We left the port of Savona exactly on time at 5:00pm. The
voyage out to sea was seamless and the water was so even and placid which was
surprising considering the storm clouds that hovered above. After a nice buffet lunch we relaxed on the
pool deck and watched as the city of Savona disappeared from view and we
traveled slowly along the Italian Rivera to the French Rivera and beyond.
I got lots of great pictures of the shoreline and the clouds
that threatened rain, thunder and lightning like the night before but never
produced any of it. Or at least we had left the area before the inclement
weather overtook them. The two other
Costa Cruise ships that were in port with us, the Pacific and I think the Magic
left one right before us and one right after. So it was nice to watch those
ships as they headed out as well. The Pacific was on its way to Jerusalem which
I find so amazing. I didn’t realize that you could take a boat directly there
but you can and it stops in Haifa.
We walked around the boat a bit and got acclimated to our
temporary floating home and all it has to offer which includes two swimming
pools, 5 hot tubs, an enormous pool slide, tennis courts, a jogging path,
casino, and countless restaurants, bars and night clubs. It’s one of the
smaller ships in the fleet but it’s very nice and the spa, although not as
comprehensive as the one on the Costa Concordia which we took 4 years ago, but
it does have a steam room and sauna which are very comfortable and fairly
large. I spent some time up there this
morning after breakfast trying to sweat off all that gelato I’ve been eating.
It didn’t work but it was still a nice way to spend the morning.
Just to go back a bit to last night’s dinner, we were seated
at a table with three couples, Kelly and Chip who are originally from Tennessee
but have been living in Stuttgart, Germany for the last 3 years. Chip works for
the US Government in some capacity so they’ve travelled a lot and lived in
Hawaii for 10 years before going to Germany and next week when they get home
they’ll be moving back to the States to begin life a new in Tampa where chip
will now be stationed. We also had a lovely couple from Macedonia. The husband
is a dentist and his wife is a doctor and they were so interesting although the
husband spoke very little English, his wife Becky did most of the taking. And
the last couple arrived to dinner late but are so nice and from Israel. The husband was a professional soccer referee
and he even wrote about his experiences which was published but only in Hebrew.
There is an excerpt of it published in a London newspaper online and they will
give me the link and I’ll post it as soon as I have it. He sounds like he’s had
a very interesting life.
This morning before breakfast, at 8:30am we did the morning
walk with the most adorable young man from Argentina. He had us doing a
combination of aerobics moves while we walked around the jogging track. It was
a little chilly but we warmed up pretty fast and I was surprised to see about
15 people there and a stretch class was going on at the same time on the Lido
Deck which was below the jogging track. We might have to try stretch one
morning instead, we’ll see.
Mom took a nap for a couple of hours and after my spa time I
read a book I had found in the ships library, a mystery set in Palma de
Mallorca, Spain. I do like a good mystery and I’m enjoying this one very much.
The library is cozy on board and a quiet place to relax and I was so surprised
at how many people also took advantage of some reading time. Actually everywhere you go on the boat you
find people with books. And surprisingly not many Nooks or E-readers; I think
there are lots of people like me who just prefer the feel of a book in their
hands.
Mom and I met up to have lunch which included some of my
favorite Italian snack foods like fried eggplant and meat-filled bread that was
fantastic. I know it’s all so fattening, especially the fried foods but it’s
all so good and they also had this enormous bowl filled with large chunks of a
crumbled Parmesan type cheese that was so good with the meat bread.
Mom went off to read her book outside and I went off to read
mine and we met up again around 3:30pm for high tea. Yes, it’s been a lot of
snacking already but starting tomorrow we go into a new port each day so we
won’t be eating so much we’ll be walking and touring and walking off all the
already consumed calories. Afternoon tea
was interesting because they give you individual loose leaf teas, mom and I
each had ginger, and since you can just put the leaves in a cup and add water
they have these specially designed filter (they look like miniature coffee
filters) and they place the leaves in them and then the filter goes right in
your tea cup. The tea really hit the spot and then we spent a little time
playing in the casino and walking the boat before dinner. It really does seem
like all you do is eat when you have an at sea day.
So dinner was nice and we had two new people join us, Lily
and her special needs daughter Elizabeth from England. Very nice people and
they had lots to share of their other travels on Costa cruises and the various
other vacations they’ve taken.
It doesn’t sound like we did much but amazingly the day
passed rather quickly and now I’m in the Library typing up the blog in hopes
I’ll find a place to use the internet when we are in the Malaga, Spain port.