Andra

Andra and Chris 1 : Las Vegas 0 That's how it goes when you spend 4 days in Vegas and you don't spend a cent gambling. But don't worry....we didn't bring all our money home. We spent it on restaurants, shows, sightseeing and shopping! We arrived in Vegas mid-afternoon, dropped our bags at the hotel and headed out into the 106 degree (F) heat to explore the strip. While that seems hot, there is no humidity in the air and even when it does get a little too warm you're only a few steps away from the hotels which have their thermometers set to 'ice box'. We made our way to the Venetien for dinner and then eventually made it back to the Bellagio for our first fountain show experience. The fountain show turned out to ... read more

Well a few of you have asked what life is like for 21 days on the high seas, so that's what this post is about. Lots of videos in this post as they best show life on the ship. The boat we were on is the Norwegian Jade, which is owned and operated by NCL (Norwegian Cruise Lines) -the 3rd largest cruise line in the world. They are recognized for inventing “Freestyle Cruising”... which means eat when you want, where you want, with whom you want... you also do what you want, when you want to do it... they do have some schedules but it's up to you how engaged you want to be with their organized activities. There was always something going on somewhere on the boat... we loved this model!!! Since NCL is an ... read more

Malta is a stunning country and it is steeped in history. We could have easily spent our entire honeymoon here. The people are friendly, most speak English (as the British ruled these islands for a time). Every street, every building and every landscape is picturesque. You might be familiar with their very uniquely painted fishing boats. We also learned that Malta is home to a booming movie industry; Gladiator, Troy, The Count of Monte Cristo, Munich, Popeye, etc... were all filmed entirely in Malta. The architecture and settings lend themselves nicely to these epic period-piece films. Our pictures of Malta do not do it justice. The morning looked rainy as we came into port but it turned out to be a bright sunny day for about 90% of our stay in Malta. We spent the ... read more

Have you heard of Ephesus...? yeah us neither... but surprisingly it is one of those awe-inspiring, magical places on earth. It is about 70 minutes outside of Izmir - which is the port city in Turkey where our ship docked this morning. We took a cruise organized tour, and our tour guide was once again local and fantastic. She talked about Turkey with a passion and knowledge that made you want to learn more about the country, it's people and it's history. Ephesus was our main stop, and Andra was especially pleased with the numerous stray cats that called this historical town home. This ruined Roman city was the most complete and expansive ruins we have experienced on this trip. Many of the marble streets are fairly intact and even some of the aqueducts (yes! they ... read more

...and trying to see it in a day is impossible. But we gave it our best shot. Wow! Those three simple letters are what first come to mind as we begin this blog... or maybe these three: OMG; or these three: WTF... We could go on and on (especially if you let us use more letters)... Rome and Vatican City are unbelievable spots on our planet. This was the highlight stop of our trip (so far), and we're both committed to coming back here to spend multiple days, and maybe weeks, in Italy. We still have some heavy hitter locations to visit on this cruise (Athens, Greece, Cairo & Alexandria, Egypt, etc...), but Rome is going to be hard to beat. We had an organized tour booked through some folks we met online. This was a ... read more