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.

On our way again!

FRIDAY, MARCH 27th
I have never been this ready for a trip! Suitcases were ready to go last night - I have been packing for about a week, so you would think this would not be a miraculous feat, but it is. Jim came by around 9:00 am, and shortly thereafter we were on our way to Orlando International Airport. I checked in online yesterday and printed out our boarding passes. I was also given the option to check our bags online, which I also did. But why? We still had to wait on line with all our bags and do it all again. So I am not sure what I gained from doing it online. We were given one of the first “zones” to board the plane, so maybe that’s it. The flight to NY’s JFK was uneventful. The people sitting behind us were also headed to the Norwegian Jade. Two sisters and a couple of teenage boys. Since we had three hours to wait for our connection for Barcelona, we hit the airport Chili’s. Really, really bad stuff. Finally we boarded Flight 94 to Barcelona. A seven hour flight, and no personal video! Delta! WTH? We had the personal video on both of our transatlantic flights a year ago. Granted they did not work properly most of the time, but you know. They did show two movies, The Secret Life Of Bees and The Express. I didn’t really watch either. The flight was pretty pleasant. We landed a full 50 minutes early, which was nice, although the wait for our bags made up for it. John decided to pull some euros from the ATM - he walked out of the baggage area, and was not allowed to return without his boarding pass, which I was holding for safekeeping, or, maybe I had thrown it away at his point. So it was the kids and I vs. the baggage claim. After about ten minutes of waiting, the woman next to us muttered, “I am becoming INTERNALLY UPSET!” Leah turned to me and said, “What does that even MEAN?” Seriously. We grabbed all five bags and headed outside for the Aerobus.

SATURDAY, MARCH 28th
Oh, yeah... it is actually Saturday. Spain is five hours ahead of EST, so when we landed in Barcelona, it was about 6:00 am. Our body clocks? 1:00 am. None of us really slept on the plane, so I know things are going to go downhill here soon. When we flew over to London last year, we landed at Heathrow at 6:00 am their time, and could not check in to our hotel until 3:00 pm. We walked around the city having not slept for roughly 24 plus hours. I was prepared for that scenario this time as well. We boarded the Aerobus, which was both pretty much empty and waiting, two things I really look for in a bus. We disembarked at our stop, Placa d’Espanya, and hoofed it approximately five minutes to our hotel, Hotel Fira Palace Barcelona. Imagine our surprise and relief when we were given the keys to our rooms - ready at 8:00 am! We took a little nap, then got up around noon to do some exploring.

The weather in Barcelona was a little disappointing, and not the greatest for walking the city. But we braved the gray chilly drizzle, hit the streets, and had a great time. We strolled down La Rambla, a wide, tree-lined, pedestrian street featuring street performers, open air markets and tapas cafes, flower stalls and even kiosks selling birds and roosters (and of course the obligatory Starbucks). We walked the boulevard down to the Monument a Colum, a huge statue of Christopher Columbus pointing out to sea. We circled back up La Rambla, stopping for dinner at Hard Rock Cafe (insert groans here). Not the first choice of the grown-ups, but being day one of a sixteen day trip, a necessary one designed to keep the young folk on our side. We then wandered into a shop called Desegual... oh wow. Maybe the coolest, funkiest clothing store EVER! Then it was back to our hotel to make up some more sleep. As luck would have it, Europe begins Daylight Savings Time tonight... so we will lose another hour of sleep! Before bed, we snuck on the internet to find that we have a new baby in the family... Sean and Lisha’s son Race has arrived!

SUNDAY, MARCH 29th

Not the best night’s sleep, but sleep nonetheless. We ate breakfast at the hotel’s buffet and caught a cab to the Port of Barcelona. We arrived at the Norwegian Jade around noon, got all checked in, and were among the first to board the ship. As we entered the gangway, we were greeted by a crew member with a smile and a spray of hand sanitizer. OK, I like it. Come to realize, these people are quite obsessed with the Purell. There is a Purell dispenser around every corner, in every elevator, next to every buffet line. I understand the risk of germ-spreading is pretty high on a cruise ship, but I am telling you that by the time we are done with this trip, we will probably have been sprayed with Purell 4,000+ times.

We made reservations for dinner in the Teppanaki restaurant, and set out to explore what will be our home for the next 12 days. There are 13 restaurants, tennis/basketball courts, pools, hot tubs and waterslides, a library, lots of clubs, and many things we haven’t even discovered yet. We did the mandatory muster drill before heading to dinner, where we coincidentally sat with the family from our plane. After dinner we hit the sundae bar, and watched the sun set over Barcelona as we headed out into the Mediterranean Sea.

Cousins. Beach.

Our beautiful and fun niece Jessie is visiting this week, so we felt we needed to do some real "Florida" things! Yesterday Karen & I took the kids over to Daytona Beach, where Spring Break appears to be in full swing. Ashley, Austin, and Jess decided to do some parasailing, and had a great time doing it. They earned free t-shirts by going up to the highest possible height - 2000 feet. The rest of us enjoyed that from the ground.

I would like to take this opportunity...

... to apologize to humankind for this. I have no explanation.

A few more...

The big kids had fun roaming around the ship on their own - they managed to find lots of fun things to do, such as karaoke, eating many pounds of ice cream, and getting kicked out of the 11-14 year old kids club (the people running it did not believe they were all 14 and under - much to the kids' delight!) They also had a lot of fun posing for the many, many professional photographers on board.

And that's it.

After exploring Tulum and doing some more shopping, we got back on the bus, caught the ferry, and made our way back to the ship. Next day was our last full day at sea as we headed back to the Port of Tampa. I have always resisted cruising, never thought it would be something I'd enjoy - but we had a great time for sure! Which is a good thing, since we leave on our next cruise (a 12 day Mediterranean) at the end of this month!

To Tulum and the Mayan Riviera.

After our stop at the local Mayan market, we continued on our way to Tulum. This ancient walled city is located on a cliff overlooking the Caribbean Sea. We learned so much about the ancient Mayan people and their culture - even a little more than necessary, quite honestly! It was really neat to walk among these ruins that have been dated back to AD 564. It is truly a beautiful sight to stand next to these ancient temples and look out over the crystal clear water.

Next...

The next day started a little later - we got off the ship in Cozumel, Mexico around 10:45am and got right on a waiting ferry. The ferry zipped us across to Playa del Carmen on the mainland, where we boarded a coach for the ride down the Yucatan Penninsula coast to a city called Tulum. We stopped about halfway to do a little shopping at a Mexican market:

If that was Hell...

... then this must be Heaven! After taking a 25 minute boat ride across the crystal clear water of the Caribbean Sea, we arrived at the Stingray City Sandbar. Here you can swim freely in waist deep water teeming with Southern Stingrays. We were able to pet them, hold them, and feed them. And get rammed into by them, which is a bit unsettling. But it was a really great experience, and the water off the coast of Grand Cayman is truly the most beautiful I have seen.

To Hell and back.

After filling up on rum cake samples, our tour guide told us we were going to Hell. I knew we should have only taken one piece. But seriously, folks... Hell is a little town in Grand Cayman that is quite popular with tourists. It's main attraction is a fairly unattractive expanse of black, jagged limestone and rock formations. We took some pictures, mailed a postcard, and went on our way.

Snack break!

After we left the Turtle Farm, we made a quick stop at the Tortuga Rum Co. to sample some of their many types of rum cake.

Not too shabby.

Tortugas!

First stop on the island tour was the Cayman Turtle Farm. We got to hold a few of the smaller turtles and watch the bigger ones - some of which are over 100 years old.