Hi all. First off, let’s catch up seeing as how I didn’t post yesterday…

Yesterday (Sunday) was a day at sea. What this means is that we saw a LOT of ocean, and no land ;). But it was a rest. We didn’t do too much, other than sit out on the deck and fry, read our books, have a few cervezas, and oh right we played Bingo, yes Bingo. They had a special Bingo that had a grand prize of a Suite Upgrade. If you won, you got to swap out your small stateroom for one of the best ones. Before you go “it figures”, we were ONE number off. And it turns out it was the next number to be called. Ah well, it killed a hour and half…

Today, however, was another story. We got up around 9:30 and headed down to breakfast about 10:00. We were expected to dock in Mykonos at noon, but as it turned out by 10 we were almost there. So Mare and I walked up to deck 12 to take a few pics. We came up the starboard stairs and saw some nice islands (including Delos I think, more on that later) but no real city. Course I looked port before Mare and saw Mykonos in all its glory. Mare was going ga-ga over the starboard (i.e. boring) view and I said “um, turn around”. Then she was ga-ga plus ;). It really is a pretty city from the water. Just about every building in the entire city is stone white, with either sky blue or Pompeii-style red windows. A sight to behold.

We got off the boat at noon and walked about 2-3km to a small beach. Small as in fairly new and small as in not crowded at all. It was perfect blue water, great beach and sand, lawn chairs and a cabana-style wooden umbrella etc. (just like the Corona commercial). Turned out it cost 8 Euros to sit there but hey by the time they collected we didn’t mind. Sat and swam and sat some more for about 90 minutes then headed back to the boat for our excursion to Delos.

Delos is a small island in the center of the Cyclades (a group of Greek islands) that has much history, going back more than 2000 years. We’ll spare you the history lesson, but suffice to say the 30 minute boat ride to it and the subsequent walking tour was very impressive. A lot of ruins – a LOT of ruins – that rivaled Pompeii and in many ways surpassed it. It was basically a city worn out, not wiped out, which made a big difference. Very interesting – we took many pictures.

The boat ride back from Delos dropped us at the main Mykonos harbour, a few kilometers from our ship. We spent the next 4 hours or so roaming Mykonos and looking at the many shops and sidestreets. It’s so vastly different from anything you would see locally you really have to see it to appreciate the amazing culture. Again we took quite a few pictures to try to capture the feel.
We ended the evening at a Greek Taverna right on the water beside the famous windmills of Mykonos (OK famous to everyone but us). It was jam packed with tourists and a few locals by the time we left, and we walked along the water back to our shuttle bus for our return to the ship, which was about 15 minutes ago.

What an amazing day. Tomorrow, Santorini. Mare’s dream come true, so lets hope it is at least as good as Mykonos/Delos was today!

Time zones are interesting things, aren’t they. While you guys were finishing up for the day, we were fast asleep. And while you guys were sleeping, we were hiking up a volcano. Go figure.

So we went to Pompeii and saw many ruins (it’s actually a huge site). Afterwards we went to Mt. Vesuvius itself and hiked the last 300m of height via a long path of switchbacks and steep climbs. It was pretty cloudy, though, so we couldn’t see Naples from up there. But we did see the two (yes, two) craters and peaks and now can say we stood on an active volcano.

Oh, and I tried to upload pictures but a Satellite connection pretty much sucks when it comes to bandwidth. I’ll see what I can do tomorrow.

After a 50 minute train ride to Civitavecchia (that’s pronounced chivitaveckia) we got on the cruise ship at about 2pm today. Very nice boat, as expected. Our room looks good, even though it is an inside-stateroom (i.e. no window/porthole/etc.) . Had to endure a muster drill (everybody wears their lifejacket, goes to their designated spot and stands around while the ship says “we have to do this”) as well as a delay in departure from the docks because of a plane that didn’t land on schedule or something. But we got to see a great sunset at the dock (yes, took pics) and were finally on our way about 8:30pm.

Just finished a 5 course dinner and we’re pretty much too full to move. Docking in Naples tomorrow, with an excursion to Pompeii and Mt. Vesuvius starting at 8:15am – yes, that early. Already missing Rome, but looking forward to seeing the new cities as we go. Set up an internet account, so not only will we be blogging, we’ll also be able to upload pictures (I’ll try to set up one or two for tomorrow’s posting). So now it’s 10 more days on the boat with many cities and stops along the way. We’ll keep you all posted!