Conclusion to Our European Extravaganza

On our three week trip we walked a total of 209.73 kilometers or 130.32 miles. That is the distance from the Rogers Arena in Vancouver (GM Place) to the former Coquihalla Toll Booths as you head up to the interior of British Columbia. Or if you're on Vancouver Island, the distance from Victoria to Cumberland up island. We'll take Paris over either of those destinations, thank you.

Oh what a journey . . . Lesson learned, never take a cruise again . . . You'll have more fun on your own and off of a huge boat filled with loud people and bad food!

As of today, three weeks after sending our formal complaint to Costa onboard the Costa Magica from the Customer Service Manager, we have still heard nothing about the myriad of problems encountered during our cruise on the Costa Magica from June 13 to June 24, 2015.

June 23, 2015- Savona, Italy, Not Monaco

Another Distinctly Strange "International" Breakfast on the Ship, We Explore Savona, Italy Instead of Monaco Due to the Cancellation of Our Tour by Costa, A Tour Not of Savona, Sandwiches Not Served on Stale Bread for a Change, Swimming in the Mediterranean, Our Last Dinner Aboard the Costa Magica, Pre-Disembarkation Problems

Today we were supposed to be on a tour with Costa Excursions to Monaco. This was one of the reasons we had selected this cruise, because we both really wanted to visit Monaco. However, this tour was cancelled a couple of days ago. We were given a list of a couple of other tours of Italian towns we could take for 20% off the full price, but declined since our Monaco dreams were shattered and going to some other Italian town seemed pointless. No one from guest services ever told us how much a private tour of Monaco would cost as they had said they would. No matter, we wouldn't want to risk not being back to port in time for departure, them not holding the ship as they would with an excursion, and then missing our ride back to the safety of solid land in Marseille where we will try to salvage what's left of our vacation. If Costa wanted to deliberately ruin our vacation, they couldn’t have done a better job if they had tried.

We started the day by having breakfast at the "International Breakfast" restaurant at 9:00 A.M., which was the latest we could go, because breakfast had been set back in time due to the Savona disembarkment of the majority of the guests on the ship. We would have preferred to sleep longer given that we are on vacation, are run down, April is still recovering from severe food poisoning, our dinners are obnoxiously late on this ship, and the sound proofing in the cabins is poor resulting in being awoken every night at various hours by revelers returning to their cabins from imbibing somewhere else on the ship. Annoying how everything seems to be centred around the main occupants of the ship and no one cares about the others (even though Costa is making some sort of a push to attract North Americans with their free tap water, juice, tea, and coffee offer). We, as usual, had to fight for a table for two, instead of being seated with a table full of strangers. Why does Costa insist each time in trying to force people to hobnob with strangers at breakfast and lunch? It would be fine if it was an option for people who wanted to, but to try to make it mandatory is ridiculous.

Eating is still uncomfortable for April though the antibiotics have sent the vast majority of the symptoms of the severe food poisoning away. She gets severe stomach cramps after each meal. Not exactly how we had planned to spend our long awaited European vacation.

Breakfast was abysmal again with mix ups in the orders, strange service, and a general lack of knowledge of what international breakfasts actually consist of, look like, or taste like. They tried to refuse April her free tap water because she did not have her Costa card on her, even though Bill had his. April asked why they couldn't just bring two glasses of tap water for Bill. They said they couldn't. So she said she'd just drink from his glass. They eventually caved and brought her a glass of tap water. Thanks a lot, we love feeling like stowaway thieves first thing in the morning (absurdly they were willing to serve April food without a Costa card, but not tap water. She was speaking English with the same accent as Bill- wasn't it obvious they were both from the same place and under the same tap water plan?)!

The water for tea arrived in such a lukewarm state that sticking one's finger in it resulted in no feeling at all.  Eventually they brought by another pot of water which was actually warm, but did not offer any tea bags and when they did, they had not replenished the ones wasted on the tepid pot, so there was not enough of the original tea selected to make a proper pot of tea. They did not seem to care.

They brought the wrong breakfast to both of us and then left it there for us to eat the eggs off of that plate and then put the other plate with the correct breakfast alongside on the already packed tiny table, never taking away the wrong plate. April's eggs were half raw, the bacon was undercooked, and the pancakes were cold, flat, and dense, with no butter or syrup. They would not bring a vessel with milk for April's tea and insisted on putting milk into her cup directly, but never came back to give her milk for her second cup. We were seated in the middle of the restaurant, largely alone and on the way out had to again run the gauntlet of idle waiters standing along the sides, saying thank you or goodbye to us. This practice was so strange. Who wants to walk by 20 to 30 waiters first thing in the morning when you can barely function for lack of a good cup of tea?

We went ashore to Savona, Italy to explore and try to salvage what remained of our cruise. This was where most of the ships occupants had embarked and were disembarking. We picked up a map and found a "petit train" vehicle with a purported tour of Savona almost right away. We were told to sit across from each other in the little seats of the train. We were easily the tallest people on the tour and could not actually fit our legs across from each other and had to interlock our legs between each other to wedge ourselves into the child sized seats while the other shorter occupants of the train sat comfortably with no one across from them. Strange.

We were taken to a neighbouring town called Albisola. We were not expecting to be getting a tour of another town on this "Tour of Savona" but it turned out to be interesting nonetheless. The president of the local chamber of commerce took us around and pointed out the town's very old buildings (mostly unchanged since medieval times) and its amazing ceramics studios. We were given an amaretto biscuit to try. We looked in the town's church (which had the name plates from the two previous churches of the town that had caused rivalry and dissonance until the Archbishop of the area ordered a new church be built that everyone had to go to, thus ending the us vs. them) and then were taken back to the petit train and shipped off back to Savona where the tour ended.

The older Swedish man on the tour had a complete meltdown at not being given a tour of Savona as the tour had advertized. To see a calm Swede reduced to a shouting match with the tour operator was quite the sight. It was also interesting that the woman selling the tickets for the tour had a Costa fanny pack on that she wore facing everyone she sold the tickets to, knowing that most of us were fresh off the Costa cruise ship. Is this tour associated with Costa? We were left feeling confused. The Swedish man asked us if we thought that we were going to have a tour of the town of Savona and we agreed that we thought we were going to. We all agreed that between the Costa fanny pack on the ticket seller and the crooked, misleading tour that maybe it was related to the cruise that seemed to be mired in problems. The Swede came to a conclusion that the tour was "just another Costa thing." Indeed.

We headed off into the old town and had trouble finding a restaurant to eat lunch in. We finally did find a cafe and April busted out her very slender Italian language skills to order (in her fourth and final language of the cruise, besides English). The toasted sandwiches were mind blowing after our captivity on the Costa cruise where all the bread is stale and tastes awful in any event. We bought two Magnum ice cream bars to eat. Bill went to the bathroom and after a while a loud ringing alarm noise could be heard in the cafe. It happened a few more times. Eventually the cafe women were laughing so hard that they could barely communicate to April that Bill was pulling the safety alarm for elderly people by the toilet instead of pressing the button to flush the toilet. So, April went and found Bill and they flushed the toilet. Bill limped out of the bathroom into the cafe like an elderly person and hilarity ensued.

We did not find a good souvenir of Savona and returned to the ship having been told that there was a beach in Savona that we could swim at. We changed into our suits and headed out. We walked by the old fort and went to the very end of the beach, after all of the swish European beach clubs, to where it was free to swim. It was cloudy and windy and the waves were truly big. It was a fitting welcome for Bill who had never swam in the Mediterranean before. We swam a couple of times and then warmed up in the inconsistent sun, being harassed too often by Africans trying to sell cheap sunglasses, hats, and knick knacks.

We returned to the ship where we showered the salty Mediterranean off of us. We were disappointed, but not surprised to find that our magic fruit bowl from a couple of days ago had stopped refilling itself as it had been every day since its appearance. The only thing that Costa did to make amends to us for all of the deficiencies with this cruise and the disastrous excursions . . . clearly our comfort was only worth 1 mango, two mandarin oranges, two pears, 1 kiwi, and 4 apples.

We dressed for dinner. Since it was our last godforsaken "dinner" aboard the ship, we dressed up fancy even though it was not a formal night. We had dinner at 9:15 P.M. after packing. The food was indifferent and previously frozen as usual.  We skipped the majority of the courses, not even ordering a main course much to the puzzlement of our waiter. We posed for a photo with one of our two wonderful servers, Amit. Midhun was off sick, so we did not get to say goodbye to him. Our two dinner servers were truly the only pleasant thing about this cruise other than the ports that it called at.

We returned to our room around 11:30 PM to find the newsletter for the next day as usual. It was only from this that we gleaned that we were not allowed to order room service the next morning (we had already filled out the card and put it outside our door as usual). Instead we would have to go up to the dreadful restaurant again or have doughnuts at the buffet with the masses. Mmmm! The newsletter said that we should review our bills the night before and contest them if there was a problem with guest services the night before to avoid lineups the next morning. Well, even after visiting the guest services "totem" computer that night, we were not able to obtain a printout of our receipt and when we called guest services for one, they said that they would bring one to us that night. It never arrived. The mini bar was again locked without explanation. Guess we missed our narrow window of opportunity to dull the pain of this cruise.

We also found out we had to put our suitcases our by 1:00 A.M., so we would have to carry off any toiletries, pajamas, etc.. No one had told us this before (not even in the disembarkation instruction session that Bill attended). We noticed we did not have luggage tags unlike everyone else on our floor (we saw them in the mail cubby outside of each and every door on our floor. We called for them and then had to call a second time before we received them. This kept us up even later than we would have been up. We also noticed that our cabin steward had again failed to leave us back up toilet paper. He had also managed to reattach the towel rack pole back to the wall temporarily, but this fell to pieces within minutes of use, as did the shower the pole the next morning which crashed into the wall after detaching itself again. We always complain about the state of our rental apartment, but it's like a palace compared to this ship.

With the arrival of the missing luggage tags, we finally were able to put the bags out and go to sleep. This cruise has not turned out to be the relaxing time that we thought it would be and has firmly convinced us to never go on a cruise again.

10.68 km walked today.

mmm,...uncooked eggs again.

interlocking legs on the petit train tour

Albisola makes ceramics including these tiles on the side of the building.

Enjoying a Coke on our tour of Albisola.

 

The main church in Albisola.

The beach in Savona.

The apres-beach look at the fort in Savona

The apres-beach look

 

Thank you to Amit for being such a wonderful server every night to us on the Costa Magica. He was one of the only bright spots of the cruise.

June 22, 2015- Another At Sea Day

At Sea Day, a Not So International Breakfast in the Restaurant, Thwarted in Finding Good Deckchairs Again, A Day in the Sun Accompanied by Loudspeaker Italian, Another Appointment with the Guest Services Manager and the Completion of the Formal Complaint Form, Time Alone in Our Room That's Falling Apart, More on the Condition of Our Room and the Costa Magica, Dinner at the Restaurant at 9:15 PM

Today we continued our passage from Valencia, Spain to Savona, Italy (a small port town in the north, near Genoa). We awoke early and went to the "International Breakfast" restaurant which is also our normal restaurant for eating dinner at every night (excepting the nights when we choose to have room service in our room). It was actually open this time, unlike the last time we tried to eat there.

Bill had the "British Breakfast" which consisted of eggs, sausage, truly abysmal hash browns, and beans. April had the "Belgian Breakfast" which was supposed to be waffles, but they were cold, dense, and quite flat and served without syrup or butter. Since she also wanted some protein, she ordered a smoked salmon omelette (bluck! Part of it was completely raw!).

We went straight to the pool at 8:30 AM and still had trouble finding deckchairs even though the place was largely deserted. The main occupants of the cruise seemed to have put out all of their stuff over all of the chairs and then left to eat breakfast or go back to bed for several hours. It seems that though the ship has policies that are written all over the place, they do not bother to enforce them, leading to the general chaos and lack of order that we have come to expect on this ship.

We chose two chairs, several decks up from the pool (the closest we could get), and away from the other chairs. As the hours slipped by there was no sun on these chairs. It was freezing cold in the wind on the deck.

We went for a gross lunch at the buffet (the culinary highlight was a macaroni and cheese that we could have matched or bettered at home cooking ourselves with no formal culinary training). At this point, we'd like to offer a note for all the men reading this blog. If you're inclined to wear a tight little Speedo around in public at the pool, putting on a big T-shirt and wandering into the restaurant in just a T-shirt and flip flops is not good enough (seriously, you're not five years old anymore). No one wants to see your bare legs and every once in a while a flash of your Speedo while they are eating food that already makes them feel nauseated or at the very least, disgusted. Although it was posted every single day in the newsletter and they announced it at various points that people should cover up swimsuits when attending restaurants on the ship, the main occupants of the ship did not seem to care and it was not enforced for the rest of the people who did abide by these reasonable rules.

When we returned to our isolated chairs, there was still no sun there and it was still very cold. Eventually two people left and we took their chairs on that level and sat in the sun for a couple of hours. We watched the blue Mediterranean bob by from our chairs.

It was impossible to relax with the almost constant din around the pool area projected on the loudspeakers. They had people putting stuffed fish and crabs on their heads and doing a conga line and then participating in what looked like musical chairs, although it was impossible to tell as it was all done in rapid Italian. Even with her earphones in and her phone turned up as high as it would go, playing music, April could still hear the loudspeaker antics of the Costa team. There was also dance instructions and some weird version of aerobics that seemed to be more like the making of a truly awful music video for a song that no one wants to listen to. The main occupants of the ship though seemed to be right into it or indifferent as if they were used to constant noise and no quiet contemplation by the sea. We were disappointed that there was nowhere on the ship to just relax and chill in peace and quiet as this was after all a vacation and a chance for us to get away from the city. What a shame.

We returned to our cabin, happy to be away from the clap along, sing along, shouting for no reason activities of the pool deck. We changed and dressed for dinner a little burnt from our time in the sun.

We had to go to the office of the customer service manager to fill out a formal complaint for our problems with the cruise thus far. We were only given a one page form. It was not carbon paper as we had been told, but just a plain paper form. This single sided page was not enough space for all that had happened, so we ended up writing an additional five pages that we appended to this document. She scanned the document on her scanner and gave us the original to take with us. She said that she would send it to the head office. She asked if she could read what we had said about her customer service team. We were surprised. Why wouldn't the customer service manager be reading our whole complaint? Isn't that the job of a customer service manager? The workplace dynamics on the ship seem very odd and smack of a workforce that has had a serious and perhaps fatal breakdown in communication.

She offered us one possible "solution" to the problems we had been having with our cruise while we sat there. She said since we were on the North American package we could elect to not pay the gratuities that we would normally pay at the end of the cruise to the people who had served us (they calculate how many times you go to the restaurant, order room service, etc and then use a percentage to figure out how much of a tip to give to everyone who served you on the cruise, you can dispute it if you want). Why would we want to cancel our tips to some of the only people who we enjoyed seeing on this cruise? Why punish people earning probably minimum wage because Costa had failed so badly? We naturally did not choose this strange proposed "solution." You don't punish vulnerable employees for the failings of management or ownership of huge multi-national company.

No one from customer service or the Costa excursions office gave us any information about how much a private tour of Monaco would cost as they had said they would, so resigned ourselves to not seeing Monaco as we had previously planned.

We also used our time with the polyglot Guest Services Manager (she's French, but also speaks Italian, studied Spanish at University, and married a Portuguese speaker, and she speaks English perfectly) to find out what or who the "animation team" on board our ship was. Every day in the newsletter delivered to our room there were mysterious references like "Let's Dance with the Animation Team," "Hit the Animator," "Tutti Frutti Game with the Animation Team and Trio Tringali, "The Big Snake Game with the Animation Team and the Trio Tringali," and particularly enjoyable, "Sexy Night Let's Dance with the Animation Team and DJ Alessandro Serra and the Participation of the Costa Magica Dancers." On a side note, we never found out what "Game: The Human Slot Machine" entailed.

One of our waiters when asked defined the Animation Team as "animators . . . you know they animate people." This was not an illuminating or particularly satisfying definition and we were left wondering if there were corpses on board who needed to be animated or if the Animation Team did CPR on people who died during the cruise. The Guest Services Manager explained that there were several different animators on board the ship and that there were animators who worked with only children and then ones who worked with adults and that different animators did different things, but not drawing as we had first assumed (very complicated). Eventually we determined that some of them led dancing, some led singing, some led games, and they were what might be called an activities coordinator at a camp or a camp counselor.

While this was edifying, it did nothing to solve our problems with the cruise and we returned to the room to watch the BBC channel and write in the journal. We also organized pictures for our blog. Being in our room made us think of some of the other deficiencies we had found in it such as one of the lamps no longer having an on/off switch, having no do not disturb sign until almost the end of the cruise when one mysteriously appeared, the fluorescent light in the room being about 2/3 burnt out, the towel rack centre rung falling off and not being fixed despite us telling customer service and leaving it out for our cabin steward to find, the shower pole falling off the wall on one end and not being repaired, the seal around the window being partially detached and hanging, greasy marks on the wall that had not been cleaned before embarked on our trip, nail polish on the walls, chips out of the bathroom counter, numerous scratches on the toilet seat, and many others.

We went to dinner at 9:15 P.M. at the restaurant. April's food poisoning seems to be abating with the aid of antibiotics (proving that it was indeed food poisoning causing her severe intestinal issues), but she is still not feeling great and every time she eats she has agonizing stomach cramps. In fear of receiving further food poisoning on this nightmarish Costa cruise, April has stopped ordering anything with meat and is eating strictly vegetarian, not that this is easy given the frozen meat heavy menu.

As we looked above table 133, where we were seated every night in the Smerelda Restaurant, we noticed a huge splatter pattern all over the ceiling (yes, the services are so long that even couples who normally have interesting conversations will eventually run out of things to say). The ceiling looked like it was made of a wipeable vinyl. Why was this strange explosion not dealt with at the time and left for posterity? We wondered if someone sitting at our table previously had not been able to hold the awful food in and had exploded in a Monty Python "The Meaning of Life" shower of frozen shrimp, fish, and beef.

When we returned to our room to fall into blissful oblivion for several hours, Bill's Costa card would not open the door, so we had to use April's. It's interesting that his card could not even withstand part of a cruise (he had it replaced on day two after he lost it). Seems like everything on this ship is falling apart.

The turndown service had revealed a surprise, the illusive mini bar fridge, which had been locked every other night was unlocked. We were far too depressed to drink safely, so we just went to bed.
We cannot wait to be off this ship.

2.23 km walked today.

I really don't know what's going on here.
Something about putting stuffed animals on your heads, forming a conga line, and then returning to a
collection of chairs on the deck . . . Weird.

The only beautiful thing in the buffet that day was a decorative owl.

Yes, it was so loud from our perch above the pool deck that the sound was breaking on my phone.

Sunset from the Smerelda Restaurant.

Bill is not happy with just the cake.

Ice Cream makes things better.

June 21, 2015- Valencia, Spain

Costa Food Poisoning, a Day Spent Partially in Bed for April, a Tour of the Ship's Kitchen for Bill, Exploring Valencia, Spain on Foot, A Bizarre Attempt at an Apology by Costa, Another Boring, Mediocre Room Service Dinner

April had a very bad sleep last night. Her intestinal issues were getting worse and worse, so we determined that it was indeed severe food poisoning (based on previous experience). This is not surprising given the pink chicken incident the day before and how off her fish at dinner had tasted a few days earlier. We determined that she had to have contracted the food borne bacterial infection on the Costa Magica because whenever we were off the boat, Bill and April ate the exact same meals, however, when they were onboard the Costa Magica, they often chose different meals with different sorts of proteins and ingredients and Bill was not experiencing any symptoms at all and clearly was in perfect health as April had been prior to boarding the Costa Magica. She began a course of Ciprofloxacin antibiotics which she fortunately had brought with her just in case. She had trouble regulating her temperature due to her fever. It was an absolutely miserable experience to have on a long awaited vacation.

We were to both go on a tour of the galleys today. This tour was for Costa Gold members, but our English hostess onboard, Nuria, thought we might be interested in learning more about the ship (we think this was like a consolation prize for all of the problems that we had on the cruise). Unfortunately, April was just too ill to go. She couldn’t even eat any breakfast that we ordered in, except for a small orange juice. Out of academic interest, Bill did go.

He thought the tour was interesting, but mildly disappointing. The tour was only of the kitchen for the main restaurants and it did not include a tour of the store rooms. Bill was really looking forward to seeing the storage room to see if he could find the can of Chef Boyardee ravioli that he was fed two nights ago on Sicilian night. However Nuria did indicate that she would check with the executive chef to find out if he could provide the name of the brand.

The kitchen itself was set up like a large industrial kitchen with many different stations. Things seemed to be in order, although it was said it would be impossible to have more fresh food onboard because everything had to be frozen. Strange, because we stopped at a port every day or two where fresh supplies could have been easily procured.

Also of interest, was that Costa is trying to bring back haute Italian cuisine. Each night of the cruise features a menu that highlights a different part of Italy. Although this is odd to us, given that we have been visiting some ports that could have highlighted amazing fare (think couscous for Morocco, or some sort of amazing fish dish for Portugal or Cadiz, or an orange dessert for Valencia), this seems to be the strategy that Costa is acting on. It must be that their market research and focus groups have indicated that when Italians travel abroad, they want to have meals that make them think of home. Given the large number of Italians onboard (it appears to be at least 80%, if not 90%) this would suggest that Costa is trying to sell to their base. This is in stark contrast to the way in which we travel, where we want to have a taste of food from our destinations (as suggested above). All of that said, Bill figures that the little old Italian ladies at the Columbo Hall in Kamloops would be shocked at what was being served here on this Costa cruise.

Bill had a good chat with Nuria after the tour and he felt that she really understands what good customer service is and the need for a ship, a crew, and a kitchen too keep fresh with new ideas.

Bill returned to the cabin where April was still sleeping soundly. We rested until lunch time.

We arrived in port at 2:00 PM and we disembarked the ship. At the cruise ship terminal there was a tourist information booth. There were two lines, 10 feet apart, indicating a “line up” area. This resulting in a large mass of people elbowing each other to get to the counter. We decided a map would be worth the hassle and waded into the chaos and bedlam.

You would have though there was a run on the banks and this was branch office as it resembled a scene from October of 1929. There was tapping of little fingers on our neck, arms, and hands. People’s heads were at arm level where they breathed heavily on our arms. Italians who budged in front of us yelled at us in Italian as we jockeyed for position now behind them. People were reaching over other people to grab maps before their turn, and shouting at agents in various languages even when they were several places behind the person being served at the counter. It was shocking to us and the Australian who was beside us in the throng. Bill employed good body position that he learned while taking Eskrima to stay planted and eventually made it to the front of the line, much to the chagrin of the Italians around us who were still trying to elbow and edge in and shouting over us at the agent.

After obtaining a map, and determining the best way to get downtown, we ventured forth into Valencia. We decided to walk into town to get a good sense for the city and its lay out since the city buses were too packed with the people we had just experienced at such close quarters in that "line up."

We took refuge from the heat and humidity in a cool bar where April switched back to Spanish and ordered a couple of Coca Colas and some ice cream. The bar served olives and salted peanuts, tapas style.

Valencia drained and diverted its main river some time ago and in place of its old river bed is a lovely park. We strolled through it, obtaining free WI-FI and sending a few emails outside the music hall. We then wandered into town and got lost exploring its streets. It is a modern and clean city and it felt abandoned as it was a Sunday and many stores were closed.

April fared extremely well given how awful she was feeling. The sleep-in and of course mostly the antibiotics helped  and she has stated to pick-up (so it was indeed severe food poisoning causing her intestinal agony as we had suspected). We took things easy, looked around some tourist shops, found a cool drink and more free WI-FI at McDonald’s, and then boarded a city bus back to the ship.

We found in our room an attempt by Guest Services to make us feel happier about the many failings of our Costa experience including the disappearance of our excursion to Monaco. We were provided with the line-up of Costa toiletries (very heavily perfumed and unusable to us),flimsy slippers, bathrobes (although when April called before our departure, we were told there were no bathrobes available onboard the ship), a fruit bowl, seafood canapés, and a bottle of champagne or sparkling wine. As we don’t drink, and the canapés were sitting out for 5 hours without ice or refrigeration (we glimpsed them when we picked up Bill's wallet from the room prior to disembarking in Valencia), it was off putting, especially since April has been suffering from food poisoning and tepid seafood isn’t exactly FoodSafe. Bill went up and returned the sketchy canapés and the booze to Guest Services. While the effort is appreciated, it is perplexing why they have only begun to try and make amends to us 8 days into an 11 night cruise. It’s too little, too late.

As April has been feeling ill, we opted not to go to the dining room this evening for another mediocre meal that takes two hours, ordered room service (as usual the chicken Cesar salad, tuna sandwich for April, beef sandwich for Bill, and fruit salad for dessert since the "cake of the day" was still dried out sponge cake with no icing or cream or anything as it had been every day since the beginning of the cruise), and chose to get to bed early.

11.02 km walked today.

There are oranges in the trees all over the place in Valencia.

Bill found PwC in Valencia.

Seriously, why can't we put dragons on buildings in Canada?

This is our room on the Costa Magica.

Bathroom in our room.

Seafood canapes that have been sitting out for 5 hours...that's FoodSafe. Thanks Costa Magica!