France to Italy

We arrived back in Barcelona and met my sister and brother-in-law at the hotel. The four of us went sightseeing and we had lots of fun. We took the sightseeing bus all over town and got off at places we were interested in. One place was Poble Espanol which is a composite of all the different areas of Spain and the architecture native to each of these areas. I was pretty good at figuring part of it out. We took loads of photos. We ate dinner in a local joint and the food was not really that good but we knew we were getting on a cruise ship the next morning so we didn’t eat that much. Our hotel was quite nice; very modern and clean and just two blocks from the famous Sagrada Familia church of Antoni Gaudi. We were also able to see some of the modernist buildings built by Gaudi. They are spectacular. No straight lines and lots of decorative features.
We boarded the ship, Brilliance of the Seas, dropped off our carryons and went to Barri Gotic, the old Gothic quarter of the city, walked around there for a while and then strolled down by the waterfront. Aftter reboarding we got into the shipboard schedule which is like fantasy land and definitely not the real world. Everything on the ship revolves around eating, entertainment and generally having fun. We are very proficient at all those things.
Today was our first port stop, Cannes, France. It is a beautiful seaside city where the famous Cannes film festival is held every spring. I, of course, had to pose on the red carpet and make a complete ass of myself. We had to tender in and it was very windy and the seas were quite rough. They still are as I am writing this. The harbor is filled with the biggest yachts I have ever seen in my life. They are all ocean going vessels with crews. Some of them are almost as big as the ship we are on. Of course, all the “beautiful people” are wandering around town. They are oozing money from every pore. They are all skinny as hell, tan as berries and are mostly French. Besides the yachts they all have Benzes. We wanted to take a cab and the driver wanted $40 to go 2 miles. We laughed in his face and took the trolley for a buck each. Of course, it took us a half an hour to figure out how to use the ticket machine. It was hilarious. We took the train to Nice, hung out there a while, walked on the Promenade des Anglais, the beautiful seaside walk next the the rocky beach. The wind nearly blew us away. We took the train back to Cannes, where the beaches had sand and the guys were very busy checking out the topless women sunbathers. We took a tram ride which took us all around Cannes, through the various neighborhoods. We saw the park where the French game of boules was invented and we watched the old men playing. It is the French version of bocce. We returned to the ship via tender rocking and rolling all the way.
Dinner was great and we saw a cute show with four guys doing a Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons show. They were very good and we enjoyed it. After losing $10 in the casino I gave up and left Jerry to win it back for me.
Tomorrow we stop in Livorno, which is the port stop for Florence and Tuscany. We decided to go to Lucca by train instead of fighting the crowds in Florence and Pisa, both of which we have been to several times. Lucca is a quieter place, still in Tuscany where we can wander around and hang out with the locals. We will now switch from Fractured French to something that sounds like Italian but is mostly Spanish with a few Italian words thrown in. The main thing is that we make ourselves understood. I love the trains here in Europe and cannot wait to get on the next one tomorrow morning.