Day 4 – August 9th, 2006

Goodbye Spain, hello France!! At 8:30 a.m. this morning we docked in Marseille, France. It is the third largest port in Europe, the largest in the Mediterranean, and the second largest city in France. With a population of 1.2 million people, it is second only to Paris.

Ok, we’ll stop sounding like our tour guide. After waking up and having a bite of breakfast, we boarded the tour bus for a tour of the city. Our guide, Emaneula (sp?) was great. She was very knowledgeable, telling us all about the sights we saw in the city. We got to stop at various points to get off the bus and look around on our own as well.

We got to the Notre Dame Basilica, high atop a hill overlooking Marseille. From the Basilica you could get an amazing 360 degree panorama of the city. The inside was gorgeous, but we seemed to enjoy the outside views of the city and of the Mediterranean even more.

The bus driver was crazy! He reminded Amy of her family bus driver Shabi from Israel. He made these crazy tight turns up and down narrow, winding streets. We seriously can’t believe how we didn’t hit something. We liked looking at all the tiny cars people drive and how they park them on the side walk, or half hanging off the curb. Bizarre!

The end of the tour let us off for some free time in the old Marseille harbor. From there we could either return to the bus after 45 minutes, or choose to tour around on our own and take a shuttle back to the boat. The tour guide didn’t exactly know where we should wait for the shuttle, when it would come, or how often it would come by. We decided (for once) to be adventurous. We stuck around and decided to eat lunch at the OM restaurant. Apparently this is the “official restaurant” for the Marseille soccer…er…futbol team fans. They did not have an English menu, so we were on our own trying to figure out something to order. We recognized a few words in French, like some colors and such from Amy’s 8 weeks of elementary French in 6th grade. We recognized a few words: poisson – fish (thank you Little Mermaid), andoille- sausage, mozzarella- mozzarella. But from there we were lost. We settled on a salad (so we thought) called “Salade de beignets de mozzarella et speck italien.” We think this will be a salad with mozzarella and Italian dressing. Order it up! We end it with crème brulee and two Coca Colas from a bottle.

Well boy were we wrong about the salad! The crème brulee comes first and was delicious! But the salad was not what we had bargained for. Out comes a plate with a small mixture of greens in dressing. On the side are 4 of what seem to be mozzarella sticks and a bunch of sliced tomatoes. To top off the whole plate was piles of prosciutto. Of course we didn’t know that at first, so Seth had to taste it to confirm. Yep - raw ham. YUCK!

Anyway, we were proud of ourselves for getting through the whole experience on no knowledge of French. We wandered around the city and then got in line for the shuttle back to the boat.

Backing up a moment - while at lunch, Seth makes fun of Amy for wearing her Michigan hat, saying it will only draw us negative attention.

So while in line for the shuttle, someone behind us asks Amy if she went to Michigan. Sure enough, another U of M grad – class of ’00. He and his wife were traveling from Florida. They were a nice Jewish couple who told us all about the synagogue they stumbled upon today in the city. Small world! We failed to mention our ham salad lunch to them.

Upon returning to the boat, we rested for a bit and then hit the pool. The water was FREEZING and lots of kids were diving and splashing, so it didn’t take us long to move to the hot tub - very nice! From there we had a “snack” (a 2 lb. “chicken cheeseburger for Amy and a pizza & burger for Seth, mmm mmm good) at the pool, then made our way to the very back of the boat to watch us disembark. It was neat sitting on lounge chairs off the way back as we pulled away. The view was amazing as the sun glistened off the water and we watched the coast line shrink in the distance.

When Seth felt too warm from the sun (no, it wasn’t 15 minutes later, it was at least 30 minutes in the sun), we went in another hot tub (this one was literally just that – the jets weren’t working and the water was scalding!), played some ping pong and headed back to the room. The balcony was nice and shaded and provided a magnificent view as we sailed along the coast. And freshly equipped this afternoon with a sprinkler system, we felt safe there, too. Just as we were kicking back to relax, we hear this horrible loud noise that sounds like the ship’s alarm. Then it suddenly turns into… what else, but bagpipe music?! (It sorta sounded like the chorus of Celebration…) Where was this coming from? We lean out to see, since it sounds like it’s right above us. There must’ve been 20 other people hanging out of their balconies as well. Sure enough, one deck up a girl is playing her bagpipes! She even had one of the captain’s crewmembers looking out of the steering room with binoculars to see what was going on. Of course, everyone applauded when she finished, so she kept playing! It was so loud! Who in their right mind brings bagpipes onto a cruise?! I mean, honestly, bagpipes?! Seth thought it was somewhat soothing gazing out into the mountainous coastline while listening to the bagpipes. He felt as though he was in the movie “Braveheart,” although we’re really not sure which character he would have been. I don’t think “Braveheart” had many Jewish characters in it.

When our musical interlude ended, we decided it was time for dinner. It was back down to the dining room to check out tonight’s menu and continue our wine bottles from last night. To add to our list of new foods - Seth tried veal and crab, Amy tried asparagus soup. There were mixed reviews among us.

We [Amy] thought we’d take in a show tonight after dinner, so we hit the theater for the “Broadway Revue.” It was so-so [Seth’s note: reviews had it on par with the movie “Love Actually”]. The performance itself was fine, just not necessarily our favorite shows were highlighted. But it wasn’t too long so it was fine…until the host came out at the end and tried his hand at standup comedy. It was truly painful to listen to him for five minutes.

We went out to the casino again, after all, we were big winners! We cashed the coupon Mom and Dad L. got us and gave blackjack another try. Not so successful tonight…we’ll leave it at that.

On to the nightclub, the happening spot on the ship. It’s a little after midnight, you’d think it would be the place everyone wanted to be and be seen. We enter the frigid room to see maybe a dozen old folks lounging and attempting to dance to Shakira. We stick around for one drink (Amy had to convince the bartender to let her have a hot drink since apparently it’s “dangerous” to have in the bustling club), then headed down to the buffet. Seth’s late night food craving had kicked in as usual, but unfortunately there was no pizza tonight to satisfy it. After some salad dressing with a little bit of lettuce mixed in, mashed potatoes and gravy, and French fries (I am not making this up), it was time to head back to the room for the night. The wakeup call is set for 7:00 a.m. - it’s off to Pisa and the Italian beach!