Monday Nov 22, 2010
After a fantastic day in the Naples and Amalfi Coast area of Italy, we had one final day at sea before returning to Barcelona to debark and make the long trip home. As mentioned in some earlier trip articles, the sea had been super calm, almost lake-like. It was almost boring - you couldn't feel the ship moving and didn't even know you were on a ship sailing on the ocean. Well, that changed on Monday. There had been some movement on our way into Naples, but nothing like what we experienced this day (and through the night). The seas were running 3 to 4 meters, roughly between 9 and 14 feet. Definitely a piece of cake for a ship the size of the Brilliance, but it still made her move some - and way more than it had moved the whole trip. This was NOTHING like the ship experienced on her approach to Alexandria, Egypt just 2 weeks after our trip, though. She went through 10 - 12 meter seas (that's approaching 40 foot seas) and 70 knot ( 80 mph) winds, and she was bucking so that it threw furniture around inside cabins, broke some glass and furniture, and injured about 100 people. I consider ourselves fortunate that we didn't experience anything like that, but on the other hand, it really was too smooth for my taste for the majority of the trip. I'm one of those lucky individuals that doesn't experience motion sickness of any kind, so I don't mind a little movement. Especially at night - it rocks me to sleep. Well, the seas on this Monday - while not bad - definitely had people hunting the barf bags, taking their seasick pills or applying their patches, or visiting the infirmary if they had neither pills nor patch. But I have to say, I quite enjoyed it, and slept really good that night.
The final day at sea was definitely bittersweet, though. Since I knew the end of the trip was near, I was starting to be ready to get home. I was ready for my own bed (nothing compares to a Sleep Number, not even a rocking ship!), and I was ready to see my doggies. On the other hand, I was not ready for the experiences and the fabulous trip to end. Our group of people was so diverse in ages and interests, and every one of them had brought so much to the overall experience of the trip. I knew I would be sad when we all went our separate ways again. I was also sad to part from our outstanding dining room waitstaff (more on them in a sec).
I took the opportunity to sleep in a little bit this day, as I knew the next two mornings would be relatively early, followed by a seemingly interminable transatlantic flight home. I guess I slept until about 10:15 or so - just barely enough time to make it up to the Windjammer Cafe for one last yummy breakfast. They would prepare fried eggs and omelets to order, so I took advantage of that as much as possible. And even though the coffee was Seattle's Best, it was still pretty good (I was disappointed to find that it was an American coffee and not something more "local," but I guess they've got the worldwide contract with Royal Caribbean).
One thing I did miss since I slept in was our passage through the Strait of Bonifacio between Corsica to the north and Sardinia to the south. At 7 miles wide, it isn't nearly as narrow as the Strait of Messina between mainland Italy and Sicily, but I was (only slightly) disappointed I didn't get to see it from on deck. I ran into some of the group that was either finishing up their late breakfasts or coming in to claim a spot for lunch, so I sat down with the folks to chow down. Afterwards, it was my goal that day to do as little as possible for as long as possible, even though I had the task of packing ahead of me. I succeeded for the majority of the afternoon by finding another secluded spot to read on my Kindle (in case you're interested, I had been reading the Honor Bound series by W.E.B. Griffin - I'm a huge fan of his other works - and had finally made it into book 2 - Blood and Honor) and proceeded to blow the afternoon. It was nice, and a relaxing end to the cruise. I did go by the folks' cabin to coordinate a few things before supper. We had to figure out how we were going to get 1.5 liters of olive oil packed so it wouldn't leak, as well as a couple of bottles of wine, and we made arrangements for me to be the mule during the flights home for the rug mom had purchased in Turkey. With that taken care of, it was time to upload a few pictures to Facebook (I had some wireless Internet package minutes left that they wouldn't refund, so why not?) and then get ready for supper.
I've been fortunate during my growing up years and early adult life with regard to travel, and this was my sixth cruise. Before now, out of all of them, the only dining staff I remembered was our waitstaff on the very first cruise we took back in 1980 on Sitmar's Fairwind. Now that I'm talking about them, I can't for the life of me remember our waiter's and assistant waiter's names (maybe someone can help me with a comment below?), but I can still clearly remember their faces and the excellent service the provided. Yeah, we got decent service on intervening cruises, but it didn't stack up to those guys. Until now. Our lead waiter, Navin (from Bombay, India) and our assistant waiter, Cinthia (from Lima, Peru) were absolutely fantastic! By our second evening of dining with them, they felt like family - they already knew our names! - and by the third night, they were already figuring out our tastes and likes/dislikes. I don't know how they do it... But their service was exceptional, and they were an absolute delight - I looked forward to dining with them in the evenings. I even felt guilty on the formal nights I skipped due to lack of proper attire!
It was definitely sad to part ways with Navin and Cinthia. I gave them both hefty cash tips on top of the "recommended" gratuities I had charged to my room (and they were the only service people that got anything above what was recommended - at least from me). But time to part with them it was, and then it was back to the cabin for the daunting and unpleasant task of packing. The folks and I had figured out what we hoped would be a good way to transport the olive oil home. The glass bottles we'd been given at the olive mill in Tuscany had crappy tops on them - they were already cracked, and obviously they leaked. Our solution to the problem was to clean and dry out a couple of Evian water bottles, pour the olive oil into them, then pack one cleaned-out glass bottle and the two plastic bottles. I double-packed the plastic bottles inside zippy bags just in case, and luckily it worked out perfectly. However, I was worried about being overweight with my bag. I was already overweight on the flights over, and now I had all that plus 1.5 liters of olive oil and a glass bottle. I was going to be WAY overweight. Fortune would smile upon me the following day in Barcelona, though. Anyway, I was finally packed and actually had my bag in the hall before midnight. I read a little more on my Kindle, and finally killed the light about 1:30. And I slept REALLY good because the ship was rocking in the finally-doing-something seas.
Tuesday Nov 23, 2010
As both dreaded and expected, when I woke up, we were back in port in Barcelona. It was a pretty early (for me) start, as we had arranged to debark about 8:00 am. Room service - which I had taken advantage of for breakfast earlier in the trip - wasn't serving that morning, but it didn't matter; I wasn't really hungry yet, and I'd woken up a little too late to eat. But I showered, packed the last small remaining items in my backpack, and headed up to our debarking muster point - which I arrived at no more than three minutes before they called for our group. Perfect timing if you ask me. 
So off the ship we went to claim our luggage. The whole process was orderly and amazingly efficient, and we claimed our bags within just a few minutes of arriving in the claim area. We then found our driver, whom we had arranged through Barcelona Day Tours (the same group that did our Barcelona tour and transfers from the hotel to the ship at the beginning of the trip), and off we went to the airport.
As it turns out, the debarking process was so efficient, we could have conceivably scheduled a flight earlier than the 12:30 flight we had scheduled. But we didn't. We didn't want to be panicked or rushed or anything, so we were expecting to have some time to kill at the airport. I wasn't anticipating over three hours, but that's what it was. We checked in for our flight, and this is where the luggage gods smiled upon me. I mentioned that because of the olive oil I was definitely way overweight on my bag. Well...the attendant at the Lufthansa check-in counter started to check our bags all the way to Houston, even though we would be spending that night in Frankfurt. I didn't think they were going to do that, so it came as a surprise - so much so that I was scrambling to get a few things out of my suitcase for the evening in Frankfurt so I wouldn't have to claim my bag there. The other advantage to this arrangement: the flight from Barcelona to Frankfurt was considered a domestic flight, and they don't enforce the weight restrictions like they do with the international flights (they have a limit, but it is higher). So I was able to check my bag all the way to Houston, not have to claim and recheck it in Frankfurt, and best of all, not have to pay an overweight bag fee! Bonus!
So we went through security and found a place to park it for a while and grab a bite of breakfast and something to drink. Since I hadn't eaten anything before getting off the ship, I was ready for something small to eat and something with caffeine. Now, something interesting that the airports do in Europe is they don't give a lot of advance warning on what gate your flight will be departing from. Unlike US airports, airlines can arrive and depart from just about any gate. This makes it difficult to know exactly where you need to be way in advance of the flight. You generally do know what terminal your flight will depart from, but you don't know the exact gate until about an hour before the flight is scheduled to depart. Mom was doing a bug about us not knowing where we needed to be, so dad and I said we'd see if we could find out and left. By this time, we both knew that we wouldn't be able to find out until right at an hour before departure time, so we wandered around the airport until we'd burned enough time to be just within that hour. Our gate appeared on the monitors, and we triumphantly returned with this information.
The flight to Frankfurt was on an Airbus A321, and it was comfortable and uneventful. We were served a small meal, and again, the beauty of flying the foreign carriers is that they serve free beer, wine and booze in coach. And even better, the beer Lufthansa serves on board is Warsteiner! I enjoyed two of those before we landed in Frankfurt. Needless to say, the weather there was considerably different than what we had left in Barcelona. Our trip out of the airport was easy and uneventful, especially since we didn't have to claim our checked luggage. The next challenge was finding our free shuttle to the hotel. That turned out to be relatively easy, but deciphering the schedule was a little more difficult. We finally figured it out, and ended up waiting about 30 minutes for the next shuttle. After that, everything was pretty much cake. It was a short ride to the hotel, and in we went to check in.
After check-in, we dropped our stuff in the rather spartan rooms (typical European hotel rooms), and then went to the hotel bar for...BEER! Hey, we were in Germany - how could we not drink some beer? By the way, the hotel we stayed at was the Mercure Hotel Frankfurt Airport in Kelsterbach. The hotel was very nice, very clean, and convenient to the airport. In their bar, Bitburger was the only on-tap beer they had that I recognized, and mom tried that. Dad and I each tried something different, and I got the darkest they had. I really wish I could remember what it was, because it was really good. Not that I could ever have any hope of getting it here, but mainly just for reference. As we drank our brews, we talked some with the bartender and got some recommendations not really for restaurants, but where to go to find some supper. The hotel had a restaurant, but it was pretty expensive, and they didn't have anything that looked like "real German food." So we decided to catch the shuttle back to the airport and ride the train into an older section of downtown Frankfurt. The bartender gave us instructions on what type of ticket to buy on the subway, which train to catch, and where we needed to get off, and we were set. Or so we thought... We figured out the ticket machine thanks to our previous experience with such kiosks in Rome a couple of years before, and the type of ticket we bought was a group ticket that, for a flat fee of €15, as many as 5 people could ride the train as much as they wanted for 24 hours on the same ticket. Sounded good to us! The problem we had was figuring out which platform we needed to be on to catch the right train. We figured it out just in time and hopped the train into town.
Our destination was Hauptwache. It is pedestrian-only in most of the immediate area, which was perfect for us, and apparently one of the more famous plazas in the city. We didn't really know where we were going once we got there, so we exited the subway and climbed up to street level. Lo and behold, we spied a really cool - and old - looking building adjacent to the subway entrance, and after kind of peeking around it, discovered it was a cafe. The hotel bartender hadn't mentioned this place specifically, but said we wouldn't have any trouble finding somewhere to eat. We walked around for a little bit just to see what we could see and if there were any other eatery alternatives. Finding none, we all decided to go back to the cafe by the subway.
It never hurts when there are a bunch of locals eating at an establishment you're considering, and there were quite a few there. Maybe they weren't local Frankfurters, but the predominant language was definitely German, so those two signs couldn't have hurt. As it turns out, it was a fantastic decision. The name of the place is Cafe Hauptwache (imagine that! - and if you click on the link, be patient - it takes the site a little while to load), and is in a building that was built in 1730! Before being a cafe and a few other things, it was originally built as the guard house for the Frankfurt militia, and also served as a jail. It was also heavily burned and almost destroyed during World War II bombing and rebuilt in 1951. Pretty cool! I didn't take any pictures there, but you can see some on the café's website, and there are some other good pictures of the building on Wikipedia through the link to Hauptwache. The atmosphere was cozy and seemed authentic, the food - and of course, the beer - was definitely authentic - and fantastic. Again, I don't know what brand of beer it was, but it was some of the best hefeweizen (wheat beer) and dunkelweizen (dark wheat beer) I've ever had, and I've had a bunch of them. And the food...oh my heavens. We each decided to get something different and then share. You can see the menu here (scroll to the second page for English) to get a better description of what all we had, but here goes: two orders of the Traditional Frankfurt Harzer Cheese (yum!), Our Favorite Frankfurt Plate (with a bunch of different sausages - excellent!), Frankfurt Schnitzel Viennese Style, and Traditional Frankfurter Cold Green Sauce. Everything was outstanding! And the cold green sauce was definitely interesting...reminded me some of the avocado-based green sauces you get in some Mexican restaurants, without the bite or spice. And to top it all off, I absolutely positively had to have the Warmer Apfelstrudel mit Vanillesauce - apple strudel with vanilla sauce. With that, I thought I had died and gone straight to heaven! The bill was a little hefty - €96.20, which came out to about $132 - but I didn't care!!! The excellent food, beer and service - not to mention the whole experience - made the cost worth it. When we finished, it was back to the subway, onto the train back to the airport, then another short wait for the shuttle back to the hotel. I was pretty wiped out from the relatively early morning, and since we would have another early morning, I hit the rack soon after getting back to the hotel.
Wednesday Nov 24, 2010
We planned to catch the 7:55 am shuttle from the hotel to the airport. At first I was thinking this was a little early and that we could have caught the 8:35 shuttle. I'm glad we didn't, because I was mistaken in thinking that our flight left at 10:45. It was originally scheduled to leave then when we made the reservations, but they had moved departure time to 10:15. It was a good thing we had the extra time, too, because we had the worst time trying to figure out where in the hell we needed to be to get on our plane. The confusion came because our boarding passes said gate C12, but the big boards that said our flight would leave from Concourse A, gate C12. Huh? There was a terminal 1 that had concourses A, B and C. It was all very confusing, and nobody - not even the Lufthansa people - was able to definitely point us in the right direction. We were running short on time and finally just took a guess. Someone had said the only passport control area was in concourse C, so we went that way. Luckily for us, it was the right choice. The lines through security were long and slow, and we finally arrived at the proper gate just 10 minutes before they were scheduled to start boarding the plane. That was delayed by about 30 minutes, though, as it was taking the crews a little longer to clean the plane after its previous long-haul flight.
Again, we had nonstop 747-400 service from Frankfurt to Houston, except this trip, being west-bound and going against prevailing winds aloft, would be about an hour and a half longer than the trip over. Once again, my hopes of having the middle seat on my row empty were dashed. Funny thing is, another Ukrainian who was one of the last people on the plane took the seat. What is it with late-arriving Ukrainians and the middle seat next to me on long haul flights? Or all of the Ukrainian encounters on this trip overall? I was having terrifying visions of this guy being another Vladimir (see the trip over story for more info about him...). Luckily, this guy was quiet and slept a lot of the way, and his English was understandable. The two meals we were served were decent, and I didn't sleep a wink the whole 11 hours. I listened to either the music through the aircraft's on-board stations or to my iPod through my Bose QuietComfort QC15 noise cancelling headphones (they're wonderful on long flights!) and read on my Kindle. I finished the second Honor Bound book and started the third. It was a very long flight, and I was definitely glad to get off in Houston, but with the help of a little music and the Kindle, it made the time pass and not seem like I was stuffed in that over-sized cigar tube for 11 hours.
Once on the ground, we did the kabuki dance with immigration and customs, claimed our bags, and we were almost home. We went to the Super Shuttle desk to get on the list for a ride home, and waited until our ride showed up. The van dropped me off first, and I unpacked, showered and put on fresh clothes before heading over to mom and dad's to pick up my doggies. When I walked in, Dizzie about tackled me - she was very happy to see her daddy! Harrison wasn't 100% sure it was me, though. It took him a few minutes to warm up, but once he did...he was really glad his daddy was home, too. We ordered a pizza and wound down for a little bit. Amber had swung by the house to hear about the trip and so we could pay her for house- and dog-sitting. It was about 9:00 pm when I started fading rapidly into the west. I had woken up at 6:30 am Frankfurt time, which was 11:30 pm the night before Houston time. By the time I got home, I'd been going for 22 hours with no nap on the flight, and only 6 hours of sleep the night before. Needless to say, I crashed, but the body clock didn't cooperate. I had visions of sleeping in until 11 or so Thanksgiving morning, but my body got me up about 7:00 that morning. Rats! All in all, it took me the entire long weekend to get back to feeling like I was on a normal (for me, anyway) schedule. And with that, and hopefully without sounding cliché, this trip of a lifetime finally came to an end.
Final Thoughts...
Before I forget, I need to mention again that Tigger made another trip to Europe with me and the gang. He had a great time, and was very glad he didn't get seasick, especially on the last day of the cruise. I won't go into the importance of Tigger here, but I thought it was important to mention that he did tag along, and for an important reason: carrying on the memory of a great friend. If you know the story behind Tommy's Tigger, then you get the picture. If not, check out the Tigger Goes to Italy article from our 2008 Italy trip. You can see his photos from that trip in the Tigger Goes to Italy gallery. For his pictures on this trip, check out the Tigger Sails the Mediterranean gallery.
As mentioned, it might sound cliché, but this really was a trip of a lifetime. I would definitely not classify it as a vacation, though. Usually, a vacation implies that you'll get some rest and relaxation while you're away. We were going, going, going almost the entire time, with very little time for R&R. In the span of 17 days, we covered around 11,500 miles in the air, 2,983 nautical miles by sea according to the trip map on the ship (that's 3,433 statute miles), and who knows how many miles on the ground driving and walking everywhere we did in all of the places we visited. We visited 10 ports or cities in six different countries, and we had full days at every stop. I think I would classify this trip more as an adventure-cation, and I was extremely grateful for the Thanksgiving holiday upon our return to Houston. I really needed to come home to rest! Those four days of Thanksgiving weekend provided the time to properly recharge the batteries after the trip and time zone changes before having to get back to the real world. And after this trip, I've come to the conclusion that this whole real world thing is for the birds! 
But I wouldn't have traded anything in the world for this trip, or the experiences and sights, or for the travel group. The Stenbergs, McHaneys, Nails and Barry were the core group from our 2008 Italy trip. Judy, the Sizemores, the Smiths and Peggy and Carolyn were newcomers to our merry band of travelers, and what a combination we all made! Peggy and Carolyn joining us was pure coincidence, too, as we didn't know they had booked on the same trip we were taking until just a couple of months before we left. Peggy lives in the same community the folks do, and mom found out about it at Bingo one day! And Peggy and Carolyn were a lot of fun and added a lot to our trip! Another interesting fact: our group's age range was from 27 to 89! Who would have thunk that such a diverse bunch from all over the place could come together and have such a fantastic time together? I can only hope we can all get together and do it again! There was talk about Scotland/Ireland or Germany/Austria in 2012. All I can say is, "Let's go!!!"
To be exposed to and experience so many different places with so much rich culture and history is truly a privilege. It is also somewhat overwhelming - at least to me. I mean, we saw the stuff and places that laid the foundation for the modern world as we know it! Greece is self explanatory, as is Rome and the whole Italian peninsula. But I didn't know much - really anything - about the Etruscans before this trip or the resulting research. Or the Minoans. They were both great civilizations in their own time that predated even the ancient Greeks. We saw an ancient city that has a lot of both historical and Biblical significance in Ephesus. We visited two areas significantly affected in an both an historical and geologic sense by major volcanic events in Santorini and Pompeii. We even got on and off the ship in Barcelona, and that was the port/city to which Christopher Columbus returned to report to Queen Isabella after his first voyage to the new world! I've learned so much about the places we visited after returning from the trip, too, and in many ways, that has made the trip and the experiences all the more meaningful. That has definitely been a contributing factor to the lateness of my posting this trip story and the pictures. But I've had a blast doing it, and I hope everyone enjoys the stories and pictures as much as I have preparing them. But the one thing that makes it all super special for me is the fact that I got to share the places, the sights, the history and learning, the food and drink, and the good times with my folks and such an awesome group of people.
So thank you to my folks and our merry band of travellers for the privilege of allowing little 'ol me to tag along and share in the experiences with you! Gracias! Danke! Ευχαριστούμε! Teşekkür ederim! Grazie! And finally, adiós, auf wiedersehen, αντίο, elveda, and arrivederci!
In other words, Thanks! And bye for now!
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