Jenn and her boys: A vacation from our problems....

Jenn and her boys: A vacation from our problems....

Day 14

Day Fourteen

Leonardo DiVinci Airport Rome

You have to take a bus to Terminal 5 to fly to the USA

Martin woke at 4:15 and drove Karl and Cherie to the airport to catch their flight. On the way back to the hotel at 4:45 am Martin was flashed on the road by a speed camera. I am sure we will have a speeding ticket in the mail in about a month. What they really need are crazy driving cameras and sensors on their road markings!  (See day two)  Martin and Eva drove to the airport at 8:30. Once we turned in the rental car we couldn't find our terminal. We finally discovered that all of the American Airlines including American, USAir, Delta, United and others were all located in terminal 5 which is not visible from anywhere in the airport. We learned that it requires a bus ride to get to. Finally we were there. On our way home, Eva bought a post card for Erin.  The airport, however, did not have a postal drop box. We flew to Washington DC where we mailed the card. In Washington, Martin had texts to call into the office. When he called in he discovered that his company finally had a signed contract with Marc Anthony and they also have a demo set up for June 4 in Qatar.  Yay, maybe we can pay for our trip now.

Day 13

Day thirteen

Michelangelo's Moses statue

At last, The Spanish Steps

Eva posing with Swiss Guard

Long lines at the Vatican

We ate and drove back into Rome and  to the top of the Spanish Steps which Cherie and I were determined to climb because we have missed this on our other trips here. We were able to locate a rare parking space. This too was very crowded. Then we drove to the Vatican and walked around. There were lines over one and a half hours long to get into  St Peters basilica. We decided not to go in and just walked around outside. Finally we ate in a restaurant near by. We picked up the car and then drove around Rome looking for signs of the ancient roman aqueducts but couldn't find any. We did however finding additional ruins at various places around Rome. We drove back to the hotel and took a nap and then drove to a mall to see a movie - but we had difficulty locating the theaters and were 20 minutes late by the time we found it. Upon inquiry we discovered that the two movies we wanted to see, "The Great Gatsby" and "Iron man III" were both in Italian. When did Italian movie theaters modernize?  They used to show all movies in English with Italian subtitles!  We went into the mall instead and looked for food and for an English bookstore since Cherie needed something to read on the plane (see day one).  We ate at Burger King and could not find books.  This was one frustrating evening!

Day 12 (Getting off Ship)

Day 12 (seventh day)

Lunch beside the Coluseum

At Trevi Fountain

At the Pantheon

We rose early and packed. We hauled our luggage into breakfast and then left the ship. We took a free shuttle to the beginning of the pier and there we negotiated with a driver to take us to the airport with four other people. The driver went down from the original $130 euro per person to $20 euro each for four persons, making a total of eight passengers. We could negotiate this, but I couldn't get the silly vendor selling water to come down from 6 Euros to 5 for three bottles. The Driver had to stop at two ATM machines so Martin could get cash for the the drive. The others were getting anxious because they seemed to have a flight to catch. We took a car from the airport to our hotel and then went into town. The car we rented was too small (see day two) for our luggage so the ladies waited at the airport while Karl and Martin dropped the luggage off at the hotel. Then we went into Rome. We parked near the Coliseum and walked past the ruins and past the Trojan ruins  to the Trevi Fountain. It was so crowded that we walked over to the Pantheon from there. But it was more crowded than the Trevi. We didn't even go inside because it was packed with people. Then we walked to the St. Paul church where Michelangelo's statue of Moses was.  We had seen other pieces of Michelangelo's, but never this one.  It's magnificent.  Finally we didn't have much of a crowd and were able to enjoy the moment.  We walked back to the car and found our way back to our hotel by the airport. We ate in a nice lite restaurant on the Mediterranean and then went to bed.

Day 11 (Sixth day)

Day 11 (sixth day at sea)

Eating and relaxing in the Windjammer on deck 11

We spent the day on the water.  We played shuffle board and watched Bourne Identity in the ship's movie theater.  We read and relaxed and walked around ship. Ate at Johnny Rockets. Those onion rings!  In the evening we watched a show of acrobats. The waiters sang to us for our 37th anniversary.  We are a little sad because our wonderful cruise is coming to an end.  I remember saying to the others that the hardest thing I've had to do at sea is decide what time each day I wanted Earnest, our porter, to clean the room.

Day 10 (Fifth day at sea)

Day 10 (fifth day at sea)

Fine carpets of Crete

Town of Chania

Wind blowing through Chania

We docked at the port of Souda in Chania,  Crete. After breakfast we took a city bus into the village.  There was not much to see. We toured a tiny Byzantine Museum.  Karl bought a battery and Martin bought a micro-SE card for my Gopro camera . A big sand storm hit us and Cherie lost her reading glasses. We got back on ship and enjoyed a musical show that night of Broadway tunes mostly from The Producers and from Mama Mia.  These were performed by the ship's band and singers.  They were talented and professional.  It was so fun!

Day 9 (Fourth day at sea)

Day 9 (Fourth day at Sea)

Walking down columned pathway of Ephesus

Hadrians Temple at end of walkway

Panorama of Ephesus

Hadrians Temple

Statue to the Goddess Artimus (Diana)

Lunch in Kusadasi

Today we docked at Kusadasi.  We took a tour of ancient Ephesus and it was fantastic. We started at a high point above Ephesus and descended by foot down to the temple of Hadrian. There were a lot of ruins. Actually the entire place was covered with earth until a hundred years ago. The Roman baths were extensive with different rooms for graduating temperatures.  Our tour guide said that the popularity of the baths contributed to deforestation which allowed the soil to move and slide over the ruins.  It is marvelous what has been uncovered and what remains to be discovered.  If you buy a more expensive tour, you can go under the covered parts of the ruins and see interiors with tile and pictures intact!  Our dinner companion took this tour and showed us pictures which I will try to include later.  They even found a GROCERY LIST!  Also, some scribbles on the wall done by children.  Upon our return to the port at Kusadasi we wandered about the village and enjoyed a Turkish lunch of various shish kabob and gyro plates that were very good and finished it off with baklava (I've had better).  Back on ship we rested to a movie on TV and did some reading and relaxing.  After dinner we enjoyed a musical program of old songs made famous by The Platters and the Drifters.   The band included one of the original drifters and Tamika Jackson, who is related to the famous Michael Jackson.