Just got back from the best vacation we've ever had, an 11 day Cruise of the Eastern Mediterranean. The ship left from Civitavecchia (Italy - near Rome) and made stops at Savona (Northern Italy), Olympia (Greece) , Athens (Greece), Izmir (Turkey), Rhodes (Greek Island), Limassol (Cyprus) and Alexandria (Egypt). Three Continents in 11 days!
We saw so many wonderful sites that it's almost too much to post so I'll just share 1 or 2 pics from each place...except for Egypt which demands many pictures to be shown!
Our ship, The Costa Concordia.
During our first stop in Savona, we took a 2 hour bus ride over to visit Monaco. Monaco was beautiful. While there we saw the Monte Carlo Casino and the gravesite of Princess Grace.
In Olympia, Greece we visited the site of the Ancient Olympic Games.
In Athens we first stopped at the stadium where the first Modern Day Olympic Games were held in 1896.
Then we visited the Parthenon on top of the Acropolis.
Izmir, Turkey was both in turn, interesting and disappointing. We enjoyed seeing the ruins of the Basilica of St. John and (pictures below) the House of the Virgin Mary.
Izmir itself was a bit of a bust since we couldn't find a good marketplace, just a bunch of rude shopkeepers trying to sell us designer knock off crap. But at least we got to see the Izmir Clock Tower.
We had a great time in Rhodes, Greece, exploring the Old Town section of the city. Old Town Rhodes is contained by the old walled part of the city and has many shops and restaurants. We even climbed the wall to look out at the Aegean Sea.
Limassol, Cyprus was probably the most disappointing port. We had been lucky with the weather the whole trip, enjoying cool but sunny weather until Cyprus. It barely sprinkled but was definitely much cooler than our previous stops. Also the ruins we saw were of the like 3rd or 4th Temple of Apollo we had seen since beginning our trip.
Egypt. We had a 13 hour excursion in Egypt...much of it was the bus ride from Alexandria to Cairo where the Pyramids of Giza and the Sphinx are. What can I say about Egypt except that it was AMAZING! Seeing the pyramids up close was really awesome. A couple of downsides were the sandstorm we had to endure while there...nothing so bad as like you see in the movies, just annoying. By the end of the day we all felt like we had taken a dirt bath. Also there are so many locals at the sites trying to sell you crap souvenirs, post cards, camel rides...you name it.
The Sphinx was my favorite site.
A picture from an Official Costa Cruises Photographer.
For the first time ever, the kids favorite part of the trip was NOT the ice cream that they had, but the Camel ride!
For the first time ever, the kids favorite part of the trip was NOT the ice cream that they had, but the Camel ride!
The scary part of Egypt is all the security they have at the tourist sites. The buses from the cruise ship (about 8 of them) rode in a caravan with a police escort in front and behind and an armed policeman on each bus. I really think this was more to protect us from thieves than terrorists but still a bit unnerving.
In addition to the Awesome places we visited we had 3 Days of just cruising on the Mediterranean. There was lots of stuff to do on the ship. The kids had a Kid's Club where they had organized activities and games as well as free play. They could also have dinner there and we took advantage of that 2 out of the 3 "formal" dinner nights.
The kids enjoyed swimming in the pool of course, but were not very fond of the salty sea water that filled it.
Vito really liked the fruit punch drink and had a few of them but Katie really only liked them for the umbrella.
We explored the ship and enjoyed watching the water from the top deck.
Vito Jr. could not wait for the formal night that he got to go to. He was really looking forward to getting dressed up in a jacket (thanks LMU) and tie but got mad when I made him put the tie inside his jacket. He didn't think people could see it well enough.
We took the kids dancing after dinner one night. They had a blast!
Then on to the arcade for some video games and air hockey.
Friends of ours (two other AISB families...each also with a boy and a girl) also booked the cruise with us and we all sat together at dinner and went on many of the excursions together. Here's a picture of us at one of the formal dinners that we did NOT bring the kids to. Steve & Sharon Knode (front) and Bob & Monica Lowe (back).
Other than the couple of pictures the guys leading our camels took of us and the few "over the shoulder" ones I got of Katie and Anna, we would not have that many pictures of us riding camels if we weren't lucky enough to be riding next to the Lowes. We just took pictures of each other!
And here is the picture of "Team Budapest" after we won one of the Quizzes that the ship ran through out the day. The crappy picture is courtesy of the guy at the next table who also tried to cheat off of us.
I could keep going on and on... we have about 1000 pictures from the trip but suffice it to say that this was our most AWESOMEST VACATION EVER! Or at least so far...
