Upon completion of our excursion to Santiago de Compostela we boarded the Sapphire Princess for the final time ahead of a sea day on the way back to Southampton and set off from A Coruña. We always like to head out onto our balcony as the ship departs unless we’re in the middle of some other activity on the cruise ship (typically showering, drinking, or taking part in the trivia) and this was no different. The Spanish port was pretty unremarkable and the departure away from the dock was smooth. It’s possible to stand on top of the bridge on most Grand-class cruise ships like Sapphire Princess and this usually provides a good spot for those without balconies or who want to get a far wider view with a good vantage point for these port departures and arrivals.

Coming into or out of ports and harbours requires a pilot to board the cruise ship and guide it safely through the channels. With their local knowledge and skills spent the pilot will then be picked up by the pilot boat and leave the cruise ship to proceed under the direction of the bridge crew.

Looking across the stretch of water that would take us into the Bay of Biscay we could see Oleiros, a municipality of A Coruña. This area of the province had a long, sandy beach and some rockier cliffs and it was against these cliffs that we soon noticed increasingly large waves were breaking. At this point in our cruise away from Spain we hadn’t really noticed much vertical movement on the ship at all.

But as the ship moved further from the mainland and more into open waters it lost the shelter from the wind it had benefitted from up to this point and we suddenly found ourselves rising and falling with the increasing swells coming towards and across the bow of the ship. From other balconies around us we could hear loud exclamations of either joy or humorous panicking as the ship would reach the peak of a wave and that momentary almost-weightless feeling would take over before the descent into the next trough started. Being on a cruise ship in rough seas is like having a fairground attraction thrown into your holiday for free.

The size of the waves crashing against the headland we were passing can be guessed at when comparing the spray with the Mera lighthouse you can see in the following pictures and which is 11 metres high.

The waves subsided as we got into deeper water which was a shame. We’d have quite happily spent the entire next day crossing the Bay of Biscay rocking up and down. Still, as a taster for what the sea conditions in the area could throw at us it was nice to experience and we look forward to taking another cruise through that part of the world at some point in the future.

This video runs to around 12 minutes in length and covers the cruise in May 2018 aboard the Sapphire Princess. Being a highlights sort of film I’ve edited it together in a daily way starting with embarkation day at Southampton and proceeding through to Guernsey, a sea day, La Rochelle, Bilbao, Santiago de Compostela, and a final sea day again returning back to the UK. As this wasn’t our first time on a Grand-class ship by some way I didn’t take that much video on the vessel but I don’t think that was a bad thing in this instance simply because the web is saturated with films of the ships and their various public areas or what’s in the cabins; I’d like to think that this video brings more of the atmosphere of the cruise experience to play and might be of more use to someone who hasn’t cruised before, wondering what the days might deliver.

Some of the ship-based highlights of this Sapphire Princess cruise highlights video include some very fine cocktail-shaking in Crooners from one of the friendly Princess Cruises bar staff, a bit of ice carving up on the top deck, and some synchronised disco dancing in Skywalkers Nightclub. Amongst the footage shot in the ports you can see the stunning views around the Ozanne Steps on Guernsey and the dizzying spin of the triple spiral staircase in the Museo do Pobo Galego when we visited Santiago de Compostela.

Video temporarily removed.

At first glance, especially for a week on a cruise, it might look like we had a lot to drink and, indeed, the first couple of days saw us go through quite a number of cocktails, even though we’d had the great majority of them numerous times before on other cruises. We’ll put that down to the excitement of being back on a ship. However, we drank surprisingly little (for us) on the sea days and our evening drinking tailed right off after the first couple of days as well. We can easily identify the reason for this and that’s the removal of the BOGO (Buy One, Get One For A Dollar) promotion on Princess ships. When that was present in the mid-afternoon in one of the lounges and the late evening in Skywalkers previously it would keep us around for not just the hour we were there but also some considerable time after, and we wouldn’t be the only ones. On this particular cruise, the first on Princess without BOGO for us, the venues were quieter, we were barely inclined to have one drink during the day let alone two or three (and the continued drinking that would then lead onto) and earlier-finishing evenings in a mostly empty nightclub was the rule. It’s my hope (probably forlorn) that Princess has seen a drop-off in spending as a result of this move and I hope not as many people have been convinced to go for the drinks package as I assume they were expecting because, quite frankly, for you to get your money’s worth across the duration of a cruise you’d have to be an alcoholic.

Main Dining Room Food

That’s the end of my regular Bring Back The BOGO rant and now on with some pictures of food and drink. I’ll start with some food, that being from the main dining room, most of the photos below having been taken on the first night where to our surprise and pleasure, despite indicating we were fine to share with other people, we got a table to ourselves (something that happened on two other nights on the Sapphire Princess; a very unusual thing indeed).

First up is a sample menu showing what you can typically get to eat in the main dining room on a Princess Cruises ship. On one side you’ll see the “always available” options as well as a description of any particular theme to go along with the dining options (it’s often quite tenuous). On the other side you’ll see the starters and mains for the evening with the dessert menu making an appearance at your table later on. As a general rule, if there’s a frozen soup starter with alcohol in it then I’ll often go for that. If you’ve never dined on a cruise ship before then it’s perfectly fine for you to order multiple starters, no starter, multiple mains if you want, etc. They’re very accommodating in that way.

Now for some starters, mains, and desserts.

The quality of the food on Sapphire Princess was the best we’ve ever experienced on any cruise ship to date. It was so good that we didn’t actually feel the need to book any specialty dining for a change although it being only a week-long cruise and the lack of a Crown Grill with the simple setting-aside of an area of the buffet for the Sterling Steakhouse instead (and its subsequent less-than-special appearance) also played a part there. That said, with a longer-duration cruise on the Diamond Princess coming up later this year we shall certainly be testing the steakhouse out there as well as the sushi restaurant they have on that ship.

Gluten-Free And Vegan Food Options On Princess Cruises

If you’re wondering about gluten-free dining options on Sapphire Princess or any other ship in the Princess fleet please take a look at Cruising Gluten Free On Princess Cruises Sapphire Princess.

For vegan food options on Princess Cruises please check out Can you cruise vegan on Princess Cruises? and keep an eye out for future updates on that site as there is an upcoming cruise on Crown Princess in their future.

Vines Wine Bar

A location we’ve only previously tried once or twice on previous cruises aboard Princess ships and found disappointing turned out to be a nearly daily pre-dinner drinks venue for us on the Sapphire Princess. Generally speaking, the wines that Princess have on board – and I’m only speaking about the reds here because we only drink red wine – have tended to be on the thin side and not very varied. Our experiences aboard P&O ships have shown that this might be a British versus American idea of what constitutes a good wine as we’ve never failed to be impressed there by way of comparision. However, there were definite improvements in the available wines on Sapphire Princess including a Malbec for the first time which, though still not as full-bodied as we’d have liked, ended up being the drink of choice for my wife.

I took more of an experimental approach to picking wines and in this I was helped out by Ronnie, the sole member of staff whose job it was to oversee the wine bar on the cruise ship (which sometimes led to long waits though that was not his fault). Ronnie was, in fact, a star among the Sapphire’s staff, chatty, funny, and knowledgeable in all the right amounts. A discussion about wine heaviness was followed by a quick, free wine-tasting for me and my wife to determine which drink’s body most suited my palate.

Glasses of red wine aren’t the most photogenic or varied things to show but that’s not going to stop me.

Alfredo’s Pizzeria

Adjacent to Vines at the bottom of the piazza on the Sapphire Princess is Alfredo’s Pizzeria. This is one of two places on the ship where you can get free pizza most of the day, the other being Prego Pizzeria up by the swimming pool. Whereas Prego serves pizza by the slice from one of two (usually) that have been recently made and kept hot, Alfredo’s makes an individual-sized full pizza for you (although there’s nothing to stop you sharing if it’s too much) from a slightly larger choice of options. You can take your Prego slice and wander off with it but Alfredo’s is more of a sit-down location for your pizza. The important thing is that both are very different but both are absolutely lovely (and if you’ve tried the equivalent offering on P&O cruise ships then Princess beats them hands down here). We were so taken with our pizza from Alfredo’s we even considered it as an option instead of the main dining room one evening but the place was rammed and with a queue of people obviously thinking similar things. As it was, we only went the once, fairly early on the first sea day when there was just one other couple present. This allowed us to be seated by the window with a lovely view out at the water undulating past and we complemented our lunch with a glass of Italian wine (naturally) which was exclusive to the location and superior to anything available in Vines. It might have been a Barolo but I can’t quite remember right now.

Culinary Demonstration

On the last sea day we attended a cooking demonstration. Taking place in the Princess Theatre and hosted by the maître d’hôtel Generoso Mazzone and the executive chef Ottavio Bellesi we were shown how to make Trenette alla Moda Ligure (pesto sauce), Gamberi alla Fra Divolo (flambéed shrimp in hot and fiery tomato sauce with pearl rice), and Tiramisu whilst being presented with various facts and figures about number of staff and volumes and quantities of foodstuffs, etc. The self-deprecating, often very humorous general commentary from Ottavio in particular made the event very enjoyable. Overhead cameras were supposed to show what was taking place in the bowls or on the plates on the preparation area on the stage of the theatre but what we quickly saw was that the chefs’ tall hats when they leant over to do whatever it was they were doing often completely obscured the view shown on the TV screens. Something for Princess to work on there.

At the conclusion of the demonstration we were taken to the opposite end of the ship in order that we could walk through the Sapphire Princess’s kitchen area. There were a few people at work, some carved showpiece fruit arrangements, numerous attempts to offer a cookery book for purchase, and we finished off in the dining room which was having its traditional final day sale. There were chances to talk to Generoso or pose for photos with him during the galley tour but we didn’t have any desire to do so. Still, an interesting activity just to see how large and how spotless the galley on the cruise ship was, and well worth trying out even if only once if you’re cruising.

Cocktails

I’ve been putting off photos of the cocktails we consumed on Sapphire Princess so we didn’t look like complete lushes but I can do so no longer. Behold the sorts of pretty drinks you find materialising onto your tables when you least expect them.

If you’re Platinum (we are that fancypants) or Elite (one day we’ll be that fancypants) cruisers on a Princess ship then you get exclusive access to the Elite Lounge in the early evening. This took place in Skywalkers Nightclub on the Sapphire Princess for all but one day when a private function was taking place and the event was relocated to the aft lounge instead. In the Elite Lounge you can choose from a range of discounted cocktails not available elsewhere on the ship – this differs from how the Elite Lounge worked on the Crown Princess during our Baltics cruise where a single drink, changing daily was offered instead; the new way of having a set selection of drinks worked far better in our opinion – and there are a range of free nibbles to select as well.

Cruise Excursions Food And Drink

When we’d originally booked this Sapphire Princess cruise we’d paid for an excursion to the Hennessy Cognac distillery, a trip that included not only cognac-tasting but also a restaurant meal. We’d very much been looking forward to it. But the French had other ideas and so one changed port and one cancelled excursion later our actual cruise didn’t end up with us eating anything while ashore anywhere with one exception, that being the tapas we were surprised with when ordering beer in Santiago de Compostela. This consisted of a (we think) Galician white bean soup with chorizo and it was delicious enough that when the weather gets a bit cooler we’re going to have a go at making this ourselves.

Local beers were also consumed after considerable exertions in the heat in both St Peter Port, Guernsey and La Rochelle, France though it’s only the latter location I thought to snap any photos at.

Conclusion

As already mentioned, the food on Sapphire Princess was impossible to fault. When you consider that everything we ate on board during our short cruise was included in the price and that we didn’t spend any extra on the specialty dining options available you shouldn’t have any problems should you be thinking of taking a similar trip soon. I didn’t discuss the buffet food options simply because we only used it for breakfast and we’re pretty much creatures of habit in that respect, rarely varying the few things we choose in the morning. No complaints there either and since we tend to eat away from the main Horizon Court area and near the pools we never had any issues with finding a table or being served coffee or juice in the mornings either (with one exception).

Drinks options, similarly, were very good and a notable improvement from cruises we’ve taken in previous years except, of course, for the removal of the BOGO promotion.

Food and drinks service was a little bit hit-and-miss as I’ve covered here – Sapphire Princess Cruise: Hits And Misses – but it’s something that as part of a review you can moan about, be upset about, rant about a little but as a recommendation or as a basis for determining whether you should cruise with Princess or any other line, for example, it’s something you should ultimately ignore. These things just sometimes happen. One person can have a flawless experience and another might run into an avalanche of little gripes on exactly the same vacation. It’s the luck of the draw and you should always accept that there’s always a chance that no matter how good something is one time it might be dreadful the next and vice versa. The great thing about these sorts of things taking place on a cruise, though, is that you’re in the most relaxing environment in which it’s possible to holiday (in my opinion) and everything’s better a few minutes and few more sips of a cocktail later.

Absolutely loved what we ate and drank aboard Sapphire Princess in May and it’ll be very interesting indeed to see how it all stacks up against and what sort of new culinary adventures we can experience aboard the more Asian-oriented Diamond Princess in October.

We knew roughly what we were going to be getting as we’re old hands at cruising with Princess Cruises these days but this was to be our first time on Sapphire Princess and there was a special reason we were looking forward to it. Our very first cruise was our honeymoon, it was to the Far East, and it was on Diamond Princess (view the cruise posts here: Cruise: Far East 2008). Diamond and Sapphire are sister ships, both being the only ships of the Grand-class design built in Japan, and both sharing some features not present on other ships of the class in the Princess fleet. This would be our chance to see with more cruise-experienced eyes elements of the ship that we’d likely overlooked when awed on our first cruise almost a decade earlier. In fact, Diamond was originally named Sapphire and vice versa; some last-minute name-swapping took place in the wake of a fire after promotional material had been sent out in order not to delay sailings. Had it not then our honeymoon would likely have been on the ship bearing this name instead.

Embarkation is usually pretty slick and probably would have been for this cruise too had the port worker in Southampton realised our tickets gave us priority boarding (from your fifth cruise with Princess onwards you reach Platinum level which includes this as one of its benefits). That was sorted after a few minutes when I queried it and subsequently followed the normal route: short queue, advance to the desk, get passports scanned, get credit card read, get handed cruise cards, wander through security, then onto the ship to have the cruise card scanned and a photograph taken to match against when getting on or off. Princess take your photo at the security gate on the ship when first boarding; this differs from P&O, for instance, who take your photo in the port building.

The atrium (or piazza as Princess like to refer to it on their ships) is the first thing you’ll then see (well, after you’ve run past the photographers trying to snap you for the gallery if you’re us, that is) and it follows the fairly standard Princess style you’ll see on any of their ships; warm, light, fairly neutral colours are the norm here. Typical arrangement was followed with, generally-speaking, drink and food options off the lowest level, shopping and customer services off the middle, and main lounges and bars off the top.

I didn’t bother taking any photos of our cabin or bathroom as they were in most respects identical to every other one we’ve been in on Princess ships. Unlike our Diamond Princess cruise, though, where we were in an inside room, for this cruise aboard Sapphire Princess we’d chosen a balcony room and had selected one on Caribe deck. There are three types of rooms on Princess cruise ships that have balconies: suites, mini-suites, and balcony rooms. Mini-suite rooms are a little larger than standard rooms and have a double-depth balcony that is fully exposed above. Standard balconies are covered but those on the C-deck have a double-depth balcony too, half-covered, half-exposed. If you like the idea of a large balcony with the chance to sun yourself or look at the stars at night and don’t mind the chance that someone might see you from above (quite why you’d be bothered by this is a mystery) then I’d recommend C-deck balcony rooms. If you take a look at this post from our first time aboard the Crown Princess cruise ship you can see the C-deck balconies and below that the mini-suite balconies as seen from our room; you can see a couple of shots of the room itself which was identical to that we experienced on the Sapphire with the exception of new, larger, wall-mounted TVs featuring an entertaining safety drill video to the tune of The Love Boat and a good selection of movies and programmes on demand.

Something I drew my wife’s attention to were the carpets along the hallways as these provide a visual queue as to which side of the ship you’re on if you get turned around at any point (something she’s prone to do). The red and green accents indicate port (left) and starboard (right) sides respectively. Another guide on these sorts of Princess ships is that most of the standard elevators (not some around the atrium area, though) face forwards. As our room was on the starboard side we simply had to remember to turn right when exiting an elevator and to make sure the carpet had green markings.

Many people head straight for the buffet when they first board, the source of almost-around-the-clock eating on a Princess ship. We like to get a drink instead as it really brings home the feeling we’re actually on holiday and makes for a great photo to post on social media to annoy anyone you know who’s working. Our bar destination of choice is Crooners at the top of the piazza as you’ll find the other lounge bars won’t typically be open at the time you’re getting on. We headed there from our room via a quick nose in the Princess Theatre and walk through the Wheelhouse Bar.

A fantastic introduction from Princess Cruises over the last year has been the removal of the need to bring your lifejacket to the mandatory muster that takes place before you leave port on the first day. May every cruise line bring this in please. The muster was gratefully short too so with that done we headed up to the top of the ship to see the Sapphire Princess casting off from Southampton on its week’s cruise down to a handful of all-new ports for us.

This was our second cruise on Princess at the magical Platinum level status (the first being our Baltic Heritage cruise of the year before) so it was our second chance to try out the Elite Lounge. Effectively, Skywalkers Nightclub (usually) is set aside for Platinum and Elite members for a couple of hours in the early evening and free snacks are provided along with discounted drinks. On our previous cruise we hadn’t been too impressed with the set-up; there was one discounted cocktail each day which we mostly weren’t interested in and the food choice was pretty poor. I’m pleased to say that it was a vastly improved situation on the Sapphire Princess. A set selection of cocktails were offered and the food range and quality (expect dips, chips, breadsticks, cheese; that sort of thing) was substantially better too. Needless to say but it didn’t take many evenings to make our way through the cocktails offered.

One of those parts of the Sapphire Princess it shares with Diamond and no other Princess Cruises ship is the Wake View Bar. We have fond memories of this location from our honeymoon cruise in the Far East where we disappeared to it on a number of the sea days. Technically located on deck 6 but only accessible down a spiral staircase at the edge of the dance floor in the lounge at the aft of the ship on deck 7 it’s a small bar with some seating, a few porthole windows to gaze out at the ship’s wake (hence the name) and was generally a quiet spot ideal for reading on our first cruise. We were happy to see it again but its usefulness on this particular cruise was limited; we never found if or when the bar was actually open there and on the one day we decided to read in it there were no lights on and a noisy game of bingo taking place in the lounge was thundering down into the spot. I’d like to think on a longer cruise it could be better utilised.

The other notable difference on Sapphire and Diamond is the arrangement of the dining rooms with some additional splitting down the middle taking place to form more separate venues. They’re still served from the same kitchen areas so it’s arguable as to what benefit this brings, if any, and the effect is of making the smaller rooms a little more intimate at the expense of reducing the potential views in both directions of the sea. What it does seem to do is increase the chances of getting in without standing in a long queue or being handed a buzzer (we always go Anytime Dining if we can as we don’t like to commit ourselves to a set time or group of people with whom to potentially share a table). I will cover food and drink aboard this Sapphire Princess cruise in more detail in a separate post but I will state here that the general quality of food (i.e. not speciality dining) aboard Sapphire Princess was the best we’ve had on any cruise ship.

In the past we’ve been disappointed with the wines aboard Princess ships. They’ve probably been very good for what they are but our palates prefer heavy reds and this has been something that we’ve found impossible to get hold of; it’s something where our P&O cruises have really exposed an area in which Princess could improve. I’m happy to report that there certainly seemed to be some progress in that respect as our daily visits to the Vines wine bar at the bottom of the piazza can attest to. While still not as heavy as we’d like we were happy to see a Malbec aboard for the first time and although the venue was understaffed our actual service by Ronnie and the knowledge he demonstrated there (as well as the impromptu wine-tasting he provided in my hunt for the heaviest red they stocked) was exemplary.

Adjacent to Vines was Alfredo’s Pizzeria where the pizza is made fresh and free for you. There’s not a huge range of pizzas to choose from but what they produce is fantastic. We were lucky enough to decide to eat there one lunchtime when there was only one other couple present so we were seated right by the window. On other occasions when we considered going (even one evening we thought we might skip the main dining room in favour of a pizza) there was a queue waiting for tables to free up which tells you all you need to know about the quality. One thing to note was that they had an Italian red that wasn’t offered next door and which was probably the best of the wines we drank on Sapphire Princess.

Skywalkers Nightclub was a daily fix at the end of every evening for us. It’s a place, again, that triggers great memories, not the least of which being listening to disco music and watching a thunderstorm on the horizon while leaving Singapore in 2008. We tend to sit around the dancefloor area as we like to people-watch and it’s a good place to strike up conversations with the DJ who is usually perfectly happy to play whatever you like (Rob Zombie for us, second cruise in a row). The removal of the drinks promotion hours on Princess ships clearly had an impact as the nightclub was practically empty most evenings and you can read the Hits And Misses article linked at the top of this post for more problems here too. A shame, but it’s still possibly our favourite place on these ships. What was good, though, was that we got to see a couple of celebrities in there. The first was a soap actor who was every bit the alpha male around any group of people who talked to him (if the group had an attractive woman in it); amusing to watch. The second was Gareth Gates who looked terrified when approached by some of the passengers and didn’t stay long but whom we bumped into on the way back to our cabin and had a quick chat with; an absolutely lovely person.

We left Southampton on the Saturday. The following day found us anchored off St Peter Port in Guernsey. This was a port we’d decided not to take an excursion at simply because it’s a fairly notorious port for cancelling stops altogether. As it was the weather was warm, the seas were calm, and there was no trouble getting ashore at all. We’d taken a later-than-usual breakfast then headed down to the photo gallery area where numbered cards were being handed out for the tender boats. With some spectacular timing on our part we were told we could leave immediately and were on the boat and heading from the Sapphire Princess to Guernsey inside five minutes. Individual posts covering what we did can be found here:

• The Bluebell Woods and Ozanne Steps – We went for a walk along a coastal path south of the island’s capital in search of a set of steps built for a former governor to provide easy access down the cliffs to a private beach.
• Clarence Battery – On our way back to St Peter Port we stopped for a look around an old gun emplacement.
• Guernsey Aquarium – We’re fond of an aquarium and we couldn’t pass up a visit to one housed in former World War II tunnels used by the Germans during the occupation.
• La Valette Underground Military Museum – More tunnels but this time housing a museum dedicated to wars.
• Castle Cornet – It’s hard to miss the castle when you’re in the island’s capital city.
• St Peter Port – We finished up our visit to St Peter Port with a wander through its streets in search of beer.

Monday was a sea day. As regular art-purchasers on Princess ships we’d been invited to a gallery viewing the day before and had met with the staff there. We’d later received a handwritten letter inviting us to a private preview on the sea day before the auction which we duly attended and indicated that one of the Lebo pieces had caught our eye. You can try to guess which one. No surprise then when we bought it and another piece too. What was more of a surprise was that I won a free piece (to be selected from four) as I’d been the most enthusiastically clapping. Anyone who knows me will know this to be… unlikely. Nevertheless, as luck would have it, one of the four pieces was another Lebo print. You can never have too many. Art auctions aren’t for everyone and they could generally do with being a bit shorter but we enjoy them.

Tuesday saw us arrive in France. Not the port we were supposed to be at because of yet another French dockers strike but at least we actually got to set foot in the country from a cruise ship for once. Our original plan had been to visit a cognac distillery but with the change of location for the Sapphire Princess to La Rochelle we opted to simply take a walk around on our own to see what the coastal city had to offer. The answer to that was: a surprising amount. La Rochelle was absolutely beautiful and filled with all the sorts of things we like, topped off by discovering a little gem of a drinking location that ate up the whole afternoon. Posts of the French city are:

• La Rochelle – Our bus ride from the port into the city and first impressions from a wander along the waterfront.
• La Rochelle Towers – We took the opportunity to climb two of the three medieval towers along the city walls.
• Charruyer Park – A pleasant walk through a former marsh turned into a park thanks to a generous donation.
• La Rochelle Aquarium – Another port, another aquarium. You can’t keep us away from them.
• Belle Du Gabut – The surprise discovery was an area given over to street art and temporary structures providing musical entertainment, festival-type activities, and food and drink.

In the evening we saw that Black Panther was showing on the Movies Under The Stars screen and as we’d not seen it and not seen any movie on the screen on a cruise ship at night we decided to try it out. Almost everyone was staying inside for entertainment provided by the Sapphire Princess staff because it was windy and the air had a bite to it so the ship felt deserted on the top deck. Ultimately, only around six of us braved the movie and we only managed it with multiple blankets covering us. We’d heard that popcorn and hot chocolate were supplied for these movie viewings but if that is the norm then we managed to choose the exception night. Glad to have seen the film at sea, though, as it’s something to say you’ve experienced.

On Wednesday we arrived at Bilbao, Spain. You already know that we’re art fans and you might know from reading any of my other travel accounts that I also keenly appreciate architecture so the obvious draw for us was the Guggenheim Museum. We took an organised excursion which also included a walking tour of the old town area of Bilbao. This was not without its problems, covered in the individual posts:

• Bilbao Walking Tour – A wander through the winding, pedestrianised streets of the old town.
• Guggenheim Museum – An all-too-brief visit to the architectural masterpiece that is the building itself and a viewing of some of the impressive art pieces inside.

The final stop for us was the next day at A Coruna but the place we wanted to see was inland via coach: Santiago de Compostela. Rather than go for anything guided we decided to pay for the Princess ride into the city with free time to wander as we wanted; the main reason for this was that we’d done some research and had our eyes set not just on the famous Santiago de Compostela cathedral but on a nearby museum too. We really enjoyed this stop and found the lack of exploitation of the pilgrims who regularly visit surprisingly nice to see (being the cynical atheists we are). Posts describing our visit to this Spanish city are here:

• Sapphire Princess At A Coruna – Views from our balcony of the port.
• Santiago de Compostela, Part One – Our arrival in the city and visit to the cathedral.
• Part Two, The Museo do Pobo Galego – The museum we wanted to visit with an incredible triple helical staircase just begging to be photographed.
• Santiago de Compostela, Part Three – A little bit more exploration, a stop for a drink, and discovery of a festival taking place.

Friday was a sea day as the Sapphire Princess sadly headed northwards back to England. Checking the daily guide that tells you what’s going on around the ship, the Princess Patter, we spotted a few activities taking place that we decided we’d take a look at. First off, though, was a walk around the ship to grab some photos. The weather wasn’t ideal and you can probably find almost identical photos from other ships of the class on this site but it typically takes more than that to stop me and my camera.

Prior to cruising out of the UK the Sapphire Princess had been based in Asia and evidence of this was present throughout the ship with the bilingual signage. We’re looking forward to seeing similar touches when we next board Diamond Princess later this year for a tenth wedding anniversary treat to ourselves.

The first time that a cruise ship visits a port it is usually presented with a plaque and these are prominently displayed on Deck 7. I love the variety of styles and the pride in their port cities that the designs demonstrate.

One of the activities we stopped to watch was the ice carving demonstration. This was something we’d last seen ten years ago and our memory of that occasion was flimsy to say the least so it was nice to see it all fresh. Taking photographs of blocks of ice in a way that shows the shape is not the easiest of tasks so the two carved pieces are a mermaid and a fish (possibly an angelfish) in case it’s not easy to see.

The main activity we were interested in was the culinary demonstration. This took place in the Princess Theatre and was hosted by the maître d’hôtel Generoso Mazzone and the executive chef Ottavio Bellesi. We were shown how to make Trenette alla Moda Ligure (pesto sauce), Gamberi alla Fra Divolo (flambéed shrimp in hot and fiery tomato sauce with pearl rice), and Tiramisu. As reasonably interesting as that was it was mainly the constant chatter from Ottavio that made the demonstration worth viewing; he was typically Italian and very funny indeed.

Cooking demonstrations are all well and good but that wasn’t the real reason we were interested in this cruise activity. At the conclusion of the food preparation we were all led to the rear of the ship for what was described as a “Galley Tour”. In fact, this was simply a wander through the kitchens rather than any real tour but it was not something we’d done before and still interesting enough for us to be pleased to have done it. And videoed it.

A regular activity that we do whenever we can is the trivia. Our track record with Princess is that we’ve won at least one quiz on every cruise we’ve taken but things weren’t looking good on Sapphire initially. We had paired up with another couple on the first two days on the ship but despite our best efforts we weren’t getting anywhere close to the people who were winning. However, there were mutterings from various quarters in that regard; the people winning had been on the ship during its transitioning cruise from Asia to Europe and it was suspected that the quiz questions were not rotating slowly enough. We resigned ourselves to not really having a chance on this cruise but still kept on at it as we like a good testing of our general knowledge. I’m pleased to announce that on the very last quiz and on a tie-break we won and our track record is still intact. Quiz prizes are not fantastic on a Princess cruise – that’s arguably part of their charm – but if you’re taking part in the quiz to win the prize then you’re doing it wrong anyway.

Being on a cruise is better than not being on a cruise; this won’t come as a surprise to anyone. Our cruise on Sapphire Princess wasn’t perfect by any means but the issues we encountered with occasional drinks orders being wrong or being missed out by staff we can assign to it being just one of those things. We’re not the sort to put in major complaints about a bit of bad luck especially when people work as hard as they do onboard. If we had to pick the worst thing about this cruise it was that it was too short. We are most definitely fortnight-long cruising people at heart.

Sapphire Princess was in good condition overall and wasn’t really showing her age anywhere. A Princess cruise suits our temperament perfectly; it’s the right mix of attentive service and relaxed attitude we like while at sea taking us to the destinations that fulfill the itinerary that is the prime driver for our holiday choice. We’re simply not interested in ships with climbing walls, zip lines, or racing tracks. La Rochelle was the standout port on this cruise (a surprise as it was a late replacement) and our decision-making at Bilbao is the one area we’d have loved to do over. However, the week from Southampton to Guernsey, France, and Spain was a great, short cruise that would make an ideal first cruise itinerary for would-be cruisers. Much as we enjoy the weekend cruises they’re really just too short to give a true cruise experience so this was perfect in that respect.

In a few months (from time of writing this) we’ll be flying out to Tokyo to get back on Diamond Princess and we’re very much looking forward to seeing our first cruise ship again and comparing elements with her sister ship, Sapphire.

For another review of Sapphire Princess on a cruise taken just before we boarded her see Cruise Lifestyle‘s Cruise Ship Review: Sapphire Princess Public Areas & Dining. If you’re interested in gluten free options on the ship then Gluten Free Horizons has a post about it here: Cruising Gluten Free on Sapphire Princess.

With about an hour to go before we needed to be back at the coach we decided to prioritise grabbing a drink (preferably something local) in a bar. Figuring that the majority of drinking establishments would be close to the cathedral and main square, Praza da Obradoiro, we headed roughly back in the same direction we’d originally come. There were definitely more signs of life in the city than we’d seen earlier in the day although we didn’t spot anything too enticing at first.

We eventually came upon Praza de Cervantes, a stretched town square surrounded by shops and bars and with a fountain containing a bust of the aforementioned Cervantes himself atop a pillar.

The most prominent building around the square’s exterior was the Church of San Martiño Pinario, most notable for its bell tower under normal circumstances I’d imagine but mostly drawn to our attention by the low stage for musicians that had been set up in front.

Being deductive souls we reckoned there might be some form of performance about to start and keen to see what it might be but also still sate our thirst we settled our eyes on a bar on the corner of the street heading southwards away from the square. This turned out to be a place called Cafe Pub Agarimo. Entering, we found ourselves in a long, narrow room with a bar along one side. We caught the attention of one of the staff and with some pointing at the taps we asked for a beer and a cider. The Cafe Pub Agarimo was doing tapas which we hadn’t realised so there was a moment of confusion as we looked at the bowls of soup that arrived first before we realised everyone was getting them. There was no request for payment so we took our beer and soup into a cramped backroom of the bar that did at least have seats and tables.

We hadn’t been hungry but the soup was simple yet satisfying. We think it was probably a Galician white bean soup with chorizo. I can’t say the drinks we had were anything special but when we’re drinking abroad it’s as much for the experience as it is for the taste. We’d spotted a member of staff going around some of the tables and collecting cash and returning change which led us to believe we’d soon be able to pay for our drinks and surprise lunch but by the time we wanted to leave we still hadn’t been seen to. I decided to pay at the bar on the way out but as we’d been drinking the bar area had filled to standing room only capacity. It took around ten minutes to get “served” in order to actually pay and it would have been insanely easy to leave without doing so, but we are not that sort of people. We’d not checked the prices before ordering our imbibements but they were very well-priced, especially when you consider the included tapas. So, I can definitely recommend Cafe Pub Agarimo but with the caution that if you’re in a hurry to be anywhere keep an eye on how busy the place is and pay as soon as you can.

Back outside we found that Praza de Cervantes had also filled up and the musicians were playing.

The festival was part of the Ascensión Festivities, a yearly event, with us having turned up on the second day. We stood around enjoying the ambience, listening to the music, and firing off a few shots of the people doing likewise for several minutes.

We like a good excuse to drink in the sunshine and listen to bands performing but we were starting to run short of time in Santiago de Compostela so our next task was to hunt down a souvenir shop. This was not a difficult thing to do as you probably could have guessed and we bypassed half a dozen or more before selecting one at random. Mugs, a bookmark, and a shot glass were all picked up for a surprisingly low price although we steered clear of anything with the ubiquitous shell design on it that you’ll typically find hard to escape in the Spanish city.

As we approached the main square from the south we happened upon a nice little square – Praza de Fonseca – with some greenery in it, a little unexpected oasis from the sparse streets and alleys we’d encountered elsewhere throughout the city.

Back in Praza do Obradoiro we spent a short period of time taking a few more photos of the impressive buildings around it including the town hall and cathedral’s western façade. It was particularly interesting to see the number of people, many of whom had probably completed the Camino pilgrimage, simply sitting around, some in contemplation, some in conversation.

It was about time to leave by now, though, so exiting through the north side of the main square of Santiago de Compostela along Rua de San Francisco and towards the church and convent of the same saint we made our way back towards where the coach had dropped us off at Parking Xoán XXIII.

I had just enough time to get sidetracked after spotting some street art near the coach pick-up spot. Though the artwork was more stylised tagging than imagery it was all still of a very good quality.

This concludes our cruise excursion from the Sapphire Princess into Santiago de Compostela. The medieval city was better than we’d expected partly because we came away feeling unfleeced. There’s often a sense when travelling – especially if you’re hitting obvious tourist hotspots – that the prices are inflated and the stuff being peddled is pretty awful but Santiago de Compostela didn’t have any of that; it felt like a generous, trusting, honest place befitting its religious heritage. Very cheap to spend time there and with far more to see than we had time to during our half day it’s a city I’d have no qualms about visiting again or recommending.

As I’ve said in the previous post, the Museo do Pobo Galego (Museum of the Galician People) is roughly fifteen minutes walk northeast from the cathedral or main square of Santiago de Compostela. The building that the museum now occupies has had many roles over the years; originally the convent of San Domingos de Bonaval and the work of the 17th century architect Domingo de Andrade then a regimental barracks, a hospice, and a school for the deaf and blind it wasn’t until 1993 that the museum was officially opened. In order to promote what the region considers its greatest creation – its language – all the signs inside the Museo do Pobo Galego are in Galician although English explanatory texts are available.

The first thing to note about visiting this museum is that it’s closed on Mondays. Not a problem for us (obviously, otherwise this post would be ending right about now) but worth bearing in mind depending on the timing and length of your trip to the Santiago de Compostela area. The second thing to note is that, like many Spanish establishments, it has a siesta period so don’t come between 14:00 and 16:00 on days when it’s open and, as you probably could guess because you’re smart, don’t come just before 14:00 either or you won’t have any time to look around.

General admission price is just €3 and an absolute bargain. With that you’ll get a fold-out map to help you explore the building.

Now, the Museo do Pobo Galego does have a lot of interesting rooms with a lot of interesting exhibits around specific themes (e.g. the Galician relationship with the sea, how trade was conducted in the region, music heritage, folk traditions, etc.) but the thing that had caught our eye during our pre-cruise research and the thing that we immediately made for was the main staircase linking the three levels of the museum. That may seem odd in writing but as you can see from the photo below it’s quite a special staircase: a triple helical set of stairs spirals up with exits to different floors of the tower in which it’s situated. It’s a dizzying sight to see and not the easiest thing in the world to photograph as the light from the top really plays havoc with the relative dimness down below but you’ll find it hard to resist anyway.

Pick the correct set of steps and you can make it all the way to the top where you’re rewarded with a view down to the ground floor and out through a window looking back towards Santiago de Compostela’s Old Town and the prominent towers of the cathedral.

After recovering from the exertion of climbing the triple helical staircase in the museum we took a leisurely walk through the various rooms across the floors. You can expect to see artwork, pottery, printing equipment, photographs, farming equipment, religious artefacts, traditional folk costumes, and so on. There was a school group visiting the museum while we were there so I didn’t take very many photos in the exhibition rooms at all (some people can be a bit funny about adults with cameras around children and it’s never worth the hassle of risking confrontation) but what we saw was very interesting and you really didn’t need to understand Galician to get the gist of what was being displayed.

It’s easy to forget the history of the building itself as you explore the rooms of the museum until you suddenly find yourself looking down on the San Domingos Church from a first floor gantry. Weirdly, because you don’t enter the church from a doorway on the ground floor this has the effect of making it feel like the church is another exhibit, perhaps one transported and stored inside a huge room in the museum specifically for the purpose. It’s a pleasingly disconcerting experience. The main body of the church dates from the 13th and 14th centuries so was in position with the convent area long before the architecture of the surrounding buildings were added.

The museum visit took a little more time than we were initially expecting, not just because there was a lot to see but also because there’s a section of the ground floor that can only be accessed from the first floor. This also means the only way to get out after you’ve explored this section is to get back to the first floor again, something we didn’t realise until we’d exhausted every route and tried every door. It’s actually quite clear from looking at the map now but at the time it threw us for a bit.

We finished up our visit to the Museo do Pobo Galego in the very attractive courtyard surrounded by the beautifully-arched porticoes. After the quite minimalist interior of the museum it was refreshing to step into the vibrancy of the greenery and gaze up at the blue skies. It’s a lovely little area to just breathe in, gaze around, and relax, and if you’re visiting with other people who want to use the toilet it’s an ideal place to wait for them while they do so as the restroom facilities are just through one of the arches.

If you’re visiting Santiago de Compostela and you’ve got the time to do so then the Museo do Pobo Galego is worth every cent of the very small entrance fee and highly recommended if only to see the impressive design of the staircase.

We would use the remainder of our time in the Galician city to hunt down some souvenirs and grab a bite to eat along with something to drink and that’s covered in the final part of our cruise excursion account.

It is, of course, possible to make your own way from the port to the city of Santiago de Compostela if you’re arriving on a cruise but it should be noted that the travel time by coach is around 45-60 minutes depending on traffic so you’re not exactly near the ship if you run into any difficulties with public transport. Some other people we know who were visiting the city on another cruise ship after us had originally planned to use the train until they discovered that there was a large gap in the schedule that might have made getting back on time a risk. We elected to pick an excursion arranged through Princess Cruises that simply took care of taking us to the city and getting us back with a guide explaining the history of the area while travelling but leaving us free to explore on our own for several hours on arrival, all safe in the knowledge that the ship would wait for us. When excursions are reasonably priced we will always err towards them rather than trying to save a few quid when we’re already paying as much as we are for the cruise anyway.

Our coach drop-off and pick-up point was at Parking Xoán XXIII which is just to the north of the Convento de San Francisco de Santiago, itself just to the north of the medieval centre of Santiago de Compostela if you’re looking for it on a map. A five-minute walk took us into the main square.

The main square in Santiago de Compostela’s Old Town area is called the Praza do Obradoiro. The buildings surrounding it look fabulous architecturally with the most prominent ones being to the western and eastern sides of the square, the city hall and the façade of the cathedral respectively. The cathedral, as you’re probably aware, is the main draw for people visiting Santiago de Compostela, either as tourists or as the 100,000+ pilgrims completing the Camino de Santiago (Way of Saint James) pilgrimage each year.

From Wikipedia:

According to medieval legend, the remains of the apostle James were brought to Galicia for burial; in 813, the light of a bright star guided a shepherd who was watching his flock at night to the burial site in Santiago de Compostela. […] To honour St. James, the cathedral was built on the spot where his remains were said to have been found. The legend, which included numerous miraculous events, enabled the Catholic faithful to bolster support for their stronghold in northern Spain during the Christian crusades against the Moors, but also led to the growth and development of the city.

If you’re standing in the Praza do Obradoiro and want to enter the impressive-looking (even with the scaffolding during our visit) cathedral the best approach is to walk out of the square via the alley to the southeast then immediately turn left along the southernmost face of the building. The entrance is up a flight of steps in the Praza das Praterías. Entry to the cathedral is free but it’s worth checking to see if there are any planned church services as this will affect your visit. It is possible to pay for a rooftop tour as well but despite the warm-looking photos there was a bitterly cold wind on the day of our visit (you might have noticed if you’ve watched the video) and we’d foolishly only worn t-shirts; we decided the roof can wait until we return, should that happen.

Construction of the present Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, one of the largest cathedrals in Europe, began in the late 11th century. Almost 100 metres long it has a classically-arranged cruciform-shaped interior and the most eye-catching elements are the gold choir area and organ as well as the large, hanging censer (the Botafumeiro, the largest censer in the world) used to dispense burning incense to the congregation when pulled by eight tiraboleiros. The cathedral seats were pretty full when we arrived as it was approaching the time for a mass to begin. We spoke after our visit with some fellow cruise passengers who had come on the excursion with us and they had spent nearly their full time sat in the cathedral, the reason being that they were hoping to see the censer swung. This didn’t happen but the reason for that – had they been paying attention to our guide on the coach – was that it’s only done on special occasions (and this wasn’t one) or if a pilgrim makes a very sizeable donation to have the ceremony performed (and, clearly, one didn’t).

We had no interest in actually attending the upcoming mass and so, like many other visitors, completed a cross-shaped circuit of the cathedral, taking photos of some of the more interesting details to the backdrop of the general low murmur of people talking, only occasionally broken up by a voice over a speaker reminding people to be silent. There were a couple of areas you could queue for a short period to walk through that took you to a higher view down the nave of the church as well as down a few steps into the crypt housing the relics of Saint James and two of his disciples; photography was tricky in both these areas on account of the general crush of people constantly moving through them.

Leaving the cathedral through the gift shop (naturally) we emerged back into the streets of Santiago de Compostela in Praza da Quintana on the eastern side of the building. This gave us a chance to take a quick scan around at the various landmarks in view, notably the main towers of the cathedral (the Clock Tower and the Treasure Tower with its seemingly out-of-place pyramidal top) while we got our bearings and consulted our maps to work out the route to our next destination.

If we’re going to have enough free time to explore a place when we’re travelling – as opposed to taking an excursion that effectively eats up all the time we’re present – then we research the area beforehand and typically have a not-cast-in-stone idea of what we might want to see. It’s only a wish list and we’re flexible enough to bend with whatever the weather or surprises on the day may throw at us but we do try to make sure that there’s at least something on it that’s not provided on any of the offered tours. There’s something special about visiting a place and not only seeing the obvious, big tourist elements but also something potentially unique amongst the people you’re with if only to give you something different to talk about. On this trip to Santiago de Compostela we’d spotted an interesting-looking museum just to the northeast of the Old Town called Museo do Pobo Galego (about fifteen minutes away on foot from the cathedral) and with plenty of time in hand it was in this direction that we set off.

One of the first buildings we passed was a monastery – the Mosteiro de San Paio de Antealtares – which had a small window through which it was possible to buy cakes off nuns. We decided we didn’t need any cakes and I thought it best out of respect not to take any photos of this event taking place but it did make us smile and if you’re after a cake baked by a nun I’ve got nowhere else I could possibly recommend. Being still fairly early in the day – not quite noon at this point – the narrow streets were mostly empty and many of the places we walked past that could possibly have been restaurants or bars were closed up but there were enough interesting-looking buildings or statues to keep my camera-finger happy.

It was fairly easy to spot when we’d emerged from the Old Town of Santiago de Compostela as the architecture suddenly modernised a little and traffic suddenly appeared on roads. Still bearing roughly northeast we crossed over the Rúa da Virxe da Cerca and headed up the slight incline of the Costa de San Domingos towards the largest building in view which was our destination, the museum. To the left of it as we approached there was a delightfully modernist structure suitably housing contemporary art. We talked about visiting it after the museum but as it turned out we spent longer there than planned so decided to pass on it this time around.

The second post of our cruise excursion in Santiago de Compostela will cover our visit to the Museo do Pobo Galego (museum of the Galician people).

It’s probably not inaccurate to say that the majority of people on a cruise probably don’t find commercial and industrial ports that interesting to look at (very experienced cruisers on the larger ships probably see enough of them to erase them from their memories for the most part). I am most definitely in the minority, loving the brute strength that this scale of industrialisation represents and finding much of the functional design fantastically attractive, and I’ll usually make sure I’m out for a look at the port as whatever ship we’re on is arriving or leaving.

This post, then, is merely a collection of the photos and a short piece of video taken from the Sapphire Princess cruise ship as she was entering and leaving A Coruña in May 2018. The dome structure seen in the photos stored coal for processing and was not an arena for entertaining the mutants who survived the apocalypse. But it might be one day.

Part of any possible future visit to the port of A Coruña looks to be the 16th-century fortress, now museum, Museo Arqueolóxico e Histórico Castelo de Santo Antón, apparently open from 10:00 on most days and only a couple of Euros entrance fee.

From a distance the most obvious sight of new development is the Iberdrolar Tower (architect: César Pelli) but the place we’d come to see – indeed, probably, most tourists come to see – was the Frank Gehry-designed Guggenheim Museum. It really was designed that way and isn’t the result of a too-proud architect refusing to acknowledge he shouldn’t have built his prototype model from chocolate and left it on the parcel shelf in the back of his car on a sunny day.

Our tour group was met by a second guide and split into two outside the entrance to make it easier to take us through the museum. The actual process of getting into the museum was very easy and although we’d been warned about not taking in large bags the checking of these did not look too stringent to me; indeed, the space in the museum is so vast it’s arguable that any large bags would really get in the way at all but you should be prepared to surrender them just to be on the safe side, especially if the museum is very busy or if you want to chance your arm and wheel a suitcase in. Single adult tickets bought online at time of writing this are €16. We gathered in the inner atrium (after another long wait for people to use the toilet, naturally), a space Gehry nicknamed “The Flower” due to its shape and the only interior location of the museum that permits photography.

The angles and sweeping curves of the interior reflected a lot of the design of the exterior of the Guggenheim Museum though with understandably different materials in play. The prominence of white and huge windows in the atrium that looked down to the river and allowed in light also brought in some of that external material – the titanium sheets – allowing us to touch them. The titanium was chosen so that it would change appearance as it aged – “Yo, Gehry, what’s with the weird colouring?” “Er, yeah, no, er, I meant that” – and the overall shape of the building was generally just random although many critics see waves and ships or fishes or melted chocolate in the back of cars in the design.

A criticism of this point in the cruise excursion, though, is that we spent an awful lot of time in the atrium hearing the history of the area and the building, the materials, the design choices, the critics’ views, etc. While a lovely place and a very informative talk from a very knowledgeable guide the things we’d really come to see were the exhibits. Revisiting my argument from the walking tour of Bilbao portion of this organised trip, had the two elements been reversed in the order in which they were undertaken we could have heard this history on the coach on the approach to the Guggenheim Museum giving us extra time to see what it was housing.

Stepping through a doorway off the atrium opposite the entrance we emerged out onto a concrete balcony in the outside air where we could get up close to Tulips by Jeff Koons. From the official website description:

Tulips, a bouquet of multicolor balloon flowers blown up to gargantuan proportions (more than 2 meters tall and 5 meters across), belongs to the ambitious Celebration series, initiated by Koons in 1994. […] With its immaculate, reflective stainless-steel surfaces, Tulips recalls earlier works by the artist such as Rabbit (1986), which similarly transformed a banal inflatable object into something hard, gleaming, and iconic. In Tulips and in the balloon animals that populate the Celebration series, as in his towering Puppy (1992), Koons has manipulated scale, as well as materials, to uncanny ends. While Tulips might evoke the large industrial forms of certain Minimalist sculptures, the buoyant, colorful sculpture equally brings to mind a jaunty parade float.

One of Koons’s other creations, Puppy, referenced in the quote above was present near the entrance to the Guggenheim but was covered in scaffolding for repairs and subsequently not photographed.

Back inside we next went into the largest space on the ground floor, the Arcelor Gallery (formerly the Fish Gallery), housing the permanent exhibition piece The Matter of Time by the sculptor Richard Serra. This was a strangely compelling, fun, if arguably disturbing place and I wish we’d had more time (ironically) here. The cavernous space is host to several, weathered steel constructions arranged in spirals or waving lines or numerous other configurations that you can wander through. Our guide took us through one which simply spiralled in on itself but the distance between the walls of the spiralled steel varied and the inward- or outward-leaning angles of the walls of the free-standing structure varied too as you moved into the sculpture’s interior; the effect was disconcerting with feelings that perhaps you were walking at an angle or that the space was confining or expanding and, overall, a loss of sense of just how far or even how long you’d walked before reaching the central space. It’s not just a must-see exhibit, it’s a must-experience one.

The following photo comes from The Matter of Time works page on the Guggenheim’s website just to show you the sculptures from above.

After an all-too-brief visit to the permanent exhibition we were taken through the other rooms of the Guggenheim Museum to see what they were showcasing. One Hundred and Fifty Multicolored Marilyns by Andy Warhol was a very obvious eye-catching piece but there were some works by Jean-Michel Basquiat I quite liked too. Museum employees were kept busy stepping up to remind people not to take photographs (it’s funny how often museum and gallery visitors seem to forget rules) but you can see many of the works at the museum’s site here: Works in the Collection.

With the rooms quickly gone through we were then given some free time before we’d need to meet back at the coach for the return to the cruise ship. We decided that rather than see some of the artwork in more detail we would head outside as the time left didn’t really leave a lot to meaningfully look at anything and we fancied some photographs of the building from a number of angles as it is such an attractive design. It was at this point that we overhead a group of Americans in our tour group grumbling that they hadn’t seen “any real art” and that they didn’t realise it was going to be full of “that modern rubbish.” People, eh? It’s always advisable to do a little bit of research before booking an excursion.

There were two prominent sculpture pieces outside the Guggenheim Museum. The first of these was Anish Kapoor‘s Tall Tree & The Eye consisting of 73 highly-reflective, stainless steel balls. This proved to be popular with people posing in front of it and I happily grabbed someone doing just that.

The second work was the almost 9-metre high, disturbing, spider creation, Maman by Louise Bourgeois. The name of the piece comes from its creation as a tribute to the sculptor’s mother who was herself a weaver. It’s a beautifully eerie work and my only regret is that the weather wasn’t ideal for capturing nice pictures of it.

But, of course, the majority of photos taken were of the Guggenheim Museum itself. Under clear skies and sunshine I imagine the change in colour tones as the light reflects off the undulating titanium exterior would be absolutely enchanting and I’d love to return for an early evening in summer at some point just to see how the tone would warm. A fabulous bit of architecture that barely looked like melted chocolate at all now I think about it.

We would have preferred a lot more time at the Guggenheim in retrospect so I’m not sure that this particular excursion is one that I can recommend if you’re keen on architecture and art. If we were to return to Bilbao at some point then we’d consider simply coming to the museum and spending a lot more time on just it rather than try to cram too much into a short trip as we unfortunately did this time around. That’s the gamble, though, and we always look at these excursions – and, indeed, cruises in general – as taster trips to whet our appetites for a return visit.

Getxo

The first thing to note about visiting Bilbao on a cruise ship is that the terminal is located in Getxo, around fifteen kilometres to the north of the heart of the city. The cruise port provides free shuttles into Getxo from where it’s fairly easy to use public transport into Bilbao (the metro system seemingly the most convenient) and it’s likely that Princess were running a service into the city from the port although I don’t know this for certain and don’t know the pricing as it’s not something we needed to worry about. Getxo looked like a pretty nice place from what we saw as we drove through it; it’s probably worth a look around on its own if you’re visiting this particular port on more than one occasion if only for the Vizcaya Bridge that we saw in operation from the coach windows as we made our way along the bank of the Nervión river to our destination.

Bilbao

The coach drop-off point for our walking tour of Bilbao was beside El Arenal park, a short distance from the Catholic church of Saint Nicolás, an 18th-century building in Baroque style built to honour the patron saint of sailors and apparently a meeting point for sailors before they would set off to sea. Sadly, we wouldn’t be entering any buildings during this walking tour because of the relatively short amount of time in the city so we never got to see its octagonal-shaped interior.

El Arenal park has a number of public toilets and this produced the first irritation in a number that would diminish the enjoyment of this particular cruise excursion. It really hadn’t been that long since we’d got off the Sapphire Princess (a little over half an hour maybe) but around a quarter of our coach apparently needed to go to the loo. Now, I know that some people may have bladder problems so this in itself wouldn’t be that big a deal except we weren’t the only coach that had parked up and the number of people from the various vehicles far exceeded the number of cubicles. Again, just one of those things that happens with scheduling so it shouldn’t be that annoying except two women in our group managed to be last in the queue or fell asleep in the toilets or had a really long chat or something. Whatever it was meant that the rest of us stood around for over twenty minutes before they casually wandered back to us and we could set off. On what was a fairly short excursion anyway this was a large amount of time to lose and, in fact, it meant that at the conclusion of our walking tour of Bilbao we were only left with about fifteen minutes of free time; not enough to really do anything.

Our visit to the Basque city coincided with Heineken promoting rugby and a festival due to take place in the park. We wouldn’t be around for any of that, though.

We were then led into the narrow streets of the old town of Bilbao by our very knowledgeable guide. While generally of the same style of architecture the various, often colourful facades of the tall buildings in this part of the city lent everything a nicely eclectic look and there were some lovely little stonework touches on some of the buildings, some of them no doubt very old indeed. The weather, unfortunately, wasn’t the best it could be from a photographic perspective; a uniform blanket of white cloud over a confined, dark area of streets does not make for the most attractive of pictures. Still, these old town layouts always have that sense of casual evolution over their curving, wandering routes rather than something designed which gives them a lovely feel when you’re strolling through them.

You might notice that a lot of the photos I took as we walked through Bilbao are quite elevated. Generally, I like to grab photos with people in them as they add life and scale to the pictures but the tendency towards angled-up shots boils down to the second irritation, that being one of the order in which the two aspects of the excursion took place. As I’ve said already, there were two parts to this trip: the museum visit and the walking tour. It would have been far better for the museum to have been the first stop rather than the order in which it was done for a very simple but quite important reason if you’re thinking of coming to the city: trucks and vans are permitted in the narrow town streets up until 11:00 in the morning in order to load and unload goods for the shops. What this amounted to for us was rather than a pleasant stroll through a pedestrianised section of the historical part of Bilbao learning its history we were instead often pressed up against buildings as vans rumbled past, occasionally struggled to hear anything over idling engines or the sound of tailgates lowering crates, and generally presented with little sight of the allegedly interesting buildings due to trucks parked in front of them. Just as our walking tour came to an end so all the vehicles disappeared from the streets; had we visited this after the museum it would have been far more enjoyable. Due to the relatively short distance between the Guggenheim and the old town there really didn’t seem to be much of a logistical reason why this tour sequence couldn’t have been swapped around and that was the feedback I provided to Princess.

Built in the 14th century and originally just a church, Santiago Cathedral proved an interesting stop for us as the final port on our cruise would be Santiago de Compostela, both places being named for Saint James as part of the pilgrimage route across the north of Spain.

The final gathering point – thankfully vehicle-free – was Plaza Nueva, a large and attractive square built in the 19th century and surrounded by arched, covered walkways housing plenty of shops and restaurants. One of the main buildings was the seat of the regional government until a new location was built specifically for the purpose and the square now often hosts tournaments or festivals.

With a look at her watch our tour guide then told us we had a quarter of an hour to explore on our own before meeting back at the coach. This just wasn’t anywhere near enough time to do anything of note so we headed immediately out of the old town area and down past the theatre to the river’s edge to grab a few photos of something rather lovely-looking we’d spotted on our way in: the Santander-Bilbao Concordia train station. Specifically, what had grabbed my eye was the gorgeous art nouveau design by Severino Achúcarro dating to the turn of the 20th century. Some of Achúcarro’s design work had also made it onto the facade of the cathedral so this rounded off our short exploration of Bilbao quite nicely.

Photos taken we made our way back to the coach and then sat around for a further ten minutes after our due departure time waiting for two women to stroll back late without so much as an apology for eating into what would be our museum-visiting time. Would it surprise you to know that it was the same two women who we’d had to wait twenty minutes for at the start of the walking tour? No, no it probably wouldn’t.

The walking tour of Bilbao could definitely have been better arranged and we had some bad luck in having two somewhat selfish fellow tourists along with us. The streets of the old town felt like there was more there to discover with a bit more time and we’d love to go back at some point to do just that but we were, in the end, a bit disappointed with this portion of this cruise excursion.