Our second of three sea days and it was perfect timing as we
have had 3 port days and it was time to just relax.
Our life was very simple today.
We slept in.
Ed had breakfast
We were up on the sun deck until 1:00pm and temperatures were
in the high 70’s, clear skies and probably the calmest seas we have every
sailed on.
Had a wonderful lunch
Back out on the deck
Got ready for the show in the main theater.
Tonight the show was a production show called
Crystallize.Their description was that
it was and “electrifying pop violin music and mesmerizing choreography and
aerial acrobatics set to the rhythm for a high-energy light show”.It certainly was and was probably the best
production show that we have seen on any ship!!
Then we went to dinner in our restaurant Blu and met some
new friends from England.She is a Vicar
in the English Church.A vicar is a priest
who is over a number of churches.They
were very nice t0 eat with.
After dinner, we went to a place called The Club for Motown
music for 45 minutes of music and it was very good.
Then it was on to the casino where Barb was even and Ed had
a nice win.
Tomorrow is our first of three days in Israeli and we are
really looking forward to the days.
We arrived in the port of Kusadasi, Turkey which is the
gateway to Ephesus.
Ephesus is a World Heritage site that is one of the world’s
oldest ancient cities an once home to over 250,000 people.
Excavations have been underway for 150 years and only 20
percent of the city has been uncovered.
They have excavated the Great Theater, the Temple of Hadrian
and the Temple of Artemis, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.We traveled on the main street of the city walking
for about an hour marveling of how this city was built.
One of the most amazing things was that everything was built
out of marble, from the streets to the tall columns.
They we went up the mountain to the site of the last days of
Mary.The stone house is very tiny but
the religious site is beautiful.This is
the home that Mary and the Apostle John lived out their last days.When Crist was being crucified, he asked John
to take care of Mary and this is where they lived.
We had a wonderful guide and driver.What was supposed to be a 3 ½ hour tour
turned into a 5 ½ hour tour.
Along the tour, it is expected that you will visit either a
gold jewelry store, a carpet store, a fashion store or a leather store.We chose a fashion store and a leather store
and words cannot describe the experience of Turkish sales people and the
pressure they can put on you.If you
realize that’s what is going to happen, it is easy to deal with.
At the fashion store, we were ushered into our own private
area, the lights dimmed and we were treated to a runway fashion show.The video only shows part of it.Then of course they pushed and pushed to sell
us something.Guess what we didn’t buy
anything at any of these stores.
Back on ship, we dressed for dinner, which was good and then
went to the show.Tonight the show was 4
males singers recreating the quartets of the past and they were pretty good.
Finally we went to the casino where Barb lost a little as
did Ed.
Tomorrow is a sea day and we are looking forward to just
relaxing all day.
Night
Ready to go out for the day's tour
The Temple of Hadrian
The theater - seating 25,000
The leather store
All alone is this big van
Mary's House
In a pottery store.
A castle, a basillica and a mosque all on the same hillside
It was another beautiful day when we woke up in the port of
Athens (Piraeus), which is about 30 miles from the heart of the city.
After breakfast we took a cab to the heart of the old city,
the Plaka and wandered around until it was time to eat lunch.This is also the area where, on a hill, the Parthenon
sits.The Parthenon was built in 1,000 B.
C.
In the past, we have walked the 25 minutes to the train
station and took a train into the city.This time we decided to take a cab and the driver, Chris was
perfect.On the way, he swung over to
the massive private boat harbor and that was quite a sight.
We had made reservations at a delightful restaurant in the
heart of the old city and it was a wonderful lunch.We sat outside and people watched while
eating.
Since we were in Greece, we ate at a tractional Greek
dinner, including wine.We asked the
waiter to bring us two glasses of wine, one red and one white that he would choose
for dinner and they were great.
Barb liked the dry red and Ed liked the white.
Then we walked around some more until it was time to take a
car back to the ship.Chris was waiting
for us at 3:30pm and he took us back to the ship the faster way.Along the way he asked us to stop at a relative’s
shop, which we did and Barb found a little cross that she had been looking for.
The performance in the main theater was a magician who was
very good.
We then ate dinner as usual around 8:00pm and met another new
couple from England.
After dinner, we went to the casino where Barb lost a little
and Ed had a great win.(Jason – on a $100 initial bet – won the
first 10 hands including 4 blackjacks!!)Left the table after playing only 5 minutes.
Nite from Athens – tomorrow we arrive in Ephesus, Turkey
Day 5 and our first port day which is the port of Katakolon
which is a small port on the Ionian coast and is the gateway to Olympia, the home
of the original Olympic Games.
Olympia is about 21 miles away and since we have been there
once before, there is no sense in going back.
Katakolon is a very small Greek fishing village and it
basically a two-street town.The small
waterfront is almost totally restaurants for the tourists.
We slept late and finally got off the ship at 10:00am and
walked the short distance from the ship to the town.
The ship is docked at one end of the town so we started
there on one side of the 6-block long street and then out on the pier where
several small fishing boats were tied up.The boats all had a 2-cycle engine in them and when they started up, it
was a putt-putt sound.Then we walked back
on the other side.
Along the way, Barb bought 2 scarves, 2 bracelets, a pair of
earrings and a ring.Ed bought 2 pair of
sunglasses at $2 each and a shirt.This
town was amazing in how low the prices were.
We came back to the ship at about 1:oopm and had lunch on
the back deck.
It is 76 degrees and seems hotter so of course we went up to
the top deck to be in the sun.
Dinner tonight in Blu was a delight and it was again very
good. What’s fun is that we almost every
night site with a different couple.
Tonight it was our second couple from England and they were fun.
Tonight we had two different production shows. The first was in the main theater and it was
a group called Ukebox and they were originally formed from their home city of
Liverpool. England. They were terrible.
Later in the evening in a smaller venue there was a
production called The Caravan. The show
was kind of a twist on a circus variety show, without animals and it was quite
good, maybe the best entertainment we have seen on this ship. We have a YouTube video but the ships
internet does not allow us to post it..
After the show we skipped the casino as it was already
midnight and we have an early start tomorrow as we arrive in Athens in the
morning.
Nite
Time to go our in the morning
Some of the little fishing boats
Barb found a great store!!
The Celevrity Apex
Almost the entire port town
The two on the left are Ed's deserts and the one on the right is Barb's salad
Going out for the evening
We were in the front row of the 10:30pm show
Part of the 10:45pm show
At the show Caravan in the small theater - wonderful
This is our first full day of the cruise and we are relaxing at sea which after a long couple of
days of travelling is the perfect way to start the cruise.
The weather was in the high 70’s and almost crystal clear.
After breakfast and lunch and just relaxing, it was time to
the evening.
Tonight’s dress code is Evening Chic which replaces the formal
nights of several years ago.
The show tonight was a very good production show called Tree
of Life.
Then we went to dinner and Barb had Duck and Ed had Salmon
with a Tuna appetizer.
After that we made our first appearance in the casino and
found out that the entire senior management team we had met before, from the
Manager to the Pit Bosses on duty as well as several dealers.
That was really fun and we spent more time talking to them
then we played.
Finally Barb lost a little and Ed won a little and we broke
even for the evening.
Tomorrow is our fist port Katakolon, Greece. This port is the gateway to the original Olympic
site and as we have already seen the ruins, we just stay close to the ship in
the tiny port city.
Not many pictures today as we didn't do anything!!
Nite
ps - I went back and made the previous pictures larger.
We dropped off Becker at Jason and Sharon’s house and then
went to the airport to pick up our rental car for the trip to Chicago.
For the first time, we were flying Air France both going to
and returning from Europe.
The first leg was an 8-hour flight from Chicago to
Paris.While the flight was delayed just
a litter, it didn’t matter as the second leg from Paris to Rome was after a 5 hour
wait.
We went to the Air France business lounge to wait for the
plane.Their lounge was being remodeled
so we were told to go to the Swiss Air lounge which was about the smallest we
have ever been in.It was comfortable so
it was ok.
When we finally arrived at the Air France boarding counter,
we found out that we had been bumped from our 2nd flight and instead
of leaving at 2:10pm from Paris, we were going to leave at 5:00pm!!
Terrible news but at least we would get there on the day we
were supposed to
Finally we were able to board out plane for the flight to
Paris.
The seats and our seating “compartment” were amazing.We each had a 21” television, headsets, a seat
the totally reclined flat for sleeping, a blanket and even warm socks to wear!!
Air France had sent us the menu to choose our 2 dinners a
week ago and Barb had a wonderful lamb dish and Ed had seafood and they were
both very good.
The flight was fun, great service and we watched the new Top
Gun before and after dinner, before settling in for a great sleep – well Ed
slept for about 4 hours and Barb dozed.
An hour before landing they served us a wonderful breakfast
and we landed in Paris at about 8pm.
Day 2 – Tuesday, October 4
While we were fortunate to have saved miles for these
round-trip tickets, just our flight today was priced at $7,500!!There were a few couples and the majority of people
in the first-class section were male, probably business people.
So we arrived in Paris about 9:00am and went immediately to
the new Air France lounge which was a 2-story huge lounge.It had private showers and what they called
nap rooms.
This is also where we found out that Barb was not able to
use her nebulizer as they did not have any US type plugs.A very nice employee by the name of Mary
looked in all their offices for a plug converter and couldn’t find one.We had one but it wasn’t in the carry-on.
Mary walked with Ed to and electronics store where he bought
a converter.Barb is supposed to do her
breathing treatment every 6 hours and we were way past that time.The unfortunate thing was that the machine did
not work!!We figured out that the breathing
machine had failed at the worst possible time.
So, Mary and Ed went to the largest pharmacy store in the
huge Paris airport and they did not have one.
They then went the to the airport doctor’s office/medical
center and they did not have any also.
We called a couple of pharmacies in the port city we were leaving
from and found one that had the machine that we could get the next morning,
before our cruise.
Our second leg from Paris to Rome was delayed so we finally
made it to Rome by about 8pm.
The hotel we are staying at had sent a driver to pick us up
for the 45-minute trip to the port city of Civitavecchia.
We had planned to do some sight-seeing in the city the night
we arrived; however, because it was so late, we just went to bed.
The hotel we are staying in is called the Hotel Borgo del
Mare in Civitavecchia, Italy and it was cute boutique type of hotel.Very clean, small rooms and a very friendly
staff.We ate dinner at about 10:00pm
and then went right to sleep.
Day 3 – Wednesday, October 5
The good news was that the pharmacy that Ed went to first
thing in the morning was only about a 20-minute walk.There are no Ubers in this city.
They had a machine to purchase so Barb was able to do her
breathing treatment before we left for the ship via the hotel shuttle.
The ship is the Celebrity Apex which is the same ship we
sailed on for this New Year’s Eve and we will also be sailing her this coming New
Year’s.It is the 2nd newest
ship in the Celebrity Fleet and it is very nice.
We arrived at 11:15am, It took basically an hour to walk
right on the ship, go to our room, unpack our carry-ons and go to eat lunch outside
on the back of the ship, our favorite lunch spot while cruising.
The show tonight featured a comic by the name of Ralph
Harris and he was good.
Then we went to our restaurant called Blu and had a
delightful meal with Barb having Duck and Ed having Salmon
We sat with a couple from England who were fun and
interesting to talk to.
After dinner, we were still very, very tired from the tiring
trip so we decided to go to bed.Also we
have to set the time ahead one hour because we are heading for Greece.
Night from our first day on the ship.
Even so, it was midnight before we were in bed.
Night from our first night on the ship and this trip is a
12-night journey and it should be fun and thanks for reading out blog.
The pictures are not in the correct order but since we have limited minuites, they will have to be this way.
We woke up early to get to our flight which was at 8:00am.
Thank goodness for the Clear boarding process as the regular lines for check in probably contained 200+ people.
From the time we arrived at the airport, we were through check-in, customs and at our gate in about 20 minuites!
Then the "fun" began. Our Delta plane was late and we finally made it to Atlanta 3 hours late which was several hours after our 9:35pm flight was to leave.
We checked into a Marriott close to the airport and went to bed sometime after midnight.
The good news is that we had pre-booked a flight from Atlanta to Bloomington in case we missed our flight. The bad news was that the flight didn't take off until late in the afternoon.
It was on time and we made it to Bloomington in the early evening.
A wonderful trip we memories that will last a lifetime!!
That's all for this trip - thanks for following along on our journey.
Barb & Ed
Barb seeing Rick Snow in Denali - our pilot and former neighbor
We took this shuttle boat to Grandville Island, Vancouver, B
