My Mediterranean cruise trip last month (pic heavy)

[311boogieman]

I believe Monkey Man agreed to let me post this here for a few days before he knee jerks it into the obscure Vacation sub forum

My wife and I went on a Mediterranean cruise last month. It was the best trip ever. I've been on some Caribbean cruises before but never been to Europe. It is a great way to see Europe and get a taste of many countries at once without having to travel via car or train and pack and unpack constantly. We now want to do a Viking river cruise.

It was for our 30th anniversary and we had been saving for a while. Not cheap.

We started in Barcelona, Spain and ended in Athens, Greece with about 9 stops in between. This is more of a pictorial record so I won't be typing paragraphs of information in each post. If you have any questions though, fire away. If you are interested in any of the churches we saw, you can find those in the Proof of God thread around posts 1,136 through 1,150

We were on a Celebrity cruise ship - Silhouette. We flew from US to Toronto on an Briggs and Stratton puddle jumper and then boarded a Boeing 777-300 class monstrosity that i had never flow on before. Huge. Very nice. Spent the night in Barcelona and then the cruise boarded the following morning. Basically the flight back home was the same deal only landing in Montreal instead of Toronto.

Toronto

Barcelona

View from room

Gaudi's house - Casa Battlo

One of Gaudi' masterpieces, La Sagrada Família, along with building posted above across from hotel.

 

[Floyd Eye]

Awesome. Looks like a great vacation.

 

[311boogieman]

While in Barcelona we also visited the Flaminco Casa Sors in which my beautiful wife had purchased tickets in advance. Good thing as they only take in maybe 20 people at a time. The proprietor, pictured below, had a famous guitarist father who had an amazing collection - including one of the oldest guitars around (1750 ad). He wanted to create a museum of sorts. He played for us a bit after the Salsa dancing which was a big hit (mainly for my wife). Twas fun.

Their luthier shop

First 10 string

First 'D-tune' his father invented

Owner/guitarist

 

[JackBootedThug]

That looks cool! Thanks for sharing!!!

 

[311boogieman]

Off to Nice, France. We didn't spend much time in the port of Nice as the fun stuff was in Villa Franche sur-Mer and Eze, first city (for us) with the tight walking only streets with old historic buildings and doors and a very old monastery//fort/overlook.


Our boat with rough indication of where our room was.

Room

Tender to port

Port

At the top of this mountain was a spring in the limestone. Blew me away.

Bye France

 

[311boogieman]

Pisa, Italy (port is Livorno)

best lunch ever

 

[311boogieman]

Day At Sea

This was cool because 1.) we needed a break and 2.) my wife booked a ship tour. Crowes nest, and then down in the belly. Then some cool pool shots and my favorite bar on the ship - the Sunset Bar on the back of the boat.

This is our favorite bar on ship - The Sunset Bar at aft

Lots of blue

 

[311boogieman]

Now Pompeii

Castle near port with Mt. Vesuvius in background

The whole place was very fascinating and humbling.

 

[311boogieman]

Rome

to scale

The Forum next to it was almost as good. One of the oldest cities in the world.

all very impressive, don't remember the name of that fountain but I have it somewhere in notes.

 

[VonBonfire]

I'm told Pompeii was a luxurious and hedonistic tourist destination in it's time. I found this interesting:

"The inscription "SODOM GOMOR[RAH]" was found in Pompeii, Italy, in the 19th century. It was scratched on a wall in House 26 of Insula 1 in Region 9 of the city. The inscription was left by someone who was horrified by the destruction of Pompeii and believed it was divine punishment for the Biblical cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. The inscription is now in the Naples Archaeological Museum, but is almost illegible."

 

[311boogieman]

Montenegro, Kotor

Super steep. Super cool. Took gondola to top of mountain.

That's our ship....

 

[311boogieman]

Dubrovnik, Croatia

One of our favorites. All the pics of Lokram Island on with my wife's phone but that was a major island during the Black Plauge. People had to stay on that island for 45 days before they were allowed in the port.

We got there early. Streets almost empty. When we left, the place was packed.

 

[Floyd Eye]

Pisa, Italy (port is Livorno)

best lunch ever

The small building in the first photo looks to be leaning as well.

 

[311boogieman]

Santorini, Greece (Island)

Again, very steep. The zig zag trail is a donkey trail. We took a boat to the opposite side of the island and then worked our way to Fia. Then gondola back down to port. We had a knack of doing things somewhat in reverse of the crowds. Just like Dubrovnik.

View from restaurant

 

[311boogieman]

Mykonos, Greece (Island)

One of our favorites. All the buildings are white. This is where I did the re-proposal to my wife for another 30 years. Thankfully she said yes. The fireworks at the end was the national winning soccer (football) team coming home to celebrate and let everyone kiss the cup.

180 Sunset Bar where I did the re-proposal at sunset

 

[311boogieman]

Athens.


Just. No. Words.

Underneath the museum was this old town they had found when they started the dig. So they just build the Museum up and around it. Super neat.

Our Hotel - actually the same story. When they went to dig foundation for the building they found this home - so they covered it in thick plexiglass basically so you can see it through the floor. The sunset pics of The Parthenon are from the rooftop bar of the hotel.

The Parthenon

We actually have 100's, maybe 1,000s of photos of the Parthenon and the Museum but you get the idea

 

[311boogieman]

That's it.

Hope you enjoyed.

Off to cook burgers and brats - have friends over tonight. Bon Fire later. Catch ya'll later

 

[VonBonfire]

Bon Fire later.

VONBONFIRE NOW SUCKA!!!

Great pics, thanks for sharing. Definitely loving the Mykonos photos the most.

My 30th is about 7 years out. If I start saving now I can probably afford to go to Athens Georgia.

Have a great night brother!!!

 

[Monkey Man]

Awesome sauce Brother 3.

 

[70 Mach 1]

Nice.
You spent 3 weeks with the wife non stop and came home happy?

You got me beat to Smithereens.

We would have come back on separate flights. And me 15 days earlier

Saw many of the same places compliments of the US Navy 1983 to 87

Wasn't as glamorous.
no pools, no fancy rooms, no hot tubs no peace but the memories the same as your pics.

Glad you had a awesome time

My accommodations were like this