Friday November 4, 2011 - Day 9 As you may have seen in the last blog entry, there were pictures of the Great Barrier Reef. Jim was a little ahead on that one. We took a tour of the Reef on Sunlovers Cruises. We boarded a catamaran around 10 AM and set out for our adventure. When the crew went through the safety orientation at the beginning of the trip, they showed how to put on the life jacket and stated in the event of an evacuation order we should say a prayer and jump overboard. Luckily we did not have to experience this. There was one stop at Fitzroy Island where some people disembarked for an overnight stay. The total time to the reef including the short stop was an hour and 15 minutes. Sunlovers ... read more

Days 5 and 6 Monday October 31, 2011 - Day 5 The Quantas work stoppage has been terminated. We hope our flight tomorrow will be available. They expect it will take hours before they can get the planes back in the air and they still have to deal with the backlog. We received a confirmation email this morning but it had 3 different airlines listed on the confirmation so it is a bit confusing. We have been told to call in 24 hours before our flight which is 1:30 in the afternoon. Since we cannot do anything about it right now, we head out for our fun adventure. We had reservations for the Sydney Bridge Climb at 10:00 am. Lisa dragged Jim along even though it was not exactly on the top of his list of ... read more

Travel days and Days1 and 2 We left SFO at 11:00 PM Tuesday October 25 on our flight to Sydney and thought it was going to be the flight from hell. 14 hours in coach with the possibility of screaming babies and someone kicking the back of our seats is not our idea of traveling in comfort. With a $300 pair of noise cancelling headphones (well worth the money), three vodka cranberries, and Jim's small white pill from his doctor made the trip the best long-distant flight we have ever experienced. We were able to get about 6 hours of sleep and arrived in Sydney Thursday morning feeling pretty good. Getting through customs and security was made better with a stop at the duty free shop to purchase a couple bottles of Johnnie Walker Black and ... read more

On Friday we docked in Piraeus, Greece. Not a lot to discuss here until we hopped in a taxi to Athens. If crosswalks and stoplights are a suggestion in Sicily, in Piraeus they must be considered casual artwork. People glance at them but it doesn’t change how they go about their day. We once compared a taxi ride in Mexico to Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride at Disneyland. A taxi ride in Piraeus is more like a non-stop chase in the movie the French Connection. It appeared the taxi driver could not decide which lane he wanted to be in so he drove between lanes for a few miles - weaving must be an art. We’re not sure what the Greek word for Cabrone is (still not sure of the spelling) but he was using it. His ... read more

Sunday in Barcelona the weather was overcast and a bit chilly so we decided to take a walk to the Barcelona Chocolate Museum. To get there we walked through the old part of Barcelona known as the Gothic area where the building architecture is of a medieval style. We paid for the entry to the museum and the tickets were small chocolate bars. It didn't take long for Jim to eat his ticket, Lisa soon followed. The museum was small and there were a lot of school kids so we did not spend a lot of time viewing the exhibits. Once we left the Chocolate museum we headed to the beach even though it was not beach weather. The beaches in Barcelona are very nice and during warm weather must be packed with people. We walked ... read more