I have to act as a baggage cart and take a side entrance that the luggage takes as “accessible”. I do not call a hotel accessible if I have to stand at the top of some stairs and ask the concierge to put a temporary ramp down so I can get to the front desk. Or go outside (through said baggage hallway) to get to the restaurant or have a ramp put down to get to the restaurant or business centre through the hotel. The what broke the straw for me was when I could not reach the breakfast buffet that came with my status in Marriott. So after a discussion with the Front Desk Manager, we enjoyed breakfast in our room for the next 4 days! Now I have gotten that out of my system – again, what a beautiful hotel – it was a shame I could not experience more! Here are the pictures I took. On Sunday, we went for a walk while waiting for our room to be ready and for an “early” dinner, in Italian terms, went to a local trattoria for a nice dinner. Sat on the street and enjoyed some wonderful “senza glutine” food! You all will recognize my salad, Andrew had a GF potato and octopus salad and then I had seafood risotto! Came back to the hotel and there were flowers and turn down service with nice candies that funny enough said “senza glutine” right on them! Living the high life – right! Comments to come…

Our next port was Naples, where we had signed up for a tour of Pompeii. The HAL Excursions Manager had some concerns about me going on this Excursion due to the bumpiness of the site, however after I told her that I had already been to Olympia in Greece, she was okay with it. Pompeii is not far from Naples, unlike other Excursions we have taken which have been an hour or more bus rides away. As we drove to Pompeii which was about 30 minutes away, we passed Mount Vesuvius and heard about the eruption which covered Pompeii and Heracleum. Pompeii was not as buried as Heracleum, which I did not know. Apparently Heracleum was buried twice as deep as Pompeii (about 8 feet). What an amazing experience Pompeii was! To walk the paths that people had walked so many decades ago and listen to the guide talk about how they did things like serve food from different “kitchens” and “bakeries” was amazing – it was almost like you were there! It was also very strange from an accessibility standpoint. Some parts were not accessible such as the roads with the huge chariot mounds in them and then all of a sudden we were at a house of a rich person which had a metal ramp installed to get into it, down to the stables and then at the exit – the house was completely accessible however getting up the curb to get to the “sidewalk” to get to the ramp was not! You know, pictures explain it WAY better – lets look at them! NOTE: There is a map of Pompeii at the bottom…

Back in Italy, now on the Island of Sicily, our original HAL Excursion to explore a local town and its beach (with covered chairs for two) was cancelled by the tour operator so we were offered instead a tour to Cefalu, which is located east of Palermo, still on the north coast of Sicily. The winds had not ceased from the previous day and our trip back from Tunisia – in fact it took 2 tugs to get us into port plus all the technology that the ship has to maneuver (something to do with pods). Even the port, which is normally open 24 hours, was closed overnight due to the winds which were bearing down on it, so all the ferry traffic, plus our cruise ship had to “hang out” outside of the port until it was safe to enter, at about 6am. At 8am our trip to Cefalu began and we were off in a bus that despite the wind gusts, the driver did a very good job keeping the bus, acting like a sail, on the highway! We made it to this historic town and spent about 2 hours there. While walking around we saw a wedding happen in the town church along with I did some window shopping. It seemed to be a VERY popular tourist destination with about 6 busses of people there visiting while we were there too. Driving back there was no wind at all – in fact there was a small “forest fire” which was being water bombed with a beaver type looking plane. Unfortunately did not get a picture of the plane 🙁 but it was cool watching it dump the water! When we got back to Palermo, we just made it onto the ship before it started to rain very heavily! After some pizza and watching the rain storm, we went out and took some pictures of the city, before returning prior to All Aboard! Here are our pictures!

As we were to get off the ship for a 7:30am Excursion we were up pretty early as we had to be down to the theatre by 7:00am to clear customs. Tunisia needed to see each person plus their passport that was going to enter the country. So about 6am when our breakfast was delivered, we started watching the progress of the ship on the in-room television and we saw this about face!

Soon after the captain came on the overhead speaker to announce that 1. we were not going to Tunis, 2. we are high tailing it out of the area due to high winds and rough seas 3. he would have been a “cowboy” (imagine that with an Irish accent) if he attempted to enter the narrow channel circled with this large ship due to the prevailing wind speed (50 knots). So we had another day at sea! Great for me as now I have time for a manicure!

Now, an old adage is “red sunset at night, sailors delight, red sunrise in morn, sailors take warn”. The interesting thing is on this day, we had a beautiful red sunrise and flat sea – was that an indicator of what was to come that day???

For this PLANNED day at sea, I thought I would show you a selection of the delicious meals that I have been served aboard the Nieuw Statendam. Most of these are standard meals on the menu, with slight modifications by the Allergy Kitchen (where all my food comes from regardless of what I order) however there are a few classics which they did make for me by special request! As I mentioned previously, I had an issue with muffins (which actually occurred twice) that were incorrectly sent to me, however all the meals that were cooked for me were gluten free and I did not react to any of them unlike the 2 muffin incidents!

As part of our cruise package we also had the pleasure of dining in 3 Specialty restaurants – the Pinnacle Grill, Tamarind and Rudi’s Sel de Mer. We also went to Nami Sushi wish you pay for what you eat. I have noted those pictures below. Let’s eat!

PS The best thing about being in Rome and off the Cruise ship is you now get full pictures! No more thumb prints!

Now we are in Livorno, which is the port city closest to Pisa and Florence. As we are going to be visiting both of these cities after we leave the ship in Rome, we decided to take a HAL trip to Cinque Terre where we will see the historic villages on the rugged Italian Riviera coastline. So first we boarded a bus and traveled north from the Tuscany region, for 90 minutes, to the Liguia region and to La Spezia where we boarded a boat to take us to the first village, Riomaggiore. Cinque Terre is a string of centuries-old seaside villages. In each of the 5 towns, colorful houses and vineyards cling to steep terraces and harbours are filled with fishing boats and trattorias turn out seafood specialties along using the Liguria region’s famous sauce, pesto. There is a cliffside hiking trail that links the villages and offers sweeping sea vistas along with a local train service. After Riomaggiore, we again got onto the boat and travelled for about an hour past the next 3 villages, with one of them up high, finally arriving at Monterrosso al Mare, the 5th and final village, where Andrew had a spot of wine and we had lunch prior to some shopping time and returning to La Spezia via train and then onto the bus back to the ship. It was a 9 1/2 hour day and I was really looking forward to the next day – at sea!

Wow – what a mouthful to say! Basically Ville Franche-de-mer is the city in the bay just east of Nice. So lets just call this Nice as that is actually where we went! So with our cruise we were given three $100 Excursion credits to use and one we used on a trip to Nice and Eze. Actually, the stop was supposed to be in Monaco, however just like Gibraltar, that got cancelled for some unknown reason, so “Nice” was the replacement stop. When going to Monaco, we were going on a HAL trip to Eze and another village in France, now we are touring Nice and Eze. So those on this tour (2 busses worth) plus 2 other tours were taken by tender directly to Nice where anyone who wanted to go ashore on their own were taken to Ville Franche-de-mer. Our tour started with a walking tour of Nice – which as it was a Sunday, was the antiques market instead of the flower market that operates the rest of the week. We walked through the market (but I did not touch or buy anything!) and then went to a very interesting wine tasting where the vintner/owner explained the wine industry in France very well – even for a person who does not drink wine! He also linked in what has happened in the USA, Australia and Canada which was a surprise! I had a lovely l’eau sans gas vintage 2022. Andrew had the 2 white wines and 1 red wine and he enjoyed them with some bread and cheese. I was full with my l’eau so I passed on the “le pain”. After that we were back on the bus to Eze, which is a small village on the top of a cliff. I knew it was small, I knew there were shallow stairs to climb to get up to the village however what blew me away was how small and compact the village was on this cliff side! The bus trip there was very short and then we started the climb (I was using my crutches and not my walker) which is done in 3 parts. I made it up the first 2 parts (which surprised the guide quite a bit) and then she said the last part people could do on their own – it takes you to a garden. I decided to call in quits as I knew the next day we also had a long walking excursion to Cinque Terre in Italy. It is very hard to explain this village other than it was like a cinnamon bun sitting on top of this cliff – you start walking at the bottom of the bun and circle around and around through the middle of the bun going up until you get to the top of middle peak which is where the garden is. Then you have to come down… There are two ways to come down we found out – the way you came back up OR the back route which we mistakenly found which is LONGER and goes past all the kitchen back doors! It is also more slippery as they keep the tourist steps area cleaner than the kitchen access it seems. On our way down, we left with plenty of time to get to the bottom (after all going down a hill you can walk faster) and we were going to take some pictures of the bridge and instead we were the last people to make it to the bus! Oh well it was a fantastic experience and not one we would really do on our own – which is how I pick the Excursions to do generally. Here come the pictures now!

Well, the first “segment” of the cruise is over! For some people that means they are getting off the ship and for others they are excited to be getting on… For us that meant no In Room dining for breakfast – we had to patronize the Dining Room and then we had to leave the ship for the day so they could clean it. We were not allowed back aboard until 3pm, for a 5pm sailing time. Ted, Pat, Andrew and I had planned to take the Hop on Hop off bus service on both loops today and that is what we did! We took a taxi to the square where they departed from and hopped on! It was supposed to be a 90 minute to 2 hour ride on the Red Line which was the first one we saw… it ended up being 2 1/2 hours so that precluded us from going on the Blue Line in case the same thing happened as that would make us late for the 4:30pm all aboard. So instead we ate lunch at a lovely café called Café Vienna on the Las Ramblas street which is the main tourist drag in Barcelona. Also where pick pockets live – luckily none of us were their prey! After lunch we walked down Las Ramblas a ways, check out the hotel where Pat and Ted will be staying when they return to Barcelona and then took a quick taxi back to the ship. Off for the second “segment”, which for us was still the same cruise, to Rome now! Note: Not too happy with the pictures as they were taken from inside the bus – I will get better ones when we return to Barcelona in June for our tour of Spain!

Alicante was our next stop on our 7 days in a row of ports! Half way there and this was going to be a “walking” day. We met our tour guide, who Ted had found through Free Tours Alicante, who provided a custom tour for us (which was not free) of the Santa Barbara Castle and walk to the Old Town market of Alicante. Lucky for us, the Santa Barbara Castle’s elevator was operating – as it is a LONG winding road up the hill to the top. I do not say this often but I was impressed with the Engineering that took place to make this historic place accessible to everyone! Even with the two grades that it stops at, Andrew and I could not help going up the extra 500 feet or so to the very top of the castle, while Pat and Ted waited in the shade of a terrace. Once back down in the city, we walked through the town to the Market which was in a wonderful historic building! Similar to Granville Island but VERY European and it sure shows why Europeans go shopping every day or two for food rather than once a week or so like we do – the food is just so fresh it is better that way! On the top floor of the 2 floor market were cheeses, breads and wine and on the bottom floor (yes there were tiny elevators) there was produce, meat and fish. What a cultural experience! Then we walked quickly back to the ship to get there in time for all aboard!

Welcome to Malaga, Spain! This is the area of the white painted houses. Here we had booked another private tour, along with Ted and Pat, with a driver and tour guide. Our plan was to visit Mijas, a local town high in the hills known for its white houses and views and then return to Malaga for a short tour, which we proceeded to do.