Bath

Today, we left Venice, flew to England, and then drove to Bath. Driving here is crazy weird! Everyone’s on the wrong side!

On the way to Bath, we stopped at Stonehenge.

It was pretty, but kind of boring, if we’re being honest. There’s not much to do except for…look at these rocks. But that’s all right, another thing off the ol’ bucket list. We then got to Bath, where we had dinner at a house that was a few hundred years (I can’t even remember the name, the Sally Something house) and then we returned to our bed & breakfast, where all 4 of us were sharing a room. That wasn’t too bad, but the house is so old there’s no air conditioning in there, so we’re just boiling! Hopefully it cools down this evening.

Venice

Our final day on the cruise, and we are in Venice. We got off the boat, and just like everywhere else, we are immediately blown away by how hot it is. It’s about 98 degrees today, and there’s 95% humidity. Its HOT today. We started just walking around the place, there’s water everywhere, it’s nice.

We made our way across the whole place, and then to St Mark’s Basilica. It was lovely. We couldn’t go in because of the shorts, but that’s all right. Pants would have been awful.

 

I did enjoy this sign:

“You are in a church. You are not allowed to behave indecently.” AMEN! After shopping a little bit in some shops for fun souvenirs, we landed on masks. They’re a lot of fun.

Now that the cruise is over, I kind of want to come home. We’ve had a blast, and I’ve seen so many things, but I miss home! I miss my house, I miss my Scootaloo, and I miss hearing English where I go.

Final At Sea

Today was our final ‘At Sea’ day. We did have one more than originally planned, but that’s ok. The at sea days are relaxing, you’re not rushing around, trying to get places. But on the days that you stay on the ship, the cruise does a “fancy night” at dinner. We happily obliged, and I wanted to share the pics with you guys.

And then, one with the girls:

And then we got one with our servers for the cruise, Manuel and Predrag. These guys were amazing, they took really good care of us, and I loved them! And they never judged us for the amount of Shirley Temples we drank (which was a lot).

Tomorrow is our last day on the cruise, and I’ll be sad to say goodbye to these guys!

Athens

Yesterday was an ‘At Sea’ day unexpectedly. We were supposed to be in a different part of Turkey, Kusadasi, but the breaking of our propeller forced us to miss it, which was too bad. But then today, we made it to Athens! It was warm right from the get go – we got to the Acropolis at about 9:00, and already, we were dying, and the sweat was flowing. (you’re welcome) But the first thing we saw on our walk up was Baby Darth’s real name! I was so jazzed to see it.

We walked around the Acropolis, getting pics of the Parthenon, and many other things up there.

After wandering around this place for a good long time, we had to make our way back to the ship, so back we went. It was a nice day there, and I was so glad to find water bottles that cost $0.365 (Euros), because I bought as many of those bottles as would fit in my bag. I’m excited for our next stop!

Istanbul

Happy Independence Day! We spent this American holiday in Turkey…Istanbul, specifically, so not a very American place at all. This place is really beautiful, and there are so many mosques.

We got to the port a few hours later than we had been told we would, during the night, our ship’s propeller stopped working, so we had to slow down to about half speed. Instead of getting to port at 8:00, we got there at about 2:00, and had to be back on board by 7:00. Dang, only a half day. So we made the most of it. First, we went to the Blue Mosque, and since I was in shorts, I had to borrow a dress from them on my way in.

We all also had to borrow head wraps. Husband was the only one that didn’t have to put anything, lucky guy. After the mosque, a local fellow took us to his carpet shop (yes I was nervous he was kidnapping us the whole time) to get a good picture, and boy did we.

They tried to sell us a carpet next but the price they quoted us was so high, we just straight walked out. We then walked around the city, which was sort of difficult because there were some kind of protests going on, and the police was shutting down part of the city. But after we walked around for a while, we made our way to the Grand Bazaar, and that was something. So many things, so many people. We bought some Turkish Delight and a whole bunch of fun spices, and that was neat. Then, it was time to catch a shuttle to the ship – lest we get left behind again. Turkey was really pretty, but this city made me nervous. Maybe it was all the protesters, maybe it was all the police, but I was so grateful to get back on our ship and skedaddle out of there.

Mykonos

Yesterday was an ‘At Sea’ day, so nothing to report. Just much chilling, swimming, eating, etc. Today, we found our way to Mykonos! Really, this is a beautiful place.

We didn’t have too long in this port, just a few hours. We walked into town, and then just explored the whole place, which wasn’t very long. Naturally, we found a gelato place, what luck!

We just walked around, enjoying the view, and the wind that was blowing like, 50 miles an hour and being annoying.

Everything is painted white, and all the doors are painted the same blue. It was lovely.

Naples

Pompeii today! And Canada Day! We dressed to celebrate the occasion, in our red clothes.

Oh yeah, we’re a good looking people. We got to the shore (technically, we stopped in Naples, so that’s why Naples and not Pompeii), and boarded a bus to Pompeii. It was a great place, really cool. I’ll just post a couple of pics.

This second picture is an actual person, found like this. That was so sobering to me – actually seeing a person! Wow. We explored a bit more here, and then went to Vesuvius, the volcano. Mostly it’s just scenery shots up there.

It’s a pretty place, I enjoyed the view. Also, it’s not very close to Pompeii at all, so to think about how far the stuff from this volcano had to go to take out that whole city…man. This whole place was really awesome to take in. On the drive home down the mountain, our bus died. Of course it did! Naturally, as the driver is there, trying to get it started, the 4 of us are praying with all our might, praying we don’t miss the boat, or have any other issues. Finally, after the longest 10 minutes of my life, the bus started! Yahoo! We made it down the mountain and back to the ship with no problems. Hallelujah. Onto our next place!