July 12, 2008 On our last day in London before we headed to Dover to catch the Crystal Cruise ship Wink, Sai, Jon and I decided to go on the London Eye and then check out the costumes at the Globe Theater. The London Eye is a giant Ferris wheel with big glass pods that hold about 20 people each. There is a great view of the Thames, Big Ben, Parliament and Buckingham Palace from 443 feet. It takes about 30 min to go all the way around. After the Eye we took a taxi to the Globe Theater. We went [View Full Entry]

---

---

Ascot is all week but by far the best day for fashion is Ladies Day. Ladies wear show stopping hats and dress to impress. This is my favorite day of Ascot. Everyone drinks Pims Cups and had a great time. [View Full Entry]

---

---

We always have an amazing time at Ascot. The Queens horse racing event is a fantastic fashion show. This year everyone was buzzing about the stict dress code and how they were going to enforce it more now for the Royal Enclosure. Everyone looked great and we all had a wonderful time ; even though we didn't bet on the right horses. [View Full Entry]

---

---

There are so many amazing museums in London. Jon and I have been to many of them but I had not yet been to the Victoria and Albert Museum. This is a wonderful museum with so much to see. There is a great fashion section of the museum that has clothing from all time periods. There was also an amazing showing of jewelry. They had pieces from the beginnings of jewelry to now. We enjoyed the museum and then had lunch. Then in the afternoon we went to Westminster Abby. The church of Westminster Abby has an amazing amount of history. [View Full Entry]

---

---

Jon and I took the tube to the Imperial War museum. At the museum there is an exhibit on Ian Fleming and James Bond 007. Jon is a huge 007 fan. We were not allowed to take pictures in the exhibit but there was a lot of memorabilia from his life as a spy and his inspiration for all of his novels that were later turned into the 007 movies. We both really enjoyed it. We purchased the museum book. Camille's friend Lady Patty Ridsdale worked with Ian Fleming and was his inspiration for Monty Penny. She was interviewed for the [View Full Entry]

---

---

Camille (Jon's Grandmother), Jon and I packed up and left from Indian Wells to LAX to London Heathrow. We like to stay at the Wyndham Chelsea Harbour because it is a great hotel with all suites and it is easy to get to Ascot. The Royal Ascot horse races are in the town of Ascot that is about 1.5 hr by car from the Wyndham. This year Shirley Koenan and her daughter Sherry joined us. Shirely is a good friend of Camille's she lives in Santa Barbara and Indian Wells. Her daughter Sherry lives in Hawaii. They are a lot of [View Full Entry]

---

---

On our second day in Istanbul Camille hired a car and driver and guide to take us to all of the amazing sites of Istanbul. We first went to the Blue Mosque which was built by Sultan Ahmet in 1609. This Islam mosque is where they go when the call to prayer is sounded, which they literally have speakers that sound someone singing during the day. You can hear it all around the city. To go in you have to take your shoes off but because it was the holy month of Ramadan the carpet was only 2 weeks old. Our [View Full Entry]

---

---

The ship sailed into Istanbul, Turkey mid day and we had a spectacular view of both the Europe and Asia sides of the city. Istanbul is the only city in the world that is on both continents. The Bosphorus is the strait of water that separates Europe from Asia where we sailed into. We went to the top of the ship outside where the commentator pointed out all of the amazing sites. Turkey is a very fascinating country with lots of history and amazing things to see. Jon and I really enjoyed everything about Turkey and would love to come back [View Full Entry]

---

---

We arrived into Corfu, Greece. Jon went on a mountain biking excursion. Wink, Camille and I went into Corfu and did a little train tour and then had lunch at the Imperial hotel in Corfu which was very elegant. The stop was very quick and we had to be back on the ship by 5:00 to set sail. We also attended a cocktail party in the Captains quarters. His penthouse is very spacious and amazing. It is good to be the Captain. Since Camille has been on so many cruises she is somewhat of a celebrity on the ship and we [View Full Entry]

---

---

We set sail from Venice and the view from the ship of St. Mark’s square was beautiful. We headed to Dubrovnik, Croatia which we had just visited in June. We took Jon’s Mom Wink off the ship when we hit port in Dubrovnik and showed her all of our favorite spots including the gelato place. The walled city of Dubrovnik is very beautiful. We had our Muster today where you have to put your life vests on an meet at the life boat meeting place. It was pretty funny. The Crystal Serentity is such a beautiful ship with so many fun [View Full Entry]

---

---