Tuesday was Santorini and we booked a tour. We didn't get there until lunchtime and spent most of the morning by the pool talking to the English couple we had met. Because of the depth of the water we had to tender and as the towns are on top of the cliff, you get from the port up to the towns either by walking, cable car or donkey. Our tour took us by boat to the old port, then by bus around the island and finished just near the cable car in time to get the cable car down and catch the last boat back to the ship. After driving all the way around the island, we went to Oia (pronounced ee-a). That is the town with all the postcard pictures of the white buildings with blue rooves and windows. We got 2 hours free time to wander around on our own looking at the cute shops and to take photos. Then back on the bus, we went through the main town, Fira to a taverna for a Greek buffet dinner, wine, lots of dancing, and some plate smashing at the end. We were then taken back to Fira for a little bit of free time before heading down the cable car back to the ship, arriving back by 9:30. We had a little bit of dessert at the buffet, then went to bed pretty tired.
Mykonos was Wednesday and we did a small tour in the morning. It was about a 9 o'clock start and we got on a bus and drove around the island stopping at St. Johns beach were Shirley Valentine was filmed (I hadn't heard of the film, but a lot of people knew of it, so I will have to keep an eye out for it). Then we went to Aphrodite beach and had a bit of a rest on the beach chairs, a quick paddle and a nice cool drink. Then we went to the small village of Anamera and visited a Greek Orthodox church and had a tasting plate of Greek food and some ouzo. Then the bus took us back to the ship. We decided to have lunch on the ship, then head into Mykonos town. We were told the streets of the town were made as a labyrinth to confuse the pirates and keep the town safer, and they were not wrong. We got very lost numerous times and bumped into Ruth and Tim, the English couple that we now knew well enough to call our friends, twice. We made plans to meet up for dinner together in the dining room. The kids ate dinner at the buffet, then went to kids club. Steve and I got ready for dinner with Ruth and Tim. We had a great night and kicked on in the nightclub until about 3am.
Thursday was one of the most exciting port days. The port town was Katakolo, it is about 20 minutes from Olympia, where the ancient Olympic Hames were held. Lachlan is really into Greek Mythology and we were all excited to see the site. Our tour guide was great and he took us through the site and to the Archaeological Museum. We got to see the altar where they light the torch for each Olympics, the temple ruins, and ran on the ground of the stadium. Then we had a guided tour around the Archaeological Museum where they have the reains of the statues and other bits from the site. After Olympia, we got back on the bus and went to an olive farm and winery. We had a glass of white wine on arrival to drink as we learnt about the olive picking process. Then we went inside for a beautiful lunch with lots of little tastings of different Greek food, almost entirely sourced from the farm itself, a bottle of red wine and of course more dancing. Full and a little tired we were taken back to Katakolo and the ship. Steve and the kids went onboard to swim and relax and I went for a walk along the street of Katakolo for one last shopping fix in Greece. We went to trivia in the early evening which we had done every day since day 2 and tied with 2 other teams. We had dinner in the dining room and then went to the buffet for dessert, they do a huge chocolate buffet.
Friday was our last full day on the ship, after breakfast we spent the morning by the pool. We had a bbq lunch by the pool, then the kids went into kids club. Steve and I went to a music trivia, then Steve did some work while I read. We got the kids out of kids club for dinner in the buffet, then put them in and Steve and I went to the Churrascaria for dinner. After dinner we got the kids out of kids club and we all went to the finale show in the theatre. It was really good. We went back to our room and packed and went to bed.
Saturday was time to leave the ship :( We had breakfast and were one of the first off the ship at about 9:30. We had to get to the centre of Venice by ferry or water taxi. We chose the water taxi as, besides the people that disembarked our ship with us there were also another two ships with people getting off and there were lots of people lining up for the ferry. The taxi was not cheap and we also paid for a water taxi to the airport the following morning. We got to our hotel and left our bags and wondered around Venice. We went to Saint Marks Square, Saint Mark's Basilica, The Bridge of Sighs, Rialto Bridge, had pizza for lunch, and just wandered around until about 3, then we went back to the hotel to go into our room and have a shower, it was really hot. Our hotel was really stunning, the room was enormous, especially for Venice standards, and beautifully decorated in lilac and gold. Everything was monogrammed with the hotel logo, including doors, toiletries and the rubbish bin. Steve and the kids stayed at the hotel (Steve had some work to do on the internet) and I went out again and had more of a look around, there were so many beautiful shops and things to look at. I returned at about 6 and we went out for dinner, had a little bit more of a walk around, then went to a gelati place/bar and the kids had gelati, Steve had a beer and I had a canoli and a glass of Frangelico..yum. Then we went to bed, as we had to get up early to get to the airport.
We caught our water taxi at 6:30 Sunday morning and flew back the same way, but had a stopover in Dusseldorf instead of Berlin. We had a longer stopover in Abu Dahbi for 6 hours in the middle of the night but it wasn't too bad.
No comments:
Post a Comment