Suzanne Daley
Welcome to my humble travel blog. I hope to add some amazing life experiences here shortly with my cruise in the Mediterranean starting on May 4, 2007, which will take me into 3 different countries, Greece, Egypt and Turkey. This is a dream trip as I have yearned to go to the Mediterranean for 20 years. Many different circumstances made this trip difficult in the past. However, with the invitation I received back in November to join my mother to celebrate her 65th birthday, how could I refuse? delphinus
In 2001, I was inspired to create a painting of beautiful Santorini. That painting was given to a friend of mine, where it sits visibly in her kitchen. Every time I visit, I revisit my painting and my yearning to go to one of the most beautiful places in the world. Now that dream is coming true and so much more! I cannot wait to express the joy of my experiences in Greece, Egypt and Turkey. I hope that I can inspire others from my journey.
Travel Blog Posts
May 16th 2007
May 16, 2007 Mykonos… the world famous, cosmopolitan Greek Island that is also the location of where the hit movie from the 80’s, “Shirley Valentine” was filmed. The ship arrived at around 7:30am and after a nice leisurely breakfast we caught a shuttle and went into the nice little town of Hora. No tours were going to bog us down today, as we left the day open. For a short while we just walked along the harbour, where we saw many cafés and restaurants. As we walked around a corner near where the smaller boats were docked, we saw 3 very plump contented pelicans resting on a cement wall. A few tourists were gathered by them to take photographs. We did the same. I could not get over their size! After a little more walking ... read more
Transportation Adventures in Santorini
Published: May 15th 2007Europe » Greece » South Aegean » Santorini
May 15th 2007
I woke up at 6:15am, looked out the window to see the cliffs of Santorini. The sun had not yet come over the cliff and I was so thrilled and overwhelmed by the beauty of this place, it gave me a tear or two. Fortunately we had no tour today which meant that we would not be ruled be schedules and could leisurely enjoy our day… or so we thought. As we were in a port that did not have docks, we would be tendered to shore. The first tender came at 7:30am, a little earlier than was planned. We also noticed that we would not be alone on this day trip. Both the Holland American Veendam and Westerdam were sharing the port with us, which turned out to be a bit of a problem. ... read more
May 14th 2007
After a breakfast at the Garden Café, we got onto the tour busses in Crete to head off to the very famous ancient Minoan site of Knossos. The stretch of road to get there was not far from the ship, but traffic was insane and took us half an hour to get there. However, the day was lovely and there was plenty to see at this amazing site. It was interesting to note that this society dating back 4000 years, had ceramic plumbing and running water - ahead of even many places in third world countries today! After Knossos we headed off to a small village outside of the city. The village was very quaint. There were many stairs to walk up to the top in which we had a nice selection of Greek food ... read more
Alexandria, the oldest city in Africa
Published: May 12th 2007Africa » Egypt » Mediterranean » Alexandria
May 12th 2007
Alexandria Highlights…. It was a nice leisurely morning as we did not have to meet until 8:30am. Our tour was among the first to leave port and enter the city of Alexandria. We took a drive through the streets viewing the beautiful architecture, albeit run down and imagining what these beautiful buildings would have looked like had they been maintained. We passed by the equestrian bronze statue of Mohammad Ali, not the famous boxer, but the founder of modern Egypt. Further on, we passed the elegant marble edifice, dedicated to the unknown soldier. Our first stop was the replica of the ancient bridge of Alexandria, where we took many photographs including a wonderful view of King Farouk’s palace. From there, we took a scenic drive on the boardwalk of Alexandria, and eventually arrived at the ... read more
May 11th 2007
It’s mom’s birthday! We had to wake up extremely early… 5:15 am so that we could get ready and eat in time for our morning tour gathering at 7:15 am. We got up, ran out the door, ate breakfast in the Tsar’s dining room (with terribly slow service), and then ran back to our rooms to pick up our camera, etc. When we left to head to the gathering place, half way there, mom realized she had forgotten her hat. So we rushed back for that as we were already running late (due to slow breakfast). We left to go to the Stardust theatre, our meeting room area, once again and then mom realized she had put on the wrong footwear. She had sandals with bare feet, which was definitely not a good thing for Cairo ... read more
May 10th 2007
Day at sea… Not much to report here except that we both slept in (whew) and enjoyed a leisurely day. I went to the pool deck to sunbathe and enjoy the festive atmosphere of cruising. There was only a small annoyance of the day. When I went to find a seat, there was an empty lounging chair sat amongst a full deck of sunbathers. When I went to sit down on it, this 50-something woman in a very stern voice continuously repeated that I could not sit there as her husband was going to be there. She went on and on as if I was deaf or retarded. I finally looked at her straight in the eyes and said “I understand, I hear you” and she finally got it. These two other British ladies saw the ... read more
May 9th 2007
We got up bright and early this morning at 6:45 am as we wanted to have a proper breakfast in the dining room. Up until today, we have eaten our breakfast in the Garden Café, which is the self-service buffet. They do offer some very nice selections of food and plenty of it, but it is incredibly noisy. The noise level can really be distracting from enjoying your food. We chose to eat in the Tsar’s Palace dining room and enjoyed a lovely breakfast of grapefruit juice, smoked salmon eggs benedict, along with some fresh tropical fruit and some hash browns, topped off with a cappucino. Yummy! The day was absolutely astoundingly beautiful. The temperature was listed as 64 degrees F, but in actuality it was more like 84. Perhaps their thermometer was off. We were ... read more
May 8th 2007
Katakolon is a very small port, but it is the gateway to see Olympia, a sleepy little town. We were struck by how rural it was. Interesting for a cruise ship port. However, this was a great first stop. We were on the bus for about 30 minutes to get to our destination, the original site of the very first Olympic Gamesx00 where it all began. This was a fascinating journey into the past. I had never done any reading on the subject of Olympia, but was impressed with how much history was behind the games. I particularly liked the fact that it originally started during the Pagan era - 400 BC. The entire site was sacred, which is why they chose it to begin with. Of course, we heard about the many atrocities and tragedies ... read more
May 7th 2007
Another beautiful day in Athens. We woke up, got dressed quickly and sauntered down into the heart of the Plaka. Our goal was to have a nice breakfast on the top of one of the hotels that we heard was a nice place to eat. It was just on the outskirts of the flea market area (which was not open during the weekdays). We finally found this hotel after about a nice 15 minute walk. However, as soon as we got there we found out that there was no breakfast served on top, only drinks at night. A bit of a bummer, not only because we went out of our way to get there, but also because we were looking forward to the rooftop dining experience. However, after looking at that particular area of town, I ... read more
May 6th 2007
Rise and shine… we both woke up early at 7:45 am. It was a beautiful morning and we took our time to get ready. Both of us enjoyed a nice warm shower in our cute little bathroom. By 9:45 we were out the doors looking for a new adventure in the city of Athens. I brought my camera and enjoyed the serenity of the warm spring morning down the streets. The sounds of many birds were chirping and you could hear church bells and choirs in the background. A very peaceful and glorious morning. After a little exploration and finally finding a map, we were able to see where we were going. Our trek led us to the flea market. Although it was interesting at first, it became repetitive and irritating after awhile as both ... read more
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