#107 2022 November 5-11. Nomad Diary. Begin 26 Day Cruise: Barcelona, Spain to Ft Lauderdale, Florida. Toulon, France. Livorno, Italy. Kotor, Montenegro.

 

Cheeses at the market near our apartment in Barcelona

In the market

Our cappuccinos and croissants. Darrell won on this croissant with dark chocolate and a slice of orange including the peeling! It was delicious!

Nice flower stand

Wide even Barcelona streets.

Gothic section in Old Barcelona. Old narrow streets, restaurants, shops and apartments.

Looking for lunch.

We have tapas: eggplant, artichokes and chorizo sausages. 

Barcelona is artsy all over the place!

Beautiful artistic handmade candies.

Cutie Quinn, 2, with his Mom and Dad!

Saturday. 5. Up at 6am. Exercise. Breakfast in our apartment. Some computer and phone time. Walk to a local Mercat that is a big building with booth shops under one roof. Darrell finds a place to get our luggage tags for our cruise printed. We purchase a couple of personal items at a store. We have a croissant and cappuccino, then go back by our apartment for a few minutes. Next we take off to walk 2.5 miles to the Gothic Quarter of Barcelona. We make it down there for lunch time. It’s fun walking through the narrow passages between the buildings from medieval times. We had tapas for lunch including eggplant, artichokes and chorizo sausage. It was all tasty and satisfying. We found some handmade hard candies and purchased a small jar and tasted them. They were so flavorful and pretty that we decided to go back and buy a pound to carry back to the US for christmas gifts. Back at our apartment we had a call with Jeremy, Andrea and Quinn. On the walk back, I bought a big sweet potato from a street vendor. It was cooked to carmelized but cold. For dinner, I sliced it and pan fried it with chopped garlic and olive oil. I topped it with some of the cheese we had. It was quite delicious. 

Week’s Highlights.

Us in the sea of pink shirts.

Dragging our suitcases a long way. Lol.

Cruise ships lined up in Barcelona

Our cruise ship room.

Sunday. 6. We got up early and did our exercises. Finalized drying our last load of laundry. Made breakfast with our remaining foods: eggs, fruit, cheese, salami, sweet potato, juice, and coffee. We finished packing then left our apartment, luggage in tow and backpacks on, around 8:30 for the long walk to the ship with our arrival time at 11am. It’s maybe 4 miles because the dock is so long here and our ship is the in the last spot! Lol! On the way we stopped for a cappuccino as we planned. Before we did that, we came to a huge traffic circle and there were hundreds of women all wearing the same pink shirt that said in Spanish: Run of the women, or something like that. We had to work our way through that crowd and cross streets with way more people than we expected as we navigated our way around the circle to our street. We arrived at the ship, entered the que, turned our luggage in, and were onboard for lunch. In our room were some items we purchased. Tickets for an excursion and a reminder of my massage today. I went to the spa and moved my appointment up so I could coordinate with online worship in the states. Already busy and relaxed on the ship. Dinner at the buffet after church (online and together). A show in the theater and then to bed. 

Sunrise on ship.

Marina at Toulon where we rode a water shuttle in.

Street scene in Toulon.

A candy store in Toulon.

Skyride behind Darrell

View from skyride.

Toulon below us.

View from the wooded mountain top path.

John, Sue and us shared dinner on this cruise…their 56th anniversary!! Wow!

Monday. 7. Arrived Toulon, France. We woke up around 5 am. Early enough to get to the gym to do our DDP routine before the scheduled class. Then we went to breakfast at the buffet since it’s open early. For today we decided to ride a skylift up the mountain overlooking Toulon. Once we get off the ship, I pick up a map on the way out. We quickly realize that we have to take a 30 minute water shuttle across to Toulon. We pay and get on the shuttle. There are several places to go between by way of water taxi. Once we arrive in Toulon, we walk around a bit, then find the tourist office to get our tickets to the bus that will take us to the skylift. It’s set up well and they have been expecting tourists for this. The bus driver has to instruct riders one by one as we get on and validate our tickets. The bus has to take a detour due to an accident. We get to the skylift and take an amazing 10 minute ride up the mountain. Below us are rocky descents and nice houses with beautiful pools built on higher ground. Once we get off at the top, it is quiet with some bird sounds. The trees are tall and providing shade. There are signs and paths to various places and one restaurant. We walk around and over the backside of this lookout. There is a valley and another ridge of mountains. We take off on a path into the woods and walk about 20 minutes to a zoo. We decide not to go into the zoo, but to walk back and get the skylift down the mountain. Cruisers sitting at the restaurant call us over and we stand and talk for a while before walking on over to the skylift. We ride back down the mountain, take the bus back to town and walk around some more as we head back to the water shuttle and back to the ship. Once on the ship we have a late lunch on board at the buffet. We get a nap. Then meet up with a couple for dinner who we met on a Panama cruise in April. There was another couple who were coming too, but had to cancel coming on the cruise. We enjoy having dinner and getting acquainted again with John and Sue from Knoxville, Tennessee. We go to a show and then to bed. 

Sunrise over Livorno, Italy

Great architecture!

Old fort walls and canals.

Old bridges

We found lunch inside this building.

Livorno art mural on side of building

Tuesday. 8. Today we woke up a little too late to get to the gym to have the workout room to ourselves. We do our routine in our room. It’s a little tight, but works ok. We decided to go to the dining room for breakfast because we are going slow and don’t have a tour. After breakfast and morning coffee, we go off the ship. Our ship is in Livorno, Italy at a shipping dock! Lol. You must ride a shuttle to town if you want to go. So we get right onto a shuttle bus and in 15 minutes we are in the city center. We walk around and see 16th century architecture and newer stuff too! There are also several parks and statues set up dedicated to different people significant to this town. There are canals with boats parked in them like cars in a parking lot. It’s nice walking beside a canal. I see a market building and we go into it to find some lunch. I see some people having small charcuterie board snacks. The menu is hard for us to understand even with Google translator. We walk away and then come back around and sit down. The waiter comes over and asks us what language, as he speaks at least 4. We tell him what we want and we have a delicious meal. We walk a bit more toward our bus stop and then get back to the ship. We rest for a bit. We sit outside and have some soup and water. We have a call with Eric and Owen. We go to a game of trivia and play with a Canadian couple. Then we meet up with John and Susan for dinner again. Another show and quiet time in our cabin.

Enjoying time to read on a beautiful day at sea

Wednesday. 9. Today is a sea day. On the Regal Princess. Had a nice morning Bible study with a retired librarian from Illinois named Quita (Kweeta). Planned to see her on sea days and anyone else who joins us for reading the book of Mark together.

Odd two lights at sunset over a glassy sea

Thursday. 10. Today is a sea day. 

View from the ship in Montenegro.

View from ship in Montenegro

Taken from our bus on the way to the Olive Oil processing farm.

Old olive oil press, put together and used by the owners grandfather.

After a hundred people tasted olive oil, bread, cheese and prosciutto! 

Over the mountain we arrive at Budvi with this stunning view!

Old Budvi is on view with the clay roofs and next to the sea.

On the old city walls.

Our tour guide Evan who is one month older than our son Wes! His shirt and red beard reminded me of our sons! 

Entering Old Kotor city walls.

View of old wall above old Kotor

On Kotor old city wall

Friday. 11. Arrive Kotor, Montenegro. We have a 20-30 minute tender from our ship to the shore. Once we are on shore we find are directed to our group bus for our excursion to an olive oil tasting at a small farm. At the farm processing plant, we are given a brief explanation of what happens in this room. They are currently in a peak of their season, and were up until 3am just cleaning up for all of us tourists to be there. They explain that old way of pressing olive oil and the new machinery that produces a cleaner oil. The oil is kept cool in dark bottles. They pour some out for us to taste with bread. It is sharp and peppery compared to other oils we have tasted. This oil has been pressed this week and I like it! We buy a couple of bottles to take with us. It makes me very happy to taste and enjoy such a fresh food with an ancient history! From here we go to a restaurant for a light lunch in Butva. It overlooks a beautiful bay and the old walled city of Butva. After lunch we go to the old city and wander around it for an hour before meeting up with our group to go back to Kotor. We get back and have time to go through the old walled city of Kotor before heading back to the tender and to the ship. 

Nomad Notes. I have been excited as this cruise approached because we will be living in one place for a full month!  It’s the longest we are living in one place since the cruise we took leaving Ft. Lauderdale in May for 34 days. Besides being ‘settled’ for a full 26 days, I’m happy to be going back to the US! I’m interested to see friends and family in person. I’m curious about reintegrating back into the US especially with driving our truck again after so many months of not driving.

This question has come up several times in the last week when we are telling people about our Nomad life: *What do you do about doctors when you are traveling with no fixed place of living? 

Our current answer: We use our time in the states, and in Huntsville, Alabama specifically to schedule doctor and dentist appointments. Darrell has 2-4 total appointments per year and I had 2-3 specific doctor appointments while living in Huntsville December-March 2021-22. I visit a chiropractor when I can in certain towns and get massages when possible. I had a fall while in Bath, England and required EMT attention with super glue to my cut. 

We also have an insurance policy thanks to Darrell’s work history (GEHA for active and retired US government employees) that allows us to be overseas, get treatments and submit the receipts for reimbursement.