Goodbye to Barcelona and hello to Marseilles. Oops, not so fast. The ship is not going to make it to Marseilles, but more on that later in this post.
I left you all half way to our hotel late Sunday afternoon. Yes, it did rain, but with our umbrella and rain jackets, we did fine. Still, we were tired enough and satisfied enough that we did not seek out a restaurant for our last evening in town. A couple of tapa dishes and glasses of Spanish wine in the hotel bar were quite adequate for our needs.
We got to the Viking Vesta via a taxi. This was partly to get a comparison of taxi vs uber rates in Barcelona, but mostly because it was raining fairly hard and a taxi was waiting to be hailed by the doorman just outside the hotel entrance. Good decision. As it turns out, the ride was about four euros more than the estimate provided by the uber app, but the drop-off location was not quite where expected (“B” vs “C” at the cruise terminal), a minor complication, perhaps, had we been in an uber. Bottom line? Go with uber in Barcelona unless 1) it’s raining and a taxi is right in front of you, or 2) you’re not sure where you’re going!
Viking Vesta
This is our second voyage on a Viking ocean-going ship, the first being our China coast cruise on the Yi Dun. The Vesta is slightly larger than the Yi Dun (998 vs 930 passengers) but the deck plan is quite similar. It’s also new, just six months since launch. We are in a smaller suite than we had on the Yi Dun and, while quite adequate, we miss the extra room, closet space (but with plenty of drawers), a second sink, and the like. I know, it’s a tough life we live. 😉
Marseilles, We Hardly Knew Ya.
Actually, we didn’t get to know you at all. Our first port of call was to be this city, but thanks to inclement weather we won’t get there. Ironically, the weather in Marseilles is expected to be fine. It’s getting there on time that is the problem. We’ll be finding out how the Vesta handles the expected high winds and heavy seas.
Missing Marseilles is a disappointment, of course. We have been to France fairly often and to many regions of the country, but not this city.
Oh, what a night. If either of us slept at all, we didn’t know it. Our cabin is nearer the stern than forward, so we likely feel less of the rise and fall of the ship, but the shaking due to cavitation of the props occurs every fifteen to thirty seconds. I tried to take a picture of the seas, but without a perspective to highlight the wave size, the effort produced no remarkable results.
All the elevators went offline during the heavy seas. The passengers are getting more exercise than anticipated.
I apologize for the random alternation between past and present tense. I’m a stream of consciousness note taker and editing is too much work.
So what did we do in lieu of visiting Marseilles? Very little, thank you. I finished my reading for the February meeting of the book club. We won’t be back in time for the meeting of the other book club I am a member of, so I’ll start on the March assignments. There are three talks scheduled today. We’ll see how many we attend.
Good port talk, the only talk we attended. We missed one as we napped to make up for our sleepless night, and the last for, oh, “no excuse, sir” is the only response (which my fellow West Point alums will understand). The port will be Ajaccio, Corsica, birthplace of Napoleon Bonaparte and the capital of a semi-independent “collective” of France, and whose flag is the severed head of a Moor.
