Hello all

I don't know whether to say Buenos Dias or Buonguirno now. At the moment I am once again sitting in Barcelona, Spain but I am on a one-day excursion from the Costa cruiseship I am currently on, which is from Italy.

I had hoped that the 10 day cruise would give me lots of time to get caught up on my e-mails and get the blogs finished up. However, when I discovered that the ship's very elegant internet cafe cost 30 euros per hour, I decided I wasn't really going to get anything done there. Thus I am taking time out of my touring to visit an internet cafe and get caught up. And yes, this time I am guarding my new backpack carefully.

Barcelona is beautiful today. It is a warm sunny day, probably in the 60's, and everyone is out and about shopping. I think this must be their weekend or start of the Christmas festivities because there are markets and stalls everywhere selling Christmas goods (toys, crafts, flowers, trees, etc.) and every square and street is packed with people. They all have winter coats on but some of us tourists are running around in just our T-shirts.

One of the squares has a wonderful exhibit that people are walking around. It appears to be a minature (but very large) nativity scene. There are mountains in the background and trees and pastures. In the one corner the shepherds are out in the fields with their sheep. The wisemen are coming through the mountain pass. The whole place was packed and I didn't actually see the nativity scene itself but perhaps it wasn't even there. Perhaps it gets added later. Anyway, it was fun to see the square so alive with people - quite different than my last visit.

The cruise is going well. It is with Costa Cruise lines so mainly Italian. Everything seems to be translated into about six languages so it's hard to tell what they are speaking at times. I was pleasantly surprised to find that I was seated with an all-English speaking table last night for dinner and two of them I had already met. We actually have an interesting table. Somehow they managed to keep the academics and the military types all together. There is a young couple from the US who are stationed in Germany and a young guy from the US who is stationed in Kosovo. Then there are two other couples. The one is from New Brunswick where she was a public school teacher and he worked for the University of New Brunswick. The other couple is from Johannesburg, South Africa and she was a teacher and he is a business man but I haven't figured out exactly in what area. Anyway, we had a great discussion and a very enjoyable dinner.

Costa is definitely not Holland America, which is who I have cruised most with. The South African couple and I both commented about the fact that there isn't a piece of art anywhere in the halls of the ship even though it's Italian which is known for its art. The buffets are quite scarce and very simple - nothing like the decoration found on other cruises. And the information is hard to come by. A lot of people missed breakfast this morning because they just didn't know when or where it was. Oh well, I'm sure things will get better and you can rest assured that I did not miss breakfast.

I left Florence on the 30th and took the train to Genova where I stayed on the night of the 30th and the 1st. On the 2nd I took the subway from Genova to Savona to catch the cruise ship. It was at that point that I met the first couple. We caught the bus from the subway stop to the harbour together.

Genova is an interesting city. At one of the first plazas I hit, I met a young girl from Genova who had studied for a year in Toronto. The buses were on strike so she was walking to meet her mother and she gave me a tour as we walked along. She was a great tour guide. I made some comment about it being a very nice city but not talked about much in the tour books. She said that was because the people of Genova never have liked tourists and they have tried to avoid tourism. It showed in many ways, like the fact that most of them won't or can't speak any English and aren't very helpful. My tour guide, however, was very helpful and informative.

We walked down Carroll to Garibaldi and then XXV Aprile to the main piazza. By the time we departed here I knew where the main museums were and where to go to see the other sights. And I actually managed to find them all thanks to her great directions.

The old city walls are still intact around part of the old city. Porta Soprano and the wall from it to the sea is still awesome. I stayed within the city wall except just at the Porta soprano where I went through for less than a block to reach Casa di Columbo.

The old house that Christopher Columbus lived in is a small narrow three-storey (counting the gorund floor) stone house. I say small but in those days it was probably quite large with two main rooms on each floor: the store and workshop on the first, the kitchen nad dining room ont he second and two bedrooms ont eh third. His father was a weaver and the family moved in to the house in 1455. So there you go. Christopher Columbus was Italian from Genova, not Spanish as some of us might have assumed.

It didn't take long to look at the house, which is currently bare. The real time here is spent reading a book of legal documents that have been translated into a dozen different languages. His father´s will, his will and his son´s will are there. I include the son´s because much of it was a duplicate of CC's will. The debts listed therein hadn't been paid yet so the son tried to ensure they ahd been covered so he and his dad could both rest in peace. There were also court decisions over disputes from some of CC's shipping transactions and who owed whome what. At one point the judge asked CC who he thought should win the case or who should get hte money and CC wisely answere with something like, "the right person" or "the one who rightly deserves it", which I thought was a pretty good answer.

Well, it looks like my time is just about up so I´'ll have to continue this and all my other stuff later. I may not write again soon as the cruise is 10 days and just started yesterday. I don't know when I'll get back to any of this but you can be assured that I am safe and sound on the cruise.

Cheers!

Jayne

PS - no time to proof - sorry!