View from the Kimpton rooftop terrace - had some snacks and our free drink up here.

Red and white sangria

Ham and cheese croquets and potatoes bravo. I liked the at sauce on top 😋

The hotel hangout area

View from our balcony onto a quiet street

Me and my wise face

We wandered around for a bit checking out the area and waiting for the night time Christmas lights. Loved the way they do them here - most streets had the lights strung across them which gives it a rather festive feel.

Animated window display - cute penguins

And cute polar bears - see the baby lying down - so cute

Went up onto this terrace for more tapas and spritzes until dark

Hugo and Aperol

And then the lights! Hard to catch the beauty of them!

Catalonia Park was well done!

This fountain changed colors

Many streets had those white triangle lights strung across them

Had to call it done as we were very tired. Slept 11 hours, got up and had our free breakfast and headed out to meander around again and find Barcelona cathedral and the Christmas market.

In front of the cathedral and market in front of it

Heading into the market. Many of the vendors sold these little wooden Yule logs. We realized that they were all different because each vendor painted the faces themselves. Of course we bought one and named it Lona

One very tall tree

The tree in front of the food market. That place was amazing and I can see if you lived in the city you would shop there frequently. Of course we were full when we wandered through there.

Bought a few souvenirs here including a bull, a coffee mug, and Tee got a hat.

Lunch beer before heading back to the hotel to grab our luggage and check into the ship.

Spent just a little bit of time on the ship, grabbed lunch and headed back out to see the lights just one more time. Met a nice young man who learned English from TV.

Near the pier

Walking toward the Main Street and Columbus statue

More street lights

And more

And more

The Cathedral at night

For our last day in the city, we took the included bus tour, which drove us around the city with a stop at La Sagrada Familia and the quarter. Barcelona itself is a very crowded city with 1.7 million people living within 6 miles. Las Rambles was all torn up for some construction project which was a little disappointing so we spent most of our time on the side streets.

Sculpture of a face by a “newer” artist

Typical style of buildings on this drive

This is Casa Mila. Those stars are a new addition from the last time we saw it. Not sure if it is a holiday thing or permanently added.

And of course La Sagrada Familia - no one could ever take pictures that will do this place justice. It is exhausting to even look at because it is so intricate.

Diane posing from one angle

One of many entrances

Another building

Posing in the Quarter

And one more Gaudi property. \240

And our final picture of the old city.

We made it back and went to the tea in the Wintergarden and then dinner at Manfreddies - one of the specialty restaurants.

Yes, we did try all those desserts and we both liked the peach tea best

That was a lot of bread for two people

Osso bucco for me and lasagna for Diane. Mine was good hers was meh. \240

And Carmel for desssert.

Called it a night and headed back to our room.

At the top of the castle

Up and at it early for our 1 hour bus tour to Tossa de Mar. Being a coastal city that many people from Barcelona vacation in over the summer, most businesses were closed. We walked through the city with our guide and visited the only wall still standing in Spain that was used to protect a city against intruders in the past. Stepped foot on the beach and stopped for coffee and tea.

Sign at the top of the castle

Liked the flower pots behind me

Diane on the street

Ava Gardner and Frank Sinatra - apparently she made a movie here. This picture is for my momma.

Nice sculpture on the path up to the castle

An old church alter. Loved that you could see through that archway to the beach and city.

Part of the walled fort - in the past everyone would hide behind the walls when being invaded. The rest of the time the farmers and families stayed outside of the wall in their houses.

Lovely beach - the Mediterranean Sea is such a lovely color of blue. They say this beach is wall to wall people in the summer.

Views from up high were great.

After returning from our bus drive, Diane and I had lunch on the ship and then headed back out to Palomas the city. Of course, most things were closed, but we did find a place for a drink spot with a view of the sea and then a little walk to find a church.

Homemade vermouth is apparently a thing here in Spain. We did try some in Barcelona and it was herb based, but it made me nervous because nobody can actually tell us what’s in it.

I had the Aperol Spritz and Diane had a house wine.

Lovely number one

And lovely number two.

Up and down - the city is set on a hill of course. This was the church…

We went back to ship and hung out at the pool deck and then grabbed some dinner at the cafe. Our room was cold and the pool deck is nice and toasty. There is not a lot of things to do on the ship at night so we spent the night in our room.

Pool deck views

Marseille France

And just like that, we are in a new country.

We took an included bus tour that was a disappointment- this city is the second largest city in France and the first and largest port city. A lot of our trip was stuck on the bus in traffic so our \240pictures are from the bus. Didn’t like the vibe - to much like Paris. Did wander through the Christmas markets - their big thing they make and sell here are bar soap and dry cookies.

The largest cathedral here with seven domes.

Lighthouse and view of one of the three islands off the coast

Replica front

And back

Love the water :-)

They do have a seawall with bench seating - made from tiles it went on for awhile but I liked this seahorse

Front of the market

The city and old harbor

Doing the pose - street art.

Our lunch and a beer - think it was a German beer. It was an Italian restaurant- we had gnocchi and short ribs. No English was spoken :-)

We returned to the shop via our tour shuttle, hung out at the pool deck again and then had a little nap and dinner. This was our dessert tray :-).

The pear dessert was yummy

Strolling along the promenade

Looking back at the city

Nice decorations as we have seen in all the villages

One of the churches and a nice bonsai tree

On the promenade

Our second stop was the medieval village of Eze. We wondered around the old town - it is interesting to see a castle that has apartments, shops and hang out areas. People still live there today.

This was the entrance and exit.

Views to the sea and beyond

Hill top beauties

Looking down at some of the yachts

Lunch at Pasta Roca - cheese and Pizza of course. Cheese was a staple on this trip. The blue cheese in this area was to die for.

This was a statue close to the starting point of the Grand Prix. We learned that it takes six months to set everything up for that race.

Princess of Monaco is buried in a church here in Monte Carlo. Beside that is her castle and a garden dedicated to her.

In the garden

This is the side of the grand Casino. Tourists like us can go in the front entrance, but only into the lobby. To go into the actual casino, you have to be dressed to the nines and have your passport.

This is the front of the casino taken from the carousel

This was the lobby.

In front of this casino was this lovely square that had these great snow globes, a carousel and amazing trees. If you walked through the courtyard to the left there were all of the shops that we could not afford to go into - big name brand clothing, watch jewelry stores etc.

Gorgeous!

More than life sized

Should have rode it

What a view!

Sitting at a cute little café, sipping pistachio Liqueur and looking at the yachts.

Long day visiting three cities but fun!

View from the highest part of the city

And us in that view. You can always spot the churches \240

Nice tree - everywhere that we went in the countries we visited were decorated so festive!

The Florence Duomo - beautiful

Our sanctuary and the best pasta I had on this entire trip

The starter 😋

Menu- I had the tortilli with cheese cream sauce and truffles

The pasta was stuffed with a mashed type of potato rather than cheese

So it does not look like it but that is Diane’s beef lasagna

Bar next to our meeting spot in front of the Christmas market - Aperol for me

Hugo for Diane

On a bridge parallel to the Ponte Vecchio or gold bridge that was built in 1345 and the \240only bridge not blown up in WWII.

Like I said, we were a little disappointed in our trip to Florence. But Diane did get a really nice calf skin cognac colored leather jacket.

When we return to the ship, the crew was dancing and singing as we walked up

Vines and a view!

Ditto

Many of the driveways were planted with trees like this.

Pure beauty

The entrance to the city. Was really nice to be somewhere where there was no vehicles allowed.

Diane trying dried truffles in her new leather coat

And Tee doing the same

My - view from the top.

My beauty

That car was on the outskirts

One of the quiet alley ways

The center of the city - they were roasting chestnuts

And they had all these games set up for people to play

Before we headed out, we stopped in this place for a quick glass of wine before heading to our winery

Our next stop for the day was at the San Donato winery where we had lunch and wine tastings. The place was beautiful and the wine is organic. Something we may need to try more of as it takes away the headaches.

The courtyard of the winery - beautiful setting.

Our lunch table, and one of our wines

In the winery storage area

My kind of lunch

Dipping biscotti in grappa - that is nasty stuff

In the wine tasting room. My only disappointment with this tour was that we had very little time to actually go and taste some of the wines, but we did squeeze in three.

And back to the ship we go. Took a little nap on the way back and then went to the poolside bar. Where we met this lovely couple from Wisconsin.

And just like that our seven day Viking cruise came to an end. It was very relaxing on the ship. We loved our room as it was very spacious and a very thought out space as we both had plenty of drawers. The ship itself was amazing as it was brand new and had several bars, a main restaurant, a tea room, and a great poolside deck that was covered as we were in winter.

On the downside, in the smaller villages, everything was closed as we were off-season. And as we have seen on other cruises, you arrive too early for the shops to be open. And the major cities were very, very crowded - Florence and Monte Carlo.

The other disappointment was in the actual ports. Every port we were in docks at a commercial port so you had to take a shuttle to get to any of the activities. This is very different from the Caribbean cruises where the ports have been built to take on the cruise ships.

Will we do another Viking cruise? I think we are \240going to try an Alaskan cruise next. Who knows what cruise line we will use…

In front of the one and only coliseum!

We departed our ship on a shuttle bus to the Rome train station and then took an Uber to our hotel - Hyatt Tribune. And yeah - it had a bathtub for two!

Front of our hotel - so cute and a small boutique hotel with a rooftop restaurant.

Very crowded on day one as the pope was coming into the city center. We wandered around down to the Spanish Steps and walked through the park near our hotel

Walkway near our hotel

On the street - lots of the windows and doorways were decorated for the holidays

The steps

Marching band in the street for preparation of the pope

In her new jacket

Nice doorway and beginning of blocking the street

Plaza statue. Went to see the holiday market here. Mostly candy.

Stopped in a place for lunch.

Water was $5

Yummy

On our two mornings we got up early to walk to the sites and avoid the crowds. Great idea! \240We got to see the Trevi fountain and other sites without the tourists!

Nice doorway!

Wall of Aperol

Minimal tourists!

Trevi fountain

Plaza with Pantheon Building

Vittoriano - Monument to one of the Kings

Just out in the open!

Cars are small here

Nice decorated alley

More doorways

Lunch - pizza \240for me

And Diane

Day two afternoon was a guided tour of the coliseum and the old city.

Loved the front of this restaurant

Gnomes!

Another good meal - gnocchi

And salad

And dessert

Loved this tree

Popped into a coffee shop when wandering.

Best pistachio croissant ever!

Second morning strolls - walked 45 minutes to the Vatican

In the distance

And up closer

Bridges were a nice stroll

On the bridge

Another nice tree!

Now we can see it - crowds are gone!

Just us! \240They don’t let you sit here anymore

Lights!

Looking for the gift of gab

Rome was crowded but a great walking city. We put in about 20 miles 😊and loved stumbling across great holiday decorations, laughing at the small cars and seeing the old architecture