Mediteranean Cruise Part 2

Tueday 20 April:
We arrived at Santorini, another Greek island, at 1 pm. Benjamin and I really enjoyed Santorini, much more than Corfu.

These pictures are hilarious to me - we probably have 20 pictures that look just like this because it was just too darn windy!! The view was breathtaking though.

Our tour guide was adament that we take a picture like this! I think it turned out great - I loved all the bright blue doors and windows everywhere!

Another look at the architecture and streets!

After exploring Santorini, we got to eat some authentic Greek food! It was all very delicious.

We also had to get dessert - I had the amazing baklava and Benjamin had a heavenly chocolate brownie cake with gelato!

It's all Greek to us!

Mediterranean Cruise Part 1

Whew...Benjamin and I finally made it back from a week long wonderful relaxing vacation!

Friday 16 April:
We had planned on flying out on the Friday April 16th, however, due to volcano ash in the sky our flight was cancelled and we had to immediately rethink how we were going to get to Italy for our cruise. We thought quickly and try to get a train from London to Paris and then Paris to Venice. Most of the trains were completely booked and the Eurostar was way too expensive. We decided we were going to have to drive - that's a cross-continent trip, 16 hours of driving time, 1000+ miles. If we wanted to go on our vacation, it was the only choice. We got a rental car and zoomed to Venice. We left around 2 pm on Friday and drove all the way until 5 am on Saturday. In all the hustle, we forget to mention that we needed an automatic car for the trip but it was too late, I had been roped in to driving a STICK SHIFT car. I can't drive a manual but I ended up driving, somehow, in the middle of France. It was horrible and I was so tense when I got done with my portion. I'm happy to say I only cried once! HAHA. Benjamin didn't want to stop driving until we got to Venice but we were extremely exhausted by 5 am. We ended up sleeping in the car for one hour in a Switzerland gas station parking lot. I've never slept in a car but I will say it was extremely comfortable or maybe I was too tired to notice.

The best part of driving was we got to see the beautiful Swiss Alps!

Saturday 17 April:
We got up at 6 am and started going again. We got through Switzerland and into Venice and were finally on the ship by 2 pm. We pretty much crashed as soon as we got to our room. We woke for dinner and everyone on the ship was buzzing about the change in schedule. The captain decided that we were going to stay docked on more day, skip Turkey and wait for passengers that weren't on the ship yet. This did not go over well with the passengers already on board - petitions were being sent around, people were complaining.

Sunday 18 April:
Benjamin and I thought we would be able to see more of Venice but we found out we were sailing. Thank goodness for those people for complained because that night the captain changed his mind and were began sailing towards Greece by 8 am! We spent this day on the ship, naps were in order as we were still trying to get back on track.

Monday 19 April:
We arrived at the island of Corfu, Greece at 9 am. Here are a few pictures at Corfu.

 outlook from the Monastery

Benjamin with a statue of  Achilles at the Achillion Palace

The Achillion Place was a summer house built in 1890 for Austria's Empress Elizabeth. 

Outside the palace

In Corfu town

Greek Isles and Turkey Cruise

Benjamin and I just booked our cruise to Croatia, Greece and Turkey! We will be going in April as a honeymoon, pre-deployment, anniversary and birthday present all rolled into one!