Santorini

With the entire world closed, it looks like it may be awhile before I can do any traveling. With that in mind, I’m re-posting from my original blog. I created the blog to keep family informed while I took my mom on a cruise to Greece.

Day 9:

Last night was a formal dinner. Now if you read the dress code on the internet, “formal” means just that, black tie for the men, formal for the ladies. Apparently once at sea, “formal” means please don’t wear your jeans, well ok, as long as they’re clean, ok, just not too torn and dirty, if you wouldn’t mind. Ok, maybe it wasn’t that bad, but had I worn my tux, I had better grab a tray and learn to speak French real fast.

The sea was really rough last night, I went to the customer service desk and most of the people there were getting sea sickness pills. Mom and I did pretty well, we have patches, but haven’t used them yet. During dinner we hit a bump, no other way to describe it, the ship suddenly jumped like we had hit a speed bump. Everyone in the dining room stopped talking for a second. One of out table mates, a German, leaned over and asked mom, was that the iceberg? It was kind of funny. The waiters were having a little trouble moving around, but with one exception, they managed to stay on their feet. We didn’t see the dishes fall, but we heard them.

Our dinner partners were talking about how wonderful the entertainment was the night prior (after the great mime incident, we skipped the next nights show), so we thought we would take a chance and go see the show. It was a singer from South Africa, who sang a mix of American classics like Tom Jones, James Brown, and some international songs. What a great voice. Mom and I both enjoyed the show.

This morning we arrived at Santorini. Right after breakfast we headed to the theater to get our tickets for the tender ride from the ship to the dock (the harbor is not deep enough so tender ships ferry passengers to the shore). Once we got to the theater, the crew saw moms walker and told us to go with the Italian speaking passengers, because the trip would be easier. They gave us a number and told us we would have to listen carefully, because none of the announcements would be in English. The guy making the announcements must have had a heart, because he did make them in Italian, French, German and English.

Ships tender approaching the dock at Santorini

I have to admit, I was a little concerned about mom jumping between two boats that are pitching back and forth. When we got to the boarding point, there were two crewmembers helping people board the ship. What you had to do was stand on a box and wait for the two ships to be at about the same height and step quickly from one to the other. With the help mom just stepped on board. The crewmember on the tender wanted her to sit on a bench right at the back of the ship, mom also wanted to sit at a bench on the back of the ship. Unfortunately they weren’t the same bench. In his best English the Greek crewmember kept saying, “Madam, please sit down”, mom was trying to get to the bench she thought she was supposed to be at. She got a little flustered and finally said “I’m trying” and that seemed good enough. About then another passenger just about landed on his face when the ship pitched. He managed to very ungracefully stay on his feet, jumped up and yelled “Oppah.”

Once you arrive at the dock in Santorini, you have three choices. You can walk up hundreds of steps to get to the city, you can ride a donkey, or you can take a very steep tram ride. We went for the tram.

The view from the tram

Turns out the tram ticket office is one of the few places that has a lift for handicapped people, however after that you still have stairs to climb to get to the tram. The city is built into a cliff, it really is quite beautiful. We did not have much time, just enough for mom to make one shopkeeper pretty happy.

Katakolon/Olympia

With the entire world closed, it looks like it may be awhile before I can do any traveling. With that in mind, I’m re-posting from my original blog. I created the blog to keep family informed while I took my mom on a cruise to Greece.

Day 8:

Today we are headed into Katakolon. Last night we sailed through a storm. Not too bad, but enough the lightening and thunder kept me awake. Woke up several times, didn’t realize my watch had stopped until about 10 am, which was the start time of the cocktail reception we were invited to. Oops.

The Port at Katakolon

We had dinner in the dining room for the first time last night. Usually they seat people of like nationality at the same table, so naturally we were sitting with a couple from Austria and one from Germany. Turns out they all speak English so we were able to talk . Very nice people.

Most of the passengers on the ship seem to be Italian. The next largest group appears to be the French, followed by the Germans. English speaking passengers are few, which makes anyone from the UK an instant friend. Only met a couple of folks from the US, interestingly one gentleman was stationed at George AFB in the 60’s. He deployed to Vietnam from George and his wife moved out of the area, They now live in Oklahoma City.

The View Looking Aft on the Ship

At Sea

With the entire world closed, it looks like it may be awhile before I can do any traveling. With that in mind, I’m re-posting from my original blog. I created the blog to keep family informed while I took my mom on a cruise to Greece.

Day 6:

Here is a shot of mom at the Grand Canal in Venice on Saturday.

We had breakfast at the hotel, good ol fashioned American breakfast with eggs, sausage, bacon, gooey pastries and some fruit to make mom happy. After Sunday dinner, it was a pleasant change.

We went to the port at 12:30, and along with 2500 others waited to board the ship. Not too bad, you might think they do this all the time.

As soon as we got on board, they opened the buffet. Not bad, I had a little this and that. The mahi-mahi was very good.

We departed Venice at 6 pm and headed to sea. Leaving port the view was nice. We sat on the balcony and watched as we went past Venice. It was a little cold, Mom wrapped herself in a blanket and we had champagne and hor’devores as we sailed past. Mom wouldn’t touch the caviar so more for me.

Went to the evening show, it sucked. Mime is a lost art, it should stay that way.

Rainy Days and Mondays

With the entire world closed, it looks like it may be awhile before I can do any traveling. With that in mind, I’m re-posting from my original blog. I created the blog to keep family informed while I took my mom on a cruise to Greece.

Day 5:

Well its Monday and this afternoon we start the cruise. Rained all day yesterday and it's still raining off and on today.

Found out the everything is closed on Sundays. Couldn't find anywhere to eat, so we snacked and watched tv.

TV in Venice is interesting at best. The programming says there are four English channels. One is a never ending infomercial for a ultra sound home device, that, as advertised, will make your butt look firm and smooth, as well as solving a diverse list of problems. A second channel is EuroSport, which is not in English, has nothing to do with anything remotely English. Which leaves BBC (and not BBC America which has redeeming qualities) and CNN.

Which leads me to proclaim, Mr. Bean is actually funny in Italian. Really.

Venice

With the entire world closed, it looks like it may be awhile before I can do any traveling. With that in mind, I’m re-posting from my original blog. I created the blog to keep family informed while I took my mom on a cruise to Greece.

Day 4:

Well we made it to the plane without any problems. The flight from NYC to Venice took just over nine hours. Got to the hotel with out any incidents.

After Checking in, we got on the bus and headed into town. Mom had a little trouble getting on the bus, the step was really high, But we made it to the Grand Canal. Walked around a little, poked around in some shops, then headed back to the hotel.

Had dinner in the hotel, really good. crashed about 10 pm.

This morning, the phone rang. Housekeeping wanted to know if we needed anything. I looked at my watch and it was after 1pm. Looked outside and it was raining. So much for day number two.

There should be some real nice pictures included in this post, cept for one little thing. Can't charge the computer.

OK, added a picture from the canal after we got a new plug for the computer

Important lesson, you need to have a power converter not just a plug adapter when you travel. Mom brought her plug adapter but it doesn't convert the voltage. There is one 120v plug in the room in the bathroom, (in fact, this blog was going to be called "bloggin from the bidet" which would have been much funnier), but it did not charge the computer overnight. I'll work on it.

Tomorrow we head over to the dock and board the ship, hopefully the rain will stop.

The Man Who Never Returned

With the entire world closed, it looks like it may be awhile before I can do any traveling. With that in mind, I’m re-posting from my original blog. I created the blog to keep family informed while I took my mom on a cruise to Greece.

Day 3:

"Did he ever return, No he never returned And his fate is still unlearn'd
He may ride forever 'neath the streets of Bos, er, ah, New York City
He's the man who never returned."

Ah yes, it seemed so simple a task, take a shuttle, get on the subway and head into the city to find B and H photo on the corner of 9th and 34th. I mean how hard could it be for a seasoned traveler of NYC to get from one place and back. The streets are a simple grid. The subway is everywhere. Easy. Think again ol faithful reader, think again.

Mom was up before me today at about 6:30 a.m. We had a light breakfast, and after some thought, she stayed behind and I went to find B&H to pick up a charger for the camera. Little did I know, but as a direct result of the Dodgers failing to stay in the playoffs, today was the “ticker tape” parade for the hated NY Yankeese. Every Deter lover for a hundred miles was headed to lower Manhattan this morning. Actually, since they had won, they were in a quite jovial mood, many almost seemed pleasant.

Before we could get to my mid-town stop, the train ended up stuck for awhile, about four stops prior to my departure point. I decided to jump off and walk the rest of the way. Now, mid-town is really not too bad, but today seemed to have a disproportionate number of homeless wandering around looking for handouts. And the crowds were not as friendly as the subways goers, even so, I found my way to B&H.

If you have any interest in photography or videography, B&H is Mecca. The store is huge, you don’t carry your purchases, they put them in carriers and send them whizzing through the store on overhead conveyor belts. So as you walk around there is a constant whirling noise as products head to the cashier stations. When your done shopping you go to a counter with your purchase receipts, and while your paying, a clerk gathers everything up. Got what I needed and started to head back.

This is where it got a little weird. I decided to just walk up-town and catch the subway back to Jamaica NY at about 50th street. When I got to 50th, I could not find an entrance. Finally I found a red line entrance near Radio City and just figured I would ride to the connection point and transfer to the Blue E line. When I looked at the map, it showed the connection point just three streets up, so I walked. Took me twice around the block before I found the entrance. I got a little confused but finally got to the end of the subway ride. Still several miles from my hotel, I hailed a cab. Most of the time, NY cabbies are attempting to set a land speed record for the 1/8 mile. This guy had no idea where he was going and came to a complete stop at several points on the highway asking me if he should veer right or left. Like I would know. He kept hitting the breaks and almost stopping in the middle of the street. I finally managed to guide him to the hotel, which is where I now find myself.

We plan on checking out at about 3 p.m. and heading over to the airport to catch the over-night flight to Venice. Hopefully I can sleep on the plane.

And So It Begins

With the entire world closed, it looks like it may be awhile before I can do any traveling. With that in mind, I’m re-posting from my original blog. I created the blog to keep family informed while I took my mom on a cruise to Greece.

Day 2:

We have arrived in NYC. No real issues on the trip in, was a pretty nice flight. We have already realized that we forgot a few things, but as Pauline pointed out, there are stores in NY.

Mom is out. She stayed up all night and all day today. Our hotel is near the airport, about 12 miles from the city in what is basically an industrial area.

We had dinner here in the hotel. When we went to the restaurant, it really seemed to be pretty average. Nothing special. Turned out to be good. Mom really enjoyed her meal.

Tomorrow, going to let mom sleep in, I need to get into town and get a charger for the camera. We will check out in the late afternoon, and head to Venice overnight.