Blago is Gone...

I don't think any of us are going to miss him.

I wonder how long it will take to get his name off the tollway signs...

Nope, none of us in IL are going to miss him.

look, Look, LOok, LOOk, LOOK! OPA!!!

And so began our introduction to Rhodes. The guide for our private tour was -- in a word -- unique. He talked pretty much non-stop for the entire day; was very nice, took us to some lovely places -- but oh my....

He tried to teach us some Greek. We weren't listening. But bless him,he did try. His favorite was to suddenly point and yell out, "look, Look, LOok, LOOk, LOOK, LOOK, LOOK!!! and when he finally had our attention, yelled OPA!! for whatever sight he thought worthy of our attention.

We started out going to Lindos, which is located on the eastern shoreline. We took a little side trip to visit an out of the way pottery place -- I'm sure our guide took a cut of whatever we bought, but their stuff was beautiful. Not sure what I'm going to do with what I got -- but it brings back good memories, none the less.






Lindos is a cute little Greek town -- from a distance looks like all the neat pictures of Greek towns you see on Webshots (my favorite cheap date). The exciting part was climbing 292 steps up to the Acropolis which gave an amazing view of the harbor which includes St. Paul's Bay where the apostle is said to have landed. The wonderful part about going in January is that there were NO lines. Of course, not too many shops were open either....











And more....













The cute little town...with the typical roadway and sidewalk decorations made out of pebbles




Rhodes, of course, was the home of one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, the Colosseus of Rhodes which doesn't exist any more. That brought a huge discussion amongst us as to what we could name....not much, as it turned out. The great pyramid at Giza - the only one still around -- and the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. There are four others -- but you are going to have to do what I did...use your friend Google and find out the rest of them!

We then went to the Old Town of Rhodes which was a fun medieval walled town. We wandered down the Street of the Knights and visited the old Hospital of the Knights -- um -- I'm glad I wasn't a nurse there! There we had some late lunch and said a grateful goodbye to our guide...look, look, look, LOOK, LOOK!!! OPA!!







Our guide explaining the doors to the city....OPA! Or would that be OPEN!!



Linda, Carole, Bob, Will, Tim, and our intrepid guide in front.






The hospital

Dare you to lob one of these at your enemy!

Yup -- the Body Shop -- go figure!

And finally, farewell to Rhodes...but not before a bit of drama with Tim who decided to find an internet cafe where he could chat with Jen for a bit. This involved getting very bad directions from people in the Old Town, walking for ages....and getting back to the ship just about the time I was beginning to panic.

You see, I had memories of a particular 'nuther cruise in the Caribbean when Tim and Torrey went out of an evening in Barbados and were booking it to make it on the ship in time. Last ones on the boat -- hysterical mother -- nope, not a good show at all.

Two Things...

Number 1: I cured the icemaker in the refrigerator once again using the hair dryer. I have saved SO MUCH money (read -- hard earned $$$) with that little trick. Read it and weep, Sears....

I totally ROCK!

Number 2: I burned the bottom out of my teapot by totally forgetting the water I set to boil for my cup of tea.

So much for my cup 'o decaf Constant Comment...sigh.

It's all Simon's fault.

Well, I was watching American Idol, hence it is Simon's fault. Or maybe Randy's.

Maybe?

Port Three -- Athens

But first, more tea....

Bless Bob -- he went out and bought me some plain cough medicine. Here's hoping it works. If not, I'll not be going to church tomorrow, and will miss our new senior pastor's first preaching Sunday. OTOH, he probably wouldn't appreciate someone hacking away every two minutes during his sermon.

But -- on to Athens!

I think one of the things that amazed me was when we pulled away from the port that late afternoon and the city seemed to stretch for miles. There was no sense that Athens stopped or started -- just kept on going and going. We actually ported in Piraeus, driving into Athens from there....

Again, Carole had gotten us our own van and tour guide so we were just the seven of us. That meant we could do a customized tour rather than the ones offered by RC. We wanted to see both the Archeological museum AND the Acropolis -- and in all the tours we looked at we could do one or the other, but not both. So we opted for a day trip we had a little more control over.

We saw the magnificent Temple of Zeus, Hadrian's Arch -- and the Acropolis. But first, the Archeological Museum which was fabulous. The antiquities -- my goodness. They were beautiful...many of them are in the British Museum (go figure) -- guess we'll have to go there to see the rest of them.

Then on to the Acropolis. Just before you climb up to the Acropolis is Mars Hill where Paul preached to the Athenians and talked about their unknown god. It's rather plain. I don't know what I expected...should have looked at the pictures in my Bible Story book a bit more carefully I think.





The Acropolis is right there. It was quite a climb up the hill -- but we made it. Not for the faint of heart or the elderly, that is for sure. I'm a bit nonplused by the scaffolding around all the old structures, but I'm glad they are working to fix it up. So much is damaged by the acid rain and the smog -- looking out over the city of Athens and the suburbs, you can see why.







While we were waiting for Will and Linda at one point, Carole and I had a discussion with our tour guide about -- what else? -- Breastfeeding! It's not at all prevalent in Athens -- too many young mothers worried about losing their figures. She nursed her first baby for 5 months and was in the minority.

Do you suppose that discussion could qualify this trip as a business expense?

No, I didn't think so either.

We wandered into the Plaka and had some lunch at a little taverna which was decorated in the most garish green I've ever seen.

True confession: Greek food isn't my favorite of all the cuisines I've encountered. But it was fun, and I got to try some ouzo for the first time since we were in Greece 32 years ago.

Going through the duty free store on the way back to the ship, we were delighted to see the notices on these cartons of cigarettes:






Tomorrow: Rhodes!!

Sicily

I really should have written this on the ship. Now that we are getting further and further away from the trip, I look at pictures and realize I really can't remember what they are all about! Is it old age?

Nah, couldn't be.

Could it?

Anyway, we boarded the ship on January 5. Our first full day on the 6th was a day at sea. That's always fun because you can explore the ship and get to know it a little bit.

Here's pictures of our first night at dinner

Our first stop on the high seas was Palermo, Italy. Carole (our consummate cruise director) had arranged for a private tour rather than go on the RC ones, and it was fabulous....First stop was Erice, a little town with a medieval castle and 14th century Mother Church, tiny winding cobblestone roads and little shops.

It was so fogged in that we couldn't get much in the way of pictures, and it was BEASTLY cold!

Fortunately the fog began to clear as we started making our way back to the van, so I did get a couple of shots of the little town...






We got up close and personal with the temple of Zeus. Looked so much like Athens, but is just outside Palermo....Shows the Greek influence in the architecture. Still cold, but the fog has completely gone - and we aren't on the top of the mountain any more.

The countryside near the temple.

Back into Palermo. We decided to skip the exhibit with all the dead people, and opted instead for the sights of the city and another cathedral.






Back to the ship in time for tea and scones with whipped cream. Mmmmm....

Tomorrow -- another day at sea!!