Our cruise left out of Venice for a 8 day, 7 night cruise to Dubrovnik Croatia, Kusadasi Turkey, and the Greek islands of Santorini and Corfu.
Here are Shelly, Stephanie and Lisa as we pull out of Venice through the Grand Canal. Navigating a large ship through the canal must take a high level of skill and nerves. I can't imagine having cruise ships passing through the canal aides in Venice's fight against the tide, but it does provide quite a view of the city. We spent the first day getting to know our way around the ship and enjoying the company of our friends. We were also anxiously awaiting the arrival of our luggage to see if the Bacardi stow-away arrived safe and sound.
To prepare for the small quarters on the ship Shelly, Stephanie, Lisa and I shared a "quad" room in Venice the night before the cruise; the room was really a regular room with a double and two twin beds wedged in.
First stop - Dubrovnik, Croatia. Our over-night cruise from Venice was amazingly smooth, the difference between open ocean cruising and the Adriatic was evident from the start.
Shelly and I on the ship as we pass along the Dalmatian coast on the way into Dubrovnik. Dubrovnik sits directly on the Adriatic Sea in the very south of Croatia; the coastline is much like that of the Mediterranean - a few sandy beaches here and there, but mostly rocky with crystal-clear water.
Here is a picture from the city wall, just inside the Pile Gate, of the Stradun, the main drag in Dubrovnik. We had booked an excursion which included a city tour and boat ride along the coastline, but it was cancelled because not enough people signed up. So, our group set out on our own for a day in the city.
This sort of makes you wonder just how welcome the cruise ships really are. We started our city tour with a walk along the fortified wall and were greeted with great views of the coastline at almost every turn. Our goal was a small cafe/bar set along the water, just outside the wall; I think Shelly had spied a writeup on TripAdvisor about this spot so we made it mission #1.
Mission accomplished! Nice location, eh? Our group stopped in here for a drink, to take a load off for a few minutes and berate ourselves for not packing a pair of swim trunks. Idiots!! The cafe/bar was easily spotted from the wall, the difficult part (every quest has challenges) was figuring out how to get from the wall down to the bar/cafe/thingy. As it turns out, questing persons must continue on along the wall for another 100 meters or so, exit the wall via the stairs then walk back through the city for an appropriate distance then make a few forays into the wall to look for the exit "outside" the city. All this effort just made the beer go down that much easier, and also made us even more annoyed with ourselves that we had no swim gear.
Hey look, more people that we know. Crazy!!
We ran into Becki and Adam in Dubrovnik! And they are on the cruise too!! Imagine the odds - they are actually pretty high since B&A are part of our group and made the cruise part of a summer vacation. I see B&A have started bogging on their trip; which means I need to get this damn post finished.
Our third day on the ship was a day at sea. Nice. It was also June 11th, our 3rd anniversary. Yea! We relaxed pretty much the entire day - grab chairs pool-side, hit the gym, eat, massage, eat, sit by the pool, eat and drink, sit by the pool, eat/drink...repeat.
Day 4 took us to Kusadasi, Turkey; where we, and pretty much everyone else on the boat, took a day-trip to Ephesus. Oh yeah, we are in Asia now so we can check off another continent.
Ephesus is known as the Pompeii of Turkey and is one of the oldest known cities in the world. This was the second largest city of the Roman Empire and is also the place where Saint Paul once preached. Ephesus also was home to the Temple of Artemis; one of the Seven Wonders of World. The city was initially founded on the Aegean Sea and served as a harbour, but now lies just over 3 miles inland - the result of silt filling in the surrounding lowlands and gradually pushing the sea further away.
Here I am in Ephesus with what was the main road through town below me, and the Library of Celcus behind me.
Stephanie and Shelly posing by Nike.
This is of particular interest to Shelly - the Greek (and modern day) symbol for medicine. As chance would have it, Shelly was wearing her UF College of Dentistry shirt that has the medical symbol on it (you might be able to see it in the picture of Shelly and Steph above).
I am standing in front of the gates to the Agora (market) in the square bordered by the Agora and the Library.
Shelly and Stephanie with the Library of Celcus behind them. The Library was by far one of the coolest ancient ruins we have seen - including the sights in Athens.
All that walking and standing in the sun must mean it is time to eat. Our tour guide, who was very good by the way, pointed us to this local place for lunch.
Ahh, a Turkish barber shop. I didn't need a hair cut, but a shave was in order. A hot lather shave and neck and shoulder massage for 5 Euro. I couldn't pass it up.
Stephanie enjoying the sunset as our ship pulls out of Kusadasi. We had mostly clear skies and 0 rain the entire trip.
On day 5 we pulled into Santorini, Greece.
Here are Shelly and Steph on our excursion to the volcanic island of Nea Kameni. Santorini and its surrounding islands are part of the Cyclades Islands. The islands of Santorini outline what was once a very large volcano; which upon its explosion left what we now see. The explosion 3,500 years ago is said to be what caused the destruction of Atlantis.
Part of our excursion was a visit to the warm mineral springs. The writeup on this portion of the excursion should just read "mineral springs" since the water is only warm in relative terms being that the normal water temp is pretty chilly. Still, it was fun to get into the water and have a bit of a swim to the spring. Really, the most fun was jumping from the excursion boat into the water - something Adam and I did repeatedly.
After our excursion and hike we took the cable car up to Fira and had lunch and did a bit of shopping and sightseeing.
Here are three stand out shots from our walk around the island.
Above you can see the white-washed town sitting atop the island. The water where the cruise ship is sailing was at one time a large volcano. On an aside, you might remember that a cruise ship ran aground and sank off Santorini earlier this year; the place where the ship rests is just off to the right of this picture.
Day 6 brought is to Corfu, Greece. Corfu is a drastic contrast to Santorini - where Santorini is a black volcanic island, Crofu is covered in lush green.
We took another excursion in Corfu, our worst excursion of the trip. We did get to see some amazing natural beauty, but it was at a cost of spending the majority of the excursion on a bus listening to a rambling tour guide that we could barely understand. If we had to do it over again, we would have gotten transportation to a public beach (above) and then hired a boat to take us to one of the many isolated beaches accessible only by boat. Live and learn.
Lisa, Shelly and Steph at one of our stops for snacks and picture taking during the excursion.
A panoramic photo from the cafe where we stopped for photos and snacks.
Corfu was our last port before arriving back in Venice. On the night of our departure from Corfu we were treated to the midnight buffet - it was "magical." Really, I don't see the fascination with the food displays; I mean it looks nice but a lot of people get very serious about documenting the buffet. Whatever. Let's eat!!
Here is our group, sans Adam who took the photo, at the buffet. Day 7 was our second day at sea and everyone pretty much took it easy and tried to stay out of the sun on what was the hottest day of the cruise. On day 8 we awoke to find ourselves docked in Venice and at the end of our cruise. Bummer :( We helped deliver B&A to their hotel in Venice where they were spending another couple of days before heading home, and then we did a bit of shopping and sightseeing before Shelly, Lisa, Stephanie and I flew back to Germany.
Peace Out!!
--Ed
