Spain, France, Italy, Andorra : 21 May to 11 June 2025

21 May, Wednesday, Dallas to Chicago to Madrid

Chris flew from Dallas-Ft Worth to Chicago.  Tami flew from Baltimore to Chicago. We spent several hours at the lounge in Chicago and then boarded our overnight flight to Madrid, which arrived the next morning into Spain.

22 – 23 May, Thursday - Friday, Madrid

We spent two nights near the city center at the Palace Hotel.  We went to a flamenco show and had dinner on the first night in Madrid, and the next night we went to a Madrid restaurant that has been around since 1839 and is famous for its stew and meat courses.  They just kept bringing us food.  We said half-jokingly at one point “Stop bringing us food”, and they proceeded to bring two more courses of food, one of which we did not even touch.  We were stuffed.

                     
Madrid, Spain

24 May, Saturday, Madrid to Barcelona

We took the train from Madrid to Barcelona on Saturday and walked around Barcelona that afternoon and evening.

         
Barcelona, Spain

25 May, Sunday, Barcelona

We boarded the cruise on Sunday morning and settled in for seven nights traveling around the Mediterranean. We had purchased the complete dining package for our seven night cruise so we visited a different restaurant every night.  The food was excellent every night.  On this first night on the boat, we had dinner at Giovanni's Table and had great Italian food.

Cruise Ship Route - Barcelona, Mallorca, Marseille, La Spezia, Civitavecchia-Rome, Naples, Barcelona

                 
First day on cruise, Port of Barcelona, Spain

26 May, Monday, Mallorca

On Monday, the boat was at Mallorca.  We walked around the old town, climbed to the top of the Cathedral Basilica Santa Maria de Mallorca, and spent a short time on the beach.  We had dinner this night at One Fifty Central Park, where the Caesar salad was prepared table-side, and we ate braised short ribs, crispy pork belly, tenderloin of beef, and fried cheesecake for desert.  We went to the Blue Planet show after dinner.  While most of the shows during the cruise were very good, the Blue Planet show seemed disjointed with no connections between acts. The performers were all very good, but the show itself did not flow.  It was our least favorite show of the cruise.

Palma de Mallorca, Spain

                         
Mallorca, Spain

27 May, Tuesday, Marseille

On Tuesday, the boat was at Marseille.  Tami had lunch with two high school friends she has not seen in years in the nearby town of Cassis, while Chris walked around Marseille, including taking a tourist ride through the city and to the highest point in the city at Notre-Dame de la Garde Basilica.  We ate at the Izumi Hibachi this evening, with great stir-fry hibachi.  We were scheduled to watch the Aqua 80 water-show, but it was cancelled this evening due to high winds.  We attended the Aqua 80 show a few nights later.

After Tami returned from Cassis, we visited Palais Longchamp and then went back to the boat.

28 May, Wednesday, La Spezia - Cinque Terre

On Wednesday, the boat was in La Spezia, Italy. We took the train to Cinque Terre and spent the day exploring four of the five towns of Cinque Terre:  Riomaggiore, Manorola, Monterosso, and Vernazza.  We taxied from the harbor to the train station and took the train from La Spezia to Riomaggiore.  We walked the Via dell’ Amore from Riomaggiore to Manorola.  After Chris jumped off the rocks and swam in the harbor in Manorola, we re-boarded the train to visit Monterosso, where we had lunch at the same place on the cliffs where we had eaten in 2015 when we stayed in Monterosso for four nights.  We then took the train to Vernazza, explored for a bit more, and then went by train back to La Spezia.  We walked back through the pedestrian sections of the city to return to the boat.  We ate at the Mason Jar this evening and went to the Blades Ice Show after dinner.

We have visited Cinque Terra on three other trips to Italy and love it.  Chris jumped off these rocks at the harbor in Manorola in August 2015 and jumped again on this trip.  See the video below for the jump from this trip.

Manorola Harbor, 6 August 2015

Manorola Harbor, 28 May 2025

29 May, Thursday, Civitavecchia - Rome

On Thursday, the boat was at Civitavecchia, the port of Rome. We took the train from Civitavecchi to Rome, and walked around Rome all day.  We visited Vatican City, Piazza Navona, the Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, the Roman Forum, and the Colosseum.  We had a shorter time period in Rome than we had hoped, so we were not able to see everything we wanted, but it was still a nice day trip and we managed to go to many of the places we had last visited in 2015.  We walked across the Ponte Sant’ Angelo and into Saint Peters Square at the Vatican, then back across Ponte Vittorio Emanuele II and east through the city, stopping several times for drinks and snacks at cafes as we walked along the pedestrian streets.  Everything in Rome is built on land that has been continuously inhabited for 3000+ years, so it is all built on top of older buildings.  One of the cafes had a stairway descending to the bathrooms, with ancient Roman architecture visible on the stairs and in the basement.  Rome was super busy everywhere we went; much busier than the last time we visited Rome in 2015. We ate at Chef's Table this evening; the food was incredible.

Saint Peters Square, Vatican City

Colloseum & Arch of Constantine

 
Civitavecchia Harbor, Port of Rome

If you are comfortable getting around in a foreign country, DO NOT take any excursions provided by the cruise, especially in Rome.  If you use a cruise-provided excursion, any issues such as a delayed train (which happens in Italy but are usually known ahead of time), results in the ship waiting at port until the tour group arrives back at the boat in Civitavecchia.   If you are on your own and the train is delayed, the ship will not wait for you. We used the cruise excursion from Civitavecchia to Rome with the expectation that they would provide transportation between the boat and train station, round-trip train tickets from Civitavecchia to Rome, and hop on-hop off bus tickets in Rome.  This excursion was not listed as a tour, as the ‘Rome Tour’ is a different excursion and is guided the whole time.  We thought this excursion would just provide the travel tickets for train and bus.  That is NOT what this excursion ended up being; a guide meets you as you get off the ship and leads you everywhere, hovering near you at every point, treating you like a 7-year-old who can’t possibly find their own way from one place to the next.  After walking VERY slowly from the bus drop-off at the Civitavecchia train station and waiting for the guide to figure out which train platform to use, we boarded the train for the 45-minute ride into Rome.

There are several train stations within Rome, the first of which was where we wanted to get off and begin exploring near Vatican City.  The train from Civitavecchia to Rome stops at Saint Peters (San Pietro), Trastevere, Ostiense, and Termini.  The Saint Peters stop is right outside the Vatican and is a great place to begin exploring, starting in the west of the city, allowing a slow walk east, and getting back on the train at the end of the day at Termini.  Trastevere and Ostiense are a little south and out-of-the-way from everything else, so they are our last choices as the starting or ending points for any visit.  We were forced to de-train at the Ostiense train station on the south side of Rome, walk VERY slowly from there to the hop on-hop off tour bus location, and then wait for the tour bus operator to explain minutiae to each person individually before boarding the bus and being given our tour bus tickets.  We also had to meet back at the Ostiense train station at the end of the day.

Chris pleaded with the guide several times; “We know our way around Rome.  We have been here many times. It will be OK. Just give us our [hop-on hop-off tour] bus tickets and we will be on our own and fine.”  Nope.  We were refused and HAD to wait to board the hop-on hop-off tour bus there.  The handholding, wait times for everyone else, getting off at an inconvenient train stop in Rome, and then having to meet back there again at the end of the day cut our visit time in Rome almost in half.  The only time we even used the hop-on hop-off tour bus was to get from the out-of-the-way Ostiense train station into the main part of Rome and then back to the train station at the end of the day.  The Roman Forum entrance tickets we purchased included Palatine Hill, which is calmer, less busy, and always a welcome break from the very crowded streets.  However, we missed Palatine Hill because we ran out of time and had to go back to the Ostiense train station to rejoin the cruise excursion.

If you have never been to Rome or are uncomfortable navigating by yourself, take the cruise excursion. No problems there – you will see great stuff.  If you just want to explore by yourself and need transportation back and forth to Rome, avoid the cruise excursion and get train tickets by yourself.  You will be able to use the train stations you want, will not be waiting for 30 other people to show up with the large buffer times involved to make sure everyone gets back, it will cost A LOT less than the excursion, and you will have MUCH more time to explore independently.  Note that in our group of approximately 30 people, two people did not make it back to the Ostiense train station at the end of the day, even with the entire group waiting an extra 15 minutes past the deadline.  Those two people never rejoined the group, and we do not know if they ever made it back to the boat.

30 May, Friday, Naples - Capri

On Friday, the boat was at Naples. Chris walked around the area near the harbor in the morning, and we took a ferry over to the island of Capri in the afternoon.  We went back to Izumi this evening for dinner, but had the sushi instead of the hibachi. It was excellent.  We watched the Mama Mia show after dinner.  It was Chris' favorite show of the cruise.

Naples, Italy

Capri, Italy

31 May, Saturday, At Sea

The ship was at sea all day Saturday, headed back for Barcelona. We tried to use a lot of the services of the cruse ship on this day at sea.  We had brunch at Mason Jar, then got a large couch chair at the very front of the boat on the top forward deck in the solarium for the afternoon.  We descended to the back of the boat and rode the carousel before attending the Aqua 80 water-show, and finally had dinner at the Samba Grill, which is a Brazilian steakhouse at the front of the boat.

The cruise has a deluxe drinking package that includes all the drinks you can drink for a set price; that price changes depending on when you buy it.  If you buy the deluxe package after getting on the boat, it is $135 per person per day (for 8 days, and you must get it for the whole cruise).  If you buy it ahead of time, it is as low as ~$45 per person per day, so if you consume just 3 drinks (and they are small drinks) per day, you break even. We bought it ahead of time, and it was ~$720 total for both of us.   Alcoholic drinks on-board are $14 each if purchased individually, and you can only bring 2 bottles of wine onboard in your luggage when you arrive (and none at any ports of call), so that will not last long for a 7-night / 8-day cruise.  That includes all drinks at any meals, at any bars, and at the pools.  Juice, milk, and water are included with the meals.  We consumed more than 3 drinks / day.  On the last night, we pulled up the account total to see how much we had drunk.  It was >$1900 of drinks, at $14 each.

1 June, Sunday, Barcelona to Andorra

On Sunday morning we left our room, took our luggage with us, and had breakfast at Johnny Rockets. We suggest bringing your luggage with you at departure from the cruise as it makes leaving the ship much easier and faster.  We had scheduled an early departure from the boat, so after breakfast we got off the boat and took a taxi to the Barcelona Airport, where we picked up our rental car and began our driving trip through Spain, Andorra, France, and back into Spain. 

This was our route for the next 10 days of driving.  We drink a lot of Freixenet cava, which is Spanish champagne, so we drove west and north from Barcelona to Sant Sadurni d’Anola, planning to visit the Freixenet winery.  Unfortunately, that winery was closed, so we visited the nearby Codorniu winery and bought a case of cava to drink over the next week.  We continued north through Spain and spent Sunday night in Andorra in the Pyrenees Mountains.  Chris went hiking in Andorra on Sunday afternoon and flew his DJI quadcopter in the mountains near our hotel to get aerial video.  He also flew his quadcopter later in Saint Emilion and Sauternes for more aerial video. There was a thunderstorm that evening in Andorra, and Chris captured some lightning photos.

Northern Spain, Approaching the Pyrenees Mountains, Sant Andreu del Castell d'Oliana

Andorra

2 – 4 June, Monday - Wednesday, Andorra to Montpelier

We left Andorra on Monday morning, driving northeast through the Pyrenees National Park in southern France, through Llivia (Spanish exclave), and then spent three days relaxing at the beach in Montpelier, France.

Andorra

France

5 – 7 June, Thursday - Saturday, Montpelier to Bordeaux

We left the beach in Montpelier on Thursday and drove west towards Bordeaux.  We stopped in Carcasonne, walking through that famous walled city for a few hours before continuing on past Toulouse to the Bordeaux region.  We spent three days near Bordeaux, before finishing the vacation with three days in San Sebastian.

                 
Carcasonne, France

We spent the first two nights in Bordeaux at Saint Emilion, a neat ancient little city surrounded by vineyards.  We had dinner at two restaurants in the village and had lots of Bordeaux wine. 

DJI Mavik 4K Aerial Video, St Emilion, France, 6 June 2025

St Emilion, France

The first restaurant had a Michelin Star and was expensive, but the food and service were not all that great.  The food tasted good but was not memorable.  Each course took forever to be served; for example, when we arrived and ordered our meal, we asked to be served a glass a wine with our first serving of food.  That took 40 minutes, and we had to ask again to get the wine. The food also came in tiny servings; they were not small, there were tiny.  We were both still hungry after dinner.

We toured the local area in the St Emilion wine train on the second day, visiting a winery and walking through their underground caverns wine cellar that was originally a limestone rock quarry.  We had dinner on the second day at Le Jardin d’Amelie, where we ordered the Còte de Beauf which included prime rib, bone marrow, grilled potatoes and vegetables.  The food was delicious and there was plenty of it, was cooked on the grill in front of us in the courtyard, was served with care, and the price was 1/3 the previous night, including an excellent bottle of wine.

We drove from St Emilion to Sauternes on Saturday, 7 June 2025.  We passed the Abbey of Blasimon on the drive and visited it before continuing on to our château in the Sauternes region south of Bordeaux.

Saint-Maurice Abbey of Blasimon, France

We spent the third night in Bordeaux at a vineyard south of the city, where we toured the wine making area, and had more wine there and at several nearby wineries.  We had a fantastic dinner at the vineyard next door to our lodging, walking through the paths in the vineyard fields to get to dinner.

Château Sigalas-Rabaud, Sauternes, France

View from Château Lafaurie-Peyraguey across the vineyards to Château Sigalas-Rabaud

DJI Mavik 4K Aerial Video, Sauternes, France, 7 June 2025

8 – 10 June, Sunday - Tuesday, Bordeaux to Biarritz to San Sebastian

We headed for San Sebastian for the final three nights, stopping at the Dune du Pilat for a couple hours to climb to the top of the highest sand dune in Europe and play in the sand.  We also visited Biarritz, France for a few hours on the way to San Sebastian, Spain.  The last three days in San Sebastian we spent at the beach and enjoying the pub crawls each night, stopping at many bars for tapas and drinks as we explored the old town. We had last visited San Sebastian in 2016 and loved the night pub crawl in that city where you go from bar to bar, getting random drinks and whatever food is served in that particular bar.  The beach is great and the night life is great also.  We love Spain for vacation.

Dune du Pilat, France

Biarritz, France

San Sebastian, Spain

11 June, Wednesday, San Sebastian to Madrid to Dallas

We flew from San Sebastian to Madrid to Dallas on Wednesday.  Our flight from San Sebastian to Madrid was delayed, so we had to run through the airport in Madrid to catch our flight.  We had to transfer between terminals also, so it was a long transition through Madrid.  Give yourself plenty of time if you fly through Madrid as the main and remote terminals are widely separated and you need time to ride the underground train between those terminals.  We finally made it back to Dallas late in the day on 11 June, having gained seven hours by flying west.