Our Floating Hotal

We would wake up every morning to find that the daily programme had been pushed under our door. This contained all the information we needed for the day. There was an overview of the City we would be docking in, some nautical information and lots more.

The food on the ship was pretty good. One could go to your designated dining area for meals or go to the upper deck where there was a buffet meal. We used this one for lunches, as it was open from 1.00pm – 4.00pm and offered a wide varieties of foods.
You could sit and eat all afternoon staring out at the most wonderful views of islands and sea.

We did however have to pay for all our drinks on board the ship. This is where our cards came in handy, as you would hand your card to the waiter and order your drinks. We were also allowed to buy drinks in duty free shops and bring them aboard.
The mini bar in the cabin was ridiculously expensive, but at least we could keep our drinks cool in there.
There was also 24 hour room service offered but with a family of five, this just was not an option.
Our dinner’s and breakfasts we took in our allocated dining room. We had a good waiter who waited on us hand and foot.
We couldn’t believe how many waiters there were. The crew were multi nationality and a lot of them were Asian. They all made a huge fuss over our little Lara.

Our rooms were cleaned up every day, beds made etc. and at night, we would get back from dinner or a show, to find our bed linen turned down and the children’s bed made up.
This was really something I got used to!! No one seems to want to do it for me here at home.

We went to two of the shows in the theatre. They put on a different one every night. The entertainment coordinator would welcome everyone in 4 different languages.
In fact, any announcement that was made on the ship was always done in 4 different languages being: Italian, French, German and English.

We had a firedrill on the 2nd day. We all had various areas in which to assemble and we all had to wear our lifejackets. After the demonstration of how to use the lifejacket, the photographers descended on us. One could go to the photo gallery and choose photos that were being taken on a daily basis. These came at quite a hefty price.

We had a gala cocktail evening where we got to meet the captain. This was a formal evening, and we all got toffed up for the occasion. We stood in a queue for ages to have a photograph taken with the captain, who was such a small unfriendly man. If he had smiled, his face would have cracked!! (A real people’s person he was!!)
We were then treated to cocktails and snacks in the one lounge. This of course took hours and was done in two sessions.

We also had a Captain’s dinner one evening, where everyone donned their fine and fancy once again. Towards the end of dinner, the entertainment co-ordinator came in and introduced us to certain staff members, the chefs and then all the waiters. Lastly, they dimmed all the lights and the waiters came out with Baked Alaska’s with sparklers all over them. We were then given some champagne to finish off our dinner and enjoy our Baked Alaska.

That was just some of the things we were offered on board this wonderful floating hotel.

First Port of Call - Bari in Southern Italy

Our first port of call was Bari which is is the capital city of the province of Bari and of the Apulia (or, in Italian, Puglia) region, on the Adriatic sea, in Italy. After a quick breakfast, we dashed off to meet our Tour leader for our morning tour. There was only a small group of us going and we walked out of the harbour area, to find our bus which arrived about 15 minutes later. We all climbed in and set off for the town of Alberobello. We drove through Bari which is a University city and then got onto a highway which would take us to our destination. We travelled for an hour before reaching Alberobello which is a town full of Trulli houses. Our Italian tour leader was telling us all about these houses but with my limited German, could not really understand it all. We were pleasantly surprised to find ourselves in this quaint village. These gleaming houses (whitewashed each year) are curious, rounded structures with gray, stone, cone-shaped roofs. They are trulli, common in the province of Bari and Taranto, yet unknown in the rest of the world. The town's historical center is on a hilltop, amid the scent of almond and olive trees, and has been declared an International Human Resource by UNESCO. It is made up of a hundred trulli some 5 centuries old. The origin of their oddly-shaped, stone teepee design is unknown. Although some theories date the Trulli back 5000 years, the favorite story of their creation claims that such buildings were first constructed during the Middle Ages. At the time, anyone who built a dwelling on the King's land was heavily taxed. With this in mind, the Pugliesi cleverly devised the drywall stone Trulli solely for purposes of tax evasion. As the story goes, upon word of the taxman's arrival (perhaps by means of a smoke signal), the Trulli were rapidly dismantled and moved out of sight. After the visit was over and that gentleman successfully ducked, the homes were re-erected. Nowadays, Trulli are firmly planted and buttressed with stucco. A cone still comprises a single common area and the interiors, though charming, are spartan. With the exception of bathroom doors, the rooms are separated by colorful curtains in sharp contrast to the stark whiteness of the interior walls Mostly handmade furnishing of olive wood, quite beautiful by any standard, are representative of the work of the traditional peasant artisans of the area. The hearth remains the source of heat to this day. Luckily, Puglia is fairly warm and the cool stone Trulli provide relief from the hot summer sun. In spite of its rustic simplicity, the prices here are a bargain (Puglia as a whole is a bargain compared to most of Italy). Alberobello, the Trulli capital, is a fairy-tale city. Fanciful hex signs adorning each home add magic to the already bewitching setting. A wealth of history, art, food and vistas, rivaling anything in Italy, is found here.

On our way back to the ship, our tour guide decided that we had to see the Basilica of San Nicola in Bari. So, we parked on the promenade and took a quick walk to the Basilica. A beautiful building both inside and out. After some quick photo taking etc., we were then dropped off, close to the gangway onto the ship.
We then headed off to have a late lunch.

Leaving Venice

After a great breakfast at the hotel, we packed our overnight bags back into the bus and set off for Venice. The bus driver’s managed to do a half hour detour, because they were so busy chatting to each other on their cell phones that they missed the turnoff.
We arrived in Venice at about 10.00am and unloaded the bus and trailer. We said goodbye to our driver and his wife, who were spending one night in Venice before returning to Germany.
We all then went through passport control and a customs check. It was also at this point where we were all photographed with webcams and issued with a card each. This was our “pass” on and around the ship. We were then called in batches and we had our photo taken before finally stepping onto the MSC Orchestra. Oh boy, what a ship!!.
We went off to find our cabin and acquaint ourselves with the ship. We seemed to walk for miles to our cabin and hubby was rather disappointed with our inside cabin. The kids thought it was great, as they had two bunk beds which pulled down over our double bed.
We then went and checked out the rest of the ship. It was amazing. The kids found their entertainment centre quite quickly and were keen to try it out. We walked up to the tennis court, mini golf course, inside to the disco, through numerous lounges and restaurants before finding ourselves in the reception area. We decided to ask about an upgrade in cabin. Unfortunately, nothing was available that night, but were told that we could try again the next day, as people were getting off the ship in Bari.
One of our suitcases had arrived at our cabin, so I unpacked all our things into our cupboard and bathroom. Our other suitcase just did not arrive. We asked a porter about it’s whereabouts and he suggested that we enquire at reception. This we did and they told us to wait until 5.00pm when the ship sailed. I thought how stupid, when our suitcase might be left ashore somewhere. Anyway, at about 5.45pm it was brought to our cabin.
We were all up on deck when the ship set sail from Venice at precisely 5.00pm. What a wonderful sight to see from the ship. As the ship moved away, it blew it’s horn and then the music started up and the dancing team put on quite a show. Only minutes earlier, had this team of stunning ladies come prancing past hubby and I. His eyes nearly fell out of his head, as they were all in G-strings with white fishnet stockings over them. Gerard has an absolute passion for G-strings!!!!!
The photographic team was out in full force taking photos of all and sundry. There were people on every deck, hanging over the side to take photos of Venice as we slowly made our way out of the harbour area and into the sea.
Just a few facts about the ship.
It was built in 2007 – started sailing in April 2007
Speed limit – 23 knots
Length and Breadth – 293 x 32,5m
Passenger Decks – 13
Cabins – 1 275
Maximum Passengers – 3 013
Crew – 987

The First Leg of our Trip

Our Friday morning started off early. Our alarm went off at 3.20am and Gerard and I were up and going.
We managed to get away at 4.40am. Gerard thankfully had checked the route to Neuhof on the internet the night before we left. We tried putting it into our navigation system as we left home but this is when the trouble started.
Our navigation system decided that it was time to give up the ghost!!!! I was so busy trying to get the thing to work and Gerard was trying to help me, that he overshot the turn off to Neuhof. Now we found ourselves driving “forever” (it felt that way), before we could find a place to turnoff and drive back. Hubby was having serious case of sense of humour failure. At this point, we had warned the kids that any smart comments could result in severe injuries. They realized that something serious was up and were silent in the back of the car.
We got to the parking place in Neuhof with just minutes to spare!!! Nothing like an adrenalin rush and high blood pressure to start our holiday. We loaded our suitcases into the trailer and our little overnight case and toiletries into the bus luggage compartment.
We then set off for Fulda where the rest of our group got on.
Our bus was great, being a double decker Bistro bus. This meant that we all got to sit upstairs and could go downstairs for coffee and snacks. There was also a loo which we had been asked to use only in emergency, which is understandable. The law in Germany for heavy duty driver’s, is that the driver has to stop every two hours for a half an hour break. This enabled us to stretch our legs, use ablutions at the rest stops and buy any other odds and ends we wanted.
The weather on our first day started off with a lot of mist which melted away and we had sunshine and blue skies until we reached our destination – Verona in Italy.
Travelling through the Tirol was absolutely beautiful and I managed to take quite a few pics through the bus window. There were 104 people on our tour and therefore two buses had to be used. We were lucky to have been allocated to the Bistro bus, as the other half of our group, were in a normal tour bus. I think they were quite envious of us.
We overnighted in the Airport Hotel on the outskirts of Verona on our first night due to our group being too big for the planned hotel accommodation at the Garda See. This was a great disappointment to us, as this was one of the reasons why we chose to travel by bus, considering this would take 12 hours sitting and trying to keep kids occupied.
The accommodation at Verona was however, very good. This was a 5 star hotel.
Our group all gathered together for our evening meal which was inclusive except for the drinks. We had our first taste of Italian cuisine. The lasagna was in keeping, but obviously the cook had been tipped off about a German tour group arriving for dinner. We were served Pork as the main meal – how Italian is that??

MSC Orchestra

Slideshow of the ship

First week of Holidays.

Well we could lie in bed late except that Gerard had to go off to work as usual. He was in fact leaving for England today. He was leaving after lunch so still got to see him at lunch time.
Heidi had left for Ireland on the weekend, so did not get to doing any gym at all this week.
On Tuesday, Lara and I went off to Marcelle in Lauterbach. We had a look around her lovely new house and then sat and chatted. A little later on, Roxy came over with baby Joshua. Lara was in her element then. Had lunch with them and only left to come home at about 2.30pm.
I called in at Mega Company and bought another memory card for my camera.
Went to Sagawe in the afternoon and took a pair of jeans back. The stretch jeans did not fit me comfortably. I managed to exchange it for a really nice jacket, so was very pleased with that.
Gerard got back late in the evening.
It was Roger's birthday on Wednesday, so gave him a ring to wish him. Their land line is not working so the cell phone call was quicker than a normal call.
On Wednesday, I took Lara to Kindergarten, as I was going to Marjory today. When I got there, she was outside. She was waiting for some people to come and pick her apples for her. She asked me if I could do some shopping for her. So I duly went off to Herkules and did that. On my way back, I went via Deichman's and bought myself a nice pair of black shoes.
On Thursday, I literally spent my whole day packing. I tried to get the kids involved but they were not that interested. Marjory called to say that she thought she had broken her hand/wrist. I was not sure as to whether she needed my help or not. She then assured me that she had spoken to her neighbour and had called a taxi to take her to the hospital.
Later that afternoon, we had an appointment at the bank. Robert now has his own "card" account, where he can draw money whenever he wants to. This is where is pocket money will be deposited and any other that he receives as presents etc.
We are hoping that this will give him a little more insight into money matters, and a little more responsibility as far as keeping his own filing system with his banking details etc. Let's see!!!!
Finished off our packing and had the suitcases standing downstairs in the hallway ready for our early Friday morning getaway!!

Birthday's

Well we seem to have quite a spate of birthday's at this time of the year. Gerard's on the 23/9, our friend Klaus on the 25/9, Claudia on the 26/9 and Gerard's mom on the 29/9. Liesel had hers on the 1/10, mine was on the 3rd and my brother Roger had his on the 10th.
Heidi and I went to gym on Monday 1st. When I dropped her off at her flat, the little restaurant opposite their place had put up a teepee. He then put a sign on it saying that it was his guests smoking room. As from 1st October, there is a smoking ban on all restaurants in Germany.
My birthday falls on a public holiday here in Germany every year. This is the day of Unity (it was when the wall in Berlin was broken down etc.) between East and West. So I had asked people around for tea, coffee and cake. Joanne, Melanie and Patrick came down from Eisenach and arrived first. Heidi, Roxy, Marcelle and Claudia also came for the afternoon. Edmond and Ursi came along and I felt quite bad that we all spoke so much English and left her out a bit. I think she must now realise how I felt when I first arrived in Germany and she invited me to her birthday parties etc. Charlie came along for some tea and cake and he, Gerard and Edmond sat and watched sport on TV while us woman yacked out heads off.
I had some lovely messages from friends via email and some phonecalls. Dad forgot my birthday as usual!!!
I went to Marjory on Friday morning and did a bit of dusting for her. Also took her some of my birthday cake. She had also bought cake.
School's broke up today. Robert came home with the worst mark he has ever got for Maths - a 4!!!
Steven came home and did not tell me a word about his marks. Only later when Gerard got home did it all come out. Steven has done very badly in all his tests. Don't quite know what solution we have for this.
On Saturday morning, I went of to Sagawe in Eudorf to go and spend my birthday money on some clothes. I was so pleased to find a number of lovely items and spent 120 euros on them. Gerard dropped Lara off at Sagawe, as he was going to meet Edmond at the tennis courts for his cleaning up session.
On Saturday night, just as we were going to settle down and watch the rugby, Larissa called. I invited her and Gary over to join us. They came a few minutes later and we all watched France play against New Zealand. New Zealand lost and went home!!!!
After a lte night, we had a nice long lie in on Sunday morning. Had a late breafast and then I started painting more of Steven's room. Gary called to say that Larissa and He would not join us for the rugby but were going to Marcelle and Heinz to watch there. That allowed me to finish off the painting without rushing. After the SA - Fiji game, Gerard, Robert, Lara and I went into town and took a walk through the market place. There was a Little Red Riding Hood market on and all the shops were open. It was a beautiful day.

Another Week

On Monday Heidi and I went off to gym. I could certainly feel the muscles in my arms had been used after my work out.
I went to German lessons on Tuesday as usual without having done my homework. I felt bad but as I mentioned in my last post, I am disappointed in how much theory we are doing on a conversation course!!!
On Wednesday, my dishwasher was repaired. The repairman put in the new panel, so everything is working well again.
Our Cruise tickets arrived today in the post - how exciting.
And it was Claudia's birthday today. I popped around to Bell to drop off her pressie and wish her.
On Thursday I went to gym with Heidi. It rained all day - a real soaking rainfall.
Dave phoned from Australia, so I quickly called him back on Skype. It was great to hear his news. Very proud of him becoming plantation manager. They have also bought a lovely new house in the same area that they are currently staying in.
On Friday I took some of Gerard's birthday cake to Marjory. So we sat and had tea and cake together which she seemed to thoroughly enjoy.
On the Saturday, we did our usualy grocery shopping. We then went off to Jane and Glen, for Samantha's birthday party.
We had coffee and cake and sat around chatting. The kids had a great time outside with Stefan and Lara got to play with Sam's two guinea pigs.
We stayed on for supper which was really tasty. Manu's parents were also there. We had met them previously at Stefan's confirmation. They have invited us to a juke box evening at their house on the first weekend in November.
I hope Jane will be feeling well by then. She has some bacterial infection in her blood which is causing her a lot of pain in her joints and she is battling to walk.
We left their house at 11.15pm.
We stayed at home on Sunday and I painted a wall in Stevie's room. Charlie Kotze had arrived from S.A. and later that evening we went out for dinner at Gasthaus Roth. Had the most divine steaks.

Busy Weeks

The week starting on the 17th was the start of quite a busy time for us.
On that Monday I went to Heidi and we took a drive out to Leusel to find out more about a Creative Studio that I had seen. Well, all that turned out to be was a woman (seamstress) sewing from home. She doesn't even give lessons or anything. Don't know why she calls herself a studio.
We then wanted to take a look at the Antique shop in Leusel, only to find out, that the opening hours are very strange indeed. It is all set in and around a pub and the opening hours are only at night until 1.00am. I was quite disappointed in that.
We then decided to go and take a look at the little gym we had been told about by one of the guys at Bell. It is situated behind the public pool in Alsfeld. It seemed quite nice and they will allow us to use their gym equipment whenever it suits us at a cost of 2.50 Euros a time. So no contracts etc. which really suits both Heidi and I.
That night both Gerard and I went off to Robert's Eltern Abend (Parents evening). It was the first one and we wanted to meet the teacher and see some of the other parents etc. His class teacher led the meeting with his stand in teacher, being there as well. Robert's teacher was dressed in a black suit and white shirt, looking very formal and serious. He was very quick and to the point with everything he had to say.The Stand in teacher was the total opposite. Dressed in red faded jeans with ragged edges and a green t-shirt, (he looked a bit like Spike in the movie Nottinghill) he was so much more relaxed and vocal.He spoke more about the children's behaviour in the classroom and then went onto what he is proposing to cover in his syllabus. He teaches them German and Art.As we left the classroom, Gerard muttered under his breath "a bit like tweedle dee and tweedle dum".
Went to my class on Tuesday. I must be honest in saying that I had hoped this course to be more Conversational and not so theoretical.I did my grammar course 2 years ago and have forgotten so much. That is probably why I am not enjoying it so much. Reminds me how dof I have become.
I visited Marcelle on Wednesday morning. She was waiting for the guys to come and install her new kitchen into her new house. It was the first time that I had seen the new house, so it was all quite exciting. Spent a nice morning there. Steven's eltern abend was on Wednesday night which Gerard attended on his own.
On the Thursday Heidi and I went off to our little gym and Wendula showed us the ropes (literally)!!! She was a sweet girl who battled with her english but she managed to show us what each piece of torture equipment was used for.
I attended Lara's eltern abend on Thursday evening. I passed Clive with some S.A. people in their car on my way there. He had told Gerard that they were coming to watch the rugby at our house that night. He arrived with all the goodies we had asked him to bring for us and then they went out for dinner.
I went to Marjory the next morning only for 1 hour. I took here off to her chiropodist and then went straight home.
It was so nice to have a really nice function to dress up for and I started that a 2.30pm by going of to the hairdresser. I wanted my hair pinned up. Hoo boy - did I start to panic when my hair was set in rollers and I was stuck under a hair drier thing. At the end, it all turned out well and got home in good time to shower and change. We got to the Castle at 5.45pm and the sun was shining brightly.
We all stood outside where we were served champagne and cocktails. It was nice seeing familiar faces from South Africa and being introduced to some people that I have only heard of and never met. We then moved into the courtyard of the castle where every couple's photo was taken. Then we moved into the restaurant and sat at our appointed tables. We sat with Roxy and Ryan, Ricki and Paul and another couple from England. The food was lovely, some of it being buffet and other servings were served to us.

A photo of the happy couple - Gary and Larissa.

After dinner and some speeches, we were asked to proceed downstairs into the "cellar" where a disco was all set up. It was such a lovely setting and great fun was had by everyone. As the night was progressing, all the S.A. people were saying that they would see us the next day. They were all inviting themselves over to watch the rugby.
We managed to finally get away at 4.45am.
Woke up at about 8.30am and made some breakfast. Everyone duly arrived at 2.00pm to watch the S.A./Tonga game. From the 20 odd people that we thought were coming over, only 12 arrived. Most of them feeling very sorry for themselves being majorly hungover. It was great fun watching and having all the S.A. shouting and commenting. We had told the kids not to venture out of the playroom, as we did not want them being "damaged" by bad language.
Gerard started the braai and we all moved outside to eat etc. It was very interesting talking to Bokkie and Anna's niece and nephew who are living here in Gottingen. He seems to be such a clever young guy and jolly good looking too. After his job finishes here, they are moving onto Sweden.
The next day was Gerard's birthday. So we were up early again, to have things sorted out for when people were going to arrive. Heidi's Heinz was actually doing a proper Weber for us with a Beef roast and then chicken. It turned out very well and everyone just loved the great tasting meat.
Gerard was spoilt and seemed to enjoy his day very much.