Princess Cays and a Sea Day

First of all, sorry it is taking me so long to get these posts up!  So many people have been kind enough to say that they enjoy my travel journals, THANKS! 

Our first port of call was Princess Cays, a private beach owned by Princess Cruise Lines on the island of Eleuthera in the Bahamas.  Upon arrival, the island staff prepared a great BBQ lunch for us, and we spent the afternoon relaxing.  Mike snorkeled just offshore, and I sat under a tree reading my Kindle.  Talk about paradise!

  

   

The next day was a sea day, which we always enjoy.  Our Cruise Critic group had arranged a Meet and Greet party, and the theme was "The Mad Hatter".  We were all to wear a crazy hat to the party, and officers from the ship came to award first, second and third place.  Mike came to the party with a pink flamingo on his head, and I came as a jellyfish, complete with tentacles and flashing lights.

Captain Tony Yeoman came to the party and posed with the 1st place winner, ME!

Mike and I enjoyed some gelato at the International Cafe, and Mike played water volleyball, outlasting all the old guys, and even some of the young ones!

We watched a bit of MUTS (Movies Under the Stars), but ended up deciding that we could watch movies at home anytime.  We opted instead to play some ship trivia, and take some merengue and country line dancing lessons.  We pretty much sucked at all of that, but we had a great time anyway!

There may or may not have been a nap or two taken out on the balcony that afternoon, and some reading done in between the shut eye.  Oh, so relaxing are the sea days! 

Onboard the Ruby Princess

After a nice trip to the Florida Keys, Mike and I woke up ready to board our ship and start our 10 day cruise to the Caribbean.  We boarded the ship at about 1 p.m, and went to the Cafe Caribe for a little lunch.

Our cabin was on the Baja deck, B754.  It was located at the very back of the ship, an aft "fantail" cabin.  We liked it because we could look out over the wake, and see out over both sides of the ship.  What a great view!

The Ruby Princess is the newest ship in the Princess fleet.  She has over 900 staterooms, 5 restaurants, a beautiful atrium, shops, 5 swimming pools,a library, internet cafe, a theater for production shows, "Movies Under The Stars", and lots of gorgeous lounges.  She held over 3000 passengers!

Our ship was set to sail at 5 p.m., but first we had to have our lifeboat drill.  We all had to report to our muster stations and put on our lifejackets. 

There were six other ships at Port Everglades the day were left.  When it was time to set sail, there were already three ships ahead of us.

Mike and I went to the Outrigger Bar for the sailaway, and met a few friends we had met on the internet.  I am part of an online group of people who discuss cruising, on a website called "Cruise Critic".  It is a nice group of people, and we have made several good friends.  We enjoyed watching the skyline of Fort Lauderdale fade away as we sailed toward the Caribbean.  Princess Cays is next!

Our Cruise to the Southern Caribbean -- Chapter 1, Key West

Mike and I took a cruise in March!  We have discovered that we love cruising...and contrary to some people's idea of cruising, we do not just sit around in lounge chairs, sip margaritas, and eat all day.  We may or may not do SOME of that :-), but we tend to be very active on the ship and do very little actual laying around. We also take lots and lots of off ship expeditions.  The pictures and posts that follow this one will attest to the fact that we keep very busy!

We took a red eye flight from Los Angeles to Fort Lauderdale and arrived at 6:00 a.m.  We rented a car and stopped at a nearby Denny's for some breakfast.  Our cruise didn't leave until the next day, so we had a whole day to spend in southern Florida.  After some debate, we decided to drive to Key West!  I have always wanted to drive on the Overseas Highway, it stretches 190 miles from Miami, across the Gulf of Mexico through the Keys, and on to Key West.  We were tired, but figured, "How often are we able to drive to Key West?"  So, away we went.

Along the way we had to stop for an obligatory pose (below) next to Seven Mile Bridge.  This is the longest span of highway that is over open ocean.

After we arrived in Key West ( a really l-o-n-g drive!) we visited several of the tourist spots on the island. 

Here we are at the buoy that marks the southernmost spot of the continental United States.  In 2008 we visited Barrow, Alaska, which is the northernmost spot.  It is kind of fun to have been to both.  Now we need to do the easternmost and the westernmost!  Hawaii, maybe?

We visited the Ernest Hemingway home, although it was closed.  We still got to take a picture of the outside, though!  The funny wire fence is there to keep the six toed cats inside.  Apparently Hemingway had some, and the cats that live there now are descendants.

Another item on my so-called bucket list was to have Key Lime Pie in Key West, so we stopped at Kermit's (THE place for key lime in Key West!) and had a yummy piece!

Here we are after eating our pie...

Another famous landmark is the southernmost beach, at which we also had to have the obligatory picture:

So far we have seen the southernmost marker, the southernmost author's home, the southernmost beach, the southernmost key lime pie, and now we must see the...(drum roll, please)...southernmost sunset! 

It WAS beautiful!

The next day we boarded the Ruby Princess! 

More about that, next post!

Our apartment in Immenstaad and a visit to Munich

Thanks to Raytheon, Mike and I have been fortunate to live in Europe a few times.  We have not very often taken weekends off and just vegged...we tend to want to explore and see as much of the area as possible.  This last weekend was no exception.  Even though we have already been to Munich, I wanted to go back and visit something we had not seen before, Nymphenburg Palace. 

I guess I had better start off with a few pictures of where we landed after our 2 night stay at the Grape on the Lake.  We moved out of the Grape on Saturday morning, and dropped our bags off at the apartment Raytheon rented for Mike while he is here.  Here are a few shots of our new home. Immenstaad is a summer resort village, it sits right on the shores of the Bodensee. 

Our apartment sits a few streets back from the lake.  There are three apartments in the building below, ours sits over the garage.

Here are a few shots of the inside:

Yes, I hit my head on the ceiling when I got out of bed.  More than once. 

 

After we dropped our bags off on Saturday morning, we took off for Munich with two guys that Mike works with.  The first place we stopped was Nymphemburg Palace, built in 1675 as a summer residence for the ruling families of Bavaria, starting with Ferdinand Maria and Henriette Adelaide of Savoy.  The joke during the tour was that many men were named "Maria" back then, but why this one dressed in tights and high heels

was anyone's guess. 

We only got to see a very small portion of the palace, this shot just shows the buildings we visited.  We toured 16 rooms of the Royal apartments that were on the ground floor.  The rest of the palace complex (not visible in this picture) housed the Bavarian government during the summer months when the Royal Family was vacationing there.

Here are a few shots of the king and queen's apartments, starting with the INCREDIBLE "Great Hall":

Here is a close up of the ceiling in the Great Hall:

This is the really, really, red reception room.  The Italian table in the center was made in the 1400's.

One of the bedrooms:

Here is the "birthing room", where famous, crazy King Ludwig the 2nd was born.  In case you're a Disney fan, crazy Ludwig is the one who built the castle (Neuschwanstein) that the castle at Disneyland is designed after.

This is the "Hall of Beauties" that King Ludwig #1 had painted. He apparently was a consummate girl watcher, and would invite the beautiful girls in the village to come to the castle "for a portrait".  As the tour guide said, "If only these squeaking floors could talk!"  My guess is that this is why the king and queen slept in separate apartments!

They say Ludwig was a bit, what's the word? Flamboyant?  He loved the Baroque style, as displayed here in his "Dress Coach".  It is hard to tell in this picture, but it was coated in gold leaf.  I think it needs just a bit more flair, don't you?

On the grounds of Nymphenburg is another, smaller palace called Amalienburg, built in 1734.  It was used as a hunting lodge.  When I think of a hunting lodge, I imagine something rustic.  Here are some pics so you can decide if it fits YOUR idea of a hunting lodge!

Mike and I on our way to the "hunting lodge".  I'll say it again, it is COLD here.

Schloss Amalienburg, the hunting lodge:

Even the dogs lived in luxury, they had heated dog houses under the gun cabinets:

Here is the beautiful dining room at the lodge; it is "Oh, SO Rococo!"

The kitchen was big, but very primitive!

The bedroom at the lodge:

I would love to come back sometime in the summer, the gardens and grounds here at Nymphenburg are supposed to be amazing!

After we left the palace, we drove to the center of Munich so we could go to the Hofbrauhaus (HOFE-broy-howse) for some good German beer. 

It is incredibly toursity ( it is said that locals come here to watch all the tourists attempt to chug beer and sing "Country Roads"), but is also stuffed with history.  The Hofbräuhaus was one of the beer halls used by the Nazi Party to declare policies and hold functions: On February 24, 1920, Adolf Hitler proclaimed the twenty-five theses of the National Socialist program here.  We had lunch and enjoyed the craziness of the local soccer team that had apparently won their game.  If I can figure out how to post a video (things look different on the editing bar, for some reason) I will put it up so you can hear the team singing!

Tune in to the next post, where you'll get to see pictures from the Fasching parade in Konstanz.  It was REALLY interesting!