Euro Journals - 8

I find it hard to believe that some people can be so irresponsible as to miss the ship’s sailing time. We have just pulled up anchor and are gliding out of the harbor at Malaga, Spain. As the ship pulled away from the dock, a car came tearing down the embarcadero, lights flashing and horn blaring……but it was too late we were already underway.

As we watched, the automobile passengers leaped out of the car wildly waving their arms and we could hear faint yelling as we pulled further and further away. As the irresponsible passengers slowly became little “ants” in the distance, we saw them hire a boat, then leap onto it. The speedy little motor boat pulled up to the side of the big passenger liner as we left the harbor, and the two errants made a nerve wracking leap in order to board the ship. They made it, albeit by the very skin of their teeth.

I don’t think of myself as all that conservative and rule abiding, however, I can assure you that there has never been a time that I have ever even been close to missing a sailing time. We sailed at 6 PM. By 4:30 we were in our cabin and enjoying an afternoon nap. I just can’t imagine pushing a serious deadline that close……..

As I mentioned, we have spent the day in Malaga, Spain and what a charming city this is. It is a large, beautiful, modern city with clean streets, pleasant citizens, an impossibly large number of stores and a long and fascinating history. In truth, we saw very little of this place and that, of course, is the problem with cruise travel. You only get the tiniest taste of the culture and civilization at a particular port and then you are off and running again. This is both a good and bad thing and I’m not coming down on either side of that issue. We just love cruising.

As we walked the streets today, a large and loud group of drummers paraded through those same packed streets. There were mobs of people, since there were 3 cruise ships in port, plus it is Saturday afternoon and the locals were out in force. The drummers were all dressed in red and beating on all different sized drums. The rhythm of their drumming reverberated through the streets and we found that the loud, pounding, beat entered our head and we soon found ourselves almost skipping along to the unbelievably loud noise. The sound was hypnotic in it’s rhythm.

We stopped at a tapas bar and had snacks and drinks as we rested from our walking. Tapas is a small snack and having a taste of this and a bite of that is the way they eat in this part of the world. Fresh baked bread with a dab of this on it or a crispy cracker with a dab of that on it, etc. etc. It was interesting. One of The Spouse’s snacks turned out to be raw salmon and she was not happy. She is not a sushi girl at all.

The told us before we left the ship that everything would close up at 2:30 PM for siesta and then reopen at 5 PM. We thought they were probably exaggerating when they said “everything”, however, at 2:30 PM the doors to the shops slammed shut, the wire cage fronts slid down over the glass display windows and every shop closed up tight. Then all the Spaniards went home and took a nap. It was a strange concept to us overworked Americans. Many of the food establishments stayed open but our shopping was done for the day. An interesting custom………….

The Spouse and I are both half-sick as we try to fight off colds. We went to a drugstore in town and through pantomime we managed to purchase some cough medicine and throat lozenges. When I saw the “Vicks” brand name on the package, I knew we were on the right track even though all the words on the box were in Spanish. Good old Vicks. It’s the universal symbol of a cold, stuffy noise or bad cough.

We didn’t buy much at this port, just one Christmas present. Instead, we walked the streets, admiring the city and its people, and just soaked up some of the ambiance of Spain. It seems to be a warm, gracious and friendly country. Tomorrow we are going to Seville and we’ll be on an all day tour. We expect to see and learn quite a bit more about this country than we did today. I’ll tell you about the tour after it happens. It should be interesting.

As a follow-up note, every person we’ve talked to about their day in Tunis has said that they should have stayed on the ship. They have universally felt the stop was a bad choice. They were hassled and pushed by overly aggressive vendors who would not take no for an answer. The women were “touched” constantly and they all hated it and everybody we talked with wishes they had followed our lead. It does appear that we made a wise decision when we opted not to go ashore at that port. A couple of our tablemates felt they had extraordinarily good food for lunch, however, that was the only positive note we heard about Tunisia. Even the ship’s workers, who are an exceedingly international, adventure seeking, group of young people, all felt that they did not want to go back there. They simply didn’t feel safe and they saw nothing to buy or to eat that made it worth the risk of visiting. The African continent, with its large and varied population, just doesn’t seem overly popular with cruise ship passengers. At least not on this ship.

Many people, including The Spouse, were severely disappointed when the ship’s itinerary changed and the planned stop at Morocco was cancelled. However, when the Captain was asked why, his reply was very simple. “It’s not safe.” Cruise ship passengers are being mugged and threatened and treated badly and we will not take people who travel with us to any port we don’t think is safe. I believe Tunis will soon be added to their list of undesirable ports.

Well, that’s it for today. Time to get cleaned up and dressed and ready for the evening’s activities. More to come.

To be continued…………………