NOVEMBER OCEANIA CRUISE - 2013

VENICE TO BARCELONA

Fall 2013

by Steward LaCasce

with Photos by Bob LaCasce

(Note:  Click on photos for larger views)

What follows, is a summary of our trip on 

Oceania's Marina, from October 29 – November 10. 

Our accommodations were somewhat more 

comfortable than we'd had on previous cruises, and the food was better. 

We traveled with our good friend 

and winter neighbor, Karin Lanham, and visited no 

fewer than six countries in twelve days!

Venice, Italy

We'd all been to Venice just a year ago, so this was like coming home. There were the usual photogenic canal scenes and more from the Rialto, the most famous bridge going over the Grand Canal. Karin just gazed and gazed at the busy traffic below including the usual gondolas and the working ships that bring everything the City needs into port . We also stocked up ourselves on wine and prosecco for our pre-dinner get-togethers.

Kotor, Montenegro

This beautiful city, surrounded by mountains, has a couple of small islands in its bay. 

The old city is surrounded by an ancient wall, while the new one spreads outward from this core. Karin and I could not resist Bob's plea for a photo of us entering the gate of the old city.

Corfu, Greece

Bob and I had been here before, so the view from our
balcony was familiar. This time, we visited the old fort and the beautiful church that the British built in the 19^th Century to look like a Greek temple. Later, I insisted on a photo of Bob sitting, appropriately, between Greek columns.

Naxos & Taormina, Sicily, Italy

None of us had been here before, so after arriving in the port of Naxos, we immediately took a cab up the steep slopes to the resort town of Taormina. It is most famous for its Roman

Amphitheater that was built of brick over a Greek original and situated so that the view beyond the stage includes Mount Etna. Unfortunately, by the time we arrived, Etna had disappeared behind mist and clouds, some of

which it created. The view from there looking down at the Naxos harbor was stunning, and I had a hard time tearing Bob and Karin away from it. 

On the way back to the ship, Bob and I bought our memento for the trip, an

oversized plate by one the many artisans in the area. It barely fit in my suitcase, but made the trip home safely.  

As we sailed away that evening, Bob could not resist one more photo of this most photogenic city.

Naples, Italy

While Karin took a tour of Pompeii, which Bob and I had

seen a dozen years earlier, we went back to the Naples Archeological Museum with its famous Farnese collection of antiquities, including that of Antinous, who, for a couple of centuries AD, competed with Jesus as the favored deity of the ancient world. We also viewed may artifacts recovered from Pompeii after Mount Vesuvius covered it in ash in 79 AD. One was a portrait of a lady done in mosaic. What we had not realized was that wealthy citizens also had columns covered in mosaic as well.

Lucca, Italy

Somehow, this Medieval walled city managed to survive Italy's many wars over the centuries. Its central “square” is actually built over a Roman Amphitheater, and hence is round. 

Among Lucca's many surprises was this most unusual church.

Monte Carlo, & Nice, France

From our balcony, we took a photo of the Monte Carlo's

famous casino, but we did not stop in the Principality long enough to visit it. Instead, we took a half-hour trip to Nice to visit the Matisse Museum. Housed in his former home is the world's largest collection of his work. We agreed, though, that his best pieces reside elsewhere, including The Hermitage in St. Petersburg.

Marsaille, France

To help mark its designation as Europe's City of Culture this year, it built a new museum of Mediterranean Culture.

It's most interesting architectural feature is a lace-like covering that conceals a parking lot. We did not visit the famous cathedral that overlooks the City, but we did note a most interesting one near the new museum.

Barcelona, Spain

This was Karin's first visit here, so we selected two of our favorite sites for her to visit. The first, Gaudi's basilica, Sagrada Familia, which is still being built after the Master's death in 1926. He personally oversaw every detail of its construction during his lifetime including stunning stained glass windows and staircases that wind upward like vines. 

But the most awe-inspiring feature has to be the towering

tree-like columns best seen down the central aisle toward the high alter, under which he is buried.

Then, after a great lunch of tapas at a restaurant that our friends, the Kesslers, discovered a couple of years ago, we visited Gaudi's apartment building, Casa Mila. Finally, we strolled back to our ship down Passeig de Grassia to the City's famous walking street, La Rambla.

I won't describe our 4:30 am departure from the ship the next day or any of the 24-hour ordeal it took us to fly to Phoenix, where we collapsed for the night before we drove home the next morning. It would take the glow off the whole trip!

Home to Tucson

We made it safely back to Tucson, where our neighbors, the Brucatos, met us at the airport. The trip was relatively uneventful and "only" 21 hours or so door to door. Air travel is becoming such a trial that we're planning on taking only this one airline trip this year. Happily, it was a good one.

On the Town and on our Way

This morning, all four of us--Karin, Susan, Bob, and I--walked to the Wallace Collection, a nearby museum that I last visited nearly fifty years ago. It has aged much better than I have. Almost all the rooms in the mansion have been refurbished with period cloth wall coverings and gold accents on the elaborate moldings. If only grants from large trusts and wealthy donors

could do the same for me, I might get over my distaste for fund raising.

The collection houses a lot of romantic and sentimental paintings I don't care for, but then you notice a Velazquez portrait, Hals' The

Laughing Cavalier, Fragonard's naughty The Swing, and, of course, half a dozen or so Rembrandts including an early self-portrait and one of his son Titus.

Like most museums in the city, this one is free, and always, you run into small groups of school children on tour with note pads and teachers. Despite the economy, England still treasures its art.



Unfortunately, it no longer treasures theater the way it used to by underwriting ticket prices, but on this trip, we did not let that stop us. Already we've seen Sondheim's 'Merrily We Roll Along' (magnificant), 'Billy Elliot' (tired), and, tonight, Alan Bennet's 'Untold Stories.'

For lunch today we were guests of Sandra Soriano, a friend of Karin's, at a restaurant in town, and tonight, our friend of almost fifty years, Tosh Lee, is joining us for dinner and the play. Sadly, we'll have to say goodbye to Tosh tonight and tomorrow morning to London itself. We leave for the airport fairly early, so this may be our final post on the blog--or maybe I'll add a P.S. when we're back in Tucson.

London Lessons

Karin's friend went on her own today, so that left her to go with Bob and me.  The three of us have traveled together to St. Petersburg, Berlin, Rome, Florence, and Venice, but none of these provided the lessons she needed in London to fit in.

First, get used to the London tube. It feels as if you're headed to the center of the earth. Then, when we buy tickets to West End shows at the discount ticket office in Leicester Square, be sure to queue up. Wait your turn. We picked up tickets for tonight to "Billy Elliot." Karin got tickets for tomorrow night's "The 39 Steps."

We then went to the National Gallery to visit some old friends--Rembrandt, Velazquez, Caravaggio. Then, after a quiet lunch in the crypt of St. Martin in the Fields Church, we stopped by the gelato shop that Bob discovered yesterday where he found his Holy Grail of flavors, frutti di bosco. Thus fortified, we headed to the National Portrait gallery to visit some more old friends--Elizabeth I, Winston Churchill, Samuel Johnson, E. M. Forster.

On the way to the second museum, Karin, now properly trained, saw another queue and promptly joined it . . . until the headmistress said,

"Terribly sorry, no more room on the bus."

London

Yesterday, we took the Chunnel train from Paris to London, a ride that took 2:15 hours. Amazing. After checking into our hotel near Marble Arch, we took the underground out to Acton to visit our longtime friend, Tosh Lee, and have dinner with her and her daughter-in-law.

Today, we visited the British Museum to see how its display of Western art compared with that at the Louvre. Its three must-see objects were the Rosetta Stone (couldn't get past the crowds to photograph it), the Elgin Marbles from the Parthenon, and the Portland Vase. Bob did take photos of his favorite marble, the horse's head peaking over what would have been the very end of the front frieze, and the Portland Vase, which was certainly worth writing an ode about.

The number of  items owned by the BM are similar to those at the Louvre, but they are much better displayed, and not just because all the signs were in English. I did ask Bob to take a photo of the Roman Emperor Markus Aurelius, whose Meditations I read from time to time, particularly when our broken political system gets me down.

Although we have no photos of it, I do want to mention an astonishing discovery in the collection, an almost-complete frieze from an inner room from The Temple of Apollo at Bassi. Why this has not gained pop-star status, I  don't know.

We then bought two bottles of cold sparkling water from the gift shop, which they put in a BM shopping bag for us to display on the underground and the aboveground. We never cease to be amazed at the seemingly endless escalators that take you deep under the city for the former, or having the latter turn into a perfect, sunny day in the 70s. And the water was excellent too.

Next stop was Leicester Square, where Bob picked up tickets that he'd ordered on line for Steven Sondheim's rarely-produced musical, Merrily We Roll Along. We are seeing it this evening with Tosh and our next-door neighbor from Tucson, Karin Lahnam, who just happens to be in London for the next three days with one of her employees, Susan Carlson.

A Touch of French History

Today we explored the Marais District that lies between our hotel at Place de la Republic and Ile St. Louis. It was the place to live back before Louis XIV built Versaille, and the museum we visited is housed in two of its elegant town houses.

Musee Carnavalet traces the history of France (with special emphasis on Paris) from prehistoric times (closed for renovation) into the 20th century. What makes it especially

delightful is the number of furnished, period rooms that show how the very wealthy lived in the 17th and 18th centuries. And their little dogs too!

We had expected to see displays of the French Revolution (1789) that ended all of this opulence, but it too was closed for renovation. Just as well. All that blood and gore.

Instead, we skipped ahead to La Belle Epoque,where we were taken by a portrait of a fashionable lady and a satirical piece by Albert Guillaume 
about more fashionable folk carrying on at some theatrical performance.

Somewhere along the line, we also saw an elegant, framed tapestry of a still life. What made it so special was the warm, fuzzy feeling that the unexpected medium  gave it. (Woven, not painted, fruit?)

Oh, and the gardens too were elegant. We'd seen them yesterday wandering by the gate, but Bob snapped a photo of one as it was intended to be seen--from above.

This museum, unlike the Louvre, was almost empty . . . and it was free! 

After, we wandered through the Jewish district and had lunch at Finkelsztajn's, a father and son place that had been in business since 1946. Our hot borek au fromage de brebis (cheese in philo dough) followed by a kind of apple pie and a raspberry cheese cake amply demonstrate why they've been in business so long.