Mahón or Maó as its known in the local dialect, is the largest city and port of the second largest island (Minorca) of the Balearic Islands which are part of Spain. It is the second deepest natural harbor in the world at 5km long and 900m wide, with very clear water.
The Carthaginians occupied the island in 205 BC and named the port after Mago Barca, the brother of Hannibal. In the middle ages Mahon was occupied by the Moors. In 1287 it captured by Alfonso III of Aragon who established the Kingdom of Majorca, a vassal state to the kingdom
Continue reading Mahón and Port-Vendres
As we arrived in Spain (Barcelona to be more exact), Brandi’s voice decided to take its own vacation, similar to when it disapeared before our wedding. It would not return until the end of the cruise. To say this was frustrating would be a huge understatement. An inability to communicate in anything but whispers — impossible in any crowded or public place. The other passengers on the ship were vaguely sympathetic, but made lots of jokes about singing or talking too much or Brian finally getting some peace and quiet for the first time in our marriage. Really it was
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The two Italian ports on our trip are the two little fishing towns of Portoferraio and Porto Venere. The fact that they are both small, Italian and based around the fishing industry is where the similarities end, the two towns are quite different in feel and energy.
Portoferraio is a town in the italian province of Livorno, on the edge of the eponymous harbor of the island of Elba and is the island’s largest city. Because of its terrain, many of its buildings are situated on the slopes of a tiny hill surrounded on three sides by the sea. In
Continue reading Portoferraio and Porto Venere
From the moment we entered the little air conditioned building in the port town of Civitavecchia, it was clear we were about to experience a completely new kind of travel. We were greeted with smiles by people in sharp uniforms and crisp white gloves. They confirmed the pronunciation of our last name, discussed dietary requests, and every spoken syllable was warm and welcoming. We had already dropped off our backpacks, we just had my purse and Brian’s camera bag on us — even then, they offered to carry them for us onto the ship. We were escorted onto the ship,
Continue reading Cruise Day 1 — Embarkation
Our flight from Amsterdam to Rome was only delayed a few hours, which made for a rather boring wait in the terminal while we waited for the plane to arrive. Compared to our last one it was a short little hop about 3 hours, but of course we slept through much of it. We got at least a good hour or two of sometimes-interrupted plane sleeping in on this one.
After arriving in Rome we donned our backpacks, instantly remembered that a heavy backpack is even heavier with no sleep, and quickly found the train station at the
Continue reading Roma!
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