Gibraltar, UK

Wednesday, May 25. Gibraltar was our first visit to the UK on this trip until July. We set off bright and early to make our way to the infamous steps up the rock. We made it to the old city wall and to our first challenge- left or right? Loren says "right;" Heather says "left, of course." So, we walked to the left, clockwise around the rock. In fact we walked clockwise for an hour and a half on the only road on that side of the mountain only to get to a tunnel with no pedestrian walking. So we turned back, had lunch on the ship, then explored the old city and gardens of Gibraltar but didn't have time to make it up the rock to see the view and the tailess monkeys.

Lesson learned: Whenever you find yourself in Gibraltar, do not go left at the wall. (Or do it purposely, so you have an excuse to return.)

Pic 1: Photo of the Rock and the city of Gibraltar taken from deck 10 on the ship.
Pic 2: Picture of an ugly Moorish castle.
Pic 3: Alameda Botanical Garden. Walkway over the gardens with intricate vine-age.
Pic 4: Giant koi fish, picture taken from the walkway bridge from picture 3.

Barcelona, Spain, Day 1

Friday, May 27. This was the last full day of our cruise and our first day in Barcelona. We enjoyed the city, strolled Las Ramblas, saw a cathedral, and walked the gothic quarter. Then we were back on the ship for our last dinner.

Pic 1: Mercat de San Joseph where you can buy fresh fruit, squids, whole cow legs, and eels.
Pic 2: The inside of the cathedral we visited.
Pic 3: Huge monument at one end of a gorgeous park where we spent about two hours eating lunch and using the free wifi.
Pic 4: Helicopter over a city square monitoring a protest that soon after we passed by broke out into a small riot.

Cadiz, Spain

Tuesday, May 24. Cadiz is one of the oldest continually inhabited cities in Europe. Despite this, from a tourist's perspective there is not really a whole lot there to see. However, we managed to spend the day there and had a good time doing it.

Pic 1: Cadiz, taken from the ship.
Pic 2: Parque Genoves. Gorgeous gardens with hundreds of flowers and what seemed like even more stray cats (to my delight!).
Pic 3: Roman ruins from a necrpolis.
Pic 4: Cathedral of Cadiz, currently being renovated, but we still got to step inside.

Funchal, Madiera, Portugal

Sunday, May 22. Funchal is located on the island of Madiera. The gorgeous city is situated as a natural amplitherter along the mountain side. We spent the day roaming the city, as we could not find the start of the levada walk we wanted to go on. Levadas are small chanels that bring fresh water to the cities from higher elevations.

Pic 1: Sunrise meets a storm front as we arrive to the isle (worry not, for we avoided rain until we had set sail).
Pic 2: Funchal from within.
Pic 3: One of the many crazy dogs that wanted to eat us. After this picture this dog's two friends joined in to bark at us.
Pic 4: Funchal from the ship.

Castaway Cay, Bahamas

Sunday May 15 we washed ashore at Disney's private island.

Aparently, these pictures will not show up in order, so please use your better judgements in matching each photo to its description.

Pic 1: Docks at Castaway Cay.
Pic 2: Sail boats with the Magic.
Pic 3: This island has an old airplane runway, a remnant from its pre-Disney days.
Pic 4: The island is covered in gorgeous tropical flowers.

Learning moment: A large part of the island's power for vehicles and buildings comes from biodiesel which Disney makes from the used cooking oil from the cruise ships.

Ahoy Meowers

We have started our journey on a 14 day transatlantic crossing. The Disney Magic is 960 feet long, has 10 decks, and on this vouage it has 1800 passengers and1000 crew. Today is day 10 of that voyage and we have been having a great time.

Pic 1: Our ship, taken from Castaway Cay, Bahamas.
Pic 2: Sunset at sea, taken from the aft on the Magic.
Pic 3: One of the towel animals that awaits us each evening when we retun to our stateroom.
Pic 4: Two escargos are missing in this photo because I was brave enough to eat them, Loren, however, did not attempt.

Meow-lo World

Bienvenidos a nuestro blog nuevo. Hence forth we shall be posting trip updates here on teh cat approved Blogger site. Have a meowvalous day.

P.s. Blogger android >> Tumblr android