http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/SKMantle/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from SKMantle en-us Thu, 10 Dec 2009 11:03:17 +0000 Thu, 10 Dec 2009 11:03:17 +0000 Our first and major problem with this blog is that we don't have any photos as we were both in the wedding party and didn't have our camera. It will have to suffice for now with some pics from Maja and Steve's camera. Or you can go on Facebook and look up everyone else's photos of Maja and Steve Best ones so far are Jason's httpwww.facebook.comalbum.phpaid319081id805930611 The day was http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Croatia/Dalmatia/Dubrovnik/blog-436224.html We arrive in Dubrovnik on a stinking hot day. Our only job is to find a man named Viktor around the firestation. He is the man to lead us to our villa in the hills. This proves a most interesting task with many Croatian men being approached with VIKTOR After 15 minutes contact is finally made and we are on way into the hills 96 steps up to be exact. Thank goodness there was a pool and col http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Croatia/Dalmatia/Dubrovnik/blog-433249.html It all went according to plan it was quite amazing. Although they're were some dicey moments getting to Zadar.We met Son Kevin when they arrived at Heathrow I love airport arrivals and we hung out with Odin for a while. We had a relaxing lunch in the airport waiting for our flight to Zadar. We first flew to Zagreb which was delayed and we would have missed our flight to Zadar had that fl http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Croatia/Dalmatia/Zadar/blog-433034.html We arrived at Heathrow from Copenhagen to a lovely scene Odin waiting for us at the SofitelAs we had little time between arriving in London and heading out the next day to Croatia we booked a hotel room at T5 and invited Odin along for a sleepover. What a fun night and morning we had with himWe laughed we caught up on life and we did many silly things as is normal when one spends time with O http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Greater-London/Heathrow-Airport/blog-432914.html This is our trip to Copenhagen in a nutshell. It was brililant.We arrived from a day of travelling from Santorini quite tired and decided to have a nice meal in our airport hotel and then head out early the next morning into town. Slightly reminiscent of Budapest we had had no time to do research before arriving in Denmark. We had no clue of exchange rates and I went to find out only discover http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Denmark/Region-Hovedstaden/Copenhagen/blog-432586.html This 2day stopover Santorini was booked as it was the only way we could get to Athens that worked with our flight to Copenhagen.We had fun again in Santorini and agree with everyone else that it is a beautiful island. We realized that the first time we were here earlier this summer we got caught in what we call the cruise loop the boat people as Mom likes to call them wander around in a tig http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/South-Aegean/Santorini/blog-432585.html I am a beach. The individual grains of sand are not unique and do not have a voice of their own. Do not mistake me I am happy to have them as I am happy to have the stones sea life and trees. They all listen intently to my words but without a voice all they offer in return is a living burqua to cover my nakedness.The wind tonight is acting like an amourous man desperately trying to blow m http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/South-Aegean/Paros/blog-429777.html Not joking. I'm firing myself as our travel agent.Got up at 3am. Took a taxi to the Lisboa airport a plane to Munich a plane to Athens a rushed taxi ride to Piraeus a 5hour ferry ride in economy to Paros waited an hour for a bus to Punda because it was too windy for the normal passenger ferry which then took us to the car ferry to Antiparos. We arrived after Midnight trying to find our http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/South-Aegean/Paros/blog-427865.html Back to my random thoughts on the places we've been to.We had two days in Lisbon and it was another proper city break. We stayed in a hotel right in the city which was nice as the last few we've stayed in have been outside the city centre. Admittedly we were getting a bit tired of cities at this point. We wandered around the city our first night and noted that Lisbon has a lot of big squares. http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Portugal/Lisboa/blog-427857.html It was a 3 hour train ride to Porto from Lisbon. We checked in at the hotel and decided to head for town. We walked down the shopping street to the water in search of a late lunch. We found a collection of restaurants in sight of the river went up to the nearest and got blanked by the waiter. We just keep walking to another one. Totally amazing simple meal. The kitchen was wiped out from lu http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Portugal/Northern/Porto/blog-427831.html So out of necessity we picked our first hotel in Lisbon on the basis of insuite laundry. NO ONE PANIC it was still a nice hotel. After a couple weeks without laundry it was very welcome. We spent our first night in the hotel doing a load an hour and hanging it from every possible chair table and balcony thing we could.The next day we grabbed some breakfast and headed for Cascais a nearby http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Portugal/Lisbon-and-Tagus-Valley/Cascais/blog-425995.html That would be us. Or at least that's what we feel like.Days in the sun and 'terme' at Fonteverde made our brains mush I think. We opted to skip Prague this trip so that it wouldn't be so rushed but we had to get to Budapest as we had prepurchased our flight to Portugal from there.We booked on an overnight train from Venice to Budapest as it was loads cheaper than flying and this part of our tr http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Hungary/Central-Hungary/Budapest/blog-424923.html There are occasions in life where you find yourself in surreal situations. I think our spa classifies for this category.We arrived at our hotel and couldn't get through the secure gate without buzzing reception HMMM. The hotel is stunning with amazing views.We went for dinner at the hotel and had the most amazing appetizers and good wine the mains were a bit of a letdown. We spent some time t http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Italy/Tuscany/blog-424917.html Despite the beauty of the natural thermal waters at our doorstop we did feel the need to venture out around Tuscany.On the verge of losing our newly acquired skills Sunday took us on a search of the Lamborghini Golf Course which was the closest one to our hotel. The hotel said it was 30 minutes away and it could be if you know where yoursquore going and drive like an Italian but for us it http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Italy/Tuscany/Montepulciano/blog-424898.html We got off the cruise ship at 715am on the dot 5 minutes before our last available time. Turns out they're very strict if you want to take your own luggage off and not wait for yours and a thousand other bags.Thank goodness we were able to book an automatic car for our time in Italy as at least we had a way to get to wherever we were going...which we didn't know. But at least we could get ther http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Italy/Tuscany/Pistoia/blog-423456.html Wersquove written our cruise blogs all at the same time on our last day at sea and we would like to end them on a nice note as our first 4 blogs are possibly more negative than positive and we are indeed having a great time.Cruising has been a learning experience for us and we have met some really nice people. We have to mention another Canadian couple wersquove hung out with quite a bit Pet http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/Ionian-Islands/Corfu/blog-422272.html 1. You can wear Royal Caribbean keychains as earrings for that time when you want a big white and blue plastic accessory to compliment your outfit.2. You can wear a string bikini when yoursquore in your 80s. You wonrsquot look good but you can wear it.3. Donrsquot ever tell people you wish your wife of 4 days had less attitude in front of a theatre full of people. The rest of us will laugh http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/South-Aegean/Santorini/blog-422265.html Most of you know wersquore snobs about certain things and food is one of them. It was lovely to have lots of food available on the ship and to be able to make up your own plate for any meal you want. Itrsquos just too bad that cruise food at least on our cruise is not that great. Now I know a few of you have cruised before and probably love the food but to us after our last 8 weeks in A http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Turkey/Aegean/Kusadasi/blog-422242.html The cruise has been an eclectic mix of music. The Latin band unfortunately didnrsquot stick to just Latin music. They sang all the greatest English soft rock hits as well but with a Spanish lisp and accent. As I write this the muzak playing is ldquoI keep holding onrdquo. Which brings me to the stage shows. The first night we saw a guy called Dominik Allen who was a part of Foreigner at http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/South-Aegean/Mykonos/blog-422230.html This is not about the actual cheese they serve on board as itrsquos pretty crap. This blog is about the pure cheesiness of cruising. First of all I must share that Shane and I have come to a realization that cruising is not travelling. Everything is far too easy here. Everything is done for you and you cattle queue with hundreds of other people for it all and there is no chance of getting http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/blog-421824.html