Our 2009 European singles cruise was a great time had by all. All of the singles in our group enjoyed vacationing together and seeing the amazing sights on this dream itinerary through the Mediterranean. Check out next year’s Greek Isles and Turkey itinerary.
We started out in Barcelona. You can tell as soon as you land in Barcelona and take a taxi from the airport that this city is a magical place and I could not wait to get out of the cab, drop my stuff at Hotel Victoria and hit the street to take it all in.
Las Ramblas is the heart and soul of this great city, people everywhere on the long stretch of road with Cafe’s, bars, hotels, businesses, fresh food markets, all kinds of tourist shops, and people watching. It never stops, day, night, back into day again. Las Ramblas’s energy could power a large cruise ship for days. About 20 early birds in our group met up at the hotel for a Barcelona tour by bus.
Wow, it was terrific! We got to see the whole city, from the famous Architect Antoni Gaudi’s magnificent Temple de la Sagrada Familia church, to park’s and building’s all designed and built in the early 1900’s and still being used daily by people working, living, playing or praying in them. Art museums, bull fighting rings, you name it the 3 hour tour was very enlightening about this awesome city. Time for dinner, another walk around Las Ramblas and a good night sleep before the big cruise in the morning.
The first port of call after departing Barcelona is Cannes-Nice-Monaco France. The beauty is everywhere from the beach to the sea… it’s just one big fantastic playground, and it just kept getting better all day. Wow what a start for a 12 day cruise.
Before you knew it, it was 7am the next day and we all met and headed out for our tour of Florence, Italy. We got to Florence and Pisa before all the crowds so the Leaning Tower of Pisa was all ours for viewing and picture taking. Some quality relaxing time to stare at one of the Wonder’s of the World. And then it was in to see Michelangelo’s David, we had seen a lot duplicates of this masterpiece around the world, but nothing as breathtaking as the real “Mc Coy.” We were all awe struck at such a magnificent creation.
It’s 7am and it’s time to meet and head off the ship to meet our tour guide for a day in Rome. Our Italian tour guide, Francesco, was not only knowledgeable but also charming! We had a quick raffle to see who got to sit next to him! You ladies need to simmer down. Rome is amazing – the history, the ruins, churches, the food, the people, it’s all so overwhelming and it takes a couple of days to really see it all. We even got to stop for a family style lunch at a restaurant that has been open since 1959 and the same Mama and Papa are running it , he collects the money, she still does all the cooking, and oh what a meal it was, it was the highlight of a great Rome day for many.
Sea day arrives and our fun singles activities today are battle of the sexes, then dance lessons, trivia, a cocktail party, dinner, and we’re staying up late tonight because we don’t arrive in Venice until 2pm tomorrow! So it’s boogie down time tonight. Venice is incredible the canals, bridges, bell tower’s, churches, St. Mark’s Square, so many tourists buzzing around. It was a lot of fun checking out the water taxis, churches, castles, bell towers, gondolas, and walking throughout Venice and it’s amazing canals and bridges.
Cruising along the coast of Dubrovnik in the early morning you could tell we were in for a great day, the weather, like the rest of this voyage is perfect, blue skies, no clouds, but it’s hot outside and it’s only 8:30am. After leaving the ship we head out to meet our guide, and I can see the excitement on the ladies faces again, another European hottie, just what the ladies in our group ordered, this was a walking tour and I never saw so many women paying such attention before!
After a lot of touring of the old city, we walked the wall, and now it was time for a brave few to take a walk along the rocks to a little beach area where we can swim in the Adriatic sea. Way to go Laurence and Requel you said you couldn’t climb over all those big rocks and that fenced wall, but you did it. Dubrovnik Croatia is a hidden gem. Well the day is closing on us, and we have to get back to the ship, one more port tomorrow and that’s Corfu, Greece.
We’ll it’s another beautiful day in the neighborhood, so let’s going touring in Corfu. Right away the one thing you notice, is you can’t read anything, unless you took Greek in school. The first stop is a unique castle and a church, and then we spent the rest of the day sunning and swimming and enjoying this Greek island of Corfu.
The final two sea days were full of hanging out at the pools, ship games, our private cocktail parties, and lot’s of conversation about this amazing voyage we all experienced together. Until we meet again next year in Europe somewhere, thanks for being with us on a truly enlightening, fun, educational, amazing time on this 2009 European voyage.
Harvey Greck
