April 12-26, 2008 - Crossing the Atlantic Oceana

Part of an outstanding vacation is going to and from the location of your vacation or at least that is what I believe. However, the same is belief is not always shared with my wife.  This cruise started at 5:00 AM the day before the cruise.  Our neighbors and us got into our mini van and headed for our daughter's home.  Sean would drive us to the Air Port and drops us off.   Our neighbors', George and Joanne Stockhowe, would be flying on the same airplanes, staying at the same motel and cruising on the same ship, Navigator of the Seas with us.  We all got on the airplane in plenty of time.  I had a little problem putting my suitcase in the overhead rack, right hand not strong enough yet.  But, we all got seated and waited to take off.  After getting push away from the terminal, one of the engines on the airplane would not start.  It took a little over an hour to get us underway.

Went we got onboard the Navigator of the Sea, we did not know that almost all of the cruise would be spent onboard.  The Navigator is a beautiful ship and the crew was outstanding.  We were sailing with our neighbors', the Stockhowe, so we had good company.  But we had planned to get off the ship in Cadiz and stay in Puerto De Santa Maria for a little while.

It was going to be an eleven day cruise with stops in Bermuda and Lisbon, but it turn into a fourteen day cruise with stops in Bermuda and Lisbon.  On top of everything, it was raining in Bermuda. So the only real stop we had was Lisbon for a day and then because of ship had some damage, we could not sail from Lisbon.  We anchor in the bay and was able to see Lisbon but we could not go ashore the second day.  From Lisbon to Barcelona, we sail straight, no stops anywhere......

Most of our pictures were taken onboard the ship, we spend better than 95% onboard.....

As you see from above, what a beautiful ship.  Our first port of call was Bermuda and we got there in the afternoon of our second day.  It was sprinkling rain on and off, so we only spend a couple of hours ashore.  Because of the weather, we went back to the ship early.  Most of the pictures were taken as we sailed from Bermuda the next morning.  It is a very shallow channel into the pier and for a long ways from the pier you could still see the bottom of the bay.

We spent seven days at sea until we seen land.  Portugal was nice to see and by that time almost everyone had cabin fever.  We put up to the pier and flocks of people when ashore.  We were going to catch the train to downtown Lisbon and I though it would be very easy.  Most train stations in Europe, you can see were you are and pick were you want to go.  However, Lisbon was not very good.  After looking at the map and watch others get tickets, we purchase our round trip tickets to downtown and back.

We got on the wrong train and started heading out to the country.  No big problem, we got off at a train station and turn around and headed back toward Lisbon.  No one take your ticket or looks at your ticket.  You are on your own......

We got to the main train station in Lisbon and we had a transfer to the center of town.  However, we could not figure out where the train for downtown was and how to get on it.

We sit for a day looking at Lisbon and finally they move the ship far out  in the channel.  They sent drivers for England to cut off the stabilizer which was located right under our cabin.  We took off sail for Barcelona, we were now a couple of days late by the schedule.  The sail direct to Barcelona and we arrived there at 11:00 PM the night before our schedule.  They provide free transportation to town all during the night.

The next day, we got off and headed for the train station.  The train station has locker for checking bags and we were able to get the overnight train to Puerto De Santa Maria.  The train left at 9:00 PM, so we had all day to see spots in Barcelona.