Day 10 - Tunisia, take 2

On our second lap of the meditteranean our first stop was Tunisia again, and this time we decided not to get off. Tunisia had been interesting to do once, but was quite disappointing, in that it has obviously taken a lot of the worst parts of modernisation, and hasn't put enough effort in preserving the unique parts of their own culture and heritage.
Unfortunately because it has taken me so long to write this, I can't remember particularly what we did on this day. I know that there were always activities onboard, like magic acts, trapeze, kids discos, etc, and that we did a lot of these. By the looks of the photos it seems as though we spent much of the day in the dining room! We also went to one of the bars on this day. I think it was called the Kasbah. Drinks weren't included in the price of the cruise, so we stayed away from them, and this is the only time we went to one of the bars, but they had funky little curtained off nooks with cool lights and the boys really enjoyed the novelty. It was also nice to be on the ship on a day that it was in port as it was much quieter than the days at sea.

Day 9 - At Sea, again!

Can you believe this photo? No filter necessary, I haven't even enhanced the colours!

So it has only taken me 2 and a half years to write up the first half of our holiday to the meditteranean. It is making me desperate for travel, and for ships. I love big ships. Do you think I could become a sailor? Or maybe it is more practical to look at becoming someone's mistress? Another lifetime perhaps...

Day 9 was at Sea heading towards Tunisia again. There aren't many photos from this day, so it seems that we gave the camera a day off. We probably spent time hanging out at the kids club, wandering the ship, and playing in the pools. It may also have been the day that Zander and I went to learn how to juggle, and perhaps the day that the Magician was on, and Zander got chosen (or jumped up before anyone else had a chance), and got to 'assist' the Magician. I can't remember what the trick was, I must ask him. Something along the lines of fingers getting trapped, or cut off? We bought a neat little plastic box that had  a trick way of opening, so you could ask someone to put some money in, and then they wouldn't be able to get it out again unless they knew the trick.

I'm pretty sure that Papa Bear took these photos of the sun (rise?). Absolutely stunning. 

Day 8 - Palma, Mallorca

APologies for taking so long to finish this. But then again, as I am pretty sure I am the only one who reads this, I guess the apology is to me.

In this post, we are in Palma, Mallorca. I have been learning how to use LIghtroom which is a photo programme, so I have been using it to play with the photos. I have found that I haven't needed to enhance the colours much (if at all), but it has been fun to do black and white and sepia versions of the pics. I have included them all here, even though it might be repetitive, seeing as I am the only one reading.

Anyway, after having done one lap of the cruise circuit we found ourselves back in Palma. We had decided that due to a hectic couple of days, and also the high cost of the organised tours we would just take ourselves into Palma and do a quick trip before returning to the ship for a quiet day. We disembarked, and were asked by one of the Ship's organisers/helpers, what we were planning on doing for the day,  and then offered us a free tour. I think that because it is the start/finish spot for the cruise, they don't get many takers for the tours in Palma. We accepted her offer, and it was such a nice thing to be able to do a tour altogether.

Majorca or Mallorca  is an island located in the Mediterranean Sea, one of the Balearic Islands.
The capital of the island, Palma, is also the capital of the autonomous community of the Balearic Islands.
Bellver Castle, was the first circle castle in Europe.

The Cathedral of Santa Maria of Palma, more commonly referred to as La Seu, is a Gothic Roman Catholic cathedral located in Palma, Majorca, Spain, built on the site of a pre-existing Arab mosque. It is 121 metres long, 55 metres wide and its nave is 44 metres tall. Designed in the Catalan Gothic style but with Northern European influences, it was begun by King James I of Aragon in 1229 but finished only in 1601. It sits within the old city of Palma atop the former citadel of the Roman city, between the Royal Palace of La Almudaina and the episcopal palace. It also overlooks the Parc de la Mar and the Mediterranean Sea.
In 1901, fifty years after a restoration of the Cathedral had started, Antoni Gaudí was invited to take over the project. While some of his ideas were adopted – moving the choir stalls from the middle nave to be closer to the altar, as well as a large canopy – Gaudí abandoned his work in 1914 after an argument with the contractor. The planned changes were essentially cosmetic rather than structural, and the project was cancelled soon after.

The view of the middle of the ship where two of the pools are

One of the pools, these were VERY important to the boys, and Zander remembers them very well