Will's thoughts on our trip.

(as reported by one of his teachers):

Will, where did you go after you left Greece?
"Turkey. NOT THE FOOD! The country!"

Will, what was Spain like?
"Like a hotel room with lots of suitcases."

Malta.

Possibly one of the most beautiful, interesting places I have ever been! Hope to see it again someday.

Egypt.

Unbelievable sights! No camel rides - one euro to get on one, forty if you want to get off (they tell you this once you are up there). Crazy stuff. Saw the Pyramids, rode on the Nile, visted the Citadel of Saladin.

Greece & Turkey

THURSDAY, APRIL 2

When we awoke Thursday morning, our ship was anchored off the beautiful coast of Greece. Our original itinerary had us scheduled to port in Piraeus, with a tour of Athens. Due to an unexpected transportation strike in the city of Athens (which would essentially shut down the port and all roads leading to the city), our captain opted instead to port in the city of Nafplion, on the Peloponnesus peninsula. Although we had been looking forward to seeing the Acropolis, the Parthenon, and other sites in Athens, Nafplion was a beautiful place to go ashore. The landscape when we walked out on deck that morning was breathtaking. It was like being in a painting. To go ashore in this port we had to tender across from the ship to the pier. From there we met our tour guide/group/bus. Our first stop was a quick look at the four-mile long Canal of Corinth, which cuts across the Isthmus of Corinth. Its sheer rock walls rise 285 feet above the water on both sides. We stood on a little pedestrian bridge over the canal - I managed to stay on for about .5 seconds before I had to get off. Heights and I just don’t get along. From here it was a short drive to ancient Corinth, where we explored the ancient ruins. Most impressive was the Temple of Apollo, located on a hilltop and backdropped by beautiful mountains. After leaving the ruins, we visited a local restaurant for lunch. We were served traditional Greek dishes, including moussaka, greek salad, and a veal/pasta dish (don’t remember the name), and an orange for dessert. It was all very tasty! Tummies full, we headed to Mycenae and more ancient ruins. This site is located on the top of a hill and offered some spectacular views of the Greek countryside and olive tree orchards. The entrance to site is called Lion’s Gate, which is Europe’s oldest monumental sculpture. We hiked to the top of the site, and back down the other side. On the back side of the hill (by the way, I say hill, but it was UP there!) there was an entrance to what appeared to be a tunnel. Believing that this was just a pass-through to the other side, we followed a bunch of teenagers in. We walked down steps carved into the rock, and as we got further in, it became darker, wetter, and colder. A few minutes later it was completely pitch black. The stairs kept going down further, and it became clear to me that this was not going to lead anywhere good anytime soon. The steps soon became less defined and more slippery. Also, did I mention there were absolutely no handrails? If the kids in front of us did not have their cell phones on, it would have been complete darkness. To top it off, the goofball guy behind me kept putting his hands on my shoulders to support himself. Hello? Idiot? Suddenly things came to a standstill when the teenagers (non-English speaking) became unwilling to go any further, and turned around to walk back up. I can’t say I blame them, but it made for quite a traffic jam. After the people behind us were finally convinced that there was nothing to see and they should turn around and go back, we made our way out of the cavern. The goofball idiot guy was standing outside bleeding, he had hit his head on a rock in the dark, I guess. Anyway, we all made it out OK and headed back down the path to our waiting bus, 15 minutes late. We do love an adventure. We then made a quick stop at the largest of the region’s beehive tombs, the Treasury of Atreus, also called Agamemnon’s Tomb. From there it was back to the ship, which left the port about an hour or so late. I am sure it wasn’t totally our fault.
We settled in for a late dinner and the kids and I went to a show in the Stardust Theater, Showdown - an American Idol inspired show with singing and dancing - it was a lot of fun. It is a short overnight ride to our next stop - Izmir, Turkey.

FRIDAY, APRIL 3

Izmir is Turkey’s third largest city, and is thought to be the birthplace of the poet Homer. We decided to tour the ancient city of Ephesus, which was first settled in 1100 BC. The ruins of this city are extensive and well-preserved. The city was originally built as a place of worship to the Greek goddess Artemis - the Temple of Artemis was built here in 550 BC and was considered one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, although not much remains today. By the way, anyone know what American company’s name and logo is based on the goddess Artemis? The city changed hands many times over the centuries, and was completed abandoned with the advent of the Ottoman Empire. The ruins were discovered in 1869. The Apostle Paul spent three years in Ephesus urging locals to put aside their idols of Artemis (which sort of annoyed the silversmiths selling Artemis idols, leading to Paul’s incarceration), and legend has it that the Virgin Mary was brought here in 38 AD where she retired and died a few years later. We walked through the ancient city, exploring the Great Theatre, the Temple of Hadrian, the Gate of Hercules, the public toilets, Baths of Scholastica, and the Library of Celsus (beautiful architecture that has survived since it was built in the early second century). Outside the city walls, we stepped back into modern Turkey - rows of shops selling scarves, pottery, fabrics, jewelry, and ancient coins, along with lots of other goods. The shopkeepers were somewhat relentless with their sales pitch, and although I am good at ignoring them, Jack was not - a particularly aggressive “ancient coin” peddler managed to get him to hold a coin, and would not take it back. Jack politely told him, “no thank you” roughly 25 times, but at his point, the man had put both hands behind his back so Jack couldn’t hand it back. Luckily, Jack’s dad doesn’t go for that stuff, so the man ended up taking it back. Note to all: don’t be polite.
We went into a restaurant for a quick, authentic Turkish snack, and settled on pide, It was quite tasty - a large. thin flatbread filled with meat and cheese, and spinach if you want, served hot. I suppose it could be compared to a burrito, but it was a little more unique tasting. Good, though! From there, we toured an authentic Turkish carpet factory. They showed us how they spin the silk and weave the carpets. They served us apple tea, a popular drink in Turkey, and rolled out about 30 beautiful carpets for us to enjoy. And also for us to buy. I collect spoons and bottle openers, not Turkish carpets, so we snuck out of there (after stopping to buy a bottle opener, of course) and headed back to the ship. Lingering jet lag and two back to back ports of call had taken their toll, so we took a short nap before the encore performance of Showdown, getting a late dinner, and settling in for the night. We have been asked to set our clocks back one hour tonight, so we gain an hour for our day at sea!

Smooth sailing!

Hello from the Aegean Sea! We have left Nafplion, Greece and Izmir, Turkey and are headed for Alexandria, Egypt. We should reach Alexandria early Sunday morning (we are about six hours ahead of EST), and then we drive onto Cairo and Giza. We are having a fantastic time and seeing unbelievable sights. My only wish is that you were all here with us! That, and faster, cheaper internet service! My posts will probably be short and sweet - I will have to give you more detailed descriptions and photos of our trip when we return. Hope all is well!

Roma!

MONDAY, MARCH 30th

Rough night. We are all on a sort of strange sleep schedule where we fall asleep at a normal time, but are wide awake for hours at around 2:00am. No different last night. The ship was really rolling through the night - it didn’t make anyone seasick, but you could certainly feel it! John, Will and I made it down to the breakfast buffet by 10:00am, where we sat outside on the deck. (Hello, cold!) We are definitely out at sea - no sight of any land in any direction. After breakfast we wandered a bit before heading back up to the cabin. Leah & Jack slept until around 1:00 pm, which I am hoping is not a mistake. Will that mess up their sleep even more, or are they just making up for lost zzzs? We’ll see. We all bundled up and walked up to lunch, followed by Jack & John playing basketball on the ship’s court. The weather warmed up quite a bit since breakfast, and the sun was out as well. It was a beautiful day at sea. Several brave souls even swam in the pool, although I personally cannot imagine how that could have been fun. After a little napping, internet-cafeing, and generally taking it easy, we got ready for dinner. Tonight was “formal night,” although with Norwegian’s “freestyle” cruising, you don’t have to dress up. We did not pack any really fancy clothes, but we did make an effort to look a little nice. After dinner we walked out on deck (Hello again, cold!), and watched the amazing landscape as the ship passed between the islands of Corsica and Sardinia. We are now just off the coast of Italy and are due to arrive in Civitavecchia by sunrise. We finished up the evening in a little pub listening to a fantastic musician play the acoustic guitar and sing Beatles tunes.


TUESDAY, MARCH 31

When we awoke this morning, the ship had already docked in Civitavecchia, Italy and was cleared for disembarkation by 7:00 am. We had a light breakfast in our cabin and headed out to meet our tour. For our day in Rome, we chose to take a tour bus into the city - the bus dropped us off at the Vatican and we were free to roam on our own for about five hours. Our first sight was the dome of St. Peter’s Basilica. Very beautiful. Although, between you and me, I’m getting a little bug-eyed with the domes in Europe... this one looked a lot like St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, but what do I know? We walked through St. Peter’s Square, past the Castel San’t Angelo (site of Emperor Hadrian’s tomb), and over the Tiber River. We wandered through the beautiful narrow alleyways and cobblestone streets to Piazza Navona, stopping at a little outdoor cafe for a taste of some real Italian pizza. After lunch we headed towards the Pantheon, the only ancient Roman temple to survive the millennia virtually intact. The dome of the Pantheon is 142 ft wide, as well as high. It is the widest masonry dome in Europe - it is also open, so when it rains or snows, it pours right in (as does the sun!). The artist from the Renaissance, Raphael, is buried here. After exploring the Pantheon, we headed toward the Trevi Fountain. This fountain is grafted onto the palazzo (the building kind of morphs into the rocks), and is the end of the Acqua Vergine aqueduct, built by Agrippa in 19 BC. Tradition holds that if you throw coins into the fountain, you ensure your return to Rome. We only had one coin, so we gave Jack the honor of the toss - stand with your back to the fountain, toss with your right arm over your left shoulder - and he came through. We are hoping that since the coin was worth five euros (ouch), we can all come back. We kept walking until we found the famous Spanish Steps. We sat for a bit on the steps, along with hordes of French teenagers smoking cigarettes. John and Jack helped themselves to a drink from the fountain at Piazza di Spagna, and we were on our way back to the Vatican. During our walk, we ran into the Largo di Torre Argentina, ancient Roman ruins discovered in the 1920s. Here stood four temples, along with the Theater of Pompey - the exact spot where Caesar was killed in 44 BC. We made our way back across the Tiber and decided to check out the Sistine Chapel. The entrance to the Vatican Museum (and the chapel) is about 4,000 miles away from St. Peter’s Square. I am kidding, of course, but it is a crazy long walk, and by the time we got there, they were closing the Chapel and it was almost time to meet our group for the ride back to port. We did find time to indulge in a little gelato (when in Rome and all), and then we made our way back to the ship. We had a fantastic five hours in Roma... can’t wait to come back someday and see it all!

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 1

I believe we all slept through the night last night! We lost another hour - we are crossing another time line and had to set our clocks forward again. We had a relaxing day at sea again today - the highlight of the day was mid morning when our ship passed through the Straights of Messina, a narrow waterway between the island of Sicily and Calabria, on the mainland of Italy. After we passed through, we headed out to sea towards the country of Greece.