Northrup Family European Adventure

Here's my theme for today... Stories to tell, promises to keep and miles to go before I sleep. Yes, I know this is heavily borrowed from Robert Frost, but it just seems so appropriate. I hope we never plan another trip with three flights spread over two days to get home. By the time we get to Charlotte, we will have been up for 21 hours straight. It's been a great trip that definitely exceeded my expectations. They have an acronym for the poorest countries in the EU. They call them the PIGS ( Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain) We managed to visit every one of them and had a great time while doing it!

The first thing I learned is that it's easy to get off the boat early when it returns to home port. We said our goodbyes at our favorite spot on the ship for breakfast, the stern. I won't bore you with the usual my-plane-was-delayed stories. But suffice it to say we didn't get to sleep in Lisbon until Midnight. Tomorrow we fly to Boston and home. Yay!!

You might think that "sea days" might be boring; not with my grandkids. The day started out with a two hour, behind the scenes tour of the ship. Here's the bridge.  This ship has an interesting feature on the bridge. It has an overhang on both sides to view the side of the ship for docking. That section even has a glass floor to allow total vision of that side of the ship. There's a matching overhang on the starboard side. This picture shows that overhang and our French tour guide, Baptiste. From the bridge we went to the engine room. I was shocked to learn that the power for the ships engines came from 2 gas turbines, not diesel engines. Here's a screen they use to monitor the ships air-conditioning. It actually shows they only have 3 working chiller with one being off-line. The Engine room has about 20 similar screens. From the Engine Room we toured the Kitchen. We noticed that they post a picture of each meal on the menu to have a consistent offering. After the...

Scott rented a van in port and we drove to Mount Olympus to see the site of the early Olympics. We were the first off the boat in hopes of beating the crowds. And although it was extremely hot, we did beat the crowds. Although it also helped that we were the only cruise ship in port today. Here's one of the entrances to the ancient stadium. In it's day it held 45000 people. Just for fun the family did a foot race. I didn't run because it was just too darn hot.  From there we stopped for an authentic Greek lunch and went on to Klio's Bee Farm. Klio is a marketing genius. She and her family offer free treats and the opportunity to buy her honey and honey products. Here she is showing a bee hive and how the honey is extracted.

We took an excursion to Athens and the Parthenon. It was very hot and we dressed for that. Even though it was a week-day morning, the traffic was awful.  When we finally got to the Parthenon, we were greeted by thousands of new friends.. and after we got through the ticket line, we met more new friends. I swear, I will never visit a major site again in peak season. The best part of our day was Brian's preparation as a tour guide. Our regular guide was impressed enough to let him share her mic. But all in all, it was an experience I would not have missed. We came back to a great dinner with lots of shared memories. And a beautiful sunset.

Mykonos was much easier to see. It was just a short water taxi ride from the ship.  The town was easy to stroll around and there was a convenient, albeit crowded beach right there. Just for fun, I dipped my feet in the water. From there we proceeded to the obligatory shopping in some picturesque streets. I am amazed at how they even paint the mortar between the flagstones white. After shopping we returned to the ship for a little R&R. As a family, our evening dinners together give us all chance to share stories of our daily adventures. The waiters do their best to cater to our needs and entertain us. Here's Katya and Molly playing with a rose the waiter made from a napkin. This prompted the need for an all-cousins photo.  

Today was our first experience with a shore excursion in a crowded environment. Santorini is a beautiful Greek island with a harbor in the center of an extinct volcano. But what happens if all the cruise ships converge on it? It will take an hour to go from your ship to the dock. While on the tender en route to the dock, it can get as little choppy. We noticed that tourists would rather have barf bags than maps. Who could blame them?  All the little towns on Santorini are on top of the island. That makes getting from the dock to town a bit of an uphill climb.. Your choices are these stairs, a cable car (which usually has a long wait on busy days), a donkey or taking the tender to a further dock where you can catch a bus. We opted for the latter. It sounds smart on surface until you realize that you to wait over an hour for that special tender. We finally grabbed our bus and headed for the ancient archeological site of Akrotiri. Some recently unearthed sections of this site are over...

Nice and relaxing. This was just a happy-go-lucky day watching the grandkids have fun. I took them to the bow for a windy Titanic moment. Then the kids hit the jackpot by winning rubber ducks. There's always time for a cheesy picture. And finally we went to a good show and an informative star gazing session on the darkened now of the ship with a laser pointer.

Today was all about getting from Rome to the ship docked in the port city of Civitavecchia.  Train to bus to shuttle with all of us. When we saw the actual dock i was amazed at all the cruise ships. We finally got everyone on board and we can start relaxing.

Just for adventure I explored the long tunnel that links the escalator at the top of our street with the Spanish Steps. The tunnel with it's various twists and byways was over half-a-mile long. At each turn I made a mental note of the signs and arrows I would face on the way back. As luck would have it, I ran into Scott & Jimmy at the base of the steps. They were happy to let me lead them back through the tunnel for a cool trip back to their place. The escalators and moving walkways sure beat climbing the steps. OK, the first time is fun but it gets old after that. Later, I got a bee in my bonnet to show my grandkids the Trevi Fountain and the Pantheon. But when we got to the fountain, it was a sea of tourists. They bring 'em in from all over the world by the busload. Now here's a picture without the sea if tourists.. We made our way through to get crowd to the Pantheon. It was crowded too, but it was much more manageable. I love the inside and the single open-air skyli...

In order to beat the inevitable crowds, and the 99 degree heat, we get up be early and catch a cab to St. Peter's. He still let's us out a good ways from the Square.  You can see my shadow and Patrice's as we take pictures. Just the Square itself is fun to see with the columns and fountains. And Swiss Guards... But the star of the show is inside. Here's the Pietà by Michelangelo. In addition to these priceless works of art the building itself is awe-inspiring. Finally on the way home, I made an interesting discovery. These are the biggest knockers I have ever seen. We ended the day with a great dinner at Scott and Allison's place. Bread and olive oil and fresh pasta... Hmmmm

Another flight, another day up at the crack of dawn. We loved Barcelona and our stay here. I can see how it would be inspiring to artists.  Even the buildings are art. We flew to Rome on budget airline, Vueling. I have finally found the point where I would be willing to pay a little more to fly a decent airline. They take the herd mentality down to a new level. The thin seats look like something out of a DC3. When we got to Rome we took the train to Termini Station. We should have just taken a cab but opted for Uber instead. By the time we walked to spot where they could pick us up, we figured we'd just walk to the hotel. It was a hot sweaty mistake. But we're delighted to see it.

There's one last major site in Barcelona we wanted to see. It's Gaudis famous whimsical park on top of the hill above the city. We did our laundry, grabbed some lunch and took the bus for a long uphill ride up to the park. One of it's famous features is the long ceramic wall.. That's the Mediterranean in the distance behind Patrice.  There are whimsical creatures up here too.. like this dragon. And there are the trademark Gaudi parabolic arches in this passageway that runs along the face of the hill. At the end of the  day we took one last picture and went back to the hotel for a reception with the hotel's General Mgr.