2009 Cruise – Day 3

The first day on the cruise ship.

The pictures are:
1. Going to the Scavi Tour.
2. Barb as she boarded.
3. The pool area.
4. Lunch area.

We woke up early today because we only had a ½ day in Rome and then it was onto the ship.

We took the 8am shuttle to the Vatican and went to St. Peters again until it was time to go our tour of the underground Scavi excavations, the excavations that included the tomb of St. Peter. We were not allowed to take pictures and pictures would not really tell the story, you have to see it for yourself. The excavations are 33 feet below St. Peters and the tomb of St. Peter is exactly under the center of the main alter. It was dimly lit and we spent about 45 minutes with 10 others and the guide.

We then walked back to shuttle and back to the hotel.

Our car picked us up at 12:30pm and we had to convince and show the driver how to get out luggage into the car as it was exactly the same model as we had from the airport.

We arrived at the ship after an hours drive and wow what a ship. It took only minutes to check in and after finding our cabin we went to the food area and ate lunch and then walked around for the next hour finding our way around the ship.

It is a beautiful ship with a much understated elegance versus an over the top almost garish look of Carnival. Don’t know which we will like best.

On cabin is the same size as our last Carnival cruise, 195 square feet. The bathroom is larger; however, there is less closet space, but everything will be just fine.

After we sailed, we went to a show and then to dinner. Our table mates are from West Palm Beach Florida, London England, and from Scotland. It should be a good group.

After dinner we went to the casino and we are nicely ahead and it is day #1

Tomorrow is Naples and the Amalfi Coast.

Europe – Day 2

The pictures are:
1. The flea market.
2. Cruising the Tiber.
3. Coins into the Trivi Fountain.
4. Dinner on the street.

Well we started out the day by not starting!! The real story is that we woke up at 10:00am. Once we realized how late it was our feet hit the floor almost running. Ed got up, showered and went to breakfast and Barb finished getting ready.

We walked a couple of blocks and took the train into the City and went to the largest weekly market in the world – they say. If it wasn’t the largest flea market, who cared because it was huge. We walked for about two hours. This market is called the market at Porta Portese and is only open on Sunday until 2:00 pm. Barb bought a purse (of course) and Ed bought a shirt (of course)! We had a lot fun. You could buy anything there, even wedding dresses.

Then we ate in a wonderful local’s restaurant and had a three course lunch that we split.

We then walked to the largest Jewish synagogue in Rome and had a guided tour of the synagogue. Our tour guide lived as a young girl during WWII and she was amazing. Her stories of surviving during that period were spellbinding. When we went into the main synagogue they were just starting a wedding so we got to see the bride come in with everyone – it was fun.

A one hour very relaxing cruise on the Tiber River followed and then we were ready to walk again.

We walked to the Trivi Fountain to throw coins in to bring us back to Rome – hey – it worked the last two times!!

A subway ride took us back by the Vatican were we ate dinner and took the shuttle back to the hotel – another wonderful day in Rome.

Tomorrow we get up early to visit the Vatican’s Scavi tour to see the excavations below St. Peter’s Basilica. This is the now opened excavations below the crypts holding the tomb of St. Peter. They only take 120 people a day 33 feet below St. Peters so it should really be interesting. Then we race back to the hotel and head for the ship.

Talk to you tomorrow from the ship – night – night.

Europe 2009 – Day 1

See the previous day for our trip informaiton.


The pictures are:
1. Loading up the car upon arrival.
2. Our noon snack
3. Crossing the Tiber
4. Inside St. Peters - Mary with Jesus.
5. Service at St. Peters.

An uneventful drive to the airport put us there a couple of hours before our flight was to depart. Stacey from Suzie Davis had given us Admirals Club admission tickets so we spent the couple of hours before the flight relaxing and snacking in the lounge.

Then it was off to Rome. The flight took our ½ hour late but arrived in Rome right on time. We waited 45 minutes for our luggage but after it came, we whisked right thru customs and met the up with our driver who was waiting right outside of customs. He shook his head when he saw all the luggage, but we made it with two pieces sitting in the back seat between us.

Checking in was a breeze and they upgraded our room to a balcony on the 5th of 7 floors looking right out at St. Peters Church – was a beautiful view.

Fifteen minutes after we were in the room we were in a taxi heading for Rome. We first stopped at a market called Campo del Flori, then walking to Piazza Navona, then over the Tiber River to an area called Trastervere and then by cab to the St. Paul Basicalla, the only major Basicalla we have not seen in the past.

Then we hopped a subway and went to the Vatican and it was by then 5:00pm. After seeing the Vatican, we took the hotel’s shuttle back to the hotel, made a quick change of clothes and back on the shuttle to the Vatican area were we ate dinner at a sidewalk café.

We asked for their two best pasta dishes and enjoyed a fun meal on the sidewalk.

Then we took the shuttle back to the hotel and are now crashing at 9:30 pm. It has been a long day since we left home but a fun time. Tomorrow will be our only full day in Rome so we will be up early and moving fast!!

Night from Rome.

The 2009 Trip to Europe

We leave home on Friday, August 28 and drive to Chicago. Our flight is American Airlines #0110 and departs at 5:00pm and arrives in Rome at 9:15am the next day, Saturday, September 29 – a 9 hour and 15 minute flight. This is exactly the same flight that we took for our other two trips that began in Rome in 2006 and 2007.

When we arrive in Rome, we will be 7 hours ahead of Illinois and we will have flown 4,824 miles!!

We then check into the Rome Central Park Hotel for the next couple of days of sightseeing around Rome. It will be fun to be back in Rome again and we are looking forward to it again.

Then on Monday afternoon, we will take a taxi to our ship, the brand new Celebrity Equinox. This will be the ships 4th cruise and only the 2nd to the destinations we are going to.

The schedule for the trip is:

Mon, Aug 31 -- Rome (Civitavecchia), Italy ----Depart 6:00 PM
Tue, Sep 01 -- Naples/Capri, Italy
Wed, Sep 02 -- At Sea
Thu, Sep 03 -- Athens (Piraeus), Greece
Fri, Sep 04 -- Rhodes, Greece
Sat, Sep 05 -- Ephesus (Kusadasi), Turkey
Sun, Sep 06 -- At Sea
Mon, Sep 07 -- Haifa, Israel
Tue, Sep 08 -- Jerusalem (Ashdod), Israel
Wed, Sep 09 -- Alexandria, Egypt
Thu, Sep 10 -- Alexandria, Egypt
Fri, Sep 11 -- At Sea
Sat, Sep 12 -- At Sea
Sun, Sep 13 -- Rome (Civitavecchia), Italy

After arriving in Rome, we will leave the airport at 11:30am and arrive in Chicago at 3:05pm on Sunday, September 13 and drive home.

New York – Day 3

The pictures are:
1. Under the Brooklyn Bridge.
2, The Intrepid.
3, From the stage of Radio City Music Hall.
4. With a Rockette.
5. On stage with Rick Negron.

The hardest thing that we did today was just getting up- slept until 7 – but we did in time to walk to the waterfront and take a 90 minute water tour of Manhattan. It was a lot of fun because this was the one tour that had a volunteer from the New York Historical Society leading the tour and he was very interesting.

Then it was a short walk to see the USS Intrepid, the Navel carrier that saw action in WWII and in Vietnam.

After the Intrepid, we took a cab to Radio City Music Hall. There we took a 1 hour tour with only 10 people of the facility. Because of a combination of situations, we were able to actually go up on stage. The tour guide says that it happens about 1 in every 100 tours. We also went downstairs and then up to the executive areas on the top floor. We also had a short talk by a Rockette. The theater is huge, seating almost 6,000. The stage is 145 feet long by 85 feet wide.

There was a 10 block street festival on 6th avenue so we walked the length and marveled at all the little stands and the avenue was wall-to-wall with people.

Dinner was a wonderful small Pizza restaurant on Restaurant Row and it was true pizza from Italy and did we ever enjoy it.

At 5:00pm we got lucky and snagged two tickets to In The Heights. This musical won four 2008 Tony awards, for best musical, score, choreography and orchestrations. We were really lucky as it had been sold out earlier. Rick, the guy that we met on the subway yesterday is one of the leads in the play so it was fun watching someone we actually talked to. The music was really fun, the set was just like the City and we had a ball.

Then we decided to send a note backstage after the play and the manager that we talked to told us to go ahead in the stage door and then a stagehand took us right up to the stage where Rick was talking to another couple. As soon as he saw us he yelled “Barb – Ed – I can’t believe that you are here.” He introduced us to his friends form California and we talked for awhile and finally left. What a thrill that he remember us and our names. As we left the stage door there were probably 30 people waiting for autographs and they looked at us like – ok who are you, as we walked by them.

Later we sat on chairs in Times Square and just watched the people – what fun.

Tomorrow we are planning on going to see the UN and then go to the airport for our 3pm flight home, hopefully arriving on time at 10:49pm.

This will be our last entry – what fun to celebrate our anniversary in New York on a long 4th of July weekend – we had a ball.

New York – Day 2

The Pictures are:
1. Our guide at Ground Zero outside the firehouse that was nearest the World Trade Center.
2. Lunch at the Blarney Stone Pub.
3. Our first seat was in this crowd on the concrete.
4. Our final seat on top of the boat dock. We were nearer the fireworks than anyone!
5. Time Square after the fireworks. This is at the entrance to the Marriott.

Well the day started out a little slower than yesterday. Ed got up and had breakfast and they we both left and went to the Flea Market in Hell’s Kitchen. It was interesting, but we didn’t buy anything.

Then we hopped a cab to go to Ground Zero. We took a tour from the official World Trade Center site office and our tour guide had been in Tower #1 when the first plane hit the 93rd floor. He was on the 82nd floor and his tale of getting out was very emotional.

After the tour, we went to a pub that the tour guide had recommended and Barb had huge pastrami and Ed had a roast beef and they were very good.

We then went to Chinatown and Barb bought a purse and a couple of other items.

Then onto the subway and to Rockefeller Center when we went to the Top of the Rock and the view from the top was breathtaking and the weather was perfect. We met an actor who was in a play, The Heights, on Broadway. We had fun talking about New York on the long subway ride from lower Manhattan to Mid Town.

At 6:30pm we headed for the Hudson River to join “millions” of our friends and watch the fireworks. It was totally unlike Chicago last year. Security was very tight and there were police at each entrance to 12th street, which was the river road. We squeezed into a space on the concrete and then got very lucky. Ed had talked to a security person who was guarding the entrance to a Circle Lines boat dock and a ½ hour when Ed went back, he said that they had a couple of tickets left for the second story of the boat dock. There was no question that it was the best place to see the fireworks.

The fireworks started at 9:30pm and they went for 30 minutes – they shot off 1,000 fireworks a minute from a total of 6 barges in the Hudson. Unbelievable – they said that it was the largest display of 4th of July fireworks in the United States!

It then took us 45 minutes to walk from the pier to the hotel and every street was closed to traffic – what a mass of people.

Into the room and it is now time for sleep – a fun day.

New York City – July 3, 2009

What a day – we left the house at 4:45am on the way to the airport. A flight to Atlanta followed by a flight to New York City and we were here at 12:30pm.

The pictures are:
The view from our room of Times Square
Times Square.
Carriage ride in Central Park
Petal cab ride to dinner.
Katz Deli

The Marriott New York Marquis is right in the middle of Times Square. As a matter of fact, you can hardly see the hotel because of all the billboards on every piece of real estate in Time Square.

They upgraded us to a beautiful mini-suite on the 30th floor, overlooking Times Square.

As usual, we took off walking, first stopping at a hot dog vendor on the Square for a New York hot dog, another gourmet lunch!

We walked the Diamond Market, a block on 47th street with 2,600 individual vendors, it is quite a sight and Barb didn’t buy a thing.

We then walked to Grand Central Station and up Park Avenue to see St. Bartholomew’s Church and St. Patrick’s Cathedral, they are beautiful.

Then we walked up to Central Park and took a carriage ride through part of the park. The next stop was the Apple Store which was crowed with hundreds of people buying the new Apple phone. We could not believe the number of people in line to buy.

Walking down 5th Avenue we arrived at the NBC Studios where we had a 5:30pm tour of the Studios and finally got to sit down for awhile during the tour.

We then walked back to the hotel to drop some stuff off and took a pedal cab for about an hour to lower Manhattan to what is supposed to be one of the best delis in the City, Katz Deli.

After splitting a Reuben, we took a cab back to Times Square and walked for a little bit and then crashed at about 10:00pm. I was too tired to even type so this is being written on the second morning as we are getting ready for day 2.