Corsica, France

Today we are visiting the island of Corsica, France, docking at the largest city of Ajaccio.

This little boat was taking the very heavy ropes from the ship to some of the moorings.

Here's the view from our balcony.  The cruise ship next to us is advertised as a luxury experience by Explora, a division of MSC cruises. 

We did a tour of Corsica, the birthplace of Napoleon Bonaparte. I found it strange that this island is part of France, when all of the surrounding islands are Italian. 

Turns out, back in the 1700s, it was under Italian rule. For about fifteen years in the mid 1700s they were able to become independent due to the efforts of Pascal Paoli. He studied in Florence during the age of enlightenment. He came back to Corsica and wrote the first articles of Democracy in the world. Every household had two votes. He is considered the hero of Corsica.

The French invaded in 1768, and they won. Paoli had to flee so he wouldn't be beheaded. The French banned the Corsican language in public, and made the only language French. In the 1970s, that ban was lifted. About 30 percent of the inhabitants are bilingual and speak both languages. 

There was also a period where pirates and slave traders came to the island. About seventy watch towers were built on the smaller islands surrounding Corsica. If pirate or slave ships were spotted, smoke would be released at the towers. That allowed everyone to hide in the dense forested areas in the mountains.  The slave traders stole white and black people, especially children. Some towers still remain. 

Corsica's main economy is tourism. They are known for beautiful beaches and warm weather attracting many French tourists.

According to our guide, they have so many tourists that they can't catch enough fish to feed them all. There are fish farms out a bit from shore.

Napolean was born in 1769 to a semi noble family. At age nine he was sent to military school on the mainland. He was a brave soldier, fighting right alongside his troops, winning many battles. He got greedy and power crazy, and ended up exiled. Our guide was very knowledgeable, and we learned a great deal more about him. Too much to include here.  😃 

Many streets, plazas and shops sport his name. There is a very large monument dedicated to him.

He is depicted with his hand over his stomach. It is said he often stood that way because he had stomach pain. He died in exile at age 51 of stomach cancer.

We did a bit of a walking tour in the old town area. We saw the house Napoleon was born in and lived at as a child. 

Typical street in old town.

There is a cathedral in the old town built in 1577. Pope Francis who recently passed away made his last foreign visit there six months before his death. 

 

Beautiful pipe organ

Upon our return to the ship, there was a smaller cruise ship docked between us and the Explora. It's owned by a French company called CroisiMe, and even had a small swimming pool. Total of 197 passengers. 

The day ended with another amazing sunset!

Barcelona, Spain

Our first cruise ended today in Barcelona. We could have stayed onboard, but wanted to a least see a bit of Barcelona. There are over 300 people staying on for the second cruise. The ship offered a free shuttle into town. We had prepurchased tickets for a hop on, hop off bus. 

There are at least seven cruise ships in the humongous port today. Once we were on the top deck of a bus, we decided to just do the 2.5 hour trip and not get off. There were long lines at each stop. 

We saw many areas of the huge city.  The city itself is 38 sq. miles with 1.6 million people.  However, the metropolitan area covers 1,249 sq. miles and 5.7 million people. We can attest to it being very crowded, and a traffic nightmare. 

It's hard to get decent pictures because there are many trees and parks. That's great for the residents, but not for photos.

Barcelona hosted the Olympics in 1992. We saw quite a few remaining venues. This is the main stadium and the fire cauldron. It was lit with a flaming arrow being shot at it!

This Communications tower was next to the stadium. It was designed by Calatrava to televise the 1992 Olympics. Our Wisconsin friends will recognize the Calatrava name as he designed the Milwaukee Art Museum. Too bad all communication towers aren't this beautiful!

Picture from the web 

We passed many amazing architectural buildings. I don't know what all of them are, but they were beautiful!

Original Customs building 1896

New architecture, Barcelona's largest bank needs two huge black towers

The red coliseum behind the statue in this plaza was a bull fighting ring. Bull fighting has been banned since the 1970s in Barcelona. 

The other side of the plaza had these two towers where they used to have public hangings. Yikes!

The highlight of the day was most definitely Sagrada Familia, the largest unfinished Catholic church in the world.  Designed by Antonio Gaudi, it was begun in 1882. As you can see by the cranes, they are still working on it. When it is finished, it will be the tallest church in the world. Words can't describe it. I've never seen anything like it!!

Picture from the web 

There are many statues sculpted into the construction on each side, depicting Christ's life. The detail is astounding!

Angel at top

Glass star atop a spire

Gaudi was a famous architect and designer, 1852-1926. He was hit by a tram and died, seeing only a small portion of the construction. He is buried inside.

It is now a Unesco World Heritage site, and was consecrated and declared a minor Basilica by the Pope in 2010. It has been built solely on donations. 

I would have loved to have had time to get off and walk around all sides, and visit the inside. I hear it's equally impressive. But, we didn't want to miss the ship!

One of the city squares has two gas street lamps designed by Gaudi in 1879. This stuff was built to last!

There is a 197 foot tall statue of Christopher Columbus built in 1888. His finger is pointing out to sea, but in the direction of Africa instead of the Americas. 😃 

We passed the stadium for Futbol Club Barcelona.  The stadium was undergoing a massive renovation. The soccer club was founded in 1899. It is the third most valuable in the world at $5.6 billion. It is one of the most widely supported and decorated clubs in the world. 

We spent quite a bit of time in a traffic jam caused by this protest. I wish I could read the sign on the mannequin on the front of the truck. 

There were many interesting and pretty trees and flowers. I've never seen this kind of tree.

On the way we saw these five cruise ships lined up. Ours is the second one with the water slide. There were at least two more at different piers. I've never seen such a busy port!

A view of the city from our top deck. 

There are a lot of cargo ships out there. I'm assuming they're waiting their turn to enter. 

Another interesting day in Spain!

Mallorca, Spain

Today we visited the island of Mallorca, pronounced my-your-ka. It is a very popular tourist destination, known for beautiful beaches. Annually, they have about 13 million visitors. The largest percentage are German, British and Spanish. 

We docked at the capital city, Palma. Here's a view of Palma from the ship.

Originally, I had booked a Flamenco show for this stop. I was extremely disappointed when it ended up being canceled. So, last minute I booked us a tour called Easy Palma. Note to self: tours labeled easy are full of walkers, wheelchairs, and people who are barely mobile. I understand they want to see the sites, too; but we're not in that category yet. No more easy tours!

Our first stop was the Catedral Basilica de Santa Maria de Mallorca, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. I've noticed Spanish historic places have long names. Construction of the Catholic cathedral started in 1229. Work continued into the 17th century. We only saw the outside, but it was magnificent. 

View from the ship 

On the left side of the cathedral is the Royal Palace of La Almudaina for the royal family. Spain still has a king, but similar to England, he is a figurehead. The palace is only used for official functions. The royals don't stay there. 

There are beautiful gardens around the palace.

Many tourist photos of Mallorca feature windmills. At one time, there were 3,300 windmills on the island. There are still some to be seen in the middle of the city in various states of repair.

Mark Zuckerberg's mega yacht named Launchpad is currently parked in the marina. It cost $300 million, and is 387 feet long. To put that in perspective, longer than a football field. Doesn't everyone need one???

But, Mark is conservative compared to Jeff Bezos. His yacht, Koru, left here recently. It was $500 million, is 417 feet long, and is the world's largest sailing yacht. Must be rough. 

Our last stop was Castell de Bellver. It was built on a hill in early 1300s for King James II as one of only a few circular castles in Europe. Originally, it was the residence of the king, then it was a military prison, and is now a museum.

It has four towers. Three are attached to the castle. The fourth is freestanding, with a drawbridge connecting it. It was a last level of escape in case of attack, but the castle was never attacked. 

View of castle from ship

Aerial view from web

Views from up there were incredible!

Today is the last day of this cruise. Tomorrow, we dock in Barcelona. We are planning to take a ride on the hop on, hop off bus before the ship leaves again tomorrow afternoon. 

The next cruise is ten days visiting southern Italy and Greece. More adventures await!

We enjoyed our first visit to Spain. I was surprised how mountainous each city was. The people were friendly, and prices were reasonable even though the dollar is 11% below the Euro.