We came. We saw. We COLLAPSED!



We are home!
Actually we got home Monday night, but jetlag and mountains of dirty laundry have prevented me from any semblance of a coherent thought!

We had a wonderful trip and we learned alot about cruising. Suffice it to say, that I am so glad we picked this cruise for the shore excursions, because if we hadn't,we would have been disappointed. The food was NOT gourmet. Or semi-amazing. Think bland, seedy cheap buffet type food. FOR TWO WEEKS! Ugh!

Here is a brief run down:

Rome: Covered in graffiti and none of us really loved it. Funny story: We woke up the second day and were all starving so we went to the buffet at the hotel. It was on the roof of the hotel and the view of Rome was beautiful. Greg kept sweetly saying"Boys, eat up- help yourself... Enjoy seconds." Only much later did he tell me that breakfast was TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS!!!!!

He knew I would be sick to my stomach and not enjoy the view or the buffet if I knew... What a sweetheart! Here's the million dollar breakfast view:


Savona, Italy: Exactly what you would think Italy would be. Cobblestone streets, quaint shops, great cappuccinos! What we thought Rome would look like...


Katakolon, Greece: AMAZING!The Olympic ruins... My boys ran the original Olympic track and we saw the bowl where the flame will be lit for the summer Olympics in Beijing. What a day!




Athens, Greece: The Acropolis, the Parthenon.... WOW! What more can I say? To see some of the seven wonders of the ancient world.... WOW! And the greek food was wonderful!
Notice the view of the Acropolis in his sunglasses.



Izmir, Turkey: I am not sure what my expectations were for Turkey, but it vastly exceeded every one of them! It was beautiful! Ephesus was amazing!( I know I keep saying AMAZING, but really it was!) The have uncovered a LOT of the city. We walked the streets that heroes of our faith did. What an honor to walk the streets that John, and Paul did.



Rhodes, Greece: The whole reason I booked this cruise. Greg had fond memories of vacationing here as a child. We were not disappointed. I bought him a ring there to forever commemorate our trip.


Limmasol, Cyprus: Nice, but not amazing. But hey, after seeing all we had thus far, it would be really hard to top the Olympic ruins or the Parthenon... Great story: We went to an ancient ampi theatre that was acoustically perfect. To illustrate this, our guide asked Aria if she wanted to sing a song. My shy, timid little daughter grabbed our guides hand, stood in front of 150 tourists and belted out the song of her choice: "Jesus loves me this I know...."

My heart almost burst.



Egypt: The girls and I opted out of this day, which turned out to be a God send. First of all the bus required an armed guard for protection, which would have totally freaked me out. And second, I got food poisoning later in the afternoon, and had I gone, I would have had the lovely privilege of barfing my guts out on a 3 hour bus ride back from Cairo. Yummy!







Happy Birthday Sweetie! I hope this trip was your dream come true, because YOU are my DREAM come true! I love you!




Comments

  1. KimJanuary 30, 2008 at 8:15 PM

    So glad you all are home safe and sound. Can't wait to talk to you in person and hear ALL about the trip.

    ReplyDelete
  2. maggieJanuary 30, 2008 at 8:57 PM

    I'm glad you had a good time. And I'm glad you're home! I missed you SO much!

    ReplyDelete
  3. amyJanuary 31, 2008 at 11:45 AM

    Oh welcome back. Dad is thinking about a cruise like this for the whole family late summer! Need to talk to you..

    Cant wait to see you again!

    ReplyDelete
  4. HennHouseFebruary 5, 2008 at 10:37 AM

    Welcome home! Glad the trip was fantastic--can't wait to read more stories and see more photos!

    ReplyDelete
  5. JerryFebruary 9, 2008 at 9:10 AM

    We sure are happy to have you all back on this side of the world. Welcome back to the good old USA. Sounds like you had a great trip!!
    Love, Mom & Dad

    ReplyDelete
  6. JerryFebruary 9, 2008 at 9:13 AM

    We sure are thankful to have you all back on this side of the world. Welcome back to the good old USA. So glad you had such a wonderful time.
    Love,
    Mom & dad

    ReplyDelete

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