Author Archives: Serene

While on our cruise, we made the specific choice to stay near the port for our shore excursions.  We did not want to exhaust ourselves by going on 9-10 hour excursions when we were in new ports day after day.  … Continue reading →

Our original itinerary had Monte Carlo as a port destination but changes offer opportunities and ours was to go to France. Our port was the Bay of Villefranche. Our ship was too large to dock directly so we used tenders – … Continue reading →

Barcelona was the end of the fourteen day transatlantic segment of our cruise and also the beginning of a seven day Mediterranean cruise. Eight hundred passengers, mostly American retirees, left the ship in Barcelona while six hundred of us were … Continue reading →

We viewed a lovely sunrise from our balcony as we came towards the port of Alicante Spain. This area has been populated for 7000 years by the regular cast of characters, the Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans and Arabs. The Spanish monarchy … Continue reading →

We were in the part of the cruise that had a new port every day, mostly along the southern coast of Spain.  Our next port was Málaga, a city thought to be 3000 years old. Established first by the Phoenicians … Continue reading →

Cadìz is arguably the oldest inhabited city in western Europe.  The history is authenticated from 1104 BC.   It was inhabited first by the Phonecians, then the Carthaginians (beginning in 530 BC) Romans (beginning in 49 BC),  Moors (beginning in … Continue reading →

When we purchased our transatlantic cruise, it included ports of Gibraltar and Monte Carlo.  However, we knew before we left home that those had been substituted out and our new ports were Cueta, Spanish Morocco and Nice, France. Flexibility is … Continue reading →

The Azores are a group of islands spanning a length of 373 miles.  The islands formed 50,000 years ago through volcanic eruption. Ten major islands surfaced and two were later joined through another eruption, leaving nine primary islands in the … Continue reading →

If Entertainment and Covid seems an odd title, it is unfortunately fitting. We first suspected that something was going on when the entertainment we could see scheduled out days ahead started changing.    We had gone through pretty rigorous requirements … Continue reading →

Our 21 day cruise started with six straight sea days. Actually it was eight out of the first nine days on board the Nieuw Statendam.  That allows for a lot of sea day activities and for sea day routines to … Continue reading →