Madrid with the Girls

Just 4 days after arriving home from the cruise, I was off again--Barely enough time to do the mountain of laundry, sort, and repack. This was an official OCSC trip organized by Sarah Hall, aka, The Best Tour Guide Ever. I helped her a bit by arranging our hotel accommodations at the fabulous Hostal Acapulco right downtown and by booking airport transport and a few other things. My working title is Svengali Sherpa to End All Sherpas. (Sarah is a bit dramatic!) Madrid is beautiful--fabulous architecture and sights. The weather was perfect and the company was fabulous.

Venice

We had one day at sea before returning to Venice. We docked early, so we got to spend the whole day exploring Venice. We took a water taxi downt to Piazza San Marco, where we went into the basilica and saw the amazing Byzantine mosaics. Then we went into the Doge's Palace and across the bridge of sighs. We walked around a bit, found a lovely restaurant for some delicious pizza. Walked some more and ate yummy gelato. Crossed the Rialto Bridge, bought some souvenirs, went to the Friari church to see Donatello's John the Baptist, and walked back to catch our ride to the airport. It was an exhausting day, made even longer by a delayed flight. Poor Colin!

Katakolon

We made everybody get off the boat today to go to Ancient Olympia. We had a different guide today, and her name was--brace yourself--PUPI. We all got a giggle out of this.

Anyway, it was amazing to see the ruins of where they had the games almost 3000 years ago. And to see the place where they still light the torch before each Olympiad today.

Mykonos

Mykonos was what I envisioned Greece to be. White-washed buildings set in green hills above blue sea. It was beautiful. We took a boat and a tour out to Delos, which is the birthplace of Apollo and Artemis. Our guide, Adonis (yes, for real), was very engaging and knowledgeable. It was a great day.

Athens

Our big day was Athens. We had booked a tour with a private companyand hired a large van to seat both families, a driver, and a tour guide to take us around the city. It was amazing to see the Acropolis, the Olympic Stadium, Lybettos Hill, etc. in real life. Our driver,Dmitri, and our guide, Pepe were fabulous. We learned a lot; it was interesting to hear the Greek side of the "Elgin Marbles" debate, especially while living in Britain and hearing the British argument for keeping them. The kids also learned that Greek food is delicious--they loved our lunch stop with Chicken Souvlaki, gyros style!We went to the changing of the guard in front of the unknown soldier memorial.They have a big ritual with some unique outfits! There was an older man there with food for the millions of pigeons--it was another highlight for the kids to "feed the birds."We also got to go the new Olympic Stadium on our way to drive the Lybettos Hill with the amazing view of the whole of Athens. Here is the whole crew--Carpenters and Meldrums enjoying our beautiful day in Athens. Should be memories to last a lifetime.

Corfu

Next up was the island of Corfu. The little kids elected to stay on the boat, which was a good call as it was freezing and rainy and there really wasn't that much to see.We went to the Achilleon Palace, a 19th century dwelling of the Austrian Princess who married into Greek royalty. After the Palace, we went down to Corfu City, where we wandered the crazy narrow and disjointed paths and did a little shopping and exploring. Ethan braved the elements with us and was rewarded with what was quite possibly the most delicious gyro EVER.

First stop--Croatia

Our first port of call was Split, Croatia. We took a bus tour and a walking tour of Diocletian's Palace. The Palace was prettyamazing--really more like a walled village--a motley mix of churches, living spaces, and shops. A highlight was hearing this a cappella group echoing through one of the ruined entrance halls.They werereally good, and it was interesting to hear some native Croatian music. The Dalmatian Coast is stunningly beautiful, but the rest of the town was pretty standard Eastern European. It was a lovely day, though, so we went back to the boat to swim and hang out.