Day 11 – Katakolon (Olympia), Greece

We pulled into the beautiful little port town of Katakolon under gorgeous blue skies. When we originally planned this trip, we tried first to avoid the “high season” of the summer when everyone and their brother is travelling then second with an eye towards the most ideal temperatures for the area. Of course you can never predict local storms that may crop up and so we were really fortunate to have such ideal weather and temperatures during the entire trip. I know we all commented on several occasions how one could not have asked for better weather than what we experiencing that day…and it was like that every day.

Our first order of the day in Katakolon was to find the rental car agency that we had booked our car for the day with, which turned out to be very close to the ship’s docking point. We quickly filled out the required paperwork and were ushered to our awaiting chariot, the highly sought after yellow Fiat Panda! The very one in the picture on the company’s website that we had requested. For those of you not fortunate enough to have driven, passengered, or seen a Fiat Panda, it is approximately four feet long, two feet wide has four seats with room enough for one. So, with directions to Olympia provided by the lovely lady in Katakolon Car and Moto Rentals, we were on our way. About one kilometer into our journey, Melauna points out that we are just about out of gas, so at the next petrol station available, we pulled in and had the attendant add enough for the rest of the day. When was the last time you had an attendant fill your gas tank for you? Now we were on our way. Left after three kilometers at the photo stop, then five kilometers and right at photo stop, then 29 kilometers to Olympia, per the gas station attendant. Photo stop? I guess that meant traffic light. So, at the second photo stop, there was no sign for Olympia so I just kept on going. Quickly realizing that we should have in fact turned, I turned the precious little Fiat Panda around and pulled back up to the light to turn left and head to Olympia. The light, or photo, turned green, and I stalled little Panda. No problem, just a quick restart and we will be on our way. Just a quick restart….just a turn of the key…just a…nothing. The piece of shit miserable excuse for a car had died. I mean completely dead. No nothing. Dead in the water, or road as it were. I mean who rents out yellow Fiat Pandas anyway? More importantly, who pays money to cram four people into a vehicle clearly intended for a single anorexic dwarf? So, fortunately, Melauna had her iPhone with her as well as the paperwork with phone number for the rental agency. When I say fortunate, I cannot stress that enough. I mean, if we didn’t have that, we would either still be out there or else the Greeks would be telling the story to their friends about the little lady pushing the little yellow car yelling “pop the clutch!”, “Pop it!”, “POP IT!!!” But alas, we were able to put in a call to Katakolon Car and Moto Rental and within 20 minutes we had another Fiat Panda delivered to us, this one orange, along with a heartfelt apology. Now we were on our way. About 30 minutes later we arrived in the ancient city of Olympia and were out and walking amongst the amazing 2,500 year old ruins of the site of the original Olympic games in honor of Zeus.

We spent the next two hours or so just wandering around the various sites and in retrospect, having a knowledgeable guide with us would have been helpful but we had opted to do this one ourselves so were limited to reading the accompanying plaques adjacent to individual sites. In reality, I read a couple of them then just enjoyed wandering around and taking it all in, not always knowing exactly what I was looking at. Melauna played tour guide for awhile, reading from the map that she had obtained at the office located at the start of the Olympic trails. I don’t mean to imply that the time that we spent wasn’t enjoyable because it certainly was but it lacked the back story that makes it that much better. Lyn and I found some little pieces of rock laying around the ruins that could have possibly been originally a piece of a statue or monument that we would stealthily sneak into one another’s hand, passing them along like a couple of spies. (If anyone from the Bureau of Greek Antiquity is reading this, the previous sentence was a work of fiction and did not actually take place.)

After finishing up our time wandering through the ancient Olympic site, we spent some time in the two museums located on the grounds as well. Honestly, the pieces in the museum were as interesting as the site itself. Extraordinary statues, coins, building edifices, weaponry, etc., all of which has been excavated from the site over the past 120 years. After leaving the museums, we headed back to the little orange Panda and began our drive back to Katakolon for lunch and our last shopping opportunity of the cruise. Melauna had read about a spot for lunch located right along the harbor called Karouso’s. What a great lunch! Just as it had been described, this little restaurant was right on the water and the food was excellent. Mom and Melauna both had the shreemps which were as long as your arm…well big anyway. Lyn had the shreemp spaghetti, and I had the pork gyros and an Αλπα beer which the waiter had recommended. Actually I had ordered a Mythos, which was in fact offered on the menu, but the waiter shook his head and said Αλπα was real Greek beer. With all of those Greek letters in the name, I couldn’t argue. Turned out he knew his beer…quite tasty. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed their lunch and afterward mom and Lyn walked through the two lanes of shops that paralleled the harbor while Melauna and I returned the rental. Once again, we were given all sorts of apologies and even a keychain for our trouble with the little yellow Fiat Panda. They were really nice folks and I would not hesitate to do business with them again.

Melauna and I then found our way to the shopping area where mom and Lyn had already gotten a head start. I think that everyone found something to bring back as a memento of our time in Greece. Lyn and I both found items in the same Greek art gallery and were able to get a discount since several items were being purchased between the two of us. A gentleman was helping Lyn with her purchases while a woman was wrapping my item, a reproduction of a water pitcher from the 5th century B.C. depicting Hector and Achilles. She spent considerable time carefully wrapping the pitcher and afterward we thanked one another and said what a pleasure it had been to meet and do business with one another. I was across the street catching up with the girls when I hear “Sir!” “Sir!” coming from behind me. It was the woman from the shop that I just left…so I go back. “Umm…sir…did you pay for your piece?” Crap. After offering 38 apologies and my MasterCard, I was back on my way to hunt down the girls. What a buffoon. We only had about 20 minutes before we had to be back on board and so mom and Lyn headed for the ship. Melauna had sworn that she would not step foot on board until the last possible minute…she made good on the threat.

Despite the early car troubles everything turned out well and we didn’t really waste a lot of time with the issue. As said earlier, the weather could not have been any better and a great time was had by all. It is always sad to realize that your trip is coming to an end, such as it was today. But we have eaten some wonderful meals, visited some beautiful and incredible historic lands and made memories that will last a lifetime. What else could you ask for?

Back on board, Melauna and I had dinner back in the Manhattan at our assigned table much to the delight of the downstairs open seating attendant I am sure. Dinner was great as always and tonight we were witness to the Great Baked Alaska spectacle. Not sure what this was nor how to describe it…All of the wait staff parading around to music with a big Baked Alaska ice cream cake on a silver serving dish. Great! Now let’s eat it! After dinner, I decided to give the craps table a chance to apologize for the rude treatment given to me last night. I received more rudeness. After about 30 minutes of steadily seeing my pile of chips steadily diminish, I went back to the room. After about an hour, I thought to myself “maybe I made to hasty of a retreat…maybe I should go back for just one more chance.” I know what you are thinking…idiot. Not so! Sheldon got on a roll like none I have ever seen. Literally. He held the dice for a half an hour after which I was well above break even for the trip. He was given an ovation when he finally rolled that seven and an even bigger ovation when he cashed out. I’m not sure what he started with but I know he walked off with a thick stack of black chips. Wow…what a roll. I stuck around for a few more rolls then cashed out myself and headed back to the room happy with my decision to come back and play. A great way to end the day.

Day 10 – Santorini, Greece

I noticed this morning as I was making my way up to the Explorations Café for my morning coffee that a letter had been placed in everyone’s mailbox outside their stateroom door. The letter was from the captain and was explaining the actions that were being taken due to the occurrence of several cases of Gastrointestinal Illness, or GTI. Not the best way to begin the morning, but certainly better than someone that was actually suffering from the illness. There were some minor inconveniences that we noticed such as removal of the salt and pepper shakers from the tables. Bread and butter were no longer left on the tables during dinner. In the buffet lines, everything was handed to you so that you did not handle any of the serving utensils. Like I said, pretty minor stuff. Lyn mentioned that their stateroom attendant had apologized for not vacuuming their room because they were under a “code red”. I am not sure what vacuuming has to do with the spread of GTI, but whatever. If it does, then please don’t vacuum. As we disembarked the ship, everyone was given a bottle of hand sanitizer which was nice to have although we had all been carrying our own anyway and had been using it throughout the trip.

After going to the Queen’s Lounge to receive our tender ticket, we had about a 30 minute wait before our number was called and we proceeded to Deck A to meet our tender. As we stood in line, mom started bouncing like a little girl saying “I can’t wait! I can’t wait!” That was about the cutest thing ever. As I had mentioned in the original Pre-Cruise Planning Blog, Santorini is mom’s favorite place in the world and this will be her third time to visit the island. It is easy to see why this is her favorite. Santorini is an absolutely gorgeous place with a terrain unlike any that we had seen thus far on our trip. The ship stands at anchor within the caldera of a volcano with the main part of the island making a horseshoe shape open to the northwest. The weather could not have been more perfect; clear blue skies, about 75°F and an indescribably blue Aegean Sea.

After a quick five-minute tender to shore, mom, Melauna and Lyn made there way to the cable car that will take them to the city of Fira. I opted to walk the trail to the top. Much has been said about the means in which one gets up to Fira, the options being: cable car, donkey ride, or walking up the trail. Here is our experience: The cable car ride lasts about two minutes from start to finish and there are six car holding six passengers each. It took me about 20 minutes to walk up the trail and I had to wait about ten minutes for the girls at the top. So, you do the math on the time spent waiting in line. Obviously some people just aren’t physically able to make the 1000’ vertical climb but I did see lots of older folks on the trail just taking their time and making plenty of stops to enjoy the views. Now, the donkeys…I was under the impression for some reason that the donkeys, which by the way, were outnumbered greatly by full size mules, would stay to one side of the trail, while the people walking would be on the other. Not so. The donkeys/mules are wherever they want to be and you get the hell out of their way. Much has been made of the stench associated with the trail and while yes, you do have to watch your step occasionally, the aroma was not much different than a horse pasture. If you are offended by horse poop, then stick to the cable car. I don’t mind it and I never heard anyone complaining, wanting to go back or anything like that. Again, much has been made about the ill treatment of the donkeys and in fact as we disembarked the ship, we were advised against taking the donkeys for that reason. I personally never saw any ill treatment, nor did I see any of the handlers lovingly stroking the beasts’ ears while they nibbled on hand fed carrots. That is not to say that either may have taken place but I just didn’t happen to witness it. It is a strenuous walk, no question and my calves let me know that I had ascended about 1,000’ in 20 minutes but I am glad that I opted for walking the trail up to Fira and if you are physically able would definitely recommend it.

After meeting up with the girls, we began making our way to Tony’s Car Rental where we had reserved a car for the first part of the day in order to drive out to Óia for lunch. It probably took about 20 minutes to walk to Tony’s and was not too hard to find. If you pay attention, there are small signs, some pretty faded, that point you in the direction of his business. Tony had our car ready for us and after filling out the requisite paperwork and a general overview of the island we were off and running to Ammoudi Bay in Óia. We had seen the Samantha Brown Passport to Europe episode of Santorini and her spot for lunch, the Sunset Taverna, looked to be an idyllic place for lunch. We found it with no problems and were one of the first customers for the day, arriving at about 11:45. It really was a beautiful spot for lunch. Right on that sapphire blue water, a very light breeze blowing in across the small harbor and only a few wispy clouds in the sky. Our waiter took our drink orders and suggested that we come take a look at the fish that had been brought in that morning since they wouldn’t be on the menu. We decided on a large Red Snapper for the table to share. While waiting on the grilled Snapper to arrive, we all enjoyed fried eggplant, grilled banana peppers with yogurt and fresh bread. The grilled Snapper was excellent and enjoyed by all. After lunch, we made our way back to the little rental car for our drive back to Fira. I should mention here that the road down to Ammoudi Bay is very steep and the rental was a stick shift…and Melauna was driving. I really thought for a minute that we were going to be stuck there in Ammoudi Bay with a burned up clutch, certainly not the worst place to be stuck but not part of the plan. We did, however make it up the hill and back out onto the road to Fira. Things got a little dicey once we made it back to town as the one way roads that we had been on when we left were still one way roads but now going the wrong way for our needs. It took some driving around and backtracking, but eventually we made it back to Tony’s where we dropped off mom and Lyn so that they could do some shopping in town, while we headed off to the Santos Winery to hopefully tour the vineyard. It only took about 15 minutes to reach the winery but unfortunately no tours were available. The views from the winery itself, however are incredible and worth the drive for that alone. Before heading back, we found the gift shop and bought a bottle of wine in the gift shop to enjoy that evening at dinner. We found our way back to Tony’s with no problem this time and dropped off the little rental no worse for the wear. Tony and his wife both were a pleasure to work with and should we have the opportunity to come back to Santorini and stay for longer, which I really hope we do, we were given a brochure of the hotel owned by his parents that he suggested we stay.

We wound our way back through the narrow shop lined streets that were becoming so familiar in this part of the Mediterranean and ran into Lyn and Mom right away. We shopped together for awhile then drifted to other areas, Melauna finding a jewelry shop that made her a one-of-a-kind custom made pair of earrings with Santorini lava, the ubiquitous blue eye and silver. We found a little taverna that sat high up on the island ridge that gave a commanding view of the harbor to enjoy the last minutes of the day sharing a glass of wine and fresh bread.

Afterward, we had decided to walk the trail back down to the ship and after seeing the line for the cable car, there was no question…that was until we spotted mom and Lyn right up at the front of the line. Sorry to all of the other 2,000 people standing in line…but…well…sorry. Five minutes later we were down at the water’s edge and did a final bit of souvenir shopping before time to get back on board.

That evening, we had reservations for the Tamarind pan-asian restaurant which so many have raved about. Dinner was very good, but honestly with all that had been made of how good the Tamarind was I suppose that there was no way to live up to the expectation. Like I said, it was good but given a choice between Tamarind and Pinnacle Grill, I would choose the Pinnacle. The chocolate covered football-sized fortune cookie was delicious, however and I would highly recommend that. That is if you enjoy delicious, humongous, chocolate covered things.

I gave the craps table another chance to take my money and indeed it did. The usual players were all there; Chuckie, Paulie, Sheldon and Tom. All really nice guys but nobody doing any good that night. I ended the night now down for the trip.

So many of the places that we have seen have been both beautiful and historically fascinating. Santorini; is one of those places that I think that I could come to again and again and never tire of. Mom was so happy that we all felt the way she did about her favorite place in the world. So many times it seems that we tell people how wonderful a place, a restaurant, a movie or any number of things is only to have that person shrug their shoulders and say “yeah…it was nice”. Obviously not experiencing the same magic that we did. Santorini, I don’t think can be oversold. It really is that beautiful.

Day 9 – Kuşadasi (Ephesus), Turkey

What an incredible day! Let me start off by giving a lot of credit to Levent, our guide for the day. We learned early on that the organized ship tours were not for us, and so for some time have done research on our own and arranged our own guides, when one is needed, for the various cities that we visit. We have never been let down by our guides, but as with everything in life, some are better than others. Levent was one of, if not the best guide that we have ever had. Our tour was booked through Ekol Travel; however it appears that Ekol pulls from an independent travel guide pool and so I don’t believe that he works for them exclusively. That having been said, I am sure that one could request him through Ekol Travel. Anyway, more on Levent later…but back to the beginning…

Today was one of our longer days in port, arriving in Kuşadasi at around 7:00a and not leaving until 7:00 that evening. The alarm clock rudely woke us up at 5:45 to get the whole thing started. We had arranged with mom and Lyn to meet them by their elevators at 7:30 to make our way off the ship and to meet our guide. Mom and Lyn were right where they were supposed to be as I ran down the stairs after hurrying through my breakfast up in the Lido…definantly not how I like to start the day…but that’s the way it goes. Immediately after getting off the ship, we were found by Levent and he gave us a brief overview of our itinerary for the day and then took us to our spacious eight passenger van…plenty of room for the four of us, Levent and our driver. Our first stop was the supposed House of Virgin Mary. I say “supposed”’ since there is no hard evidence to support it; however there is quite a bit of anecdotal evidence to suggest that the house is in fact the final resting place of Mary. Most of the house has been reconstructed to appear as it would have around 58 A.D., with the only actual remains of the house being the lower two feet or so. This was an incredibly peaceful area and well worth the visit. After leaving the House of Mary, we headed to Ephesus and this is where we spent the majority of our day. Levent took time to point out all of the various parts of the ancient city and gave an excellent explanation of what we were seeing as well as putting it in the context of the greater city itself and the time period in which it would have been built, who would have been there, the social status of those that would have been in various parts, etc. In summary, Levent was not just pointing out various structures, but rather recreating a scene such that the ancient city of Ephesus came to life. We walked down main street, stopped in the shopping mall and visited the proposed shop of the silversmith that spoke out against the new Christian religion being preached by the apostle John. We stopped in the city’s hospital and pharmacy across the street and walked through the terraced houses of the wealthy. After spending time in the Library of Celsus, we passed through the agora or market place and then finally on to the theatre. Not to oversell the point, but this was an amazing tour through this ancient city made so much more enjoyable by the easy explanations, thoroughly accommodating and enjoyable presence of Levent. As a side note, most all of these ancient sights that we have seen throughout the cruise require walking along either rocky or uneven walkways, because, well…their ancient…therefore, myself, Lyn or Melauna have always tried to be by mom’s side to offer a steady arm through these areas. Enevitably, there were moments when one of us was not right there by mom’s side to help and in those rare instances, Levent always was, and always gave a loving pat on her hand as one of us approached, handing her off to resume our role. Tour guide aside, he really is a great human being and a joy to be around.

After leaving the heart of Ephesus city, we drove up the hill to the Church of St. John which allows a commanding view of the valley below in which Ephesus is nestled. Oddly enough, or maybe not, there was a call to prayer from the mosque adjacent to the Church of St. John while we were wandering around what remained of the once great Christian church. Even more interesting, as we drove back down the hill to the Temple of Artemis, we were able to see in a single frame a pagan temple, a Christian church and a Muslim mosque representing 3,000 years of various religious domination in that area. Unfortuantly all that remains of the Temple of Artemis, one of the seven ancient wonders of the world, is a single column. The rest having been used as a quarry to build many other structures, including the Church of St. John and the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul.

After leaving Ephesus city, Levent gave us several choices for lunch and we chose an authentic Turkish meal at one of the four Nomadic co-ops of the area. We had an absolutely wonderful meal outside under a large tent and enjoyed grilled peppers with yogurt, olives, green beans in a pepper mix and grilled chicken. Levent and I had a local red wine that was really nice. After lunch we were given a fascinating demonstration of carpet making which is the primary source of revenue for the co-op and watched as one of the local girls worked on a cotton rug, even letting Melauna have a go at it. They showed us the process of spinning silk from the cocoon to create a single thread and how that is then dyed using the local materials available such as saffron, tobacco, etc. Afterward, we entered the den of money takers….we were shown rug after rug after rug…all very beautiful…two more so than the rest. There must be something in that Turkish tea that makes a person want to drop all that money on a rug. But how many opportunities does one have to buy a beautiful handcrafted Turkish rug from a nomadic community in...well...Turkey? It is certainly a one-of-a-kind piece of Ephesus that we will cherish forever as will mom with the one she bought. All in all, it was a very pleasurable experience and it wasn’t as bad as I am making it out. This was not a high pressure sales job at all and everyone involved was very nice and their work was beautiful. This was an unexpected side trip to our plan for the day, but one that I am certainly glad that we had the opportunity to experience.

After finishing up at the co-op, we made our way back to Kuşadasi and had to say our goodbyes and give our thanks to Levent for showing us his amazing city. I really hope that one day we will be able to meet again.

We still had a scant few minutes left before needing to be back on the ship so I accompanied Melauna to the little “Grand Bazaar” there near the port while mom and Lyn headed back on board. We weren’t long but did manage to find Melauna a pair of Blue Eye earrings that she had been looking for before heading back ourselves. Since we had a late back-on-board time, we missed our 5:45 seating for dinner and opted for the Any Time You Wish seating on the lower level of the Manhattan. The dinner was excellent as usual, the wait staff excellent as well; however the attendant that we checked in with at the front of the dining room seemed a little put out at our dining preference, and went as far as to remind us that we would be expected to resume our regularly scheduled dining time tomorrow…whatever jackass. After that little reprimand, all went well though and ended another outstanding day. Wiped out from the day, once again, we skipped any of the evening festivities and called it an early evening.

Day 8 – Mykonos, Greece

Captain Mercer sped through the night to give us an earlier arrival time into Mykonos than was planned, which originally was to be at 1:00p. Not knowing that we would be arriving earlier, we had pre-booked an excursion through the ship that would allow us to visit the island of Delos as this was the only option for one to visit Delos at that late in the day. We arrived in the bay near Mykonos around 11:00 and just had a relaxing morning and early afternoon enjoying the view until we needed to head down for our departure to Delos. Fortunately, mom and Lyn were back to feeling well and ready to get out and see the sights.

As mentioned, the ship was at anchor in the bay at Mykonos Town, so it was necessary to take a tender from the ship to land. This was a quick and easy five minute tender ride. Afterward, we took another tender out to the island of Delos. This tender took a little longer; about 30 minutes and went as smoothly as the first. It was here that we met our guide, Irene that would be showing us all what Delos had to offer. I wont go into all of the details, as I think that I had a link to some info on Delos on an earlier blog, but it is the mythical birthplace of Apollo and contains incredibly intact ruins from inhabitants from the 3rd century B.C. through 4th century A.D….roughly. This is an incredible place. By law, no one is allowed to live on the island and so in essence, the entire island is an archeological excavation sight. Our guide, Irene was fantastic. It was obvious that she loved what she did as much as she loved Delos. What a incredible island…

After returning back to Mykonos, we headed off to find the restaurant Alefkandra that had been recommended to us. The town itself is a series of narrow winding roads lined with little shops ranging from small grocery stores to fine art galleries and everything in between. It is really a maze and pretty easy to get turned around. So I finally ask one of the store owners if he could direct me to Alefkandra and he points and says just around the corner and to the left…so off we go around the corner an to the left…no restaurant. We keep making our way in what I think is the right direction and occasionally ask where Alefkandra is and always getting the same answer; just up there and to the left. Now I know that we have made several right turns by now…but no...it’s still up there to the left. I even asked how far at one point and got a shoulder shrug and a “not far…just up on the left”. Ah...the shoulder shrug followed by an oblique attempt at direction…no one knows where Alefkandra is. Eventually we found the spot just up on the left known as Alefkandra and what a perfect spot it was. Its located right on the water with tables lining the rocky beach. The sun was about an hour or so from setting, small waves breaking across the rocks…sounds of seagulls and the ubiquitous Grecian cats wandering around. There were very few people here when we arrived so we practically had the place to ourselves. Lyn and I shared a mixed seafood platter, Melauna had a spinach pie and mom had a shrimp dish in roasted tomatoes. Along with a plate of olives, fried eggplant, fried zucchini and bread, we had a feast fit for a king! We all ended up sampling everyone’s dishes and although the food itself was good but not great, the setting could not be beat and was quite memorable. Mine and Lyn’s mixed seafood platter had a whole fish amongst lobster, shrimp, and octopus and fried calamari. Although everything was easily identifiable, we were curious as to what type of fish we were eating, so we asked….We were told with a shoulder shrug and a point toward the object in question…”eets feesh”. Oh…Eets Feesh…okay. Anyway the Eets Feesh had been grilled in a nice lemon butter sauce and was very tasty.

After dinner, and several Grecian cats dinners, we spent the rest of the evening wandering the narrow streets of Mykonos Town, dropping in the various shops that the city had to offer and even finding a few items to take back home with us. Of all the pieces found, Lyn found the most perfect one; a really nice sculpture of a fish skeleton. It is hard to be absolutely certain, as like I said, it is a skeleton, but it appears to be the same size and anatomical structure of that of the prized Mykonos Eets Feesh fish.

After finishing up our shopping, we took the tender back to the ship and as it was getting pretty late in the evening, we called it a night. No shows, no casino, no bingo. We all had a great day and hated to see Mykonos fading in our wake, but tomorrow was going to be an early start in Ephesus, Turkey and so we said our goodnights.

Day 7 – Istanbul, Turkey

As mentioned in the previous post, we stayed overnight in Istanbul and as mentioned in an even previouser post, we had scheduled tour for the day with Ekol Tours. Much to our regret, we received a call this morning from mom and Lyn that neither felt well and were not going to be able to come along with us into Istanbul. There is nothing worse than being sick and away from home. I felt and feel so bad for both of them. I sure hope that whatever got a hold of them runs its course quickly as I would hate for either one to miss another port.

Melauna and I had a nice breakfast this morning up in the Lido prior to leaving the ship and were actually joined by a very nice older Asian couple who were looking for a place to sit and saw two open seats at our table. They were from northern California and as sweet as could be. After exiting the ship, we were met right away by Űlkű (ool-ku), our guide for the day who did an outstanding job of giving us the history behind all of the magnificent places we saw today, even with a slight language barrier. We were picked up in a six-passenger van and accompanied by a driver who also did a great job of negotiating the insane traffic that I spoke of yesterday.

Most all of the sites that we visited were contained within walking distance of one another, so after our driver dropped us off at our first stop, we didn’t see him until the end of the day. Many people have mentioned how easy Istanbul is to do on your own, and I wouldn’t necessarily argue with that provided that you had a good guide book and more time than one day. Also, although you could walk from the cruise terminal to the Sultanhamet where most all of the points of interest are contained, you would spend probably two hours walking to and from, taking even more precious time away you’re your tour. The other option that has been recommended is the public tram…no thanks…every tram that I saw was packed like sardines. There didn’t appear to be two inches of space between the standing passengers. That is just not my thing, if you don’t mind it, then maybe that’s another option. In the end, I was glad that we had a pre-arranged driver to deal with that mess out there. In all we visited the Blue Mosque, Hagia Sofia, Topkopi Palace, the underground cisterns as well as a tile making demonstration in a very nice pottery shop. Melauna found a piece there that she couldn’t live without to bring home as our little piece of Istanbul. Before our last site in the Sultanhamet, the Topkapi Palace, we stopped for lunch at an authentic little Turkish diner and had lamb kebaps and Turkish meatballs and washed it down with Aryan. What is Aryan you ask? Well, it is a special elixir of saltwater and yogurt and was as delicious as it sounds. I hated to be rude by insulting her country’s cuisine, but suffice to say that I will not be hunting down my local Turkish grocer when we get back home to load up on Aryan. Saltwater and yogurt? Maybe I had already unwittingly insulted her without knowing it and this was her response. By the time that we reached Topkopi Palace, I will admit that I was about tired of walking. There were a lot of really interesting things to see in the Palace that Melauna and I both just skimmed past because we were tired of both walking and the crowds. After a brief stop in the Palace Museum gift shop, we met back up with our driver and drove to the Grand Bazaar for apple tea and coffee. Not sure why we did this as it seemed, in retrospect, like an awful lot of trouble to go to for tea and coffee, but nevertheless, we did it. After finishing up, we met back up with our driver and began heading back to the ship.

For me, Istanbul was one of those places that I am very happy to have experienced and have had the opportunity to see some of the historical sights but have little desire to return to. The people that we encountered were all very friendly and the history of Istanbul is very fascinating; however it is so crowded that finding a peaceful spot to soak it all in is all but impossible.

Back on board, I sat out on the veranda and watched the sail away from Istanbul and the start of our course to Mykonos. We had a little while to relax before dinner this evening since we had reservations at the Pinnacle Grill at 7:30 and so I was able to catch up on the blog and do a little reading before we had to go. The Pinnacle Grill was fantastic! Melauna had the King Salmon which she claimed was the best that she ever had, and she is somewhat of a salmon connoisseur. I had the “Land and Sea” lobster tail and filet mignon…wow! What a great dinner! After dinner, we headed off to the casino to make our charitable donation for the evening. Neither of us had any luck and now I am back in the red…stupid dice.

Day 6 – At Sea and Istanbul, Turkey

After a late breakfast this morning and catching up on yesterday’s blog, I met mom and Lyn in the Showroom for some bingo…because you cannot go on a cruise without playing bingo at least once. I think it is some kind of maritime law or something. Unfortunately, my winning streak did not carry over from last night, nor did mom or Lyn come out victorious. Guess we will have to try again.

Regarding catching up on the blog…I have been meaning to mention that although I have had wireless internet access in our room everyday, the connection speed certainly has left something to be desired. I have been typing up the blog in Word, then after connecting, doing a copy and paste into Blogger. We were able to take a lot of really nice pictures in Athens yesterday; however with the internet connection what it is, it just isn’t practical to try and upload any pictures. The one of Melauna on one of the bridges over a canal in Venice that I posted on Day 2 took about five minutes to load…so forget it. I think I will just wait until we are back home and upload them all to Flickr or something similar.

After a quick lunch in the Lido, we all got ready for our arrival in Istanbul. I sat out on the veranda to watch the sail in which was really pretty neat to witness. Since Istanbul straddles both Europe and Asia, you get a rare opportunity to see two continents all for the price of one admission. Tom the Tour Guide was pointing out some of the highlights that we will be touring tomorrow; the Hagia Sofia, Blue Mosque, Topkapi Palace to name a few. We docked around 3:30 and after picking up mom and Lyn, made a quick exit off the ship. We had decided to use the time that we had today to go to the Grand Bazaar which we actually had scheduled for tomorrow, hopefully freeing up more time for tomorrow’s sites. We opted to hire a cab to take us to the Grand Bazaar rather than take the ship’s tour bus and really glad that we did. Our cab driver’s name was Yasor Mataraci and what a great guy he turned out to be. Istanbul is a city of 15 million people and I think that everyone of them was out driving cars, cabs or busses. Holy cow, the traffic! This is an enormous city and incredibly congested. After making the drive to the Grand Bazaar, which is not far as the crow flies, but took about a half an hour, we asked Yasar if he could be there to pick us up at 6:30. He said that he would and I tipped him a little extra in hopes that he would make good on his word. I cannot possibly describe the frenetic place that Istanbul is…I suppose New York City on steroids is as good as I can do. From our drop off point to the entrance to the Bazaar was about a five minute walk after which the sales onslaught began. We have been to bazaars in Morocco, so had an idea what to expect, but the unrelenting salesmen beatdowns that you encounter from guys selling watches, rugs, scarves, and everything else under the sun is enough to make your head spin. Two hours was plenty of time although you could easily spend a week in there if that was your thing. I enjoy getting to see other cultures and gathering places that are so different from what we see in the US normally, so from that standpoint, I did enjoy it; however there were no bargains to be found and actually the prices were outrageous in my opinion. I expected the whole banter back and forth on coming to an acceptable price, such as our experience in Morocco, but that really wasn’t the case here. For example, I like old maps and especially ones from the place that I am visiting. I found a store that had some old maps scattered amongst 50 billion other things and asked how much they wanted…$750US. What? I had bought a similar map in size, age and quality in Sweden for $80US in a store that specialized in old maps. Obviously I am not implying that everything in Istanbul should cost the same as in Sweden, but that is a pretty big disparity in price for similar objects. Anyway, I shook my head, set it down and said “too much”. The store owner shook her head and that was it…ok…whatever. No haggling, no nothing… Lyn experienced this several times with items that she found. Small antiques primarily. Seemed like everything that wasn’t a fake Rolex or evil eye amulet started at $500US. In the end, I didn’t buy a single thing and I almost always can find some memento to take home with me. Melauna found some overpriced dishes to buy, neither mom nor Lyn ended up with anything either. In the end, I am glad that I have experienced the famous Grand Bazaar of Istanbul but can check it off the list and have no desire to go back.

We made our way back to our original drop off point and lo and behold Yasar was there waiting for us right where he said that he would be. He had shed the taxi and had picked us up in his father’s car. Still no a/c however, but fortunately is was a pleasant 75°F outside. On our way back to the ship, he stopped at a shop that sells “the best baklava in the world”. I haven’t tried baklava all over the world, but after tying what this shop sold, I would mind giving it a shot…wow…was that good. I think Melauna bought about 35 pounds of it…two of everything that they sold…and this was a big shop, not some crappy little hole-in-the-wall baklava shop like they have in Romania or Botswana.

After a traffic laden trek back from the Grand Bazaar, Yasar had us to the ship and then didn’t want to accept any payment for the ride…What? I had read that the Turks were very kind and friendly people but come on! Yasar was paid well and received my heartfelt thanks for his efforts and keeping his word.

We had originally intended to have an authentic dinner in Istanbul tonight, but everyone was ready to be out of the hustle and bustle and into the relative quiet of the ship. So, after dropping off our crates of baklava, Melauna and I met mom and Lyn in the Lido for a light dinner before bed. After saying our goodbyes for the, I enjoyed the rest of the evening reading out on the veranda to the sounds ships passing through the Bosporus Straits.

Day 5 –Athens, Greece

As morning arrived today, Melauna and I walked out onto the veranda to witness our arrival into the port of Piraeus, Greece. As the sun had not quite come up yet, we were speculating on which barely visible hill was the one that the Parthenon sat atop of. As it turned out, whichever one we finally decided upon was ultimately the wrong choice but still fun anyhow. After breakfast, we met up with Lyn to make our way off the ship to meet our guide from Athens By Taxi for our tour of this great city. Mom has been to Athens twice already and had early on opted to skip this tour deciding rather to spend the day relaxing on the ship.

We were able to leave the ship at about 7:45 and immediately found Dimitrius, our driver for the day waiting for us and ready to go. He got us settled into his yellow Mercedes taxi and off we went for a full-day tour. As mentioned, the port that the ship docks in is Piraeus which in practicality is just a coastal extension of Athens itself which is an enormously sprawling city of four million people. Athens is bound on the east, north and west by mountains, and the Aegean Sea to the south. As we drove away from Piraeus and into Athens proper, Dimitrius gave us a lot of interesting information on the port of Piraeus which is one of the busiest shipping ports in the world and in fact the primary revenue generator for the country, with tourism coming in second. Our first stop in Athens was the Acropolis. Dimitrius filled us in on important dates, events and people as they related to the Acropolis prior to dropping us off. The tourism department does not allow unlicensed tour guide to enter the Acropolis and we didn’t think that it was necessary to hire one prior to entering, so armed with the information Dimitrius had given us we proceeded to the gates of the ancient city center. We spent roughly and hour and a half wandering around the 4th century B.C. Propylaea, Parthenon, Temple of Athena Nike and Erechtheion. It is really amazing to be standing in front of these famous structures that we have seen so many times in books, TV and movies. There really is no comparison to being there and imagining all of those historic figures walking the same path that you are walking. Amazing! After making our way back down from the Acropolis, we found Dimitrius waiting for us. I will say here that Dimitrius could not have been better. He spoke very good English, was very knowledgeable about the history of all of the sights we were visiting and allowed us any amount of time we wanted at each and every stop. Never once did he try to hurry us along and was completely accommodating to every request that we had. I could not recommend highly enough.

After leaving the Acropolis, our next stop was the Temple of Zeus. Unlike the acropolis with its multitude of structures, the Temple of Zeus sat by itself save some surrounding ruins of Roman bath houses and ancient private homes. Afterward, we drove by the Modern Olympic Stadium built in 1863 and used for the first modern Olympic Games in 1896 the up to Lycabettys hill which gave a commanding view of the sprawling Athens below. Afterward, we had timed it such that we could see the changing of the guards in front of the Parliament building. This is done on the hour, every hour but fortunately we arrived at about five minutes until 11:00 so didn’t have to wait long at all. After watching the formality of the guard change Melauna and I each had our picture taken with the stoic guard. By now, we were all ready for lunch, so Dimitirus drove us to the Agora and pointed out a restaurant that he recommended for an authentic Greek meal, Γυριστρθύλα, where we enjoyed Γυρος χοιρινός, Πτομάτες γεμιστές, a couple of Χωριάτικη as well as Φετα ψητή Π.Ο.Π. Everything was delicious and our waiter was fantastic. I don’t know about everyone else, but I was ready for a Greek nap after all of that. Instead, we made our way down the path to the Agora, passing some tables set up by local folks selling old Greek currency, antique watches and pendants, books, etc. We all found a little something here to pick up. In the Agora, we wandered the gravel pathway in and around the Stoa, the temple of Hephaestus, the Byzantine church and other various statues and ruins from this Roman era center. After finishing up at the Agora, we headed out to the Plaka, which was really just a series of narrow streets lined with souvenir type shops that if I were to do it all over, would skip over. On our way to our final stop of the day at the New Acropolis Museum, we stopped briefly at the Roman Agora and its most notable ruin, the Tower of the Winds. At the New Acropolis Museum which houses some of the most incredible pieces uncovered from the area, most notable were the five of six original Caryatids that supported the roof of the tomb of Kekrops, the mythical founder of the city. They were absolutely beautiful and the level of detail in the sculpting just incredible.

After meeting back up with Dimitrius, we headed back to the ship and said our goodbyes. All aboard was set for 4:30 and we stepped onto the ship right at that time. What a fantastic day and again, I cannot say enough of the wonderful job that Dimitrius did in showing us his magnificent city.

After back on board, there was a little time to sit out on the balcony and watch the ships departure from the port of Piraeus before heading to dinner that evening. We had our full compliment of four tonight for dinner and good food and conversation was had by all. After dinner, we all met up for the night’s entertainment, Richard Burr and Josette, Five Time Guinness World Record Holders and World renowned masters of Magic and Illusion. Another great show…I am now three for three in after dinner show enjoyment, a personal best for me!

After the show, Melauna decided to call it a night…wiped out from the day. I headed down to the casino to see if I could win back my catastrophic loss from the first trip down to the craps table…and what do you know…I am back in the black baby! It was a slow start with me the only player at the table for about the first hour, but it started to pick up around 10:00 and by 11:00 I was walking away ahead for the trip.

Another great day in the books and on our way to Istanbul. We are set to arrive in port at 4:00 p.m. tomorrow.

Day 4 –At Sea

Maybe one day I will tire of the omelets that are served in the Lido, but it hasn’t happened yet. Melauna slept in this morning, so I made my way to Explorations Café for my morning café mocha then up to the Lido for my usual. I did however add waffles to the mix this morning and they were equally as good. After breakfast, we met up with some folks from Cruise Critic in the Piano Lounge for a meet and greet planned by Cathy Brock. Congratulations to Cathy for putting together such a nice get together for so many people. There was a lot of good information that was shared as well as another opportunity for folks to team up with others that had planned shore excursions and still had room for more passengers on their tours.

We were fortunate enough to have another beautiful day outside and so we took advantage of that by having our lunch out by the pool. This area has several hot tubs dotted around the larger pool covered by a retractable glass roof allowing it to be closed during inclimate weather and opened otherwise. The lunch buffet sported a 10-yard long cheese spread that was incredible! All manner of cheeses, fruits, breads, etc. Who knows what all else was being served, I made a meal out of that. I’ll probably need a pair of calf pullers come tomorrow after the three pounds of cheese I put away, but I will deal with that then… I do know that they also had kung pao chicken, since that is what Melauna had. Anyway, it was a very enjoyable lunch out on the Lido Deck.

We attended Explore the Mediterranean talk that was given by Tour Guide Tom in the Showroom at Sea. I am sorry that we missed Part 1 of this talk given yesterday with a focus on Venice, Athens and Istanbul, but today’s talk on Mykonos, Santorini, Ephesus and Olympia was really well done. He gave a little background history on each port as well as some highlights from each area along with some good ideas on shopping and restaurants. Melauna left a little before the end of the talk to get properly gussied for High Tea in the Manhattan. I decided to meet her there and was able to make it through one and half cups before my man-meter ran into the red and I quickly found the exit. I looked around at the poor guys that I was leaving behind and shook my head. At some point you just have to save yourself. I went and found a sports bar showing a football game, drank a beer and did some push-ups. Feeling manly again, I headed back to the room for a nap in my underwear.

Tonight was our first of three formal nights and the dinner was outstanding again. This is beginning to sound like a broken record so this is the last time I will comment on how good the food has been. In our experience, the food is almost always been good on every cruise we have been on. Usually you will have one or two meals that were ho-hum, maybe even a bad one here and there, but thus far on this cruise, every dinner has been very good and two out of the three some of the best I have ever had…ok…enough of that. Anything regarding food from here on will only focus on bad, bordering on horrible. Mom and Lyn opted for the buffet tonight in hopes of finding something simple and less formal. Mom had come down with a bit of a sore throat this morning and so was trying to lay low most of the day letting it run its course. Here is hoping that will not linger! We opted to forgo the after dinner show titled Showtime: NYC starring the Nieuw Amsterdam Entertainers…nuff said. Thank you honey for taking pity on me. Instead, we decided to call it an early evening since we would be rising early for the 8:00 arrival into Athens.

Day 3 – Venice, Italy and At Sea

Our third day finds us still moored in Venice awaiting arrival of new printed circuit boards en route from Germany. Our captain has advised us that we will have the circuitry in hand, installed and ready to sail at 12:00 this afternoon. It is certainly a disappointment to have missed visiting Croatia, but what do you do? Venice is not such a bad place to be stranded if such an unfortunate occurrence is to beset our ship.

Melauna and I were up and about by 7:00 this morning. After another delicious breakfast in the Lido Restaurant, we set off to explore some parts of Venice that we may have missed yesterday. We decided to take a different route this morning and visit some of the more residential parts of the city. It was certainly a different look at the city with the locals going about their Sunday morning routines; grocery shopping, heading to church, hanging out the laundry for drying, etc. It was interesting to get off the beaten tourist path and see the “real” city. On one of the narrow roads, we found some tables that had been set up for selling items similar to a small flea market. We purchased some old postcards of Venice, some dating from the 40’s. Kind of a neat piece of nostalgia…I will have to find someone who can read Italian to tell me what the original sender of the postcard was saying to his/her recipient. With some time still left before needing to return to the ship, we made our way back towards St. Mark’s Square just to soak in a little more of the history of Venice. We have had a beautiful day so far for wandering around; clear skies and very comfortable temperatures.

After returning to the ship, I slipped out on to the veranda to soak up some of the Venetian sun and read while Melauna went up for lunch at the Lido. On the subject of the lunch buffet…maybe an hour or so after Melauna had returned from lunch, I accompanied mom and Lyn to the Lido for lunch to find the place absolutely jam packed. Every single passenger aboard the entire ship must have decided to have lunch…at the same place…all at once. Had I gone up there by myself and seen that horde of people, I would have quickly made my exit and found one of the other umpteen different venues offering meals on the ship without a second thought. Am I the only one with any common sense? What would possess people to subject themselves to that? Hunger, and here I am talking about the kind of hunger that presents itself a mere three hours after the last free meal, apparently releases some sort of chemical blocking agent that inhibits rational thought as well as common courtesy. Sheesh! Anyway…I found a table to hold for the three of us while mom and Lyn joined the herds at the feed trough. Fifteen minutes later, after they had arrived back with their lunch, I went back in to find the lines had diminished to reasonable lengths most of the crowd dispersed mitigating the displeasure of having a fellow passenger wedging herself between myself and another to yell “what is that?” to the friendly server behind the glass, or anybody else within earshot on Deck 9. A little common sense coupled with common decency folks…common sense and common decency…that’s all I saying.

The rest of the afternoon I enjoyed just relaxing out on the veranda with a book. The weather has been perfect today…and oh yeah…were sailing! We got underway around 1:00 or so. The mid to upper 70’s temperature and breeze blowing off the Mediterranean cannot be beat. While I was enjoying the veranda, Melauna had scheduled a spa treatment and so was being pampered, doted upon and generally soothed. This evening, the four of us enjoyed dinner at the Manhattan Dining Room and were treated to the singing of Happy Birthday in Filipino in honor of mom and Lyn’s birthdays. Dinner was wonderful as always and was begun with a complimentary glass of wine courtesy of the Captain as an amends for having to skip Croatia on the itinerary. This was a nice gesture I suppose…I mean, I understand that it was an unforeseen malfunction and probably could not have been anticipated or avoided but skipping one of the ports on a Mediterranean cruise is kind of a big deal in my book and to offer a complimentary glass of wine as compensation was…I don’t know…I suppose I would have been content with just an apology, which we obviously did receive from the Captain. I certainly didn’t expect any sort of monetary compensation as we did not have any excursions booked either through the ship or otherwise, so we were not out any money due to the malfunction. We were just out the opportunity to see a place that the likelihood is that we will never have a chance to see again, and part of the reason why we chose this particular cruise in the first place, so the free glass of wine kind of cheapened it for me I suppose. But, maybe that’s just me…

The after dinner entertainment was excellent again! Katzenjammer was a piano dynamic duo that was able to blend classical piano with comedy, which is no small feat. Both guys played side-by-side on the same grand piano simultaneously with hands and fingers just a blur. There was a video camera that was situated over the piano such that the audience had a close up of their hands as they played. One of the players had on white sleeves, the other black so that you could differentiate between the two…hard to explain, but a joy to watch. For anyone interested, search for the name Katzenjammer on YouTube and check it out for yourself. Melauna was able to get the guys to sign the DVD that they were selling to give to our nephew Gabe who is a fantastic pianist in his own right.

I probably should have called it a night after the show, but the craps table was calling and like the siren’s song, ended with me smashing my cash ship into the rocks. Mom, on the other hand faired really well at the casino, hitting a $237 payout on one of the slots. All’s well that end’s well. Another great day in the books.

Day 2 – Venice, Italy

Well it is about 3:00p and we have returned from an enjoyable day of exploring Venice. We set our alarm for 7:30 this morning to try and get adjusted to the time change and get back on track. After a quick shower, I headed for the Explorations Café for a cup of coffee and to register for internet service; a quick and easy process. After returning to the room, I tested out the wireless connection and found it to be somewhat slow but working nonetheless. Certainly well enough to post the Day 1 blog from last night, which I hope you enjoyed! Melauna and I made our way to the Lido deck for breakfast and found the lines to move quickly, the food excellent and the service very personable and pleasurable. We both agreed that the buffet breakfast was some of the best we had ever had. I had an omelet that could not have been any better. The orange juice is freshly squeezed and delicious!

After breakfast we decided to walk off some of those calories by exploring the ship. It’s always kind of fun getting “the lay of the land” on a ship that you have never been on. The appointments and decorations are very understated and tasteful. No Las Vegas glitz and glam here which is nice. We found several small tucked away lounges that we promised we would have to try out during the cruise. We finally found our way back to our stateroom and got ready to venture out into Venice. The weather this morning was overcast with the remnants of the storm that had moved through last night still lingering around. Throughout the day however; the clouds cleared up and all in all it was a beautiful day. We spent the afternoon just wandering aimlessly alongside the innumerable canals and crossing the equally numerous bridges stopping occasionally in little shops or to watch one of the many local artists painting portraits of the surroundings. We wandered around St. Marks Square along with several thousand other visitors and an equal number of pigeons. We wound our way along the Grand Canal to our furthest point at the Santa Maria Della Salute cathedral then began our trek back. We got a call from Lyn shortly after making the turn to retrace our steps to check in on us and to let us know that she and mom were now both up and rearing to go. Mom had slept until 11:30, not even woken up by the room service breakfast delivery that Lyn had ordered. We decided to meet along the Grand Canal closer to the ship and said that we would give them a call back once we got there. As we made our way back through St. Mark’s Square, the water had risen to the point that much of the square was ankle deep or more in water; forcing all of the many tourists to traverse narrow platforms to keep up out of the water. It was wall-to-wall people crowded onto these narrow footbridges making this far less enjoyable then our pass through earlier in the day, but we made it though unscathed but hungry! We found a nice restaurant alongside the Grand Canal, so gave Lyn and mom a call with our coordinates and waited for them after finding a table for four tucked away in a quite corner. Mom and Lyn had just recently had breakfast so it was just Melauna and I that got to enjoy our first authentic Venetian meal. I had grilled angler, Melauna had spaghetti and both were fantastic! We had a local Pinot Grigio that was equally as good. After lunch, Melauna was ready for a nap while Lyn and mom were ready to take on the day. We said our goodbyes at that point and made our way back to the ship, hopeful that our luggage had been delivered. Unfortunately, our hopes were dashed upon entering the room.

Next up on the order of the day was the standard muster drill and I was glad to learn that Holland America had followed suit with other cruiselines in eliminating the need to don the actual lifevest prior to walking to your designated lifeboat station and be given proper instruction in what to do if our lovely ship suddenly began sinking to the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea. After that little pep talk, Melauna and Lyn headed to the Guest Relations desk to inquire as to the status of the lost luggage while mom and I headed to the Lido Restaurant for a little snack. Upon arrival back to our staterooms, wonder of wonders, our long lost luggage had finally arrived! As we are rejoicing in the homecoming of our worldly possessions, our captain chimes in for an announcement in his polished Holland America captainspeak…”Uhh…ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking…blah, blah, blah…we have had a minor setback with out scheduled departure time of 5:00 due to a malfunction in some navigation electronics on the bridge…” Ok…now I know what you are thinking… “This guy is just making shit up now for some cheap laughs.” Not so! You can’t make this stuff up. I think I know what happened though…they swapped out the inoperative American Airlines navigation equipment with this ship’s navigation equipment, because really what are the odds that the two primary modes of transportation involved in this eastern Mediterranean adventure should suffer the same fate…the inability to navigate? ARE YOU KIDDING ME? REALLY??? So, off we went to dinner.

Mom and Lyn opted for room service so Melauna and I had dinner for two in the main dining room. We met our waiter that will be taking care of us for the duration of the cruise, Ulysses. What a great guy! Very personable, funny and attentive all without being intrusive. Dinner itself could not have been better. We both thoroughly enjoyed every course as well as the chenin blanc that it had been paired with. We both agreed that the food, although we had only sampled a day and a half’s worth of it, was the best of any of the now eleven cruises that we have been on. After dinner, we met back up with mom and Lyn to head off to the evening’s entertainment: Cantare. I am not sure what musical category you would place this four-man singing tour d’force, but they were fantastic. I am not typically big on the ship’s after dinner shows, not that I don’t recognize talent and appreciate the effort, it is just not really my thing unless it is a comedian, a juggler, a dwarf contortionist or some other low-brow form of entertainment, but these guys were good!

Oh yeah…it was during the introduction of Cantare that the cruise director snuck in the little factoid that the decision had been made that we will stay in port overnight in Venice, skip tomorrow’s port in Croatia, and spend the next two days at sea sailing for Athens. “Now…who’s ready for Cantare?”
Oh well, at least we didn’t have to wear the stupid lifevests during the muster drill.

Day 1 – Embarkation in Venice, Italy

The short story…we made it to Venice, and are comfortably settled into our spacious Superior Veranda Suite; stateroom number 6113 aboard the Nieuw Amsterdam.

The long story…I will attempt to limit the profanity that may be necessary to retell the tale that leads up to the comfortable settling in to our room aboard the ship; however I am not making any promises. So…where to begin? I suppose the beginning is as good a place to start as any. Melauna and I left OKC around 11:15 to drive down to Dallas DFW airport to meet up with Mom and Lyn to catch our 5:40 flight to Madrid. We were successful in making our Rendevouz point in Grapevine and caravanning to the airport with plenty of time to spare prior to our 5:00 boarding time. So, 5:00 comes and goes without any announcement of boarding our flight, then 5:15…5:30…when finally the departure time magically changes to 6:00 which is then updated to 6:20. We finally boarded the plane at 6:30 for our now newly updated departure time of 6:40. A quick note on the boarding procedure…chaos. Our seats were on rows 22 and 23, by the time that we actually found any place to stow our carry on luggage, it was scattered in bits and pieces from row 8 through 30 and if you have ever tried to swim upstream on a fully booked Boeing 767 you know the frustration. But finally, all our bags are stowed to the satisfaction of the FAA and we are nestled into our two square feet of real estate that we will enjoy for the next nine hours and fifteen minutes…that is until the captain comes over the intercom system to inform us, in his polished American Airlines captainspeak…”uhh ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking…blah, blah, blah….both navigation systems appear to be inoperable making it difficult to steer across the Atlantic and arrive safely in Spain…so grab your shit that you just spent the last 30 minutes trying to cram in any available space aboard this no navigating, overbooked tin tube and get the hell out!” I don’t recall if those were his exact words, but I think that is close. So back off the plane we go and are herded back to the pre-flight corral, blissfully mooing as we go. From my bay in the pre-flight corral, I see that our new scheduled departure time is set for 8:30. Yep, you guessed it…8:30 comes and goes and we are still sitting amongst our hay and poo. At 9:00 we try this whole flying thing again, this time with a different plane. At 9:40, a mere four hours from our scheduled departure time, we go wheels up. By the way, I should mention that immediately following our captain’s navigation bombshell, Melauna grabbed her iPhone thingy and changed our connecting flight in Madrid to a later time…some quick thinking that saved us a lot of standing in line time as well as the possibility of having that flight booked up.

After finally getting in the air, the flight to Madrid goes according to plan with no further delays, arriving at about 2:00, giving us plenty of time to catch our 4:10 flight to Venice. So we make our way to our departure gate, which apparently was planned to be the furthest possible point from our arrival gate. That was handy. We make it to the gate to be told that we needed to go to the Iberia Check In desk to obtain our boarding passes. Where is the Iberia Check-In desk you ask? Well, it is technically still in Madrid, but just. So we make the trek back across the airport and receive our boarding passes so that we can head all the way back to the departure gate. By the time that we finally make it to the departure gate, the plenty of time that we had had dwindled down to scant seconds before missing the flight. But alas, we did make the flight and arrived in Venice at 6:30.

Finally, we had made it. Just a quick walk down to retrieve our checked luggage and we were off to the Nieuw Amsterdam to begin our adventure. After checking the monitors, we find that our luggage is to be spit out of whirly thing number 5. Where is whirly thing number 5? Oh, it’s the last one at the faarrrttthest point from where you are standing…can you see it?…way down there? We make it to the #5 whirly and stand around waiting for our luggage to be ejected…and we waited…and we waited. I checked the monitors again to ensure that there wasn’t a mistake in my whirly selection to see the notice that all luggage associated with Iberia flight 3306 from Madrid has been properly ejected. What the hell? Surely not. But yet, surely so. Yes, they had lost all of our checked baggage. So, Melauna and I go to speak with the Italian authorities regarding our misplaced worldly possessions. After waiting in line for 45 minutes due to all of the other fellow bovine that had just had their worlds rocked, we were able to speak with a friendly Iberian associate about reclaiming our, oh I don’t know…CLOTHES AND STUFF FOR THAT WE THOUGHT WE MIGHT WEAR FOR THE NEXT TWO WEEKS…Fortunately we were told that they knew exactly where the luggage was and would be able to deliver it to the ship in the morning before we sailed. Since everything else having to do with the airlines had so flawlessly been executed, I have little worry that our luggage will arrive just when they told us.

Prior to departing on this adventure, we had procured the services of Venice Limo to escort us from the airport to the cruise ship. And so, after signing all of the requisite paperwork for our lost luggage, we exited Marco Polo International Airport and lo and behold our driver is there holding a sign with my name beautifully stenciled on heavy stock Old World cloth parchment that Venice is so famously known for….Oh wait…I’m sorry, that was what I was expecting. The lack of sleep over the past 36 hours is beginning to blur the lines between desire and reality…no, he was there, which I suppose is a small miracle in light of the everything else that had or had not happened, and he did indeed have a sign with my name on it that appeared to have been written on a sheet of notebook paper with a Mark-A-Lot held between his toes. Whatever, just get us to the frigging ship already. So, it is quickly apparent that he is as conversant in English as I am in Italian. After Buongiorno, our conversation had run its course. This hacked me off somewhat because the Venice Limo website specifically stated that all of its drivers were fluent in English. I suppose fluent is a subjective term. Anyway, after a 15 minute drive we have our ship in sight. We pull up to the embarkation terminal and begin to unload our carry-on luggage. “Finally” I sigh quietly to myself…”We made it”. A smile begins to form across my beard stubbled face. It is 8:00 p.m. on the nose, and interestingly enough, the embarkation terminal closes at 8:00 p.m. So as we were unloading our bags, those sneaky Italian embarkation bastards were closing up shop. We get everything unloaded, turn around and…what the hell? Are you kidding? Nope. Closed. So now, the whole language barrier starts to come into play. Our driver goes and talks with someone, comes back and shrugs his shoulders. That I understand, shoulder shrugging is a gesture that knows no borders. In fact if a Martian had landed at the Venician Port Authority at that moment and shrugged his shoulders, I would know beyond a shadow of a doubt that he didn’t have a clue what the hell was going on. So, I shrug my shoulders back at the driver and he begins talking to me in Italian. In reply, I tell him “No comprende”. He groans, looks around and decides on a different tack. He tries speaking to me in Italian…oh wait, he just tried that. I reply with “No comprendo” this time, thinking “No comprede” may have in fact been Spanish and “No comprendo” would clear everything up. In response I got another groan, which I take as a victory, since I was able to convey in a language other than my own to this guy what my thoughts were…”I don’t understand”, while he had failed miserably in conveying anything to me other than a should shrug, which, as we have established, even a creature from outerspace could comprehend. So, as a last ditch effort, he tries speaking in Italian again. Maybe bolstered by my flawless “no comprendo”. This time, I tried “I….DONT…..SPEAK…..ITALIAN!” That seemed to work. He walked off. It at least worked in the sense that he didn’t try any Italian on me again. Finally I see him waiving in the common “come here!” motion. Got it! Gestures work so much better than words. A gesture is really hard to screw up. We finally are handed off to some folks that speak a little English and begin our “backdoor” check in to the ship that at this point I am really beginning to wonder if we will ever board.

Another 45 minutes and we are checked in, loaded into the Holland America network, had our pictures taken (I’ll admit that I have looked better at this point), given key cards for our rooms and are sent off with a smile. We make it to our staterooms at straight up 9:00 in dire need of sleep and sustenance. We opted for the main dining room and I will apologize to all for my presence in the splendid Manhattan Dining Room looking like roadkill in shorts. Really, I am sorry. I am one of those that would have leered down my nose had I seen myself walking in there looking like that. Hopefully you understand. Dani, our waiter was superb, as were all of our meals. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed all of the courses that were offered. After dinner, and hugs and kisses to Mom and Lyn, we made our way back to our rooms to sleep off what had been quite an eventful day and a half.

So, now here it is 1:00 a.m., or as we say in Oklahoma, 6:00 in the afternoon, wide awake but comfortably snuggled into our room aboard the Nieuw Amsterdam.

So far so good…

Mediterranean Empires Pre-Cruise

I thought that I would lay out some of the planning and thoughts that have gone into our upcoming cruise to the Eastern Mediterranean. This will be our 10th cruise overall and first to sail on Holland America. As I write this, the Nieuw Amsterdam has just completed her maiden voyage and so will only be about three months old when we arrive to set sail. (Read John Heald's blog from the inaugural cruise here). Our previous cruises have been with Royal Caribbean and Celebrity so the change of cruiseline as well as cruising on a brand new ship is both exciting and wrought with unanswered questions....will we like Holland America as much as RCCL and X? Will they still be working out the bugs seen so many times on a new ship? Will the demographic be any different? so on and so on....

We are travelling with my mother and sister who have accompanied us on several other cruises and we have always had a fantastic time. I will work on putting together some pics from those cruises as well. A few years back, we asked my mother if she would like to join us on a Caribbean cruise and it immediately became a February tradition for my wife and I along with Mom and her guest (one of my two sisters) to take a weeklong cruise to someplace warm. This year mom will celebrate her 75th birthday and this is our gift to her. A return trip to her favorite spot in the world...Santorini, Greece.

So, on to the itinerary....We will be sailing out of Venice then calling on ports in Croatia, Turkey and Greece. In all, this will be a 12 night cruise and the longest (by one day) than any of the previous cruises we have been on. After arriving in Venice at 2:50 p.m. following a layover in Madrid we will plan on heading straight to the ship for the embarkation process. Unlike any cruise we have been on, we will not sail out the same day that we board the ship. We will actually stay overnight in the port of Venice and sail out the following day at 5:00 p.m. At this point I am unsure how I or anyone else will feel after the overnight flight so we will have to gauge that once we get there. With any luck, we will all be bright eyed and bushy tailed and ready to go back out and explore the canals of Venice after delivery of our luggage.

The following day we are scheduled to arrive in Split, Croatia at 9:00 a.m and set to depart at 4:00 p.m. The plan right now is to take a bus first thing to the town of Trogir for a little exploring and then head back to Split around lunchtime. From what I have gathered, it sounds like a bus ride of about 45 minutes to and from Trogir. We haven't decided yet to have lunch there or Split...still looking for some recommendations on that one. After arriving back in Split, the main attraction is Diocletion's Palace and if we have timed it right, the crowd's would have died down somewhat and we will have the palace to ourselves. The city of Split itself sprang from the construction of the palace that Roman emporer Diocletion had built for himself in 295 A.D. returning to the Dalmation coast of his birth. The palace is some 1 million sq ft and is one of the best preserved oldest private residences in Europe. After some obligatory souvenir shopping, it's back to the ship. On the topic of souvenir shopping, my goal is to find a neck tie to bring back as a memento from Croatia. From what I understand, the neck tie originated in Croatia and was introduced to France and the world after a group of Croatian mercenaries arrived in Paris in 1635 to lend aid to King Louis XIII. The French were immediately struck by the silk scarves tied around the soldiers necks and the fashion craze began. The French initially called the scarf "le croat" which later became the cravat. Anyway...seems like a cool thing to get.

The following day is a sea day so there will be plenty of time for lounging around. I hope to get to spend some time in the Thermal Suite....I had a chance to take advantage of something similar on another cruise and it was really nice! The tiled lounge chairs are heated and coupled with the sound of running water from the fountain create a very relaxing experience.

Our next stop is in Athens, Greece. We will be in port from 8:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. I have to say that this is the only place that I am a little nervous about. With all of the political turmoil and strikes that are currently going on there is the possibility that we could miss this stop. Thus far, there have been three cruises that have skipped this port due to planned strikes but from what I have read, if you are there on a day when the strike is not going on, you would never know that there was any unrest at all. The problem is that some cruises have rescheduled this stop for a different day during the cruise and jumbled up the itinerary to accommodate the change in date. If that happens, a lot of the planning and reservations that have been made could potentially go out the window. Nothing I can do about it, so I try not to think about it too much. Provided everything goes according to plan, we have booked a private tour with Paul, the owner of Athens By Taxi. The itinerary that has been suggested is a visit to: The Acropolis where you will see the Masterpieces which were built ''during the Golden Age of Pericles'': The Parthenon, Propylea, The Temple of Athena Nike, Erechthion, The Cariatides, The New Acropolis Museum, The Temple of Zeus, The Panathenaic Stadium (also known as The Kallimarmaro; the original stadium was built in 1863 for the first modern Olympic games in 1896), The Hill of Lycabettous, The Old Palace, The Tomb of The Unknown Soldier and The Changing of The Guards, The Plaka for lunch and finally The Greek Agora, The Roman Agora and The Tower of Winds. A breakdown of the time is as follows: From and to the Piraeus port (1h), The Acropolis (about 1h30m), The New Acropolis Museum (about 1h30m), The Temple of Zeus and The Panathenaic Stadium (45m), The Hill of Lycabettous (45m), The Old Palace, The Tomb of The Unknown Soldier and The Changing of The Guards (30m), Plaka for lunch (1h), The Greek Agora, The Roman Agora and The Tower of Winds (2h). One of the Cruise Critic members was gracious enough to suggest Thanassis as a great spot for lunch in the Plaka close to Monastriaki Square. We will be researching this overall plan a little more and may decided to change the suggested intinerary somewhat...more details to follow.

Following Athens, we will spend the next two days in Istanbul, Turkey. Arriving at 4:00 p.m. we hope to find a recommendation for an authentic Turkish dinner that evening. The ship's food is always wonderful, but it will be hard to top going out into Istanbul and getting a taste of the local flavor. Maybe I can find one of those hookah pipe bars to indulge in after dinner :-) The following day, we have booked an all day tour with Ekol Tours. As with Athens, we have a suggested itinerary to work from and can alter it as needed. The suggested sites to see are: the Blue Mosque, the Grand Bazaar, Santa Sophia, Topkapi Palace and the Hippodrome. We will be in port this day until 5:00 p.m. As we gather more information and advice on sights to see in Istanbul, I will update as needed.

The following day we will arrive in Mykonos at 1:00 pm. We have booked an excursion for all of us through the ship to tour the island of Delos. The tour departs at 2:00 and states that will last 4 hours. From what we have read, it sounds like the ferry ride to Delos from Mykonos takes about 45 minutes, so I am assuming that we will be on the island from about 2:45 - 5:15 and arriving back on Mykonos about 6:00 pm. Apparently, according to local laws, everyone is supposed to depart the island by 3:00, however it appears that Holland America has an arrangement, as do other cruise lines I am sure, to allow cruise ship passengers an exemption from this rule since they will all be on the same ferry leaving the island. One unfortunate thing however that I have read is that the museum located on Delos will most likely be closed by the time we get there. The museum is supposed to contain some very nice pieces from antiquity. But, what are you going to do? After arriving back on Mykonos, we will plan on having dinner at a restaurant that has been highly recommended called Alefkandra. It is located right on the water and the timing should be just about perfect to watch the sunset on the Aegean Sea. After dinner we can shop and so forth until we are ready to go back to the ship. We don't leave port until 11:00 pm, however since we will have an early start the following day in Ephesus (Kusadasi), Turkey we may not want to stay out too late. We will arrive in Kusadasi at 7:00 a.m. the following morning and have a tour planned with Ekol Tours who is scheduled to pick us up first thing after we dock...

Speaking of Ephesus...As mentioned, we have pre-arranged a guided tour with Ekol Travel for the day in Ephesus. Our ship is scheduled to dock in Kusadasi at 7:00 a.m. and we will be met first thing. The suggested itinerary includes the Library of Celsus, Temple of Hadrian, Odeon Theatre, The House of Virgin Mary. Basilica of St. John and the Temple of Artemis. Nur, the representative with Ekol Travel has been very responsive and a pleasure to deal with in planning our tour. He has suggested allowing a minimum of five hours for the tour and that we begin as soon as the ship arrives in port in order to stay ahead of the crowds. Fortunately for us, according to Cruise TT.com the Westerdam will be the only other ship in port that day for a total port load of 4,020 passengers. We should have plenty of time following the tour to do some shopping and sightseeing on our own before departing for Santorini at 7:00 p.m.

We will arrive in Santorini on October 3rd at 8:00 and depart at 5:00 pm. Our plan is to be off the ship at 8:00 am (or as soon as is allowed) and take the funicular up to Fira (Thira). The choices here are funicular, donkey or by foot. After all that we have read about the ill treatment of the donkeys and the push by the locals to do away with the donkeys all together, the fleas and smelly clothes afterward, we changed our minds about our original plans for the donkey ride to the top. On foot is an option, but 600 steps uphill, as exhilarating as it sounds, was ruled out. That leaves the gondola. Several people had posted questions about the height of the gondola since fear of heights was an issue and were reassured that the car stays very close to the side of the mountain and that it isn't an issue. After arriving at the top, which is the town of Fira we plan on renting a car for the day. Other options were public bus or taxi. Sounds like the buses can be very overcrowded with pushing and shoving and the likelihood of heavy-set woman with an ample backside clearing the isles with said backside aided in ruling out that option. Taxis are apparently limited, so the decision was made to be masters of our own destinies and rent a car. After obtaining the rental car, we plan on driving to the northern end of the island to Oia. If you have seen Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, apparently a lot of the movie was filmed there. Although I am a big fan of traveling as well as pants, I have somehow missed seeing the movie. I am sure it's great. After arriving in Oia and some aimless wandering, shopping and sightseeing we plan to have lunch in Ammoudi which is located directly below Oia on the water which is the rim of the caldera. The restaurant is Sunset Taverna and was featured on the Travel Channel's Samantha Brown's Passport to Europe. The seafood is as fresh as it gets with fisherman unloading the morning's catch right there at the taverna! I also read that there are some very nice art gallaries in Oia, so that may be of particular interest to the art afficianados. After lunch we plan to drive back to Fira for sightseeing, shopping, etc. for the remainder of our time. Either on the way to, or coming back from Oia, a point of interest that we may want to stop at is the medieval castle of Skaros located in Imerovigli. The views from this highest point on the island of Santorini are supposed to be breathtaking.

Our final port of this cruise will be in Katakolon, Greece which is about a 45 minute drive from Olympia. Our plan is to rent a car and drive up to Olympia first thing after leaving the ship. Our scheduled arrival time is 9:00 a.m. I was able to get a hold of a sweet ride from Katakolo Rent a Car, the highly sought after stick shift Fiat Panda. I can only hope that the bright yellow model shown on the website is still available once we get there! Once in Olympia, the sight of the original Olympic Games in 776 BC, we will have time to tour the archaeological site of the Olympic Stadium and all of the surroundings. It is here that I will issue the challenge of a foot race on the 200-meter track with the winner having the honor of driving the bright yellow stick shift Fiat Panda back to Katakolon later that day. Better bring your "A" game because I am in it to win it! After we have had our fill of Olympia, we will head back to Katakolon for lunch, shopping and what not. Only about two miles from Katakolon is the Mercouri Wine Estate. Providing we still have time before the 5:00 departure, we will make a stop there to sample some of the local wines.


We have a final day at sea before our arrival back in Venice or as I call it, "Cramming Day". This is the day that you try to cram in all of the activities that you promised yourself that you were going to do on this cruise that you haven't done followed by trying to cram all of the stuff you bought during the cruise into luggage that was crammed when you started. It seems like before every cruise I tell myself that this cruise I will take the time to just relax. Hopefully I can cram some of that in...


Upon our arrival back in Venice, we will have the day to do and see the things that we may have missed at the beginning of our trip. Since we were unable to find a flight out that morning, we decided to stay overnight and catch the first flight out the following day. We are staying at the Hotel Antiche Figure, a boutique hotel that occupies a XV century palazzo overlooking the Grand Canal. With the glowing reviews that this hotel received, I have to say that I feel fortunate to have been able to book it. The only definite plans that we have for our day here is to go to the famous glass factories in Murano and possibly the quaint village of Burano . This will conclude what promises to be a very memorable, fascinating and enjoyable Mediterranean Empires cruise.