Thursday, May 31, 2012

cruise

a quick note to let everyone know we are in Athens and will catch up soon.....

Sunday, May 27, 2012

DON'T WE HAVE SOMEWHERE TO GO NOW???

Puerto Vallarta was a nice, relaxing and comfortable adventure.  We enjoyed our time there in March but now we are off into the wild blue yonder again.  I have been going over my check list and have everything ready for the house sitter, dog is taken care of, wished Denise a happy birthday when we were passing each other in the Calgary airport (she was on her way to a business meeting and I was on my way back home from a school reunion.), packing almost done.  Think we are almost there.

So, where to this time you may ask.  Long story...... In early January, my girlfriend from Florida and I planned a land trip to Italy taking in Rome, Florence and Venice and a few other places in between.  April was reading the local paper and showed me a great deal on a cruise to the eastern mediterrean and it had 5 of our bucket list.  How could we pass this up???

Long story short, I figured that if I could fit this cruise into the beginning of my land cruising with my friend Terry, then is as a go.  Guess what??  I could be done with a 5 day touring time at the end of the cruise before Terry arrives..  And we are off............

And we are off

and we have landed....in Rome that is.  This time we are going on a cruise (we are cruise virgins!!!!) and rather than gradually get into cruising, we have jumped in with both feet and are on our way to see the eastern Mediterranean.

We got on our KJM flight to Amsterdam on May 27th at 4 pm PDT at YVR, changed planes and here we are on Sunday in Rome Italy!!!  WOW.  The first time I came to Rome, commercial flight was not avaiable.  My Mom, sister and I had to cross the north Atlantic by ship and it took over two weeks.  I love this much better!!!!

Let me warn anyone who is flying into Roma airport.  There is no customer service, no courtey telephones and certainly no manners!!  I asked 5 different people where to get the shuttle bus to our hotel and no one knew except one tourist.  So, get yourself a reservation for a driver and you will be all set...

on the other hand, the HILTON Garden Inn at the airport is a wonderful oasis in a sea of rude....Everyone is so polite and they seem to understand that almost everyone who walks through the door has just arrived from some far off place and everyone is tired and just want a bed and lots of sleep.....which is where we are headed.

Tomorrow, Monday May 28th we go from winging our way bouncing along the clouds to floating on top of the history of the world and we are taking all of you with us.  Pictures will be included in all other blog posts.

 Sicily, here we come!!!!