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| Bonjour from Marseille! |
Our home for the next 18 days will be the Norwegian Pearl. As far as cruise ships go, it is considered a “mid-size” ship. It can accommodate up to 2,400 passengers and 1,100 crew members. For us, it’s the size of ship we prefer. It’s not too small, and it’s not overwhelming like some of the mega-ships that carry over 5,000 passengers. We’ve sailed on the Pearl previously, but it was years ago. It’s nice to be back. We feel somewhat at home also, because it’s the same size as the Norwegian Jewel that we were on last fall from Alaska to Singapore. We even have the same captain (Captain Vincente). He navigated us around several category 5 typhoons on our last cruise with him.
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| The itinerary for the first nine day cruise |
The Pearl is about eighteen years old, which makes it roughly 2624 years younger than our first port of call, Marseille, France. Marseille lies on the Mediterranean Sea in southern France. Surrounded on three sides by limestone cliffs and mountains, it forms a natural and safe harbor that has been important for trade, commerce and food since 600 BC.
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| Sailing in at sunrise! |
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Cathedral de la Major…..
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| Worth a second look! |
Today the city of around 900,000 continues to play an important role in trade and commerce, and has become a popular tourist destination. Today there are four cruise ships in port, two mega-ships and one other that is similar in size to the Pearl.
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| The Old Port |
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| We weren’t the only ones in town |
We took advantage of a free shuttle bus provided by the city that took us from the cruise terminal to the city center. We had to walk about 5 minutes to catch it, but it saved us $20 each over what the ship wanted to charge for their shuttle service.
As you would expect, with four ships in port, the city was busy. We enjoyed walking around the old city and port area. There is a daily market that was bustling with a combination of tourists souvenir shopping and locals purchasing fresh produce and fish. We really enjoyed Marseille once we moved a few blocks off the harbor, also. There were tree lined streets, as well as shops and restaurants that catered more to the locals, many of whom were out and enjoying a sunny Sunday in a small slice of paradise.
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| A few blocks from the Old Port things were much calmer… |
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| and there was room to spread out! |
