Cruise summary (or back to Internet access)

We are back on land following the cruise. Since Internet on board ship was slow and expensive ($.95/minute….and you could spend a minute trying to load one email message), I have not made a post in the last couple of weeks.

Here is a one shot per port/sea day as an overview. Our ship, the Norwegian Spirit (not taken on the first day).

We left from Venice on rainy, rainy day….water town, right? What is a little rain? The photo is looking back toward Venice from the deck of the ship.

The ship sailed overnight to Dubrovnik, Croatia (new country for me). The city in medieval times was a well-fortified location, with large sea walls protecting from the sea and a high mountain protecting the area on the land.

Then we went a short distance overnight to Kota, Montenegro (another new country)–listed as having one of the most beautiful bays in the world (so the guide said, but judge for yourself when I post a few more photos).

Okay, I have to give you two photos here. First you have a map of the bay–the city of Kotor is near where a man on our tour is pointing on the map. The sea is at the bottom. The second photo is of a piece of the bay as we navigated our way out (with the aid of a helicopter?)

Then we had a sea day, with lectures on Peter and Paul…(photo of the sea and not the lecture!)

We spent one day in Greece (not enough, of course), but did see the ruins of ancient Corinth, and Mars Hill and the Parthenon in Athens. (Which merits two pictures?) First Corinth on the left and then a view of Athens from Mars Hill, with Eric Huntsman giving information about Paul’s visit. [Correction: We spent two days in Greece, just one in the Athens area.]

The next day we visited a small Greek island called Mykonos, with unique architecture and charming views.

Another sea day (I actually liked these days–to not be on the run in a shore excursion)

Then it was Rome for one day to see the Vatican, the Pantheon, and to have a short walk around central sites.

The next day we docked at Livorno, which for most of the travelers was their shore excursion to Florence and Pisa. Gael and I opted for going to church at the Livorno Ward (where our airbnb hosts from our Incisa house near Florence actually now live; it was nice to see them again). I didn’t take any photos that day (but enjoyed being at church a lot)!

Monday we were in the Toulon, France area and took a drive through the countryside and some small seacoast towns. The photo is of the town of Sanary-sur-Mer.

We docked Tuesday morning at Barcelona and disembarked. Gael and I are spending two days here, and then it is finally home to the USA. A view of Barcelona port through dirty windows on the ship.

More on some of these sites in the next three weeks.