DRKester

Corfu

DRKester — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 00:00:00 GMT

We took a bus to town, and then walked around a bit.

Corfu

Dubrovnik

DRKester — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 00:00:00 GMT

One of the more interesting stops was Dubrovnik Croatia. We took a local bus to the old town.

Dubrovnik Old City Walls

Dubrovnik Church

Dubrovnik old port

Dubrovnik

Athens

DRKester — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 00:00:00 GMT

The final stop on our trip was Athens. We'd been there before, but still had to see the sights. We went to the Parliament Gardens and old Olympic stadium.

Ancient Olympic Stadium

Then walked to Hadrian's Arch

Hadrians Arch

and the Temple of Zeus.

Zeus

Near the Temple of Zeus was the remains of old houses.

Old homes

Lastly we went to the New Acropolis Museum,

New Acropolis Museum

which is across the street from the Acropolis

Acropolis

Lots of walking.

We finished our day with a great dinner on the ship.

Last dinner on the ship

Crete

DRKester — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 00:00:00 GMT

We spent a day at sea and played some ship games. Rick won his Ping Pong game.

Games at Sea

Then we went to Crete.

Crete

After a bit of walking around town, we walked towards a swimming beach. Rick went back later for a swim.

Crete

Crete beach

Old Olympia

DRKester — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 00:00:00 GMT

We took the train to old Olympia.

Olympia Train Station

We only had 2 hours to tour before catching the train back to port.

Olympia

Olympia entrance to arena

Ancient Olympia

We ran out of time, but took a quick look at the museum.

Ancient Olympia Museum

Santorini

DRKester — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Santorini was next. After tendering to shore, Rick decided to ride a donkey to the top. Ask Rick what it's like to ride the Alpha Donkey.

Donkey ride to the top

I took the easier cable car.

View from the top

Very picturesque place with a walk/climb along the edge of the hill.

Church

Santorini city view

We both took the cable car down. The donkeys are limited by gravity on the way up, but on the way down they run to get to food at the bottom. Possibly life threatening.

Rhodes Greece

DRKester — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Rhodes

One of our favorite stops was Rhodes Greece. Well preserved old town with an interesting walk between the walls.

Old town

Inside walls of old town

Rhodes from the ship

Delos and Mykonos

DRKester — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Our next port of call was Delos Greece.

Delos Lions

Delos Ruins

We also were supposed to stop at Mykonos, but it was too windy to safely tender to shore. So the best we got was a shot from the ship.

View from the ship

Ephesus

DRKester — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Our first stop on our cruise was Kusadasi Turkey. Oceania offered several organized tours to Ephesus, but we prefer independent touring. The ship provided a local representative each morning to answer questions about the city. We discovered that we could get a taxi to take us to the site, drop us at the top, and pick us back up at the bottom for no more than $100. We connected with another couple to share a cab, and the guys haggled the price down to $80 for the four of us.

Ephesus is amazing. We took tons of pictures, and here are just a few.

Ephesus

Istanbul

DRKester — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 00:00:00 GMT

First stop Istanbul and our hotel in Sultanahmet. The Kybele Hotel had over 4000 lamps in the ceilings of the lobby and rooms. This is our room

Our room at the Kybele Hotel

and the stairs to get to our room.

Marble stairs

And the lobby of the hotel

Kybele Hotel

We were dealing with jet lag, and decided just to walk down to the square between the Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque and do some people watching.

Blue Mosque

We also went into the Four Seasons Hotel which was beautifully restored from a former prison.

We ate the first night at a sidewalk restaurant recommended by the hotel. The owner also had a rug shop next door. In fact I think everyone in Turkey had at least one rug shop, and they all wanted to be our new best friends.

Sidewalk dining

It turns out that we arrived on the first day of Ramadan. So after our dinner we walked back down to the square, where there was a line for the traditional first meal.

We did most of our touring on our second day in town with a trip to the Suleymaniye Mosque

Suleymaniye Mosque

and the Grand Bazaar. Note the convoluted wiring on the outside of buildings.

Grand Bazaar

Grand Bazaar wiring

After lunch, we went inside the Blue Mosque.

Blue Mosque

and went down to the Basicilica Cistern.

Basilica Cistern

Our hotel was built on top of the Cistern, so it had limited head room in the basement restaurant.

Our hotel was an easy walk to the square near the Blue Mosque, that turned out to be the hub of the celebration.

Ramadan Celebration

There was entertainment in the square with a juggler, magician and other acts. We snapped a picture of this cutie with his face painted for the occasion.

Ramadan

The third day we went to Topkapi Palace.

Topkapi Palace

There are wild cats all around the city, but this mother and her kittens lived on the Palace grounds.

Topkapi Palace

Cats

After checking into the ship, we took a boat ride up the Bosphorus.

Bosphorus Cruise

On our last morning in Istanbul, we walked to the Galata Tower and rode to the top.

Galata Tower

We also passed a restaurant with an apt name, so Rick posed for a photo.

Enginar

Leaving Spain

DRKester — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Our 3 weeks are up, and it's time to head home. We had one last breakfast at the Cafe Iruna, then Jason and Helen drove us to Vitoria to catch our RyanJet flight to London.

Leaving Spain

RyanJet is definitely a bare-bones airline. The seats are one step up from a city bus, in that they were separate seats. They didn't recline or have tray tables. Food is offered for sale during the flight, along with lottery tickets and duty free goods. Still, we managed to get exit row seats, so we had leg room. Good value for one British pence each plus taxes.

Our MaxJet flight on Sunday was delayed, but the food and booze in their lounge kept us happy. After an 11 hour flight to Las Vegas, we had a 5-hour drive home.

We really appreciate the hospitality from Jason and Helen. Not only did they house and feed us, they helped us plan our trip. Jason helped us find a train to Barcelona, and booked a rental car for our drive. He also told us about Maxjet and RyanAir. Helen's command of Spanish became very useful when we were trying to translate menus, or deal with local businesses. And she lent us her camera when ours died. We really can't thank them enough.

Drive to France

DRKester — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 00:00:00 GMT

We started our last day in Spain by taking pictures of a couple of our favorite places. Rick joined the running of the bulls.

Running with the bulls

We had to have a picture of the neat underground garbage and recycling bins in the plaza.

Garbage and recycling in Plaza Del Castillo

We took a picture of some interesting buildings near Town Square.

Multi-colored houses

We decided to take a drive in the mountains towards France. We stopped in St Jean Pied-de-Port and walked around the walled town.

Gate at St Jean Pied-de-Port

We were between meal times, so we had a beer at a restaurant by the river.

View of river from restaurant in St Jean Pied-de-Port

Helen and Jason in St Jean Pied-de-Port

Afterwards we walked around some more, and Rick checked out a pig store.

Sausage and Pork shop

Back into Spain, we stopped at a viewpoint on top of a hill.

Back into Spain

We start our trip home tomorrow with a flight from Vitoria to London Stansted.

Barcelona touring day 2

DRKester — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 00:00:00 GMT

We started our second day with a tour of Casa Mila, a strangely designed apartment building designed by Gaudi.

Casa Mila

We took an elevator up to the attic room, where there were displays of Gaudi's works. The room had multiple arches of varying sizes. His inspiration was an upside-down version of the hanging chains in the picture below.

Attic room inside Casa Mila

Then we walked up to the rooftop. It stepped up and down to match the arches below. Each chimney and vent were decorated. The smokestacks were twisted to look like smoke.

Rooftop of Casa Mila

Interior courtyard of Casa Mila

Rooftop of Casa Mila

We also toured one of the apartments, which was decorated with period furniture.

We took the Metro to the Museum of Contemporary Art, but unfortunately it was closed on Tuesdays. Back on the Metro to the Picasso Museum. Interesting display of his work, but no pictures were allowed.

Street by Picasso Museum

We walked towards the waterfront and had a great lunch along the way. We walked some more to the Columbus statue at the base of Las Ramblas. We took a very small elevator to the top, where the was a very small observation platform.

Tiny elevator to top of Columbus monument

We had to get a picture at the botton on one of the lions.

Columbus Monument

Our observation of Barcelona: Worth a trip for the amazing and unusual architecture. But expect to walk a lot, since the Metro doesn't stop anywhere near the stuff you'll want to see.

Consulate door

Barcelona touring day 1

DRKester — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 00:00:00 GMT

We took the train to Barcelona on Sunday, then checked into a very modern 4-star hotel. We started our touring on Monday with a walk to the Sagrada Familia, where we had breakfast at a cafe across the street.

Sagrada Familia

After breakfast, we took the Metro to the old city, and toured the cathedral and the old Roman city. We walked over the the Ramblas, and walked down to the waterfront. We started at a section of street performers.

Ramblas street performer

The next section had artists showing their work and offering to do portraits. We went down to the waterfront, then to the Drassanes Maritime Museum. Outside they had a wooden submarine.

Submarine at Maritime Museum

The building had amazing stone arches with bays that would hold a full size ship.

Drassanes Maritime Museum

After the museum we walked across a cool pedestrian bridge to a shopping center.

View from top of Columbus Monument of harbor

We were planning to take the cable car to Montjuic, but read in our guide book that it closed for lunch in 15 minutes and we were at least a half hour away. So we had lunch at a waterfront cafe. While eating we read that there was a tram that went up to Montjuic. So we decided to take it instead. Big mistake. It went up through a tunnel, and at the top, the view was hidden by a bunch of restaurants.

So back down the tram, and on to Parc Guell. The guide maps are less than helpful in figuring out which metro stop is closest to an attraction. We guessed, and found ourselves at the closest one, but it was still a 600m walk. We can do this! Unfortunately, after 2 blocks we were directed left and up steep hill. It was so steep that it had steps on the sidewalk, and several sections had escalators. We pressed on, and found ourselves at the back entrance. Nice view, but not what we were looking for. So we walked around and down to the main entrance. The Gaudi designed courtyard and buildings made it worth the walk.

Parc Guell

Parc Guell entrance

Parc Guell

We walked another 1200m to the other Metro stop. This was longer, but easier, since it was just a slight downhill slope.

Drive back to Pamplona

DRKester — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 00:00:00 GMT

We bought pastries and coffee from a small bakery, and took them back to our hotel room to have a smoke-free meal.

View from our hotel room

We drove to Irun, and up a road along the river. At one point we drove into France, just to do it, and because our car rental place said we couldn't.

Side trip to France

The drive up the valley was beautiful. At one point we took a small winding road through small towns, ending at Berrobi.

Looking for rocks

A sign showed a rock formation up a small rural road called Elorregi. We decided to try to find it.

Road to Eloreggi

Well, the road started out rocks, then became two-rut rocks, then started getting muddy as we went up the hill. We finally decided to turn back, before we got stuck. The only other vehicle was a tractor at the bottom of the hill just out of town.

2 rut road up the hill towards Elorregi

We continued on the road to Pamplona, and Jason's apartment.

San Juan de Gaztelugho

DRKester — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 00:00:00 GMT

We drove to San Juan de Gaztelugach and to the Faro de Machichaco. This is a church built on a rock island offshore, with a stone walkway across the water.

San Juan de Gaztelugache

View to mainland from San Juan de Gaztelugache

We found a huge parking area and walked down, only to discover that there was a road all the way down. So, we asked a local for a ride up the hill to our car. We drove back down, and then hiked across the wall and up the stairs to the church. The courtyard had a basic toilet, that just was a tube to outside the wall.

Basic toilet in Machichaco

We continued driving along the coast, until the road went inland. Then we took the freeway to San Sebastian. We drove around a bit trying to find the coastal road, and places mentioned in our Michelin guide. We never found the road, so just got back on the bigger road to Hondarribia. From there we easily found the small road up the hill call the Jaizkibel Road, with an overlook back to town and across the river to France.

Overlook of Hondarribia and France from Jaizkibel Road

We found a nice hotel in Hondarribia, checked in, then walked into the walled old city. Inside the walled area is a huge castle turned into the Parador Hotel. We walked in and took a picture.

Hotel Parador in Hondarribia

Atlantic coast

DRKester — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 00:00:00 GMT

We drove to Bilbao, and then went out along the Atlantic coast through many fishing villages and surf towns. We had lunch in Bakio along the water. We stayed in a beautiful hotel on top of the hill overlooking the inlet between Mundaka and Laido beach. This is a great surfing area, although it was a bit cold.

View from our hotel

View of Mundaka from our hotel

Picos de Europa

DRKester — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 00:00:00 GMT

We drove through Santander and up the coast towards the Picos de Europa. First stop was an outlook high on a hill overlooking both the ocean and the Picos de Europa.

View of Atlantic Ocean from Mirador del Fito

View of Picos de Europa from Mirador Del Fito

Then we drove on south into the Picos. One of the small towns on the way, Cano, was having a Festival that blocked the only road through town. Traffic cops were directing cars and buses through one way at a time. The drive into the canyon was amazing.

Road in Picos de Europa

Somewhat like Zion canyon, only your drive 100 feet above the water, with the sides of the canyon less than 20' apart at points.

Road up the canyon

On top is a small town Oseja de Sajambre.

Town on top of mountains

On the way back drove through Congas de Onis, where they have an old "hump back" Roman bridge. Then we had lunch in Arriondas - 3 sandwiches and 2 glasses for 4.5 Euro total.

Driving out of town

DRKester — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 00:00:00 GMT

When we got up this morning, there were hundreds of people with bicycles in the square. Around 9:00, they all took off. Later we rented a car and drove to Onati, a small town north of Vitoria. We walked around the town and had lunch with Jason and Helen. There also was some sort of bicycle ride or race, with cops directing traffic and lots of serious looking bikers. We continued up the hill to Arantzazu. It has the coolest church, with a façade made of stone that looked like the bottom of egg cartons. We stayed at the hotel up the hill from the church. Next morning the parking lot and along the road was filled with cars. It was foggy, so we couldn't get good pictures.

We drove on to Bilbao, and Jason and Helen headed back to their apartment. We went to the Guggenheim museum, which architecturally was very impressive.

Guggenheim museum

Inside however, was really disappointing. The whole 2nd floor was closed, and the "art" in the rest was underwhelming. One room was devoted to a grouping of picture frame parts, scattered about the floor as if left by children.

Guggenheim Museum

We walked into town and had Tapas at a local bar.

After lunch, we drove along the coast to Laredo. We checked into a hotel, and then walked the beach to the old town.

Port at Laredo

They were having a medieval festival, and had lots of food and arts vendors.

Street fair

Harris Hawk

Later, we walked back into town for dinner, and were treated to hundreds of people dressed up in medieval costumes, parading through the street. Around 10, they set off fireworks in the street. Lots of fun.

Rest day

DRKester — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 00:00:00 GMT

We decided to have an easy day, just relaxing and figuring out our next few days. Last night we went out for an amazing meal at a nearby restaurant. We had the fixed price menu of the day, which has a choice of first course of salad, pasta, soup, beans, etc., and then a second meat or fish course, and dessert. We also had some local wine. Really great!

This morning we went out to see if we could get a replacement battery for our camera, but unfortunately we couldn't. So we'll borrow Helen's camera for the rest of the trip.

We also went to the local supermercado to get a couple of items. Interesting experience. Each day they have one choice of the fresh milk of the day in either a litre carton or plastic bag. We needed peppers, but had to have the vegetable person weigh, bag and price our selections.

This afternoon, they set up some portable tables and chairs in the center of the plaza, and now a group are playing some sort of game. At about 8:30 a group from a Karate school, all dressed in white set up in the square and put on demo fights in a circle accompanied by drums. We watched for a while, then went and had wine in a bar next to a bronze statue of Hemingway.

Tomorrow we are renting a car and setting out towards Bilbao, San Sebastian, and possibly into France. Likely won't be on the Internet until we get back to Jason and Helen's apartment.