Wednesday in Palma

Wednesday would find us pulling into the port of Palma de Mallorca (Majorca) in mid-afternoon (3pm).

When we left our room earlier in the day, the utility closet between our bathroom and the room next door was open - so Carl examined it. Note that there is a fire hose stored there. Fire on board is a big concern - we are supposed to unplug any electric devices anytime we are out of the room.

The island of Mallorca as we were coming in

We took a shore excursion done through the cruise line that took us to Bellver Castle and to the small town of Valldemossa.

Our bus first took us to Bellver Castle

The castle (the excursion did not include going into the castle).

View of Palma and part of the harbor from Bellver Castle

Another view of the castle

Selfie with the harbor behind us

The Norwegian Gem in the harbor

The bus took us across an agricultural valley, through forested upland areas, to Valldemossa near the northwest side of the island.

A locator map after we got to Valldemossa

Central market street in Valldemossa

Our guide showed us this ceramic tile on a house - Valldemossa was the birthplace of Saint Catalina Thomas - the tile says, "Santa Catalina Thomas Pray for us."

Church tower and charter house (Real Cartuja) of Valldemossa

"This ancient monastery, originally a royal residence built by king Jaume II (14th Century) for his son Sancho. It was founded and inhabited by Cathusian monks from 1399 until 1835."

Another view of the church with a bust of Chopin in the garden in front...

Closer view of the bust of Chopin

"Frederic Chopin, the great Polish composer, and George Sand (pseudonym of Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin de Francueil), renowned French writer, stayed at the Real Cartuja during the winter of 1838."

We returned to the main market street...

... stopped in a pearl shop...

... and got some information about the history of pearls and specifically Majorcan pearls.

Our excursion included a drink at a local shop - the almond milkshakes were recommended, and we also got a potato sweet roll.

Enjoying our almond milkshakes in front of the cafe

From a viewpoint over the valley

"Parish gothic Church from the XIIIth century devoted to Sant Bartomeu, patron saint of the village of Valldemossa."

Another view of the valley

As we walked around the town, we saw more of the ceramic tiles on houses commemorating Santa Catalina Thomas...

We guessed that they may show different aspects of her life...

Some information about her life and the tiles I found: https://www.world-in-words.com/news/tiles-of-the-blessed/

Carl in front of a house where he had just taken a picture of one of the tiles.

One of the narrow streets

Looking inside the home where Santa Catalina Thomas was born -- now a shrine.

"Natal house from 1531 of the most devoted religious figure of the island Catalina Thomas i Gallard, renowned as 'la Beateta'."

Outside the birth home of Santa Catalina Thomas

After about an hour wandering around Valldemossa, we re-boarded the bus and it took us back to Palma...

... we drove by the Cathedral in Palma before returning to the ship.

Large sailing yacht near our ship in the harbor - we were told that it is probably belongs to Jeff Bezos (head of Amazon) and it is the largest sailing yacht in the world (https://www.boatinternational.com/yachts/news/jeff-bezos-oceanco-sailing-yacht-y721). It may not look too big, but...

... look at the size of the white car on the pier compared to the yacht. The one that is supposed to belong to Jeff Bezos is the one on the right.

We were a little concerned about taking another NCL shore excursion after our experience in Lisbon (waiting 1.5 hours to be joined to our tour and then having the tour itself shortened in half due to the delays), but the excursion on Palma went a lot better. We were also surprised to find that the Shore Excursion department refunded us 1/2 of the cost of the Lisbon excursion because they recognized that a lot of people were dissatisfied. It was nice that they were proactive in taking care of this.

We are continuing to enjoy our cruise!

Tuesday in Málaga with Maria!

On Tuesday, we had arranged to meet up with one of my college roommates / apartment-mates, Maria. She and her husband now live in Almuñécar, so when I knew that we would be stopping at a port "nearby", I contacted her and she kindly offered to meet us and give us a tour of Málaga.

We had already arrived at port when we woke up (before 5am) - we looked out and were already stopped.

We had breakfast outside at the Great Outdoors as the sun was just rising.

Some views of Málaga from the Gem

A large private yacht tied up near us - the "Octopus". It has a heliport on the back. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octopus_(yacht)) It can be chartered for the bargain price of $2.2M/week (https://www.yachtcharterfleet.com/luxury-charter-yacht-23103/octopus.htm). Since we have been wondering where we might settle when we decide to stop RVing, maybe we should consider getting a yacht? But... would we really want one with a heliport?

As we walked into town, we could see the back view of the Gem, one we had not previously seen. The large windows that are lower down (deck 6) are in the main dining room, Grand Pacific. Above that are back facing balcony cabins, and at the top is the Great Outdoors where we had breakfast on Tuesday morning.

Another view of the Octopus - definitely looks like a vessel that James Bond would use!

Glass cube at Centre Pompidou Malaga

We had arranged to meet Maria at the Tourism Office.

Maria had suggested that we eat a healthy breakfast onboard and that she would then take us for an unhealthy breakfast...

...we had churros - dipped in sugar and then into hot chocolate - yummy!

From breakfast, we went to the market... first the seafood area...

Mercado Central de Atarazanas

More seafood

... and yet more!

In another section was the meat market...

... also spices and...

... olives - lots and lots of olives!

Ham available to be sliced off for your needs.

Still another section had fruits and vegetables --

This is a Chirimoya fruit grown in Almuñécar (where Maria lives)...

... about the size of a grapefruit (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherimoya).

Málaga tomatoes - huge and beautiful!

Dragonfruit - all packaged and ready for take away eating!

Carl got some dried pineapple, kiwi, and mango.

We had seen large parking areas of scooters in Cadiz, and now again in Málaga.

We walked down Calle Larios - Calle Marqués de Larios -- a wide walking shopping area in Málaga - evidently is quite decorated at Christmastime. (I looked up and found some information with pictures at Christmas here.)

The buildings looked newer ...

...and the streets wider in Málaga than we had seen in our previous stops.

We came to Constitution Plaza...

There were plaques in the ground showing newspaper headlines about the vote by the population...

... approving the 1978 Constitution, which is still in place.

Heading toward the Cathedral (Catedral de la Encarnación de Málaga) -- you may be able to see that it has one bell tower...

... but the second one (on the right in this picture) was never completed and they decided it was good enough. The cathedral is colloquially known as La Manquita (one-armed lady).

Maria had arranged for us to have pre-paid tickets to enter the cathedral so we could skip the line...

Inside...

Beautiful stained glass windows

Pipe organs

High altar

Sanctuary - ornate decorations on the ceiling too.

Additional stained glass windows

Intricately carved choir stalls

Painting of the beheading of St Paul (it is not known exactly how he died, but tradition indicates that he was beheaded by the Romans).

Mary washing Jesus' feet

Outside in the orange tree garden

Maria and I in the orange tree garden

A busker "statue" - I think he would move if you put money in his donation jar, but he was standing almost perfectly still. You could see his pick-axe swaying a little -- seems it would be hard to hold it up like that for long periods of time!

Maria treated us to Tapas for lunch - what a spread!

Ruins of a Roman theater (Teatro Romano de Málaga) discovered when a new museum was about to be built...

From https://www.andalucia.com/cities/malaga/teatro-romano.htm:

The theatre was rediscovered in 1951, when the construction of Casa de Cultura uncovered the first archaeological clues. The construction of the gardens was abandoned, and instead excavations began. In 1995 a polemic decision was made to demolish the Casa de la Cultura, which stood over a third of the site. Once the site had been fully excavated, a large scale restoration project began, which proved more difficult than anticipated, as many of the missing pieces are now part of the foundations of the neighbouring Alcazaba.

Maria also arranged tickets for us to visit the Alcazaba...

Walking up into the Alcazaba

At a Moorish entryway

A Moorish garden

A view of the Gem from the Alcazaba

The bullfighting ring from the Alcazaba

At a pool within the Alcazaba

As we started back toward the ship, we made a stop for ice cream

Walking along Málaga Park (Parque de Málaga)

Back at the port -- about to say Good-bye

What a wonderful day -- thank you so much, Maria!