Pisa and Florence

Today I was on my own. Greg wasn't interested -- he was too tired from Rome yesterday and we've seen Florence, so he stayed on board. He and our British friends went into Liverno in the afternoon for a late lunch.

I did go on the excursion, since we did pay for it! First it was an hour ride to Pisa. We had an hour there. Took all the pictures (although none of me 'holding it up', which is obviously the most popular pose) and did a little wandering around. From there we were about another hour to Florence. We had about 3.5 hours there. I walked around and took some pictures, but was concerned about getting lost and not finding my way back... lol and they are very strict about you getting back to the meeting point on time, or you have to find your own way back to the ship. Taxi would have been over 300 Euros! So I did a little shopping, bought some post cards, had some lunch and then it was the 1.5 hour journey back to the ship.

Tonite is our last formal night. I bought a shawl today to go with the dress I bought in Santorini.

The cruise is slowly coming to an end... :-(

My feet are still quite swollen and the rash doesn't look a whole lot better. I'm going for a foot message in 45 minutes. Hopefully that will help. I'm sure my last day at sea will help too, if I just stay off my feet and keep them elevated.

Anyways...it's been another great day. Tomorrow we are in Cannes, France. We are doing Monaco and Eze. Looking forward to that. Then it's a day at sea and then finally Barcelona.

Have a great afternoon/evening!

Rome...

It wasn't built in a day -- and it's not visited in a day either!

What loooonnnnggg day today was. We docked at Civi---- somethingorother early this morning. We then took a 1.5 hour bus ride to Rome. We bought tickets for one of those double decker tour buses where you can get on and off whenever you want. We toured all the 'typical' places (St. Peter's Square, Trevi Fountain, Colleseum). We then just wandered -- stopped for a nice lunch where I wrote out some postcards and popped them in the mail. :-)

All the historic roman architecture in this city is amazing. And I certainly enjoyed it more with someone driving the bus then I did when we arrived in Rome and drove around for 5 hours trying to find our hotel... lol I didn't take a lot of pictures tho...really hard to do, so I bought postcards instead. Plus I have all the pictures from when we were here 11 years ago.

We've just pulled out of port. We have dinner at 9pm, but we'll be on our own. Our table companions have booked into a restaurant onboard.

Tomorrow we dock in Liverno (I think that's right). From there we go see the Leaning Tower of Pisa. After that -- I think we in Florence, but I'm not sure. May just be back on the ship.

Greg's foot is better, however my rash isn't. It's spreading. Plus my feet/lower leg are swollen quite bad. Almost 3 x their normal size. Greg says I have Homer Simpson feet... :-/ I went to the spa after we got back on board and then put some cooling lotion and told me to go put my feet up for 15 minutes, which I did. I go back just before dinner for them to do it again. I've booked a foot message for 7pm tomorrow, which I'm sure will feel great after another long day.

Anyways...that's all the news for today. No casino yesterday and probably not today either. I'll make up for it later tho... ;-)

Ciao!

Naples / Almafi Coast / Pompei

Not sure if I got Pompei spelled right...one P or two???? Anyways...

Today was another great day, but a bloody early start!!!

We started out on a bus to Solarno. From there we took a boat along that Almafi Coast to the town of Almafi where we had a little time for shoppping. Then back to Solarno. From there we went to Pompei, which was nice. The weather was very hot again.... about 32 degrees. After a couple of hours in Pompei, we went to a Cameo factory. Not big on Cameo's, so didn't buy anything there.

Got back to our cabin around 5:00. It's now going on 6pm. Going up on deck to take some pictures of Naples. Didn't see much of it at all today.

Didn't have much time for shopping, but I did manage to pick up a cute cotton dress that I'll wear for dinner tonite.

That's about it. We're meeting up with a dinner companions for before dinner drinks around 8:30.

Tomorrow we're in Rome. We'll be touring that on our own, since we've been there before. It should be a nice relaxing kind of day.

That's it for now. Have a great afternoon!!!

Oh yeah.... and Dann... you are my favorite... ;-) (that's for the others, assuming they read these blogs... lol)

Day At Sea...

It's a lazy day at sea today. Slept in after a late night. Just wandered around the ship, read for a while -- did some shopping. Bought a beautiful Italian silver watch.

It's formal dinner night tonight. Should be fun! Can't make it too late tho -- we have to be up and ready for 7:30 am tomorrow for our excursion in Naples. We are going to Pompeii.

Right now, as I'm sitting here, we are passing by or probably going around an island. I don't know what it is. I'm going to have to take a look at our map. It's too hazy for any decent photos tho. There are heavy clouds over the island. The sun is just setting (although not over the island....).

Speaking of sunset, I took some pictures yesterday as we were leaving Santorini. The sun did not set over the island of Santorini, but some of the other smaller ones. I did get some good pictures tho.

Well that's it for now. Not sure what time we get back tomorrow, but I may try and find some time to post before our dinner.

Have a great day!

Day 4, 5 & 6...

Wow...Lots to fill you in on!

Our day at sea on Saturday was uneventful. We used the time to kick back and relax. Stayed out of the sun on lounge chairs by the pool. They had plenty of activities (pool olympics) and different music. It was really nice.

The dinner at the diningroom was fabulous - as expected. The 2 couples we are sitting with are wonderful and we have a great time. After dinner we go find somewhere with them for an after dinner drink. Our sitting for dinner isn't until 9pm, so by the time we leave there, have a drink or two and get back to our room, it's well after 1am. That's ok when we have a day at sea the next day, but when you have to get up early for an excursion -- it's tiring, but I wouldn't change it for the world.

Greg is still struggling with his gout. I ended up doing Athens by myself as well. However he did come with me today to Santorini.

My heat rash is nasty. I did go to the infirmary, but the guy behind the desk knew right away what it was and sold me some anti-itch cream. No cost for consultation, thankfully! Our wonderful British tablemates refer to it as 'corned beef on the leg' -- or something like that. So I don't know what kind of image that conjurs up in your head, but it's probably not far from the truth. Maybe I'll have to take pictures... lol

Athens was great!!! The tour took us to the Acropolis and then to the shopping district. :-) It's interesting having some of these old old old remements of ancient Greece mixed in with all the current structures.

Today was Santorini. It is beautiful! All the light colored building (mostly white) against the dark volcanic rock that it sits on. We went to the city of Oai where we had some time to do a little shopping. The scenery all around the island is spectacular. From there we stopped a local winery for samples. Wine making in Santorini is coming to end. No money in it, I guess. The mountain sides have all these little caves that they built into them for storing the grapes, etc as part of the wine making process -- all back in the day. Now they use them for storage or for the donkeys... We then were taking to another small village where we took a cable car down to the tender to get to our ship.

I don't know if I'm taking enough pictures yet. I have about 45o -- but some people say they already have over a 1000.... I guess I better get 'clicking'...

Tomorrow we are at sea again. Tomorrow night is our second formal dinner. I feel so under dressed at these things. A lot of woman go all out on their outfits. I just couldn't justify spending money on something I will most likely only where once. I need that money for my scrapbooking supplies! ;-)

The weather has been fantastic! Clear blue skies pretty much every day and hot! hot! hot!!!

Next destination is Naples, Italy. Until then -- have a great day!

Day 3 - Dubrovnik, Croatia

So -- the day didn't start off the greatest. Greg woke up with a sore foot. He went to the infirmary ($120 US just for the checkup!). He has gout. He couldn't go on the excrusion, so I went on my own. It was walking the wall of the Old City, a tour the Martime Museum (snore) and then some free time to explore the Old City.

Speaking of feet, I have a rash of some sort on my legs - just above my feet. It doesn't itch or hurt, it's just really red. I think it might be a heat rash, but I'm not going to the infirmary unless it really starts to spread or hurt.

Dubrovnik is wonderful and the old city is amazing -- but my goodness, I feel like I should just be a shell of my old self with all that walking up and down stairs in this blistering heat! Thankfully they had provided us with water beforehand and when we got to the ship, we were given iced face cloths and a drink of water.

After cooling off in our cabin for a bit, I went hunting for Greg. Found him lounging poolside reading a book. The ship departed Dubrovnik at 5:00pm and we were invited to go to the Helipad to take pictures (front of the ship), so I did that. Was able to get some nice shots.

Tonite was also the first Formal Dinner night. We hadn't been to the diningroom yet, so I was looking forward to it (the food -- not dressing up! ). We are seated at a table with 2 other couples. They are related and are from England. We really enjoyed our dinner with them.

There was a theater performance going on after dinner, so I went and checked that out -- Greg had gone back to the cabin to rest his foot. Now I'm here... :-)

I'm going to hit the Casino shortly and then I need to go the onboard library and find a book to read.

Tomorrow we are at sea all day, so it will be nice and relaxing. Maybe it will help Greg's foot and my rash...

Next stop -- Athens Greece!

Until next time...

Happy Birthday, Greg!

I think I have him an awesome birthday present -- a Mediterranean Cruise! LOL Ok - so maybe not, but I DID reserve us a dinner in the 'fancy' restaurant on board. We had an awesome meal. Heck, I even took pictures of some of it! LOL I'm sure we seemed a little 'red neck' or something. You'd think we never go out much.

Anyways, as for the rest of the day, it was great. We took a boat to Murano -- where they make the Murano glass -- and to Burano -- where they make lace. Since the ship was departing Venice at 3:00 pm, we had to be back on board by 1:30, so it was a quick excursion. We only had an hour on each island. They are both quite nice and I did manage to pick up some Murano glass jewelry and Burano lace. Burano is beautiful with the all the colorful homes. Apparently back in the day, because of heavy fog in the fall/winter, the sailors needed to find their way home, so the solution was to paint all the houses a different color. This tradition still lives on. It's a very colorful island!

Again the weather was HOT! Greg and I both melted on the 1 hour trip back from Burano.

We are now on the Adriatic heading toward Croatia. I'm not sure what time we dock, but our excursion doesn't happen until 10:00 am, so we get a little bit of a sleep in.

Before we left Venice, we had to travel through the main canal. I was able to get some nice shots of Venice from the ship. I also made a 'didn't think before I bought' purchase of a scrapbook album. It is nice, but after thinking about it, it's not what I really wanted for this trip. I asked if I could return it, but no deal. Sucks. Not somethin I can even put up at a Nook garage sale, unless you've been in the Mediterranean. Oh well. Guess I'll have to change my plans! lol

We've met several Canadians now. A couple behind as at dinner are from Hamilton. We didn't really talk to them, but the server had asked them and then mentioned that we were also from Canada. We exchanged a few pleasantries and then went on with our dinner.

I've just come from dropping $20 in the casino. It actually lasted a lot longer then ever happens for me at Fallsview! LOL

Anyways, it's really nice to be on board the ship and not having to deal with traffic or getting lost. I'm hoping that the captain knows where he's going... ;-)

Well...gotta couple more stops to make and I'm running out of time fast. I may have shorting my stories... but probably not.

Although your work day isn't even yet finished, my day is almost over! I'm nackered and think I'll will go and read for a while.

Night!!