Hello Everyone,
(To control the volume of the music, scroll down to the bottom.)
Today is Halloween and we're in Cannes, France. We'll be here for five days, leaving November 4th for Rome.
Sorry we lost touch with you while we were at sea, however, here are some of the highlights of the cruise.
In Tunis, Tunisia - North Africa we toured the old Roman port and saw camels, Arabs smoking opium and toured a palace with an amazing history. We went to a market and Erik practiced bartering. He loved it and wants to do it more. (We´ve created a monster!)
In Messina, Italy we went on to Taromina and tried to imagine the Greek theatre as it was in all its glory. The view of the sea and the tranquil environment as it is tucked back in the mountains made us realize that they were pretty sophisticated back in 700 BC when they constructed it. We also thought it would have been cool to hear Elton John perform in the stadium as it is today - hosting many contemporary artists.
For Georg´s birthday we ate gelato (ice cream) and toured the narrow streets shopping in the unique market boutiques and listening to the rain. YES it poured all day when we were there. By the time our tour was over it was flooding in areas which caused a mud slide. Our bus was trapped in a tunnel for 4 hours and the traffic was halted for 16 km. Several tunnels were blocked!
We finally made it back to our ship and we heard the next day that after our bus had passed through a narrow road, the asphalt caved in, causing the other buses behind us to be over 8 hours late getting back to the ship! I guess Tunis had experienced similar flooding the week prior to our visit and 16 people lost their lives due to the floods.
We took a tour to Pompeii from Naples. Naples is quite a dirty city with a lot of crime and it´s not the kind of place you want to walk around in. There are many people living in cardboard boxes and begging on the streets. We were quite happy to head to Mount Vesuvius and Pompeii.
Our stop at a traditional cameo factory was a pleasant surprise. We learned how the craftsmen make cameos out of seashells and were compelled to purchase a couple of those treasures to keep.
Pompeii is the settlement that was founded in about 700 BC and wiped out in 79 AD after Mount Vesuvius erupted. The village was frozen in time and excavations have been done to three fifths of the city, revealing a sophisticated culture where they had bakeries, gymnasiums, several theatres, restaurants, plumbing, and, YES, 20 brothel houses. The pictures - frescos on the walls tell quite a story! We will post the pictures when we have internet with our own computer. It´s truly amazing!
Erik made friends with a lovely lady Susie´and despite the magnificent history that we witnessed, he reported that the best part of his day was meeting Susie. This only proves that the travelling is really about the people you meet and not so much the things you see. I guess we knew it but Erik articulated it for us. Our whole family was quite taken with Susie and were all a little sad when she disembarked the ship a few days before we did. Erik was especially sad. He also was THRILLED to learn that Susie´s brother is John Hyatt (sings Slow Turnin). This is a favorite musician of both Georg and Erik so somehow Susie has been elevated to sainthood for Erik and we will never hear the end of this great story.
Our next stop was Florence, Italy. We took a full day tour so we could see Florence in the morning and Pisa in the afternoon. Florence is as wonderful as we thought it would be. We had fun shopping at the markets and enjoyed all the sights and sounds of the city.We´re still in a state of disbelief that we have actually seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa! We learned about Galileo (this was his hometown where he went to school and discovered the earth was round - using a pendulum). We have great pictures to add to our blog when we get a chance!
The stop in St. Tropez, France included a tour of a few villages in Provence. The countryside is full of vineyards and olive groves and the bay in St. Tropez is home to yachts with lovely ladies onboard (of course). We walked through the narrowest street in the world and toured a lovely castle and old romantic town where life seems untouched by modern influences. Oh, this is also where Brigitte Bardot was proposed to (maybe her third marriage?)
Barcelona was our final stop on the cruise and although we were glad to be back we were sad to say goodbye to our new friends, the Jones family - Pete, Pauline, William and Peter Jr. from Manchester. We said goodbye and promised to see them again in Saskatchewan or somewhere. Again, it´s who you meet that makes you really love a place!
We also hope to meet up with Emma, from South Africa in South Africa in the new year. Perhaps in the spring, and we hope she will come see us in Saskatchewan too!
We will be in Barcelona October 29 and 30th and then leave for Cannes where we stay for 5 days (‘til November 4th) and use it as home base to travel around to some of the other sites.... Venice etc.
Then it’s on to Civitavecchia, Italy where we will take tours of Rome and area and then, after two days, we will go on to catch our cruise leaving from Rome.
Here’s the itinerary:
Nov 6 Rome
Nov 7 Cruising
Nov 8 Mykonos
Nov 9 (Our anniversary) Ephesus and Kusadasi Turkey
Nov 10 Rhodes
Nov 11 Limassol
Nov 12 Cruising
Nov 13 Alexandria Egypt
Nov 14 Cruising
Nov 15 Athens Greece
Nov 16 Cruising
Nov 17 Naples and Capri
Nov 18 Back to Rome
We are planning to go skiing in the Alps after the cruise and we´ll be in Portugal from Dec 1 - 7 and then near London Dec 8 - 10 to see Stonehenge and a few other sites.
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