Avignon, you smell so nice!  We visited this French Village days after the Lavender harvest.  You could smell lavender everywhere.

Shop after shop had everything you could possibly image made from Lavender!

 

Pictured is the Pope’s Castle from the 1100’s.  Rome was not safe place during those times and the Pope was sent to live in this castle (known as the Papal Palace) until he could return to the Vatican City.  (It was occupied by several popes until 1791) It was used off and on for hundreds of years as either a permanent dwelling or a summer home.

 

The remains of the 12th century ramparts and the Bridge of Avignon over the River Rhine

While in Arles we did take the time to have lunch.  And if you are in France where do you have lunch, nowhere but at Cafe Van Gogh. We sat outside and enjoyed our lunch and wine as we marveled at the sites.  It truly was a magical day as we sat in the very spot of Vincent Van Gogh and ate at the cafe that made his painting come to life.  Van Gogh created his oil on canvas in 1888, and the very spot he sat his easel on is marked by a copy of his painting.  Inside the cafe were more tables and a beautiful bar that was very ornate and truly French!

 

Some of my still shots from the storm at sea!

Arles, France was an absolute picture perfect French Village.  It was exactly what you see in the movies.  I think I could have stayed there for a long, long time.  But….we were only there for a little while, but in that time I tried to capture the essence of the place in pictures.

Montecarlo, Italy is a small village in the Tuscany region.  It was reportedly founded in 1333 and has be a part of Florence from 1437.  There was a colosseum like in Rome only smaller. Quant cobblestone streets and shuttered windows.  I was really a perfect little village. We enjoyed walking the streets and seeing the sites but like all excursions we were under time restraints and couldn’t explore very much.

This last picture of “steps” is actually the judgement bench where the Judges sat and handed down punishment and made decisions.

The Farmhouse and vineyards date back to 1845.  The cellars have been in continual operation since that date. We tested 7 wines, 3 were red and 3 were white and one was called a dessert wine, you dipped your bread in it instead of sipping it. They also produced their own olive oils and produce that we also sampled.

Beautiful Lightening storm over the Mediterranean Sea

Sunsets are the masterpieces of God.  Such bright colors and daring stokes with so many different combinations of colors   Sometime you even find items hidden in his works, like a teddy bear or a cho cho train,  I have sat for hours waiting on sun to set and give off the imagery of that just perfect picture .  How do you decide what is the perfect picture?  You keep taking until you can’t take any more .  Then comes the daunting task of going through so many pictures that look exactly alike except for the sun has gone down another inch into the ocean,  as the sun begins to set it slowly lowers into the ocean a very little bit at a time but the closer the sun comes to the horizon the faster it falls till right before everything turns dark and you watch the last rays of the warm sunshine say good night I’ll be back tomorrow😊and I will be here to catch each sunny ray.

Wine tasting in a castle is pretty neat!  We tried several reds and whites and received instructions in the art of wine tasting.  There are five steps to tasting wine, known as the “Five S” steps:  see, swirl, sniff, sip, savor.  You look for clarity, a wine’s color is judged by putting it against a white backdrop.  Colors can give a taster clues to the grape variety, and whether the wine was aged in wood.  A bouquet is the total aromatic experience of the wine.  It is revealed by gently swirling the wine in a wine glass to expose it to more oxygen and release aromatic components.  The NOSE of a wine is the bouquet or aroma.  Thoroughly tasting wine involves a wide array of perceptions in the mouth.  Textures, flavors, weight, and overall structure of the wine.  A wine taster savors a wine by holding it in the mouth for a few seconds to saturate the taste buds.

 

The following videos demonstrates how wine is tasted from a decanter so many tasters can sample the wine without actually putting their mouths on the decanter.  Might I add this was after we had sampled/tested several bottles of wine!

 

 

 

Arrangements were made for a transfer from our apartment to the cruise port.  I made these arrangements through Viator and except for a small glib (I had trouble confirming the reservations the day before – but all was well, even if I hadn’t gotten through to them).  The transfer arrived on time and loaded us up for the transfer which was over an hour and half away.  European cruises seem to be so much easier and quicker than Caribbean ones.  We had a pre-check in time of 11AM -11:30AM and we arrived in that window and was immediately whisked away to our new home for the next 10 days.  The Carnival Vista is a brand new ship and had so many new and innovative designs.  But there was still Guy’s Burger Joint and that was our first stop.

 

After refueling, our room was ready and we went to get a glance at what our balcony suite looked like.  Very pleased, cabin 7329 was awesome.

The Carnival Vista is the newest ship out with Carnival Cruise Line and is huge.  There are so many new changes on this ship.  This was my 25th cruise so I had seen many changes from year to year and ship to ship. The first thing I noticed was there were no more kiosk to check in and out of the ship, now the officers just scanned your card with a tablet.  There were so many more options for dinning, Farenheit 555, a steakhouse; Cucina del Capitano, Italian;  Blue Iguana Catina, Mexican; Seafood Shack;  JiJi Asian Kitchen; Guy’s Pig & Anchor Bar-B-Que, and the unlimited buffets and dining room.  The decor and layout of the decks was fresh and innovative, using electronics and neon in a new way.

Although we were on the ship for 10 days there were still so many areas that I didn’t see or explore.  However, I did spend one afternoon on the sky deck experiencing the rope course, sky ride, twister and kaleidoscope water slides.