But we knew that wouldn't last long. As we write today, it's white out there. And cold.
This year, Regent Seven Seas was taking the same crossing as last year...ending up in Rio. We weren't so thrilled about seeing Rio again. Florida sounded better. So we booked this year's crossing on Crystal Cruises instead, leaving Barcelona for Miami via Tenerife and St. Maarten.
We've been to Barcelona so many times, so we only stayed a couple of days in town, but finally we climbed the hill to Montjuic (we've been talking about doing this for years). Montjuic was the site of the 1992 Olympics and is now a beautiful park with views over the city. On the way up, we encountered a member of the Barcelona Rodent Detection and Control Committee:
If you think he's sitting on a wall, think again. He's in the top of a tree. And he's a big dude.
We did enjoy the view of the Sagrada Familia and the city.
And then it was time for the ship! We boarded the Crystal Serenity for a 12-day cruise. This was our first experience with Crystal so we studied the suite sizes and layouts before booking. We opted for a slightly larger suite...did we get a surprise! When we arrived at the ship just after noon, we were advised that our suite was ready. For those of you who have not cruised before...this is extremely rare. Suites usually aren't ready until mid-afternoon. OK, so we went up to the suite and found (gasp!) that our luggage was already there. For those of you who have not cruised before...this is unheard of. Gordon settled in with a glass of champagne:
The next surprise showed up at the door at about 4:00 p.m. The butler. No kidding...tux with tails. And cocktails. And snacks. Every day. We did not realize that we had booked a Butler Suite! We tried to take it in stride and struggle through. Oh, the suffering. Needless to say, Crystal is OK with us.
Crossing the Mediterranean, we awoke to this sunrise.
Later, while Pati was wandering around the ship, she encountered Professor Dumbledore and signed up for Hogwarts.
The ship pulled out all the stops when it came to Christmas decorating. There wasn't a surface left un-Christmassed. Gordon found an old friend of his:
And helped the Three Wise Bears on their Christmas journey:
Arriving St. Maarten was quite a sight. We got up early and went to the lounge to see. There were eight cruise ships converging on the island at once and it looked like the place was under attack from a cruise ship armada. Here's two of the fleet:
Four of the eight ships were the HUGE ones, and the Serenity wound up at anchor. We took one look at all the ships, estimated the people ashore, and stayed onboard. A nice, quiet day and as a bonus, clean laundry.
As always, sunset ceremonies were held in the bar nightly, and the sunset gods did not let us down:
We stayed in Florida for a couple of days, visiting with friends. Home again, we start preparing for the next cruise...we'll be off to Australia to begin a 35-day cruise to Hong Kong via Indonesia, Cambodia, and Viet Nam.
