2025 - Fall in Europe

  Monday morning, I said good bye to Sitges - and another wonderful sunrise - and headed to the port in Barcelona to start the next stage of my trip - an Azamara cruise on the Journey.  This is my fifth cruise with them but the first on this ship.  What is very convenient is that all of the four ships are basically the same so even when you board a different one, you already know where everything is.  Once again, I am on Deck 7 - my favourite deck - about mid-ship.  It is very convenient to everything and between passenger decks so you don't hear the cabaret, bars, etc.  I got to the port about 12:15 and, in less than 35 minutes, I'd checked in and was sipping some bubbly at a bar on the pool deck.  I'm sure it took slower later in the afternoon when more people were in line but being early was perfect. Most of the passengers on board are Americans, Brits, Aussies and Kiwis plus a quite large contingent of Canadians - apparently there are 97 of us aboa...

After flying from Victoria to Montreal and then overnight from there to Barcelona, I arrived in Sitges thanks to the driver I had pre-booked.  The road from the airport to this small coastal town was winding with lots of sharp curves but also with spectacular scenery of the Mediterranean.  When we first started heading west, we passed oodles and oodles of commercial campgrounds and strip malls with pizza restaurants and bars.  It all looked quite cheap and downscale to me.  After about a 45 minute drive, we reached Sitges and the Hotel Calipolis where I'll be staying for the next three nights.  I treated myself to an "executive" room - which basically means I am on one of the upper floors with a sea view.  I was a bit frustrated as I'd requested an early check-in but still ended up "cooling my jets" so to speak for about 4 hours before my room was finally available at 2 pm.   However, the wait was sure worth it!  The views were amazing and th...