March 28, 2010. One year later.

March 28th, 2010 was a pretty special day for The Shepherds. Once we arrived in Barcelona, we decided to take a ride up to Montserrat. Montserrat is actually the name of the mountain but what it is known for is Santa Maria de Montserrat, which is a Benedictine abbey located in the mountain in Catalonia, Spain. This is the monastery where people come to worship “La Moreneta,” or what we know as the “Black Madonna.”

(This was a little boy in our tour group picking up a Palm to take into the service.  We thought he was cute.)

This was so special to us not only because 3/28 was Palm Sunday and we were headed to a Benedictine monastery, but this was our very first church service together as a married couple.  We were fortunate enough to actually get inside the basilica (as you can imagine, there were thousands trying to do the same thing) to hear the Palm Sunday service.  The entire service was spoken in Latin so we have no idea what they were saying but just to be in the presence of the monks was incredible.

Because we spent so much time in the service, we weren’t able to see much more of the village.  But nonetheless, it was very meaningful to us both.
(We did get a picture of "Shepherd's Chapel" though which we thought was pretty cool.)

After Montserrat, we headed back to Barcelona and walked around the city for a few hours.  We went back to Las Ramblas, where you're guaranteed to see plenty of interesting things :)

We boarded our ship late that afternoon and the ship had an entirely new group of passengers.  Although this was the same ship we'd been on for the last 12 days, most of these guests were just boarding to only go on the 9-day leg of the cruise.  And most of these new guests were American.  The non-American guests referred to all of the Americans as "loud."  David and I wanted to pretend to be European because yes, those Americans were loud ;)

To get away from the madness of everyone boarding the ship, we went out to one of the side decks late that night and got a great picture of the moon over the Mediterranean Sea.

Next stop...Rome!

March 26, 2010. One year later.

The last port on the first leg of our cruise was to Malaga, Spain.

Malaga is the 6^th largest city in Spain and is the southernmost large city in Europe.

It’s known for having one of the warmest winters in Europe (averaging 62 degrees) and for being one of the oldest cities in the world.

However, it is probably most well-known for being the birthplace of Picasso and more importantly Antonio Banderas J

When deciding which excursion to take in Malaga, there weren’t too many tours that really caught our attention.  The only one that interested me was the trip to the village of Mijas and the countryside.  Mijas is known for its white-washed buildings and is often compared to Santorini.  Well I’ve always wanted to go to Santorini so we headed to Mijas.

We were a little disappointed in this excursion because not only were the white-washed buildings the only thing to see but every store in town was closed while we were in town.  We did appreciate the panoramic views from some of the mountain tops and were able to get some pretty good pictures though.

When we arrived back on the ship, we sat on the back deck with our friends Pat and Paul from California to take in the last port exit before arriving in Barcelona.  Paul and Pat did this cruise opposite of us so this was actually their last port.  We still had another 9 days to go but they were exiting the ship once we arrived in Barcelona.

Paul retired a few years ago and they have been traveling ever since.  David and I decided we wanted to be just like them when we grow up :)  We had a great time with them and were really sad to see them go.

Cruises are really neat because you meet so many different people.  This one was especially cool because 75% of the people on this leg of the cruise were non-American.  I guess that’s why we gravitated towards Paul and Pat.

(This is a random picture of David deciding he wanted to be "European" and eat french fries with mayonnaise.  Dis.gust.ing.)

March 24, 2010. One year later.

Funchal is the capital city of Madeira, which belongs to Portugal.

What is interesting about Funchal is that it is located within an amphitheatre-shaped bowl.  In February of 2010, only about a month before we arrived in Funchal, there was a terrible flood which caused awful mudslides and claimed almost 100 lives.  Here are some pictures from the damage in Funchal.

Luckily for us, they immediately began the clean-up effort and other than a few muddy hills, you never would have known they had such an event only weeks before.

The touristy thing to do in Funchal is to take a cable car up to the Village of Monte and take a toboggan ride back to the bottom.  The view while in the cable car was amazing.

I had no idea what a toboggan was before arriving in Portugal (other than the thing you wear on your head when it’s cold outside).  These toboggans are basically wicker baskets that you sit in and these men push you all the way down the hill (occasionally they’ll pick up some speed and they can ride on the back).  This was a ton of fun!

After the toboggan ride, we hopped on a bus that took us up to Pico do Serrado, which as you can see, had amazing views.  In the valley is what they call Nuns Valley because back in the 1500s, this is where Nuns retreated to hide from pirates.

Funchal is known for its famous wine lodges so our last stop was to one of these shops for a sample.  (We were not huge fans of the wine by the way.)

We headed back to our ship, claimed our table on the back deck, drank our mimosas and waved goodbye to Funchal.  What I love about cruises is that you always seem to pull out of the port when the sun is setting.  Because of this, you have plenty of great opportunities to see some beautiful scenery.

Thank goodness the following day was a day at sea.  We sure needed the break after four straight days of sightseeing.

March 23, 2010. One year later.

It’s hard for me to put into words our immediate love for Las Palmas.  It was definitely the sleeper port of our entire cruise because really, how many people have ever heard of Las Palmas?

I don’t know if our obsession with Las Palmas is because it was in such contrast to where we’d just spent 2 days…in Morocco...which honestly felt like a third-world country at times?  And here we were now at our 3^rd port where everything was new and clean and pretty and most everyone spoke English….and the list goes on and on.  Or maybe we would have loved Las Palmas regardless of when it fell on our itinerary?  But all I know is that on my first day back to work after our honeymoon, I was looking for jobs in Las Palmas :)

A little background on Las Palmas for those who don’t know where in the heck it is and/or why it’s famous:

It’s technically “Las Palmas de Gran Canaria” but is commonly referred to as “Las Palmas”. 

It is the most populous city in the Canary Islands and the 9^th largest city in Spain. 

It has a subtropical climate and some scientists have referred to Las Palmas as having the “best climate in the world.”  

In 1492, Christopher Columbus ported at Las Palmas and spent quite a bit of time here on his way to the Americas. After discovering America, Columbus stopped here again on his way back to Spain.  The Casa Colon is still there and has many original artifacts from his time on the island.

I find that my words don’t do the city and island the justice they deserve so I would just suggest you travel there and see for yourself :)

We were sad to only have 10 hours to spend on the island but were excited to get back to our room and have a surprise waiting for us.  The ship had strawberries and champagne delivered to our room since we were honeymooners. 

As we were pulling out of the port, we sat on the back deck, enjoyed our champagne, and watched as the sun set.  Perfect ending to a wonderful day!

And don't think I haven't stopped looking for jobs in Las Palmas :)

March 22, 2010. One year later

Agadir was our 2nd port in Morocco. We went on another shore excursion with the cruise ship (We WERE in Africa after all. Not exactly the best place to be wandering around with no guide.). This was a similar tour as our one in Casablanca. Just a bus ride through the city with a few stops for photo opps. 
Photo opp #1:  camels!

Part of tour consisted of an "authentic" show, with acrobats and snake charmers.

However, the highlight of our short time in Agadir came when we arrived at a five-story building with different "authentic" Moroccan souvenirs on each level (I put "authentic" in quotes because I'm pretty sure everything was made in China). I wanted to take advantage of using the restroom since they had one and was directed to the Women's bathroom. I opened the door and wasn't quite sure what to do. There was an empty paint bucket, a spray hose and a dirty towel.

It was an interesting experience to say the least. As you can imagine, it took great coordination to keep from touching anything around me. And the bucket was very shallow so you run the risk of backsplash. That's all I'll say on that subject. Again, just very thankful David comes prepared for almost anything and had Huggies wipes to rescue me.

We appreciated all that we saw and witnessed in Morocco but honestly, we were not sad to move on to a different country. We will probably never go back to Morocco but are glad we could mark it off our list.

March 21, 2010. One year later.

Our first port of call was Casablanca, Morocco. 

 

We weren't very familiar with that part of Africa so we decided to take an organized shore excursion with other guests on our boat.  We went on the Casablanca Highlights tour.  We saw the facade of the Royal Palace (but obviously weren't invited in :) 

The main highlight in Casablanca is the Harran II Mosque, the world's largest religious monument after Mecca and its minaret is the tallest.  I must say that although we don't agree with their religion and its traditions, we respected their culture and appreciated the info they gave us about the mosque.  It was quite beautiful.

 

 

 

And my favorite part of the mosque: the bathroom.  Look closely.  "No toilets" you say?  Why yes, you are correct.  You just hover over the holes in the floor.  They definitely don't want you getting comfy in these "restrooms."  And when you're finished, just take the hose they have in each stall and hose yourself off.  No big deal, right?  WRONG.  I was just thankful David thought to bring baby wipes bc there was not a roll of toilet paper to be found in that entire country.  God Bless America and its toilet paper luxury :)

Bye, Bye Casablanca.  We will back to your sister city of Agadir tomorrow.