The Baked Alaska

I have only ever had Baked Alaska once in my life. I was seventeen and it remains etched in my memory. Mum and I spent a few days in Geneva on our big trip. Our journey had various highs and lows but the time in Geneva was achingly glamorous. We were hosted by a charming man, Georges Fest and his family. During our few days, Georges flew us to lunch at Lake Lucerne in his private plane. He also scored us tickets to an extravagant, Formal Ball (no idea what it was in aid of). On crossing the road to enter the hotel where the ball was being held mum and I were very nearly run over by a speeding, shiny, red Ferrari. Anyway, I digress, it was a fantastic meal and the highlight was at the end when they turned out the lights and a procession of smartly dressed waiters marched into the room carrying flaming trays of Baked Alaska. It was one of the most delicious things I had ever tasted mouth-watering ice cream covered with a delicate layer of sponge and then the fluffy meringue. I have never had it again since.

When the waiter at dinner announces that there is a special dessert tonight and it is Baked Alaska, I am torn. Tonight between 7:30 and 7:45 there is a chance to meet the Ship’s Captain and I want the boys to have a photo with him. Also I am very curious to discuss the Costa incident with the Captain and get his take on it. On discussing this with Frank we decide to wait for the Baked Alaska, eat it quickly and then rush off to meet the Captain at the other end of the ship and two flights down. All goes well until about 7:30, the Baked Alaska has not come out and Sam and I need to go the toilet. Frank says ‘don’t go, it will come out while you’re in the toilet’. I say, ‘I’ve waited 25 years for another Baked Alaska, I don’t care if I have to run out with my pants down.’ Naturally no sooner have Sam and I entered the toilet than I hear the music start and the clapping. Sam and I run out of the toilet and stand at the base of the stairs. I look up and see the procession of waiters at the top of the stairs and think, it’s okay we haven’t missed anything. Two regal staircases form back to back C’s with a landing in the middle. To my horror I look up and see Sam standing on the landing in the middle he is dancing and clapping; directly in the path of the marching waiters, the lights are dimmed and their arms are full of flaming Baked Alaska. Everyone has their cameras ready and Sam must think the clapping is for him. I yell at him to come down but with the music and the clapping he doesn’t hear me. I manage to run up the stairs and grab him just before the laden procession reaches the landing.

It is about 7:39pm when the Baked Alaska arrives on our plates. It’s incredibly yummy – the boys say the meringue tastes like toasted marshmallows. I say, ‘I don’t want to rush anyone but we have a Captain to meet’. We decide that I will go ahead and hold the Captain, so to speak, while the boys finish up. I move toward the front of the ship and hurry down the Swarovski stairs in the centre of the boat.

A Ship photographer is armed with his camera and asks if I’d like a photo. Hmm…well it is only time I’ve dressed up, I didn’t even have a dress until yesterday, surely one photo can’t hurt. Obviously the guy is bored because when I say ‘okay’ it turns it into a photo shoot for Italian Vogue. He’s commanding me to walk up the stairs, now down, turn around, now put your hands on the rail and lean back. All the while he is clicking away happily. At the end I am smiling through gritted teeth. I just wanted one photo not a portfolio. With the turning around and the flashing of the camera I become dazed and run up to a staff member, ‘where’s the meeting with the Captain?’ I am pointed toward the back of the ship’. I run to the back to be told, ‘no it’s at the front’. On moving to the front I run straight into Frank and the boys. ‘What kept you?’ asks Frank. I roll my eyes, 'You mean between the photo shoot and the marathon'.

We walk in to meet the Captain, just as the photographer is getting ready to pack up. We get the standard ship photo whith him and then we are ushered away by the Purser. The Captain, Francesco, is still within hearing distance of us. I bring up the Costa incident with him. He gives a very guarded take on it 'Our colleagues...a tradegy and the media' he throws up his hands like it is the media's fault. The Captain is listening I turn and look at him, 'There must be a lot of pressure for you right now'. (The incident highlights the responsibility of being Captain of a large passenger vessel). He shakes his head, 'Not an accident, a terrible mistake'. I nodd and he adds 'and what happened after' he throws up his hands and I know he means the Concordia Captain abandoning ship (the latest here is he didn't abandon ship he fell onto a life boat hmmm). I smile at the Captain and say, 'I know we're in good hands'. He must have got off the boat the next day in Genoa because when we switch cabins the following day we have a night's sleep to rival 'the sleeping bus'. After our meeting with the Captain we watch a show in the theatre, Starwalker, a tribute to Michael Jackson, which features a very good MJ impersonator. It leaves the boys moon walking and pelvic thrusting for days.

Malaga

The beaches of the Costa del Sol have seen Malaga become one of the most visited regions in Spain. When we arrived in Malaga at 7am it was pitch black. The kids were exhasted so it was 9am by the time we dragged ourselves off the ship. I was wearing jeans with thongs and a t-shirt (very Parisian - not!). I noticed lots of people around us with boots and big jackets on. We'd just come from the sun of Funchal and were going to the beach why would you need a jacket? Well luckily the kids had tracksuits on. We caught 2 buses from the ship to get into the main town. Our plan was then to get transport to Marbella, a Coastal town very popular with tourists. Given that Marbella was an hour away and we were due to be back on board the ship in only a few hours we decided this maybe wasn't our best option. When we hopped of the bus it started to rain. To get out of the weather we headed into a small Cafe with a Wi-Fi signal (Wi-Fi was prounced We-Fe in French but has since gone back to Wi-Fi). We had a coffee and Frank spent 30 minutes trying to connect to the internet without success. Then we walked out into the weather again. I said to Frank, 'My toes and other body parts are about to snap off'; it was freezing.

Frank made a great suggestion, 'Let's just go to a department store'. Despite our pact, in Casablanca, to never go to a shopping mall again on the trip it sounded like a great idea and a way to seek respite from the rain and freezing winds (note to self: always check the weather report on docking in new place).

El Corte Ingles was like Disneyland for women, rows and rows of shoes and bags - all amazing and mostly on sale up to 70% off. Leather bags were about 25 Euro about $33 AUD. I was tempted to do a little shopping and hire a truck to take it back to the ship. But here's the thing (the carry on challenge from an earlier post). We have no room - at all - in our four carry on bags which are truly busting at the seams. Frank had to rugby tackle them through the hand luggage sizing display at CDG airport. When airport admin asked him to see if they could fit, I laughed. 'There is no way they those bloated puppies will fit', I thought,'and there's no way Frank will allow them not to'. The struggle that ensued was hilarious. If Frank thought getting them into the luggage sizing guide was difficult getting them out was even more so. At one point I thought we would have to take the sizing device with us to Barcelona. Since then our luggage has changed not only in weight but it scale of terrorist threat. I have gathered many bottles of lotions, potions and gels (all over 100ml). Not my fault - they were 'free' with a hair cut on board the ship (this is actually true - you buy these products you don't pay for the hair cut - and combined they cost less than the haircut). Further, we have machine guns, lacky guns, light sabers and basically enough weapons to start a war (at least at a kid's birthday party). A little dress, maybe a bag, can not hurt. Of course not. It's a cruise; I can't go to the formal dinner in jeans. It's not respectful. Frank and the boys head to the Cafeteria for a snack and thus follows the best shopping of the trip. There are no crowds and for a brief hour I get in the zone. I end up with a dress (or two) and vow to throw out my thongs.

Have we really seen Malaga, well not really, but El Corte Ingles was definately worth the visit.

Fun in Funchal

We are landing in places with no idea of what to expect. Docking in Funchal, I can't believe we haven't heard of this place before - it is just incredible! There is so much to do here – the cable car, the wicker basket toboggan ride down the hill, fishing villages, Reid’s Palace hotel...a day does not seem long enough. On walking to the cable car we saw a yellow bus doing a ‘hop on hop off’ tour. We have seen the Red Bus in lots of different cities before but resisted. This time we decide, 'what the heck let’s catch it'. Funchal is breathtaking. I briefly fantasise about, one day, buying a little apartment and living here for a while (the real estate is very reasonably priced by Australian standards; new apartments with glorious views for well under two hundred thousand Aussie dollars).

Despite it being mid January everywhere we go Christmas decorations are still up and floppy Santa's hanging over balconies. We see an old man on his balcony fussing with tinsel around a Christmas tree. Frank comments, ‘Looks like someone in Europe has finally got around to taking down their Christmas tree'. I add, ‘…or maybe he’s just lazy and he’s just got around to putting it up.’ An hour and a half of amazing scenery later we miss our stop at Reid’s Hotel and decide to stay on the bus for another round trip. This time the bus takes a different, scarier route; travelling up narrow, steep, steep roads with sheer drops, other equally large busses coming towards us…this travelling thing can be hairy!

We miss our stop again, knew where it was, just had no button to press to request the driver stop. We end up walking back to Reid’s, a regal hotel with one of the most amazing outlooks I have ever seen and its history seeps out of the walls. Last year Reids celebrated it's 120th birthday ( Franks jokes, 'it should be on the cruise').

Lunch for all of us was very reasonable but I think we have the Euro/AUD exchange rate to thank for that. After lunch we slowly made our way back to the ship. I pick up a local paper, in English and it has a couple of fabulous jokes in it (smutty and totally politically incorrect). Frank has a good laugh at them and I say ‘You’d never get away with those in the West Australian’. Back on board the ship I get a text message from my Mum to be alert because a Cruise is sinking off Italy. Little did we know about what was unfolding.

Terrific Tenerife

This morning we woke up at Tenerife, one of seven larger islands and a number of smaller ones making up the Canary Islands. The islands are part of the Spanish Kingdom and close to the coast of Africa. On arriving in Tenerife we had no plans, as usual, but wanted to see Puerto De La Cruz. On disembarking we negotiated with a local taxi driver to take us to Puerto De La Cruz return. Hiring a local taxi is not recommended on the internet but Grazanni(?) had a kind face and took us to a number of famous look out destinations and tourist points (included in the price) on the way to Puerto De La Cruz.

Spain is a favourite holiday destination for Europeans and after seeing Tenerife we understand why. The climate is referred to as external springtime; despite having snow topped mountains for parts of the year. The beaches have black sand, like the Greek island Santorini, due to volcanic activity.

In Puerto De La Cruz, we did a bit of shopping and then had lunch. The prices are a lot less expensive than elsewhere in Western Europe. Apart from its beauty that is part of its appeal as a holiday destination.

After lunch Grazinni drove us back to the ship. There, in the library, we met an English man and during our conversation he told us that his main reason for deciding to come on this particular cruise was to have lunch at Reid's Hotel in Funchal. Tomorrow we arrive in Funchal and will follow our English friend’s lead…

Casablanca - Play it again Sam

It is hard to imagine that a couple of days ago we were in Reims trying to plan the next leg of the trip. Berlin or Barcelona? I never imagined that we would end up in Morocco. Walking from the Port into Casablanca we were hounded by more taxi drivers than I have seen in one spot, all touting for business. We commented that it was like being in Vietnam. There was a different feel though - these guys were quite aggressive and did not want to take no for an answer. Walking in the street, with the kids, we felt a bit vulnerable and sought refuge in the Hyatt, which had a full security screening process, as we walked it. I went to take my bag off to put it through the xray machine, and we were ushered past security (obviously standing out as tourists). The hotel was spectacular and we bought some drinks while planning our next move.

Rick's Cafe is famous in connection with the movie Casablanca and we decided to walk there for lunch. Casablanca was playing on a large plasma screen.

I had to take a photo of Sam sitting at the piano!

Lunch was among the most delicious food we have eaten on the trip and the restaurant's architecture and decor were fabulously Morrocan.

(I had eaten most of my lunch by the time I took the photo).

After lunch we walked to the Mosque.

We then caught a 'petit taxi' to the Morocco Mall; despite having many transport options on getting off the boat suddenly no one wanted to take us - petit taxi's are only licensed to carry three passengers. We finally found a very nice driver who was willing to take us to the mall and wait for us until we finished shopping (he didn't rip us off either). Turning up at a mall on the first day of a big sale was not a good idea - Mayhem - the Boxing Day sales at Myer in the City on steriods. We had no option but to brave the crowds as we literally had nothing to wear on the cruise. The boys were wearing snow boots (their only shoes left) and Frank's jeans were falling apart at the seams. We found our way to an entrance to the store and were told to go around to another entrance as this entrance was now an exit. We were on a time schedule to get back to the ship so I said, 'Wakarimasen. Parlez Japonais'. We were quickly ushered in and pointed toward an information desk. Our hour long shopping journey was crazy but it did result in the boys having new shoes and Frank finally being able to throw his old jeans away. I had wanted to find a dress or something for dinner but was near on suffering claustrophobia from the crowds. Back on board the ship we met a lady and her two sons who had taken an excursion to Marrakesh (this was something I really wanted to do but the 3 hour bus ride each way put us off). Apparently Marrakesh was exciting and lively with snake charmers, colouful souks etc. but very touristy and she was consciously watching her bag all the time...

The Costa Concordia and Contagion

Yeah I thought it seemed too good to be true –lodgings, travel and food all covered for one reasonable price. Now I know that the real Cost a’ cruising is that you might sink and children and the elderly will have to fight grown men for seats on the life boat.

Had MSC Yatch Club Head Bulter, Hery, not negotiated for us to be on this MSC Cruise at the last minute in all reality we may have been on board the Concordia. The Costa Concordia, departing Civitavecchia (Rome), several days after this ship was our next favourite option. There is nothing quite like being on a Cruise ship heading for Rome when all that seems to be on TV is images and passenger accounts of the Costa Concordia, of similar size to our cruise, sinking. Everyone has their opinion; what sort of Captain abandons his ship (clearly he is no Captain Sully). why did passengers and crew have to wait until hours after the incident to be told to evacuate. The latest reports suggest that the Captain was steering the ship past his home town and went close to the land as a sign of 'Bravado'. Crazy to think of playing a game of dare when you're responsible for the lives of 4200 people. When the ship started to sink it was panic stations. If what happens at the buffet on board this ship is anything to go by I can imagine; it is often every man for himself. On boarding busses etc. rather than a queue, there is more often a tight, strangled knot of people, where others may just jump in randomly at first sign of a space. Naturally, we now have a family evacuation plan. Being stowaways we didn’t actually get a safety briefing, though we made sure we got the kid’s life jackets. There have been discussions about how you might respond in an emergency situation; calm like the honeymoon couple who move to the top of the ship and wait for the helicopter to arrive or stampeding over everyone to get to the first life raft. I hope we never find out.

To take a break from all the TV footage of the Concordia we decided to watch a movie, 'Contagion' with Kate Winslet. It is about the ease with which new virus's can be created and how quickly they can spread across Continents. Fascinating movie and it has has us using the hand sanitiser dispensers on board with increased regularity. It's not all doom and gloom, we are seeing an amazing part of the world. I have written posts on the ports we are visiting but uploading photos to the blog is very slow. The plan is to finish of the posts once we've disembarked. Despite our proximity to disaster it feels like our time on the cruise is going very quickly - we only have 3 of the 11 nights left.

Unbelievable

I wouldn’t believe the last twenty four hours were actually true unless I had lived them. At 6pm yesterday I was sitting in our hotel in Reims looking for a flight to Barcelona. Frank was at the train station booking a train back to Paris.

For some unknown reason I started googling cruises from Barcelona. I noticed a fire sale on a cruise for eleven days from Barcelona to Casablanca to Canary Islands to Funchal (wherever that is) to Malaga to Civitavecchia (Rome) to Genoa and back to Barcelona. I thought how perfect it would be to have accommodation, travel and food all organised for eleven days. We could mentally relax a bit. I was so excited by the prospect that I texted Frank to book the first train out of Reims straight to Charles De Guille airport. We booked a train out of Reims at 7:38m arriving at Champagne–Ardenne at 7:48am with a connecting train at 8am to CDG airport. After this we had a flight to Barcelona at 11:30 landing in Barcelona at about 1pm. The ship, MSC Fantasia, was due to depart Port at 6pm. Sounds okay right? The only issue is we didn’t have tickets for the ship and as anyone who has cruised will know this is something you need to organise well in advance. We tried to book tickets for the Cruise on line but it was locked out as it was too close to the ship departure time. We also called a travel agent in the UK, advertising the cruise, but were told it was too close to departure time. As it was Sunday no other travel agents were open. On Sunday night I couldn’t sleep. I had a feeling about the cruise and that we would be on it the following night. On Monday morning we hurriedly got dressed and headed to the train station. Then there was a problem, the train from Reims to Champagne-Ardenne was delayed, I was panicking. Missing our connecting train would mean missing our flight and the boat so to speak. At 7:50am we boarded the train for the ten minute journey to Champagne-Ardenne. We knew our connecting train was leaving at 8am. On speaking to fellow passengers we found that two other people, a man and a lady not travelling together, were also due to catch the connecting train. The man called ahead and heard that the train would not wait but it was to depart from platform 4. We arrived at Champagne-Ardenne and could see our train on another platform. It seemed so close and yet so far away. The man jumped onto the tracks and ran across to catch the train. With two kids and four cases we didn’t have that option. Frank and I grabbed a case in each hand and instructed the kids to run and keep up. We ran up two flights of stairs. I was out of breath but could hear the whistle sounding for our train to leave. We kept running, I asked Frank to go ahead and hold the door. We squeezed in just as the doors were closing. Despite having to walk kilometres across the airport we made our flight with time to spare.

It was a smooth flight on Easy Jet which doesn’t have a seating allocation. It was seating on a first come first serve basis but because of the kids we were given ‘speedy boarding’ and got great seats. The lady behind us nearly got arrested for refusing to stop using her mobile phone during take off. She then kept kicking the back of my seat. An interesting touch on the flight was that they sold scratchies. For 1.50 Euro you had to chance to win 10000 pounds. I wondered what the scratch options would be ‘sudden turbulence’, ‘rough landing’ but we bought a couple anyway. On approaching the airport we flew over the MSC Fantastia. Frank joked to Rocco that we just needed some parachutes to get on board as we had no tickets.

When we landed in Barcelona we caught a bus into the main part of town. Frank and I agreed that we would catch a taxi from there to the ship. We knew the chances of getting on board were near on impossible but at least we would get to see the port. On arriving at the Ship there were was a large crowd of people leaving the previous cruise and those with tickets for the new cruise. We walked into the terminal and I asked at the information desk if we could buy tickets for the cruise. Naturally the guy looked at me as though I was from Mars. He said, ‘we are not a ticket office, takes time - the manifest for visas. Is not possible’. We walked outside and saw some men in tuxedos representing ‘the Yatch Club’. This is an upmarket service which, for a premium, includes a personal butler and all drinks on board the ship. I approached the man in charge and told him our predicament, ‘We are packed all ready to go if you have a spare cabin on board.’ Frank said, ‘If you have a spare cabin, we have spare money.’ He was bewildered, a highly unusual request. He asked if we could wait. I said, 'We have no plans.' He said he'd see what he could do. By now it was close to 3pm. We waited about fifteen minutes and then he came back and asked us our nationality. I handed him our passports. I heard him say ‘Australie, two bambinos’ into his mobile phone.

Rocco told me I should pray and kiss his necklace, just like he was, if I wanted to get on the ship. So I kissed his necklace and prayed. Frank and I looked at each other and agreed that it would be incredible if we could pull this rabbit out the hat. We waited another twenty minutes and I said, ‘let’s ask what’s taking so long’. Frank asked and the guy said, ‘I have called Naples and I am just waiting for them to ring back’. Shortly after he told us get onto the ship and then we will discuss the price. I said, ‘We don’t want to jump overboard so let’s discuss it now’. We were given a price for the Yatch Club including a butler. ‘Oh we travel a long time.’ Was this a good time to bring up the internet special? Of course! Frank produced the lap top and we mentioned the website and special. Back onto the phone to Naples.

‘We can’t give you that rate but we can give you a balcony suite at a special price’. It was a special price and so we agreed. I couldn’t resist adding, ‘Does that include champagne?’ He laughed, ‘It would be our pleasure to include some champagne.’ We were given a royal escort by a lady in a tuxedo directly on board the ship. As we walked through the terminal past lines of people waiting to board I heard comments like, ‘They don’t even have to wait.’ I had to laugh, it had been an intersting day.

On board we greeted by the cruise manager, Giovanni, a charming gentleman who had heard our travel story. He said, 'you can have champagne everyday'. I was trying to cut down but hey... We were escorted to a balcony suite and had a bottle of champagne waiting for us. It was 3:30pm and yes we had pulled a rabbit out of the hat.

It is now our first full day on board this amazing vessel which accommodates 3800 passengers. We still can’t believe we’re on the ship and neither can the staff we speak to. Many have told us they don’t know of this ever happening before, ‘those crazy Australians that just turn up and get on the ship.’