Piles of Rocks, Vast Seas, and Naked Men!

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We’ve been in Greece and Italy since we posted our last entry. We started this leg of our journey with a visit to our friends, the Heards, in Athens. Lana took us to the Acropolis and we saw the Parthenon in all its glory. After spending a couple of very relaxing days with the Heards, we boarded our cruise ship, the Oceania Insignia, for an 11 day cruise of the Mediterranean. On the cruise we stopped at the Greek islands of Delos, Mykonos, Rhodes and Santorini and then moved on to Malta. Next came Italy and stops in Sicily, Sorrento, Amalfi, Livorno and Civitavecchia (Rome). After our cruise was over, we ended our stay in Italy with stops in Venice, Verona and Lake Como. Some of the places/sites we visited besides the ancient Athenian Acropolis were Pompei, Positano, the Colosseum, Michaelangelo's "David' in Florence, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, St. Peter’s Basilia, the Vatican City, Mt. Etna and Bellagio. Many, if not most of you, have visited some or all of these wonderful cities and sites, so we don’t need to do a history lesson of all we saw. We’ll let our pictures tell our story of the amazingly beautiful time we have spent in this part of the Mediterranean.

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Photos

Mykonos
THe narrow streets of Mykonos

The Heards House, Athens
The sign that welcomed us to the home of James, Lana, Warren, Shelby, Eric and Laura

The Heards House, Athens
Griff enjoying some "play" time with Warren and Eric

The Parthenon
On top of the acropolis in Athens sits this magnificent temple to Athena built by the Greeks in the 5th century B.C.

Delos
Abandoned now, this small rocky Greek island (5 km long) was first inhabited around 2500 B.C. and was a very sacred place because the Greek gods Apollo and Artemis were born there. It was also a thriving port with 30,000 inhabitants before its eventual decline.

Delos
House of Cleopatra

Mykonos
Seeing Mykonos for the first time...

Mykonos
A small chapel right on the waterfront.

Rhodes
Our view of Rhodes from the ship.

Rhodes
Gate to the old city.

Rhodes
Rhodes was controlled by the Knights of St. John from 1309 until 1523 when it became part of the Ottoman Empire for nearly 400 years. This is the Knights of St. John's Palace of the Grand Master.

Santorini
Unfortunately, the weather was not good the day we were on Santorini, but hopefully you can still get a feel for how beautiful the island is.

Malta
The view as we approached Valletta, the capital of Malta. Off the southern tip of Italy, Malta has been conquered many times -- thus the strong fortifications you see in the picture. The Knights of St. John settled there in 1530 upon invitation by the Spanish Emperor Charles V and held out against the Ottomans in the Great Siege of 1565.

Malta
The coast of Malta.

Malta
The boys enjoying the sunshine on Malta.

Sicily
The beautiful coastline of Sicily.

Comments

[Carla]

Hello out there!!!
Greece still looks the same!!! Venice is somewhere I have always dreamed of going - hopefully I can get there some day!!! Looks like ya'll are very happy and enjoying your trip. Tell Tyler I didn't realize he was so strong!! WOW!!!