Tag: general news

  • Europe Trip – day 11 – Athens Greece

    Our second stop in Greece was in Athens.  The port for Athens is actually Piraeus as Athens is not right on the ocean.  Given the distance between Corfu and Athens (440 miles, roughly), our cruise ship didn’t arrive in Piraeus until noon.  This was a nice change as we got to sleep in.  We actually…

  • Europe Trip – day 10 – Corfu Greece

    Our first stop in Greece was in Corfu, a Greek island in the Ionian Sea.  The ship docked at 8:00 am, so our tour was early again.  Our tour in Corfu included two stops: Achilleion Palace and Palaiokastritsa.  Achilleion Palace was built by the Empress of Austria, Elisabeth of Bavaria. After her death it was…

  • Europe Trip – day 9 – Split Croatia

    The first stop on our cruise was actually not in Greece but in Split, Croatia.  Why, you ask?  Because it’s about half way between Greece and Italy.  I created a Google Map of our entire trip (flights and cruise), but you can see the route for our cruise ship here (in green): View Europe Trip…

  • Europe Trip – day 8 – boarding the cruise ship

    We spent the morning getting everything packed back up and cleaning up the condo.  We were done by about 10:45 and then went to San Samuele, the same place we were dropped off, to get our reserved water taxi (Rosemary arranged that as well).  The water taxi took us up to the port where a…

  • Europe Trip – day 7 – Venice

    This was our second full day in Venice, and while we didn’t technically have as much planned as the previous day, because of the gorgeous weather, it seems like we got to see a lot more of the city. We started the day with a 9:30 am visit to the Doge’s Palace.  The Doge was…

  • Europe Trip – day 6 – Venice

    Unfortunately, the day we had the most planned in Venice was also the day that it rained.  We started out with an 11:00 am walking tour of the city (in the rain) that started at the Royal Gardens (Giardinetti Reali) near Piazza San Marco.  Our guide walked us around the Piazza, explaining its history.  There…

  • Europe Trip – day 5 – travel from Paris to Venice

    Most of this day was spent traveling from Paris to Venice, Italy.  We spent the morning packing and cleaning the condo and had everything ready by the gate at 10:00, when a van from the same service that dropped us off was supposed to pick us up.  We had a little scare as the van…

  • Europe Trip – day 4 – Paris

    Our excess from the night before had its toll – we didn’t leave the condo this day until about 1:00 pm.  The kids and almost everyone else slept in late (I don’t sleep much, especially on trips, but even I slept in until about 9 am).  With our ambitions significantly reduced for our last day…

  • Europe Trip – day 3 – Paris

    This was our first full day in Paris. With the late night activity of the kids we got a slightly later start than I think we wanted, leaving the condo around 11:00 am. This, however, is how travel works when you have young kids. Gary and Rosemary visited Paris a number of years earlier (with…

  • Europe Trip – day 2 – arrive in Paris

    Once we boarded our 8 hour flight and were settled in, I napped a little, as did Toren, but Debi has found that she can’t sleep when Toren is on her lap, so she didn’t sleep at all.  As a result, when we arrived she was exhausted.  We had a little scare once we arrived…