Back and Forth, Back and Forth

Greetings from somewhere in the Ionian Sea, south of Venice and the Adriadtic, bound for Haifa.  This is our second of four passages through these same waters. 

Last Thursday, we took a ferry from Athens north, for two nights and one day.  It passed by St Mark’s Square in Venice on Saturday morning  With ultimate good luck for us, we docked at the end of the same pier on which our Royal Caribbean ship was docked – ie, a ten minute walk down the pier to the check-in building for the cruise.  We did the paperwork, then were told that there had been “incidences of gastro-intestinal sickness” on the prior sailing and they were taking extra time to sanitize the ship so we couldn’t go to our cabin for four hours.  But they took the suitcases and guitar and we were off to the water  taxi station a quick trip back to the city for lunch.

G never stopped grinning.  Just being back in Italy did it to her.  Lots of crowds around the square and the supports and boards for the elevated walkways were distributed around – but only used as benches----until the high water comes with the winter rains.  It was sunny and cool, perfect weather for strolling and getting lost in the alleys of Venice.  We found an out of the way trattoria with the white-jacketed waiters and leisurely enjoyed the perfect Italian meal with a good bottle of local red.  Greek tavernas have wonderfully fresh and seasoned food served in the noise and chaos of an exuberant environment, but they lack that little extra  class and professionalism that a nice Italian restaurant exudes.  It was great being back.

Then after an afternoon wandering the city, we walked back to the cruise ship.  At 10 am on Sunday  left Venice in stormy and rainy weather.  We have three days of sailing before getting to Israel.  Then two days in Israel and two in Egypt.   Back to Turkey for a day, then again up the Ionian/Adriatic to Venice.  Our last minute reservation  great deal netted us no pre-assigned  room until we checked in at the dock, but we landed an outside room with king bed  and couch and an adjoining  room with bunk beds and an extra closet which has given us storage for the suitcases and much needed room to “spread out”.

Once we return to Venice, we will spend another day and then sail south back through the Adriatic/Ionian Seas headed for Cadiz, Spain.  It might not be the fastest way to get from here to there, but the gym’s great, the view out the window spectacular, the food nicely done and of course there are the napkin folding classes.

WiFi on the ship doesn’t like downloading pictures.  So text only for a while.