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.

Sailing and Naps and Supper

Venice from the ship


The last post left us thinking about naps and N did indeed take that opportunity. I decided to explore the ship. I WALKED up 6 flights of stairs and then elevatored down. I checked out the buffet areas and found the internet cafe area. (more about that later)

Back to the room, I cleaned up a little for supper, then woke N at 6 to go outside and see the ship pull away from Venice. To this point all we have seen of Venice is the rather industralized area wshere folks get on the ships. Not the historic disstrict. We watched and took pictures and talked to folks standing around. Not sure what we saw (as far as famous landmarks) but it was interesting. Lots of canals- couldn’t help wondering how their mosquito problem is.






When we were finally “out to sea”, we went down to our dining room.


The Coulette tour folks have tables together and we sat with 2 couples from Penn. One of the gentlemen knew where Brownwood is because he was an asst. coact for one of the women’s basketball teams who came to Bwd last year to play the Lady Jackets when they won their division of the NCAA last year. He remembered L Underwood greeting them in the parking lot, before they ate one evening. They also took a chartered plane out of the Bwd airport when they left. Three of the four folks from Penn were retired high school teachers, so we had much to talk about. And one couple has a daughter who is expecting a baby in August. Small world. N’s “thing” during these evening meals on tour is to walk around and take video of everyone. He shares these films with all our group later.

Changed $ to Euro at the casino (more about this later J & G)

N bought a comb and looked for some Febrese (sp?) which he usually brings, but it is still on his shelf at home.

We looked at the Internet area and declared it fairly useless for my blog project. I was planning to download each blog to a thumb drive and take it to the internet area, then download to the computers there. NOPE, not gonna happen--no USB port for the thumb drive. The sole purpose of these stations is to check and send e-mail, which I will do at 1 Euro for every 2 minutes. You do the math.-- 30 Euro per hour. We are taking the thumb drive with downloaded blogs on our side trips, hoping we’ll come across a REAL internet cafe for downloading. So, we’ll see.

We returned to the room to re-charge the cameras and had a horrifying discovery--the video camera was lost. We back tracked to the internet area, NOT THERE, we went to the casino, NOT THERE. Went to the store where he got the comb--YES! They were holding it for us. YEAH!!!

In trying to look for the video camera, we came across a difficulty w/ the ship that we had been told about. There are only certain decks (floors) that allow a person to go from the front to back. Other decks are “you can’t get there from here” areas. The “through” decks are 1,2,5,6,9--the places where we were looking in were on 4, so we had to go up to 5 and across and down. Will take some getting used to. One of the tricks will be remembering which floors do allow “through” passage.

It’s 8 am--I’ve been up and showered for awhile, N is up and showered and we’re ready to go experience morning (breakfast) on the ship. Hope to find a place to download today---If not, we’ll get this sent in the next few days. I do plan to send an e-mail explaining that posts may not show up every day.


We “did” the breakfast buffet. Think Las Vegas trough buffet. About 6 separate lines with eggs, pastries, meat, cheese, fruit, cereal. The coffee, tea, juice, milk area is separate and a little more tricky—anyone out there read Italian. I have discovered that it is similar to Spanish, but is definitely not Spanish.

Since our tour leaves at 11:45, we decided to do a large breakfast and to skip lunch. I’m sure we’ll have 7 courses for supper again today. By the way—those courses are 1. Appetizer, 2. soup, 3. pasta, 4. salad, 5. entrée, 6. Cheese, 7. Dessert

We walked thru the Casino—tokens are needed, the machines don’t take coins. Got $5 worth of “quarters” and lost it all. The strange thing about the casino is that children were playing without parents. The casino is noisy, obnoxious with loudness—bonging, raucous music and some machines even quacked like ducks—loudly. I don’t even need to mention the smoking. It seems like EVERYONE on this ship smokes, so there are very few non-smoking areas.

More later.

Monday

Today is Monday May 5th and we are onboard the Costa Fortuna--But let me back up and tell how we got here.

J, N and I want to Bill’s Bar last night for supper. He had spaghetti and we ladies had lasagna. Ours was not what we expected but tasted good. A really low key, not too expensive, very filling supper. which we followed with gelato. Yum! Italian ice cream. Yep, I’m trying to limit myself to one dessert a day and that was worth waiting for. With cold dessert inside, I got really chilled and we went back to the Bristol. J and I walked around exploring some and found some interesting “ladies rooms” the swimming pool and lovely items for sale.

I had already written (off line) yesterday’s post, and had about 5 minutes left of the hour I purchased originally, so I quickly downloaded and checked e-mail. Can’t do much in 5 minutes, when the screen is insisting on using Italian rather than English.

N didn’t sleep well, told me he kept waking himself up snoring., so he showered before me--an unheard of event. We were ready to leave the room by 6:30, but breakfast didn’t begin 'til 7. Bags out at 7, we went down to meet the group for food.

The bus pulled out about 8 and we headed toward Venice and the ship. We heard stories about Hannibal and his elephants who crossed the Alps near here.

We heard how to calculate Celsius to centigrade. ( generally double the Celsius and add 30--that’ll get you close)

Dan, our tour director, gave us info concerning 4 recommended side trips that he knew to be good ones. One each on Tuesday, Wed, Thurs. and Fri. Saturday is a day “AT SEA” and the final day we go to Dubrovnik, Croatia, where he will take us himself. We signed up for all 4 of the extra trips--I‘m thinking we’ll NEED the day at sea to rest up.

We stopped at an AUTO GRILL for lunch. A truck stop kind of place with several food service areas, and a large shop. Dan had asked the folks on the coach if they had ever seen a SMART CAR. He told us all about the “toy” sized Smarts that are being collected because they are so rare. Yes, we did mention that we have not one, but his and hers Smarts. He mentioned that these Auto grills sometimes carried these collectibles. Before we ate, we went to look and got the last 2 they had. So our granddaughter-to-be will be the first kid around with her very own toy Smart car. Or maybe her Dad will claim it, who knows. Not the same size, but it reminds me of his collection of little cars.

The embarkation process was a little slow because about 4 different stations needed to check our passports and our tickets and our information sheets we filled out.


When we finally got on board, we were confused because everything looks alike. We won’t change any money until tomorrow and right now we have 2 Euros and 9 cents because of buying lunch and Smart Cars. But all food is included and anything else is paid by credit card, so......... no big deal.

Our cabin on the ship is on level 2 (and has no windows) and is compact. We had to unpack our suitcases to be able to find a place to put them.




Note: there is a toilet seat.



Supper is at 7, but before that we will go up on deck to watch the sights of Venice as we leave. there is a Magic Show tonite in the theatre. The casino is open late and the internet area is open 24 hrs.

I do hear that it is SUPER EXPENSIVE, so it looks like I’ll be writing all these off line and then just downloading them when we get the opportunity. When I get back home, I’ll add the pictures, which is a little time-consuming. I have also noticed some typos in the first two posts--I will correct them when I get home also.

I think I’ll lie down and rest a little before the ship leaves port. Should be an exhilarating experience.

Stressa and Como

May 2

We met with the rest of the group on Sat aft. We’re a large group with quite a few from New York, six folks from Pennsylvania, one couple from Florida, some from Illinios, one each from South Virginia and Tennessee. We have 17 from Texas, so all together we number about 45. Our tour guide is from Canada, has led groups into 18 countries. He is personable (Duh, otherwise why have this job), but doesn’t make himself really clear. Maybe I'm just tired and it is just me.

Saturday evening’s meal was 4 courses- choice between fish and pork roast. Service is good, seconds were offered, but in most cases refused. Sue from Brownwood was feeling puny last night and didn’t join us for supper, but she is feeling just fine this morning.
View from our room


More about the “security gate thing”. We push a button on the wall by the patio door and this metal louvered gate goes down. Light still comes through, unless you continue pushing the button after it is completely down and “as if my magic” the room darkens. The louvers close up to make the room dark as night- for daytime sleeping, I am sure. We have a really large balcony that overlooks the lake (Maggiore).


Haven’t spent much time out there, maybe today.

We’re lining up for a group picture this morning, taking a bus to Como to walk around and then will take a boat ride on the lake. There is an optional dinner trip tonite ( $80) that we decided against. We’ll do supper on our own here. We are figuring out that the cruise does NOT include any special side trips--those will all be at an extra charge. A little confusing from our brochure which states what is to be done at eacfh stop. I was assuming that each of those “what is to be done” was included in the tour. With all of our other trips w/ Collette, that has been the case. Live and learn.

[Nick says, “spend it now rather than givie it to the govt-”-the opinions expressed are not necessarily those of the writer]

I’ve mentioned the Hotel Bristol, which is lovely, but we were told today that it is featured in Hemingway’s A FAREWELL TO ARMS as the refuge hotel for the character who is in trouble. This is also one of the stops that Prince Charles and Lady Diana made on their honeymoon.

Breakfast today (Sunday) wasn’t particularly unusual for our other travels. Had the option of eggs, hot dogs (no not sausages, but weiners) lots of luscious breads, both sweet and hearty, various sliced meats and c heeses, cereal (dry- no oatmeal) fruit, juice, tea and coffee. There was also a dessert--sort of a cake filled with creme and topped w/ whipped cream.

We’ve seen some unusual trees called “Monkey Pine “ trees---so called because they have needles on the trunk and limbs and this is the only tree that monkeys won’t/can’t climb.


So many plants and flowers grow here, that you might think we are in a tropical area. Our tour guide tells us that drawing a line straight across from Lago Maggiore to the U.S., the line would go through Maine which is not tropical in any way. The climate here is caused by the lake and the mountains and creates a tropical atmosphere. This lake has 100 miles of coastline, so much of this part of Italy is affected.

We had our group picture made in the lovely garden behind the hotel, then loaded up for our trip to Como and Lake Como. Luigi is our driver and he has been driving tourists for 31 years. He seems to be able to get out of tight places and most of the streets here are tight. After the ride we walked around Como a bit, got on a boat for an hour tour of the lake. There are numerous villas of the rich and famous built on the mountainsides of Lago Como. A few examples that I had heard of (many were mentioned that meant nothing to me) were Sophia Loren and George Clooney. we only saw the houses, not the inhabitants.

We had a long silk worm lesson on the way to Como because this town is famous in Italy for it’s silk products. More than you might want to know about warming the little critters, baking cucoons and unwinding the silk thread. We did go to the SETA shop (means silk) and looked around. I bought nothing there--I’m not a scarf kinda person, so I wasn’t impressed by either quality or price. Several folks did make purchases.;

After the boat ride, which was very interesting, but difficult to understand--the guide’s accent was thick, we went to see the large church . It is called Il Duomo and contains Roman, Gothic, Renaissance, and Baroque types of architecture.



We arrived after Mass had begun (it is Sunday, remember) and decided not to participate., so we didn’t go inside.

On the way here we saw quite a few “gas stations” whose name was AGIP (pronounce that “ A gip”- like you have been cheated). Their logo is a 6 legged fire breathing dog--something mythological or legendary there, not sure.



The fuel is sold by the liter and a liter was priced at 1.3 Euro per liter. Get out your calculator--that equals about 5.2 Euro per gallon, and the exchange rate makes that gallon of fuel cost about $6.50.

Also on the way to Como, we passed by a Mercedes dealership and YES, they had a large stock of Smart Cars- in lots of colors. My favorite was a peach one w/ gray trim. Speaking of Smarties, we have seen quite a few on the road, but most are boring. Completely black, completely white, no triton trim like ours and all the ones being brought to the US.

Another interesting car innovation here is a parking lot which tells you how many empty slots are available.. There is a digital (LED) sign which changes as cars park. Pretty clever if you ask me.

After the boat ride, we decided we needed to experience Italian pizza. I did not realize that Pizza pie is different from local bakery pizza. It’s the shape. A pie is round, this pizza was shaped like school cafeteria pizza, but that is where the similarity ends. This was GREAT. We ordered two pieces and got pretty large chunks of the rectangle. Then the lady cut each chunk into 15 pieces about 1.5 inches or so square and gave us each a fork.


We got our bottled drinks and went to the table outside to eat. I’m going to have to be more careful when I choose water to buy to read the label. I got FIZZY water again--I like my coke fizzy, but not my water. I really must take the time to read and not just grab for something.

We drove back from Como to Stressa with the tour guide giving us time to nap, before giving information about our next activity--a wine tasting. We tasted olive oil, with spices; balsamic vinegar which had been aged for 7 years; a 10 year old balsamic, and a glaze w/ raspberries. Nothing was particularly to my taste, but others really loved these offerings. Then we tasted the wine-dry and sweet. I don’t like the taste of wine, so I’m afraid I was unimpressed. Again, some in the group really loved them and bought several bottles.

While there at the wine place, I did buy something for my friends in the UPC choir to taste and it has no alcohol in it at all. It is sweet and really tasty. Think about what the men took with them to eat when they rode off to the Crusades. Should be fun.
(Thursday- May 14--I'm reporting that the Panforte was a hit, --my choir friends liked the story and seemed to enjoy tasting the dried fruit delicacy made by nuns that the Crusaders packed in their saddlebags. It is supposed to last a really long time without going bad and to be nutritious.)



The special dinner on the tiny island is tonite (which we declined) so Jeanie G and we will be finding a place to eat on our own.. N. is napping now, so we’ll go when he wakes up.

Sights we saw on our walk in Stresa



We did see a cool monument right across the street from our hotel to the victims of 9/11. An interesting depiction of the American flag.

We embark on our cruise tomorrow afternoon after about 5 hrs. on the bus. Should be fun and exciting.

More tomorrow.

Good news, Bad news, times of boredom and then excitement

We left the bank parking lot on time and had a very uneventful trip to DFW, stopping twice for bathroom/snack breaks.


When we checked in for the flight at the airport , we were told to our delight that our bags were being checked to Milan and we wouldn’t have to deal with them until then. (Good thing- keep reading)

We loaded at the correct time11:15, with the flight supposed to leave at 11:45. We got the plane about half loaded and an announcement was made that we wouldn’t be leaving until 1:45. The reason given was too many planes for too few runways and bad weather. People had the option to de-plane taking all their things and go thru the process again, when the time came to board again, or just stay on and deal. We knew that we had a scant hour and a half from the time the plane was originally scheduled to land and the one for Milan was to take off. This delay put us two hours behind. We figured we’d have to spend the night in the airport and miss the first day of the tour.
The Dallas to JFK leg of the journey was uneventful, other than not having ANYTHING for free to eat. They were selling $6-10 sandwiches, a $4 plate of cheese and crackers or a collection of mixed nuts, a $3 package of chips or a cookie. We were given drinks (tea, sodas, water, juice) As we neared JFK, the announcement was made to please let the folks bound for Milan off the plane first. There were 32 of us--not all our tour group. When the plane stopped at the gate, we hopped up and sprinted just a little ways to the plane for Milan which was waiting for us. We got on board at 6 and didn’t leave the runway til 7:10--loading of baggage, waiting in line, etc. Later our tour guide, told us he didn’t expect us to make the filght. The American Airlines folks were very kind and accommodating to wait for us and see that we got where we needed to be.

I talked to Nki via cell phone when we got settled on the Milan plane, she had sent me a text message that the grandbaby is indeed a girl and that in the picture they had seen, “she has Pike cheeks”. A curse Nki feels that she has lived with all her life.

Food had been rather sparse with breakfast being a banana before loading the bus, a med. frozen yogurt in DFW



and nothing since other than snacks we carried (granola bar and some candies). We were served airline food about 8:30 pm and I would have eaten an old shoe. It wasn’t great, but it was filling.

Tried to watch a little of the movie “BedTime Stories” a really silly film. The earplugs that were provided didn’t fit my ears at all and even hurt a little. I didn’t watch it all and tried to sleep. HA! At home I have trouble making it to the 10 o’clock news before I crash. I DID NOT SLEEP MORE THAN 10 OR 15 MINUTES AT A STRETCH. Noises, lights,cramped seat.

Breakfast was served at 12:15 (Texas time-add 7 hrs for Milan time) which consisted of a croissant, juice and tea so strong, I’m surprised it stayed in the cup. From then on we just waited to land.


The Alps from the plane window--Wow!

As the stewardesses (I know that word is passe’ but you know who I mean) were circulating, getting things cleaned up before landing, we heard a heated conversation (in Italian) on the far side of the plane between a stewardess and a passenger. It continued and escalated with the “head” stewardess joining in the shouting. All this in Italian , so I/we had no clue what was being said. I was using my limited Spanish to try to figure out the cause of the problem. I did hear the head lady tell the passenger that she would be arrested as the confrontation ended. Not much more was said by either party. We taxied into the gate and sat and waited and waited and waited. It finally dawned on me that we were waiting for police. First what seemed to be an airline official came in to stand by the woman passenger, then another, then two policemen and another airline official (these folks’ uniforms were different, hence my guesses about who they were) The woman was physically escorted out and as we deplaned, she was sitting on the floor of the passageway surrounded by official folks. I guess one of our Bwd tour members, took a pictuire of the police surrounding the woman on the plane, because her camera was confiscated and the offending picture was deleted and the camera was returned to her. No UTube for that picture.

Customs in the Milan (Malpensa) airport is super simple. Get your passport stamped and that is it. In other places, we have had to fill outr forms, answer questions, let folks look thru our baggage, all sorts of rigamarole, but here, none of that. Now, we were given a printed form from the Minister of Health telling us what to do if we feel sick. No masks, no other cautions. But that was just random folks handing out papers in a hallway and had nothing to do with customs. (and yes, Nki, I’ve been using the antibacterial wipes and gel)

We have been joined by a group from New York and more are arriving this afternoon. As we drove to Stresa, at the foot of the Alps, we saw snow covered mountains, a granite quarry, many, many flowering bushes and Lago Maggiore.

Our hotel is the Bristol and it is ultra elegant, old world style. Lots of chandeliers , stained glass, balconies overlooking the lake and a super neat push button operated secutiry gate over the patio door.. Btw/ that IS the air conditioning, open the patio door.




As we walked around this afternoon, looking for lunch we saw elegantly landscaped lawns of other “Grand” hotels, we saw several Smart Cars (but none as cute as ours--these were boring black) and we enjoyed toasted ham and cheese sandwiches with a really fancy name. I ordered water and the waiter asked “gas or natural”? It took me a minute, but I responded “natural”. Someone else in our group received the “gassy” water and said it was way too carbonated. We’re back in the room for a short nap. I’m wrriting “off line” and will download later. May be able to add pic tures laster as well.

I’ve learned some Italian,-- thank you is GRATZI and you are welcome is PREGO. BENVENUTO is hello or welcome.

Thanks for joining us on our adventure.

Two weeks away

Yesterday we attended the "get your documents/ and find out what to expect" meeting for our latest trip--THE GREEK ISLES and Croatia.
Looks like there will be about 18 Bwd folks traveling on this trip and we will be joined by others from all over the US to make a traveling group of about 42 or so.

We leave Bwd at 6:30am May 1 and travel by bus to DFW where we catch a plane to JFK in New York. Not much time in NY to make it to the international terminal for our trip to Milan. The domestic portion of the flight is 4 hrs, the second portion will be 7 hrs.. From Bwd to Milan, Italy will be 16 hours (actual time) altho' we gain 8 hours by flying across the Atlantic. For example, 12 noon in Brownwood will be 8pm the same day. This does take some getting used to.

The 7 days we spend on the cruise ship in the Mediterranean island hopping to Bari, Italy--Katakalon, Greece--Santorini and Mykonos--Rhodes--and Dubrovnik, Croatia will be very different for us. Not quite sure how this will work, but I certainly appreciate the fact that we DO NOT HAVE TO PACK AND UNPACK 3-5 times in that time span. The weather is supposed to be between 50 and 70 degrees, so a light jacket will be needed, but not the heavy layers of clothing we packed when we visited Scandinavia.

We are looking forward to this trip and are anxious to experience this new part of the world for us. If you continue to be interested in our adventures, keep checking this site from May 2- May 12. Internet is NOT available in our staterooms, but will be found in an internet cafe on board ship. We'll see. Until later----------------