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

Corsica

I was so excited about Corsica. It is somewhere I had always hoped to visit, but actually thought there was a good chance that it would never happen, as it is quite off the beaten track. Some of my ancestors were originally from Corsica, which is why I was so keen to see it. I was so happy that one of the ports on the cruise was Corsica, and it was probably the deciding reason for why we chose the Western European cruise and not the Eastern European one (the Greek isles were VERY tempting!!). The Ship only docked in Corsica for half a day, as it is still quite a hike back to Mallorca (where some passengers would be departing and some more boarding). I was a bit disappointed that it was only half a day, so I decided to do one of the organised tours to get the most out of our time there. I had decided to do the tour of the capital city (Ajaccio) but just before we arrived they announced that it was a public holiday and that nearly everything would be closed, so I decided to do the countryside instead. Papa Bear took the boys to walk around Ajaccio instead, to take photos for me :)

As well as only half a day, and it being a public holiday, it was also wet. It turned out to be the only wet day on the cruise, but it was a bit disappointing for me to have the rain on that day. 

I don't think I really had expectations about what it would be like, but it defintely wasn't what I was expecting anyway. The countryside was truly spectacular and reminded me a little of the Southern Highlands and of Kangaroo Valley, but mostly of the Australian Alps. Apparently Corsica has a three-tiered structure of Vegetation which is unique to Corsica with the exception of 1 country - this same structure is also seen in Australia! No wonder I felt at home. It was a really beautiful day depsite everything, and it would have been lovely to have been able to stay longer, but at least I have been there now, which I wasn't sure if I would ever have the opportunity to. 

Ajaccio is like many of the close in European cities. The old city is around the harbour area and is built close in like many old European cities, making them difficult to attack. Many of the old stone buildings are very beautiful, with a lovely main square near the main buildings. It also also the city that Napolean was banished to after he was defeated by the English.

Many of the lower levels are built strongly to help ward off attacks.

The Palace area hard stunning gardens. Unfortunately it was closed for the public holiday

The cities main square near the new casino the parliment vuildings and overlooking one of their many pebble beaches.

The boys loved the fountains, though this multi level one was quite interesting.

One of the many memorials in memory of the many wars that the people of the city were involved in.

The beachside view from the end of the town square. Pity the beach below the promenade wall is a pebble beach rather than a nice sandy one.

One of the nicer pebble beaches on the island looking back towards the fort and the harbour.

This part of the beach around the bottom of the military fort was actually very sandy, though I think we missed the signs heading down saying it was a military area and you should keep out.

As intrigued as I was by the old fort, it is still a current military base, so we didn't really get a much better look at it other than the outside and the former moat area.

This is the actual building where Napolean was housed during his exile. It is a three floor apartment with a little garden opposite where Napolean spent time outdoors.

The roundabout heading back to the ship had many cool fountains and sculpted trees. Unfortunately it was not easy to get a better look because of all the cars driving around.

Then we noticed you could see it better from the other side.

On our way back we came across the local markets set out in a harbourside carpark. Fortunately England's importation rules are not so strict of food, so we bought a tin of delicious traditional cookies.

Our ship was easy to spot as it was the only massive boat docked in the harbour.

Only when we got back did we notice the little tourist train, where we could have seen all the sights in minature style.

The city lights from the bow deck as we arrived into port.

Looking down on the old city from the fron deck of the ship, 9 stories up.

Whilst the Bear boys were meandering through seeing the sites of the city, Mama Bear took a bus tour through the beautiful countryside.