Monday, September 22, 2014
Saturday, July 19, 2014
Bernkastel-Kues Germany w/ Alison
Had a great week in Germany. Cousin Alison was able to swing by and join us for a few days. We went to a German bar/restaurant and watched Germany win the World Cup. She also was a welcome addition to my change of command. Here are a few pics of a trip we took in Germany to Bernkastel-Kues, a beautiful town that straddles the Mozul river. Enjoy.
Sunday, July 6, 2014
Just got back from a great cruise through the East Med. I'll drop a few pics of the ship and the different stops we made. The boat (MSC Preziosa) was amazing. Not sure what to think as it was our first cruise, but we all loved it with the exception of fighting for food at the buffet. I think Istanbul and Dubrovnik were our favorite stops. They may need further study......
We stayed 2 nights in Venice before we departed on the cruise.
Our first stop was Bari Italy. Not much of a port from the reviews and we were waiting to see if the kids liked kids club, so, we stayed on the boat. Turns out, most folks that got off didn't have much to say and the kids LOVED kids club. Victory x 2.
Second stop was Katakolon, Greece. We could have popped up to Olympia and seen the dawn of modern sports.....but we didn't. We were still testing the bounds of kid separation and neither of us was overly excited about the ruins. Anyway, Katakolon was a quaint little fishing villiage (at least it used to be, now it's all about tourism), so we did a little shopping and had a cup of coffee. Got back on the boat with some new treasures, plenty of time to spare and the kids didn't miss us......not even a little.
After Greece, it was off to Turkey. First stop was Izmir. Rumor had it that if you wanted to actually buy something, do it there. Much smaller and more local shopping scene and there weren't a lot of historical sites to visit. So, we did just that and walked away with some new Turkish rugs.
The last two stops were certainly the best. Istanbul was amazing. We got dropped into the main historical/tourist area of the city and didn't have time to even really see that. We booked a hop on/hop off bus and tried to see what we could. Of course, we did a little shopping, but confirmed that Izmir was a better place to buy. Istanbul had a lot more variety, but prices were about 3 times as high as Izmir. The historical sites were fun to see and we spent about 15 minutes in Asia, mostly stuck in traffic.
We had a day at sea between Istanbul and Dubrovnik. Great time to enjoy the ship and hang with the kids. Of course, they would rather be in kids club, but we were gonna get some family time damn it! Arriving in Croatia was amazing. Beautiful coastline and the water was amazing. We docked pretty close to old town, so we just hopped a city bus there. I think we beat most of the excursion folks.....
We spent most of our day in old town walking the small streets and enjoying the sites, oh, and buying a few more goodies.
After Croatia it was back to Venice. Getting off the boat was pretty easy, unfortunately we were the last group to disembark so we got a bit of a late start on our drive home. The cruise was amazing but was over way too quickly. I'll certainly put some thought into doing something like that again, maybe next time with some good friends. Any takers......???
We stayed 2 nights in Venice before we departed on the cruise.
Our first stop was Bari Italy. Not much of a port from the reviews and we were waiting to see if the kids liked kids club, so, we stayed on the boat. Turns out, most folks that got off didn't have much to say and the kids LOVED kids club. Victory x 2.
Second stop was Katakolon, Greece. We could have popped up to Olympia and seen the dawn of modern sports.....but we didn't. We were still testing the bounds of kid separation and neither of us was overly excited about the ruins. Anyway, Katakolon was a quaint little fishing villiage (at least it used to be, now it's all about tourism), so we did a little shopping and had a cup of coffee. Got back on the boat with some new treasures, plenty of time to spare and the kids didn't miss us......not even a little.
After Greece, it was off to Turkey. First stop was Izmir. Rumor had it that if you wanted to actually buy something, do it there. Much smaller and more local shopping scene and there weren't a lot of historical sites to visit. So, we did just that and walked away with some new Turkish rugs.
The last two stops were certainly the best. Istanbul was amazing. We got dropped into the main historical/tourist area of the city and didn't have time to even really see that. We booked a hop on/hop off bus and tried to see what we could. Of course, we did a little shopping, but confirmed that Izmir was a better place to buy. Istanbul had a lot more variety, but prices were about 3 times as high as Izmir. The historical sites were fun to see and we spent about 15 minutes in Asia, mostly stuck in traffic.
We had a day at sea between Istanbul and Dubrovnik. Great time to enjoy the ship and hang with the kids. Of course, they would rather be in kids club, but we were gonna get some family time damn it! Arriving in Croatia was amazing. Beautiful coastline and the water was amazing. We docked pretty close to old town, so we just hopped a city bus there. I think we beat most of the excursion folks.....
We spent most of our day in old town walking the small streets and enjoying the sites, oh, and buying a few more goodies.
After Croatia it was back to Venice. Getting off the boat was pretty easy, unfortunately we were the last group to disembark so we got a bit of a late start on our drive home. The cruise was amazing but was over way too quickly. I'll certainly put some thought into doing something like that again, maybe next time with some good friends. Any takers......???
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