Friday 6/3/2011
Finals are done, and we are off to the airport. Flight from Dallas to Chicago went fine. No problems, not delays, whatever. Too good to be true you say? Wait.
AA 110 from ORD to FCO is supposed to leave Chicago at 450PM and arrive 915AM. We board no problem. Nice to have early boarding to be able to stow luggage. We settle in and prepare for the long flight to Rome, , but its REALLLY HOT on the plane. We leave the terminal K on time, I'm sitting next to a travel nurse who is headed to Rome to pick up a patient that just got to Rome on a cruise and had a heart attack. (No I'm not superstitious) get on the runway and………….. wait. We are sitting there for 10-15-30-45 minutes with no info from the pilot. Engines spool up.. Yay here we go…. No… Wait another 15 minutes. Engines spool up again!!!!! Yay????. Ummmmmm……..No.
The next words we hear:’ Folks this is the captain. We have a problem with THE AVIONICS OVERHEATING” or something like that. Not good. Back to the terminal. Oh yeah, then we have to get off the plane. Never good. NEVER. An hour later we are delayed officially, then again, and Again, and AGAIN.. At this point hey start handing out food vouchers. Again, NOT GOOD. BTW, $10 pp is not really a voucher at the airport and to slap us in the face a little more there is this is little message on the coupons: NOT GOOD FOR ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES.. Aw man!!!!! Anyway, we figure we are heading out in 30 minutes or so and are still looking toward two meals, so we decide to do the logical thing and buy $40 of chocolate. C’mon you’d a done the same thing…….
Anyway, back to the flight. We get back to the gate at around 7. Delay, Delay Delay.. Good news!!!!! We have a new plane at a new gate and will board as soon everyone gets over there. Off to K12 we go. The crowd is all there. Ready to go……..What now?
An hour later (we are at about 9:30 at this point) we get the news. Before I give th story, I must state K12 has THE WORST PA system in the airport. Anyway, Charlie Brown’s teacher (Mwa wa wa wa wa waaaahhh) gets on the PA and announced our flight will be delayed to 1PM tomorrow. Huh?????? 1PM?? TOMORROW???? Yep. Why you ask? FAA flight quotas. Apparently the flight crew’s (i.e the pilots) clock started as soon as we pulled away from the gate and by FAA law they can only fly a certain amount of hours on any given trip (even if they aren’t actually flying).
OK so hotel vouchers start coming out, plus more of those wonderful $10 food vouchers. I see vouchers for some people for he Crowne Plaza and I go and get in line with everyone else and get……. Howard Johnson.. Wait, what? There are still Howard Johnsons? Um. No. Lets try again.
Oh boy. Holiday Inn….. OK, could be good, could be a nightmare. You just never know. So I check Kayak for options but give it one more try.
SCORE. Hilton ORD airport. Get two coupons, and then decide my seating companion is a good person so I call Hilton to make sure I can get two beds. Good news there. I slide the other voucher over to Rupa and we head over to the Hilton. Let’s say there are few if any signs guiding you to the Hilton so I call and get direction. What seems like 45 minutes later, we exit a totally different terminal and find the Hilton.
We run into the pilots. I give him a little ribbing about breaking the plane and ask who I should complain about. He totally throws the VP of maintenance under the bus. Turns out three flights from ORD on 767 (I hate these planes but AA seems to love them) aircraft the same day. All for maintenance issues. Not cool at all.
Anyway, after spending $40 for a pizza, an order of calamari and a beer, we head up for bed with the knowledge that we have lost a full day in Rome.. Since it is so late it was too late to talk with the apartment owner we contracted with. That’ll have to wait until tomorrow.
Saturday, 6/4/11
We wake up bright eyed and bushy tailed . We still have our $40 worth of food vouchers as we paid for dinner last night. We head down to the airport restaurant for breakfast around 9. After all we are on vacation and our flight doesn’t leave until 1PM.
We check the menu and I have a small myocardial infarction and visions of continental Europe. Breakfast buffet $23……………….per person. HUH??? So we leave and go to the “snack shop” where Elisabeth tells me she wants pancakes….. Back to the restaurant we go and the first ray of sunshine (sort of) shows up. The waiter sees the vouchers and gives us a deal. 4 buffets for the price of two, plus we pay the difference. Ended up paying $12 plus the vouchers. Not bad, but whatever.
I call the apartment manager to make sure we still have the apartment since we had already gotten a break on the rate plus were able to rent it for 2 days vs the normal minimum of three. Alessio Angeli of
www.angelishouse.it answers the phone and says to call him when we get to FCO. At least that is taken care of
After breakfast we find out there is a much shorter distance to the American Airlines section at ORD. 5 minutes walk. Back to good ole gate K12.
Around 1PM we do indeed board flight 110 to Rome. Once again we head out to the runway and……….aw crap. What now? 30 minutes later, we get the announcement that they are waiting on CARGO!!! Geesh, there’s another SCHEDULED Flight at 4:50 today as well. Put the *$%^@$ cargo on that flight.
A few minutes later, the engines spool again…….What? They continue to spool? Yes!!!!. Sure enough we are off to Rome.. FINALLY
Sunday 6/5/2011
We get to Rome around 6AM. Late, but also early. For those playing our home game and keeping score, we are 20 hours delayed. We get to FCO, pass thought passport control and head to Baggage Claim. About 45 minutes later (yes that long) our bags finally show and we head to find our scheduled driver. Guess what??? Yep he’s not there, so we head out and grab a cab. Give a quick call to Alessio to make sure he will meet us and off we go to the apartment at Via Della Luce 4, in Trastevere.
Turns out there is a flat fee from FCO to anywhere within the Aurelian Walls of Rome of 40E. Actually cheaper than using a private driver.
Our driver speaks limited English, but better than my poco poco Italiano. We work things out and get to the apartment around 730. Alessio is waiting for us outside. Phew
We go upstairs and find that the apartment (Trastevere Penthouse A) has been completely remodeled and is now a 2BR, 2BA apartment vs 1BR, 1BA when we rented it the first time four years ago right after Alessio purchased it. Nice place if you need a pad in Rome.
Alessio cut us a deal since we were repeat offenders (I mean past guests) on the rent by letting us rent for only two nights, so we had to pay him for both nights even though we only used one. I will be sending American Airlines a bill for about $300 for the other nights stay since they were the reason I had to pay but not get to use the apartment.
We decide to bail on the nap that I had planned (I was outvoted three to one) and we decide to power though and try to get in all the sites we would/should have had two days for. 1st Stop Parthenon. Still there just like we remembered, but new to the girls. They seem impressed. Then Trevi fountain where there are surprisingly less than 40 bazillion people. I guess 9AM is the time to go J. We grab a few pics then head up to the Spanish steps and see some people filming what seems to be a commercial featuring some scantily clad beach volleyball players. OK….. Across the street is a gelato place but we can’t figure out how to order and Elisabeth is HUNGTY, so we start heading toward the Colosseum for our 1PM appointment. We end up back at the Trevi fountain area and grab some gelato from a different place. Elisabeth gets Strachiatella (sp?) which is basically Italian chocolate chip. Kathryn and I can’t eat ice cream so we opt for sorbetto as does Lisa. Kathryn gets Mango (yum), Lisa gets raspberry and I got a combo lemon and Watermelon. All very good. I tasted E’s gelato at is was also yummy, but I have to be careful with ice cream. Too bad. It was GOOOD. We find a small place on the way to the Colosseum and stop for lunch. It’s about 11:45 and they open at noon, so we wait. Pizza and Acqua Frizzante. Not bad, not awesome, but gets us through. Oh C**p. Its 12:30 before we know it and we need to get to the Colosseum, so I pay the exorbitant 16E bill ;) and we head off toward Hadrians Amphitheater. It’s a little further than I remember but we get there in about 20 minutes only to find that we have no idea how to get with our prepaid tour guide for our prepaid tour of the dungeon and upper levels of the Colosseum. We find a guy who seems to be directing people, and we enter the tickets section. WE have prepaid tickets so we get to skip the line containing approximately 24,569 people pick up our tickets art the prepaid registration desk. Along with our tickets I get a comment ”Oh they have probably already left but meet the guide by the elevators” so we run down the area to the elevator and………. Of course no one is there. We ask around for the Pierreci people (thr tour people) and one smarta$$ guy says “I hate those guys. They don’t pay enough” Thanks. Helps a lot Dipwad. So we head up the stairs hoping to find the other people sporting the awesome pink stickers we have. No joy. We basically speed walk around the whole Colosseum without seeing one blasted pink sticker. So we head back down and talk to someone. They tell us, of course, that there are no more underground tours and it is not their responsibilities that we were late (by about 30 bleeding seconds). When has anything in Italy ever been on time. I saw this with the full love of the Italian people as I too am Italiano. Anyway, they are accommodating as best they can and allows us to join a later guided tour (without the underground or upper levels that we paid extra for). At this point we are all exhausted and decide to just go walk around and see what we can see. We leave and head over to the Forum (since we have the full tickets). Head up a hill that we hope will get us into the Forum from the Palatine side. Again, no Joy, so head back down. At this point, we are hot, bothered and it starts raining, so we decide to head back to the apartment for a nap.
So far vacation had been AWEsome………………………
After a short (2 hour) nap, everyone is hungry so we decide to scope the neighborhood for a restaurant. Last time Lisa and I were in Rome, we loved the little places in around Trastevere, so we decided to keep it close. Lisa start talking gnocchi and it gets everyone’s mind set on this fine Italian delicacy. We end up at Il Ponentino a little place around the corner from the apartment. They have a variety of fixed price menus ranging from 10E to 16 E depending on how much food you want. Its The 10E menu gives you one antipasti (appetizer), one primi (1st dish, usually pasta), dessert and a drink. Some of the primis alone are 12E by themselves so its a pretty good deal. Lisa opts for the 10E menu with bruschetta and ravioli con funghi which is cheese ravioli served with fresh Porcini mushrooms and a ¼ liter of house red. I opt for a fiore de Zucca which is a Zuchini blossom stuffed with Cheese and fried, then Maialino (roast pork) with another ¼ liter of house red. E gets Rigatoni Carbonara (one of my faves) and a Coke and Kathryn gets the the pillowiest (is that a word) Gnocchi Bolognese, a sauce that reminded me of Nana’s meat sauce with chunks of pork in a light red sauce with a Coke. A little pane, some Tiramisu and some pineapple for E Rounds out the meal. Total bill……. (drumroll) 35 E out the door……. And we had leftovers…..
Back to the apartment for sleep
Monday 6/6
We had grand plans to be up early to head to St Peters. Yeah. About that… Ummmmmm. OK we wake up at 10 and hit the neighborhood for some breakfast. Pastry shop for biscotti and some pastries then the little shop for caffe latte and another shop for some bananas for E rounds out breakfast.
Back to the apartment to pack things up and wait for our ride. Last time we stayed here I left my eye glasses, so this time I made sure we had everything. Ms Simona shows up to check us out around noon and we get our deposit check back.
We had prearranged a ride to the pier with another family, the Artigues, on the same cruise via Cruisecritic.com forums. They show around 12:15 as expected, we get the luggage loaded and head to the port.
Along the way we listen to our drive tell us how much he doesn’t like Chinese people, how Women drivers are not very good, how Italians helped build the Brooklyn Bridge and how, in general, Italians are better. OK, Whatever. I miss “Mario” from our first trip who drove like a race car driver, but didn’t share his political opinions……
We had arranged for a stop at a store called Co-op in Civitavecchia, Rome’s port. Nope. We are going to an Italian grocery store. I spy a sign for LIDL, a German chain I am familiar with. I point this out to our driver. “Oh is no good”. OK. Find us a store. He finds us a local place and it is fine. We grab some water, snacks and the four bottles of wine we can bring on the ship with us. 6ea 2-liter bottles of water, plus a 12 pack of 500ml bottles of Acqua frizzante, 4 bottles of various Italian wine, a bag of popcorn, a bag of (what turns out to be the worst “cheetos” ever) and a snack bag. Total 11.6 Euro. Not bad.
10 minutes later we are at the port. We pay the driver, tips the porters and head in to meet a thousand of our new friends (OK it was more like 500) waiting to board the ship. We have the wine in carryons and go through security. No questions at all. Wish I had put a bottle of vodka in in place of the one of the wine bottles….. Oh well.
An hour later we board the Celebrity Equinox, aka the SS Purell (more on that in a bit). Since we got on around 2:30 or so, our cabins were ready so we just headed there. Our bags were waiting for us, so we put them in the cabin and unpack. We are in 6303 and 6301. Our cabins are over one of the specialty restaurants so we have a slightly obstructed view since the restaurant juts a bit past our balcony, but we have oversized balconies about 2 feet longer than the standard balconies.
We meet Rosario Clement, our Indian (I know, right? He sounds like he should be from Puerto Rico) cabin steward. Very nice guy who always has a smile and will get us whatever we need. We are pleased to find we can open the divider between the balconies since we did not get connecting cabins. I slip him a twenty to keep him interested J
Next we walk the ship a little to get familiar with it.
No one wants to get dressed for dinner, so we just head up the Oceanview café for dinner then bed.\This is the ships main buffet. Due to the norovirus scare, it is not really a buffet as the crew members are serving everything to everybody which is fine except when it come to getting drinks as there are long lines for the limited drink stations.
Turns out there is a nasty little bug that likes to hang out on ships called a norovirus. Causes all kinds of gastrointestinal upset and is highly contagious. Not necessarily life threatening, but not fun to get.
A couple months ago a sister ship to ours had and outbreak that resulted in a bunch of people getting sick and having to be quarantined to their cabins. Great way to spend a cruise….. not.
As a way to combat this little bugger, the ship is in constant clean mode. You see people all over the ship wiping down doors, handles, etc. There are talks everywhere about washing your hands and general cleanliness. This is great, but we are in Europe and some people just don’t’ seem to get the whole daily shower thing, but I digress. Every entrance to a common area has a Purell dispenser and/or a crew member with a squirt bottle of sanitizer, so we are constantly applying the gooey clear liquid. Fine by me. I don’t wanna get sick……
Tuesday 6/7 – Sea day
Today is our first day away from land. It is also our first formal night. Not much happened this day as we pretty much just relaxed on ship. We did have a ship sponsored get together with the people we had hooked up with on Cruise Critic, so that was cool to put faces with names and meet the people we would be spending some time with over the cruise.
Pool deck, cabin veranda, etc. Formal pics taken tonight. Came out OK. My girls are growing up too fast though……
Formal dinner was good but not outstanding. Tried to get the girls to try escargot. No go on that.
Had our first martini before dinner and met some fun people: Jimmy and Racquel, and Bruce and Diane from the US. Both couples were a few (OK, 15) years older than us, but nice peeps
We also met another couple at dinner. The left a little earlier than us as they had dinner started before we go there.
After dinner we spent a little time in the on board jazz club and ran into the Knobloch’s again (our dinner friends). Lisa, Elisabeth and I had a good time. Lisa and I had a couple scotches (Dewars and soda for her, Macallen rocks for me). Lisa even got up and sang backup on one song. Kathryn made it clear she is not a fan of jazz, so I walked her back to their cabin and went back to the jazz club. We left around midnight.
Wednesday 6/8 – Santorini
Today was our first port, the Greek island of Santorini. It is a “tender” port meaning you have to use a small boat to get off the ship since there is no deep water harbor/pier setup at Santorini. Solely in an attempt to avoid the crowds and to get off the ship early, we took a ship sponsored tour. We normally avoid these like the plague because they are usually very overpriced vs doing things on your own. This stop was no exception, but we did get off the ship at about 1:45. Some fellow passengers did not get off until close to 4PM. We were in port from 2PM to 10PM and the last tender back to the ship was at 9:15, so while we spent a lot more than we could have, we got a full day in port.
We board the bus and the first stop is a small private winery called Boutari. We get short overview on the company and their intent to try to save indigenous wines in various places. There are some specific vines in Santorini. We also learn that it rarely rains on Santorini, but since it is a volcanic island made primarily of pumice, the native humidity is enough to grow crops including tomatoes, and grapes. They prune the grapes into a bowl shape to preserve the water natively. Pretty cool
Next stop, the place everyone thing of when they go to Santorini – Oia. This is the village most people think Mamma Mia was filmed at (It wasn’t) and where Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants was filmed (What? Me see that movie???????? yah. I have daughters.). Anyway it is a hillside village where the predominant colors are white and blue. Blue domed churches, etc. Very picturesque and pretty. Lots of pictures later, we shop a little grabbing a small church with Oia written on it, a post card and some jewelry then back on the bus. We take a tour of the less seen side of the island (which is flat and contains the airport and all the beaches). Want a house on a Greek Island? You can get one on this part of the island for $100K according to our tour guide Chara.
We get dropped on in Fira, the main town on Santroini which is also where the cable cars back to the tender boats are. We had made reservation at 6:30 for a place called Fanari in Fira, but we got there early. They let us in and we have a bunch of Greek Mezes (appetizers) and my first beer of the cruise. Greek Alfa. Not bad. A little pricey for what we got, but everyone was hungry as we had not eaten any lunch prior to the cruise. Plus we were all tired since it was very warm and we had walked a lot. Back to the ship at 9PM via cable car and tender. We tried to watch the famed Santorini sunset, but there was over cast skies, so it was not so awesome. Good day though.
Thursday 6/9 – Athens
Athens. Stop two. No one really slept a lot last night, so we were all kind of awake around 4:00 when we started docking in Athens. Our cabins are at the back of the ship, and up to this point were no issues at all……………. Until this morning…………..
When we started docking, we noticed a very distinct vibration. OK, it felt like a small earthquake. Since we were in bed, it didn’t bother us as much, but we talked to another couple that were supposed to come with us on our tour (more below) when we got back and the husband described it as the propeller getting caught up in a fishing net.
Oh well.
This time we had a privately organized tour with 6 other people we met on Cruisecritic.com using Nikos Loukas and our guide Myrto (not sure how to spell it). We all met up around 7:45 at the Cellar Masters wine bar where we had the get together the previous day and begin to chat. Turns out the Equinox had its own little outbreak of the aforementioned norovirus nastiness on the previous cruise. Great. This explains the anal attitude of the crew related to hygiene.
We started 8:00 AM to try to get to the Acropolis before the crowds. When we get on the van, Nikos tells us we have a change of plans because some of the Greeks decided to demonstrate in front of Parliament in a scheduled demonstration that shut down the streets in the city in the afternoon. So we did the afternoon things first.
We started with the Temple of Olympian Zeus. Very interesting to see 15 of the original columns from THREE THOUSAND years ago still standing. Cool.
From there we visit the old Olympic Stadium. Unfortunately it is under construction for the upcoming Special Olympics and was not open for us to get into, but we got to visit the site and use the WC.
From there we take a drive up the Lycabettus (sp?) Hill to get great views of the city from one of the highest points in the city, where we see the Acropolis from high up and far away
We drive back to Parliament to see the changing of the guard only to see that the road to the area is already closed off, so we drive around a bit and get out of the van to walk to Parliament and take pictures with the Athenian version of the famed English Palace guards.
Off we go to the Ancient Agora and Plaka. We walk through the Plaka (the current market place) to the site of the ancient center of the city. Our guide gives us a great overview of Athens history and life in the time of Plato and his contemporaries.
From there we stop for a quick lunch of Gyros, Greek Salad and Mythos beer. Gotta say, I like the Gyros I get at home better than those we had in Athens, but they were still good and fairly cheap. One interesting thing. In addition to tomato and onions, the Athenian version contains French fries?!?!?! Weird, but not bad.
Finally we head of to the main site in Athens, the Acropolis. Acro- means high; -polis means city, so Acropolis? High City. Huh.
Anyway we head up to the site, driving as close as we can, but its still approximately ¼ to ½ mile walk to the top. It’s also about 8 Million degrees as it is about 3PM. Hot you say? Not it was HOT. But it was worth it. The site is pretty cool. There are a couple different buildings on the site, but the main building is the Parthenon. Unfortunately it is constantly under construction, so there was scaffolding and cranes everywhere making it difficult to get pictures without them in them, but I did my best.
From here we all decide to go to the New Acropolis museum where they have a bunch of the original parts of the Parthenon that were no longer attached to the physical building. This includes a frieze that ran around the building. They have roughly 50% of the original frieze with the other half being in other museums around the world and some being lost. These are referred to as the “Parthenon Marbles” and are a sore spot between Greece and England as a lot of the marbles sections were looted by the former English ambassador in Greece under the Ottoman Empire. Maybe some day they will make their way back to Athens.
This was the end of our tour and we were all a little hot and bothered due to the heat, so we took the van back to the ship and bidded a strong Efcharisto to Nikos and reboard the ship. Departure 6PM.
$5 Mojitos for happy hour were very welcome
Tonight we decided to try one of the ships Specialty restaurants, Silk Harvest. This is an Asian restaurant with dished from Japan, China, and Thailand. It is an all you can eat place so in fine cruising tradition we proceeded to order way too much food. Chicken Spring rolls (great), Chicken lettuce wraps (good), Cream cheese wontons (very good), asian chicken salad (OK), salt and pepper calamari and shrimp (very good), spicy salmon roll (good), “solstice” roll (very good), unagi nigiri (always good), cucumber roll (OK) kung pao chicken (somewhat disappointing), spicy pad thai (Pretty good), orange chicken (disappointment) and green curry with pork (Not bad, but I actually ordered Red Curry duck). Overall it was good, but not great. The starters were the best part. Was it worth the $25 pp charge? Probably not overall, but it was OK.
Friday, 6/10 – sea day
After two hot port days, another day at sea was a welcome respite. I think I am getting old. On previous cruises I hated sea days, preferring to spend time in port. But as I get older, the breaks between port days and other port days are a good thing.
We woke at 11AM today…….. Wow. Girls were still VERY asleep, so we let them sleep in, heading to the buffet fro breakfast and then the pool deck for the first alone time on the cruise. Hmmmmmm. Bloody Mary’s?? OK!!
The girls show up around 12:30 moping that they are hungry. We tell them to check out the buffet and they come back 10 minutes later even more mopey saying there is nothing to eat. Kathryn decides a burger would be good, E is blah blah blah……. She is sitting there with me when she finally says, “I think I lost my iPod”. Great. We try to back track her steps when she realizes she probably didn’t even have it. Ughhhhhhh. We had to the cabin and yep, it is still in the cabin. OK. Good.
The ship had a battle of the sexes pool games that the girls watched. I took a bit of a nap. Around 2:15, Lisa and I went to a wine tasting and the chicas went back to the cabin. J More alone time. We try 12 wines from around the world and decide the best white was from Spain and the best red was from Australia. At the tasting, we met up with one of the couples from our flight, another couple from Cruisecritic and a young couple from New York. Good time.
Tonight we ate in the dining room again. Met a couple from Massachusetts that now live on St Thomas. Fun people. We actually sat at the same table we had the last time which is interesting since we are on Celebrity Select dining that means we do not have set table or time to eat. Again the food was OK but not over the top.
We ran into the Knoblochs again and listened to an a capella group for a bit then did a quick run around the deck and off to bed.
Saturday 6/11 – Istanbul
Istanbul is the main reason we took this cruise. We are here all day today plus half a day tomorrow. We are due into port around 8AM today. Around 6, we start feeling the earth move under our (feet) bed again as we start pulling into port. Braaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawn. You get the idea.
K starts complaining of stomach problems. Oh no…………. A shot of Imodium and she seems fine. Then Lisa says something…. Great.
We have another private tour organized today. It is just us and another family we met on cruise critic. Itinerary today is Blue Mosque, Topkapi Palace and the Harem section, Aya (or Hagia) Sophia, Grand Bazaar and the Basillica Cistern. Off the ship at 8:30 and spend some time trying to find out guide Kagan (pronounced Kaan) Kosagan. Turns out we were supposed to meet at 8, but whatever. We head out ad decide to try Topkapi Palace 1st.. This was the palace of the Ottoman Sultan (Its good to be king) and has something like a bazillion rooms. We are there for about an hour or so and get a great background of the palace and then head to the Harem section. Under any given sultan there were between 0 to 1600 girls in the harem, depending on how “hungry” the sultan was. On average there were 400 girls in the harem. Girls were recruited at any age from 3-4 onward. And the primary requirement was that they have “sparkling” eyes per Kagan. These girls left there families, were highly educated and had a roughly 7 year time from age 18-25 to catch the Sultan’s eye. If they did, they became a “favorite”. If not, they were kicked out of the harem at age 25. Don’t feel to bad for those girls. While they were in the Harem, they were showered with riches by the Sultan en masse. They got to keep all the items they were given except their costumes, which belonged to the harem. So even though they were not part of the Sultan’s harem anymore, they were rich. When they left, there would typically be a group of suitors waiting for them and they would drop a handkerchief at the foot of the man who they were willing to marry, making that man rich as well. For the ones that stayed, the goal was to be the first one to produce a son for the Sultan as that son would be the next Sultan and the girl would become the Sultan Mother. Very interesting and much more to it that what I have shared.
After the Harem we went to the treasury which is basically the remnants of the sultan’s fortune that was left behind when the last sultan was removed at the fall of the Ottoman Empire. Most stuff was taken by the sultan’s family as they were allowed to take what they wanted when they were kicked out when Turkey became a republic.
From there we went to Hagia Sophia which was intended to be the Vatican for eastern Orthodox Christians. Very impressive structure built 1500 years ago that was eventually turned into a mosque, then a museum. Inside the huge structure are Christian and Islamic art, icons, plaques, etc. Very cool place with a huuuuuuuuuuuuuge dome that was built 1500 years ago (Kagan kept stating “one thooooooousand, five hundred years old”). You should definitely see this place if you come to Istanbul.
Under the Church is the area called Basilica Cistern. Thanks to having Kagan, we get to skip the very long line. Money well spent J Anyway; the cistern was used in the James Bond movie “From Russia With Love” albeit in a totally false way. The real cistern is just that. It is a water storage place under the Aya Sofia (can be spelled both ways). I found it very cool, especially with the JB tie-in. Interesting thing is they used columns from all over the world for supporting the church, so there is a variety of bases and tops (Corinthian, Doric, Ionic, etc.) including some unique ones like Medusa heads. Cool
We decided to keep Blue Mosque for the end of the day, so headed off to the Grand Bazaar. In a word…………………Crazy. 4000 shops under the roof. A maze of alley ways and shops selling everything from food to leather to silver to antiques to shoes to. You get the idea. We decided we needed a Christmas ornament since we like to buy these wherever we travel, so we head in on a mission, armed with the knowledge that the 1st price is roughly 2X what you will spend. We find a little shop with these hanging ornaments, ask how much for the one E likes and proceed to tell the kid no, too much. He starts at 20, we end up at 10. Mission accomplished. I still think 10Euro is a bit much, but the family wants it and we are on vacation, so I pull out a 10 Euro note. The kid then makes a rookie mistake and says “No Lira, not Euro”, to which I reply “I have no Lira”. So he takes the Euro note which I was fully, though reluctantly, ready to pay and give me back 5 Euro (Exchange rate is roughly 2TL per Euro). I say he makes a rookie mistake, because I was ready to pay the 10 Euro. I’m even more happy paying 5.
We shuffle through a bit more of the Bazaar, which is also a little bizarre (get it, Bazaar, bizarre… buh dum bump – Thank you I‘ll be here all week…….).Along the way, E make a great impression on the young sultans of swag merchants if you know what I mean. Must be her sparkling eyes…….
Lunch is next. Duvur (I think) Kebap for me and E, Grilled cheese for Lisa and K. And my first Turkish beer (Efes Pilsener – pretty good). The sandwich is a cross between a burrito and a gyro. Pretty good sliced chicken with some veggies and again, the French fries (??).
We head over to the Blue Mosque and unfortunately it is prayer time, so no go for today. We had already, at this point, decided to join the half day tour the next day so decided to postpone Blue Mosque until tomorrow, so we head over to a park between the Blue Mosque and the Aya Sofia.
When we get there, we see all these young boys, ranging from 4-8 years old dressed up in little sultan outfits. Aw. Cute. What is this all about? Kagan stops at one young fellow and talks with him. He happens to be 8 or so. As with the others, today is the day he “becomes a man” by losing a little piece of himself.. Yes that is what I am talking about. The procedure most males get in the hospital when they are but hours old in the US. WHAT!!!! At 8 YEARS old??? Aw man………. “At least they have injections now”. Somehow I am not comforted any….. This is a big day in the life of a Muslim boy. They are Sultan for the day. Also they tend to get their first bicycle on this day, but it will be at least a week before they can ride it…. STAY STRONG LITTLE MEN!!! Ouch
Next stop is the Spice Bazaar. I have visions of this place being a loud explosion of color and smell. Not so much. It is very crowded and pretty much everyone sells the same stuff, not of which we want to buy, so 15 minutes later we are back with the group and headed out.
We visit a local street to check out some restaurants and end up getting some treats (Baklava and other pastries). Kagan asks if we tasted the Turkish delight, which I had not, so proceeds to drag me into a shop as I have to try it. I try a piece. Not bad, not great, so I leave the shop. Next thing I know, I have about half a pound of Turkish delight from Kagan. Thanks.
We walk around a little more and head back to the ship. I think if we were alone, Lisa and I may have ventured out some that night, but we had already eaten outside the dining room that is included in our fare twice, so decide to stay on ship and get dinner. After dinner we head up to the pool deck to get some air and sit in as Nestor the Latin guitar guy plays his set. I decide to partake of a little raki (Turkish anise liqueur) and enjoy the music, then off to bed.
Sunday 6/12 Istanbul
K wakes up with a bit of a fever and is still feeling yucky, but is in no immediate danger, so she decides to skip today. Since it is a half day today, we felt OK leaving her on the ship and head out with E for day two in Istanbul.
Another couple is also on the tour today and they have already seen the Blue Mosque and don’t want to see it again, but agree to go back if we don’t spend a tone of time there. Off we go only to find a looooooooong line. We think “Hey, Kagan can cut lines….” But he comes back saying it is very crowded inside. Command decision is made to bypass the Blue Mosque and head instead to the Suleiman the Magnificent Mosque. At some level, architecturally etc. I guess a mosque is a mosque so we agree to go there instead. We get there and are presented with a clear bag. What’s this for? Oh yeah. No shoes in a mosque. Shoes into the bag and we head in. Interesting, but somewhat Spartan place. We get some history on how at one point it was the biggest mosque ever, take a few pics and move on.
We are now off to Ah-zeah. Over the Bosporus bridge takes us to the Asian side of Istanbul and the Beylerbeyi Palace. This was the summer palace of the last 6 (I think) Ottoman Sultans. Reminds me a lot of European castles with the addition of the Turkish acoutrements. Not really my thing, but the ladies seem to be OK with it.
Back over the bridge to the European side to the Galata Tower, formerly the highest point in Istanbul. It was a watchtower over the port in the 17th century or so and give great views over the city. One of the guys in the other families almost falls off the top, but no biggie……. Actually he mis-stepped and his foot fell between the path we walk on and the railing. Scared him and caused him to ram into the railing, but all was well.
Back down the elevator and down the street dedicated to lamps stores and we are back to the ship.
Since we were departing at 2PM, everyone that had gone out had skipped lunch, so there were about 1000 people in the buffet. We are going along noticing he food is pretty much the same as it has been when we notice that all the serving spoons are pointed toward us, there a plates for us to pick up and load ourselves and the drink stations are open. Huh? What happened to the paranoia, I mean safety issue? Turns out on the last cruise where the outbreak occurred, it started within the first few days, so they had a self-imposed deadline to get through before they would open the stations to the masses. We decide not to take K to the infirmary just yet to see how things play out wondering if she will get better or be the Typhoid Mary of this cruise. We get our food only to find there is no place to sit. Lisa and E are ahead of mea and tell me they are headed out on deck. OK, I’ll be there is a minute. I finish up and get my drinks (myself J ) and head out on deck. One lap around deck, two laps? I head down a deck muttering to myself then find the girls…. We all eat and go check on K. She is feeling better but still not up to snuff so sleeps the rest of the day…………… On my side of my bed……… Ummm hope she’s not contagious
Dinner tonight is on the opposite side of the restaurant area, so new wait staff. Our main waiter is a bit of a dud, but our assistant waiter, Anca from Romania, is pretty fun. Bread, salt and pepper, sugar etc. are now on the table for the taking vs being served on previous nights.
Our new pals come in shortly after us and sit at a different area but we go over to say hi after we are done and decide to try eating together moving forward.
One more time checking in on K, who is much better now.
Lisa and I head up to get a martini from aptly the Martini Bar. They have the bar in full Martini mode which includes a refrigerated bar top covered in a layer of ice, and he “Crush” section loaded up with gins and vodka on ice available by the shot. Pretty cool, I mean interested. No just cool. ;)
Monday 6-13 Kusadasi/Ephesus
This morning starts with the now familiar “Braaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawn” of the azipods positioning us for docking. Today, however, we start late as we arrive port at 10AM.
Kathryn is back at full strength today so we are a full crew.
We meet up again with the Artigues from our Istanbul tours. OK, we meet up with Cameron. Mary and the girls are not there yet. They show shortly after and today is the Artigues day to be down one. Their youngest is 10 and decided to stay on ship today. Not sick, but easily bored with historical things like most 10 year olds, so we are a group of 7 today.
We leave the port building to find a mass of prearranged tour guides at the entrance. I am the first one out and spot Yelda, our guide for the day.
She is fantastic. We meet up with Moustafa the bus driver and find a bus for 16 waiting for us. Lots of room to spread out, but wish we had known as we could have invited others to share the cost some.
Off we got Ephesus. Along the way, Yelda tells us a little about Turkish history, her own family background etc. Turns out there are four Ephesus’. Why you ask? Well, there is a river nearby that caused problems. Ephesus was a port town primarily. The river, however, kept silting up the area and causing the shoreline to move away from Ephesus, so three times, the settlers moved the city. The remains we see today are Ephesus 3, the last of the four cities to be a port. Ephesus 4 was moved back inland to an area near the original city.
The area around Ephesus 3 (Ephesus from this point forward) is now covered by a city named Selçuk (Selchuck), and is now covered with vineyards and orchards that are privately owned. The expectation is there are ruins yet to be discovered under this town, but due to the private land issue, probably won’t be found any time soon.
Anyway, we enter Ephesus for our 3 hour stay. God is good and provides a cloud to block the sun for a good part of the trip as it is very hot even in early June. We see the upper city which is agreed to be the government section. Not a ton of stuff to see as it is not fully uncovered yet. I is hear we first see the “pizza” symbol that was used by early Christians as a kind of coded to denote that the people in a particular shop or house were Christian. It is a circle divided into eight pieces, just like a pizza. The word ІΧΘΥΣ (Jesus Christ Gods Son Savior in Greek) can be pronounced Ichthus (fish) and can we made by tracing the various spokes of the wheel. Also, we learn the symbol of the Christian fish came as a sort of Secret handshake. When Christian met each other, the first made an arc in the sand. The second connected one end of the arc to another arc ending up with a fish shape. Pretty cool.
We get some history and move further in. In the lower city we see other building, temples, baths, etc. from Trajan and Hadrian’s time as emperors (Ephesus was a Roman town primarily). We also learn that the Ephesians recycled a bunch of pieces when they moved the town as seen by having Column tops buried in walls, stones that have inscriptions formerly used upright now used as road pavers, etc.
We see a carving of the goddess Nike and are told of where the Nike swoosh come from (Folds of her garment to her outstretched hand make the Swoosh shape)
We then go to the Terrace Houses. This is an additional charge, but is a very impressive working architectural dig. The 2nd terrace house is in great shape and contains 6 apartments of what were likely rich people in the town. It is referred to as the worlds largest jigsaw puzzle as there are literally thousands of pieces of wall and floor covering that are being reassembled in the various rooms inside the house. This section was found in 1996, so has only bee around for 15 years or so. They fully expect that there are other Terrace houses further up the hills of Ephesus. Right now they are concentrating on this one they have, have erected a roof to cover it and allow the archaeologists to work without getting beaten by the sun, and have completed the floor and part of the walls in one room. When they get these done, they have some furnishings they found, currently in storage, that will be returned to “furnish” the place. Pretty interesting.
We see the iconic façade of the library, one the third largest library in the world behind Alexandria and Pergamom, then move on to the Agora. The Agora was the area the Apostle Paul preached in and where a man named Cornelius countered Paul’s efforts as outlined in Acts Chapter 19, v 24-42. I love seeing real places that are mentioned and referred to in the Bible. Really brings things to life.
Off we go to the amphitheater that was used for Gladiator games and out we go. WE have been in Ephesus over 3 hours and feel we still have stuff to see.
At this point we head out for lunch at a little place called Agora right near the Ephesus Museum. We order traditional Turkish food like Kefte, lamb shish, stuffed grape leaves, eggplant tomato and peppers, fried cheese sticks, hummus, and the Turkish version of Tzatziki. Lisa gets a local Pomegranate wine that is very sweet (taste like cherry Kool-Aid) and I get the local beer Efes (the local name for Ephesus). I note the bottle is cool and ask Yelda to ask the owner if I can keep the bottle (or even buy it). He says “I have a whole case for him if he wants them”. Tempting, but I don’t have room, so I accept the one bottle. He brings me a cap to complete the set and then brings me a gift of a Raki glass. Ask for a bottle, get a raki glass. Nice.
In talking with the owner again, He lets me know that Raki is medicine, but too much will put you IN the hospital. We both get a chuckle at that.
Food is great. I pay for us and Yelda, 70 TL or about $45.
Next spot is the house of the Virgin Mary. In John 19:26-27, Jesus is on the cross and proclaims to the Apostle John and his mother Mary: “Women behold your son, son behold your mother”. This was His command to John and Mary to stick together.
John traveled to Ephesus, so it is widely believed that Mary came with him and it is further believed that the house we saw was the residence of Mary. It is outside the city a ways, up on a hill, but there was a nun, in the 17th century (I think) in Germany, who claimed visions from Mary describing the building, area etc. that were found to be exact to the building found. Pretty cool. Popes have visited and made the declaration that this is the place too. It is currently managed by the Franciscans.
It starts raining while we are there, which is very uncommon in this part of Turkey at this time of year, so we get caught a little unprepared. Luckily I packed umbrellas, primarily for the sun, that came in handy.
We proceed to the Church of St. Theologian or the Church of Saint John. This is the site of the purposed burial site of the Apostle John. The church is in ruins today, but was once a monastery as well as a church.
Down the hill is the Temple of Artemis, the local pagan god. Artemis was the sister of Apollo and the goddess of wisdom (I think again, so much for my knowledge of ancient mythology). It was once one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world, but is now a single column standing in a field. A lot of the temple was used by the early Christians (once Rome became Christian) to build the St John Church, which was in turn used to build the local mosque under Islamic times.
At this point we have seen the “must-sees” of the area and head back to port.
We stop at a local shop and get some of the unique Pine honey (Made by bees pollinating pine trees.
Tuesday, 6/14 Mykonos
We get to Mykonos at the arranged time and are pleased and annoyed that we are not tendering. Pleased as we are not tendering. Annoyed in that we have to pay $10 pp for a shuttle to town. Ugh.
We had planned a beach day so did not have anything planned. The idea was to take a local bus to the beach. So we take the shuttle into town. Sort of. It stops on the western edge of the town and we walk from there. Not knowing where we are going, we just follow the crowds. Some people rent scooters and ATVs. Looks like fun. Along the way we see a fishing boat with 6 or so octopi drying on one of its lines, the first little local beach and Petros the Pelican. He seems very comfortable having his picture taken
Mykonos Town is very small but filled with a labyrinth of small streets, small churches, etc. Very white, but not as picture postcard as Santorini. A lot of people come here for the party nightlife.
At this point, we are a little bummed by the island as it is a little confusing and we still have yet to figure out where the beach buses are. We plod on/ After a short walk through little Venice, we end up at the famed Mykonos Windmills. And a map showing the bus station is very nearby.
At this point we meet up with the Mcafee-Ramirez clan. Jorge, Katie, Rebecca and Olivia. They were on the Cruisecritc forum and also have two daughters, 17 and 13. Great match we think (which is why we tried – unsuccessfully – to get the girls together earlier on the cruise). We all decide to go to the beach to hang out together and pick Platys Gialos as it is noted as a family beach.
We all walk to the bus station, find a little shop for water and bus tickets and head to the beach. The area is in a cove with a narrow beach dotted with umbrellas and chairs. While the beach is public, the chairs and umbrellas are not, so between our two families we find 3 setups and pay the 10E per setup and settle in. The girls all go and change into swim suits, and Jorge and I settle into our first Alfa beer of the day. Fairly pricey at 4 Euro, but we figure it is restaurant pricing. I then go change and find a little grocery where they sell stuff including beer. Duh. Much less expensive. Jorge has not had Greek beer before, so we go for a Mythos this time and get one each for the ladies as well.
This kids head to the water and slowly get in. Jorge heads in shortly after and they taunt me to come in. Jorge stand there shivering saying “Hey you get used to it”. I go in up to the “sensitive parts” and it is FREEZING. No joy. I’m out.
A short while later they are all still there so I decide “Hey I grew up in the Northeast with super cold ocean water” and tough it out by wading in and diving under. MY body temperature drops about 20 degrees immediately and I feel my voice raise an couple octaves, but I am in. A couple minutes later, Katie come in and I hear a quick yelp as she gets further in and experiences the chill.
What’s the euphemism they use? Oh yes…….. Refreshing…………… That’s like saying a tiny house is “charming”.
After about 10 or 15 minutes, I can barely walk since my lower half is basically numb, so I head back out. The adults come with and the kids are not far behind. At this point, everyone is hungry, but the local places right on the beach are a bit pricey and we have a curfew to get back on the ship, so we all decide to head back into town to eat.
We spot a cool grey colored futuristic yacht sailing around the island and decide it is a Bond villain’s ship.
We see the same boat as we get back into town. Da, da da daaaaaaaaaaaa
We find a local place and order a bunch of appetizers like Tzatziki, tomato balls, zucchini balls, fried cheese sticks, saganaki, olives and some local white wine. Pretty yummy stuff.
At this point we are running out of time and the waitress has disappeared. I flag a waiter down, we pay the bill and head back to the bus area. Time is ticking, but we see Brianna from the excursion desk so feel good that there is still time. A couple other stragglers are behind us and we are off. When we get to the ship, we hear a security officer counting 19, 18, 17……. Wow. Cut that close. With an estimated 2500 passengers on the ship, we are in the past 20 to get back on board. Talk about cutting it close!!.
The Ramirez’ have fixed dinner at 8:45 and we ate lunch at around 4, so We call the Knoblochs (our preferred dining companions at this point) and decide to meet at 8:30 for dinner. We get Juan from Uruguay as the waiter tonight. Have to say, he was the most fun waiter we had all trip.
Being from Uruguay, he is quick to point out that there is an Argentinean steak on the menu for tonight and since Uruguay and Argentina are only separated by a river, it is in the style he likes. However, he had a few people complain it is too tough, so he make sure we know this. There is also duck on the menu tonight. I am a sucker for duck, but I also love a good chimichurri sauce, we I order the duck…….. with a side of steak.
I have to say, the steak is a little chewy, but it is a flank steak, so no duh. It’s a little chewy. Tasty too.
E not feeling good, so while she came to dinner she didn’t eat..
The girls had decided to all meet up for the late showing of Inception. Elisabeth comments that it would have been nice to meet the Ramirez girls earlier in the cruise.. Helloooooo.
Jorge has never seen Inception, so we walk the girls over to the movie, drop them off and go meet the Knoblochs for a Martini and some more jazz. Around midnight, we head over to the theater only to find there is still 30 minutes left in the movie. Oh well, we settle in for the end and make a late night of it. No problem. Tomorrow is a sea day so we can sleep in.
We check the cruise director channel (yes there is one) and what was that? We are TENDERING in Naples??? No can’t be. Need to check that out tomorrow
Wednesday, 6/15 Sea Day
Today is another sea day and we are happy it is. The schedule of two days port, one day ship has worked out for us well.
I wake up around 8 and decide, wait for it….. TO GO TO THE GYM!!! Oh the horror
40 minutes later I stop and grab Lisa coffee then head to customer relations to verify the tendering info. While waiting in line I proceed to drop said coffee and splash it all over the floor, my leg, etc. I must say, if you like hot coffee, you will not be disappointed. Ouch.
Sure enough we are tendering in one of the largest ports in Italy. WTH???
How will this work? We have a private tour with 12 other people (including the Ramirez’) tomorrow. How the heck are we all gonna get off the ship together in the maze that is Naples and find out guide when there are seven (yes 7) ships in port that day?? Hmmmm Might need to do a little logistics today.
Back to the cabin where I call the other people on our tour tomorrow and give them the news that we will need to go get tender tickets at 6:30. not fun.
I had run into Jorge and Katie in the lobby and we decided to grab breakfast, so I went and got Lisa. E is still not good, so we let her sleep in
Thru the magic that is Cruisecritic (see a theme here?) one of our fellow passengers for tomorrow’s tour manages to get us priority tendering tickets for the first tender. YES!! One less thing to worry about.
Tonight is formal night 2. We had plans with the Knoblochs or dinner and pictures. E didn’t make dinner so no pics for us. Bummer. We never did get a pic with Bruce and Diana.
We are seated at a different table tonight that the other nights with a different wait staff. Tonight is lobster night. Gotta say…….. meh. It is also baked Alaska night. Didn’t partake. Remember Juan from before? He comes by our new table and notices we are down one. Gotta give that guy props. We sat in a different section 3 nights in a row and the waiter continued to introduce himself as if we never met, then in one night, we get a guy who isn’t even our waiter making the effort to talk with us. Good guy.
Thursday, 6/16 Pompeii, Positano, Sorrento
Thanks to John’s miracle skills all 16 of us meet at 7:30 for our tender. We are on the first tender boat which is actually one of the lifeboats from the ship. After a bumpy ride to the dock, we meet up with our AP Tours guide and try to find our van. Where are you????? We find Max shortly after walking around some
We head off on the 30 minute ride to Pompeii with the whole gang, and arrive before it even opens. Cool. There are still bunch of people there already, but cool.
There is a local stand with various drinks etc that had bags of the biggest lemons I’ve ever seen. About the size of a cantaloupe. Seriously. Turns out they are not actual lemons, but something called Cedro (Chedro) which is a hybrid of some sort
Turns out Pompeiians likes fast food. About every other house had pots on the street side indicating they were the equivalent of McDonalds and Burger king back in 79 AD. There are supposedly 110 shops like this they have uncovered so far. We see some cool fountains and hear about Pompeii being a port city so having a red light district etc. see some houses and then head to the main square.
E is still not at 100% so we break out the water and umbrellas to protect us from the sun.
Pompeii was cool, but everyone seemed to like Ephesus better.
Next stop Positano, the first town on the Amalfi coast. We head around the Sorrentine Peninsula, stop to take a few choice pics, the head to the windy side of the peninsula and on to Positano. There is a stop along the way where you can get great pics of the city that is built into the hillside. This is the place people think of when envisioning the Amalfi Coast. At the same site, there was a fruit and veggie stand selling the tastiest tomatoes along with grapes, cherries, plums and other fruit. All great.
Since we are in a smaller van, we can actually get into town, so down we go. Our guide takes us to the beginning of a pedestrian area and gives us an hour to poke around. We meet up with the Ramirez clan and head into town. Along the way we stop in a church and there is a wedding going on. That was pretty cool. Take a few snaps and head down to the beach just to say we did. At this point, our guide telling us “Whatever you do going down you have to do coming back” sets in and we make the trek back up the steep hillside streets
We see a local cobbler making sandals but, darn it, we don’t have enough time. Too bad ;)
Back to the van and off to Sorrento where we will catch the ferry back to the docks. We all decide we have to have pizza since it was invented nearby, so head to a recommended place (Il Leone Rossi – The Red Lion) that has a menu of drink, pizza and dessert for 10Euro. Two specials with wine plus an extra tiramisu 24 Euro. Not bad. Earlier we had decided we wanted to explore more and eat less, but we all just ate, so by the time we were done eating, we only had about 30 minutes to explore. I tried to find cheap limoncello, but found the prices to be cheaper at the airport, so did not buy any. We had also heard of a walnut liquor, but it was pretty pricey stuff for something we weren’t even sure we would like, so no grazie.
At this point, we are talking with some others in our group and they tell us about bringing grappa and beer on board while in port no problem. Sure tell me now, the last day of the cruise……
We take a relaxing hydrofoil ferry back to port, lamenting that we have to pack tonight.
After dinner we go to check out our pics one last time and decide to buy a couple. Run into the Ramirez’ again and take a group shot
Back to the cabin to start the packing as we had to have the bags in the hall by 11PM and its’ oh 10:50……
Earlier I had started gathering stuff to get it ready when I noticed my Efes bottle and a Grolsch bottle I was saving were gone. Yep. Rosario tossed them thinking they were trash. Guess I will have to go back to Ephesus for another bottle J
Hurried packing as we needed to get the bags out, then off to bed.
Friday, 6/17, Civitavecchia
Today is the last day of the cruise and we are docking back in Civitavecchia. WE have late check out since we are in no hurry.
One last breakfast meet with the Ramirez clan and we are off.
We get off the ship and start looking for our bags. Where are they? Hard to miss as they are blue with a red strap wrapped around each one. Making the rounds in our designated area when I see a ported starting to load them on a cart for some other people. Ummmm yeah. I don’t think so.
We have some friends in Germany who happened to be vacationing in a small area called Marina di Bibbona between Civitavecchia and Pisa,so we dcide to rent a car vs taking the train. After some slight trouble finding the Hertz location, we pack everything into the VW Passat they had for us and head out. Since we are in Italy I take full coverage out on the car, spending an additional 50 Euro to do so.
We find MDB no problem and meet up with our friends at their place near the beach. I park the car behind the hotel in the designated area and we walk to the beach. Our intention was that our girls and their girls would have stuff in common. Especially Kathryn and Andrea since they have emailed back and forth and are FB friends. We all head down to the beach café for lunch. Very expensive for Italy, but whatever.
Both sets of girls are not very outgoing so mainly the adults talked.
Since everyone was tired, we decided to leave shortly after that and make our way to Pisa.
An hour later, we drive into the city with the help of the GPS only to find out that we cannot drive to the B&B we are staying at for the night. Our host warned us of this since we chose the one single day when the city is closed for a Festival to their Patron saint who’s name eludes me now. Anyway we decide, OK , lets take the car to the airport and get a taxi back to the B&B.
GPS guides us to the airport. Oh crap I have to fill the tank. OK, find me a gas station. What? No credit cards and no one is working to make change? Arrrrrgh. How the heck does this work? Forget it. Find another station. Same thing, so I just start feeding Euros into the machine, guessing how much I need. First 2o goes in, pump clicks off at 16 and change. Try to make it take more. No joy. Cool. Must be filled. Get back in the car to go the airport and we are still 1/8 of a tank shy per the gauge, but the pump clicked…….
We’re good right Mr Hertz attendant? Nope. Shows under a full tank, I’ll have to charge you. Arrrrrrrrrrrrrgh. Back to the station. Try again. With another 10. Goes in, tanks still showing light. Another 10, same story but closer. Good enough for me.
Back to Hertz with our 9 bags in the trunk, check in, Attendant (this time a girl) gives us the green light. Go to the counter for a receipt and wait some. While we are waiting, the attendant comes rushing back in ranting about damage to the car. Sure enough, there is a large scraping wound in the back bumper cover. I have no idea how it got there theorizing that either 1) It was there when we got the car and we didn’t notice, or 2) someone clipped the car while it was parked at the hotel our friends were at. Shoot. Oh wait. That’s right. I have FULL COVERAGE… Yay. Best money spent this trip. The desk guy pulls out the form to report an accident and wants me to fill out the details of the accident. I tell him I have no idea when it happened as I did not do it, and he shrugs and gives me my receipt. Glad I bought full coverage.
Now back to the airport to catch a taxi to the B&B. We trudge to the shuttle station and wait. 15, 20, 30 minutes later here comes the shuttle. Being Italy and all, the driver gets off to have a smoke and a chat with his buddy. 20 MORE minutes later, we get to the airport and find a waiting cab big enough for all our stuff and head into the city.
Remember the festival I mentioned. In full swing at this point (now about 5:30) and all the streets downtown are closed to traffic. Several phone calls to the B&B and exchanges in rapid fire Italian, and we are ceremoniously dumped at a street corner in the pedestrian zone and given rough directions to find the B&B. Great. Off we go.
Turns out the direction were fairly accurate so after some shrewd directional decisions, we find the B&B.
Nice place but right on a major street, so a bit of noise. Windows are open and it is hot.Great. Noise and no cooling. Oh well, its one night. We get what we need and head over to the Piazza dei Miracoli to see the famed Tower.
We arrange an 8:30 entry time and walk around the plaza. There is a Cathedral there, so we go over. Oops. Festival. Cathedral is only open to locals today…… Man !!!!!!!!
Tower is fun. Interesting how even thought you are going « up » there are places where you are actually going fairly level due to the lean. We meet a couple ladies from Vermont, give email addresses and expect pics that took of us. (No joy at printing time)
Local eatery for dinner and back to the room.. It is then when my genius daughter asks “What temperature do you want”. Yes there is AC. Thank goodness
Saturday, 6/18, Paris
Early flight to Paris, so we leave the B&B at 7 :30 and head to the airport. We go through security and my backpack is pulled for further screening. OK, Happens from time to time as I carry a lot of cables and things and sometimes they get nervous. “Do you have any sharp objects? How about a laser pointer?” Huh> Laser pointer? Yeah I have one. And dig it out. “What is the problem sir” Italian “Laow” (hard to write, but sound it out) prohibits laser pointers. Odd since it has been in my bag for 5 years and I have been in Italy about 10 times previously, but WTH. It doesn’t work anyway, so toss it and off we go.
When we get to Paris, it is raining, so we grab a cab and head to our apartment at Rue Cloche Perce #3 in Le Maris (4th) where we are met by Dominique LeJeune, (Dominique the young. Love it. She is about 60) who manages the apartment for the owner. It’s a small place at 32 sqm, but worked out well for us and the price was right.
It is roughly noon, so we head out to start exploring. First stop? Notre Dame. About 10 minutes walk from the apartment. Should we bring umbrelas ? Nah, the sky is clear in spots. Let’s go. 5 mintues in. Sprinkles. 10 minutes in Heavy rain. 15 minutes in, sprinkles, 20 minutes in clear sky… Crazy. First crepes are consumed. Jambon and Fromage and Nutella and banana. Yum, yum Yum.
Head over to Notre Dame. Huge line. Cranky kids and Dad from the rain. Not a good combo, so we try to go shopping. Rain. Again. This sucks.
It stops and we head over to the Louvre to show the kids the building. Rain has stopped for now. Back to the apartment via metro. Get out and start walking. 10 minute later? Yep. Wrong way. Ugh.. Stop in a couple of local groceries to grab some provisions including juice, milk, chips and stuff.
Finally make it to the apartment and the kids settle in. No English TV, so we start on FB and other things since the apartment has wifi.
All of a sudden we hear a tone of motorcycles heading down Rue Rivoli. I t has stopped raignin at this point so we head out to see what is going on. We get out to the street and there are motorcycles as far as you can see in both directions. I spot a few stickers and note La Ligue de Defese des Conducteurs, so go in to look it up. I find this:
La Ligue de Défense des Conducteurs s’associe aux autres associations d’usagers de la route et appelle tous les conducteurs à manifester ensemble contre les mesures aberrantes que le gouvernement s’apprête à mettre en place (démontage des panneaux signalant les radars fixes, interdiction des avertisseurs et des cartes intégrées dans les GPS, etc…).
Translation yields: “The League for the Defense of Drivers joins other associations of road users and urged all drivers to protest together against the outliers that the government is preparing to set up (removal of the signs indicating the speed cameras, ban alarms and maps in the GPS integrated, etc ...)”
So in Fine French tradition, people are protesting the governments attempt to remove speed camera location notification on both the roads and in GPS databases. Right on brother!! Stick it to the man!!.
Since it is no longer raining, Lisa and I head to the grocery to pick up dinner. Along the way we stop in various shops including two fromageries where the air is pungent with the smell of “ripe” French cheese.. *cough*
We have heard about the wonderful roast chickens int eh air and find the place that is selling them. 5 euro for half chicken, plus a kilo of roasted potatoes and a baguette from Manon and we are headed back. We stop at the MonoP (smaller version of the bigger MonoPrix grocery chain) and grab some peas and beans to complement the Poulet and Pomme de terre. Along with the bottle of White Burgundy (Chardonnay) left by Dominique for us.
At this point it is roughly 9PM and the sun is still shining brightly. Makes it tough to sleep but we are all whipped so off we go.
Sunday, 6/19, Paris
Today we decide to take in the Marche de la Bastille, a street market in Place de la Bastille (yes that Bastille). Everything you could want is available from food, to DVDs to clothing.
We wander around and pick up Pate (de Campagne and de Lapin), three kinds of goat cheese, some shoes for K, currants, grapes, a cool looking tomato (ridged. Very cool. I save seeds), figs, raspberries. Spent 3 hours there. Some long lines and I was told more than once to go to the end of the line.. The boucherie vendor told me he wanted to marry my girls. Not in a pervy way. Ok they thought it was pervy.. it was fun. Everyone said so.
Back to the apartment to drop off our stash. Pick up a baguette along the way and a bottle of wine.
Off to Musee d’Orsay. Lines, lines, lines… Enter? Non. Too much and we can come back Tuesday after the crowds. So we try L’Orangerie. Much shorter line, but still a line. Weather is cooperating at this point, but JUST as we enter the building, it starts raining again. Whew.
After L’Orangerie (Girls liked it. Its art. Not so much my speed.) we head to the Place de la Concorde. There are tons of Asian brides on the place getting pictures taken. Guess it is a tradition.
We then head up to Montmarte to show off what we think would be E’s favorite part of Paris. We go into Sacre Couer around 6PM and they are having services. We stay for a while then head back to Place du Tertre. After much convincing (c’mon is Father’s Day!!!!), E agrees to sit with K for a portrait. This takes about an hour, so I order up a couple glasses of wine for me and Lisa and we end up with a very lifelike pastel drawing of my two babies.
Dinner tonight is the fruit (some literal) of our market day. I didn’t have the heart to tell the kids the Pate de Lapin was rabbit (until after they tried it of course). I was the only one who ate that…….
Monday, 6/20 Paris
We wake to rain. Not cool. We have a day planned with our local tour guide, Scott Emerson today and I do not wan to try to spend it in side. We are supposed to meet at 9:30. Around 9 it let’s up and we head over to Starbucks to meet Scott near the St Paul metro station. We had spent a day with Scott four years ago and had a blast, so decided to hook up with him again.
We start with American breakfast at a diner Scott knows that serves pancakes, bacon and eggs, etc. Good stuff, but this is Paris, so breakfast for four plus coffee for Scott was 44E.
What do we want to do today? How about the Catacombs. Closed. OK, Off to the Louvre. Scott has an Art History background and is an actor/opera singer. So very artsy. We decide to enter through the Lion gate. No crowds there. We buy two day Museum passes at a small store right there and get in without anyone actually checking.. Go figure. Off to the Renaissance paintings. You know the ones with various saints present at Jesus’ birth, people in 14th century clothing at the wedding in Cana, etc. Then off to the Mona Lisa. A gazillion people are there. Scott asks” Why? They aren’t art students or historians? Why?” Dunno. Been there done that, so send the girls up to check her out. Within 5 minutes they are back at our side ready to move on.
We run thru the balance of the museum in a total of 3 hours.
And now for something completely different. Les Egouts de Paris. We approacha nondescript building near one of the bridges, flash our museum passes and pay 7 Euro for the girls (most places under 18 it is free, not here). Scott warns us not to touch the railings as we descend into……………….The Paris Sewer system. Gross I know, but today the smell is not bad and it is rather interesting. It’s a short visit where we are educated on the system and how it turned Paris from a disease infested swamp into a metropolitan city all thanks to a system to remove poo.
Now that we’ve experienced les egouts, who’s hungry….. Well. Everyone. Ws stop for a crepe/sandwich break ( I have the crepe complete with ham, cheese and egg. Yum) and head over to Les Invalides to see Napoleons tomb and the veterans hospital that it is part of. Pretty cool place. Had never been there before.
Last stop- Pompidou center of modern art. Yawn. OK the girls like it. I find free internet and sit on a bench checking email and FB. Art. Yay.
So today’s theme is Art and Poo. Two things most Parisians are obsessed with per Scott.
No one is in a mood to decide anything and it is getting late, so I run over to the MonoP with K and we pick up a Quiche Lorraine and Spinach Tart as well as some salad, bread and wine and head back to the apartment for another late night dinner. It is roughly 10:45 before the sun goes down and we have early tickets for the Eiffel tower tomorrow
Tuesday, 6/21 Paris
Rain again, but drizzle. We get to the Eiffel tower around 8:45. Let me tell you. if you are planning to go, That is a perfect time. Little to no lines yet, small crowd. We have advanced tickets, so skip the ticket line and are pretty close to the first people in. We meet a nice family from Finland and head up around 9:10We get to the 2nd level where we have to change elevators to the top and……………… out of service. What?
30 minutes later they have it fixed and we head all the way up. Girls are not as impressed as we figured, but hey, it’s something you gotta do.
Head back down and walk over to Musee d’Orsay. Everyone is looking forward to it (even me a little) as we saved this for our last day in Paris. We get here, have our passes handy and find some chaos. Where do we go? Oh, Are C? OK, Where is that? Got it. Where is the line? No line Cool. Try to find the door to go in? Everything is closed up. Then the announcement” The museum is closed and may not open at all today.
Strike by the museum workers. What’s the problem? Wrong croissants for breakfast yesterday? Dang it. What about the other museums? No way to tell. Call one, get a French auto attendant. My French is bad so I can’t understand anything. Find a policeman. Parlez Anglais???? NON. Dang it. Ummmmmmm 8th grade French don’t fail me now, “Tout musee ferme?” OUI. “Tout?” Oui. Dang it. All museums are closed. Do I get part of my pass back? Nope. Fine print. Strikes are not cause for a refund. Guess they happen a lot.
Head back to Norte Dame. HUUUUUUUUUGE line, but it is moving. While the girls are in line I check on the deal with the tower. Opens at 1PM. It is now 11:30. We decide to go through Notre Dame, meet two girls who look about 14 each that are backpacking around Europe for 2 months. Good for them. Line moves quick and we go through the church showing our girls the rose windows, etc. People are milling around the whole church and there is a din to the crowd. All of a sudden , as if from God himself, we hear “Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh” over the loudspeakers and things quiet down. That was fun.
We then head to the line for the tower. It is not too long so we get in line then go grab sandwiches and wait. We meet a family from Florida and hit it off. Around 1:15 we head up the tower. And up, and up…Get to the “top” and see the great view of the city, check out the gargoyles, see one of the huge bells, then head out. Nope. Up some more to the actual top this time. Something like 400 steps. Panting we make it out and are herded along by the workers at the top. Then back down to street level.
No one is interested in the Crypt, so we head over to St Chapelle. I stop to ask another friendly Parisian law enforcement officer for directions. Parlez Anglais? NON. I'm seeing a theme here. “St Chappelle”? Gauche Gauche, Droit Droit. (Left left,or right right) Whatever. Thanks Off we go. Huge line. Where is the Pass line? Friendly lady puts us in a bypass line. E asks What it is. Another church? Ugh. Then we find out the line we are in doesn’t exist and we have cut in front of other people as there is no museum pass line. Since everyone was so thrilled to see it, we pass and head back out.
We walk over to St Michel to see the fountain and take the metro to Etoile/and the Arc de Triomphe. Line 4 from St Michel is jammed like sardines, so se suck it up and get on board. Lisa and K decide to go to the top. E and I stay at the bottom. Tired.
We walk down the Champs Elysees a bit and take the metro back to the apartment. I want to see Place des Vosges so we get off at Bastille. Do you know there is a Rue St Antoine and a Rue de Fauborg St Antoine? Neither did I. They are on opposite sides fo the plaza, so we start walking down what I think is Rue St Antoine only to find that yes, once again, we are going the wrong way. Back to the correct Rue St Antione and to the place des Vosges. Bathroom emergencies arise and we try a local café? Toilette? Blah blah blah blah… No joy. Finally stop for a quick happy hour margarita and Ricard (anise liqueur) at a different café with a bathroom. Phew. Glad that's over.
Tonight we are eating out. It is also the night of the Fete de la Musique so there are live bands all over the place. We get a recommendation for an area called Marche de Saint Catherine and I try Tripadvisor this time for a recommendation. Comes through with flying colors. BDJ Café just off the Place de Marche de Saint Catherine is great. 23E menu with Entre, Plat and dessert for me and Lisa (cuck them for me with Terrine de canard and Confit de canard, Escargot and Veal for Lisa, plus Tarte Tatin for me and some Chocolate cake thing for Lisa)plus a couple extra plats for the girls (more veal for K and Lamb for E) and we have our collective best meal in Paris for 110E with Cotes de Provence wine and caffe latte and Vielle Prune Digestif.
A nice way to end our journey. Tomorrow we fly home
Wednesday 6/22 Paris and Boston
Today we fly home via Boston with an overnight layover. Flight goes fine, we arrive Boston and …………..rain. Luckily we can walk with our bags to the Hilton airport with our trolleys and everything, so head that way. Started with en airport Hilton, ended with an airport Hilton. Same food prices unfortunately. Try my parents to see if they want to come in and meet us (they live 20 miles north of Beantown). No go. That’s OK we are all whipped. We go to the pub in house and have chowda and fish and chips, then off to bed one last time.
Thursday 6/23 Boston and home
Uneventful day as we fly home from Boston. WE get home to a stack of mail, two happy puppies and a bunch of dead plants (our house sitter forgot to water them I guess) plus the first 4 tomatoes from my garden. It’s been a good trip.
Stay tuned for the future (mis)adventures of the Maley clan. Ciao.
