2008 Mediterranean Cruise

In 2008 we took a fantastic cruise of the Mediterranean onboard HollandAmerica's ms Zuiderdam. The 24-day cruise was actually two back-to-back cruises which sailed from Venice.

The first half of the cruise took us to Split, Croatia, followed by Athens, Greece and Istanbul, Turkey. This was our first time in Asia. Then we went to Mykonos, Greece, an absolutely beautiful island with gorgeous white buildings and blue roofs. Kusadasi, Turkey was a hubbub of people, where the shopkeepers hawked their wares quite loudly and persistently. During our stop at Kusadasi, we traveled to Ephesus. Ephesus was interesting, but we would have enjoyed it much more if it weren’t so hot, crowded, and treacherous (walking). Despite all this, we did enjoy our trip to Ephesus.

Then it was on to Santorini, Greece, where we were anchored in a caldera and tendered to shore. The trip to the top of the island was on the only road, narrow with a lot of hairpin turns. Santorini was absolutely gorgeous, and our only disappointment was that we weren’t able to spend more time in the delightful village of Oia.

From Santorini, we sailed to Katakolon, Greece, where we traveled to ancient Olympia. Being interested in the Olympics, we found our visit there quite fascinating. We enjoyed seeing where they lit the Olympic Torch before its journey to the next Olympic site.

After a day at sea, we arrived back in Venice, where we spent two enjoyable days touring the town. The first day was on our own – we’d been there before so we knew what we wanted to see. The second day we took a shore excursion to Murano & Burano, two small islands in the harbor. Murano is known for its glass-blowing, while Burano is the home of lace-makers.

While we were in Venice, they were celebrating a national holiday, which included spectacular fireworks, which we were able to see from our verandah. The fireworks went on forever, and they were magnificent, hanging over the harbor and the city.

The second half of the cruise started in Dubrovnik, Croatia. Dubrovnik was completely different from Split, and both were very interesting. We did like Dubrovnik better, though. From Dubrovnik, we went to Argostoli, Cephalonia, where we toured Melissani Lake and Drogarati Cave. The cave was nothing unusual as far as caves go, but Melissani Lake was quite unique. It was located inside a sort of cave with only one source of light. The bright sun shining down created a beautiful blue glow in the water, which reminded me a lot of the Blue Grotto in Capri. On the way back we stopped at an overlook of a beautiful beach with gorgeous hues of blue water.

Then it was back to Santorini, which we enjoyed even more the second time than we did the first. This time, we were able to spend a few hours in Oia, where we walked the streets and snapped pictures. Back in Fira, we had more time before taking the funicular back down to the dock to catch the tender back to the ship.

Our stop in Sicily meant a tour to Syracuse, led by one of the best tour guides we’ve ever experienced. His enthusiasm was absolutely contagious! We took a walking tour of the city, and then went to a huge amphitheater. Syracuse showed the influence of the Greek civilization.

Leaving Sicily, we spent several hours enjoying the views of Stromboli, an active volcano, and we were actually even able to see some of the lava shooting out when it got dark.

Naples meant a trip to Capri. We’d been there before, and we have to confess that we enjoyed it far more before than we did this time! It was a mass of humanity, oppressive with people, so although beautiful, not nearly as pleasurable.

The day we were near Rome, we opted not to take a shore excursion. We relaxed around the ship, and enjoyed having a little peace and quiet as there were so few people left on the ship.

Our next-to-last stop was in Livorno, where we took a trip to Cinque Terre, which is a World Heritage site of five villages sprawled across high cliffs along the western coast of Italy. It was very unique – we did mostly a walking tour, and everything was up and down. We walked between two of the villages, then took a ferry to a third village, passing a fourth. The villages were very picturesque and we were glad for the opportunity to see such unique places.

Barcelona was our last port. We enjoyed walking along Las Ramblas, and seeing all the street entertainers and searching out the Hard Rock Café (Chuck’s favorite Hard Rock).

When we disembarked the last day, we were given a bus tour of the city, and after arriving in our hotel, we took a cab to Guell Park, famous for its Gaudi artwork. It was beautiful but (believe it or not) virtually all uphill to get into it. (The bonus was that it was all downhill to get out!) We look forward visiting Barcelona again so we can explore it further.

All in all, the cruise was beautiful, and one that we would definitely do again if the opportunity arose.

Pictures may be seen by clicking on the link under the Picasa Photostream.

2009 Alaska

Our Alaska trip, July 5-12, was a last-minute decision because of the excellent prices available through HollandAmerica. We set sail from Seattle on the ms Westerdam on the 5th for a cruise of the Inside Passage of Alaska.

Our first stop was at Glacier Bay. I use the term "stop" loosely because we're not allowed to get off the ship. The weather was a picture-perfect sunny day with magnificent views of various glaciers. The most impressive was the Margerie Glacier.

Next was Juneau. We spent time wandering around Juneau in the morning, then took a photo safari in the afternoon. There are no words to describe the awesome experience we had! There were fourteen of us who sailed out to an area where the humpback whales were bubble net feeding. We've never seen so many whales in our lives! The naturalist was able to count seventeen whales, and they kept coming up to the surface to feed. Barb got something like 300 pictures that afternoon, many of which were later deleted, but there were pictures of blows, backs, mouths, and flukes. It was truly an amazing experience for all of us! We didn't want to leave and head for the Mendenhall Glacier, but we had no choice. That was also beautiful, but after the whale (of an) experience, it was somewhat of a letdown!

Sitka is a very interesting port that shows evidence of its Russian influence. Barb took a sea otter cruise while Chuck did another photo safari. The two shore excursions were totally different. Barb saw lots of wildlife, and more bubble net feeding, though not as many whales as in Juneau. The tour guide told the group that a commercial fisherman had told her it was the first time in over 30 years that he'd seen whales bubble net feeding in Sitka. Chuck's photo safari took him to various scenic areas of Sitka, but did not include wildlife.

Ketchikan is known for its rain. While we had a lot of overcast weather there, we didn't have rain. We took a boat trip to the Misty Fjords National Park, which was beautiful! I can only imagine how spectacular it would be if the weather were sunny.

Our last stop was Victoria. While we'd been to Butchart Gardens before, we wanted to do that again as we'd enjoyed them so much in 2004. This time we were there in the evening, and we were treated to fireworks to end the day (and our trip). The fireworks were not what we'd expected - they were ground fireworks that created scenes