adventure | Around the World in 80 Trips (Or Less)

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Venice to Turkey 10

Day 10, Santorini, May 13

The ship is anchored in Santorini harbor. We Tender to shore at the bottom of the cliffs and take a bus to the top. We walk up to the top of Pyrgos and get our first views of the island. The island is amazingly sparse of growing things. It is almost desert like.

Walking around Pyrgos is quite interesting. One thing for certain is you are always walking up or down. Donkeys are used here to get yourself and your goods around. One must develop great leg muscles living here! On the way up, there are small entrepreneurs everywhere! Want a deck of playing cards? We see the first blue dome of Santorini, but not the blue domes of postcard fame! And the entrance of Mary?

Different views from the top reveal a fairly stark landscape. We have been given limited time at this stop, so visiting the shops is not really possible. Our guides, in the last photo of this set, give us a lot of historical information but I choose to spend a lot of time looking for photographic vistas. Notice a couple of vineyards here. In Greece, it is very common to grow grapes on short vines low to the ground. Very little rainfall here so the grape leaves grow in tight clumps and collect the morning dew!

The lady guide is there to tell us about our next stop, an ongoing excavation of Akrotiri, Thera, that is so important they have built a building over it to protect it from the elements! It is common all around the world to have different guides that have different areas of expertise. Also, different places require their own guides to make an income.

The bus travels on along the island. Notice the vineyards all along the way. No grapevines grow taller than a foot or so as they are self watered by the morning dew! Unfortunately, Greece is no different than most of the world where ‘street artists’ and graffiti taggers leave their mark wherever they possibly can! And donkeys hold a specific place in the culture here!

Then the bus takes us to the top of the island, or in other words, to the north end where lies the city of Oia (pronounced Eee-ah). This is the place where the iconic postcards of Santorini are found. We are excited to take our own iconic photos of the famous blue domes and white buildings. Alas, it seems that Santorini is quite overrated. There are a few blue domes but only a few. The scenic vistas are interesting, but quite different from what we expected.

Santorini has desalination plants for it has no fresh water. The processed water can be drank but is not preferred. Therefore they import bottled water. We never hear stories of what they drank in ancient times, perhaps wine? Oh well, we take our pictures and find a rooftop restaurant where we try some local wines and moussaka. Even though the views were not what we expected, a good time is had by all!

Back on the bus, we travel back to the port where we take the local ferry to the ship. All in all, Santorini leaves us a bit disappointed. This is not an attractive island, but an interesting populated desert island. On the Tender back to the ship, we even spot an interesting landslide formation on shore that resembles a bird!

Back on the ship, we go to the Primrose Bar near our stateroom and get glasses of wine and participate in random trivia sessions. We go to Hudson’s for dinner, which happens to be the main dining room. Food is pretty good tonight. We spend the evening watching the Motown show in the theater and game shows in Penrose. Then to bed it is!

See you all tomorrow!

Venice to Turkey 07

Day 07, Bar, Montenegro, Mother’s Day

So today, being the romantic that I am, I took Elee to the City Bar for Mother’s Day!

Today we sleep in and have a leisurely breakfast. We get off the ship at 9:30 AM. We take the mandatory shuttle out of the industrial port to the Promenade where we get a taxi. Our driver, Marco, speaks very good English. He takes us to the Old Town and we agree on a pick up time. We don’t have to pay him until the end so we feel comfortable that he will be back. On the way to Old Town, we have him take us to the oldest olive tree in Europe. Marco comments that he doesn’t understand why tourists are willing to pay €2 to see an old tree!

We walk into the quaint cobblestone streets of Old Town and it’s lined with small boutique shops. As we walk further, boutique shops turn into restaurants. We walk through and come across the entrance to the old ruins.

A slow climb up through the ruined streets reveals an ancient life of different buildings. Amazingly old structures mostly built of stone show a civilization from days of yore. Many vistas for our cameras entertainment present themselves.

We find rooms that were used as public baths and on of them even has natural lighting window in the ceilings!

Eventually we reach the top and it’s time to come down. We make it back to Old Town and stop for refreshment in the form of Pomegranate Beer!

Feeling a bit refreshed, we walk down further and find a restaurant for lunch. Here we have Cevapi, a rolled meat sausage, Dolmas and an eggplant dish. Top it off with Pomegranate Wine and life is good.

We then meander back through Old Town and stop for a t-shirt purchase and walk back to our taxi. Marco takes us back to the Promenade and we ride the shuttle bus to the ship.

In the afternoon we take walks around the ship, take part in trivia games and generally have fun on the ship. We even found the original “Rock, Paper, Scissors”! Off to dinner and then to a magic show before bed. When the ship departs, locals gather on the docks and piers and wave goodbye to us!

See you all tomorrow!

Venice to Turkey 06

Day 06, May 09, Zadar, Croatia

This morning we wake up in Zadar, Croatia with clear skies. We feared rain for during the night we went through a fairly wet storm.

It’s going to be a short day in port as we hear the All Aboard will be 1:30 PM.

Breakfast at 7 AM, then to our room to gear up to get off the ship. Another couple that speculated traveling with us didn’t respond so we go off the ship around 8:30. It costs us €20 to get to Old Town via taxi and off we go.

Old Town is an interesting walk among buildings several thousand years old and streets, some in amazingly good condition.

We come across a tower, that for €5, you can climb! So up we go. Very interesting views from the top after 203 steps up one way steps. We take several breaks, primarily to let other tourists go the opposite direction.

Once back down, we head to the end of Old Town where we find Pozdrav Suncu, or the “Greeting to the Sun”, a modern circle of solar panels where we find young people doing cartwheels and headstands, for what purpose is not clear.

Then, next to that, we visit another modern structure, “Morske Ordulje”, the “Sea Organ”. These simple looking concrete steps at the sea’s edge are built such that when the waves crash against them, they produce deep notes that reverberate into tunes. Quite the unique place where we sit for a while and enjoy the different melodies as ships go by and create different rhythms.

After a while here, we stroll back into Old Town and meander back through the ancient streets. There are festive parties preparing for a marathon type street race to occur tomorrow. We stop at an outdoor cafe and enjoy some cold water and a couple glasses of local wines that we have never tasted before.

As we stroll again towards the gathering of taxis, we indulge our cameras a few more random photos. For some that have asked, we are traveling with cell phones only this trip after our successes a few months ago! Elee is using the Samsung Galaxy S23 Pro and I am using the newest iPhone 17 Pro. My images are better than hers but they are all good! We step inside a small church for a moment but don’t choose to pay the tithing to go all the way in. As I arrive at the taxi spot, I pull out the card our taxi driver, Tomaslav Toric, gave us, he is there and spots us just as I spot his car! So with no waiting, Tomas takes us back to the ship. He earns himself a tip for that!

We walk the final half mile to get on the ship and go to our stateroom. A bit of rest and we head out to find a bite to eat. We go to the “Local Bar” and have chili and salad. Then it’s off to explore more of the ship. Watching the cart racing, taking a stroll around the decks, the “Galaxy Pavilion”, a glowing arcade, the “Observation Deck”, and many other things on the ship. I even spot a set of umbrellas that you only get to use by paying approximately €400 Euros per day!

Then to kick back and relax in the “Penrose Atrium”, watching trivia shows. Before we know it, it’s time for dinner. Tonight we dine in the “Commodore Room”, another main restaurant. The food was just okay.

After dinner we secure seats for some music and a silly game show that Elee enters. She doesn’t win but everyone has fun!

Time to call it a night.

Florida 2026, Days 09-18

Touring Florida and visiting people!

After disembarking the ship, we pick up a rental car and visit a shipmate friend from our 2 Round The World Cruises! Hey ‘E-Less Ann’!

Then it’s off towards Naples to visit Elee’s college roommate and her husband! Hey Ellen & Bob! They gave us a tour of the area!

After a couple days we head north to visit with Elee’s cousin on Anna Maria Island near Sarasota. Unfortunately, Karen was marooned up north due to the heavy snowstorms up north so John was a fantastic host who showed us around for a couple days! We also visited Brother in Law John and his partner Andrea who were both gracious enough to let us use their house! Thanks!

Then we were off to Orlando where we stayed at a Hilton (That we would never stay at again!) in the Disney World area. We did get a great deal on the room in exchange for attending a 2 hour Vacation Presentation (thinkTimeshare). Of course we were told there would be no pressure, LOL. But the presenters, sales persons, closers & check-out people were all clearly angry when we turned them down!

Our room in the hotel was next to a vertical shaft that went all the way to the very noisy Lobby where the sound carried to every room! We did have a view overlooking parts of Disney World and the Lazy River that belonged to the hotel. We did spend a couple hours prior to the presentation relaxing in the Lazy River!

Next, we were off to “The Villages” to visit another shipmate friend from our Round The World Cruises, Ron and his girlfriend Linda! It was fun catching up Guys! They took us to an outdoor Country Concert. It seems that The Villages has entertainment happening somewhere almost every night so it doesn’t matter which night you want to go out! There is always something happening!

On our way back to Orlando that evening, we even were able to pull over to watch a launch from Cape Canaveral! This was probably the most disappointing shot with the new iPhone 17 as the phone wouldn’t focus well on the rocket flames!

The next morning we check out of our hotel at 11 AM. Our flight doesn’t take off until 9 PM so we take a leisurely drive back to Fort Lauderdale. We find the Riverwalk and spend a couple hours there.

There will be an upcoming post for something we also did in Sarasota, but was a separate side trip. See you again soon!

Florida 2026, Day 06

San Juan, Puerto Rico (Day 4 on the ship)

We get up and actually have a leisurely breakfast in the buffet (the main restaurant was packed). The gangplank opens a few minutes before 10 AM. We manage to make it off the ship around 10:15.

It’s already quite warm but not unbearable. We’re in the port of San Juan, Puerto Rico. We head through the streets of Old Town and work our way up the hill to the Old Fort. The buildings are colorful as we walk. The Fort as we approach, reminds us of the Old Fort in Cartagena, Columbia. Stone and mortar with similar design elements. We even poke our heads into a church on the way up!

Great views from the top of San Juan. The Fort is similar to many South American Forts. Stone, brick and mortar.

We continue through the quaint streets and come across a couple churches which even the local police don’t know the names of! We look inside but don’t opt to actually go in and pay the tithe.

We bump into Austin and Olivia from our ship (lovers in the Pub!) at Las Palomas Park (Pigeon Park) where a pigeon lands on my shoulder and it takes quite a bit of shaking to convince it to fly away!

It is very warm today so, on the way back to the ship, we stop at a local restaurant and imbibe in a cold margarita. Back on the ship, we change and head for a cool water pool. The ships horn informs us that we are departing and I grab my cell phone (the only camera I am traveling with) and get some shots of San Juan as we depart. Back to our cabin to relax before dinner. A new folded towel animal greets us!

Dinner in the main restaurant tonight is very good. After dinner we go to a “Name that Lyric” game show, lots of laughs. Then to an Elton John tribute. We watch the “Rising Tide Bar descend and later rise.