Venice

Venice!! I absolutely loved Venice! I love water and boats and Venice has it all! There are no cars in Venice only water transportation, it's was awesome! Venice has been known as the "city of masks", the "floating city" and the "city of bridges". Of course you can see why.
Here is a street of Venice and you can see how tiny the walkway is. Water taxi's and gondola's are the best way to travel.
This is one of the many bridges that connects the two sides of the Grand Canal. There are small bridges that go over the lagoons, but I don't think I got a picture of those.
Here Micah is waiting on the public transportation boat, it was the cheapest way to travel, on 6.50 euro a person.
These gondola's were right outside of the Hard Rock Cafe. This was one of the many lagoons. We really wanted to take a ride on one of the Viking looking boats, but it was 80 euro for 30 minutes! Maybe next time.
The Rialto Bridge. This was the first dry crossing built over the Grand Canal in 1181, it was a pontoon bridge. Due to the traffic going over the bridge it was reconstructed in 1255 with wood. In 1310 the bridge was partially burnt during a revolt. In 1444 it collapsed under the weight of a crowd watching a boat parade and it collapsed again in 1524. In 1503 it was first proposed to build the bridge of stone. The stone bridge was finally complete in 1591. It is supposed to look almost identical the the wooden bridge that proceeded it. It's absolutely beautiful.
The view from the top of the Rialto Bridge.
A picture of Micah and I on the Rialto Bridge. Gotta have proof you were there!
I love Venetian masks! They are so expensive on base. My brother bought one on base while visiting us in Ramstein for 45 euro. At these kiosks they were only 10 euro! I picked up about 13 for gifts while we were there.
Piazza San Marco square. Just so happened the Pope was in town the same time we were. At 7:00 pm the pope was speaking in this very square. That explained all the rope, officers, the podium being constructed and why they were checking everyone's belongings as they entered the square.
St. Marks Basilica. Due to time restrictions we didn't have enough time to take a tour of the basilica. There was a very long line!
My final picture was supposed to be one of the bridge we were walking over along the Grand Canal. I wanted to capture the many tourists, all the white tents to the right that sell masks and other souvenir goods, the Grand Canal to the right, and the police to the right setting up blocks to protect the pope. All I seem to have gotten was a really terrible picture of the lady in front of me! It didn't turn out as good as I would have liked, but you get the picture, right?

Day 6: Kotor & Perast, Montenegro

The last stop on our cruise was Kotor and Perast, Montenegro. The excursions for this port were cave tours. I thought that sounded like a blast, but Micah didn't agree with me. (He had new shoes and didn't want to get them dirty.) So we decided to take the tour that went over the origins of Montenegro. The strait here is the only way in and only way out. On the mountains there you can't see in this picture, but there are small towers. We were told that chains were stretched across the entrance to keep vikings and other unwanted boats from getting through. A group of vikings were able to a flag used by the people who lived on the island and make their way through the strait and once they came ashore they murdered everyone.
A view of the strait.
Kotor.
The pictures are a little out of order, but this alter is built on the original rock that the island was built from. This alter is inside Our Lady of the Rock church.
Montenegro means black mountain. We were turning around and I just loved how the water looked with the black mountain in the background.
Near Perast are two small islands: this one is Our Lady of the Rock. The island began as a small rock and is man made. Boats were filled with rocks and sank to build the foundation of this church. Every sailor who crossed the water and endured a hardship (storms and such) bring gifts and put them in the church. The most popular gift is silver. The oldest gifts date back to 1452 and the most recent 3 months ago. The picture of the alter is from inside this church.
This island is the St. George Island. We didn't get to go onto this island, but we were told it is a catholic monastery. We were also told that the island was the original cemetery of Perast. I asked the tour guide what happened to the bodies when they built the monastery and she said they are still buried there. It kinda reminds me of Poltergeist.
Here we are on the boat departing the lovely Montenegro.
Our last dinner on the ship.

Day 5: Argostoli & 2nd Gala

I have to admit I had never heard of Argostoli when we signed up for our cruise. All I really know now is that it's a place in Greece. The tours/excursions were cave tours. I really wanted to take a cave tour, but Micah had new tennis shoes and didn't want to get them dirty. :( So here's what we did.
This AMAZING couples massage took place when we got back from Athens yesterday. I forgot to include it. I hate to leave it out, it was so much fun. This was our second couples massage, our first was on Sunday day 2 of our cruise.
Micah and I in front of the ship.
Here we are on a tiny train ride around the village with Dave & Kathy Burden. We met them on the cruise and they are also military currently living in Aviano, Italy. They were so much fun and had the most precious two children.
A view of the coast.
Micah trying authentic Greek coffee. It was terrible! Apparently you are supposed to let your cup sit and settle. After the coffee has settled you drink it and the residue at the bottom of the cup will tell your future. You turn your cup upside down and the pattern the residue makes can be read as your future. We didn't realize we were supposed to let it settle and stirred our cups...big mistake. It tasted like drinking sand. There was also no fortune teller on site to give us a glimpse into our future.
After we got back from our touring we got showered and dressed for our second Gala night. This, for me, was the highlight of the day. The Gala's were so much fun! The food was great, we normally ate at the second seating, but our dear friends asked us to join them since their kids were going to be in kid care. We had an amazing time.
Our dear friends.
After dinner we went to the show. Shows were held every night. Here I am with the entertainment team.
Micah with the rest of the entertainment team.

Day 4: Piraeus & Athens

Visiting Athens was by far the most amazing day of our cruise. I love history and this was the highlight of our trip for me, and the reason we chose this particular cruise. There were other cruises that visited Greece, but only this one stopped in Athens. We ported in Piraeus which has been inhabited since the 26th century B.C. Piraeus roughly means "the place over the passage." With three ports existing in Piraeus, it was the home of the Athenian fleet.
The first stop of our excursion was to The Panathinaiko or Panathenaic Stadium. This stadium was originally built of wood and in 329 B.C was remade of marble. In 1895 the remains of the stadium were refurbished for the 1896 Olympic games. This site was the home of the first international Olympic games. It seemed only fitting to host it here since this was the origins of the Olympic games. This venue is now used for concerts.
Our next stop was the Acropolis Museum. What you see here is an excavation taking place directly under the museum. We are standing on the ramp you walk up to get into the museum. Once in the museum there are glass floors you can look through and see the excavation taking place. Once inside the museum we were not allowed to take photos, but we did see some amazing artifacts from all over ancient Greece and the Acropolis.
We made a pit stop in the museum cafe and got lattes. This would have been such a good picture had that plate not been in the way.
Next stop the Acropolis. It was a very long and uphill walk. What you see to the right is the temple of Athena Nike. Nike means "victory" in Greek.
The Odeon of Herodes Atticus is a theatre structure made of stone which can be found on the south slope of the Acropolis of Athens. Herodes Atticus built it in 161 AD in memory of his wife, Aspasia Annia Regilla.
The Propylaea is the entrance to the Acropolis.
The Parthenon. You can see scaffolding and construction going on all around. The Restoration Project began in 1975. The aim of the restoration was to reverse the decay of centuries of attrition, pollution, destruction by acts of war, and misguided past restorations. The work they have done is amazing and I would love to see the Parthenon rebuilt, using original materials (they are off to the side and labeled) to its original state.
Here is a view of Athens.
The Dionysus Amphitheatre. I wrote a paper on this theater for a class I took this spring. It was amazing to see it in person.
Temple of Olympian Zeus.
Back of the Parthenon.
The side of the Parthenon.
The Erechtheum. Built between 421 and 406 B.C.
They have some reconstruction going on. The man standing on scaffolding has a sort of sander he is using to clean the marble. You can see the difference in the areas that have been cleaned and those that have not.
Here is a better picture of the difference the cleaning makes. I'd loved to go back once the "remodeling" is complete and see how different it looks.
The Erechtheum. The Porch of the Caryatids or "Porch of the Maidens."
How was I to know I wasn't supposed to touch it?
Micah and I sitting in the Dionysus Amphitheatre.

Day 3: Santorini

Santorini was absolutely INCREDIBLE! We disembarked the boat at 3:30 and began our first actual excursion. We began our day with a bus ride up the very steep side of Santorini to the top to enjoy a wine tasting. Santos wines is the winery we stopped at and got to enjoy three different wines. Santos is believed to be the oldest winery in the world! We purchased two bottles of wine to put in our collection of wines that will be opened at a later day. We are currently up to two bottles. :) I really wish I had gotten some pictures of the winery, but is was very hectic and we were only there for 45 minutes which isn't a lot of time for tasting and purchasing.

We left the winery and made our way to Oia Village (pronounced via). It was as picture perfect as the pictures you see on television. The island of Santorini is built on what is left of an ancient volcano. This volcano is also believed to be what caused Atlantis to disappear. When the settlers inhabited the island they were very poor and could not afford building materials for their homes, therefore most of the homes were built into the sides of the actual volcano. Now, of course, Santorini is a thriving tourist attraction and the home to some of the most beautiful sunsets the world has ever seen.
Most everything in Oia Village is white. You need a very good pair of sunglasses to keep from being blinded when the sun hits the village. Every building with a blue dome is a church. This tiny island is the home to 400 churches. This church is the most important church on the island. Not all the churches are used every Sunday, there aren't enough inhabitants on the island, or priests for that matter, to need to use all the churches every week. Instead, like we would celebrate a birthday, once a year the church is celebrated on the day of its founding.
Micah and I with a view of the ocean from the top of the island.
It's truly incredible that the villages are build on the side of the mountain. There are cable cars to take you to the top or you can ride a donkey. Micah and I really wanted to ride the donkeys down the mountain, but when the sun set it got really cold.
Another view of Oia Village. You can see one blue dome church and how steep the mountain is.
Here is the other side of the mountain and if you look close beneath the white village is the remains of what looked like an old fort.
There were some incredible views.
I mentioned earlier that the island was home to beautiful sunsets. I tried to capture one, but as you can see the cloud cover wasn't allowing that to happen.
The cable cars we rode down.
And here is Micah at the bottom of the island while we waited for our tender to pick us up and take us to the boat.