Barcelona, Spain: Ole’!

Tonight I went to see a Flamenco Show in Barcelona. It was a beautiful dinner with four courses with dancing and boy was it LOUD! I think they even put microphones underneath the stage and every time the dancers dig their heels in, we all hear it and feel it! Something I never realized was how emotional Flamenco dancing and music was and how sad most of it really is, but man-oh-man the dancers are passionate!

Following the show, we loaded onto the bus where the guide and driver took us on a drive around Barcelona. Honestly, I didn’t think that a drive around the city would allow us to see much, but the Gothic Quarter is incredible in the evening as are most of the buildings with the lighting in place. Barcelona is pretty cool once you get away from Las Ramblas street, which is loaded with tourists and pickpockets!

Venice, Italy: Murano & Burano

Before I go anywhere – Happy Birthday to Robin - one of my favorite people in the world. I miss her all the time on ships but love that every time we see each other, we pick up exactly where we left off!

I knew I wanted to do another tour in Venice, but I was unsure of which one to do.  After reading all of the descriptions of each offered excursion and talking to my colleague, Maja, I signed myself up for “Murano & Burano” because she had nothing but amazing things to say about them.  Like I mentioned yesterday, we’re docked a good distance away from the main part of Venice, so with our tours, we provide a motor launch (a small boat) for each tour to depart on.  My folks embarked onto our vaporatto, the bus-style boat to get us to Murano & Burano, and set off on our small adventure.  

The weather was finally a bit cooler, but this morning, we definitely were wearing wind breakers on the boat because it was quite chilly heading over (despite the slow speeds of the boat, causing minimal wind). We had an incredible panoramic tour of all the islands around Venice and an overview of the area and its statistics. After a 45 minute scenic boat ride, we reached Murano, our first stop, and disembarked the boat. . Murano is an island that sits a bit northeast of Venice and is known for its glass making and production of beautiful and colorful masterpieces and we entered for our glass making demonstration and shopping.

The glass making demonstration was performed by a man who had been working for this particular factory for 28 years, as far as I could work out. He worked very quickly simple because of the need for speed to create his product before the glass cooled. In a matter of five minutes (if that), he had picked up the clear glass from an oven at the back, picked up the colors that he was going to roll into the clear glass and had blown the blob of glass into a beautiful vase. It’s so incredible to see the manipulation of the liquid glass to the final product of a beautiful vase in a matter of minutes. As soon as the vase was completed, he had already picked up more of the clear and liquefied glass and put some ruby colored liquid glass in the center of it. Never could I imagine that within 60 seconds, he’d have created a horse that was able to balance, and stand on its hind legs. Just blew me away!

When we had finished the glass making demonstration, we continued back to an overwhelmingly large shop located up one level in the building. From the minute I set foot into that showroom swarming with vultures (uh…I mean, sales representatives) to the minute I left, my jaw was on the ground. Yes, most of it was beautiful (most) but the prices as well. The ceiling was covered in chandeliers ranging from clear and classic to vibrant colors and modern in design. Just glancing at a few of the prices on the chandeliers, they ranged from 5000 euros to 37000 euros. Nope, I didn’t add any extra zeros there either, folks! I wandered through all the rooms of the store and after quickly discovering everything was out of my price range, made my way towards the exit. I had heard one woman behind me say “I thought there was a bargain room!?” One of the gentlemen that worked there overheard her and escorted her (and me!) down to the bargain room that was down the stairs, around the corner and through a very small door. Lo and behold a dream for me – things with red lines, -50% stickers and labels with “imperfects”. They were PERFECT for me! Three vases later, I walked out the door proud as punch to have made purchases that I adore with prices that my bank account could agree with.

Outside the factory and store, the guests gathered ready to board our water coach and head to Burano and see what the little city 20 minutes away had in store for us. So, Murano is known for glass and Burano is known for lace making and for the colored houses. If you look at the pictures below, you will see rows of brightly colored homes with a story to tell. Some of the homes we saw were actually four colors on the outside, which indicated that four families resided within that one home. The story behind these colored homes on this tiny fishing village island goes like this… At the end of hard work days, fisherman used to go out to the bars and drink quite a bit. When they returned back home each evening, they had a hard time distinguishing which home was theirs, so they would “randomly” wander into the wrong home and sleep with whatever woman was there. The wives all got together and developed the idea of painting each home its own color so that the men could easily find their way home each evening. I absolutely love this little town – walking up and down the streets of the village lining the waterways and exploring the colorful rows of homes with fresh linens hanging on the line out second floor windows – it was just picturesque. I almost felt as if I was part of some movie and that it wasn’t real! 

 

While wandering the streets, I made my way into a store that had packaged their own fresh pasta flavored with all sorts of things like cuttlefish and bitter cacao. After examining each package, I decided to purchase curry flavored pasta, bitter cacao pasta and chili parmesan pasta. The most unusual is definitely the bitter cacao. I did ask the girl running the store how she would prepare the bitter cacao pasta and she said to take some crème fraise, mushrooms and parmesan and that’s exactly what she would do at home. I must admit, I’m pretty excited to try and make them when we get home!

We had about an hour ride back to the ship, slow and steady because of the speed limits on the canal, but the beautiful weather combined with the two great islands just made for a perfect day – can’t rave enough about it!

Venice, Italy: Locked into the Relationship!

First off – a moment of silence for all that were lost and all who have fought because of what happened on this day 12 years ago. Still takes my breath away every time I remember watching the plane crashes replaying over and over again while sitting in my Pre-Calculus class in high school.

Of course, I had always had high hopes of making it to Venice, and I could only imagine the world of possibilities with things that I could do and places I could see. Little did I know, that the glimpse of Venice that I’ve had over the last two days would be as incredible as they were. Granted, three weeks ago, I found myself sitting in the harbor and I did manage to go and do a daytime gondola ride (see a few posts back) but didn’t manage to make it out to explore this magnificent city on foot. Can’t say that anymore!

We had an overnight stay again, so we (Kieran and I) got two long full days to spend in Venice. Luckily, I worked it out with my team mates to get the afternoon off (after swapping for another afternoon of work that I would give them off later in the week). It worked out wonderfully because Kieran is off at noon and so we had the afternoon to do as we pleased. We started by going to visit some old friends on one of our signature class ships (and newest ship to the fleet), the Nieuw Amsterdam, as it was in with us for both days in Venice. After an hour or so of saying hello to friends and touring the ship, we came back and changed into non-uniform clothes and headed ashore.

Because of the location of where we’re docked – we’re about a 30 minute walk from St. Mark’s square, so we decided to go via water taxi. The water taxi drops everybody off in front of Doges Palace and from there you can walk through the square full of shops stocked with Murano glass and pricy name brand clothing, bags and jewelry. After bypassing the masses of tourists, we started towards our first mission of the afternoon, Ponte dell'Accademia. There is a tradition at this bridge, for lovers to attach a decorated padlock to the bridge railings and to throw the keys into the water. Much to our dismay, we looked at the oldest locks on the bridge and most were from 2012 as the rest had been cut off. After reading some articles, they do so because of the damage done to the bridge from the extra weight of the locks.

   

A few days prior, we picked up a large padlock in Katakolon, Greece and wrote our names on it along with the year and the ship that we’re on.  With my love of polka dots, I added a piece of yellow spotted ribbon for a bit of extra flare.  The big heart is for Kieran and I and the small ones are for our (God willing) future children.  After selecting what we deemed to be the perfect location, we put the lock on and took a few photos for memory’s sake and continued onto the next mission – some delicious Italian food…what else?

While in search of the ideal spot for our Italian cuisine, we wandered in and out of shops containing walls of Venetian masks of all sorts. Kieran had surprised me with one this summer when we got home, so we weren’t in search of a new one, but they are absolutely stunning…as were some of the prices. Some that we picked up were a couple hundred euros a piece – but they were pieces of art work! We had quite a bit of fun as the pictures below illustrate!

Kieran lookin' like a mon-kay!

Playing with the masks really tired us out and we were quite famished. We turned a corner and saw the “Raging Pub” (which we later find out, came from the owners love of the Raging Bull – as illustrated by a very large arm tattoo). It really was a hole in the wall type of pub, but the food ended up being fantastic – the salad, gnocchi and pizza that we shared was worth every last bite! To top off the lovely Italian meal, we stopped for a cone of gelato (why can’t we have the real gelato in the states?!) and picked up a couple of cannolis for another day (again – in the US – we don’t make them right!) Slowly but surely, we strolled around a bit more and walked back to the ship instead of returning via water taxi. Between the incredible weather and beautiful scenery, a walk just seemed appropriate.

A stop at a local grocery store and look what we find...soda to match his hair!;)

Upon returning to the Noordam, the sun began to set behind the ship and it was absolutely incredible!!  It was one of those nights that was just right and one more reminder of life’s little blessings like the ability to travel the world with the man I love and who loves me more than I could ever imagine someone would or even could for that matter.  Pretty sweet deal that I’ve got myself here J

Santorini, Greece: Two Asses on a Trail

The one thing I've always wanted to do in Santorini was ride the donkey up the trail, because that’s “typical Santorini.” Whenever you hear or see anything about Santorini – you hear about riding a donkey up to the city of Fira at the top. In the past, I had always taken the cable car to the top, but Kieran and I have decided that we’re going to stop putting off the things that we’ve always wanted to do in certain ports and cities. With the recent issues in Egypt and Israel, the company has stopped allowing the ships to go into the ports (for very valid reasons, I believe!). Lucky for me, I've done the pyramids and the Giza and been all over Israel, but Kieran never has and he’s quite bummed about the possibility of never going into those places again and seeing the symbolic and iconic sites.

I hopped on my donkey first and had asked Kieran to hold the camera awhile I got on and when my first foot was comfortable in the stirrup, the horse took off with me and without the camera. Kieran and I had made sure that each of us had a camera to take photos of each other going up the 500+ steps to the town of Fira. He got a few shots of me, but I didn't get to take any of him on his donkey. We had a blast! My donkey stayed well ahead of his and I now fully understand what “stubborn as a mule” means. They have minds of their own and zigzag all the way up the pathway (apparently, the shortest distance between two points being a straight line is of no importance to them). They run into the other asses all the way up and have no regard for people walking down the trail. We even had one girl yell at us “People, control your donkeys.” Wasn't sure who the bigger ass on the trail was at that moment!

My donkey stopped a few times and I was worried that he was going to sit down and tell me to get my fat ass off of him, but we made it all the way to the top safe and sound! Worth the faint smell of donkey poo for the remainder of the afternoon ;)

Came Across this sign today at the top of Fira!

Side Note: We walked around Santorini today and we found this lady that has really cool jewelry made from Legos and other fun stuff. I got this necklace and I'm in love with it as well as some mustache earrings in remembrance of Kieran's 'tache being laid to rest!

     

Iraklion, Greece: For once, we're the fish food!

We’ve wanted to do this for a while and we told each other that the next time we were in Iraklion, we were going to do it – and so we did!  It’s a weird feeling and tickles like crazy as they suck the dead skin off your feet.  We both really enjoyed it - Kieran even asked to do it again!

Nafplion, Greece: Cruising the Corinth Canal

Because of the unrest in Israel, the Captain cancelled our two ports of call in Israel this voyage and traded them out for two ports in Turkey and a call in Nafplion, Greece. Before they announced the change, I’d never heard of this particular port, so I was anxious to see what tours we were going to offer. I checked through the list and saw that we offered “Corinth Canal Cruising” and instantly got excited. When we are in Athens, we offer a tour that goes to the Ancient Corinth Canal, but it doesn't actually go into the canal – just view it from above, but THIS particular tour was a cruise through the canal and I knew I had to do it. 

I don’t think the weather could have been any more perfect than it was – a perfect sunny day! From the ship, it’s approximately a 45 minute drive to reach the canal and our first stop was the opportunity to take a picture of the canal from above. It’s amazing that this canal is man-made and looking down into it and seeing how far below it is, it’s a sight to behold! I took my photos and it only made me more excited to get on the boat and go.

A few minutes on the bus later, and we were at the dock and ready to board the boat. I waited for all the guests on both buses (about 80 people) and then I got on and found my “spot” and got situated. Many of the guests (between our cruise line and one other that joined our boat) were arguing over spots to stand on the top deck with their cameras etc. Honestly, I did want to be on the top in the sunshine, but when I heard the bickering, I was happy in my corner of silence. Where the stairs from the top deck meet the bottom deck is where I found my little nook and it was perfect for taking photographs and there was nobody there to crowd me or get in the way of my photo!

The entire journey through the canal, I kept thanking God for the opportunity to see this incredible creation. We cruised all the way through the canal (4 miles) and turned around and went back through the canal to return to the same spot where we boarded. With the sunshine and the sound of the boat cutting through the water, I didn't want it to end!

To give you an idea, the canal is 276 feet high, 80 feet wide, 25 feet deep and 4 miles long. I took a ton of pictures and just had an amazing day!

   

Everybody has a “happy place” in the world – a place that makes them at peace with themselves and the world. Mine is anywhere involving water – it puts me at ease.