Welcome to Ελλάδα (Greece)

We woke up early the morning we arrived in Athens in order to get off the ship as early as possible. Justin even got a few pictures of the sunrise.

 

At breakfast, Justin noticed that the lady at the table next to us had a shirt on that said “Muncie, Indiana,” which is about 30 minutes from our hometown – Upland. I turned around and asked her if she was from there, and she told me that they were actually from Hartford City, which is less than 10 minutes from home. Let’s make this an even smaller world….after we said that we’re from Upland, one of the men asked if I knew John Kerlin, who was my Trigonometry teacher in high school – they are cousins. The lady then asked me if I know Chad and Erin Luthy because she worked with Erin at Blackford. Chad and I grew up next door to each other and his family now lives across the street. Too funny! What a crazy connection to find all the way over here. It’s one thing to be from the same area, but another to know several of the same people! That was a fun start to our day.

We docked at 7am and were in a cab to the Acropolis by 8. The subway is a good 25 minute walk from the pier, so we shared a taxi with a Scottish woman and her daughter.

I’m so glad we went to the Acropolis in the morning. It was probably in the mid 80’s by 9am! The ruins of the Acropolis are pretty impressive. We were commenting on how nothing in our country preserves this well, even if we did have a structure that old. We got to see the famous Parthenon and walked around various other ancient sites and temples.  

The Parthenon

 

Afterwards we headed over to the Acropolis Museum where we met up with my BFS student, Lydia, and her Mom, who are Greek and are home for the summer. It was so good to see her again – she greeted me with a HUGE hug and wouldn’t let go of me for the 2+ hours we were with them. It was precious, and good to know she hadn’t forgotten me (she left school in April for a long summer back home). Her Mom treated us to an authentic Greek lunch of gyros. It was DELICIOUS!  We walked with them through some less-touristy spots and had a great afternoon with them. They were so kind and generous to give up their day and drive an hour to see us, and even invited us back to stay with them sometime – they live an hour out of the city by the beach.

An old church we saw while walking around

From there we returned to the ship for an afternoon snack of ice cream and banana bread.

Yet another fantastic Port of Call on our Mediterranean Cruise! We are loving that each stop is more than just tourist shops and made-up excursions to cost you money. We are visiting very historical places and seeing things we never dreamed of seeing!

Next stop – EPHESUS!!

City of Stairs

We docked in Dubrovnik, Croatia at 2pm on Sunday. We opted not to do an excursion on most of our days on the cruise, so we had planned ahead what we wanted to see. We got a good, detailed city map and climbed a lot of steps to find a cable car. We rode to the top where we enjoyed gorgeous views of the sea and Dalmatian Coast, the Old City of Dubrovnik, which is surrounded by a massive fortress/wall, and the surrounding area and several small islands. It was one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been.

Pulling into port at Dubrovnik

Just outside of the old city walls

Looking back on the old city after going up in the cable car

 

After our descent, we walked around the old city, climbed back down a bunch of stairs, and enjoyed walking the streets of the town.

Back in the old town

 

We were back on the ship for a late dinner, sunset, and an acrobat show.

Sunset from the ship

The following day was spent at sea as we sailed towards Athens. We slept in, laid by the pool, and I even took a nap! It was the Captain’s Dinner that night, so we got dressed up more than normal for dinner and enjoyed steak and mahi-mahi (for Justin) and my favorite – Molten Chocolate Cake.

All dressed up for dinner

Anchor's Away

We left our hotel mid-morning on Saturday to walk to the port. What we thought was going to be an easy 15 minute walk turned into nearly 45 minutes of dragging our bags over bridges and quite a ways around the city to get to the ship, but we finally made it.  Checking in was incredibly easy, and we were able to board the ship before noon. We grabbed our first cruise lunch and went on to explore the ship a bit. I beat Justin handily in two games of giant checkers – he still can’t wrap his mind around how I beat him – he says he never loses. ;)

After I won the second time :)

The ship left port around 6pm and we had a great spot to watch us leave Venice. We went around the city and got to see even more stunning views of all of Venice as well as San Marco and the surrounding islands.

We enjoyed our first dinner and retired to our room to watch a movie. 

Let's Get Lost

Venice is the perfect place to walk around without a map. Even when you’re lost, everywhere you look it’s beautiful. Beyond that, it’s always easy to find your way back because it’s an island.

Today we went to St. Mark’s Square which is surrounded by several beautiful buildings on three sides, and water on the other. As with every other tourist place we’ve been, there were long lines to get into places, and I can’t get into churches wearing shorts, so we opted for the shortest line – the line for the tower.

St. Marks' Basilica

 

 

St. Mark's Square

 

We were pleasantly surprised to find an elevator inside, rather than having to walk up several flights of stairs. The view from the top is simply breathtaking. We could see the surrounding smaller islands, the road/tracks to cross back over to the mainland, and all of Venice. The buildings are all built so closely together, though, that you can’t even see any canals other than the part of the Grand Canal that ends right by the Square.

 

The tower we went up

View from the top!

Looking back at Venice

 

From there we found the Bridge of Sighs which is only accessible through a paid tour – therefore we only saw it from the outside. It’s a covered bridge that is connected to an old prison and is said to have caused the condemned to “sigh” at their last glimpse of sky and sea. 

Bridge of Sighs

 

After that we meandered back to our hotel, getting “lost” on the narrow, winding sidewalks along the beautiful canals and buildings.

City of Bridges

We have never vacationed for this long before. I was a little nervous that we would get tired of travelling and we wouldn’t enjoy each city as much. Thankfully, that hasn’t happened! We are already nearing the half-way point of our European Adventure, and are even almost done with our time in Italy. Time sure does fly when you’re having fun!

After a wonderful day in Florence, we woke up to one of the most amazing hotel breakfasts ever. They even had nutella packets. I may have taken a few extras…

We took off for the train station late morning and boarded our 2 hour bullet train to Venice. We had checked the weather and were expecting it to be raining, but we were pleasantly surprised to pull into the city with only a few clouds and no rain in sight. We quickly found our hotel, which is a quirky place and quite hilarious. The “street” to get to our hotel is probably less than 3 feet wide, with winding staircases to each floor. We even had to check in at another hotel nearby. We are on the top, fifth floor of our building and our room is the only one up here. Our hotel is an adventure in itself!

on the train from Florence to Venice

first glimpse of Venice!

This is the sidewalk down to our hotel.

 

The last staircase up to our room

Getting settled in our room didn’t take long and we quickly took off to explore Venice. With no cars out here, it’s fun to just walk the streets and meander through the narrow alleys. After getting some great pictures of the canal and several little foot bridges, we decided to ask a gondola company how much their rides were. They told us their price and we walked away thinking…wow…maybe we won’t do one after all….when we heard one of the gondoliers coming after us. He had quickly dropped the price significantly because they weren’t busy. Instead of waiting and trying to bargain again the next day, we jumped right on and thoroughly enjoyed our spur-of-the-moment splurge that is a must-do in Venice.

Ponte Rialto

 

We finished up the afternoon by wandering on our way back to our hotel to grab some things before finding some dinner and wifi. Our expected rainy day turned into a surprisingly beautiful day full of memories in our new favorite Italian city (although Florence is still way up there and we, of course, still love Rome too!). What’s not to love about Italy? Sigh…

 

We’re praising the Lord for good weather, tons of fun-filled days behind and ahead, and the promise of getting to hug and see our dear family and friends very soon, all while thinking about what lies ahead for us as we return to the States!