Caesar.... more than just a salad

 We disembarked the ship this morning, and I took the opportunity to get up early and take some pictures of the ship - it looks like we had the ship to ourselves.  However, the truth is everyone was up eating breakfast in the Lido, which is a fancy name for stuff your face buffet, and many folks were doing just that.  I did get my last couple of pieces of banana bread and a cup of tea to savour in the Winter Garden before continuing with the photography session.  Here you see the Grand Lobby, and the Chart Room.  Once we covered the hour trip back to the airport and checked into the Hilton, we hopped on the shuttle to take us back into the city for one last time.

 We walked around the Colosseum and then walked down to the amazing church of San Giovanni Laterano.  This was the church of all churches until the Vatican was built, and home to the Pope.  We spent almost 2 hours here enjoying the sculptures, paintings, marble, and it was a real feast for the eyes.  Every corner and wall, ceiling and floor was decorated with something.  We had pizza for dinner and caught a nice shot of the colosseum at night before returning to the hotel.  We are in the air tomorrow, heading home.  See you all soon!

Pompeii vs. Vesuvius

Yesterday we had a nice, if rocky day at sea.  A gale pushed us across the sea to arrive at Naples this morning.  During the evening, we travelled along the Italian coast, and the lights of the coastline sparkled on the water like gems, and a lightning storm provided a great light show in the background.  We also had our last formal night, the Victorian Ball.  Fun.

Today we took a tour – thankfully our last group tour, (very tired of the crowds,) out to see the ruins at Pompeii.  This is the city of 20,000 that was covered by the volcanic explosions of Mt Vesuvius in 79AD.  It is truly remarkable, and you could easily spend a couple of days there exploring the 66 hectatres, 44 of which have been excavated.  They used sonar to locate pockets in the ash and filled the space in with plaster to give us the “bodies” of the folks who did not make it out.  Spooky.

Tonight we are packing, as we leave the ship tomorrow morning.  We are spending the night in Rome before jumping on our flight home.  We hope to get in one more fantastic Italian dinner with wine tomorrow evening, because we have not eaten enough over the past couple of weeks.

It's all Greek to us

After waiting for ferry traffic to clear the narrow access to the harbour, we made a stern slide and reverse into a diagonal docking place at the port of Piraeus this morning.  This port city is separated from Athens by 9 kms, but it is all one sprawling city.

We took a city tour today, and visited the Acropolis, and saw a few other Olympic related sites both old and new.   The views of and from the Acropolis are truly breathtaking, and the ruins are quite impressive, although we are kept quite a distance away by the Relic Police. 

We finished the afternoon at an area called the Plaka – a very interesting and busy market type area, with stores, street performers, vendors and restaurants.   For lunch we had yummy Gyros and Greek salad( – here they just call it salad).  A nice sunset tonight, and a trip through the Corinth Canal later tonight.

Tomorrow is a day at sea, and the Victorian Ball tomorrow night.

Flying carpet tours in Turkey

Magic carpet ride tours, Turkey

A splendid day unfurled for us in Kusadasi, Turkey, just like the rugs we saw.  Turkey, not named for the bird after all.   Turkey, an Islamic country that seperates religion from government and culture from religion, so you have Islamic folks, drinking alchohol, working through prayers, and building mosques.  Who knew?  And they really do get along with the Greeks.

We first visited the site of Ephesus, a truly remarkable city of ruins with plenty left standing.  In the picture you can see the Library, and just across the street was a brothel.  What do they have in common?  A tunnel that connects the two.  Only men were allowed in the library, and so a visit to the library was not just for reading, and in fact we have no proof there was ever any books there.

We also visited Miletos, a huge trade center with a large theatre.  After an increadible 15 minutes there, we went on to visit the Temple of Apollo.  This temple is mammoth, the marble columns were at least 10 feet across and about 50-60 feet high. 

Our last stop was at a Turkish Carpet shop, and they were quite the showmen!  Carpet after carpet was unrolled at our feet, as layer upon colourful layer was presented for us.  Beautiful, handcrafted works of art, some taking 4-7 years to create, in wool, cotton and silk.  An amazing day of history, countryside and culture.

Are people who live in Rhodes called Rhodies?

 Weather-wise, it was such a lovely day.  The walled medieval city of Rhodes was a delightful port of call, with plenty of history, fantastic shopping, and tasty food.  The people are friendly, and there are fantastic beaches with great resorts and it is very affordable.

We began the day with a historic walk and visited the Palace of the Grand Masters with beautiful mosaics and antiques.  Then we continued down the Avenue of the Knights and viewed Aphrodites Temple – or what is left of it, and visited many great boutique shops with a stop for lunch overlooking one of the squares of the old town.

We then took a Taxi tour with Dominique who took us for a short drive to a few viewpoints of the island, as well as a stop at the Acropolis, built in 408 BC.  There is also a stadium and an amphitheatre nearby, which are still used today.

An amazing day in a truly great Mediterranean island gem.

Tomorrow we are in Kusadasi, Turkey – coffee, ruins of Ephesus, and Turkish rug market.

Soothing Cyprus

This morning we quietly docked at the island of Cyprus.  No calls to prayer, no honking horns, no yelling of dock workers.  Hardly even a vibration through the ship as we negotiated into our tiny parking space between another cruise ship and a UN ship - impressive parking!  We are suffering a bit after our day in Egypt - and this port is exactly what we needed.  We are so lucky to live in a 1st world country.  Imagine if the pyramids were in Britian or even Manitoba......

We took the shuttle into town, and have spent the morning wandering the beachfront.  Quiet and calm, nice beach with little cafes dot the walk, and a great park with interesting sculptures - check out the wonderful eggs.
We found a wifi friendly coffee shop and have been busy catching up on various things - Chad his tech news, and me booking our transfers to the airport at the end on the cruise and blogging.
Tonight is semi-formal, so out comes more evening wear - yay!
Tomorrow we are in Rhodes - on our own again, pretty sure there will be churches and ruins to check out.

Guide with a gun

A 40 motor coach police escorted convoy left the ship dock at 6:30am – that is 1600 passengers heading towards Cairo in the early morning sunshine.  The driving was described as “no rules” – UFC on the road was more like it.  Coaches jockeying for position, bumper shining, bump to pass and drafting kept us praying to the road gods to keep us safe.  Two and a half hours later we arrived into Cairo, and it turns out it is a holiday here today – great for lack of morning traffic, but terrible once the Egyptians got moving for the holiday, and where do they go on their day off?  First to visit dead relatives at the cemeteries, and then, en mase, go to Giza, and see the pyramids.

Our police escort included an onboard security officer – who carried an automatic weapon “carefully hidden” under his suit jacket.  Our tour guide was less than stellar to say the least, and at each stop our on board officer took a select few of us – that would be those who could walk as fast as him and keep up, to see the appropriate views/tombs/camels and made sure we got to touch the big stones at the base of Cheops pyramid.  Lunch was at a previous palace, and it was buffet for 1600 – impressive and tasty.

We visited the step pyramid at Sakkara, went into a tomb and saw the original carvings and paint on the walls, then went into a small pyramid, followed by a visit to the big 3 at Giza and of course the Sphinx.  Really an overwhelming day of sights, sounds, culture and harassment at its finest.  Thank the gods for room service.

Soundtrack for the day:  Cattle Call