A Reflection of a 24-day European Vacation It was a whirlwind, especially all the tours we did.  I had much more fun when I was able to relax and take my time to do my photography or just sit around and associated with both friends and others.  Overall, the vacation was a truly wonderful experience […]

Mastre, Italy After disembarking from the ship, we had reserved a hotel in Mastre, Italy which is on the mainland close to Venice.  This was our one short glimpse into a non-tourist part of Italy.  It was pleasant.  We finally found a grocery store where I got a Pepsi and Jarrad bought some extra virgin […]

Europe Cruise Wrap-Up Well, Princess Cruise Lines is definitely different from Carnival Cruise Lines.  Jarrad and I were both at a loss for the amount of activities that were available to us.  We realized pretty early that they tend to cater to couples and families.  They had a lot of activities for those 17 and […]

Venice, Italy I think, with the exception of Hamburg, Venice has to be one of the most beautiful cities we have visited.  The combination of canals and narrow alleys with the wide range of stores and vendors in the larger squares, make for a truly relaxing environment. From the ship, this tour was only on […]

Athens, Greece Of course, I guess as is the case with the climate in the area in the heart of July, it was again about 100 degrees.  And it was even hotter on top of the Acropolis, with little shade and that white rock dust reflecting all the heat.  So here we go… OK, so […]

Kusadasi, Turkey What a wonderful city.  This area has not been killed by over-inflated real estate prices and commercialism.  Homes are available at prices comparable to North Carolina and the weather is comparable to southern Florida without the humidity. There is not much to say about Kusadasi so I will proceed with what I learned […]

Istanbul, Turkey Boy, talk about a city with a rich, wonderful heritage.  First of all, Istanbul is the only city in the world that spans two continents: Europe and Asia.  We had the privilege of walking about in each (so I have now officially been to three continents).  Istanbul is home to 17 million people […]

Mykonos, Greece None of the tours of Mykonos were very interesting so we just called this a relaxing day.  Actually, we were only in port for a few hours anyway. As you can see from the few pictures, this is a lazy tourist port  on a small island in Greece.  I did especially like that […]

Capri, Sorrento, & Pompeii, Italy Well, this day was a whirlwind.  I don’t remember any real facts about anything.  We blew through everything so fast my head was spinning.  We took a 45-minute boat ride from the Ruby Princess to the island of Capri.  The sea was extremely choppy and many people on board were […]

Rome, Italy Well, I am upset with Princess Cruise Lines.  Apparently, because of winds, and a lack of willingness to pay for extra help to get into the harbor, they decided to just bypass this stop on our cruise altogether.  And to make matters worse, the extra day at see was very choppy and I […]