Cruise highlights, pictures, and wrap-up

Phillip and I did make it home last Tuesday, October 8. It's taken me a week to get to this post because one of the things we brought back from the cruise was a respiratory infection that turned into bronchitis for us. About 1/3 of our fellow passengers caught the same thing, so coughing was the most frequent sound we heard on board! We went to the doctor on Friday and are on the mend (I'm still waking up with my cough several times a night), so it's time to post!

Commercial port of Zeebruge, Belgium

Zeebruge was the first port stop, where we did not get off the boat.  Instead, we took advantage of the empty pool area. Notice in these pictures also the cloudy skies. We did have significant periods of bad weather during the 16 days.

our "private" hot tub, too chilly for the pool

Our post stop in France did give us a chance to walk to the beach and buy two bottles of French wine in the little port village (after riding the bus from the pier as one can't walk from there).

In Bilbao, Spain, we could walk along the seawall from the ship, then along the malecon to town.

City of Bilbao across the bay, accessible with a 4 km walk from the pier

Crown Princess as viewed across the bay from town 

Bilbao had the interesting cable car bridge over a river that drained water into the bay. Both people and cars were ferried across.

Lisbon, Portugal, had the most accessible cruise port, with the pier that put people right off the ship into the edge of the city. We've been in other European cities like Lisbon: a few blocks of flat sidewalks near the water, but most of the city is developed up the hill from the coastal area. At least it was uphill walking early and downhill when we headed back to the ship.

Group of young women singing on a plaza

Sangria from a street market

View of Lisbon as we departed

Someone on the ship said that this statue is just like the one in Brazil and that the two statues face each other.

Virgin Mary statue in Lisbon

The cruise was actually supposed to have another port stop at Ponta Delgado in the Azore Islands. Hurricane Lorenzo, a category 5 storm when we left Lisbon, was heading for the Azores, too. The captain made the decision to skip Ponta Delgado and head the ship south to avoid as much of the bad weather as he could. Even with his diversion, we did sail thru some noticeably rough seas. It wasn't the worst rockin' and rollin' we've felt on a cruise (Hurricane Rick ten years ago off the Pacific coast wins that award for us), but it did take second place. Since our fellow passengers were for the most part, older, more experienced cruisers, nausea was not an issue. Falls, however, did happen and we saw folks sporting bandages on their face or elbow and a more ankle, knee and elbow braces appeared.

One of the frequent storms, seen from the dining room window

Phillip and I stayed busy with arts and crafts, casino visits, movies, evening production shows (hit and miss on quality), and eating.

3-D stars, photo bombed by Matt, a crew member from Texas

Food carving demonstration

Phillip enjoyed arts and crafts

Oysters and huge shrimp on the lunch buffet one day

Looking at my travel journal, the really rough seas stayed with us from Sunday until Thursday, so we had good cruising weather for the last four days of the cruise, but by then, Phillip and I were feeling tired, with a sore throat (Phillip) and lots of coughing (Pat) keeping us awake at night. We arrived in Fort Lauderdale on time, waited at the airport for six hours, and caught our flight home where Leslie and Kacie were awaiting our return.
Overall, even with the bronchitis at the end, it was a great trip. We love visiting Becky and her family in Germany. If in Munich, I recommend a visit to Dachau. It was easily accessible and so heart-wrenching to see the evil that people can do to others. My favorite city was Salzburg,  picturesque with so much to see. The Schonnburg Palace in Vienna was spectacular. Black beer in Bratislava! Budapest took a close second for favorite with me - the thermal baths, the food, the Dreher Bak beer, Margaret Island (although this was the only city where I did see two men sporting "man buns"). Bucharest was Phillip's favorite because we visited with Mihaela and her family, seeing the real countryside with real people, not tour guides. We enjoyed our first cruise on Princess cruise lines. The boat was well-maintained, the crew/passenger ratio was noticeably better than that of Carnival, and the food and activities were pretty darn good. We enjoyed the cruise so much that while onboard, we booked another trans-Atlantic cruise, from Fort Lauderdale to Germany, for April 2020. Time to begin planning our next adventure: cruise to Europe, Berlin, Poland, maybe another country, cruise back!