Grand Mediterranean Cruise

Planning 

This wasn’t my idea. My friend Brad had talked about a Mediterranean cruise as far back as our Caribbean cruise in 2008.

Now, after six years of not believing it was going to happen, we get called over to a meeting at Brad’s house. Tom,  Judy, Miranda, Brad, Deb, and I sit around the table and make the plans for the cruise. The plan is good, very good but there are a lot of details to work out. No problem, because the three of us couples planned to meet many times more. We of course did not take into account how busy everyone is these days.

I was shocked at the price when airfare was added in. I was convinced that we could not afford it. Deb talked to her mother, and she said we just had to do it. Deb talked to one of our daughter in laws, and she was excited for us. I talked to Cliff at work, since he had gone the year before, and he said that I would love it, and as a matter of fact he liked it so much, he’s coming with us.

Tours were planned, airfare booked, deposits made, so now we are going. Not that I didn’t want to back out more than a hundred times, because I did, but there was always someone there to talk me out of it.
We booked in December and the cruise was not until the next September. It was a long time to wait.
I have always wanted to go back to Sweden since I lived there in my twenties and my wife had always wanted to go back to Hawaii since she had gone to school there.

So we made a deal when we got married. We would go to Hawaii on our 10^th anniversary and then go to Sweden on our 20^th. Well, it had been 34 years and we had not gone to Sweden yet, but we had been to Hawaii twice. Okay, Hawaii was actually my daughter’s fault as she went to school there. She had heard her mother tell stories of going to school in the islands and she was sold on the idea. As dutiful parents we had to take her over and get her settled in to her new college. Of course there is the obligatory trip for graduation a few years later and you might as well throw a cruise in since you are over there anyway. Makes sense, right?

We were now going to be in Europe and I was not going to Sweden again. I did a little calculation and figured out that we could go to Sweden and stay a couple of days and it would even be cheaper than flying straight to Venice. I was excited.

The Day Arrives

We are worried that the traffic was going to be bad so we headed down early to SeaTac airport. Normally Deb and I disagree about what time we should head down. She always wants to allow extra time and I hate spending that much time in airports. Since Seattle has a lot of things going on over the weekend, this time she gets no argument from me. Even with stop and go traffic in a couple of places, we still managed to get to the park and ride a couple of hours early.

No problem we just go out and get breakfast before we check the car in. It was a good thing we did because this was the last meal we would have for the next twenty one hours. It was fun to meet Brad and Miranda at the airport. We were on the same flight which was funny because they were going to Amsterdam and we were going to Stockholm. We would part was in Reykjavik, Iceland.

The flight was seven hours long. We took Iceland Air. I napped to begin, with but then watched a movie on the in plane entertainment system. Deb had wisely selected aisle seats across from each other which was good because we could get up and move anytime we wanted without crawling over other people like we would if we had a window seat. The only drawback was that I usually spent the whole trip glued to the window watching the world go by and I could not see out. It was like riding in a bus with the windows painted over. There was not much to see anyway as it was dark for most of the trip.  We did get to see both the sunset and the sunrise while on the plane because we were heading east and the sun was heading west. That was one short night.

We opted not to get the inflight food because you had to pay for it and it was not cheap. We did plan to eat lunch with Brad and Miranda at the Reykjavik airport before we went our separate ways.
As we neared Reykjavik the airplane hit turbulence. It was shaking side to side as well as up and down. It didn’t even stop when the airplane touched down. The side to side turbulence continued. I have never experienced that before. When we finally stop we all get up and grab our bags and wait for the doors to open. We wait for twenty minutes for the doors to open but they don’t open.

Finally the announces, you might as well sit back down it is too windy to deboard the plane. The stairs and the jet way are only rated to handle 45 knot winds, and the current ones are fifty knots. I sit there and watch as the time for our connecting flight comes and goes. How Iceland air works is all the airplanes land in Reykjavik around the same time and everyone gets out and walks to their connecting flights and then they all take off around the same time. It makes a busy couple of hours but then they’re done.

So the stewardess assures me that everyone else is stuck too. I have this vision of a hundred planes full of people all unable to get out. I start to panic; what if the winds last for several days and we can't get out of the plane? As my panic rises to I fever pitch I look out over at the plane next to us, having to sit way back in the seat to be able to see around the two people between me and the window, they are getting off the plane.

Life is so unfair. After an hour we are finally able to start getting off but it is a slow process as they have to make sure the person on the ladder is not blown away before they let the next one off. As all of the locals on the plane are putting on their jackets. So do I. Sure enough, we are headed outside and it is not warm. We are all herded into buses for our drive to the terminal.  It is not a short drive either.

We see Brad one last time as we dash through the building. We walk through the entire length of the building looking for our gate. It is funny because all of the other gates are numbered 1, 2, 3 etc. Ours is A. We search for it finally find it after walking through an electronics store, no, I am not kidding, there behind the store is gate A. The plane luckily has been delayed by two hours. It was the first time I liked a plane delay. There is no room to sit anywhere as the few seats that are in there are taken, so we stand until they start boarding. Only they don't start boarding, they herd us into another bus which takes us three fourths the way around the building and puts us on the plane that had been right next to the one we just got off of. One has to love the efficiencies of modern day life. The only benefit we get out of our long jog through the airport is a stamp in our passports as we cleared customs.

The good news is that since that awful wind is at our tail it reduces our travel time by an hour and a half. The bad news is since all of the planes are now stacked up and taking off at the same time, most of our good news get nullified waiting on the taxiway.

Deb gets her aisle seat and now I get my window on this flight. The Icelandic  lady that sits between us is confused and tries to trade Deb chairs but Deb refuses. She would rather sit on the aisle than sit by me. So this poor lady gets talked over during the next two and a half hours to Stockholm. She was a good sport about it, even joining in the conversation a time or two. Especially about the part when we went to plan our day. Since we took off on a Saturday, we figured it was still Saturday. She politely told us that we were all screwed up and it was now Sunday.

Stockholm

What a far cry from Reykjavik! It was sunny when we landed and better yet, there was no wind. Getting from the airport into the city by taxi, which was our original plan, was going to cost 675 Swedish crowns, roughly a hundred dollars. Time for plan B. We took a bus into town. Deb seemed excited to be in Sweden, but as I looked around at the scenery I turned back to find her asleep. I guess excitement has different levels. We were able to get to the Central Station where we grabbed a cab to the hotel. The cab still cost 278 Crowns. awesome hotel, I thought. Double featherbed!

We got settled into our room and headed right back out to go find something to eat. We were told that taking the ferry was the way to go, so we did. It was a beautiful boat that had an inside with places to sit and the bow was open for silly tourists to take pictures from while they are getting wind burned, so that is what we did. The only problem is that we wanted to go east into the city so we hopped onto the first ferry, which, unknown to us, was going westbound. We did see some amazing sights as we sailed through the archipelagos west of Stockholm, but this adventure delayed our dinner yet again. I thought about getting off when we got back to the hotel, but really wanted something to eat.

Breakfast in Seattle was wearing plenty thin by this point, having come halfway across the world.

We stayed on the boat until it reaches Stockholm itself and then get off to explore Gamla Stan, Old Town. I had tried to explain it to Deb over the years, but now she was seeing it for herself. She commented how narrow the streets were. I told her those were the wide ones and then took her to see the narrow ones. I could literally reach out and touch both sides of the street at the same time. There were plenty of restaurants in the middle of Gamla Stan but they were also plenty expensive, so we opted for a nice place around the corner.  We had Swedish Meatballs and Jonssons Frestilsa. Both tradition Swedish dishes. It was my goal setting out to have Swedish Meatballs in Sweden, Spaghetti in Italy, and Gyro in Greece, and to survive Spain. Okay so I don't know what Spain and France are famous for, culinary speaking.

After dinner we went to the Central Station and bought tickets for our bus ride home.

The lady at the hotel had told us that bus would be a good way to get back to the hotel after the ferry stopped running. The only thing that I can figure is that she hates Americans; maybe not all Americans, just us. We tried to get on the right bus, but were told by the driver that we would be going the wrong way.

We did not want another long tour so we opted to take the bus that was going the correct direction as it was dark by this point. When we arrived at the stop the hotel clerk told us to get off at we noticed that there was a slight problem. There was an eighty foot high cliff between us and the hotel. Trusting that there had to be a way to get there, we headed out. After a very long walk we found that they had cut a tunnel through the cliff to get to the hotel. After walking through the tunnel that was through the cliff, we arrived at our hotel, exhausted, but having seen wonderful things and having an amazing dinner. We never took the bus again.

Stockholm Day 2

Weather is still wonderful, sunny and low 60s. Today is our hop on hop off boat tour. It does not start until 10 so we have plenty of time. Actually I woke up about 4:30 and spent the entire morning writing while Deb tried to sleep.

It's fun that everyone we talked to, and it was a lot of people,  at least tried to speak English.

We took the ferry over to Stockholm. It cost 70 Kronor each. We have been nickled and dimed on transportation up till now. Later on we would buy a Stockholm card which includes all of your transportation and entrance fees to the museums.

When we get to the place where the hop on boat is supposed to be we are early so we go out on a quest for breakfast. After walking a long way we come across two construction workers. Deb asked about breakfast and one of them answers her in Swedish. He suggests Korv. Korv is a hot dog. We walk the way that he pointed out until we are out of sight then go another way. We finally find a shop similar to Starbucks and the lady greets us as we are walking out. We had decided to not eat there, but since she is so friendly, we change our minds and order two sandwiches. 

It was interesting but good.

Now we head back to the boats and wait. Then we wait some more. We have tickets for Stomma but the only tour boats are Red and Royal. We then wait some more; by this point five tour boats have come and gone. The Stomma boat finally arrives at the bay, but when we try to get on it we are told that it is the wrong tour. 

The Royal tour boat is the one we want. Why would I think that? It had a different web site posted on the boats and it didn't say Stromma on it anywhere. I was a little frustrated knowing that I had just wasted 45 minutes sitting on stone steps waiting for a boat that had come and gone two times.

The tour was great but come to find out that it goes to most of the same places that the ferry boat does, and the ferry boat is included in the city pass. The only difference is that the tour boat has narration and tells you about the places that you are visiting. We took the tour in almost a full circle, but decide to get off on the last stop before we would be back to the place we started. When we get out we have to stop as we have landed smack in the middle of the changing of the guard at the Royal Palace. Deb is delighted. We had talked about the changing of the guard when we were there last and she said she wanted to see it.  I had no idea what time it was and it was late on a Sunday so there was no information booth open.

We loved it. There was a marching band and the guys in dark blue replaced the guys in light blue as they went around the palace. We then see a sign for a palace tour. 'I have never been inside a palace,' Deb says as we are standing there. She will never be able to say that again. When we get there they want to charge us 150 SEK (Svenska Kronor) for entrance or we can spend 500 SEK each for a city pass. I wanted to just go with the entrance fee but Deb thought it would be nice to get the pass. Boy am I glad we did. It included all of the museums and transportation we did the rest of the day.

The palace was amazing, it was so ornate, the only problem was you can't take pictures in it. What?

Finally I ask why not, the lady responds that it is an active military installation and pictures are not allowed. So we purchase a book that has a lot of the pictures we wanted to take. Was it not an active military installation when this guy was allowed to take pictures? Is that something you can turn on and off? Click, this is now an active military installation, click, okay now it isn't. Click, on again. I highly suspect it was just a way to be able to sell their 50 SEK book. It worked with us because we bought it.

The palace was magnificent and ornate. We walked through about half of it. There were rooms decorated by the different Kings over the years. One was completely over the top with the ceiling completely covered with a mixture of paintings and sculptures all intermingled. The throne was made of silver. Tapestries hung on the walls. It was amazing. When we got through with the palace we wandered around Gamla Stan. Deb wanted to go into Stor Kyrkan. (Large Church) They charged admission so she was hesitant, I said 'wait, see if they take the city pass.” Sure enough they did. The inside was very beautiful. Stor Kyrkan is the church where all the Kings are buried right there in the floor so as you walk around you are walking on their graves. It seemed disrespectful somehow. There is a giant statue of St. George slaying the dragon too. The altar has the look of being made out of pure silver and the place where the sermons are given was very ornate.

After the church we headed back down to the tour boat. We took it over to the Vasa Museum. The Wasa, or Vasa in Swedish, was a warship that sank in 1623. It is made out of wood and on its maiden voyage it made it 20 minutes before a gust of wind capsized it. The builders had not made the hull deep enough so they could not put enough ballast in the bottom to keep the boat stable. In the 1960s they were able to bring it to the surface and preserve it. They put it in a museum. Wow is the best word to describe it. You walk into this building and suddenly you are back in time. A giant warship is there to greet you. The building is designed for you to get a great view of the ship with the floors taking you up so you can see all of the different angles and decks. They recovered about fifty skeletons in the wreck and have taken several of the skulls and given them to forensic artists to have them put a face to the skull. Those were amazing. They looked as if they were about to say something.

The next stop on the tour boat was Skansen. Skansen is in the middle of Djuir Gorden. One of the old kings established a private hunting ground on an island next to Stockholm. It is now mostly public land. In the middle of this they have gathered hundreds of old wood buildings from all over Sweden and put them on top of the hill there on the island. We explored this area for a couple of hours. The tour boat had stopped running by then so we took the ferry back to Stockholm and bought some cheese slicers and found some Swedish meatballs for dinner. It was a little strange going into a restaurant when you are the only ones there, but the service was prompt and shortly we were joined by other people. The food was great.

We went back to the hotel after that, tired but happy. I hated to leave Sweden. I could have stayed a lot longer. I was in northern Sweden when I lived there before and I didn't get the chance to see that part again. We caught a plane out early the next morning.  

It is a long and expensive taxi ride from the hotel to the airport. It cost 450 SEK which is $67.50. The whole Stockholm trip had been expensive but worth every dime. I would do things differently next time. I would buy a city pass on day one. It saved us a bundle and included transportation. I would not take the tour boat as the ferry boat went to most of the same placed that it did and the ferry was included in the city pass. I would not take the bus to that hotel; as a matter of fact I would get a hotel right in town.

Flight to Venice

When we got to the airport we were both amazed at how much easier it was to get through security there than it was to get through TSA. I even managed, accidentally, to get through the metal detector with ten coins in my pocket.

We grabbed a snack there, having learned our lesson from the previous flights. We then had to go through another check where they scanned our passports before we were allowed at the gate. Boarding the plane was easy as it was very small. It had only four seats across so Deb got her aisle and I got my window and we still got to sit together.

I had flash backs of Reykjavik when the pilot parked the plane out on the tarmac instead of taking off and announced that there was fog in London so they had been asked not to take off yet. Luckily we were only there ten minutes before we finally left.

As we were flying along the most amazing thing happened, the flight steward started handing out food. British Airways feeds their passengers. Deb didn't want hers so I got seconds too. I was shocked. The flight was only a couple of hours so it was easy, but the seats were so close together that I kept thinking that if the guy in front of me relined his seat it would be very painful for me. Luckily he didn't.

On approach to the city, once we got through the clouds, I was able to see Big Ben, the London Eye and several other London landmarks

We then arrived at London Central Airport.

If you ever fly in Europe and they try to route you through London Central, I would take another flight. It was a madhouse. On disembarkation you are greeted immediately by a long line to get through emigration. If you are not an EU member or an EEA member you have to fill out a special card. You each have to fill out your own though because if you don't they embarrass you by sending you to the back of the line and everyone in the line giggles at you as you fill out another card, but don't worry as there is no one else in the line because they are all EU or EEC members. I am guessing that EU stands for European Union, but I have no clue what an EEC is nor would I recognize one if I saw one on the street.

When we got through security on our second try, we find ourselves in the middle of baggage claim. Since some countries require you to take your luggage through security, we had to make sure England wasn't one of those. They are not as we were told that our luggage would be on the next plane. We then had to go through security again. We knew England was on a high alert status so we were worried about that. I breezed through but Deb set off the metal detector so they strip searched her feet. Having had the just the bottom of her socks checked, they deemed her safe and let her proceed.

The upstairs of the airport was just as weird, but a whole lot nicer. Instead of being in a worn down common room of a school you were now in an upscale restaurant. The only problem is that there are so many shops and eateries that there truly is not enough room for the passengers. Everyone waits in the main lobby until the little screen shows that your plane is now boarding and then tells you what gate to head to. I figured that there was no seating at the gates is why they left you in the common room, but there was seating there, it was just insufficient. I think that it would still have been better than being muddled in the middle.

Boarding was a breeze because you walked out onto the tarmac and they had stairways to the front and the back of the plane.

Again we had two seats per side of the aisle. I was dismayed that once the planed was airborne all I could see was clouds. I guess you would have called them scattered clouds if you were on the ground but they were not scattered enough to see through.

I napped on and off until the food service arrived. Yes, they fed us again. The stewardess asked if I wanted chicken or vegetarian so I went for the chicken. The wrapper said spicy chicken so I was thinking of a nice hot half a chicken breast smothered in a sauce. What I got was five or six cold pieces of chicken on top of cold rice. Still it was a lot better than what I got on the other airline, so I wolfed it down.

The only thing that I could see out of the window were mountains poking through the clouds that I thought might be the Alps. This was confirmed later by the pilot. As we neared Venice, the weather cleared and we were able to see the lagoon. I turned every which way but I could not see the city. Finally as the plane was making its final approach the city came into view. I looked around the airplane to see that I was not the only one plastering myself to the airplane window as most of the other passengers were too. When we landed I saw a lot of high fives and hugs.

Venice

Venice airport was chaotic but not as bad as London Central. When we went through customs the guy did not look me in the face. He just stamped my passport and handed it back. We found a place to get tickets for the water bus and then made the long trek out to the water’s edge to get on it. We thought we were on the express boat, but it took an hour and a half to get to San Marco (St. Mark’s Square). 

We had to lug our suitcases through the square. It will be like hauling suitcases through Disneyland on its busiest day. There were bodies everywhere. Normally I stop for people taking pictures and I did for the first five or so before realizing that there were thirty people taking pictures right in front of me at any given time and all the stopping was losing me my momentum so I decided to plow through.  I did run over a teenage girl but she apologized to me so I figured she was okay. One pigeon nearly got run over but managed to scamper out of the way at the last second. The rest of them gave me a wide berth. They had seen tired tourists trudging through the square with suitcases before. 

When we finally arrived at the hotel, tired from our long trek with the suitcases, we were dismayed. We looked through the doorway expecting to see a lobby of a hotel, only to find a long staircase. Thirty steps as  I counted later on. I just knew it was the wrong door so I looked around for the right one. It didn't exist. Deb sent me on ahead to make sure that there was an actual hotel up there. Sure enough it was, right across the hall from a glass shop. Two men came out from behind the desk to lug our suit cases up the stairs much to our relief. 

Unlike Sweden, most a lot of the population does not speak any English. One of the guys at the hotel would not talk to me, letting the other one do it instead. They gave us three keys, one that opens the door at the bottom of the steps after hours, one that opened the hotel just in case the owners were not there, and one that opened the door to our room. I have never had the key to a Venetian hotel before. After going up six more steps and turning left three times, there was our room. It’s not much to write home about, as a matter of fact it’s not much, period. Deb says we are going on a cruise and the man replies that at least the room will be about the same size. He turned out to be wrong; the cabin on the ship was much larger.

 View from the hotel room

 The mattress is hard and there is only a small path on each side of the bed but the bathroom is a good size and it has a bidet. Never had a room with a bidet in it before so that's kinda cool. Didn't use it but I could have. The fact is that we are in Venice and it's not about the room, so we drop off our luggage and head out into the city.

Two things strike me as I am walking around this beautiful city. There are people everywhere, especially in San Marco. The other thing is how amazing Venice is. I can turn in any direction and take a post card quality picture. As we roam the streets we do just that at every corner.

First order of business for Deb is shopping. She had her eye on a scarf during our journey with the suitcases so she goes back for it. Doing so almost makes us late for our rendezvous with Cliff, my friend from work, and his wife Marilyn. I catch up with Cliff by the Basilica in San Marco. It's good to see him. A little later we catch up with Marilyn. We decide to take a Gondola ride. Actually Deb and I had many discussions about this at home. She didn't think it was worth the money but I was thinking, we are going to Venice, why wouldn't you? She finally came around, so when it came time, there was no discussion.

The Gondola ride was about a hour and a half through the amazing canals of Venice. We had asked the guy at the hotel for a recommendation for a restaurant and he drew it out on the map for us. I asked if it was good Italian food and he got a horrified look on his face. "No," he says, "It's good Venetian food." I had just crossed a line there that I didn't know existed. I really do need to get out more. 

So the four of us set out to find the place, but after wandering our way through the narrow streets of Venice, we pass this restaurant with this Italian host standing in the doorway. I gaze at the menu and the prices look good for Venice so I ask if we want to eat here or do we continue on so we can get some of that squid ink spaghetti at the other place. Cliff isn't all that excited about squid ink spaghetti so we stop there. Beside he has a bonus; if he doesn't like it he has me to blame.

Come to find out that the host / waiter is so Italian that he doesn't speak a word of English past the bare basics but we are able to point and smile at we wanted.

Something was lost in translation so the cook has to come out and ask us a question. She is Japanese; so much for authentic Italian cuisine made from an old family recipe passed down from generations with grandma in the back cooking the food. It does not matter, goal number two is met. I ate spaghetti in Italy.

Cliff and Marilyn and Deb and I part ways after dinner. It is getting late at this point so Deb and I walked around San Marcos to get a feel of night time Venice and then headed back to the hotel to face the thirty steps. We sleep well, despite the mattress.

Venice Day 2

It is our last day in Venice so we had to make the most of it. We got out of the hotel by 7:30 in the morning. It had rained a little during the night and was still sprinkling but nothing a north westerner could not handle so life was good. San Marcos was nearly empty, just a few people with umbrellas scampering across the square. Nothing was open yet so it is peaceful. After we take a lot of pictures we wander further afield onto some of the back streets then make our way back to the hotel for a complimentary breakfast.

Breakfast was cold cereal, breads and assorted rolls. I did notice that the milk tasted funny there.  There was no hot food but it was really nice never the less. We sat down by a nice couple from New Zealand and come to find out they are going on the Spirit too. Another lady that was going on the cruise also came up to us during breakfast and introduced herself. Her name was Debra and we had arranged a tour on Cruise Critic and she was going with us in Naples. It is a small world.

She had the same problem as us when she got to the hotel but instead of checking with the front desk first, she lugged her suitcase up the steps. When she got there they told her that her room was on the ground floor, so the guy put her case in the window sill, went outside and climbed a ladder and grabbed her cases out of the window sill and carried them down the ladder to her room. 

 Once breakfast was over we headed back into Venice. Debra had told us about a museum pass so we went and bought one. It got us into all of the Museums in Venice. First we went to San Marco Basilica. It does not have an entry fee but there are several exhibits that cost extra. Deb saw a set of stairs and wanted to go up to the balcony overlooking San Marco. The steps were ancient marble that had been worn down over the years and about twice as high as normal steps.

I didn't count them but I was plenty winded when I got to the top. It isn't until you reach the top of the stairs that you see the sign that it cost 5 Euros to go out on the balcony. If Deb climbs a huge set of stairs you know that whatever is at the top of them is very important to her. She looked back at me while she caught her breath. I didn't have to wait for her to speak; I knew she wanted me to pay the man, so I did.

The balcony was amazing. It looked down into the square and we got some very good pictures. The balcony itself wasn't level and there were several places where the original marble railing had been bolted together. I saw people leaning against the railing and had to ask myself, was the old railing patched before or after someone fell to their death? As for myself, I didn't lean against it. The floor of the balcony was marble and was at angled down towards the edge. We didn't let it stop us but walked very carefully. The stairs had also led us to an area you could overlook the inside of the Basilica. It was amazing and ornamental with a lot of details all made out of mosaics. What the artists could do with little pieces of colored stones was beyond belief. There were no pictures allowed again so I guessed that it was another sensitive military installation. Yes, we bought another book.

We then went to Doge's Palace. This was also full of over the top decorations and ceilings decorated with both statues and paintings combined, much like the palace in Stockholm. This palace however had a prison in it that was used as late as the 1950s. As we wandered through the palace, I could swear we took two steps up for every one step we took down. I was amazed that they ended up on the ground floor because I could have sworn we should still be on the fifth floor somewhere. My legs were screaming by this point but we found a bench and made use of it. We then bought a gelato (Italian ice cream) and enjoyed it. 

After climbing another set of stairs to another Museum, we toured around thousands of ancient artifacts from the Romans to the Greeks. We just don't have thousand year old statues lying around in America. When we were finished we were looking for a place to sit and rest. They have plenty of chairs outside the cafes on the square. If you buy bottled water there it cost 1.5 Euros, but if you buy a bottled water and then sit down in the square, the water now costs 6 Euros. We opted for the cheaper one and left the square. We finally found a church in an almost quiet corner of the town and sat in there. I felt guilty doing that, but my legs felt so much better that it cancelled my guilt.

We made our way to Rialto Bridge. It was packed with tourists but we were able to climb up on top of it and get some pictures. On the way back I stopped and bought a slice of pizza. Deb didn't want one. It wasn't that good, but it was pizza and we were in Italy. We were walked out and had seen everything we had come to see, plus a couple of things, so we headed back to the hotel to get our luggage. They had been so helpful carrying our suitcases up the stairs but did not seem to be under the same obligation to carry them down the stairs, so I grabbed both cases as Deb's back was killing her at this point, and we made our way down.

We bought our tickets to the water bus, the vaparetto, and then sat down to wait. Everyone there was going to the ship and there was an air of excitement. Deb got really excited when she saw Rick Steves walk by. He was taking a water bus the other direction so he was in another waiting area, but she was sure that it was him. There was this nice couple that we kept running into, Chris and Dan.

We saw them at the airport, we rode with them on the water bus into the city and now they were on the same water bus as us leaving the city. We would see them again at the cruise critic meet and greet. As we are riding over this older gentleman seemed very excited. He had some friends that were sitting in the back and he was standing in the bow. Every time he would see something he liked he would come back and report. Finally the friend caught the man's excitement and went up to the bow with him. Soon we were facing the ship. The bus docked and we got off and pulled our suitcases around this large building and gave them to the baggage handler. We then went to check in.

Boarding the Ship

I have checked into many cruises before and this started out like any other but very quickly turned weird. We  get to the counter and check in. The man puts stickers on our passports and writes our room numbers on them. When Deb asked what that meant he joked “Dangerous people." The real reason for it is they are required to collect the passports of non EU/ EEA people. We would have to surrender the passports on the first sea day. When he went to get our tickets, he looked very nervous as they were not in the file. He then walked over to another file and got them. They were in an envelope for some reason. Instead of telling us to have a good cruise and turning to help the next person, he told us to follow him and then led us to the priority embarkation lounge. This made no sense to me as we did not need to go to a lounge; they were already embarking. He then handed our key cards to the butler who was standing there to show us to our rooms. "What!?"

The butler takes our very heavy carry-ons and proceeds to walk us to our staterooms. Deb turns around and says simply, "don't." She knows of my propensity to comment about things when they get really strange, so I bite my tongue. I do want to ask what the heck is going on, but I am sure asking questions was included in Deb's "don't."

I set off the metal detector.  I don't ever set off the detector at cruise terminals. I grab a couple of coins out of my pocket and try again. I set it off again. Remember I had 10 coins in my pocket and still made it through the detector in Stockholm. As I keep setting it and by this point I have run out of  anything metal, the man said, "Get out of here you wasting my time and I have had it with you." At least that is what I thought he said it was all in Italian. He then lets me through, even with the unresolved metal detector issue. I am glad to get through, but I am a little concerned about whom else he has let through unresolved.

Deb said later that the butler leaned over to the guy and whispered something in his ear; that’s  why he let me through. I would later figure out it was my big bulky shoes that were setting off metal detectors all over Europe.

After we are properly escorted to our room the butler informs us that the concierge will be down shortly to speak to us.

We are both dumbfounded. We are trying to figure out what is going on. Deb guessed that since I was hosting the Cruise Critic meet and greet they were bending over backwards to make sure I was happy. My guess was that somehow they found out that she writes cruise books and wanted to impress her. At that point we had no way of knowing. The Concierge comes down and greets us and tells us if we need anything just to give him a call. He then informs us that we are invited to Cagney's for breakfast and lunch. After he leaves I have really mixed emotions.

Years before I was wandering another NCL ship when I saw a man go into breakfast at Cagney's. I was curious as to what was going in as I did not see Cagney's on the list of breakfast venues. I was informed that only the VIP’s on the ship got to eat there. I was unhappy and felt like a second class citizen. I had thought that everyone had the same run of the ship as everyone else before that, like it was on other cruise lines. It must have been like many of the Titanic passengers felt when they boarded that wonderful ship but then got locked in steerage. I had gotten over that feeling; I guess if you want to feel more important you had to pay more for it. Now for the first time in my life I was on the other side of the fence but I had not paid more for it. I didn't even know why I was on that side of the fence. My feeling was to not go to the special breakfasts and lunches and just enjoy the normal cruise experience but Deb was excited to try new things so I kept my opinion to myself. 

As we looked in the bathroom we saw that they had also upgraded our toiletries to those that are Platinum level and the suites have. Fancy shampoo, condition and body wash. We noticed other subtle differences also, like even the waiters in the dining room called us by name. They do that with assigned dinning but usually not freestyle dinning. Right when we were about to go to dinner, some canapés arrived at our stateroom. The note said ‘compliments of Captain Bengtsson.’ 

The first day we kinda spent on our own. We had dinner at an intimate table for two, right at the window in the main dining room. Of course we were still in port at that point and all we could see was the dock, but it was still nice. We then went up on the top deck and took some pictures of Venice. All the while we are trying to keep an eye out for everyone in our group. We did not spot any of them. When we went to the room Deb decided to catch up on her journal. My legs were still hurting so I went to take a super hot shower to relax my muscles. It worked, so I went to the show where I saw Brad and Miranda and family.  It was a juggler show and the juggler was struggling but the girl with the rings did an amazing job.  There was also a guy that was pretty good making shadow figures. After that I went to bed.

Sail Away

Deb and I set a wakeup call for 12:30 am so we could see the sail away and see Venice at night. It was amazing and we really enjoyed it. We watched as the ship sailed past the city in the darkness. Even then the city had people walking around. We headed back to bed to get some sleep. I sat in bed for a few minutes and then went downstairs to get a bite to eat because my stomach had woken up by this point. After I ate my hot dog and was walking out I met Marilyn down there, she was also getting a snack. Cliff was somewhere nearby, but I don't know where. After that I headed up to bed again but this time I was able to get some sleep.

When we got up in the morning we headed to the steakhouse for breakfast like the suite guests get to do. I was still wondering what I was doing there. Breakfast was excellent. A lot better than wandering around Stockholm looking for something to eat and settling on small sandwiches and a sweet roll. The Concierge greeted us by name and the hostess led us to a table. I had the three egg omelet. It was quite good. Deb was happy with her carb cake eggs benedict.  I felt a little guilty going in the place I was a regular Joe and these people were not. There was hardly anyone in there however so it didn't really matter.

The meet and greet got off to a strange start. Most of the Cruise Critic members had not arrived, just a dozen or so, but they started anyway. The hotel manager led the proceedings which lasted about five minutes and then they excused themselves and left. Anyone more than five minutes late missed the whole thing. It was still a very fun activity with about 36 people who attended. Name tags and a sign up sheet were provided by the ship. It was only supposed to last an hour but an hour and a half later there were still people in there talking and nobody seemed to mind.

I figured out that we got VIP status because I was hosting the meet and mingle when the hotel director came up to me and said, "Hello, Mr. Graham." I figured that since they took my picture for security reasons that all he had to do was pull it up off the database and then he would know what I look like. That meant they were bending over backwards to make us happy and that was an awesome thing.
We also ate lunch at Cagney’s. It was one of the best hamburgers that I have had anywhere. I have always wondered why the people in the suites always rate the food on NCL better than those people in the standard cabins and now I know. The concierge was willing to deal with our passports so we did not have to stand in line and so we let him.

Miranda got a hold of us and wanted to get together for dinner thinking that we could just all show up at 6:30 but I thought that it would be so much nicer if we could all sit at the same table. Deb was about to call the restaurant but I said, we have a concierge, let him do his job. So arraignments were made and people were called and it was all set. The only problem was I didn't have Cliff’s room number so I could not get a hold of him. But the ten off us enjoyed dinner, well except for the dessert, that is. Karalee and Kemi ran down to the theater to reserve seats because they all like to sit up close, so the rest of us waited for dessert and took it down to them.

We were all sitting there at the theater with our desserts in our laps waiting because 'they' were told not to eat in the theater but we all did anyway when 'they' were not looking. Brad and Tom managed to get rid of the evidence before the show started. I don't know what they did with them and I didn't ask either, all I know was that the plates vanished.

 The others were going hot tubbing after the show but Deb and I were so tired we went to bed. When we got to the cabin we had a plate full of fine chocolates, compliments of the Hotel Director. It had been a very good day.

Sea Day

I woke up about five in the morning. We had heard some noises in our stateroom the night before coming from the casino, so as long as I was up anyway I went to investigate what was going on with that. When I got there Cliff and Marilyn were sitting at slot machines and Cliff had just won three thousand dollars. He was all smiles when he told me that he had won another two thousand earlier in the night. They had been up the whole of it and had played slots a lot of the time. It was highly profitable for them. I thought that it was funny that NCL shut the machine down to make sure it wasn't malfunctioning. Cliff wasn't happy that he had to fill out U.S. tax forms. "I am on a Norwegian ship registered in the Bahamas and sailing in the Mediterranean. How does that have anything to do with the United States?" I did see his point.

I went back upstairs and did a little writing while I wasn't sleeping anyway. Deb woke up about an hour later and we started our day. We watched an amazing sunrise. At home the sun climbs slowly following the horizon before fully getting out of bed, here it popped straight up out of the sky like it had somewhere to be. It was bright red and reflected all away across the water to the ship. It was amazing. Breakfast was at Cagney's again. We ran into Dean from the Meet and Greet there.

He was staying in a suite. He took a moment to talk to us. We then made our way up to the galaxy lounge to watch the world go by. Zumba class was starting and seven of our group participated in it. Deb and I watched for a few minutes then went back down to our cabin and took a nap. All that watching of the Zumba had worn us out. We met Cliff and Marilyn for the Latitudes party where all of the past passengers go to meet the Captain. When the Hotel Director saw us he smiled, "You again?"

Then the Cruise Director greeted us by name. There are 2,212 people on the ship, how is it that he knows my name? He said he remembered me from the meet and greet because we had name tags on there. At the party they give away door prizes there, neither of us won anything. We then ate lunch at the Blue Lagoon. Marilyn didn't join us as she was tired from her all nighter. Cliff was going to work out after lunch and then he was going back to bed also.

We were out wandering again when we ran into Miranda and two others of our group. They were waiting for 80s name that tune trivia to start so we stopped and waited with them. Our team won but it wasn't with the help of Deb and me. The host had started to do Broadway show trivia by mistake and Deb and I were getting most of those but then everyone started to complain so he switched.
We then headed up to the Galaxy Lounge where we ran into Chris and Jan, Cruise Critic members we’d met at the meet and greet. He is from England and had been to Greece before, but just the islands and not the mainland. I was seeing Greece out the windows of the lounge and was excited because it was my first glimpse of the country.

We went down to the VIP reception after that. I felt like such a pretender being there but Deb wanted to go. At the party were most of the senior officers including the captain. The hotel director said "you again! I'm going to take a cruise so I can party all day." Dean and Carol were there from the meet and greet and we were talking to them when the captain came up. He had been pulled off his vacation early to take charge of the Spirit because, "somebody screwed up." He didn't elaborate. He was very personable. He had been captaining for a very long time. They kept offering him larger ships but he would say no because larger ships have larger headaches.

After the party we went down to the buffet to eat. It was like going from elegance to McDonalds except McDonalds had better food according to Deb. I had no problem with it. The idea of food is to fill the tummy up and this stuff did just fine.  Deb told me we were never going to eat dinner in the buffet.

Athens 

We woke up early because we had to get off the ship to catch our tour. When we looked out our window we were in a line of ships waiting to get into the harbor. Piraeus serves some three hundred ships a day so we had to wait our turn. The captain didn't like it and he mentioned it in his daily broadcast. We didn't have time for our fancy breakfast at Cagney's so we bravely went to the buffet. I am fine with buffets but then again I am a chili cheese dog type of guy. Deb had a banana for breakfast.

Everyone was ready to go after we finished breakfast and they soon announced that we could get off the ship we headed down to the gangplank. We met our driver, Demetrius, at the cruise terminal. He had the wonderful idea to go to the Acropolis first and then go to the other sites. It was good we did because we avoided the crowds. The Acropolis where the Parthenon sits is on top of a hill that dominates all of Athens. We drove past several interesting places that Demitrius pointed out for us.

When we arrived at the Acropolis there was barely anyone there. We had to make room for soldiers to come down the path; I can only assume that they were guarding it overnight. We then made our way to the top so we could walk in the same places that Plato and Socrates walked. There are lots of ruins up the hill. The Parthenon was largely intact until there was a war in which it was damaged by cannon fire. Then an Englishman named Lord Elgin raided it and hauled away a lot of the sculptures, which Greece is still trying to get back.

We enjoyed the visit but the day was getting hot. Luckily the driver had water to drink. The next stop was Hadrian’s gate and the temple of Zeus. After that we watched the changing of the guard at the presidential palace. The guard’s uniform is symbolic. Everything on the uniform means something.

We then went down and ate lunch.

 I had a Greek Gyro and accomplished my culinary goal. We then walked to the Agra. It was a marketplace with a temple to Hephaestus the hill next to it. It was amazing to see building still standing after two thousand five hundred years. It was almost too much to take in.

The Museum of the Acropolis was the next stop. It has one wall that frames in the hillside where the Acropolis is. It was amazing to see how close it as.

On the way back to the pier we stopped and got some baklava. It wasn't on the have to eat list but I love the stuff and it was a definite bonus.

When we got back on the ship we decided to have dinner in the main dining room. We thought that we could still make the early show. It didn't go well. First they asked if we wanted to share a table, it was all right by us. The problem was that no one else wanted to share a table so we sat there by ourselves for a long time until a newlywed couple from California finally sat down. Then when Deb asked them to hurry they skipped her appetizer and just gave her the entrée at the same time the rest of us had appetizers. To top it off her food was cold. She was a little frustrated, but all efforts to fix it only made it worse. We gave up and ran for the show. We went to bed afterwards.

Kusadasi 

The first thing that I saw in Turkey when we entered the harbor was a fort on the hill. Even though we had to meet at seven again we had time for breakfast and to watch us pull into the port. It kinda feels weird to go into foreign countries without a passport as the cruise line still has them. It would be really bad for us to miss the ship as the next port is in Greece. It would not have been so bad yesterday as we would still be in Turkey.

After eating we headed down to the meeting point. This group is great to travel with as they all get there on time every day. All of us are going on together again. Our tour guide was waiting for us as we got off the ship. Hadi was from the area which made it nicer. He had a degree in theology which means he knew his stuff.

It was fun to see an amusement park on one of the hill sides as we passed. There were ads for swim suits complete with women models in bikinis, something I had not expected in a mostly Muslim country. When we arrived at the city of Ephus or Ephesus in English there were a lot of shops on either side of the road. The shop keepers stand in front of the shop and beckon you in. Some of them get quite aggressive. They were not as bad here as they were at the other entrance. Our tour guide started us up hill and we worked our way down through the city. Ephesus used to be the capital of Asia Minor and was a trading port. As the sea level declined they were forced to dredge an open channel to keep the sea trade open. A landslide filled the channel and by then there were other political enemies in the area so they abandoned the city and it fell into ruin. It was probably good it did because now we have what's left unaltered and the ruins were not built over like we had seen in Athens.

Ephesus was amazing. The old senate meeting place was mostly intact. The roof was gone but the columns that used to hold it up were there. There was seating for 1500 in an amphitheater style plan. We then went down into the city where we saw a small shrine to Zeus. We then passed through the gate of Hercules which separated the political part of the city from the commercial. It had a lion carved into the gate as killing of the lion was one of Hercules’s tasks. We had opted to go to the Terraced Houses instead of the house of Mary. The Terraced Houses were in the heart of Ephesus.

They are on a hillside and covered so they can preserve them better. It is an active archeology site. The houses were built on a hillside so the roof of one house was the terrace of the one above. You could see mosaics on the floors and walls. Hadi would explain what was in the different rooms as we went. Some of them had private baths which was a sign that they were the uber wealthy. Kitchens and their own toilet was also another sign. If you were not part of the rich there were public toilets down the street which was a lot of seats side by side and that men and women we do their business while the talked of the events of the day.

The library of Celsius in Ephesus was amazing. They pieced together most of it and it was a two story building in the middle of town. Ephesus is only partially excavated. Only about 15% is uncovered so far. We would pass by areas with the tops pillars sticking out of the ground and wonder what was under there. We then arrived at the commercial area where bulk items were bought and sold. The apostle Paul's family were tent makers and they bought the fabric in that area. A larger amphitheater was around the corner. This was where Paul was arrested for preaching.

At the other end of the ruins was another area of shops once you go through the gate. Deb bought some scarves and I bought a watch. How could I resist, the sign said “Authentic Fake Watches.

We then caught the tour bus where we were taken to a rug factory.  It wasn't so much of a factory; there was only one woman our front making a rug. Inside there were rugs everywhere. We were led in into a large room where they sat us around the edges and started rolling out rugs to show us. Soon the numerous rugs were stacked three high in places and covered the large floor area. It seemed to be worth their while as our group purchased two of them.

Then we arrived back in port where we had the choice of running the gauntlet of aggressive merchants or get back on the ship. Deb chose the merchants. You would try to walk by one shop and the guy would tell you to come into his store, he had the best leather goods in town. As you passed the next guy would tell you that his stuff was better than the guy you just talked to.

We then decided to get on the ship. We had lunch in the main dining room and then went up to the room to rest from our journey. 

We had put our name in a drawing to have dinner with an officer and we were selected. It was the hotel director, the one that always smiled and said, "You again," when he saw us. He said something to the effect that he just couldn't get away from us. Dinner was served by one of the best waiter teams. They didn't seat anyone at the tables around us which helped with the conversation. Mr. da Silva was articulate and was able to converse on a wide variety of topics. With us was a couple from England, a lady from New York and a couple from Oregon. We could have had wine with our dinner but since we don't drink we opted for a soft drink instead. Dinner took a long time but it was informative. He explained a lot of things the cruise line was doing. We came away with a different understanding of what was going on.

We hit the late show after dinner. It was three men that sang Bee Gees songs. They had people dancing in the aisles before the end. It was fun to feel the excitement.

Istanbul

We were supposed to dock at 8am but somehow we were docking at 9am instead so the night before I ran around letting everyone know of the time change. When we got up we headed for the buffet. I do love the omelets stations on the ship. You can get eggs cooked just the way you want them. Somehow, even though we had an extra two hours, we were running late. When we went down to the meeting point, nobody was there. It didn't take the rest of the group long to catch up with us though.

It was a long walk from the ship to the terminal. Judy and  Cliff found a shuttle to take them out of the loading area; the rest of us hoofed it. Once we arrived at the terminal Yavin was there to meet us. Again the driving was scary. We were in a large van going down narrow streets with two way traffic and parking on both sides. Yavin would lead us around to explain everything to us as we went. We started in the Hippodrome. It was the sight of the ancient chariot races in Roman times. When we arrived we were suddenly surrounded by street merchants trying to sell us tour books, then suddenly they all ran off. A police man in a three wheeled scooter was chasing them. 

The street vendors don't pay  taxes so the authorities were trying to catch them. All that was left of the site was three pillars. One of those was from Egypt. The Romans of the city had stolen it and transported it Constantinople as a memento of their great victory. Later the crusaders came and sacked the city and destroyed almost everything. We had seen this in Athens too where the invading armies destroyed a lot of the temples and shrines.

After that we headed towards the Blue Mosque. Deb didn't want to go in but since we were going in one door and out another, she felt she had no choice. The women had to wear head scarves and everyone had to cover their knees. I even saw men with scarves wrapped around their waists and hanging down so their knees would be covered. Kemi wore a hoodie which I thought was brilliant.

We also had to take off our shoes, but they did give us a bag to put them in. Inside the mosque was amazing. It had to take forever to make the ornate and wonderful ceilings. It was blue and white mosaic all around the domes. There were people everywhere.  

Hagia Sophia was closed on Monday. The massive building was built in 537AD. At first a Greek Orthodox Church, then it was a mosque and now it has been converted into a museum. The Ottoman Turks had a habit of converting churches into mosques in the areas that they conquered. We went down into the Basilica Cistern instead. It was built in 565 AD by Emperor Justinian. There are 336 pillars down there. Pillars are of different styles. Instead of carving all of the pillars they took some from captured lands. When in use the water would have been up to the roof of the structure, but there was just a little water beneath the walkway with fish swimming in it. There was two Medusa heads in the water. One was upside down and the other was right side up.

We then walked over to the Topkapi Palace. The grounds of the palace were massive. We did a lot of walking just to get there. We did stop at the gift shop to relax and use the restroom.

The Sultans built the palace so it overlooked the entire city. Istanbul is half in Asia and half in Europe with a bridge that spans the two continents. The bridge gets very busy at times, but there are boats and car ferries that transport people across the water also. 

After the palace it was time for lunch. The poor waiter had three different languages to deal with as three tables were of three different nationalities. He did the best he could. Tom ordered two things and got three, but Deb and I got what we ordered. The prices were in Turkish Lira so they had to be translated into Euros because that was all the group had.  We then looked out the window and saw a massive downpour. It was raining in buckets, but by the time we got outside, it was mostly over.

After lunch we all went down to the Grand Bazaar. It covers 75 acres of shops and one could get easily lost in there. Deb and I didn't venture too far from the main street. The shopkeepers are all trying to get you into their shops, some came from blocks away and would suddenly be walking next to you telling you that you just had to have a leather jacket. We walked into a spice/candy store and the guy in there was talking to the other clerk in Turkish. When I walked up he handed me a date and told me in English how good it was. It was good. When another couple came up he switched to Spanish. When they didn't understand him, he asked them in English where they were from and when they said Germany, he switched yet again to German.

After shopping we headed back out to the assigned meeting point. As we waited Judy was accosted by a guy selling perfume and Deb was also approached by a guy selling scarves. The scarves started out at 20 Euros each, but Deb got him down to 13 Euros for two. The 20 Euro perfume also became two for twenty. Tom started to have fun and bought thirteen more perfumes for 20 Euros, total. By the time the other street vendors saw that we were buying and started flocking to us. It was time to leave at that point. One perfume seller followed me for six blocks insisting that I needed to buy his perfume. When we got back to the van I commented on it and Tom says he had so many perfume guys around him that he told them I was really interested in perfume just to get rid of them. I don't know if Tom was kidding or not. They dropped us off at the port after that. 

We walked back to the ship. Luckily Cliff and Judy were able to catch a shuttle back. Deb and I went out our own after that. We would run into pieces of our group at different activities, but nothing planned.

Deb and I went to dinner way early. We were put at a window seat facing the harbor and really enjoyed watching the many ships in the channel come and go. It was mostly small ferries taking passengers between the Asian side of the city to the European side across the strait. There were also car ferries making the same journey.

After dinner we hit the show. It was a magic show and the guy was amazing. The last part of the show he did more talking than magic, but the first part was all magic tricks.

After dinner Deb went to write in her journal but I went up to the ‘not so newlywed show’. After that I went to bed.

Mykonos

We were not scheduled to arrive in Mykonos until early afternoon so we headed to Cagney's for breakfast. At this point we are really taking advantage of the VIP status thing. After breakfast we went to the cake decorating with the Captain, the Cruise Director, the Hotel manager and the head chef. The Captain announced that if he didn't win we would all be swimming to Mykonos. I thought that the chef did the best job. The Hotel Director was the funniest. The Captain cut the top off of his cake and then frisbee d it at Caleb. The Hotel Director kept putting rum on his and then complaining that it was leaking. His was just a mess when he was done. The Captain won.so we didn’t  have to swim to shore. No surprise there.

There was a pool deck barbeque so we stopped there  and on the way through the ship to find somewhere to sit, we found Cliff and Marilyn so we sat down with them. I think they were just finishing breakfast. We had VIP tender tickets so we took them with us to shore. We were able to get on the second ship. We could have gotten on the first one but we arrived earlier than expected. others took 3 hours to get tender! we didn’t t wait in long angry line either.

In Mykonos, we tried to climb up the hill but it was a very long way so we gave up. We then ran into a man that said he would take us in his small pickup. He had a board tied across the back. Having the same option again, I would not have done it, but it looked fun at the time, so we did. Traffic was crazy. Narrow roads that barely held one car were two way, and they did not drive slowly either. On the tight corners they had mirrors to see if there was any oncoming traffic. I was holding on for dear life, but still nearly got tossed out a couple of times. We were taken to the top of the hill where we had an amazing view of the harbor.

We then learned how truly horrible the Greek economy was from the driver. He said that they even taxed the unemployed and that the government was completely corrupt and stealing everyone's money.

Afterwards we drove down to the beach. It was way away from the port and very relaxed. We had some milk shakes there while we logged onto the internet to catch up. We then headed into the little town to look around. Deb had a list of things that she wanted to accomplish, get money out of the bank, buy postcards and find a candy store. We hit a bakery where I got some baklava and a cherry pastry that was amazing. We found some side streets and started taking pictures. We then went further into the town and in our wanderings found a bank and bought some post cards.

Our quest to find a candy store got us lost. Deb wasn't having a problem with it but I was tired and wasn't liking wandering around aimlessly. In our wanderings we came across the same bank that we had seen twenty minutes before. It was really frustrating me to waste all that energy walking around in a big circle. Finally Deb asked the right person and we found the candy store and the way out of the maze, all at the same time. We then went back and bought some more of those cherry pastries. It was a reward for getting unlost. We then found an out of the way restaurant and I ate another gyro, it wasn't as good as the first one which wasn't as good as the Americanized one, but I ate it. Deb found some grape leaves which she loved.

After we got back onto the ship we sat upstairs and watched the comings and goings below us. Deb liked Mykonos a lot better than Istanbul.

I was so tired by this point I just headed straight to bed.

Sea Day 2

I woke up way early and headed up to the library to write. With setting our clocks back with the time change, it was now 2:30 in the morning. The seas have been very calm this trip.
I did get some more sleep later but still woke up at 6:30. I decided to go on a little swim at that point. I am self-conscious about my size and wanted to do it while no one else was around. I would jump into the hot tub, which wasn't that hot, and then go into the pool, which was a little on the cold side. It was a salt water pool too.

When I got back up to the stateroom I took a hot shower.

We went to the main dining room for breakfast. Cagney's had the same menu everyday so we wanted to try something else. I just kept thinking all through the day that if this was a seven day cruise it would have been over already. I liked the longer cruise as we still had 5 more days. I went to a shore excursion presentation and promptly fell asleep. Deb went to a question and answer session with the senior officers. She came back with a lot of interesting facts. There were 42 different nationalities working on the ship this cruise. The passengers were made up of twenty some nationalities.

The captain went to sea at the age of sixteen. She shared with me but I wish I had gone to hers and not the one on shore excursions. Deb and I ran into Tom and Judy on deck. Tom was walking laps and Judy was reading a book on a deck chair. I started walking laps with Tom and Deb stayed to talk to Judy. Tom  had just learned that his best friend had died the day before, so we talked about that for a little while. He had to be going through a lot of emotions, being on a cruise of a lifetime yet losing your best friend. He was sad and happy at the same time. He doesn't know when the funeral is going to be or if he will be able to make it or not.

Ryan the concierge gave us our passports back when we went to lunch at Cagney's. we heard that line was over an hour long Then we headed up to the observation lounge.

Our whole group was up there, except for Cliff and Marilyn, when we arrived. Six of us sat in the corner and talked for an hour or two while we watched the vast emptiness of the middle of the Mediterranean Sea. Every once in a while another ship would go by but that was the extent of it.

Today we had all of us to dinner. I was hoping for one table, but they divided us into two. The Quintons all sat at one while the rest of us sat at another. The Quinton's table was ordering their desert while we will still eating our appetizers. It's funny how different waiters move at different speeds. During dinner Cliff looked up and said, "there is a helicopter above us." They had sat our group right by the back windows so we could see up clearly. When I looked I saw an Italian helicopter hovering above the ship.

Soon the captain came on the speakers to announce that someone had a burst appendix and was being medivacked off the ship. In the end they put the person on a boat to Messina  instead of a helicopter. So the helicopter made the trip all the way from Rome for no reason. We were by the tip of the boot of Italy at that point. Most of us watched the show after dinner. It was singing and dancing by the production staff. It was an international theme and I was impressed when they started doing the river dance part of it. River dance is very hard to do, but they pulled it off.

Deb and I went out on deck and watched the world go by. We were passing through the straights of Messina at that point, between Sicily and the tip of the Italian boot.

Naples

Woke up way too early again, but got caught up on my writing. I then headed back to bed to get a few minutes sleep. My back had been hurting this trip, more so than it ever has before, but I figure it is just because of all of the walking we are doing. We ate again at Cagney's. They treat us well there.

As we sailed into port the first thing you notice are the castles. There are three of them, one on the hill, one at the point, and one right in front of you as the ship docks. It tells me that this region has had a rough past. We take a picture of Mount Vesuvius, it would be the last time we would see it without clouds on top.

We met the group at Henry's Pub again. It was less people and we would also have Debra from Cruise Critic with us. When the ship was cleared we headed ashore to meet Vincent our driver. He had an eight passenger van which we just fit into and headed into Pompeii. It was a walk to get our tickets and another long walk to the top of the hill where the city was built. Pompeii used to be a port town but after the volcano erupted it is now a mile and a half away from the sea. When you look at Vesuvius you see it now has two peaks, but it only had one back in the day. One can imagine how tall it used to be by following the contour of the mountain up to see where the two peaks used to meet.

The city was amazing. It had a city square, temples, houses, shops, amphitheaters, one which is still used today and even a stadium. They have been excavating the city for over 200 years and they figure they are only 85% done. They are restoring what they can figure out went together. All of the houses were crushed under the weight of the ash, but all of the pieces were still there, so they can put a lot of it back together. What was amazing to me was how large the area was, and we only covered a small corner of it. I could have spent all day there exploring the ruins and been perfectly happy.

We hired  a guide, which was money well spent; he was enthusiastic and dramatic as he told the story of the city. When he brought us to the amphitheater he clapped so we could hear how good the acoustics were in that place. He brought the city to life with his stories. We saw the casts of the people who died. When the original excavators found human remains in the ash they injected plaster in the void of that the body made as it decayed. Those were amazing things as you could see the expressions on the people's faces as they died. One man had a towel covering his face in vain attempt to breathe. We were supposed to take two hours but we took two and a half instead and I could have stayed longer.

Herculaneum was next, it was a lot smaller, both because most of the ruins lie under the city of Naples and because the town was a lot smaller. Judy's leg was bothering her after all the walking in Pompeii so she skipped this city.

Herculaneum was a resort town that had a beach. It is also no longer near the water. It is a recent find compared to Pompeii. It is better preserved. It was harder to excavate too, only ash hit Pompeii but mud and pyroclastic flow hit Herculaneum so it is like digging through cement to get to anything. The whole city is located in a big hole in the ground in the middle of Naples. It was funny to watch people doing things like hanging out their laundry all around the city while we look at them from the middle of the ruins.

One wonders that if the volcano went again how many more people it would take out than it did before. Herculaneum has more intact areas than Pompeii. There was no wood left in Pompeii but there was charcoaled wood left in Herculaneum. They had vases on a wood shelf and it was the exact shelf where the vases were found. It was originally thought that the people had gotten out of the city, but when the excavated the area by the beach they found that the people had fled down to there to hide in the archways above the beach. That is where they died and that is where they still are. It is a chilling sight to look at their skeletal remains.

We could not go to Vesuvius as the mountain was still clouded over so we went to lunch in the center of Naples. Napoli as the driver called it. He said that Naples was in Florida, not Italy. I ate the original Margureta Pizza which had the tree colors of the Italian flag and was dedicated to Queen Margaret. Since we could not visit the mountain we opted to go to the Museum instead. There again were a lot of stairs. The King had the original workers of Pompeii bring him the best artwork and statues from the city to add to his personal collection, and when they overthrew the king all of the artwork became public and now belonged to the people and they put it in a museum.

Driving though Naples was insane. I noticed that most of the traffic lights were turned off; I was told that because nobody used them there was no reason to keep them on. All of the intersections were a game of bluff. They would drive in front of oncoming traffic hoping that the traffic would stop. One lane road, no problem, you can fit three cars side by side through there. If you need to stop in the middle of the road, just put on your flashers, it will be okay. We did a gelato stop before heading back to the ship. It was good stuff. Debra complained that we had gotten off her diet by eating pizza and now ice cream but she enjoyed it.

Back on the ship we just stopped to get a quick bite to eat at the Blue Lagoon. We went to the show, but I fell asleep so I could not tell you much about it. There was a small demonstration by the Magician after, but I was waiting for Deb while he was setting up in the lounge so I had already seen most of it and since Deb left early, so did I. Bedtime followed directly after that.

Rome

Deb wasn't feeling well today so she didn't chance breakfast, so I just went to the buffet today to eat. When I got back we went up on deck and sat there and watched the ship come into port. This has been an amazing adventure, but with every port we are getting closer and closer to the end of it.

We went down to meet the group; instead of Brad coming down, it was Caleb that took his place. Caleb was a last minute addition to the cruise and Brad was able to add him to all of the tours except the one in Rome. Brad was going to do Rome on his own and let Caleb take his place. I was the first one there and as I waited both the Cruise Director and the Hotel Director walked by and greeted me by name. I was thinking that I could not get away with anything on this ship.

When we got off there was a little confusion as to where we were supposed to be. I had seen people standing at the bottom with signs and figured that was it, but the NCL guy at the gate insisted we had to wait for a shuttle to catch our tours and had us stand to the side. I looked up to see Cliff and Marilyn talking to our driver, so we waited until the NCL guy was looking the other way and went through the gate to catch our tour.

Our driver was actually from Romania but had lived in Italy for the last 25 years. Rome isn't a port city so you dock at Civitavecchia, yes, that is the real name, and it's spelled correctly, and then drive to Rome.  Rome is about an hour and a half away. Driving through the countryside you would think that you were driving through America as we passed by fields and orchards, the only difference was the farm houses were about a thousand years older than ours.

The buildings got bigger as we neared Rome itself. Then when we passed the old city wall the driver announced that we were in ancient Rome. Soon he was dropping us off at the center of the city where the Coliseum, Palatine Hill where the real Caesar’s palace was and the Senate are located. The driver said we only needed an hour and a half to see all of those and to meet him back. I wish we would have had three or four hours because I felt rushed the whole time.

We started with the Palatine hill, in hindsight we should have started with the Coliseum and made our way the other direction. After we were done at Palatine we were already time crunched and it didn't help that the place was a maze to get through with many dead ends. We finally got to the area where the Senate was, but were severely time crunched by this point that we took pictures from afar and headed towards the Coliseum.

After hitting dead ends twice, we finally found someone we could ask. The Coliseum was crazy, the line to get tickets was massive and I could only see half of it because the other half of the line is in the building. We had pre-purchased our tickets so we walked right in. We had fifteen minutes left by this point so we took thirty. We could always face the wrath of the driver later. When finished we met the driver and the rest of the group and then went to lunch. The driver had joked that since I was the last one back there would be no lunch for me, it didn't matter, I was so hot that I didn't want lunch. I just bought water bottles for Deb and me and a banana for Deb.

I was surprised to see how much we were able to fit in during our trip. Some things we drove by, but he stopped at the Pantheon and we were able to tour this amazing structure. A lot of the original buildings in Rome were torn down to build churches and other buildings including half of the Coliseum. The Pantheon was turned into a church so it was left intact. The only difference is the ornamentation that was added for the church. This is an amazing structure. It has a hole in the roof to let in sunlight. If it rains, the building has floor drains to take care of the water that falls through the hole. The dome inside was awesome and that is part of the original building and shows how advanced the Romans had become in building.

 We drove by a lot of other sights and were let out at some of the squares to take pictures. The Trevi Fountain was closed for remodeling so we missed that but we got to see the Spanish Steps.

Our last stop was Vatican. It is not possible just to see the Sistine Chapel, you have to wind your way through the Vatican Museum first and it is a very long wind. You have a choice of the short way or the long way, so we opted for the short way. It took forever. We went upstairs and then downstairs, through hall after hall. It was all beautiful and decorated by some wonderful painters and sculptures but it was a long way. When we finally got to the Sistine Chapel, it was amazing. To be somewhere that was painted by Michelangelo,  just imagine!

The room was tall but not as ornate as St. Paul's church. The artwork was wonderful though. When we went to exit you had to walk the same distance as you did before only through different halls. Each was ornate in its own way. There must have been a dozen book dealers that you passed by until you got to the actual book store. This gave you some hope that the end of the road was near, but such was not the case. We made a bathroom stop, but had to wait for some of our company as the lines to the bathroom were very long. When we finally got moving again, all of us opted to go outside with high hopes that it led to the shortcut out and the rest of us followed. Those hopes were soon dashed as it only led to a walled courtyard. Still it was good to see the sun again. Back inside we followed the trail to the exit only to find ourselves on a spiral ramp that led down about ten to twelve stories. Luckily for Judy and Deb, there was an elevator. They easily beat the rest of us down. We caught up with Cliff at that point as he and Marilyn had not followed the false exit or had to go the bathroom.

There we waited for the appointed hour for our driver to meet us, when the time came and went Miranda made a phone call and he was there a few minutes later. I really worry that if there is ever a fire in that building all those people, and there were a lot of them, would be trapped with no way out. The thing is the Vatican is its own country and makes its own laws so it can do what it wants.

Was it worth it? Yes! As a boy I watched the Agony and the Ecstasy, and I had always wanted to see the Sistine Chapel and now I had. We skipped St. Peter's Basilica  due to time; does that make us bad?

It was then the long drive back to the ship. The driver was funny, he cursed the stupid drivers under his breath, and there were a lot of them, as we went. He had a great sense of humor and made an effort to answer all of our questions. We had skip the line tickets at the Vatican too which saved us a lot of time. We stopped for gelato again on the way to the ship. When we arrived we still had time to catch an early dinner. We met Miranda and Caleb and went in. We were hoping to catch Tom and Judy there too, but they were already eating. I enjoyed dinner, I had the tortilla soup which was wonderful and the tortilla crisps. They had veal with gravy on it over risotto. I also had the eggplant parmesan which wasn't as good but still got eaten completely. I was a little full after two appetizers and two main dishes, but it was all good. The show was from the production staff and it was good.

 Florence and Pisa

It always fun heading into port as you see interesting things on the way in. For the second time in two days I have seen the statue of the same woman as we approached a port. It must be some kind of saint to the mariners.

This port had light houses at both ends of the breakwater. It was a very busy port with lots of car ferries coming and going. One had cartoon characters painted all over it and I overheard one woman say, "Oh that must be the Disney ship."

It was just Tom and Judy and us going on this one which made the tour a lot more expensive. We wandered down to the dock as soon as the ship was cleared. Giovanni was there to meet us. He was enthusiastic and greeted us warmly. The drive from Livorno was an hour and fifteen minutes, but it seemed a lot longer.

While still in Livorno we passed this massive military base. It looked ominous. Giovanni explained that the base was a United States base left over from the Cold War. It had been nearly shut down over the years but now it was becoming more active because of the growing threat that Russia posed. As I looked inside the base there was row upon row of armored personal carriers. They were the new model, not the old ones they had before the IED was used.

We drove the route of the old Roman road between Rome and Florence. It was all paved over now. We passed into Pisa and the driver suddenly stopped on a street corner and announced that we were here at the leaning tower. I looked around and saw nothing. But as soon as we entered the ancient city gate, there it was, the leaning tower of Pisa. It was larger in real life than the pictures show and when one sees it you wonder how it could stay standing after all those years. Giovanni explained that it's leaning at 4 percent; it had gone to 4.5 percent so they had to dig under the foundation and put it back to 4 percent before it fell over. So why didn't they just put it upright while they were under there? One wonders.

The leaning tower is actually the bell tower of the massive church there in Pisa. There is also a baptistery. In the old days you were not allowed into the church before you were baptized so the baptistery had to be a separate building.

 After Pisa we drove into Florence. Our driver took us to a hillside overlooking the city so our first view of the Florence was panoramic. It was both amazing and beautiful. The park overlooking the city was having a Gelato Festival. They were making batch upon batch of the ice cream like treat. We didn't have time to eat at that point so we headed down into the city. We opted not to go to any museums as we were all museumed out at this point so Giovanni parked in front of a church and we decided to look inside. Looking inside cost 6 Euros but it was worth it as the church was the burial place of Michelangelo, Galileo, Dante, and Raphael. There was also a mausoleum under the church where a lot more people were buried.

The restroom at the church cost .50 Euros to use. I thought that they could have at least given us a free potty break after paying 6 Euros to get into the place.

We were then given a driving tour of the town. The second time we stopped it was in front of another massive church. We toured that one also. It didn't cost to get into. The churches were ornate and beautiful, with sculptures everywhere. If the crowd got too noisy a man on the loud speaker would come on and say "Silencio." It was the same at the Sistine Chapel. It was funny that both the churches and the chapel had a dress code; no short shorts or bare shoulders, but the Sistine Chapel didn't enforce it. The churches in Florence did though. Those not in compliance would have to wear scarves around the shoulders or waists, sometimes both.

We found a nice Pizzeria to eat lunch. I had lasagna, and then we headed back to the van, but not before one more gelato, after all gelato was first invented in Florence so we had to pay it its proper respect.

Giovanni kept trying to take us to other places but we were all walked out so he drove us through the Tuscan countryside. It had beautiful green rolling hills full of olive trees and grape vines. There a lot of sunflowers there too but they were past their prime and mostly black. Everything was close to the harvest time.

We arrived back in port tired, but happy. We had an easy day compared to the others, but with everything combined, we were worn out.

We ate dinner in Windows that night, just the two of us. I say just the two of us but Tom appeared over my right shoulder with his fork in hand trying to get some of my appetizer, but he was too late because I had already eaten it.

Elements was the show in the theater that night. It seemed to have almost every entertainer that we had seen the whole week in it. It was both high energy and entertaining. Well worth the watching. We debated about watching it again, but we were both tired. I did get up for the chocoholic buffet but I was nice enough to bring Deb some things back which I was also nice enough to help her eat. Of course I had to wake her up first, but I just could not bear her missing out on chocolate.

Toulon

As we neared Toulon I could see a lot of navy ships in the area. The city, come to find out is the France's main base for the Mediterranean. As the ship was pulling into port Deb and I went to breakfast. By the time we finished, the ship was docked and passengers were streaming off. The shore excursions for the day consisted mostly of going to nearby towns like Marseille or Monte Carlo and not staying in Toulon. We just wanted a quiet day walking around the city so we opted not to go on a shore excursion. The original plan was for us to email our daughter at an internet cafe and then get back on the ship, change clothes and then go to the beach.

There was a little train, actually it drove on the road, but it had a few cars on the back of a tractor that was made to look like a train. It took you to the beach, to town and then back to the ship. We drove by the beach and saw people playing in the water. The beach was very far from town.

We stayed on the train as it headed back into town. It was funny because as we started back to town from the beach, suddenly a motorcycle cop drove up with his lights and siren on, he said something to our train driver in French as he drove past and then drove back, hoped off his bike and gave her a kiss and then got back on and drove off again. Shortly after that a large number of runners appeared. We had to stop for them and it took about a half an hour for them all to pass. We just made it around the corner when the motorcycle cop and the whole group of runners reappeared and we had to wait for them again.

We finally got to town, toured the Maritime Museum and then had lunch. We ran into Cliff and Marilyn at a cafe that had Wi-Fi so we logged on, checked Facebook, Deb checked her email, no messages from our daughter who was supposed to be our main contact person. That worried us a little and we wondered what was happening there.  If there were problems there would be nothing we could do about them anyway, but still it would have been nice to hear from her

After lunch we found a market in front of a church. The church had just let out so we peeked in. It wasn't as ornate as some of the churches we had seen but was still beautiful. In the square the priest, in his robe, was talking to his congregation in front of the church. There was a market so we shopped a little bit and then found a pastry shop where we found an éclair. Deb and I split it. It was very good, so good that Deb declared she would never eat another one in America. Ours just are not the same.

We then headed back to the ship to change our clothes and head out to the beach. 

When we got down there the train had stopped running. We thought that was odd because we still had three hours left in port. We gave up and went back on the ship.

We had gotten a complimentary dinner for two at a specialty restaurant so we met up with Brad and Miranda and ate at the steakhouse. It was a very good meal; the only problem was they gave us such good appetizers and soups that when the enormous steak arrived, none of us could finish ours. It was a lot of meat.

After dinner we played shuffle board. Brad and Miranda trounced us. Deb and I went back to the room and packed as the cruise was ending the next day.

It is a sad thing when a cruise comes to an end, sadder still because it was such a long one. It is lucky for us that we have another cruise in just two weeks.

Barcelona

The cruise ended when we pulled into port in Barcelona. It had been a great trip but we wanted to see the city too so the cruise’s ending just led us to more adventures. We ate breakfast at Cagney’s and then Ryan led us down to the gangway. Going to miss that man, he was amazing.  Mr. da Silva and Geo, the cruise director, were there to wish the passengers goodbye as we left the ship. We could see a lot of taxis coming into the port so we had no doubt that the wait would not be that long. We had VIP disembarkation. Since we had never had that before we wondered where our suitcases might end up. We didn’t know, but as we came down the escalator they were there at the bottom.

Segregated from the other suitcases was a pile of just VIP ones waiting for us. We grabbed them and went out to get in the line waiting for the taxis. When we were about half way through our wait all of a sudden all of the taxis got used up. There wasn’t a single one in sight. We started to worry but it did not take long until a line of about fifty taxis suddenly appeared. We were able to grab one of these. The driver knew where the Hotel Jazz was so we didn’t have to give him the address we had printed out. As we drove we asked him what we should eat and what we shouldn’t miss. He told us to stay off of the La Rambla when we were looking for a restaurant because he said it was expensive and the food was bad. He also told us what foods to order. An omelet and a type of Spanish sausage were high up on his list. Both sounded okay, but I wanted something more that an omelet for dinner.

La Rambla is a famous walking street through the center of Barcelona. It was full of shops and people.

When we arrived at the hotel our plan was to beg and plead for them to store our bags and we would be back around three, the normal check in time, to get a room. The lady replied, “Oh, we have a room for you that’s ready now. You have been upgraded to a suite.”

Great, we could drop off our bags and rest for a few minutes before we ventured out to explore the city. We had a hop on hop off tour so we went to the nearby square to catch the bus. We saw a line at one of the busses and got in it. It wasn’t one of the tour busses, it was just an office. What we had were vouchers that had to be exchanged for tickets. After waiting for fifteen minutes to get to the head of the line, they said sorry, then drove the bus away, leaving us with the vouchers and no tickets.

So we go into another line. We wanted to take the red route and the bus, when it finally came had a red route sign on it. Then they flipped the sign to the blue route. We were in the wrong line. We walked up to the corner to get into the correct line and it didn’t move. It just sat there as three red line busses drove up, let a couple of people off and then drove off not letting anyone on. This bus company is a victim of its own success. We ended up waiting another forty minutes on top of the thirty minutes in the two other lines before we were able to get tickets and get on a bus. Finally a completely empty bus pulled up and we were able to get onto that one.

After observing long lines at each stop, we decided just to stay on the bus through the whole tour. It was a nice tour but it was lacking a few things. When we would go by interesting buildings or landmarks, it didn’t always tell us what they were. Then when we were way off from a building it would tell us what that was in the distance. It would then drive right up to the building and not comment about it. Why they didn’t wait to tell us about it when we were closer, I don’t know. Some clear signage on what line to be in would have been great also.

Dinner was at a hole in the wall that we found. Luckily the menu had English subtitles because no one in the place could talk English and I am including the customers. It was fun being in an authentic Catalonian restaurant. Catalonia is the part of Spain where Barcelona is. Dinner was good, I ate the sausages that the taxi driver had recommended and Deb had some chicken.

We took a walk along the La Rambla and we ran into to Cliff and Marilyn!  1.5 million people in the city and we just happen to be walking on the same road and on the same side of the street at the same time. We stopped to talk and then each went out way.

We took a break to get something to eat and then head back to the hotel and print out the boarding passes. It was then that I noticed a problem. The last time to check luggage in was fifteen minutes after we land. Since we booked the flights separately we had to go down to baggage claim after the one airplane landed and then recheck our luggage on the next airline. We had to do all this in one hour and fifteen minutes. I was just sick about it. I thought that was impossible so I started making phone calls to fix it. The only thing was it could not be fixed. We spent hours on hold talking to travel consultants and they came to the same conclusions. One, there were no other flights that we could do without costing $1,100 dollars in cancelation fees and rebooking fees. Two, it couldn’t be done. I was at my wits end and spent the rest of the day in Barcelona on the phone. Deb says that we need do all we can do and then pray for help with the rest. I prayed, but I don’t have the faith that she does. She told me we would make it though.

Flights Home

I was so upset that I stayed awake most of the night. When we got up in the morning after lying on one of the best beds I have ever tried to sleep on, we headed out towards the airport. When I went to check out I was informed that all those toll free calls to Travelocity were not toll free in Europe and I managed to rack up a 150 Euro phone bill. Sigh.

We rolled our suitcases across the street from the hotel and without us having to flag him down, a taxi driver stopped and backed up. He then took us to the airport. We had already saved some time.

Our boarding passes said Iberia in big bold letters at the top so we waited in the long Iberia line. When we finally got to the lady behind the desk she started fussing at us and circled in red the tiny lettering where it said “Operated by Vueling,” and said that we had to go to the Vueling terminal. She kinda treated us like idiots. I was not happy at the total lack of customer service.

Chastised, we made our way to the Vueling desk and again waited in a long line. The lady behind this desk was much more pleasant until she took our boarding passes. She got a concerned look on her face and then started making phone calls. They were all in Spanish so I had no idea what she was talking about. Finally she talks to us; somehow during our long discussions with Travelocity our flight got cancelled. No problem as she still has seats on the plane, but those nice seats up front where we can get out of the plane quickly are gone. We now have seats way in the back and they are two rows apart.

We are no long together. At least we were both on the plane at this point. When we arrive at the gate it says boarding will begin at 9:20. They have us go to the gate where there is no place to sit, and we stand in line waiting to board. 9:20 comes and goes along with 9:40 and then 9:50. The flight was supposed to take off at 9:55. Then we see the flight crew strolling calmly through the terminal building, like they are taking a Sunday stroll and then they board the plane. They didn’t even bother showing up on time. What! Don’t you know we are in a hurry! It’s another twenty minutes before they stop chatting and let us on. I am really frustrated by this point.

I’m going to have to call Vueling the Hobbit airline, because no one over the height of a hobbit is going to fit in those seats. Deb is crowded and she is 16 inches shorter than I am. My knees are jammed in the seat in front of me so hard that if the person in that seat tries to put the seat back its going to break both of my kneecaps. The plane finally takes off, but looking out the window I can see we’re are over water. There is no water between Barcelona and Copenhagen. He’s going the wrong way. I start to wonder if the pilot had decided to take a scenic side trip. As I am wondering what is going on I spot a cruise ship below us. It is a Costa ship. Boy how I wish I was back on a ship right now, any ship. I wait for refreshments, maybe even some water, but I don’t get anything. I will never fly this airline again, I vow. To top it off they fly an all Airbus fleet.

The boy in front of me is leaning forward then throwing his weight against the chair which vibrates all the way through me because my knees are jammed so far into the back of the seat. I start to wonder how I can put the boy into a sleeper hold without his parents seeing. After a while I see that it is impossible. When the father trades seats with the son, I have high hopes of finally getting some sleep. It was not to be because the father is now leaning forward the rearing back on the seat. I guess the behavior runs in the family.

I start to talk to the lady in the next seat. I had presumed previously that she was not interested in talking to me because there were three of them in her group and they seemed to be discussing who would have to sit by me. It was in Danish so I could understand a few words of it. She had lost the discussion so there she was. I know I take up a lot of room so I was not put off by it in the least, but now I needed some more information on Denmark because it now seemed that I would be spending the night there so I start talking. She is pleasant and listens while I tell her of my plight. She is even sympathetic.

We are late arriving in Copenhagen, no surprise there. We hit the ground running. Deb is still optimistic that we are going to make it, but I don’t have the faith she does. We run down to baggage claim and our bags are number one and number three to come out on the belt. Wow, I then run and ask where the Iceland air desk is, and I am told that it is terminal three so we run down the length of terminal three. It is not there.

The funny thing now, is that every time we start to take a wrong turn, the Danish lady I met on the plane and her group somehow sees us and starts yelling, “No, not that way.”

We are told that Iceland Air is in terminal two, so we go running back. I find where their desk should be but they are not there. A lady from SAS tells us to go across the aisle and they will help us at the other SAS desk. Our hearts sink as we see a long line. Just as soon as we get into line however they open up two more stations so we get right in. The man says the only way our luggage is going to make the flight is that he declares it overweight and we take it to a special counter. No problem, we do as he says.

They guy at the counter is pleasant as he takes our bags and then sends us the right direction back up the stairs. When we get to security there is another line. The man that checks you in sees we have been running so he scans our boarding passes in. The airline now knows we are in the terminal and they can’t flat out ignore us. He opens up the priority gate so we can skip the line. I could just hug him, but he wouldn’t want me to because I am drenched in sweat by this point.

When our bags are checked and we get through the metal detector I grab my bag and make a run for it. I figured that I could outrun Deb so I should be the first one there and have them save the plane until she arrives.

As I am running for the gate I hear over the airport’s intercom, “Clark Graham and Deb Graham please report to gate forty three.” I would love to report to gate forty three, only it is at the far end of the terminal and I am not.

As I run up to the counter of gate forty three a guy hovering nearby starts interrogating me. I don’t know who he was, just a guy in a yellow vest.

“Why are you late?”

“My plane was late.”

He asks me a whole bunch of other questions, which I answer, and then he asked if I am ever going to cut it this close again. “Of course not!” I say. The gate agent is a lot more friendly and just asked if Deb was going to make it. “She should be right here,” I answer.

When Deb gets to the gate, the same guy that had been giving me the fifth degree just smiles at her and gives her a thumbs up.  I don’t get it. She was even later than I was but she gets a thumbs up?

After we get on the plane I run back to my seat. Only it isn’t my seat as someone has already taken mine, so I sit in an available seat and Deb sits in the seat in front of me. I turn the air on myself. I am sweating and I can’t seem to stop. The guy next to me turns his air on me also. I wipe myself up as best that I can and sit and relax. We made it and that was no small miracle.

If those Danish ladies hadn’t been directing us every time we started to take a wrong turn, if the ticket agent from another airline hadn’t helped us, if the two additional baggage agents hadn’t opened up their terminals and if the security guy had not scanned our boarding passes or made us go through the normal line, we would have missed the plane.

The first thing I notice about the Iceland Air plane is that I have room! My long legs are not crunched up against the seat ahead of me and I am happy.

After a pleasant flight, I am finally dried off. My shirt is a little crusty, but I feel a lot better. We are over Iceland by this point and I can see glaciers and get a glimpse of the volcano that threatened our return trip if it had blown. The Icelandic landscape is amazing from what I can see as I am in an aisle seat.

Getting off the plane is easy as and the nice part is we have a couple of hours so there is no reason to hurry. As we are in the immigration line someone calls out to us, we look back to see Karalee and Quinton standing behind us in the next line. When we get through we stop to talk. We tell them about our crazy adventure in Copenhagen. At least we got some good laughs out of it.

It is a pleasant airport and we take time to eat some lunch. We spend about 1,600 Icelandic Kronor on lunch. It seems like a lot, but we don’t know what the exchange rate is, so we hope it’s low, very low.

Even though we had a jetway on disembarkation of the last flight, this time we have a bus that takes us out to another plane and the passengers are allowed to board from the front and from the back. They hand us a bottle of water as we enter the plane. We have aisle seats again. I am sitting next to someone my size so it is a little cramped. Deb taps me on the shoulder from across the aisle and tells me there are two empty seats in the row behind me, so after takeoff, when the seat belt sign disappears, I put my backpack in the overhead bin and sit in the row behind. It’s good I do because after six hours of sitting there, even with all the room that I have, I am still cramping up and my back is killing me. I am miserable by the time we land.

When the plane lands, I am so grateful to be home. Even though we had an amazing, beyond description time, it is nice to be home.

When we go down to the luggage belt we wait in vain for our bags to appear. No surprise there. I would have been shocked if they had made the flight. No problem I know where they are. We simply fill out a lost luggage claim and our bags arrive a day and a half later.
It was an amazing cruise and I will forever be glad I went, despite my reservations.  

Other Cruise Blogs

2017 Fall Cruise

Oosterdam to Alaska

Oosterdam Up the Coast

Trans-Atlantic 2019

3-Day Coastal

Western Caribbean Cruise

New England 2014

Grand Mediterranean

The $29 Cruise

Coastal Cruise 2013

New England 2012

Coastal Cruise 2012

 

 

Cruise Books by Deb Graham