Hello from The Norwegian Cruisers..Destinations: Istanbul, Ephesus, Athens, Croatia, Venice, Naples, Rome and Barcelona..
CRUISE NEWS (Photos will be posted when I get home
Day 1: 'Sitting at the airport, Sunday, Oct 8. The Tampa airport is one of the FREE wireless internet sites. Lots of airports charge fees to access the internet. I'm sitting near an AC outlet, so no strain on my battery. 'Waiting to take off for New York and then Istanbul, Turkey where we will board the ship (NCL Norwegian Cruise Line - JEWEL). Destinations: Istanbul, Ephesus, Athens, Croatia, Venice, Naples, Rome and Barcelona. Our bags have been checked in from Tampa to Istanbul. No problems getting through security, shoes off, lipstick in plastic bag, computer removed and send through screener separately. Our friends, Marsali and Bob Caldwell from California are meeting us on board. They went a couple days early to see Istanbul. We've been there before; but plan to go to the grand bazaar again.
Day 2: Arrived in Istanbul. Soooooo tired. Slept about 2 hours in the last 24. This is the first time we've checked in at the Cruise counter and was addressed as VIP's! This is the one and only time we will have flowers in our penthouse suite along with snacks delivered to the room and gourmet coffee/espresso machine in the room. It's looks like a little apartment. Our 'butler', Karan is very nice and addresses our every whim. Pshaw! Now, we see how the better half lives. Al's out roaming the ship, I'm about to crash!
Day 3: JET LAG! That's when you get so tired from lack of sleep, the brain is on overdrive and sleep will not come. Then naussea and feeling 'fluey'. 'Better this afternoon. Istanbul today, Grand Bazaar where tunnel after tunnel houses over 3,000 shops. You could walk in there forever and not see all the stores. Lots of gold, leather, spices, etc. I bought a piece of gold with the 'eveil eye' which is unique to this area. The story behind the evel eye is it keeps bad spirits out. This city is divided in two - half in Asia and across the sea, the other half in Europe. Over 400 mosques with multiple minarets rising in the skyline throughout the city. Two of the most famous mosques here are The Blue Mosque and the Saint Sophia. Christian churches converted to mosques hundreds of years ago. Now, 90 percent of the people are Muslim; but, there is a separation between religion and government unlike other Islamic countries.
Day 4: Ephesus Turkey. Feeling great, good sleep last night. Negotiated our own "taksi" in Ishmir to take us to Epheus - the ancient ruins where St. Paul, St. John and the Blessed Mary lived. 5 adults CRAMMED into a small taxi for a total of $50 round trip for the car. On return, the driver insisted on 50 Euros which started a good argument. We finally put the US dollars on the car and told him to call the police. End of that. He was trying to get as much $$ as he could. The final cost was $65 which still was a lot better than $189 per person for the Bus tour from the ship! The ruins were very inspiring; but difficult to maneuver because there were a total of 3 ships in harbor all at the same time.
Day 5: Piraeus, Greece. The 3rd largest sea port in the world. So many ships of various uses. Cargo, passenger, ferries, tankers, military, yachts of every description. Here, some of the passengers took the scheduled tour to Athens to see the ruins. Some were allowed off the bus for 5 minutes, some were not allowed to get off the bus at all. There were so many ships with passengers, too crowded. I'm glad Al and I did not go. Instead, we walked the city (at least a small part of it, since it's population is at least a couple million. We walked along the pier where the BIG YACHTS are moored. These are owned by very rich people, to say the least. It made the regular million dollar yachts look like little boats. I took lots of pics. Also, there was a big ship here, named 'LILI MARLEEN'! I was soooo excited, took photos near the name. Rarely do you see the name spelled like that.
Day 6 - Sea Day. Relax, sleep in, read book. This ship has multiple restaurants with various themes. Our butler scheduled reservations for all of them at different days. He also delivers snacks each afternoon - from sweets to shrimp cocktails. COMPLAINT: Internet access on this ship is the worst! It takes over 4 minutes just to get to one screen. What a gimick to charge 75 cents a minute. I'm writing this note on wordpad and will then do a copy/paste if/when I ever get connected properly.
Day 7 - Dubrovnik, Croatia - a city with red tile roof landscape, mountains, walled old section and worn marble streets. We had to 'tender in' which is anchor out in the deeper part of the sea and then take a smaller boat to shore. One person in our party is in a wheelchair and she transported nicely. There was a large farmers' market in the morning and smaller vegetable vendors moving carts in the afternoon. Lots of outdoor cafes and small narrow streets that run from a large open square. There was a Pharmacy Museum which we did not pay extra to see. Wonder what was there? 'Did go into the pharmacy to get dental floss and cough drops (just in case) - there were no items on display, you asked for the item and the clerk went to the appropriate door, opened it and retrieved your item. It cost $12 US for the two items.
Next time, bring cough drops. One of our group got an upper resp infection and I doled out some of my stash of cough drops. Only brought a few with me. We've learned over time, to bring medicinal type items. Going to the ship doctor can be very expensive.
Day 8 - Venice, Italy. Now I see why many cities have admirers; but Venice has lovers! The marble arches, gondoles-vaporetos-water taxis, pigeons, St. Marcos square, shops, Venetian Glass, Soborno lace, water canals instead of streets, small bridges over the canals, colorful boats and sooooo much more. Venice cannot be seen in one day. We only had a small taste. I can see why Jeff and Stacey Salo want to return! Of all the countries we've seen, I'd say the cities in Italy are my favorite.
Day 9 - Sea Day. This is the second 'formal night'. There was a notice in the daily bulletin today that jeans are not appropriate for the dining rooms. Apparently some are coming down looking like riff-raff. I somehow forgot my only top for the skirt I brought, soooooo I'm wearing black slacks for every single night with changes of tops. I sure hope the passengers don't go home worrying about what I wore on this cruise. If they do, that's their problem! I downloaded audiobooks from the library before I took this trip. I just finished EVERYMAN and have a T.C.Boyle audio novel to start yet. I also finished a great paperback book - THE ROMANOF (sp?) PROPHESY by Steve Berry. A must for those who like fiction books twisted with facts. Lots of excitement. The seas were a little rough this morning, so I didn't go to breakfast. Lord knows, I'm making up for it. After a few days at sea, the volumes of food slow down some, thank goodness. Karan, our butler from India brings snacks each day. I asked him for a banana this morning and he brought a big bowl of fruit inlcuding 3 bananas. LOVE THIS PAMPERING. Reality will come soon enough. Only 4 more days left. Luv, Marleen and Al.
PS - Minutes are so slow on the ship - I copy/paste the emails into my wordpad, read it later and then respond on wordpad and then copy/paste all of it when I log on to the internet the next time.
Day 10 - Naples, Italy. Take your life in your own hands if you want to traverse the streets of Napoli! The zooming back and forth of motor bikes, cars, buses, etc all honking at you as you try to set your feet in the path of the cars - no matter that the light says 'walk'. No one pays attention to signs. Then watch your step, don't twist an ankle on the square cobbled bricks. Scooters parked in every open section of the sidewalks - no pattern. A feeling of excitement just to watch the chaos. Mount Vesuius lay in the distance off our balcony. Last eruption was 1944. Thousands of people have built homes at the base of the mountain in what is called the RED ZONE - ie dangerous area to be. Pompeii saw it's eruption and is now a place of rouine for tourists to see. We saw it on our last trip here.
Pompeii - I'll post some photos as our friends Bob, Marsali and Clay made a special trip to that area.
Day 11 - Civitavecchia - the entry port to Rome is a very old city, worn walls - castle ruins, cobbled streets. The market was quite a place, many blocks long. Flowers, cheese, olives, meats, fish, vegetables, nuts, fruits - every variety presented. It looked like the city dwellers all came here for their 'groceries'. A covered building quite large, housed every imaginable type of fish from snails/escargot, clams, squid, shrimp, etc. Strong aromas! A pleasant day spent walking the streets and taking in the colors. Our friends went on to Rome via train which is what we did the last time we cruised here. Clouds are building on this last port of call. Tomorrow, we'll probably be going through rain on the seas between Civitavecchia and Barcelona, Spain. From Barcelona, it is off to the airport and fly HOME!
