Ephesus

You have to love a day that starts with meeting your private tour guide at the dock and get into your own Mercedes mini bus with the name Mr. Luther Grafe in the front window to tour Ephesus. Taner, our tour guide, rocked the ancient world, giving us an awesome tour of the incredible sites at Ephesus. We hit the site early to beat some of the heat (although we understand that the temperature hit 106 in the sun in the afternoon). We visited the terrace houses in addition to the main site. They were a highlight with their well-preserved mosaics and frescoes in the houses built into the hill. After the big site we visited Mary's House and then squeezed in some shoppping at a pottery store. They make and paint everything by hand there in intricate designs. Beautiful work. And they ship to the US. So convenient.

Then we headed to lunch at a small restaurant in the country with a yummy local buffet. We had some stew and meatballs and dolma and chard and pink stuff and beans and other tasty things that we couldn't get the names of. while we sat under the trees next to an olive grove.

Revived, we headed to the Basilica of St. John, from where we could also see the Temple of Artemis. For Dennis, we went to the Archeological Museum in town and saw just a few vases among the artifacts, and there was an exhibit of the cemetery of the gladiators showing how they were killed in battle and their battle records. Survived 18, lost 1, but that last one was a doozy.

Completely done in by the walking and the heat, we returned to Kusadasi, dropping Dennis at the boat so he could get ready for work while we found some Turkish ice cream. Yum. A short pass through the central market found some little goodies and then it was back to the ship to jump in the pool to bring our body temerature down and relax before Dennis' talk and dinner.

Mykonos

We are sitting in an internet cafe to write our blog post today in hopes that this speedy connection will save us from the ennui caused by the ship's blogging facilities. Our forms of transportation so far for the day are: ship into Mykonos at around 1:30 this morning (or so they tell us), shuttle bus to the port, city bus to the beach and back and our very own feet around town.

The beach we went to was on the other side of the island where the sun was shining brightly and the wind was blowing smartly. The beach wasn't crowded so we could enjoy the clear waters, watch the windsailers and play paddle ball to our hearts' content. We headed back to Mykonos town for a quick gyros sandwich lunch and now the internet cafe.

We did put some pictures up on the last posts if you want to look. We're heading back to the boat soon to dip in the pool and play Fill or Bust, if the wind doesn't blow it away. This is one windy island! Dennis speaks on Ephesus, tomorrow's port tonight.

More tomorrow!

Athens

Athens, Athens uber alles. We hopped in taxi this morning, arriving at the Acropolis by 8:30 this morning. We beat the heat and crowds to the site, marveling at the towering temples that dwarf the city below. After taking in the Acropolis we made our way part way down the hill and then up the Filopappos hill through the pine scented paths and then to the Aeropagus (rhymes with Snufalupagus) where Paul preached. A call out to Emma, Laurie and Brenna: we had delightful weather – not over 90, a far cry from last year’s 109 degrees.

Then Dennis dragged us (though are feet were bloody stumps) through the agora. Finally, we made it to the Plaka for a wee bit of shopping (really, just a wee bit) on our way to a tasty Greek lunch of souvlaki, Greek salad, chips (aka fries), tzaziki and lamb kebaps. And a couple of large Greek Mythos beers. You have to love a place that charges as much for a coke as a beer.

Revived, we took the subway to the National Archeological Museum. Who knew there were so many vases in the ancient Greek world? We needed to sit down after the first 1,500 to recoup. They’re all Greek to us!

After a metro ride to the port, we hoofed it to the boat so Dennis could tape the morning show.There were lots and lots of ships to look at in the busy Pireus port.

Rebecca STILL rules the Fill or Bust game. Luther “no dice” Grafe does not. Dennis remains at ZERO.

Happy dances abounded on this fine day in Athens.

Oh yeah. For those of you keeping score at home, Rebecca went down again, this time bruising an arm slipping on the slick marble stairs at the Acropolis. No broken bones though – bonus! No insurance cards have been used in the making of this vacation. Emma, Julie still predicts a bandage-wrapped upper appendage before the trip is through. Injury score stands at: Rebecca 3.5, Julie 0, Luther .5 (glasses scratched), Dennis 1 (bruise of unknown origin).

Tomorrow brings a beach day in Mykonos. Ah, we can sleep in until 7:30.

Olypmia

Today we were in Katakolon, the port for Olympia, home of the ancient Olympics. The port town is tiny and set up for tourists – many shops lining the main street, all selling pretty much the same things. We did manage to do a little shopping, redeeming ourselves after doing no shopping yesterday. I’m guessing the markets were up today with Julie and Rebecca back in the shopping game.

The archeological site and museum at Olympia were really interesting and not too hot. We saw the Temple of Zeus, which once held a massive statue of Zeus that was one of the wonders of the ancient world. Dennis and Luther ran a race in the stadium. Luther was the victor and was awarded the olive wreath and all the glory Julie and Rebecca could provide.

We were back in time for lunch on the ship before Dennis spoke on Athens. Auntie Mary made an appearance in his talk, pointing the way to a monument in Athens (you’re famous!). It was Italian night in the dining room complete with limoncello and other tasty treats followed by a good show featuring the American Drifters.

They say the trouble with posting picures is due to traffic. Since there aren't many other ships that we can see, they must mean internet traffic. We are traveling twice as far tonight and we are going twice as fast. The wave are flying by!

Cruising Corfu

Ah, Corfu. We love you. We started the day with a walking tour of Corfu City, which looks like it was transplanted from the Italian Riviera. The tour was complete with reconstruction noise, construction noise, delivery truck noise, cicadas singing almost as loudly as they did in Chicago last summer (the summer of the 17 year cicadas).Between noises, we managed to learn about this city and island. It is a verdant island – lots of palm trees and cypresses – and temperate by Greek standards. Italian influences definitely dominate. We visited the major sites of the city, including two churches that contain the bones of St. Theodora and St. Spiridon. Greek Orthodox churches are cool. For those who may be concerned about our spiritual health on this trip, we visited multiple churches since our trip began so we believe we are covered.

After the tour Julie spotted an in-town car rental agency (1 point for Julie) so we took the plunge and rented a car to take us to the beach. Olympus Car Rental put us in a Cordoba and sent us on our way to sandy Glifada beach on Corfu’s west coast, stopping at the Pink Panther for a traditional Greek lunch with a view along the way. The beach was gorgeous – crystal clear waters that were easily warmer than Dubrovnik’s and fun waves to body surf in. We navigated back to the rental agency (point #2 for Julie) and headed back to the boat so Dennis could do his first lecture on the Olympics and the port of Katakolon (port for Olympia) that we visit tomorrow. His talk went well (point #3 to Julie for remembering that the 2000 Olympics were in Sydney), except for an AV glitch that left the photos of Greece an odd shade of sepia.

Prior to his talk, Julie, Luther and Rebecca managed to fit in some time on the Sanctuary deck soaking up some sun and dipping in the pool frequently to cool off. Fill or Bust scores stand at Rebecca 50,000 (exactly!), Julie 46,350 and Luther 45,450 (making his comeback). Dennis remains scoreless. You have to play to win. And as we learned from Dennis’ talk today, winning is everything. Losing=death.

We’re still having issues uploading photos, even at the internet cafés off the ship. We’ll keep trying.

Dubrovnik

Luther’s day in Dubrovnik: “We saw some big walls, a lot of roof tiles, 3 of the 4 jumped into the water. The waves went crazy. Prosciutto and melons for lunch were good. Good ice cream.”

What the rest of us saw: We shuttled into Dubrovnik and circumnavigated the old city atop the medieval stone walls which encircle it. Julie thanks Angela for the stairs of Rosewood Beach. Then we hit the streets to check out the local churches, most of which had to be rebuilt after the big earthquake if 1669 (thank you, Dennis, for this bit of information). We picked up picnic supplies for prosciutto, salami and cheese sandwiches and took our picnic to the rocky shore below the walls. Dennis, Rebecca and Luther jumped into the water (warmer than the Cape Cod National Seashore but colder than Lake Michigan on a good day but incredibly clear). Julie sacrificed for the cause by remaining on shore to take pictures. The presence of small fish in the water had nothing to do with this decision.

On our way back to catch the shuttle, Luther found the best ice cream of the trip to date. Dennis found an espresso. While Dennis slaved away in the afternoon (after his nap, of course), Julie, Luther and Rebecca continued their marathon Fill or Bust game on deck with the cocktail of the day. Scores will be updated later.

After dinner and a lovely sunset, we are primed to visit the shops on the promenade. Once again, we are unable to upload photos while on the ship’s internet service so we’ll try to hit an internet café when we can – maybe even tomorrow on Corfu, the first of our Greek islands.

Venice Day 3 & 4 sailaway

It was a beautiful Wednesday morning in Venice. After breakfast and packing, we walked to the Rialto to meet Dennis, Emma, Laurie and Brenna. We visited the Casa di Parmigiano and checked out all the strange fish for sale in the market. Snails and inky squid reigned supreme. Our hotel called a taxi to take us to Murano to watch the glass blowers at work. The water taxi ride turned out to be the best part of the trip. Lots of little canals to run through. We watched a glass blower make a horse and decided to head back to town on the vaparetto so the rest of the gang could see San Marco. Luther, Julie and Rebecca vaparettoed towards Ca’ Rezzonico to visit the bathroom and see how the 17th & 18th century Venetians lived. We had the endless quest for our perfect pizza, visiting our favorite pizza lady only to be turned away for the second time that day. Back-up pizza and Dennis were found, and we headed out in a taxi to the ship, and holy ship, Batman, what a ship it is!

We had a lovely dinner and Rebecca was denied purchasing a drink because apparently she is only 14, coincidentally with the same birthday as Emma. That little glitch has been fixed. Cheers to that.

Dennis treated us to a show for our sailaway from Venice this morning, our first morning on the ship. We all got to accompany him to the bridge as he spoke over the PA about the sights of Venice we were passing. The ship sailed down the Giudecca Canal at 8 am, towering over the city. We had the bird’s eye view from the bridge with all of Venice spread out before us. Too cool.

We lolled the rest of the day, except for Julie who thought it was a fine day to run a 5k in the gym. We did manage to dunk the flab to cool off. Tonight was our first formal night so we got dolled up for dinner.

Tomorrow it’s Dubrovnik or bust, which we may do if we continue to eat the way we’ve been eating!
Sorry no pictures today. Our expensive, yet slow, connection on the ship isn't cooperating. We'll try agian soon!

Venice Day 2

Venice was a real show off today. It was sunny and in the 70s and full of gorgeosity, even when we got hit with a thunder sotrm in the evening. We started the day with a walk to San Marco to join the crowds viewing the basilica and then the Doges palace. After wandering the back streets of the San Marco district we were over fighting the crowds and ducked into the Correr Museum to see some Venetian art. Then we gave our feet a break under the loggia at the Doges Palace while we waited for Dennis, Emma, Laurie and Brenna to show up.

Here's list of no-no's for San Marco, in case you're planning on visitng any time soon. They do have funny orange shoulder and legs wraps to rent if you should forget yourself and wear shorts or a tank top that day.

They arrived full of stories of their cruise and ready to see some Venice sights. We walked through town to the Frari Church, one of Dennis' favorites, taking a traghetto ride on the way. It's a cheap way to get a gondola ride - 50 euro cents, instead of 95 euros, to cross the canal. After seeing the Titians at the church we wandered back to our hotel, grabbing some gelato on the way. We have to maintain the ice cream every day on vacation rule! Laurie and the girls went back to the ship for their final cruise dinner and a show, and Dennis and the rest of us had dinner at Antica Locanda Montin again.

We were wishing we had a pedometer to see how far we walked - at least 8 miles around this fascinating city full of dead ends and surprises around every corner.

Tomorrow is our last day in Venice, capped off by checking onto the ship to begin our cruise.

Venice or bust

We ran for flights (Julie) and tweaked a calf muscle (Rebecca), and survived economy (Luther), and we are here! Day 1 found us spending some quality at Venice’s Marco Polo Airport then taking a private water taxi to our hotel at the convergence of two canals in the Dorsoduro district near the Accademia. We lunched on tasty pizza bought from a store front. Luther ate hotdog pizza, and we even saw French fry pizza and thought of Abby. What will those Italians think of next?

We managed to squeeze in the Peggy Guggenheim Museum between our pizza and gelato courses. Not an easy feat. Dinner was at a restaurant with a lovely outdoor arbor-covered patio. Grilled shrimp and fish, all with heads on, eyeballs intact and tails almost flapping were the main entrees. Yum! It’s time to sleep (after a nightcap, of course!) and try to get onto “Italy time.”

Tomorrow we’re planning on hitting the Doge’s Palace and San Marco. Dennis, Laurie and the girls arrive tomorrow afternoon so we’ll rendezvous with them once they make it off the boat.

Julie’s first Italian word: saldi! Yes, that does mean sale, and she learned it all on her own. She’s a natural, Too bad her credit card was declined (a momentary glitch).

Luther has returned with our bottle of cold prosecco. Cheers!

P.S. Please inform the treasury, George Bush or someone with some sense that the current dollar to euro exchange rate must be abolished!

Phase Two travelers are ready to go!

Well, almost ready anyway. Bags are being packed, nails have been painted, instructions have been printed for caring for kids, houses and dog. We're almost ready to head out. Julie, Luther and Rebecca will travel on separate flights on Sunday afternoon and plan to meet at the Venice airport Monday morning.

Here's the schedule for the next cruise:

arrive Venice Monday morning, 7/21

7/23 board the Emerald Princess in Venice, Italy
7/24 Venice depart 8:00 AM
7/25 Dubrovnik, Croatia arrive 8:00 AM depart 6:00 PM
7/26 Corfu, Greece arrive 8:00 AM depart 6:00 PM
7/27 Katakolon (Olympia), Greece arrive 7:00 AM depart 4:00 PM
7/28 Athens (Piraeus), Greece arrive 6:00 AM depart 5:45 PM
7/29 Mykonos, Greece arrive 7:00 AM depart 6:00 PM
7/30 Kusadasi (Ephesus), Turkey arrive 8:00 AM depart 5:00 PM
7/31 Rhodes, Greece arrive 8:00 AM depart 5:00 PM
8/1 Santorini, Greece arrive 7:00 AM depart 6:00 PM
8/2 At Sea
8/3 Naples/Capri, Italy arrive 7:00 AM depat 6:00 PM
8/4 Rome (Civitavecchia), Italy arrive 4:00 AM

stay in Rome until 8/7

More once we get there...

So much to do. so little time to blog

This seems to be the theme of the current cruisers. Dennis called yesterday to say they are having a marvelous time. Emma and Brenna are spending lots of time in the teen zone at night and touring in the day. Dennis needs to be back on the ship before 4 every afternoon so he can't do full-day excursions, but he has done some half-day trips, and Laurie and the girls are doing longer tours. The ship has been generous in comping some tour tickets for them and charging them the low crew rate for the other tours so they have been taking advantage of the ship tours a bunch.

In Marseille, Dennis did a trip to Aix-en-Provence where it was market day, and he said the smell in the maket was fabulous. Laurie and the girls took a tour to Avignon. There wasn't time to go to Florence at the Livorno stop, but they all spent the day in Pisa, going to mass at the cathedral, visiting the tower and baptistry and eating a nice lunch.

Yesterday they were in Rome. Dennis stayed behind in Civitavecchia and got some work done (and had the best lunch ever!) while Laurie and the girls did a full day tour of the eternal city.

Today it's Naples/Capri and tomorrow a day at sea to catch their breath. Dennis didn't think he'd have much time to write or call, but I'll post more if I hear from him.

Dennis and Emma's itinerary

Here is the itinerary for the first cruise. I haven't heard from the travelers yet so I'm sure all is well. They should be touring Barcelona as I write! I don't know how often they will update the blog, but I'll post news if I hear from them. I'm counting on Emma's computer skills to win the day as they cruise!

7-11 Sail from Barcelona
7-12 Arrive Marseille, France at 8:30 am - Depart 6:00 pm
7-13 Livorno (port for Florence) Italy at 7:00 am - Depart 7:00 pm
7-14 Civitavecchia (port for Rome) at 7:00 am - Depart 7:00 pm
7-15 Naples, Italy at 7:00 am - Depart at 7:00 pm
7-16 At Sea
7-17 Mykonos, Greece at 7:00 am - Depart 2:00 pm
7-18 Istanbul, Turkey at 8:00 am - Depart 6:00 pm
7-19 Kusadasi (port for Ephesus) at 12:00 pm - Depart 7:00 pm
7-20 Athens, Greece at 6:00 am - Depart 5:45 pm
7-21 At Sea
7-22 Venice at 1:00 pm stay overnight
7-23 Depart ship from Venice

Europe here we come!

We're testing out the blogging thing. We'll blog when we can get to a computer.