The day began with Sharon telling me that she didn’t think she was feeling well enough to go out and climb the Acropolis. We breakfasted in the Lido and I stuck to the oatmeal. Sharon managed scrambled eggs and a piece of white toast. I went to the Showroom to wait for the tour, managing the backpack with camera and large bottle of water from the stateroom. “The Best of Athens” was by far the most popular tour, and we were dismissed by sections to go find the “Arrivals” sign and pass through the access controls. The busses were waiting outside. Again we had a woman tour guide, and again she spoke with that beautiful fluent Greek accented English. She apologized for the significant amount of graffiti that appeared practically everywhere from isolated walls, bridge underpasses ... read more

That first night Sharon ventured down to the piano bar to check out the music; while, I finished up the blog for the day. I failed to mention something that the woman travelling alone had said at dinner, when asked how she was enjoying the cruise so far. She had started in Barcelona and this was her second leg, something that is apparently quite common; although, I have no recollection of others doing the same thing on our honeymoon. I would say about half of the people we’ve met so far are doing just that, taking advantage of the “Legacy Cruising”. Well, it raised all of our eyebrows when she said that she was having just a dreadful time. Her arthritis had flared up, a new condition that now nearly crippled her hands, and she said ... read more

First a big shout out to Sharon’s mother Shirley for her 86thBirthday today. We’ll try to call her but with the time difference and her schedule it may be difficult to get ahold of her for a few days. But we still hope she has a great day! It was over a year and a half ago when we decided to take a cruise on the ms Nieuw Amsterdam for our fifth wedding anniversary. It might not sound like much; so, I told Sharon she could impress fellow cruisers by saying it was our 60th(if you count by months). It might be more in line with some who will be cruising with us. We originally booked the Venice to Venice (by way of Turkey and Greece) and Venice to Barcelona (by way of Greece, the west ... read more

We’ve pretty much abandoned the dining room for breakfast and have been exclusively heading to the Lido, a marked change from most of our cruises. We have this one final lazy sea day to start and get our heads back into the real world. I decided to change things up and went with the meat laden spicy omelet with cheese, onions, jalapeños and salsa, and added some Siracha-like sauce after the fact. It was quite good. Sharon had her scrambled eggs and not-so-crispy Turkey Bacon. In today’s Sudoku challenge in the Exploration Lounge we had remembered to bring our pens, and glasses, and sat in a well-lit area, and there were no excuses I could imagine that Sharon might come up with today. As it turns out, she didn’t need to and won, beating me by ... read more

It’s very much like a “Sea Day” today, in that there is no port of call or sanctioned opportunity to disembark, what they like to call a scenic viewing day, when you’re supposed to see something really spectacular! Our day started in the Lido where we were dismayed by the worsening weather and visibility and the possibility of another Tracey Arm washout loomed as an increasingly likely possibility. There is at least with Hubbard Glacier a very wide sea approach; so, except for the increasing brash ice and bergie bits bobbing in the water, there really is no “visibility hazard” such as the narrow meandering fjord on the approach to the glacier on Tracy Arm; or the side glacier that you sometimes get a glimpse of there, what is it they call it, oh yes: Some ... read more