Friday August 20, 2010-At Sea

Today was our last at sea day. We spend the day working out and doing laundry. We also filled out "You Made the Difference" cards for all our favorite crew members. Here is Michele in the art gallery. It was fun to see all the art and they moved it around almost every day so it was always new and different.

Here is Michele standing outside the Princess Theater. We met here every morning of our trip to go on our various excursions.

This is the piazza. It is the center of the ship and 3 stories tall. It is amazing to see the decor and the attention to detail. We walked through the piazza many times every day.

The food was as amazing as we had been told it would be. My two favorite places to eat were the International Cafe (home of the most amazing shrimp salad ever) and the Caribe Cafe. We spent our at sea day doing laundry and taking fun pictures around the ship.

We also spent the day packing our suitcases for our disembarkment in Venice. We worried about whether our suitcases would be too heavy since the airlines have strict weight limits and will fine you for a bag that goes over 50#. Today we have to put our bags in the hall when we go to bed, the crew will take them off the ship for us and we will claim them after we get off the ship in Venice. Everything we need for in the morning must fit in a small carry on style bag. Today we realized that we are some seriously organized chica's! Everything fit and when Johnnie (our steward) brought us a scale, we were both well under the weight limit!

On the first day of our cruise Michele's shuffle had gone missing. We tore the room apart looking for it everywhere. We moved the beds, we emptied the safe, the top of the closet, everything! Tonight, when we took all our stuff out of the safe, she found her shuffle just inside the door of the safe! Hooray!

Thursday Aug. 19th, 2010-Corfu, Greece

Today we took the bus to a little restaurant outside of Corfu called Spiros & Vasilis. "...I am mildly sceptical about how tasty I might find the food. We arrived at the most scenic and amazing restuarant I have ever seen. It was all by itself with no buildings around it. The terraced patio where we ate was flag stone and canopied by huge aspen trees.

The building was stucco and brick with gorgeous arches and vines everywhere. We began our cooking demonstration by enjoying appetizers of feta cheese, tzaziki, a delicious codfish roe dip, bread and olives. It was suprisingly yummy. There was an older Greek man in chefs whites and hat who joined us and demonstrated each dish while our Greek tour guide (Fou Fou) translated for him.

He also demonstrated mousaka-then we got to eat it too. After the demonstration/lunch we were taken back to the pier. We then wandered back into town and treated ourselves to a walk and some shopping. I finally found just the scarves I had been hunting. Michele got some amazing pants for Sophie--BTW how does she like them? and a scarf for Bella. I also got an amazing purse; which is a super big deal since I pretty much hate all purses! I adore this one and carry it everywhere.

Wed. Aug. 18th 2010-Kotokolon

"I am lying on a sandy/clay spotlessly clean beach in the middle of the Greek islands! I am a little wet from my swim in the Mediterranean Ocean and insanely, insanely happy"!

"We worked out, ate lunch, and then found the local beach about 1/2 mile from our ship. We have spent the day swimming, sunning, collecting shells, and writing in our journals".

Beautiful water, sailboat, and friend!

Isn't she gorgeous!

Feeling the Zen!

"There are people with children playing, swimming, and chatting in a variety of languages. We see minnows and a few small fish in the perfectly azure blue water and we even saw a jelly fish"!

Corona shot!

"This beach has horse drawn open air taxis and the horse harnesses have really beautiful sounding bells so they sound really cool coming and going.

"We walked back to the ship via the shopping section. I am kind of looking for a certain scarfy swimsuit cover that I have seen on a few women of my body type. Alas, no scarf. Michele is a freak and wanted a 2nd workout-I opted to hang out by the Santuary Pool. We showered and dressed up fancy, rib eye at Michaelangelo, "Iron Man 2", warm cookies and milk all in our fancy dinner clothes".

Another shot of a really cool tug boat.

I just thought the name of this ship was absolutely hilarious. This one's for you Mike!

On our way back to the ship. Ruby Princess in the background. I love, love, love this pic of Michele!

This is me trying to hide my fat thighs! Didn't work but made for a funny picture! Good thing I'm not proud so you can all laugh with me. Hee hee--next time I will have much smaller thighs--as a matter of fact they have already shrunk quite a bit since then. Too bad a little though cause I love that swim suit a whole bunch and it doesn't fit me now!

Tuesday Aug. 17th 2010-Pireaus (Athens)

"Today was an up and at em day--By 8:00 a.m. we had eaten and headed to Princess Theater deck 7 for our shore excursion sticker and then to our assigned bus".

Here is Michele in front of Olympic Stadium.

City sites from a moving bus-man I love my canon!

Athens Academy

Our quick tour of downtown Athens from a moving bus.

Another Where's Waldo moment as we headed up the VERY crowded steps to the Acropolis.

The view from the bottom.

Erechtheum of Acropolis-built between 420 and 406 BC-at one end of the temple there is an olive tree and on the other there is a mark of a trident-making this temple an homage to the great battle between Athena and Poseidon to determine who would earn the patronage. You can guess who won. But Poseidon was so mad that he made all kinds of watery trouble for Athens (earthquakes, floods, etc.) until they built him a temple too. This structure is probably most famous for the pillars on the porch, which are actually statues of women known as "Caryatids". One of the six is in the British Museum courtesy of Lord Elgin and his efforts to save the Greek marbles; the other 5 are in the National Museum for protection from damage.

The Parthenon! "It was very slick and hot, we even watched a guy fall down on the really hard rock and bash his camera. Congratulating myself on using my cell today and leaving my big bulky camera on the bus. In front of the Parthenon we stopped and our guide told us several stories--some I knew like the controversy of Elgin's Marbles and how Byron tried to buy them back for the Greeks but a broke Elgin sold them to the British Museum for far less money instead".

"The curves and angles of the Parthenon were new info however! The porch is actually slightly curved and the 2 outside columns are tilted in a bit. They are also slightly larger than the others-this is done because the Greeks realized the optical effects of the sun and they built to off-set these-the angles and curves create the appearance of it being straight and true".

After the Acropolis we had about 90 minutes to rush through the Archeological Museum. Our guide, Antonius, clearly was much more interested in the evolution of art and sculpture over the centuries than he was in the famous buildings we had just left!

This is a cemetary piece that depicts a dying mother saying good-bye to her infant child who is in the arms of a servant. Notice how the infant reaches out but the mother does not, possibly because she had the plague or some other illness that made her worried about infecting her baby.

Bronze statue of the riding boy.

For some reason we both were just not in the groove up on the Acropolis. It was hot, we were tired, there were a bazillion people, our guide was less than charismatic. It was amazing to see but honestly, it was here, in the cool air of the National Museum that we began to feel the love and less overwhelmed. Our guide came alive, the art was amazing, and it was almost lunch time! ;)

We ate lunch in the basement of a local 5 star hotel as part of our tour and then spent the last 2 1/2 hours shopping at the "Plaka". After some of the really relaxing and gratifying days we had in super beautiful ports, Athens was a big change. It was rushed, a bit stressful, and less clean than I expected. In the end, it was amazing and I wouldn't have missed it but I was glad it wasn't our last destination.

"Back on board the ship, we worked out, ate at "Caribe Cafe", watched "The Bounty Hunter" at Movies Under the Stars. The popcorn was terrible and so was the movie but I was with Michele and I was in Greece. I saw the Parthenon today! Really, how amazing is this? I am so emotionally overwhelmed by all of it--the decadent luxury of our cruise experience, the amazing sites and historical experiences, and a friend who loves me unconditionally and I never feel insecure or in trouble; it doesn't get any better and I am blessed to see it while it is happening"!

Monday 16 August 2010--Mykonos Greece

"Today we are docked right up against an amazing dock/port--very small but the most beautiful blue water and whitewashed homes on the hillside".


"Yesterday was very hot and today has started out the same. Mykonos is very windy & transportation from the dock to the beach is $15/person. We can see a small beach from the ship but we have learned it is a pay beach."

Mykonos has been occupied since about 3000 BC and is the location in Greek mythology of the battle between Zeus and the Titans. It was also featured in the last scene of "The Bourne Identity".

"Neither one of us are up for another full, or even 1/2 day, in the sun, heat, and wind. The port side of the deck is actually closed because of high wind so we find the starboard side shady and protected by the ship and it faces the port. After working out and eating way too much lunch, we headed to starboard deck 7 for a couple of hours of journaling and picture taking and relaxing".

"It was so nice to really sit back & feel the serenity of this place. It is difficult to put the scenery and the feelings into words. I now understand Lord Byron's affection for Greece and why so many great authors have attempted to pay homage to this magical place that reaches inside you and soothes your soul".

"All this serenity put is in the mood to check out the adults only pool that is located near the gym. We were protected from all the wind by the upper deck of the much mocked, also adults only, "Sanctuary". The pool was wonderful and relaxing and we had a great fun time watching out for the little group of 800 year old tiny Asian women who elbowed their way into the pool for their daily water aerobic workout. Lest we get bruised, or recruited, we headed for the showers and dressed up fancy--dinner tonight in the Michaelango dining room".

This is one of the few nights we sat at a table with other passengers. It is fun to do that and we enjoyed meeting people from all over the world, tonight's group included 3 couples from England and one from Florida. During dinner the Captain came on the intercom and called "MAN OVERBOARD"! Oh man, the room went absolutely silent while he instructed emergency crews to muster. He then stopped us, turned around, traced our path for a long while. Ultimately they think a cushion from a deck chair blew into the water. The person who called in the initial report never made themself known and all passengers were accounted for, so we turned back around and headed for Pireaus (Athens).