The trip is fast approaching, only 11 days before we depart for Barcelona, Spain. We are starting to gather up out typical travel items, which thankfully are mostly contained in two small bins. Since our relocation to South Carolina, it seems like it has been a constant game of hide and seek, mostly seek, for many of the seemingly everyday things we have needed over the past year, but are now in “new” locations throughout the house. Thankfully, we have always kept our travel items in one location, and that has helped significantly as we start the final preparations for this trip.
Over the past few weeks, we have put together more firm plans for our port stops, and investigated the historical average temperatures for the dates we will be in each location. Needless to say, traveling in early December will expose us to some cooler temperatures, with most locations having high temperatures in the low to mid 50’s for the highs and lower to mid 30’s for the lows. Brrrr. Thankfully, as we approach the island of Madeira, temperatures moderate to highs in the upper 60’s. We are hoping that it gets even warmer as we head across the ocean to Ft. Lauderdale. I guess we will find out.
Over the next few days, we will begin our favorite task, packing. It is always a little more challenging knowing we need to take cold weather clothes, they are more bulky, and really fill up the suitcases fast. We just have to remember that we need to utilize layers, which gives us more versatility, and makes packing easier. I think out biggest unknown is the temperatures the portion of the trip where we cross the ocean, will it get warmer or not. Thankfully, we just need to include a couple of bathing suits if it does get warmer, and utilize our cooler weather clothes if it does not.
Our plans for each port day are as follows:
Toulon, France
After a LOT of investigative work online, and zero help from what most likely was a trainee at the Princess Cruises call center, we have determined that the ship will be docking at La Seyne sur Mer, which is a small city across the protected harbor from the actual city of Toulon. We could tell from various online posts that the the larger cruise ships usually dock on the La Seyne sur Mer side, where the dock facilities are newer and larger than those actually near Toulon. However, we could not find definitive proof that the Princess ships were included in the generic “large ship” category. It was going to make a difference since our plan is to rent a car here and head out on our own for the day. We needed to either reserve a car in Toulon, or in La Seyne sur Mer, the cities being connected by a 10-15 minute ferry ride across the harbor. After verification from a French web site for the port, translated into English by Google, we have reserved a car with Europcar in La Seyne sue Mer for the day. According to Google Street View, tyhe rental car office is a short walk from the docks in La Seyne sur Mer. We plan on driving a loop between the cities of La Seyne sur Mer, Cassis, Marseille, Aix-en-Provence and La Seyne sur Mer, possibly driving through Toulon if we have some additional time.
The ship is in port from 7:00 AM to 7:00 PM, but with it being this time of year, sunrise is around 7:30 AM and sunset will occur around 5:10 PM, so our actual sightseeing time is more limited by daylight than by our time in port.
The area around Cassis is the location of The Calanques, which are steep-walled inlets, coves, or bays that were developed in natural limestone or dolomite, according to Wikipedia. This area is very popular with tourists from Europe in the summer time, but should be relatively quiet in December, since it is a beach resort area.
There are some other scenic sights in and around Marseille and Aix-en-Provence, which is described as a “small classic Provincial City. We will most likely explore the city center, which consists of older 17th century buildings.
The entire drive for this loop is around 190 kilometers, which according to Google Maps, takes about 2 hour and 30 minutes to drive, excluding stops. Depending on how much time we spend in Cassis, we may elect to bypass Marseille in favor of having more time in Aix-en-Provence.
Driving Route Map for Toulon Port Stop
Livorno, Italy
Livorno is our second port of call, and is the port used by cruises for access to Pisa, and Florence. We are scheduled to arrive at 7:00 AM and depart at 7:00 PM. We originally planned to follow our same rtoute from our stop in Livorno in 2008, but have since discovered that because we are there on a Sunday this time, the limited Sunday train schedules will not allow us to follow that plan. On our stop here in 2008, we trained from Livorno to Pisa, visited the Leaning Tower, and then trained to the picturesque walled city of Lucca. However, that last visit was on a Wednesday, and we had access to the full weekday train schedule. On Sundays, the trains are not as frequent, and we have determined that we can’t get from Pisa to Lucca with enough remaining time to be in Lucca (about 2 hours), for us to really have any time to see much. The Sunday train schedule has about a 2 hour gap around 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM, and with the duration of the trip into Lucca, we would not arrive until about 2:00 PM. If we stayed until 3:30, we would arrive back in Livorno about 5:50 PM, leaving us only a little over an hour to get back to the ship for our 7:00 PM departure. In actuality, they want the passengers back on board at least 30 minutes before the departure time, so it would be cutting it really close, especially since it involves a taxi or bus ride from the Livorno Train Station back to the port.
Based on this, our plan has been simplified, we are just going over to Pisa to visit the Leaning Tower again (this will be our third trip there), but this time, we will actually see the Tower in all of its splendor, without any scaffolding. The repairs to the Tower are completed, and it is free of scaffolding for the first time in about 8 or 9 years. We will also be attending Sunday Mass in the Cathedral at 9:30 AM,, and afterward, climbing to the top of the Tower at 11:40 AM. We have already purchased our tickets online to avoid waiting in any lines, and to guarantee that we will get a ticket since the number of tickets are limited to about 20 persons for each time slot.
We already know where a large grocery store is located nearby, so we will use some of the extra time to acquire some supplies, as long as they are open on Sunday, which is certainly not a guarantee, based on our past experiences in Europe. Sometimes, only the locally owned small shops are open on Sundays in many places.
We will train back to Livorno, and possibly walk around there some prior to re-boarding the ship. The next stop is in Rome, Italy, so we already know it will be a full day there, and the less hectic stop in Livorno will hopefully give us a little rest.