VALENCIA to MALLORCA

VALENCIA:  We sailed into the Port at Valencia in the morning and took a shuttle to the city centre.  Valencia is a pleasant, very clean city that has little excitement to offer.  A couple of hours of walking and we were happy to return to the ship for lunch.

OCEANIA MARINA:   We have cruised with Oceania several times before but this is the first trip on one of their brand new line of ships.  It is interesting to compare how cruise ship design has evolved in the past decade or so.  The staterooms are very similar in size but the bathrooms have become much larger with a walk-in shower separate from the tub (previously only a shower).    Restaurants are different in that the number of specialty/ethnic restaurants has doubled as well as each one being much larger.  The pool-side grill is also bigger (and on this ship the grill menu includes lobster as well as the usual hamburgers).  The main dining room is relatively unchanged.  The space to create new and larger specialty restaurants (Thai, French, Italian, etc.) comes at the expense of the buffet, which has greatly decreased the number of tables.  Apparently, consumers have become more sophisticated in their dining choices.

THE OTHER WHITE MEAT:  After the port stop at Valencia we attended a lecture onboard on the history of Spain.   Part of that lecture concerned the conquest of much of the new world, where the Spanish introduced two animals previously unknown in the Americas.  The horse, of course, was very useful to the Spanish in their military conquest of the natives.  The Spanish also brought pigs with them as a source of food.  When the Conquistador Cortez met the Aztec Emperor Montezuma they sat down to a meal of pork.  Montezuma remarked that the meat tasted just like human flesh, something with which he was quite familiar. 

PALMA DE MALLORCA:   We took the shuttlebus into the edge of the city (about 4 miles from the cruise port) and drove by yacht slips the entire distance.  Guess there is lots of money here although I do not understand the rich who seem to love to own expensive boats but who never seem to sail them anywhere.

Palma de Mallorca is a lovely city which seems to thrive on tourism.  We enjoyed both the hop-on/hop-off drive as well as just walking through the central district.  We got back to our ship after lunch had ended so simply had hotdogs at the grill by the pool.   There are probably not a lot of burger joints that have on their menu 4 different cognacs and two different Armagnacs   We are now sitting on our deck with glasses of wine preparing to watch the sailout.  Tomorrow we shall be at sea all day and will reach Sicily the next morning.