Dubrovnik, Croatia

Bernard Shaw wrote, "Those who look for a paradise or want the Garden of Eden on Earth must come to Dubrovnik."  I can see what he meant.  

Thursday was a day at sea and we were all a little bored.  The pools were crowded and you can only eat so many hours a day.  But Friday was what I thought was the coolest place we saw on the cruise.  Dubrovnik is an amazing medieval city that is surrounded by a city wall.  It was  bombed in 1991 and yet there are only pictures of the damage.  The damage to the old town has been completely rebuilt.  The town was so clean and so beautiful.  We walked around for a while and then took an hour long boat ride around the area.  The seas were really rough and I got quite sea sick but poor Josh was really freaked out by the large waves.  Let's just say it was a very long hour.  Then, right after the boat ride, Josh and Keith were taking pictures and this huge wave came up and got Josh soaked.  Everyone around including Kelly and I laughed as we watched the wave pound him. 

Coming into Croatia

The entrance to the city wall

The wave that got him.

Josh has his hood on walking away drenched.

Goodbye Croatia

Istanbul

I was not very excited to spend another day in Turkey, but this day ended up being one of the best.  We docked in Istanbul and that morning as the shipped pulled into the city it looked extraordinary.  We bought a “hop on hop off” bus ticket and spent the first few hours just seeing the sites. We took the bridge into Asia.  Istanbul is the only city in the world built on two continents.   On our second time around the city we hopped off at the old town.  We saw the Blue Mosque and Topkapi Palace.  Unfortunately, the Palace was closed just minutes before because of a sudden wind storm.  Later we saw on the news that the wind had pretty much destroyed the set of the new James Bond movie they were filming just down the street from where we were.  We had a great Turkish lunch, shopped at the Bazaar, and then headed back to the ship

On the bus with the Pratisto's

The bridge that took us to Asia.

Having lunch outside as the wind storm began.

Our bus for the day.

Izmir

Josh’s ankle was quite swollen so I stayed on the ship and Kelly and Keith went into Izmir, Turkey.  I got Josh a wheelchair since they did not have crutches and I pushed him around the ship for most of the morning.   Kelly and Keith showed up just before lunch and I was surprised to see them.  I had figured they would spend the day exploring Izmir.  Kelly had gotten off the ship and was pretty freaked out as they walked around the loud, somewhat dirty, big city.  I thought she was being a wimp but I was glad to be able to have some time to see the city. We left the kids on the boat and Keith and I headed out to see Izmir.   A few hours later I was ready to come back and totally understood what Kelly had felt. Keith and I took a horse drawn carriage around the city which was a pretty bad idea.  The roads were crazy and there were many times I thought the horses or we were going to get hit.  The driver took us to a Bazaar where he brought us to his friends shops so they could sell us their stuff.  After a while we asked to be taken back to the boat and again he drove down this street where every few minutes he would stop the carriage and shop owners would come up to us and try and sell us their goods.  I was so glad to get back on the boat.  Maybe if we had gone out of the main city and seen some of the historical sites, we might have enjoyed Izmir.  But our experience was not good.  We had a great dinner that night and then went to the show which was all Broadway songs.

The Bazaar

Greece

Josh woke up feeling much better and so we all took an excursion to Olympia. It was a very interesting archaeological site where the original Greek Olympic games were founded.  

The first Olympic Stadium

Afterwards, we had an hour in a Greek restaurant with a sampling of traditional Greek foods and an exhibition of traditional folk dances. That was a lot of fun.  

We all got to learn some Greek dances

The boat embarked again at 1:00, so it was a quick trip ashore. The afternoon was windy with rough seas. The swimming pool was sloshing over the deck which made a natural wave pool for the kids to enjoy until the ship workers closed it for safety concerns. So they soaked in the Jacuzzi instead. 

It was Gala Night at dinner, good food and fancy dress.

Before dinner Josh started limping and said he had twisted his ankle.  I ignored him because it wasn’t the first time he limped with a hurt leg and then forgot about it minutes later when there was fun to be had.  After dinner he pulled off his sock and I was shocked to see how swollen his ankle was.  Oops.  We iced it for a while and then Keith carried him horseback to the theatre for the night’s entertainment.

Bari

We docked in the large Italian city of Bari.  We all stayed on the boat, because it was a short stopover.  We swam, played ping-pong and let the eating begin.  Maybe too much eating too soon because after playing basketball with Keith, Josh was sitting on our balcony when he lost his lunch (and a milkshake and breakfast and possibly the previous night’s dinner).  He stayed in the room while the rest of us had dinner. But my dinner was cut short when I called to check on him and he said he was feeling worse. Keith and Kelly went to a show on the ship that night with Hans and said it was quite good.  

Finally - on the Boat

We had breakfast at the hotel. Keith took the kids to San Marco piazza, and I stayed up in the room to finish the book I had been reading. While they were out walking, Keith and the kids saw Monique’s family who we would be joining on the cruise. Then took another 26 Euro water taxi to the Piazzale Roma and the Maritime Terminal. We were so excited to finally get to the boat and to have a place to unpack and call home for the next seven nights.  The views of Venice as we pulled out of the dock were amazing.  But as I was out on our balcony taking pictures I noticed this boat of protesters that were yelling and flipping us off.  I guess they don't want cruise ships docking in Venice, or me in Venice.  That night we had our first fancy dinner with Monique’s family. 

The Protesters