Thursday - Castries, St Lucia

This Island belongs to the Brittish commonwealth. It was our favorite Island. Nice and clean, friendly people. We took a tour to the rainforrest. The view from the areal tram was spectacular. We were a little nervous when we noticed that the people in front of us wearing harnesses and hard hats. Thankfully, it was optional to take the zipline down.

A little more about the cruise

Wednesday
Martinique - the French Island with departement nr 97 ( Paris is 75).
They promised good shopping but that was only about diamonds and crystals. We took a horsecarriage through the city of Forte de France. We didn't understand much, but we did understand the story of the earthquake when the only survivor was a prisoner who lived because the walls were so thick. So this prisoner could tell others what had happened.
If you, like us, feel that the story is somewhat lacking in logic, you have to ask the French Guy.
Another story that we understod was about the library. It was first built for the French world expo at the same time that the eiffeltower was built, and by the same guy (Eiffel). And it was the first building was constructed by armoured concrete. After the expo this building was disassembled and shiped to Martinique where it was reassembled.

Lördag - left the ship and went to Dorado

The Cruise was excellent. We had 2 minuters of rain, spread on three times. Here are som Pictures that we could not upload earlier.

Tisdag - St John's, Antigua

Yesterday Ditte and Ulla went for a manicure on the ship While I was line dansing at the pool.
After dinner we went to a musical. We stole some cheese in the restaurant and went to our balcony sipping wine.

This morning we joined the water aerobic class before getting off the ship at St Johns where we are now sipping a well deserved frozen daiquari. As on the last Island the internet speed is Almost zero.

Lördag - måndag

Sightseeing in San Juan before boarding the Cruise ship in the afternoon. We were greeted by an army of attendants, we found our cabin, and sat on our privat balcony sipping wine while waiting for our suitcases.
Wonderful dinner. While we were sleeping the ship went on to St Thomas.

Sunday

The ship docked at 8 and we took a sightseeing tour up the hills and finished at the Magen beach, one of the 10 best sandbeaches in the world. The water was about 30 degrees celsius. Very salty, making it bouyant enough for us to pop up and float like corks.
Sunday dinner required formal dress to bad we forgot the long gowns! A lot of the other passengers haden't however.

Monday

We know what day it is because Every morning They change the floors in the elevations to reflect what day it is. We disembarked in Fredriksted, St Croix just in time for a enormous parade celebrating the veterans day. Not only were there military and veterans, all the high elementary school bands and cheerleading troups, scouts an others were there and all bands playing different music simultanously.
We finally found an Internet café but the speed is slow so we won't provide you with a bunch of Pictures, if any, today.

We'll be in touch next time we find wi-fi.

Transportsträcka

The day started at five o'clock loading the car and leaving Naples. During the night the hotel changed to christmas time. We met the sunrise on I75. Arrived in Ft Lauderdale in horrible rush hour. This is now a permanent roadworking, roadbuilding area. More cars - more roads - more cars ....
We Arrived in puerto rico and checked in 10 hours later!
San Juan looks like an interresting old city, we are staying in the old town and Will explore it tomorrow before boarding the Cruise ship. After a nice dinner we decided to go home and sleep early.

Dramatical happenings at Naples pier

Today we set out to explore Naples. After a rather long walk we ended up at the Pier at high tide. The dolphins, Pelicans, anhingas and fishermen were all trying to catch some of the abundance of fish came in with the tide. Unfortunately some birds were hooked on the fishing lure. It appears that this was happening quite often, twice While we were there. First an anhinga, then a Pelican. The resque team came both Times with a net and lifted the bird up to to the Pier to unhook the poor bird. The anhinga seemed dazed but had enough presens to sit and dry his wings, which is what anhingas do, in order not to drown. He finally recovered enough to fly into the water and swim to ashore.
The Pelican however seemed no worse for wear. He must have experienced this before, he just sat calm and waited for them to remove the hook. Once freed he flew away.
We then headed over to the fishing wharf  for a nice lunch which was richly deserved After five miles  trekking. We had stone crab claws and Pinot grigio. Marvelous!
Revived and refreshed we went to the Fifth Avenue to buy shoes for Christina.
We are now packed and ready to leave for the AirPort early in the morning.
Tomorrow night we Will be in San Juan and from there we go on the Cruise. We don't know when we have internet access again. Be patient, we'll be back!

What a wonderful day...

... to start a vacation!
After breakfast a walk on the beach on the Atlantic side in full storm, though warm. Then off to try to fit all the suitcases into the car - that was a real puzzle!
Finally finished we headed towards Naples on the Gulf side.
On the way trough the Everglades we met a bunch of alligators, anhingas, egrets and garfish, all in the wild. The Sun was shining, we had a great picnic lunch and finally Arrived in Naples.
We packed some wine, nuts and grapes and went to the beach to watch the sunset. As an added bonus the dolphins were jumping and the Pelicans were gliding by.
To celibrate Ullas 70:th birthday we made a nice herring supper in the hotelroom. The only small misshap was that we blow the fuses when trying to cook potatoes in the microwave.
Before that, we had already had the electrician here to fix the lamp that we thought was broken. He kindly showed us were to flip the switch!
Dinner was Delicious!

Sista dagen - soliga playan

Tiden går fort när man har roligt! En härlig vecka är slut och sista dagen tillbringade jag på playan.
Jag skulle kunna bo på den här ön. Så vackert, grönt och fullt med blommor trots att dom haft en lång het sommar. Hemligheten är rikligt med underjordiska sjöar.
God mat o gott vin, duktiga o trevliga guider och chaufförer, resans namn har verkligen motsvarat alla förväntningar!
släpar hem 6 flaskor vin från våra utflykter, hoppas dom håller. Inbakade i lite bubbelplast,  badhanduk och regnjacka. Provvägde väskan nu, 19,6 kg, så vikten klarar sig.

Ensaimadas - bakas med ister

Idag började vi med en tur upp i bergen. Det var serpentinvägar som borde varit omöjliga att forcera med en buss, och dom flesta busschaufförer vägrar att göra denna tur. Men, vår Manolito bangade inte! Varje kurva och varje möte var ett äventyr.
Elvakaffe högt uppe i en liten by. Vi fick ensaimadas, ungefär som wienerbröd men bakade med ister. Det var gott i alla fall och vi fick inte veta innehållet förrän vi ätit upp bullarna.
Sen nedför berget samma väg, vidare till en bodega i ett stort palats från 1700- talet. Här blev vi inbjudna till herrefolkets salonger eftersom det var lite kyligt idag. Det var vår guide som flirtade in oss, hon sa att det var första gången som en grupp blivit insläppt i de privata rummen.
Vi serverades massor med olika goda små tapas och fem sorters vin som odlas på gården.
På hemvägen började chauffören sjunga för oss, i bästa Pavarotti-stil. Han kanske också hade provat vinet. En fantastisk sista utflyktsdag.
I morgon är det vilodag innan vi åker hem på söndag.