Day 13 - Rijeka

We walked into town late morning today and had a pleasant stroll down the main pedestrian mall. Lots of locals were out and about, being a Sunday afternoon.   The restaurants and coffee shops were busy as was a very large farmers market where you could buy flowers, fruits, nuts, and vegetables. People were setting up booths along the streets in preparation for a Christmas market that must start in the coming week.  

We are spending this afternoon getting packed up.  All suitcases have to be put into the hallway this evening, so it takes some planning to make sure you keep everything you need for the night and morning  -- and can fit it in your carry-ons. 

Tomorrow we fly home from Venice.  It's been a wonderful trip, but time to get back to the real world.

Day 11 - Dubrovnik

We had a very enjoyable and relaxing day today. Since we had already visited this port a few years ago, we did not book an excursion, but just took the shuttle into the city and walked around the walled Old Town at our own pace.  This was the first day of their Christmas Market which made it very special with all the decorations.  We visited two Orthodox churches which were very beautiful. There was also an open air produce market in progress.

 On our way out I stopped to buy a local beer and then a salt breadstick at a bakery.  It doesn't get any better than that! The beer was called Fjaka and had this tale printed on the side. 

During our sail-away (which fortunately was during daylight), we passed this spectacular bridge as we headed out to sea.  We both recalled seeing it on our last visit and were glad to see it again. 

On to our last port, Rijeka!

Day 10 - At Sea, headed to Dubrovnik

It was a beautiful sunny day today, high in the mid 60's, and great weather for a sea day.  The Pool Deck is actually in use today with lots of people sunning and swimming.  

Princess had a special dessert buffet at noon today. Yum!  There were three tables of special desserts.  Looks like the pastry team has been working overtime!   

Today was Pub Lunch (traditional English pub food) which we always enjoy.  It was tough picking between bangers and mash, or fish and chips, but fish and chips won out.  

I played ring toss today and won!  Here's my prize, a bottle of champagne, which we enjoyed with our in-room appetizers, a formal night perk for being elite status.  Be sure to notice the shirt I'm wearing!

Dinner tonight was a classic - lobster and prawns.  We enjoyed it, especially having it opened for us so we could just enjoy the meat as opposed to our visit to Maine last September where we had to crack open the entire lobster. After dinner we attended the Captains Circle reception with a free rum punch and a door prize drawing for a bottle of champagne which we did not win.  

Later we attended a new show, "What The World Needs Now...", which was the first time this company had performed it.  It was made up of love songs from the 60's (Burt Bachara sure knew how to write them!) but with little dancing. 

Day 9 - Athens

Our early morning excursion took us around Athens, visiting the Olympic Stadium where the Olympic torch starts its run, then on to The Parthenon.  Overall it was a very impressive visit, but our tour guide gave us a 30 minute lecture once we arrived at the Parthenon and, to be honest, I cannot recall a single thing she said!  Afterwards Mary and I had enough time to walk the entire temple area and take lots of pictures. 

As you can see from the prior two and from these pictures, the Parthenon is undergoing a lengthy restoration process as there are hundreds of small pieces laying around waiting to be matched, repaired, and put into place. 

Here's a picture of Mars Hill where Apostle Paul preached to the philosophers in Athens. (Acts 17:22ff)  I was glad to be able to see this Biblical site. 

On a side note, we really enjoyed the "Do You Want To Dance" show last evening.  In talking to two of the dancers today, they said it was one of their favorites as well.    

Sea Day tomorrow!

Day 8 - Mykonos

We had our itinerary changed due to President Obama's visit to Athens, which closed all monuments and public facilities for today.  Fortunately, the captain was able to head to Mykonos today and Athens tomorrow instead of the other way around otherwise this would be the second time we visited Athens only to have The Acropolis closed.  

As I'm writing this we are enjoying some very warm sunshine on our balcony as we overlook this picturesque town.

We had an early morning excursion to see the highlights of the island and take a walking tour through the narrow streets, leading us to the famous windmills.   Once again we had a very knowledgable tour guide (reportedly they all have to have a degree in Greek History to do this), which can be both good and bad.  Lots of insight, but also some excess information.  I liked what our tour guide in  Rhodes said on several occasions "I could tell you more about '...' but as tourists you probably don't care."  So it was today.  Overall Santorini was a lot more impressive the Mykonos  with the contrasting blue and white instead of all white.  I am also thankful I was able to make this comparison in person.

After returning to the ship the clouds cleared and the sun came out.  I participated in golf chipping and carpet bowling activities, read a book and enjoyed a mid afternoon snack while Mary read and enjoyed catching some rays on the balcony. 

Supper tonight is one of our favorites - surf and turf - so we will be in the dining room. Most nights we have not felt like dressing up and have been eating in the buffet. After that, is another production show "Do You Want To Dance?" which we always enjoy. 

Day 7 - Mytilene - NOT

We had an unscheduled sea day today since when we approached the island to drop anchor  the winds started blowing at 40 mph and the waves were over 6', making tendering unadvisable for safety reasons. This picture was as close as we got to the city. We did not have much planned for this island except walking around the town a bit. The island produces 50% of all Greek Uzo and that was of no interest to us.

The cruise staff added a few activities for the day, one of which was Stairway Golf, where you have to putt down the staircase (with a 90 degree bend) without the ball falling off the side, then into a paper cup.  It was a lot of fun and a great way to pass some time, watching more than a dozen people give it a try.  In addition, Mary was able to catch some rays on our balcony this afternoon while I played bridge and did a ring toss game.  We later watched a move, The Intern, and attended a star gazing event in the evening.  Unfortunately it was quite cloudy. 8-(

Day 6 - Rhodes

We had a very knowledgable tour guide for this mornings' tour of Rhodes. We started out riding a trolley and then set out on foot through the walled Old City.  Our guide recapped then entire history of this island back to it's founding around 400 BC.  

One of the key times was after the Crusades, when the Knights of St John, who occupied it for about 400 years, built the wall around the city that you see in these pictures. This is the main street of the old town and is called the Street of Knights.  I've also included a photo of one of the many churches.  Our guide said that the apostle Paul brought the Gospel to the island around 57 AD and the island remains 97% Christian to this day.

After our tour we stayed in the city and had a Greek lunch of pita bread and local dips, along with moussaka.

We capped off the evening with the production show Cinematastic, a montage of famous show tunes. We knew all the songs, and being a small theater you can make eye contact with the dancers, which makes it even more fun. 

Day 5 - Santorini

We had a very enjoyable day at Santorini, taking a bus ride around the island, wine tasting, and then a cable car down to tender out to the ship.

This island has over 400 churches and chapels, with this one being typical.  Many are built by one family as a private chapel.  What was even more curious are the miniature chapels.  Some are "doll house" sized while others are maybe 18" tall and sit on fences in back yards. The large number of these miniatures was quite amazing.

At an excursion stop on a "black beach" (which was more like gravel than sand) Mary and I posed on these rocks while enjoying the sun and warmer temperatures - up in the 60's while our previous stops barely made it into the 50's.  We also had a stop at a local winery where we enjoyed tasting not only their wines but cherry tomatoes, which amazingly grow quite well on this arid island, bread and cheese. 

After we returned to the ship we headed for the buffet which has seating on the open deck at the back of the ship.  What a way to enjoy lunch, with this marvelous view!  Too bad we can't have the captain just keep us anchored here for a few days...

Nothing much planned for this evening, then on to Rhodes tomorrow!

Day 4 - At Sea

Today we are at sea on the southern edge of last night's storm which cleared up later in the afternoon, but in the meantime the ship had a lot of movement.  We continue to enjoy the relative spaciousness of our cabin. 

There are quite a few activities going on today. This morning, Mary went to an ice carving demonstration; it's hard to tell from the photo but the original block of ice ended up being a bird. I went to a port talk on Mykonos and Rhodes, after which I got a call to be a 4th at bridge, which I accepted. In the afternoon Mary went to a jewelry show while I played more bridge.  

This afternoon we looked out our balcony window at the stormy weather and discovered a double rainbow.  We were able to see the entire arc of the inner one for a few minutes, truly breathtaking!

Tonight after dinner we attended the Motor City production show, one we've seen 3 or 4 times on other cruises but love it every time.  The dancers were very energetic and did a super job. 

Day 3 - Montenegro

Check out the map on the right. Kotor is located on the lower corner of the inner-most bay on the right. We sailed into Kotor, Montenegro this morning in a thick fog that started when we passed from the central bay to the city. I can only image the careful navigation going on in the Bridge as they eased the ship through a 1000' wide gap between the mountains with zero visibility!    As we approached the city the fog started to lift and we ended up with a beautiful day.

This city is absolutely amazing!  Our cruise director said "the first time I arrived in Kotor I opened the curtains and thought I was in Narnia"!  And that is quite true -- the mountains impressively rise up several thousand feet right from the sea.   This is the picture of the city from our balcony, with the old city walls.

Our excursion today took us to the tiny village of Lastva.  We took a bus from the pier, but had to change to small vans to get to our destination. The village only has 2 residents now, down from several hundred a few decades ago, as people moved down to the coast where the jobs and schools were. There is a beautiful Roman Catholic church here (built in 1410), and many people make the trip to it frequently to worship.  We were then treated to some local foods and entertainment.  We enjoyed wine, cheese, prosciutto, olives and bread, while listening to two guitarists play their folk music.  We were especially pleased that they included their own version of Country Roads ("Take Me Home ... to Montenegro")

After the village we headed back to Kotor for a tour of the Old City. As with other cities in this area, it has a long history with many ancient buildings and evidence of domination by the Venetians.  One thing that surprised us is the number of palm trees in this part of the world. So rather than post a picture of another old building, here is one of our ship docked at Kotor. 

This evening we enjoyed watching the ship depart Kotor and navigating the narrow route out to the Adriatic Sea.  Due to a storm rolling in from Italy, we left earlier than our scheduled departure time and are experiencing very rough weather so that we cannot go onto our balcony at all this evening.  The captain said we should outrun this storm by morning and have a fairly calm sea day tomorrow as we head towards Santorini.  

Day 2 - Split Croatia

We had an early morning half day excursion today to visit Trogir and the Diocletian's Palace in Split. Overall it was interesting and we had a very knowledgable tour guide, but at some point "too much information" syndrome kicked in.  So while it was an informative day, "TMI syndrome" made for a long day.,

Trogir is a small, quaint village with some ancient ruins, mostly from when the Venetians occupied this area.  After our tour we had some free time so we enjoyed a treat from a local bakery while enjoying the scenery.  

In Split, the Palace was very impressive.  Seeing Roman ruins that are over 1700 years old and still standing was quite amazing.  Nearly everything is made out of limestone and the blocks in the palace fit together so well that no mortar was needed. Here's a picture of the palace and tower taken from our ship.

After our excursion we headed back to the ship, had lunch, and then relaxed in our cabin for the afternoon.  The voyage out of the Split Harbor was as impressive as we'd heard.  After that, we went to dinner which included a "Chocolate Journeys" dessert (a new Princess feature).

Day 1 - Departing Venice

After a good night's sleep we had a very relaxing morning with a nice hotel-provided hot breakfast followed by a private gondola ride through the canals of Venice, including a short stint on the Grand Canal.  At one point we passed near a square we walked on yesterday which was neat to see. 

After checking out of our hotel we picked up CNN on the lobby TV, and watched coverage of  Donald Trump's victory in the presidential election. At noon our water taxi arrived to take us to our ship. The picture is view out the back of our boat of a canal we passed through after leaving out hotel.

This is our first time in a mini suite and we are both amazed at how roomy it is!  (I fear someone may get a bit spoiled..) Our suitcases were delivered when we came back from lunch and we are able to unpack and still have empty drawers and shelves.

This evening we watched as the ship sailed out of Venice at dusk, passing St. Mark's Square.  Then we had dinner and went to the Welcome Aboard show in the theater.   On to our first stop in Croatia tomorrow!

Heading to the Adriatic Sea

Yesterday our "too good to pass up" vacation started with flights from Detroit to JFK and then overnight to Venice. As flights go, it was a long travel day but it got us here OK and on time. We were able to sleep a little on the plane but not as much as we'd hoped (or liked) to. We did get to see the Alps from the air as we approached Italy.

After arriving in the city via water taxi, we settled into our hotel room,  enjoying many gondolas passing by our window.  Then we headed for the Rialto Bridge which spans the Grand Canal, and had a pizza lunch.  Walking around Venice is a challenge as no street apparently goes straight for more than a few hundred yards, and many a lot less that that. But thanks to walking directions on Google Maps, we arrived at the Rialto Bridge (but not without a few missteps) and got back to our hotel afterwards.

Our next stop was St Mark's Square and the famous St Mark's Basilica which we toured.  Admission was freewill, and the place was beautiful, but no photography was allowed inside.
After that we headed back to our hotel and the lack of sleep caught up with us so we napped for a couple of hours then had a wonderful Italian dinner on St Mark's Square.

Tomorrow we're planning to take a gondola ride then wait for a boat to pick us up and take us to the Pacific Princess!