The excursion left quite early this morning: 6:15am. We docked near Naples (didn’t see much of it but what I saw was not very nice) and drove to Sorrento. This is a cool “beach” town with the beach backed by sheer cliffs. Sorrento is famous for its lemons and had very cool lemon “nurseries” all…

Malta is an island country in southern Europe in the Mediterranean Sea. It has been independent since 1964 but has been ruled at various times by the French, British, Arabs, ad Italians and more. I felt that the Italian influence was the greatest however. The architecture, especially, was very Italian. My excursion did not leave…

Today was the day I was most looking forward to, excepting Santorini. I was going to travel to Mt Etna, an active volcano, on the island of Sicily. We drove about about 2 hours to get to the “top” of the volcano but actually the volcano starts much lower and there are towns and people…

What a beautiful island!! I have only seen 3 of the Greek Islands but this is by far my favorite of the three. It is green and mountainous surrounded by gorgeous blue water. We drove on the bus for about an hour to Lake Melissani. It is a crater with a collapsed roof and is…

We were scheduled to stop in Athens which I was very much looking forward to. But there was some kind of boat strike and the ship could not dock there. So Mykonos was added. I chose to go to Delos for my excursion and so glad I did. What a cool place! Delos is a…

Well, this port was one of the primary reasons I choose this itinerary. I have wanted to go to Santorini as long as I can remember. I had read that it is too crowded, etc., but I didn’t care. Santorini was on my bucket list. I found out that the Irish pub on the ship,…

Woke up to my alarm going off and I realized there was another sound….the hotel fire alarm was going off!!! I opened my door and ventured in to the hallway and no one was around: no smoke, no smell of smoke, no noise at all. The fire doors had closed but otherwise, nothing. So I…

I bought the “skip the line” tour tickets and we really did speed past a whole lot of folks. While in line, I started talking to a family ahead of me and it turns out they live about 15 minutes from Nicholas, ALana, and Miles in Arvada. Our guide was very nice but his accent…

Well, I guess life just has to keep on moving. I have grieved for the past 10 months and have reached a place that I don’t cry all day and have even started feeling some peace. I booked myself a Mediterranean cruise months ago and just got back this week. I travelled solo; it is…

In Paris and all of Calvados and Normandy we saw has so much graffiti! It really bothered me. It is literally everywhere. It is like the taggers are having a contest as to whom can paint the highest and the most. The streets here are confusing. Stop lights and stop signs are small and don’t…

I have to admit, the hectic schedule got to us and we crashed right before Rouen. There was a guided tour that Robin and Neil took but we just needed to sleep in a bit. I headed out to Rouen after lunch and did some shopping. Robin said that the most “interesting” thing they saw…

The highlight of Conflans was Auvers-sur-Oise, the place where Vincent Van Gogh spent his last 70 days. Vincent spent some time in a mental hospital and afterwards headed north to Auvers-sur-Oise where Dr. Gachet, a physician specializing in melancholia, resided. The town was also only 18 miles from Paris where his beloved brother and promoter,…