26 hours

TRAVEL- May 12--all day and then some.

Twenty six hours from waking up in Milan to walking in our front door in Bwd.

This is the one day that we all dread. We woke up at 5:30 to get ourselves up and showered and bags out by 6:30. Breakfast was in the lobby at 6:40 and bus loaded the ones w/ morning flights at 7:15. (Our flight is scheduled to leave at 10:30)
We schlep bags in and to the American Airlines counter, where some people speak English. Some of our group had bags over the weight limit, so there were additional charges for the extra weight. One of the things we learn is to take the allotted one bag per person under 50 pounds on the way to the trip, but you may each take an additional bag home. We checked one of our "carry on bags" which was crammed w/ dirty clothes. We had no additional charges for extra weight.

And then we waited, and waited. The flights were not full, so people were able to shift around to get a comfortable sitting arrangement. This flight was a little longer actual flying time than the one we took to get us here almost 2 weeks ago, but it seemed shorter, somehow. Maybe because it was day light and we continued to "chase the sun" and get time back. We left at 10:30 am Italian time and arrived in New York's JFK at 1:00 pm same day--gaining 7 hours. We were fed twice, not bad meals. One was chicken and rice w/ veggies and the other just before landing was cheese pizza and a cookie.


We did see some luggage that had been "shrink wrapped" get on the plane, not sure just what the reason/justification was for that, but it was interesting.

The Milan airport had an almost life sized Harry Potter made of Legos--couldn't resist taking his picture.


Disembarked in New York a little ahead of the scheduled time, went through the customs rigamarole, got bags, went through customs thingy again, and gave them back the suitcases. Went back thru security, and then we waited and waited and waited. Some folks shopped, some went to have coffee or wine, others just chilled. We arrived at JFK as I said about 1 and our Dallas flight was not scheduled til 6. So we waited. The plane to Dallas was not full either, so we could stretch out some. I sat near a young man from India, who was going to Lubbock to work for a grocery store. He got off in Dallas and his Lubbock flight didn't leave til Wed (tomorrow) morning. He asked me if American Airlines provided places for travelers to stay overnight. I had to answer that I didn't know, but I very much doubted it.

I finished my very long book I was reading, on the flight from NY to Dallas, and tried to sleep, but the noises kept me awake.

Arrived in Dallas, called N and B, talked for awhile, while waiting for the baggage to arrive, got on the bus and conked out.

A REALLY SUPER-LONG DAY--arrived home to an absolutely grumpy cat and a comfy bed waiting for me.
LOVELY TRIP. THANKS FOR GOING ALONG FOR THE RIDE. And thanks to Citizens Natn'l Bank for sponsoring it.

Venice

Leaving the ship- May 11,2009

The disembarkation procedure is tedious, but effective. We were given colored bag tags and told to put them on our bags and have the bags out by 1 am the day of departure. (Do I need to mention that N and I had them outside way before that?) After breakfast, passengers are organized by bag tag colors and told to wait in a specific area. Then we just wait til called. I think there were about 10 colors ranging from departure time of 9:00 to 11:15 or so. Glad we were in the third group to leave.

We left bags in a safe area arranged by Collette tours and got on board boats taking us to "downtown" Venice. First stop after landing was a demonstration at a famous glass factory. We watched an artisan blow a vase and then fashion a horse. Then we were shown how durable the glass is and got a speech about the colors added to the glass. We were given time to shop. The merchandise was breathtakingly beautiful, but the the prices also took away my breath. One benefit, they ship free, so a person wouldn't have to carry the glass items on the airplane.



After the glass factory/ showroom, we had a "walking tour" with a local guide named, Antonella, explaining all about St. Mark's Square.
A few tidbits about what we learned---
*Napoleon destroyed a church to create a dance hall. That building is now a museum. No statues of Napoleon in Venice.
*We saw a clock tower that works on light/sun. It tells the hour and time digitally (not a clock face)
*Venice is made up of 118 small islands with 400 bridges. there are 200 canals, but not really, only 3 are actually called canals,
the smaller ones are called rivers.
*Only about 300 gondolas exist on the rivers and canals and by the Doge's decree in the 1500's all are black and the same
shape.




* The population of the city is shrinking because of the problems inhabitants have just getting around, costs of living in the
city and the constant threat of flood waters.
The device/ headsets Antonella used for the tour made it much easier to hear her than if she was yelling over all the other groups. She did mention that it was good that we were there at that time, because it can become very crowded. To us it was already "super" crowded. Depends on your perspective I suppose.

Almost every shop contains "Masks" and we were told that this is one of the first places where Carnivale/ Mardi Gras was celebrated and it is still a major event today.

We had some time on our own and Nick went looking for a bathroom (of course) and he found one in a hole in the wall MacDonalds that stunk of sewer. I'm sure he'll tell you all about it later. We had lunch (sandwiches) in a little shop w/ not many places to sit. Then we had some ice cream. Twice daily ice cream will have to become a thing of the past, very soon.
We took pictures, walked and shopped and then met our group at the appointed time. We caught another boat and were delivered to the area where our bags were waiting. After another bathroom break, we climbed aboard the bus for a 4 hour drive to Milan and our hotel for the night.

Tour guide, Daniel, gave everyone some quiet time to sleep, and then showed us the governmental type of speed controls on coaches and trucks. Just below and attached to the speedometer is a paper disc on which is graphed the speed of the vehicle for the past 24 hours. It shows stop and go city traffic by little short close marks, highway driving is shown differently and breaks are shown as a flat line. All bus and truck drivers' records can be proved to be good/bad by the use of these items. This was begun in 1975 and the technology is moving toward using cd's rather than paper discs. These are not used on private cars or trucks. This was brought to the U.S years ago, but use was discontinued because it was thought to be too "invasive". Drivers can be fined today for speeding last week. The records are kept for a very long time.

Earlier we learned about Italian toll roads --if a driver were to go from the top to the bottom of Italy, he would spend over 100 Eruo ($.75 Euro to a U.S. dollar.) And I thought Oklahoma had high tolls.


The hotel were we are spending our last night of the trip is Ultra modern and YES! wifi internet is available. Not free, but not as expensive as the cruise ship, either.

Tomorrow will be a long day. See ya'

Continuing Rest Room report by N.

In order to accomplish a thorough assessment, I did seek out and find the public rest room in Dubrovnik, Croatia. Strangely enough, this rest room is located outside the wall of the old city. With all of the 2,000+ cruise sightseers on the inside of the walled city, the rest room was virtually vacant. But what a joy to behold. The two doors leading into the rest room at opposite ends clearly denoted gender, however upon entry into the men’s side, I found 8 urinals on opposite sides of a partition, with a large entry into the toilet stall area. The stall area included both men’s and women’s stalls, again, clearly denoted by the universal symbols—2 boys and 4 girls. The two men’s stalls were clean, had toilet seats and toilet paper. Three out of the four women’s stalls were unoccupied and the doors were open. And I can testify to the fact that there was NO TOILET available—only a ceramic covered hole in the ground. I started to take a picture, but heaven only knows the trouble a man might get into for photographing women’s rest room facilities.



This picture was provided by fellow travelers, The Burgers. Thanks for sending it.

I cannot testify to the toilet paper situation as I did not enter that area. It seems upon further investigation that these are referred to as “Turkish” toilets (remember the part of the world we are in) and apparently they are quite common. It just seems strange to me that the men can sit, but the women have to squat. I will make one final investigative report in Venice on May 11. I am thinking about a possible Master’s Thesis on the subject. What do you think?

Sunday, May 10—Mother’s Day

Dubrovnik, Croatia

We visited the walled city of old Dubrovnik, which is about a half-mile square. The main things we wanted to accomplish at this stop were using an Internet café and walking on the wall that goes around the city.



Daniel, our Collette guide, is not supposed to “guide” us when we walk around the city. He is not licensed here to do that and the locals can get upset if he is “guiding” unlicensed. As we were walking through he mentioned places and things that he had told us on Saturday when we had our Dubrovnik history lesson. I suppose his voice carried a little too far, because one of the local guides chastised him and warned him that he was not licensed. He promised to be quiet and we proceeded. The city has several Catholic churches, a mosque and a synagogue. Most of the area is Greek Orthodox, but not Croatia. Because the Pope crowned a king in the 11th Century, Catholicism is predominant. Various groups--Romans, Saracens, Richard the Lionhearted, Turks, even Napoleon, have ruled Croatia. In 1991 when the Croatians fought the Serbs, the bombing and shelling destroyed 60% of Dubrovnik. Most of it has been rebuilt.

I mentioned that there are various churches here, we arrived about 9 am on Sunday morning and bells were heard from all different directions. From the main bell tower of the town, from the Jesuit church, the Franciscan church and the “Main” Cathedral. Reminded me a little of Poe’s poem, Bells.


Flowers growing out of the top of the Dubrovnik city wall



After our mini-tour of the town, we headed out of the walled city to the newer area and the INTERNET CAFÉ. Got all our stuff downloaded and checked some e-mail. Hoped to find out about the storm that had hit Bwd in the last day or so, but only one person mentioned it and that was not in much detail. Hopefully, when we log on in Milan, we’ll have more specifics to report. Interesting thing about this Internet café was the keyboard. A few letters were rearranged and for a touch typist that is difficult. The “Y” switched places with the “Z”, the apostrophe was nowhere to be found, and the question mark was above one of the numbers—not sure which one. Anyway, it got done and N and I both checked e-mail.

After using the computers, we climbed up the many many stairs to walk on the city wall. The fee to make this trip was 50Kona or 7.5 Euros. We walked and walked and took pictures and climbed and walked and took more pictures.


Not sure which was the more strenuous activity, the Acropolis on Rhodes or climbing to the top of and around the wall of Dubrovnik.





We found an ice cream shop and got a cone and sat and waited for the “tenders” to come and take us back to the Fortuna. I didn’t shop at all, guess I’m all shopped out of hand embroidered stuff.

One last bit of information to impart—the Bosnian/ Serbian/ Croatian problems are all rooted in their religious differences. As I mentioned before Croatia is Roman Catholic, Serbia is Orthodox and Bosnia is Muslim. Why can’t we all get along?

Another observation—many in our tour group have commented that some of the people on this Cruise ship are the rudest and pushiest people we have ever met. The majority of these pushy folks are speaking Italian as they shove you aside to get ahead in a line or on the elevator. A woman who was chattering in what sounded like Italian pushed me away from a toilet stall when we stopped at the fancy hotel for lunch on Rhodes. One of our group who is from New York, told me just to push back. That’s not me.

This N That

Saturday, May 9

This ‘n’ that from the entire trip.
I’ll be posting this in Dubrovnik tomorrow, so HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY tomorrow, to all my friends.

I forgot to mention a sighting that I witnessed in the square in Como the second day. Vendors were selling various types of art and a lady was making balloon animals for children. Between these areas was a young person in an unusual costume. It seemed to me she was pretending to be a statue. But she wasn’t being very still; she waved and talked to the children passing by. People would give her a coin as they passed by and would take photos with her.





On the cruise ship we have two different styles of dining. The sit down dining room which is very structured (7 courses for supper) and the buffet which can became a “free for all” if everyone hits there at once. The buffet is very unstructured, serve your self, find your own table, and leave when you are ready.
Every night we have been on the ship we sit with the same group and have the very formal service and too much food—although’ I have cut down from 7 courses to 4. The food is fussily presented and usually looks really pretty.
Up to today (5 evening meals on board) we have been offered and accepted veal, beef, chicken, meatloaf (veal), swordfish, shrimp, duck, quail, lamb, and octopus. These were either in the entrée, the salad, or the soup. N had a lobster soup that was not bisque, but a thin soup, which he enjoyed. Some of the best soups I’ve had are the cold fruit or melon soups. It is hard for me to realize that something made with oranges and is served cold is a soup. I’d like to just drink it from a cup or glass, but I’m being good and using my spoon. We did mention that N had calamari at the restaurant in Mykonos. He said it was very good, not rubbery at all. Desserts have not been as decadent as I remember the ones on the Alaskan cruise ship. Sorbets and gelato abound and a time or two we’ve been served a good cake.
Last night’s pasta that N. ordered was ravioli which everyone at our table said was really wonderful. (Not Chef Boy-R- Dee at all)

We’ve been off the ship for most lunches, either going without (like that is going to hurt us), or getting something ashore. We ate in the fancy dining room today and were seated with a group of French people. Their eating style is very different. They went at it two-handed w/ fork in the left hand and knife in the right. They pushed their food onto the fork w/ the knife and turned the fork so the tines pointed directly at their mouth. The two women at the table made designs with the crumbs/ items left on their plates. They were pleasant enough, but didn’t try to communicate at all. I think they were a little miffed that we were placed at their table. I could be wrong.

The service in this dining room is not slow, but controlled and involved, so we almost missed our meeting at 2.

We’ve had all our breakfasts in the buffet and have become very familiar with where things are and the way to proceed. Two things N has really enjoyed for breakfast are the “blood orange” juice--tastes a little like Mango to me. And he raves about the coffee. He was thinking it would be dark and strong like European coffee is sometimes. Instead, he has found it to be very smooth and “non-bitter”. I have even found some decaf tea and these folks do believe in lemon in hot tea. A huge assortment of breakfast breads is available along with eggs, specially made omelets, meat, cheeses and cereals of all kinds. Also available are hot and cold milk for different uses.

Tonight is our formal dinner, so no telling what will be served this evening.

I mentioned sitting w/ the French people. We were told that announcements are made on board ship in 5 languages. Their order depends on the percentage of people speaking that language. So far we hear Italian first, French second, German third, Spanish fourth and English fifth. All of our local guides speak English, obviously, but their facility with the language varies. The young woman in the Olympic village seemed to be working very hard to speak English, while for the gentleman in Rhodes it seemed to be effortless. I just admire all who can and will converse in another language.

I think that is all the miscellaneous information that I forgot to include in the other posts.

We’ll be home soon—Early morning of the 13th. See ya’
Hope to post one last time in Milan.

Traveler’s Guide to European Rest Rooms by N P

Being bladder challenged, I have always tried to follow the philosophy when traveling to “never pass up a chance to pee”. On this particular trip, that philosophy has developed into some unique observations. During our first night’s stay in Stresa, Italy, our hotel bathroom was equipped with a bidet. If you are from the US don’t expect instructions on its use.

On day 2, we took an excursion to the beautiful glacial lake resort of Como and were told by Danny, our tour guide, that there were NO public rest rooms available and only two businesses with facilities. Using the above mentioned philosophy I checked out both of them. The first was located in the local McDonalds, which is one stall, unisex, with a ten to 15 minutes wait because of the long line. Keep in mind that handicapped accessibility is not a consideration in Europe – this rest room had a person going down a long narrow hallway. Upon arrival I found no toilet paper, but some clever patron has brought in a 2-inch thick pad of hand paper towels from the washbasin. There is also strangely enough no toilet seat. The second rest room in Como is located in the local silk store (silk clothing and scarves, etc). This one is in relatively good shape—clean, unisex, t.p, available but no toilet seat.

On the road from Stresa to Venice we stopped at a travel plaza for lunch. This would be the equivalent of a Petro truck stop in Texas, but much larger.
Now we’re getting “uptown”. There are 4 stalls in the men’s rest room, but no urinals. Two stalls have t.p.; two do not—and three out of 4 are missing toilet seats.

We arrive in Venice; unload our luggage at the dock to be placed on the ship and head into the embarkation building. Here we have two stalls for the men, both with t.p., but neither have toilet seats. Are you beginning to see a pattern, here? I’m curious enough at this point to ask Danny, our tour guide about it. And he says that he doesn’t know why, but toilet seats are missing all over Italy and Greece. I ask him if it’s not a possibility that some society is trying to get the world’s largest collection of toilet seats and toilet paper in the world.

With the ship in port at Bari, Italy, we took a tour out to see the trulli houses and found at the bus parking area, public toilets were pay as you go. The adult charge was .50 Euro—equivalent of 70 cents American. There is a lady sitting at a table outside the bathroom area collecting the money and regulating the flow of traffic. The ladies, as usual, had a long waiting line, but after paying my money, I was able to get in immediately to find (guess what!)- despite the price) NO TOILET SEATS. At least paper was available.

Olympia, Greece and a tour visit to the 2500-year-old Olympic village was absolutely impressive. There are two public rest room facilities available and with 3 Cruise ships in the harbor approx 6000 adults of which at least half had to be in the village when we were there. The waiting line was about 30 min, --both toilets were unisex, neither had toilet paper. The ladies were passing out Kleenex and warning others of the conditions. NEITHER HAD TOILET SEATS.

From there we had a short walk up to the Olympic museum. They had some of the most impressive statuary that I have ever seen in my life. The building was very modern and immaculate. The men’s rest room had 3 or 4 stalls and all had toilet paper and ALL HAD TOILET SEATS.

The morning tour to the picturesque city of Santorini, Greece was short and I did not have an urgent need to find a public restroom, however, after reaching the top and waiting in a horribly long line to catch the cable car down, I was certainly wishing I had found one before boarding the tenders taking us back to the cruise ship.

By afternoon we are in Mykonos and walked up the hill to find the Internet café. After an orange juice and a beer at the café, I asked for the facilities and was directed to a half sized door in the alleyway outside the back door of the establishment. There was no lock on the door, so one would have to keep a leg against the door to insure privacy. This one had a flush tank above the toilet with a chain that was pulled. Paper towels, soap, and toilet paper were available, but NO toilet seat.

I thought things were going to change in Rhodes. As we went to the Acropolis with its 500+ steps up and then again down, and found the facilities to be in excellent condition including toilet seats. We stopped for lunch at an elegant hotel resort and the facilities were superb. However just prior to boarding the bus to go back to the ship, I checked out the facilities in the medieval city and VOILA! They were indeed medieval, no seats, no towels, no toilet paper.
We’re on board all day and by the way we have excellent facilities both in our cabin and wherever you might find yourself out and about on the ship.

And we have Croatia to go—I will keep you posted. As soon as I return, I will go on E-Bay and do a search for slightly used, excellent condition European toilet seats and see what the going rate is.

A Festive Evening

Friday May 9,
A festive evening—




After our tour of Rhodes we rested and then went to supper. The meal had been designated as ITALIAN NIGHT and the wait staff were decked out w/ bow ties of red and green. At a certain point toward the end of the meal, extremely loud Italian music came on some that we knew and some we didn’t. During this music waiters and waitresses danced with the patrons, ending with a chain dance with lots of folks hands on the sholders of the person ahead dancing around the room. Just as many people were up and in the middle of the room, several members of the wait staff- put on a lip sinc-ing show on the upper level. Very energetic and appreciated by all. These young people who wait tables work very hard and seem tireless. They also each bring a quirk to their service. Our waiter, Jerry, has a tossing trick with grated cheese for pasta. And he never seems to spill it.

After supper we decided we’d take in the “In Concert” show with the 2 singers and 11 dancers. All sang and all danced, but there were two featured singers and 2 featured dancers and then the chorus. The show began well and was very energetic. Set change technology was top notch, costumes, altho’ skimpy were creative. The choreography seemed inventive for the most part, but “robotic” for some numbers. My guess is that the beginning was done for the guests (Elvis, Frank Sinatra, Liza Minnelli, Aretha Franklin music and imitators), then the dancers and singers chose some more “modern” stuff to please themselves. The imitation of the Rolling Stones was awful, in my opinion. Needless to say, some of the music was in French, Spanish, Italian—don’t remember any German—and one number featured belly dancers- kinda’ modernized. But the majority of the music was American. I guess that is the one area of our culture that is embraced by most of the world. An interesting show, lasting about 45-50 min.

Came back to the room knowing that we don’t HAVE to get up any special time in the morning, since we are AT SEA.
I woke up at 8- guess I needed the sleep.
Showered and went up to the internet café where I spent about 16 minutes catching up on e-mail. I learned that B is painting the baby’s room—not sure what color and that the baby’s name is still under consideration, with several possibilities being mentioned.

Came back down to the cabin and N was up and showering. We had a leisurely breakfast and explored the ship a little. Went out on deck, but didn’t stay long because the wind was blowing really hard. Found several places we’d been wondering about. I shopped a little for amber jewelry which is 10 and 20% off today. Didn’t buy anything, but I did see some really pretty things.

Different areas of the ship







That’s all I have to share for now. Nick is planning his “bathroom essay” so it will probably be next. Bon Jour

Rhodes

Friday, May 8, 2009
The Island of Rhodes




Our itinerary for the day is to go to the city of Lindos first and climb to the top of the Acropolis, have a sumptuous lunch in an elegant hotel, and then to travel to the walled city of Rhodes.

We traveled over a 2100 year old bridge made of stone, which holds tour busses just fine.

We learned about many English words that come from Greek, beginning with Necropolis and cemetery. The first meaning "place of the dead" and the second (with the coming of Christianity) "sleeping place". Then there was thesis, followed by synthesis. And antithesis.

An interesting fact about people who own land in Rhodes-- before anything can be built here, archaeologists must evaluate and excavate the land to be sure nothing of importance will be damaged. Our guide had to adjust his house plans because on one corner of his land, some tombs were found and they could not be “built over”. It is irritating, but “heritage is a precious thing”, he said.

Until last year, it was illegal to scuba dive in Greek waters because of the many treasures to be found in the area. Those who do find treasures and turn them in to the dept of antiquities are rewarded with half the value of the item. However smuggling of Greek antiquities is a flourishing business.

Our local guide, Tony, mentioned that they experience 300 days of sun a year. Many houses have solar panels and they also have “wind farms”.
There are myths to explain everything in Greece and we were told why, according to the stories this island in Greece has so much sun. This is where the sun God Helios chose to live. He pulled the Greek Isles out from under the ocean.

The land we traveled through reminds me of the area where I grew up around Alpine and Marfa, TX.--all the way to Van Horn.

It is a dry looking rocky/mountainous terrain covered with olive trees. Small plants grow out of the rocks themselves. I was wondering if olives would grow in West Texas—probably not enough moisture. Remember, Rhodes is surrounded with water.

The city of Rhodes is 2417 years old and in ancient times was the seat of education, with philosophers traveling from Egypt, Rome, Athens, and most of the civilized world to study here.

The Colossus of Rhodes was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World—These 7 wonders were the largest and most impressive man made objects in existence at the time. The Colossus was a statue about the size of the Statue of Liberty and this statue of a man straddled the harbor of Rhodes. It only lasted 65 years because of an earthquake.

In Lindos we headed up to the Acropolis, which just means the highest point. This trek was supposedly 300 steps (some said 500—doesn’t matter-- it was high) up to the top of this temple. We climbed and stepped, and climbed and finally got to the very top.





From there we could see the harbor where St. Paul supposedly sailed into when he visited Rhodes.



Let me stop here to mention how wonderful the weather has been for this entire trip. We have had sunny days, breezes to cool us, and only a hint of rain, with a few claps of thunder. We couldn’t have asked for better weather.

If you’ve seen the movie THE GUNS OF NAVARONE, it was filmed at this Acropolis. The sights that are seen looking down from this height, were in the movie. I guess we’ll have to rent it to see how they used the area in that movie.

After leaving Lindos, we traveled to Archangelos, which is a town of potters. As we stopped at a family pottery business, we saw zillions of locusts (teeny grasshoppers) swarming all around. They seemed to be on a mission/ headed somewhere.

We watched a potter effortlessly create a lovely shaped vessel in just minutes.


Then we were invited into the shop to watch the ladies decorate various kinds of pottery.


There was a really clever drinking cup which when filled to the appropriate line is quite functional, but when “over filled” simply drains out the bottom. I would have loved to bring one of these cups home, but I was not sure I could get it home without breaking it. I could have had it shipped, but that doubled the price because of shipping, insurance, etc. So I didn’t buy anything here, but several of our fellow travelers did.

Lunch was an elegant buffet with really good food, although I’m not sure what we ate. There were no labels, so not sure but I think I had the spinach pie and I know I had baklava. A welcome, quiet respite from the hurrying and climbing of the morning.

The afternoon was spent in the Medieval Walled City of Rhodes. We looked through rooms with mosaic floors



and artifacts from the Roman era in the area. Just a bit more climbing of stairs, but at a leisurely pace.



We heard about the Knights of St. John, who were hospitaliers. They had nothing to do w/ healing the sick, the word was a form of hospitality—they provided for pilgrims traveling to the Holy Lands and they also had to be soldiers to protect the area. Eventually they weren’t able to protect it, and they were ousted by the Turks and went Malta. We were given time for shopping and N and I found an ice cream shop. (Today, I did not follow my cruise rule —to have only one dessert per day—yes, I’ve had more than one, but all the stairs made it necessary to keep up my strength)

This was a really LONG but informative and interesting day. We’re back on board the ship and will be headed to Croatia. Tomorrow is a DAY AT SEA. I will catch up on the miscellaneous items I want to blog about then.

Mykonos

May 7, Thursday- Mykonos




This afternoon we got information about Mykonos and what we will do/experience there. Our tour guide, Daniel, told us some stories from mythology—Demeter and Persephone, the Minotaur /Aegeus, and others. We will spend some time wandering the area (small alley type streets, but beautifully paved. Shops are everywhere with clothing, jewelry and also tourist stuff. We talked some about the split between the Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches which happened in 1054. People in Greece do not celebrate their birthday, but their “name” day. So if there were a saint Earlene, I would celebrate that Saint’s day---I guess I’d have to settle for St. Katherine.

We took the “tenders” (motor boats) to the Island and got some instructions. Restaurants were pointed out, as was the way back to the boats. Then we were on our own. We headed for @ngelo’s Internet cafÈ up the hill by the windmills. I wish I could take this place with us on the rest of our travels. The young man working there had wonderful English, was very helpful and pleasant and seemed to want to be of service. We bought fruit juice and beer and an hour of Internet time for 4 EUROS (for the internet—the juices were 1 euro each, the beer was 4 Euros) All in all a very easy and inexpensive place to use. Hope I can find similar places in Rhodes and Dubrovnik. There were 22 stations at this particular cafe and they also sold Cuban cigars, which ranged from 1 Euro to 8 Euro.

Places we saw---











We moved down the hill to a cafe called Alefkandra’s. It was right on the water overlooking the Aegean Sea. N ordered calamari and I had a roast beef dish. We split an order of Baklava. Wonderful, but way, way, sweet.

After supper, we shopped a little, and made our way back to the tenders. Each time we return to the ship, we must show our passport and room card. At least we are assured of getting to the correct boat.

Nothing unusual in the trip back, no long lines to stand in, no turbulent water, no pushy folks trying to get in front. Just a nice leisurely boat ride back.
Tomorrow is also an early day, so…………..Kalinfchta which is Good Night in Greek.

Just the way you pictured Greece!

May 7, Thursday morning




Santorini- Great pictures to come!

This morning was an EARLY one. We were to catch the motorboats to the island of Santorini by 7:45 am, so breakfast was earlier than usual. The boats loaded quickly and we were instructed to look for bus 44 and climb on. Our tour of the island had a couple of stops, and this is the place that looks most GREEK to me. Maybe it is the movies I’ve seen, but the whitewashed houses against the cliffs with accents here and there of royal blue gave it the look of a Hollywood set.




We, of course, heard history, particularly about the volcano that erupted and sank into the ocean leaving a caldera/ caldron or crater on one side of the island. The caldera is 60 square miles across creating a harbor. [Interesting note: We passed a Mexican restaurant named Senor Zorba—now that’s cross-cultural]

Cave houses are normal on the island. The rock is pumice and houses are dug out of the mountains where natural caves are and fronted with a normal looking Greek house facade. Interesting—and I’ll bet very energy efficient.

Again, pictures tell the story. This place is picturesque and serene (where the tourists haven’t invaded). White, white, white houses with rounded edges, little terraces with small gardens, bright blue dome on some of the houses, all this is the picture of Santorini.

We visited two towns, but the one with the most picturesque views is named Oia (say ee-uh.) Many shops had elegant gold and silver jewelry for sale. I looked in one place where I did find turquoise in a gold setting. I am not sure it was turquoise, but that was the color of the stone. Many embroidered items were shown as well as beautiful blue and green glass and native pottery. One clever shop handed out samples of their pistachio nuts and peanuts covered with a candy coating as we first disembarked from the smaller boats—then at the end of our trek, they had a shop selling just those items.

Santorini (especially OIA has been invaded by tourists by the thousands). I believe three cruise ships were in the harbor today, some staying, the Costa Fortuna (our ship) leaving at 1 to go to Mykonos.

Each person in our tour group had the choice of taking the gondola/ cable car down the mountain or riding donkeys. We rode the cable car and stood in line approx 45 min to get on.


The ride going down was fast and uneventful (thank goodness) Sharing our car was a young Greek soldier with his little puppy named Mikey, who kept biting N's hand and ankle. At the bottom was another long line to get on board the smaller boats to go back to the cruise ship. One challenge was to be sure you got back to the correct ship, since there were several in the port. These folks are particularly adept at getting folks on and off their small boats. A time or two I thought I was being placed onboard, rather than them allowing me to walk there under my own steam.

The process to come and go from the ship is to scan the door key card/ credit card for the ship in to a device. This records who has left. Then when a person returns, the card must again be swiped and each passport shown to be allowed to re-enter the cruise ship. Since the Fortuna was leaving Santorini at 1 or so, all passengers were ready for lunch at the same time and that was a crowd. I suppose we could have waited til things thinned out, but we didn’t. We were able to find a table quickly and were very popular with others who wanted to join us at our table.

Time for naps before our next briefing--- about Mykonos and a Collette group cocktail party.

Our plans for this afternoon/evening are to disembark onto Mykonos with our tour guide, Daniel who will show us around. He will show us to an Internet CafÈ where I can finally download the last 5 sections to this blog, that I have been preparing each day, but can’t send on the ship. Another part of the plan is to sample REAL Greek food, since the food onboard ship hasn’t been particularly Greek. I plan to do an entire posting about food, later, but let me tell you now about an aperitif we had yesterday evening. When we sat down, we each had a small glass of green liquid with black dots in it and a swirl of white. We finally asked what it was and were told green peas, caviar and cream. Yes, I tasted it and it was clumpy and icky. At our table of 6 --one person ate it.

Another teaser—N says he wants to dictate a section about Italian and Greek bathrooms. That should be something to look forward to.
Later……..

Oops, Sorry out of order

Tuesday, May 5---afternoon

We met Daniel, the Tour Guide to get our tickets and bus assignments for the trip to Alberobello. We had little idea what to expect as we climbed on the bus for an hour ride to the town of Alberobello with a local guide, whose English took some getting used to. I had to train my ear to hear what she meant rather than what she was saying. Her pronunciation was different. For the word territory she said- te-RE-to-ry and she said the syllable “a” or “uh” after many words. Some examples are wordsa, facta, parentsa, and subjectsa. As I said, once I trained my ears to listen, she was very understandable. I admire anyone who will talk for an hour in a language other than the one in which they learned to speak.

She shared WAY, WAY, too much history. Sixth Century, 8th Century, Byzantine, I am afraid I mentally dozed and looked out the windows at the vineyards and olive trees. Some of the vineyards were covered with netting, and she told us that these grapes are being raised for food; the uncovered vines of grapes are destined to be wine.

This little town we visited is a UNESCO Cultural Heritage Site. When I asked what that signifies, I was told that there is something that needs to be preserved and can’t be duplicated. This place certainly fits the description. It is a town of “trulli”—teeny little houses with cone shaped roofs, which were first built with a dry stone stacking construction. (Dry means no mortar). The old part of the town is comprised of these charming little houses. A picture is much more explanatory, so I’ll insert several here.





Some of these houses are inhabited as residences, some are storage for tools and some are shops. An interesting, and athletic walking tour. Some folks with walking difficulties stopped at the bottom of the hill and waited for the rest of us to come back from seeing the church of Saint Anthony. This church is quite old but the most interesting feature was the altar—a huge stone with a board over the top.



We did a “tasting”- which seem to be a big deal here, this time pasta, a little roll of meat, and wine. After that we shopped, bought a cute baby item, and some luscious gelato (ice cream) N had peach and mine was called “wafer” but was really cookies and cream.

The public facilities (restrooms) were welcome and charged adults $.50 (children- $.30) N had to scrounge up the fifty cents from one of our Bwd friends. All he had was rather large bills (Euros)

This area’s main industry is tourism, but they also produce mozzarella cheese made w/ buffalo’s milk, olive oil, cherries, ham, and wedding dresses. I know, who would have thought of Italy having buffalo, but the local guide says they do. They also have lots of prickly pear cactus—another commodity I thought was native to the western United States. And I have pictures of the cactus. We were told that they ate them, and made liquor from the “leaves” also.


We saw lots of olive trees –these are used for the oil- not to eat. They were described to us as “sculptured by nature (the wind). My word for these trees is gnarly- not the “60’s” word, but twisted and tortured looking.

Wasn’t aware that we were seeing the Adriatic Sea, but the local guide talked to us about the importance of the sea trade and we drove by a town named “Monopli”

The bus let us off in Bari to go see the Basilica of St. Nicholas. Yep, Santa Claus---but we know he is not dead. The story goes that some pirates stole St. Nicholas’ bones from Mira, Turkey and gave them to the Benedictine monks in Bari. This Basilica was built to house these relics. We met our tour guide, Danny there and he escorted us into the church as Mass was being held. Those in there were not happy to have us trot down the side aisle and go downstairs to the tomb. We were quiet, and didn’t take pictures, but some of our group were in shorts and that is frowned on in churches. Anyway, I felt a little awkward going in and out under the stares of about 250 worshipers. This is a special week for this church, because May 9th is the anniversary of the date the bones were given to the Benedictines. There was applause during the “homily” which I thought was strange.

The ship was waiting for us because our side trip to the Basilica took longer than expected. We got back to our rooms just in time for the lifeboat drill. In case you are interested, in case of emergency we are designated for lifeboat #14.

Supper again, with 7 courses—I skipped the pasta course- so I only had 6. The sunset from the dining room was amazing.



We have a briefing tomorrow at 9 all about Greece. And a wake-up call for 7. Good night, I’m going to bed. --altho’ it is only 2:30 pm Texas time. And we lose ANOTHER hour tonight by going to Greece.

May 6, Wed.

OLYMPIA





Tuesday night /Wed morning was hard on me and also on N. At 4:30 or so, I woke up with gastric problems. I spent the next 2 hours in the bathroom, tried to get some sleep in between, but with no luck. I showered and got ready for the day about 7, while N had a large breakfast (no lunch today on our side trip); I had tea and toast with a little oatmeal.

We had a tour group meeting at 9 to give us Greek history and language info and when it was over I was feeling much better with the help of a double dose of Imodium. I finally decided I wanted to go (we told the tour director that I wasn’t) and headed out. It was supposed to be lots of walking, but not very strenuous.

Bus trip was about 45 min and we arrived at the archeological site of the first Olympic games. I’ll have to include lots of pictures here, because I can’t begin to describe what we saw. The local guide gave us lots of history and walked us trough the site telling us “this was the gymnasium, this was the Temple of Hera, this is where the torch was lit and carried through all of Greece to announce the games”.


These “ruins” are over 2500 years old and we can tell where columns were toppled by earthquakes as well as Christians who were trying to cleanse the country of the old religion.


This is where the Track and Field events were held.



Amazing site, which has been “worked” off and on since 1875.


After viewing this wonder we were herded to the museum where the treasures, which have been unearthed, are kept. We saw statues done in various styles (Greek, classical, Roman, etc), of men and women, of centaurs and of animals (lions, bulls, monsters).







What can I say? Amazing! So glad I didn’t miss this trip, even with my grumbly stomach, little sleep and less food in my body—it was very special.

Of course, after leaving the museum, we had to stop at a shopping area where, yes, I did buy 3 items.


We’re back in the room w/ N. napping and I’ll be doing that soon.

Tonite is the Captain’s cocktail party, which I think we’ll pass, and there is music and dancing show at 9:15. We’ll see how I feel.