And... we're off! Hitting Europe for a long awaited adventure. Follow us to share the fun.
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Day 27.... The end 😭. Last day in Europe so we hired a car to see a bit more of the Netherlands. No hills to be found here...26% of the country is below sea level. Lush and green and full of d***s. Tripped out to the coast then down to The Hague before heading to the airport in the evening for 32hrs in transit to get home. Looking forward to seeing our family & friends
Day 26.... Amsterdam again... quiet morning... after a failed Anne Frank house tour yesterday, we watched a documentary on it all this morning. Rather depressing way to start the day. But good to remember and appreciate.
Beat the streets for a bit afterwards before enjoying a lovely evening out.
Day 25.... Amsterdam. Sad morning leaving the beautiful river ship and 5 star service. Spent the day exploring the streets another 22,000 step day! Met up with a couple of friends from back home which was nice.
Day 24.... We woke up in Amsterdam! Just gorgeous. We had a pretty slow start to the day after our little party last night 🤪.An amazingly built city/ islands on over 100km of man made canals. Bicycles Rule: Amsterdam has more bicycles than residents. There are around 881,000 bicycles in the city, surpassing the population of around 850,000 people!
Day 23 .... Cologne. Was Sunday here so nothing was open. Was lovely to see families out enjoying the day together, fishing in the canal, walking, playing in fountains. Sarah chose the bike riding morning while Cherrie had the guided town tour. We were told in the morning that there would be a festival on the boat for the evening due to being the second to last night... so we had that mindset for the day and played it out to its fullest. Opted out of the Karaoke, so we still had some sense.... instead had a dance party on the roof!
Day 22... Rudesheim to Kolenz. We had an active morning with a 2hr hike up through the vineyards to reach the Niederwalddenkmal monument built between 1871 and 1883 to commemorate the unification of Germany. After lunch we were back on board to enjoy the 65km stretch of the Rhine that is a UNESCO World Heritage site. Renowned because of its beauty as a cultural landscape, its importance as a route of transport across Europe, and the unique adaptations of the buildings and terraces to the steep slopes of the gorge. We saw so many magnificent castles.... have photographed a handful of them... OK maybe a few more than a handful!
Day 21.... A lovely day trip to Heidelberg. A picturesque German city, known for its stunning castle ruins, and the oldest and one of the most prestigious Universities in Europe. It costs EU students 180Euro a term to attend! Overseas students pay 6000euro a term. The now preserved 'student prison' museum was a highlight of the day.
Day 20.... Back to France... although Strasbourg has changed hands between Germany and France a few times in the past. Highlight of the day was the Strasbourg Notre Dame Cathedral. Wow.... this place was mind blowing. New favorite church! After the morning in the city we hit the Alsace countryside for a wine tour for the afternoon.
Day 19.... Breisach is where we woke up today. Day trip to The Black Forest, a mountainous region in southwest Germany, bordering France. Known for its dense, evergreen forests and picturesque villages, it is often associated with the Brothers Grimm fairy tales. It's renowned for its cuckoo clocks produced in the region since the 1700s
Day 18.... Driving through the magnificent Swiss Alps. Arrived in the afternoon to join the next leg of our journey. A week long river boat cruise up the Rhine to Amsterdam. This is a whole new kind of luxury. 5 star service that we could become quite accustomed to! 156 passengers on this boat, mostly Kiwi and Aussie retirees, so we feel like spring chickens!
Day 17... Lake Como, a beautiful lake in Northern Italy at the foot of the alps. Reminded us a lot of Milford Sound. We tried to catch up with George Clooney, but by the time he got back to us we were busy. 😉. Started off with a bit of time wandering the streets of Como before a two hour lake cruise checking out the lifestyles of the rich and famous! Ended with a long lunch at a little lakeside town called Belagio, before a bus trip around the lake to get back to Milan(could've done without this part tbh!) After a long day we went to Aldi for cheese and crackers for dinner.
Day 16... Mostly in transit. An early start today, we ordered our last room service full cooked breakfast at 6am, this is something we will definitely miss, have taken a couple of extra order forms to try hang on our doors back home 🙄😁. Had a couple of hours to kill at the port side town of Civitavecchia before spending the day on trains to Milan. We decided we prefer just waking up in new cities each day 🤣. Not knowing how the system worked we got on the first carriage and took our allocated seats.... after two hours thinking it wasn't so bad, the ticket checker came and kicked us out of first class 😂. Dammit.... was way nicer up there! The next 4 hours were hot and full. Finally arrived in Milan in the evening after a day of lugging heavy suitcases around, and google maps decided to up our step count by making us do a full circle of streets to get to our hotel which was a 5 min walk from the station. Unpacked, and hit town to find some dinner. Formula 1 was held today 30 mins from here, by the looks, half the town had been to see it. Father's Day back home today so lots of time was spent appreciating the amazing Dads/Husbands in our lives. 🥰😍
Day 15.... Cannes, a resort town on the French Riviera, is famed for its international film festival. Its Boulevard de la Croisette, curving along the coast, is lined with sandy beaches, upmarket boutiques and palatial hotels. A lovely quiet day for us, walking the sites of the town then spending the afternoon at the beach. Last day on the cruise ship... packing up... catching up with new friends... last lovely dinner out. We'll certainly miss this home!
Day 14.... Florence and Pisa. In the heart of Tuscany, where the rolling vineyards meet the Renaissance's grandeur, lies the timeless city of Florence. Its streets are like a labyrinth of history, where every cobblestone whispers tales of Medici power, artistic genius, and Tuscan allure. This city has been inhabited since 500 AD, with most of the now standing buildings being built in the 11th-13th Century.
Day 13.... Naples. Wow... this city is everything you can imagine when you think of beautiful Italy, the art, the poetry, the romanticism, the music all wrapped up in one. The largest city center in Europe and a designated UNESCO World Heritage site. Napolitano cuisine is noted for its association with pizza, originated in this city... so of course we had to try some.
Day 12.... Catania Italy. Catania is an ancient port city on Sicily's easy coast, under the foot of Mt Etna. Quite a few groups did the Mt Etna walking tour.. however.. with its latest eruption less than two weeks ago.. this was not the tour for us! We chose the bus tour of a few cities... it began as our first dud day, with the host microphone not working... looking at amazing cities and shops without being able to get off.. so we decided to ditch in Catania city.... against advice of our host who was worried we would miss our boat(which won't wait at all for late patrons). Ended up in the brilliant biggest fish market in the Mediterranean. So vibrant, loud and smelly! Had lunch to try the local cuisine. Set off on our 10 min walk back to the ship.....20 mins later could not get to the entrance to the port and discovered we'd walked the wrong direction! Lucky we leave ourselves plenty of time and make it home, with only a few extra steps in our day.
Day 11... Valletta, Malta. This city is deffo a favorite of ours so far! Absolutely beautiful, photos don't do it justice. Clean, not touristy, friendly people, no graffiti. Baroque palaces, bastions, curtains and cavaliers. We would've loved to spend a week here! Lots of water activities in the warm Mediterranean sea. Cafés exploding in to the streets. Live music. Great food! Valetta's 16th century buildings were constructed by the Knights Hospitaller. High walls straight up from the sea at the harbors entrance. They successfully defended the island from the Ottoman invasion during the Great Seige.
Day 10... Katakolon and Olympia... birth place of the Olympic Games. Today we did something a little different and went to a Greek Cooking Class and Folk dancing. Was cool to experience some more of the culture.
Day 9... Mykonos. A lovely 'down day' as we pretty much just sat on the beach. Another Island of brilliant white houses. In the late 1930s, Greece was suffering from a cholera epidemic, and the leader ordered all Greek citizens to whitewash their houses. The whitewash used to paint the outside of citizens' homes contained limestone, which happens to be a potent disinfectant. In the 1970's it was made law that all houses be painted white and blue for the asthetics of the islands. This law has done been dropped. Mykonos is know for its wind... and it sure was windy! We would've loved more time there to explore but the ship was only anchored from 9 till 3.
Day 8.... Athens. What an amazing city! We both wished we'd enjoyed history at school and learnt more prior to coming! We did a walking tour of Acropolis and Parthenon (along with 4 other cruise ships go of people) then wandered the rest of the sites on foot..... yes another 20,000 step day.
Day 7...Santorini. Wow, this island is every bit as amazing as it looks in the all the photos you see before you come. It's a city built stone the tip of a volcano crater (seems a little crazy to us!) With a population of 15,000 and over 2 million visitors a year. It doesn't rain for 5 months of the year! They get water mainly from desalination plants on the island. There are more churches than houses.
Day 6... at Sea. Another day of relaxation and exploration of the ship while traveling to the Greek Islands
Day 5.... on the ship!
The day started well with an early morning Limo transfer to the coast to get on the cruise ship where we will spend the next 11 days exploring the Greek Islands, South of France, Italy and Malta.
It has over 3 thousand people on board. 26 Resturants, 17 bars, shops, pools, water slides, go carts, climbing walls, gyms, theater and more. We spent the day exploring before setting sail for the night.
Day 4... Porti di Roma Shopping mall. The husband's can relax, the credit cards are not maxed out. Didn't even buy any clothes! Just portable power banks for our phones, socks, washing powder and lunch. So fascinating though.... dogs are allowed in the shopping mall and shops!!!! Super cute. Had to snap a few sneaky pics. The air-conditioned day was deffo a bonus!
Day 3... our last day in Rome...or so we thought until 10pm when looking up our cruise embarking docs. Low n behold... we have another full day here 🤣🤣... we packed in the city sights the last 3 days in 39degree heat with sweat dripping down or backs, so decided out last days itinerary would be an air conditioned shopping mall.... sorry husbands in advance about the credit card bills, but a lady's gotta get retail therapy. Happy wife happy life right!
Day 2...delicious breakfast at Deseo Home followed by a 1.5 hour bus trip around Roma. What a vibrant city, apart from the history of course, there is a certain energy to it that makes it so special. We did wonder if general traffic laws do get ignored on Sundays though!
Day 1...After 23 hours in flight and 7 in transit we had our fab first day in Roma. Enjoyed walking down cobblestone streets, browsing shops, getting convinced by an artist that his work was original and walking around the corner was another guy selling the same paintings! Finished the day out with dinner at a local pizzeria :-)
Going on a trip in our favorite rocket ship........ flying through the skies
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We Sail The Big Ships…. We Sail The Small Ships…. But The Best Ship Is FRIENDSHIP. Cheers to the best intrepid adventure ever!
This is what they do.... these wheels are 3 tonne each. Crushing limestone to be made in to lino.
Just so you all can enjoy the French accent too..
No video or photo could do this place justice... but here's a taster
Tour of our room.
Weaving. It takes 2.5hrs to make a 50cm piece of cloth.
Ended the evening back on the ship with Tepanyaki dinner followed by the Broadway show 'Six' .A modern take on the lives of the six wives of Henry the 8th.
Hyperlapse of some of our walk
After the show we headed to the karaoke bar with all intentions of gracing everyone with our rendition of Violent Femmes..... however..... we now realize our voices would not have cut it... these people could've been on American Idol!
Just amazing
Evening on the ship we went to 'Burn the Floor'. A Broadway show going through the history of dance.
We went to the Fleetwood Mac 'Rumours' show in the evening. WOW what a show!!! Was great as they talked through all the troubles the band was having behind the scenes while producing this album.
Cheers to another fab day!
A bit from Osteus, very entertaining!
Our digs for the 11 days
A bit about the ship. Pools then the adults only Vibe Club
Spanish duo for the evening entertainers
This is it!
End the evening with amazing entertainment.
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