Friday, April 30, 2010

We'll Be In Barcelona in Two Weeks!

It's kind of hard to believe but in two weeks we'll be in Barcelona Spain, touring the city and looking forward to boarding the Disney Magic.  Since my last post, I've gotten to know many more of our fellow cruisers through the DISboards.com thread for our cruise.  To help organize and share the cruise planning information, I set up a website called "Disney Magic Med Cruisers - May 15, 2010".  One of the things I like best about the web site is the Roll Call section where we have posted the names and pictures of many of our fellow cruisers.  This way we get to know each other a bit better before we actually meet on the ship.  As we've done on our last two Disney cruises, we've set up or joined private tours at most of the ports of call.  Below are links to the web sites of each of the tour providers:

Valletta, Malta - UPhotoMalta


Naples, Civitavecchia (Rome) and La Spezia (Florence), Italy - Rudy's Touring Service

Villefranche, France - Dream Tours


As of right now, we're doing our one and only Disney Cruise Line (DCL) tour in Tunis, Tunisia, which is the Jeep 4x4 Experience.  Here is a description of this tour:


On this tour you will:
  • Proceed to the Berber village of Sidi Jedidi, known for its hot thermal waters, where you will have the opportunity to appreciate the beautiful landscape.
  • Enjoy some local food in the "Mtir center," comprised of a complex of traditionally built rooms. Each room is called Dar, and the entire block is called "Douar." Here you will have the opportunity to taste typical Tunisian specialties including Berber bread, olive oil, honey, Tunisian pastries and mint tea.
  • Continue to your second stop, the Berber village of Jeradou; one of a few Berber villages in the Dorsal mountains. The village rests on a mountain pinnacle along the road that leads to the Zawiyya shrine and mosque. There are also some small Roman ruins in a nearby olive field.
  • Drive in an air-conditioned Jeep to Zaghouan.
  • Enjoy a 30-minute guided walking tour of The Water Temple of Zaghouan. Commonly referred to by its French name, Temple des Eaux, it dates back to Roman times and was not actually a temple; it was a magnificent fountain with 12 niches built to hold life-size statues representing the 12 months of the year. Note: This tour includes approximately 1.5 miles of walking at a steady pace, part of which will be on cobblestones and/or uphill, including steps.
  • Lunch at the Dar Zaghouan restaurant.
  • Drive back to the pier. 
I have not yet set up anything for us in the port of Ajaccio, Corsica.  Nothing like waiting until the last minute!  Our plan will be either to take it easy and maybe do one of the bus/train tours and maybe visit a local beach OR I might rent a car so we can drive into the interior of the island and see some of the sites, like Les Calanches.  We'll see.