October 28, 2018 – La Spezia, Italty – Mostly Cloudy, Showers, Cool – 57F

La Spezia is a seaport in the Liguria region of Italy.  The city, located at the head of the Gulf of La Spezia, has a population of 94,000 people.  La Spezia played an important role in post WWII history - after the liberation of the concentration camps, between Summer 1945 and Sprint 1948, several ships, carrying 23,000 holocaust survivors left La Spezia secretly for the Palestine Mandate (Israel).  In Israel today, La Spezia is called "Shaar Zion", the Gateway to Zion.

  

It is clear why the Captain chose La Spezia as a port in the storm.  The city is located at the top of a gulf and in a sheltered harbor.  

This should protect the ship from winds and other weather conditions.  You can see La Spezia from the deck of Constellation.

The ride to La Spezia was smooth in spite of all of the weather in the area.  We have been here before but I don’t remember much except that we tendered in and tendered back at night after visiting Florence. We did not spend much time in La Spezia.

It has been a while, but this morning, I was back in the Oceanview Café hoping to have my signature breakfast; I could not find the cottage cheese (I was told later than they had run out of cottage cheese).  Pancakes and eggs were backups.  There were few people up there this morning. 

We are not touring today - a long, rainy ride to Florence and then a damp day in Firenzia just didn't sound all that great.  Instead, we are going to tender into town and check out La Spezia.

I expected a rocky tender ride into the town but it was surprisingly smooth – it took about 10 minutes and the drop point was just a few hundred meters from the main street.  I was able to get a pretty good shot of Constellation out in the harbor.

We are currently anchored – the two piers are occupied by Queen Victoria and Costa Magica.  The plan is to take the berth vacated by the QV at 7 PM tonight.

Actually, La Spezia was a pleasant surprise.  The main street is lined with trees 

and just behind the street by the harbor there are relatively new buildings.  

It is a miserable day - as you can see from the gray and drizzly pictures.  Ellen is in her rain gear and I'm wearing shorts (clearly hoping for the weather to clear).

You have to go a few blocks away from the bay to find any cafes but they look in good condition.  Not too many shops are open on this nasty day.

At the top of the narrow streets,

you, can see the Castle of San Giorgio.  The castle dates back to the 13th and 14th centuries and has been recently restored.  

The marina is filled with some impressive boats including some serious yachts including this awesome black yacht.  

Continuing our walk, we come across a simple but poignant Holocaust Memorial,

as well as a monument to aviators (you can tell from all of the planes on the monument).

After a few blocks, you are in the hills of La Spezia and behind that are pretty good sized mountains speckled with nice homes.  With the light rain and gray hues, La Spezia is not at its best today.  It probably looks like a small version of  Malaga, Spain on a sunny day.

With the rain increasing in intensity, we headed back to the tender port and after a very short wait, we tendered back to the ship.

We spent the afternoon in the Solarium.  I am reading “The Rembrandt Affair”, book number 10 in the Gabriel Allon series by David Silva.  The book so far is depressing as it is all about Nazis.  Hoping that they will get theirs by book’s end.

My fourth presentation was originally scheduled between tonight’s two shows in the Reflections Lounge.  When the revised Daily Program for La Spezia was printed, the talk was now in the Theater.  We would not have noticed if we hadn’t looked once again at the Program.

After dinner, we ventured outside and got a picture of La Spezia at night as well as a shot of the QV departing.  Constellation can now slide into that berth for the night.

 

Tonight’s performer was Pete Matthews.  His luggage had not arrived so he did his entire show juggling and twirling stuff he found on the ship and/or purchased in town.  I like his comedy better than his juggling so I thought the show was pretty good.

Before the evening show, the Captain announced that we had docked and that Constellation would be spending the night in La Spezia and assess the weather conditions tomorrow. 

The announcement plus the fact that Pete’s show ran long only gave me a few minutes to set up.  The AV crew was cleaning up Pete’s materials and didn’t get to my set up until pretty close to 8:30 PM.  

There was a problem with the projector and then the headset mic didn’t work.  Now, “Forensics and History:  The Lost Dauphin of France” was going to have to be no longer than 40 minutes (anticipating this, I deleted about 10 slides while on stage - second photo below).  After being introduced by Sam, I took her hand held mic (still wearing my headset hoping it would come alive).  

Well, I flew through the talk and it felt like it – I might have established a minimal connection with the audience and that my slide transitions were sloppy.  Because of time, some information was not imparted. Not an acceptable effort in my opinion.  That's showbiz.  

The ship's public areas were cold so we went to the room.

x

October 27, 2018 – Toulon, France – Cloudy – Drizzly – Cool – 60s

Our port of call today is Toulon, the gateway to Provence.  I was up early and got a pre-dawn picture of our approach.

The ship is actually docked at a nearby port, La Seyne Sur Mer – about 8 km from Toulon.  To get to Toulon, you need to take a shuttle boat at $20 per person.  We opted instead to take a tour – actually more economical.

On tour – “Castellet” – is a four hour tour with two hours of free time.  A 30 minute drive through the gloomy French countryside

 

, 

to the medieval hill top village of Castellet (small castle in French and with a population of around 4000 people).  We entered the village through an ornate gate from the 14th Century.



We also spotted a bright red door with a date indicating a 17th century structure.  The red color probably came later.



We had a guided walking tour then free time. There is actually a Castellet in this village and I got some nice shots of it.







There are also great vistas from the top of the hill (I took some regular shots and a panoramic shot), and convinced a passenger to take a picture of us, as well.

There are also a Romanesque Church and several shops (we did find a place selling Castellet trinkets and bought a "sitting person" doll) and cafes to visit.  One of the shops we visited was a gallery displaying some interesting statuettes.

We also went to one of the local restaurants,



and had a wine tasting (I tried the Rose) along with snacks – gazpacho, focaccia pizza, olive spread on mini-toast plus a special veggie treat concocted just for us – butternut squash and walnut soup (I believe I had two helpings - the restaurant owner was very generous).  It was all very tasty and the timing was perfect as we were getting a bit hungry.  One of our very passengers took our picture.

We saw some interesting things on our free time, which we used to tour the village.  These included a monument dating back to 1895,



and a dojo, a martial arts studio (yes, in a hillside village in France),



We walked back down the hill, took some pictures of the narrow streets.



and olive trees,



We stopped in a local coffee shop - I had another coffee with crème – this one cost 4.5 Euros (still pretty good - taste not price).  We met another couple on the tour and chatted for a bit.
  

Our guide had an adorable, 



if not always comprehensible, accent.  It was a short but interesting tour.

A short ride back to the port and a relaxing afternoon in the Solarium.

The entertainer tonight was supposed to be comedian/juggler, Pete Matthews, but Pete’s luggage – containing most of his props – never got off the plane with him.  So while they wait for the bag to appear, the “Revolvers”, a 60s tribute band, swapped days with Pete.  We had just seen them on the Eclipse and tonight, they were amped up a bit too much, so we left early.  We found a quiet spot in the Rendezvous Lounge to read and do puzzles.

Before the show started tonight, the Captain came on the PA to announce that both Portofino and Livorno were experiencing adverse weather and that the ship would divert to La Spezia, Italy, which is 55 miles north of Portofino.  All tours would still operate from La Spezia (to Pisa and Florence).

Even though we are traveling East there is clock change tonight – back one hour.  Maybe this has something to do with European Daylight Savings.  I was confused because when I got up and checked the phone, the time had not been moved back.  I called Guest Relations and they said the phone would be corrected once I hung up. OK.

October 26, 2018 – Sete, France – Partly Cloudy – 65F

Sete, France is the country’s largest Mediterranean fishing port.  Sete has a series of canals that are reminiscent of Venice.  It is our first visit to this port.

 

It's a chilly day today in the south of France.  The port is very close to the city of Sete and we will check it out later.



We are on tour today – “Camargue and Aigues Morte” – Camargue is a nature preserve with a large population of flamingos and Aigues Morte is a walled city from the 13^th Century built by King Louis IX - later to be Saint-Louis.

It is about an half hour to Aigues Mortes from Sete; Although Camargue is on the way to Aigues Morte, our bus must have passed it pretty quickly as I didn't see any town.  I did see the famed flamingos out in the water - there were quite a lot of flamingos but I could not get a decent picture of them from the bus.

Aigues Mortes, which means "dead water' or "stagnant water" is a well preserved Medieval walled city with a current population of about 8300 people.  Our guide gave us some background information on the city before letting us off on our own to shop or check out the restaurants.  The following photos of the city clearly point out the medieval character.  The walls are impressive and the streets are narrow.  You enter the city through a series of gates.

The first sight we visited on arrival was the Tower of Constance.  This structure was built in 1242 on a site of a previous tower built by Charlamagne (about 500 years earlier).  The tower is over 120 feet tall and about 70 feet in diameter.  Trees obstructed the view of the tower but I still got a pretty good shot.

The main square - The Square of Saint-Louis - contains a statue of the king



as well as a nice garden area and restaurants.

We stopped in at El Mio, a restaurant in the square.







The cafe owner spoke very little English but I managed to get my order in.  I brought a baguette for 80 Eurocents and a coffe and creme (3.50 Euros) and dipped the bread into the coffee (heavenly).

We checked out the various shops looking for trinkets (mainly magnets) but were unsuccessful in finding any.  Shopkeepers were all very friendly and helpful.

We got back in time to have lunch in the Oceanview Café and then go back out and see the town of Sete.  Since you can’t walk in the pier area, the port authority provided a free shuttle from the ship to the entrance of the port.  From there, you just have to walk across the street to get to the town.  







The town was not as non-descript as Shorex made it out to be.  Sete reminded me of a less dark and moldy Venice. There are canals but there are also streets.  We had low expectations but were pleasantly surprised by this cute little town. The weather was good and the outdoor cafes were bustling with locals.

On particularly interesting statue called "A La Gloire des Joutes" statue of a boy with a pole and a shield.  It commemorates the sport of water jousting which is jousting carried out on boats - a tradition in Sete.



Showtime tonight was the Production Show, “The Land of Make Believe” – we saw this mashup of Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland, and other fairy tales six years ago on the Constellation.  Some of the songs have changed but it is both silly and entertaining.  The new singers and dancers performed well (almost all of the cast came on board this cruise).

A pleasant day in the South of France.