sea day

Full day at sea last full day at sea on the trip. Relaxed sat in the sun watched the kids play. Chatted it up with new found friends. (British oil guy and his wife, the tattooed couple, the couple who plays craps with us, Blair and his girlfriend Jan (honey muffins), Ian's friend Conner and his mom from great Britian, TJ and his dad the gas passer (anesthesiologist), the Muslim family with the chatty dad,  ate at the steakhouse (Cagney's). Ian is enjoying kids club. And the ping pong tournament. Mark disappears all day to hang out with his  friends. Very relaxing day.

Istanbul the massive

Istanbul has a major highway named after JFK. It goes between their two major airports. Here we toured hagia Sophia the blue mosque the grand bazaar and basilica cistern.
Hagia Sophia was the most impressive to me. Rebuilt 3 times as a church  converted into a mosque and now a museum. There are angels on the walls most with covered faces due to mosque fantastic mosaics and enormous bronze doors with 4 minarets.
The blue mosque is imposing you can feel the weight of the Muslim religion when you enter. Beautiful mosaics and impressive columns. It has 6 minarets because our guide says the original builder misheard the turkish word for "gold" for the Turkish word for 6 which are phonetically similer. 
The palace cistern is a huge underground chamber that was filled with water. It was based in a subscription fee system. Very impressive and very damp. Incredible columns and a crying column that we made wishes at. Oh and it also doubles as an aquarium.  Ian was impressed with the two column bases with Medusa heads on them. One was sideways and the other upsidedown.
Back on the ship mark played the best game of dodgeball with squeegee balls until 1 am.  Ian found out there was a kids club for his age group and had a blast without mom and dad for  while.
Tomorrow mikonos and the beech

Mikonos

Arrived at 1pm. Had to tender (take a ship from the ship) to shore. We took two taxis because we messed up with the first directions.  Ended up on Konos beech at the big blue bar and grill. Had a very relaxing day. Swam in the Aegean sea. Found some marble and granite rocks. Jen found some neat jewelry and a tshirt for me. The water was cool but no where near cape cod. 
Mikonos is a strange place.  All the houses are square white two story affairs closely packed together making walking from one point to another a great guessing game. I would move there in  New York minute.  The shop keepers are not as pushy and Mark's East India crap traders were no where to be seen.  The weather was gorgeous as it has been for all of our trip to date.
Back on the Spirit now heading toward Naples. But first a day at sea and hopefully a glimpse of the active volcano Stromboli tomorrow night off of Italy.

Izmir and Ephesus

Arrived bright and early to the port of Izmir Turkey. We went on the ship tour because we knew nothing about this port. First part of the tour was a trip to a carpet weaving center/sales pitch. The center was supported by the Turkish government to encourage young Turkish women to learn the dying trade of carpet weaving. The rigs were beautiful and the sales pitch was fierce.
We traveled by bus and saw artichoke cherry wheat pomegranate and olive crops. The olive tree is so important that it is transplanted if in a new road bed rather than destroyed.
The highlight if the tour was Ephesus. The library runs are pictured below if it will allow me to post it. Ian  found a friend on the tour and stuck to the guide like glue. We saw the library the public forum the theater the toilets the underground clay water pipes. We saw medusas head and the kings foot on the moon. 
Mark found the "beat" and learned to haggle in the shops afterwards. Overall Turkey is impressive both from a archeological and current day perspective. My impression is that it is on cleaner edgier, busier and pushier than Greece. We enjoyed the stop

Athens and the Acropolis

Docked at Piraeus and were off without a hitch. Haggled a taxi into Athens. Walked the Acropolis museum. Mark believes every thing is a fake. ;).  Meet George and had a wonderful tour including temple of Zeus, Hadrian's arch,  Hadrian's library, the Greek and Roman agora, climbed Ares rock where st. Paul preached, (very slippery) the theater of Dionysus, and climbed to the top of the Acropolis saw the temple of Athena Nike and learned about Greek building tricks. Walked the Athens marketplace and haggled a taxi ride back to the boat. The kids played in the pool. Had cocktails hors d'ouvres and a nice dinner. Time for bed. Plan for tomorrow.... Dock at Izmir Turkey at 6am. Going on a ship planned excursion to Ephesus going to see amphitheater library, temple of Hadrian, scholastic baths, lower agora, state agora, and odeon. Having a great time. Boat WiFi won't let me post pics.

Day two at sea

Lazy day. Sat by the pool. Played ping pong. Watched boats go by. Less windy and much warmer. Played a little in the casino and saw the start of the Greek coast come into view. Big plan for tomorrow. Going to get up early and watch this behemoth dock in Piraeus. We levee the boat at 8 am and plan on taking a taxi to the Acropolis museum where we will meet George the walking tour guide.

Day one at sea

Spent the whole day on the Spirit. Internet access is expensive so probably won't post these until we hit Athens. Very relaxing day. Ian has discovered ping pong and has been getting quite good at it.  He has made a new friend, Connor, from England. Mark has disappeared into the teen scene. There are 16 other teenagers on the boat and they have there own lounge. Jen and I played a little bit in the casino - craps and one arm bandits. All in all a very relaxing day. We have set up shore excursions for Athens and Ephesus. Another day on the boat tomorrow then we land in Athens.

Oh I type these on my phone. We didn't bring a computer on purpose. Please excuse the typos.

All aboard the MCL Spirit

Boarded the ship and found our state rooms. Boat will leave dock tonight at 1 am.  Rooms are smallish but will do.  We have explored the hot tub and the rear pool.  We completed our life boat muster safety program. Now we sit on the balcony sip some Heineken and listen to the children fuss. 

Venice ciao

Toured the great canal by water bus. Got lost twice. Who knew Venice floods at high tide? Saw some illegal street vendors get arrested. Tried to watch our cruise boat dock but ended up walking our feet off to no avail. Saw it later on our canal tour. Walking at night in Venice is very peaceful.

Day 5 off to Venice

Discretion is the better part of stupidity. Took a cab to the airport after a wild restless night (² wound up boys and 2 tired parents). Flight went off without a hitch. Landed in Italy and managed to navigate to the water bus with the help of a very nice tourist info lady. 1 hour calm boat trip wand we were wandering around this ancient city. Found our hotel. Had a nice but pricey dinner played with pigeons and rose salesmen and are heading to bed. Hotel San GALLO is nice and quiet.  More to come.

Day 4 St. Pauls the globe and dinner at the hotel

Made bit to St. Paul's via then hop on hop off bus. Went to the strand bit they want to much $ just to go to the top. Caught the last tour of the night at the Globe.  The boys got a chance to walk the Thames at low tide. Dinner at the hotel in prep for 11 o'clock  flight to Venice tomorrow.

Day 3 the tower of London almost St Pauls and a qick walk to that egg ahaped building.

Walked from the hotel over London tower bridge to London tower toured the tower then went on a bus tour around London. Thought about stone henge but decided against it since it was 350 pounds and roped off do to vandals. Mark was disappointed.  Saw the palace, big Ben and parliament too. Turns out St Paul's is closed on Sundays.  Dinner at a restaurant on the Thames then back to the hotel. My dogs are barking.

Day two london tower bridge and the church

5/22  landed n London.
The plan was to go till we dropped and then sleep off the jet lag.  Worked better than we expected. Took underground to Trafalgar square and picked up the London pass only getting lost x2. Then tried to find the hotel. Got lost more than twice walked our damn legs off and collapses at the hotel. Slept for 2
 hours and then went to a nearby pub for kidney pie.  Ian does not like English sausages.

Westminster Abby London eye A boat ride on the Thames