Our latest excursion took us aboard a Norwegian Cruse Line vessel the Norwegian Gem. If you care to check out the ship information you can look here.
We were not sure how the kids would take to a cruse - but simply said I think we will be going on more soon... This trip was to the Greek Islands and I can tell you it was fantastic to see. The beauty, the history the people - even among the Economic turmoil - it was fantastic.
In keeping with tradition, here is a quick route map of our tour.
We flew Ryanair to Venice from Brussels and the ship departed Saturday at 5:00 PM. I was asleep but Pam and the kids tell me the trip out of Venice was beautiful. The sea was glass and the sun was shining so all in all the trip start out great.
Day 1
The first stop was to Split, Croatia. If you've opened the route map from the link above - you can hover over the link under the Itinerary and see some photos and info about Split. You're going to hear me say this a lot - so just be ready- this little city on the sea was beautiful. We actually took a guided tour and of course the main attraction was the Diocletain's palace. Tons of history. The photo's of our trip are set to some traditional music from that part of the world. You can see some pictures here: We thought Europe proper had history you could touch but this is crazy. This palace was for the Roman Emperor Diocletian and was constructed around the fourth century AD. That was cool for a first stop - but it would only get better as we moved on to other islands in Greece. I've never been much of a guided tour person - but I would recommend it here. The history is overwhelming and you would have to do a ton of homework to understand it all as you took it in - but our guide did a great job and the visit was very informative.
Day 2
We woke up the second day at see anchored off the island of Corfu. Frankly, we did not see a lot of the island - because we had set up a little excursion on the north side of the island. Horseback ridding. We drove from the port to a small sea side community and spent the day on the back of horses. Actually it was a nice afternoon. The horses behaved, for the most part, so it was not as painful as Austin and I had imagined. :) When the riding day was over, it was back to this ship in a hurry so that Austin could continue to compete in his Free Throw competition and so the rest of us could relax on deck. The Gem departed at around 6PM that night and we would be at sea for nearly another 24 hours. I must say that we all had good fun while we were aboard. The food was good, the service was nice and there was plenty for us to do. Pam, Alex and I spent some time in the SPA and Austin got some quality time on the B-Ball court. And then the fun of shipboard BINGO would begin - for the rest of the cruse...
Day 3
One of my favorite stops of the trip. At 4:00PM we were aboard tenders again off to see the island of Santorini. What a beautiful place. This little island is fantastic and worth a weekend stay for sure. You can see details in the photos and video - but the highlight of this trip is how you choose to get "up" to the city from the Old Port. You have three choices. #1 - Walk - and it's a long way up. #2 You can take a "ski lift" and #3 - you can ride the Donkeys up the hill. Guess which one we chose? Of course... Donkeys it was. It's simple, you wait in a long line board the Donkey and sit back and hope he makes it up the hill. Alex and Austin were on one together - Pam and I went solo. I feel for those animals, it's a long way up the hill alone not to mention with people on your back..Back to the ship for dinner and a show and we were setting sail for Mykonos.
Day 4
Today we woke up in the port of Mykonos. Another great spot in Greece. The kids had enough of getting up early so they stayed in bed. Pam and I boarded a tender to look around the sea side town. We did not stay long. The town is a maze of streets that bend all over town. It's quite a tourist spot. We avoided a guided so I suspect we missed anything of real interest on the island. This was a bit of an unwind day for us. Mostly some shopping and we were back on board by around noon. The rest of the day was up on deck soaking up the sun, playing basketball, reading and lounging around.
Day 5
We woke up at 7:00AM docked in Irakilon, Crete. We had a guided tour planned of the Palace of Knossos. You can see information about the city here . Let me just say that during our stay we have seen some awesome historical sites, but for me, and I believe Alex, this site has been on top. We are talking about visiting an archeological find from a place that was first built in 1900 B.C. - Yea B.C. It would be spectacular to just visit and see, but we had the treat of a fantastic tour guide. Like very few, as she took us through time - she weaved a perfect story that culminated in an understanding of the possible reality behind the myth of the Minotaur. She was just incredible. I believe her style was unique because you could tell she had spent years studying the history of the site, the people and the myths and not only could articulate the 'official" version - she perfectly layered in her own conclusions, was sure to make us understand that this was her view, and tied the story together like so very few guides can do. For sure you can do some of your own research. Look here for starters. But this is a must see - for sure. Plan of 3-4 hours at least. I wish I could find the details of the tour guide. If I do I will update the post. Regardless, if you are at all interested in history and specifically Greek history this is a must do. Don't be cheep here. Pay for a guide and soak it up. It was great.
Day 6
This was a long awaited sea day. No ports - no stops, just one full day at sea. We had a good time here too. The best part of a cruse is just doing whatever you want. Sleep in, go eat, workout, walk around the deck, sit high on deck and just take in the sea around you, play cards, visit the SPA, climb the rock wall.... whatever. The day went by pleasantly slow and I think everyone had a great time. It was almost sad when the evening fell. We enjoyed our last dinner on board, said goodbye to all the folks that had taken such good care of us on the journey, visited the card room for our last evening of Cribbage, had a final drink and headed back to the State room to pack. By 8:00AM he next morning we were in port in Venice again ready to jump back to normal life....
Pam and I were not sure how the family would feel about the cruse when we started, but by now we are planning our next one on the Med and potentially a Baltic trip. It's a great way to take in a lot in one week -frankly. We were surprised. A big thank you to NCL - they did an great job, we are sure to return.
A quick movie of the Donkey ride and some photos, as usual, follow.
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Spring Break in Germany - Again
Well - It is spring break again in Europe. We had a visitor this year - Sue (IEO) came to visit. So we spent a week in Bavaria again. We also got to greet some new family to Europe. Steve and Susan are now residents - and we stopped in to see them before we came home. So in our usual tradition - let me show you where we went and how we got there.
Our home base was in a great little Bavarian town. Schliersee, Germany. You can see the resort we stayed at here. Alpen-Club-Schliersee.
For starters this is a great little Vacation Club. Highly recommended. Here was our route of travel and the stops we made: Long trip - almost 2310 Km.
View 2010 Spring Break in a larger map
Day 1
Day one was a short trip to the town of Kufstein Austria. This was a fantastic little town. Now this is going to sound strange - but we had 2 destinations planned. One was to the RIEDEL glass blowing company. That's the strange part. Going in I wondered - but it was a cool tour and fascinating to watch them work. They make some fantastic stuff! The second was to the fortress in Kufstein. You can check out the details on the Festung Kufstein site. It was another great castle tour in Europe....We spent the rest of the day looking around in the town - and it was full of shops, places to eat and of course drink. We even found a Route 66 Pub for IEO. It was a short day and we were back to Germany late in the afternoon. Before going back to the resort we took a quick tour of a great little distillery in town called Slyrs. They don't make beer, they don't make wine... they don't make brandy... they distill Whiskey!!! This is a must see and they are really new. So far they have only released their 3 yr old. It was fantastic. We have a return trip scheduled for 2015. You can find out more about Slyrs here.
Day 2
Day 2 was a repeat for us. Off to Munich a visit to the HB Haus. I'm not going to repeat the details - you can look back a year in the blog and check it out. As I told our new friends - the Hamilton's are incapable of being within 200 Kilometers of Munich without stopping in and we would never visit Munich without going to the HB Haus. We took the train and then visited Dachau again - even the second time through it was fantastic! We were back to the Alpine Club in time for "Meet the Manager' and Happy Hour. It's a small detail - the ones that make trips like this worth while, but the manager at the Alpine Club is a fantastic person. He has been there 30 years and was the host of a small get together for many of the guests of the week in the resort. They also have a fantastic events coordinator - Silvi - she was a gem. Drop in and see them - you will love it.
Day 3
Day 3 and we were off to see the Newschwanstein Castle. King Ludwig II - and the history here are quite interesting. ˙However, this place is quite the tourist trap - so expect it. But the castle sits in and on some of the most beautiful landscape you could imagine. It's worth seeing the location as much, if not more, than the Castle. Alex got her wish and we took a horse drawn carriage to the castle from the ticket center - poor horses, Phillipe & Mona, - that was quite a climb with the load we created :) - But it was fun.
Day 4
This was another repeat trip for the Hamilton's. Another visit to Berchtesgaden. This was a stop last year and it will likely be a stop any year we are close. Again, you can see last years blog for details - but what a location... I really think I would like to find a way to retire there.....We viewed the bunker again, the documentation center again, looked up at the Eagles Nest - closed this year too because it was too early - and took IEO through the Salt Mine tour.... We concluded the day with a visit to Old Town again!! It's just a fantastic place.
Day 5
Day 5 was twofold. It was mostly a travel day - but more important we diverted through Frankfurt to visit some family that are now residents of Europe with us. Steve and Susan now live on the continent and we are really happy to have some family here. We are really looking forward to getting to see them and to have them come to Brussels too. The travel was interesting as we are all dealing with the volcano ash problem that has brought Europe air travel to a halt. That filled the trains and roads with people trying to get home... We are not out of the woods as the writing of this post and IEO is still not sure if she will be able to depart this Thursday... We will just have to see.
The week was fun. You can always tell how good a trip is by the number of stores that can come out of it: I'll list a few - you can ask via a comment if you want to know more on any of them :) and as always we will attach some photos and videos from the trip below:
Some Photos from the week:
Our home base was in a great little Bavarian town. Schliersee, Germany. You can see the resort we stayed at here. Alpen-Club-Schliersee.
For starters this is a great little Vacation Club. Highly recommended. Here was our route of travel and the stops we made: Long trip - almost 2310 Km.
View 2010 Spring Break in a larger map
Day 1
Day one was a short trip to the town of Kufstein Austria. This was a fantastic little town. Now this is going to sound strange - but we had 2 destinations planned. One was to the RIEDEL glass blowing company. That's the strange part. Going in I wondered - but it was a cool tour and fascinating to watch them work. They make some fantastic stuff! The second was to the fortress in Kufstein. You can check out the details on the Festung Kufstein site. It was another great castle tour in Europe....We spent the rest of the day looking around in the town - and it was full of shops, places to eat and of course drink. We even found a Route 66 Pub for IEO. It was a short day and we were back to Germany late in the afternoon. Before going back to the resort we took a quick tour of a great little distillery in town called Slyrs. They don't make beer, they don't make wine... they don't make brandy... they distill Whiskey!!! This is a must see and they are really new. So far they have only released their 3 yr old. It was fantastic. We have a return trip scheduled for 2015. You can find out more about Slyrs here.
Day 2
Day 2 was a repeat for us. Off to Munich a visit to the HB Haus. I'm not going to repeat the details - you can look back a year in the blog and check it out. As I told our new friends - the Hamilton's are incapable of being within 200 Kilometers of Munich without stopping in and we would never visit Munich without going to the HB Haus. We took the train and then visited Dachau again - even the second time through it was fantastic! We were back to the Alpine Club in time for "Meet the Manager' and Happy Hour. It's a small detail - the ones that make trips like this worth while, but the manager at the Alpine Club is a fantastic person. He has been there 30 years and was the host of a small get together for many of the guests of the week in the resort. They also have a fantastic events coordinator - Silvi - she was a gem. Drop in and see them - you will love it.
Day 3
Day 3 and we were off to see the Newschwanstein Castle. King Ludwig II - and the history here are quite interesting. ˙However, this place is quite the tourist trap - so expect it. But the castle sits in and on some of the most beautiful landscape you could imagine. It's worth seeing the location as much, if not more, than the Castle. Alex got her wish and we took a horse drawn carriage to the castle from the ticket center - poor horses, Phillipe & Mona, - that was quite a climb with the load we created :) - But it was fun.
Day 4
This was another repeat trip for the Hamilton's. Another visit to Berchtesgaden. This was a stop last year and it will likely be a stop any year we are close. Again, you can see last years blog for details - but what a location... I really think I would like to find a way to retire there.....We viewed the bunker again, the documentation center again, looked up at the Eagles Nest - closed this year too because it was too early - and took IEO through the Salt Mine tour.... We concluded the day with a visit to Old Town again!! It's just a fantastic place.
Day 5
Day 5 was twofold. It was mostly a travel day - but more important we diverted through Frankfurt to visit some family that are now residents of Europe with us. Steve and Susan now live on the continent and we are really happy to have some family here. We are really looking forward to getting to see them and to have them come to Brussels too. The travel was interesting as we are all dealing with the volcano ash problem that has brought Europe air travel to a halt. That filled the trains and roads with people trying to get home... We are not out of the woods as the writing of this post and IEO is still not sure if she will be able to depart this Thursday... We will just have to see.
The week was fun. You can always tell how good a trip is by the number of stores that can come out of it: I'll list a few - you can ask via a comment if you want to know more on any of them :) and as always we will attach some photos and videos from the trip below:
- IEO blows a hammy in the rough and tumble game of bowling (it's not bowling it's kegeln)
- The bakery lady is surely glad we left town.
- The great Italian restaurant at the top of the lake
- Bret Favre at the HB house
- Buddy never gets to sleep
- Where are all the cows?
- What is a May pole anyway?
- Did IEO get a flight out of Europe?
Some Photos from the week:
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Christmas in Belgium
Well - We had our first Christmas in Europe and I think the entire family enjoyed it. Not much to say really - we stayed home, did not do much and I think that is exactly what we needed.
Right after Christmas Kathey and Keith came to visit. They were here through New Years and for Alex's Birthday. (More about that in a second). New Years was really fun. We went to our favorite local restaurant Cicco Bello! who were holding a New Years bash. It was a good meal and quite somber - right up until the point that the clock struck midnight. Then it was crazy. Being one group of a few who spoke English we had a good time watching the locals run around, drink heavily and dance. All in all it was good fun - Thanks goes to Pam for setting up a great evening for all of us. Kathey is keeping an entire log of what they did while they were here - and if I can get them into the 20th Century we will get them to add some comments to this blog post. :)
For Alex's 15th B-Day the entire gang took a side trip to Italy. Man was that fun.
View Larger Map
We did not drive though. We flew to Pisa and then took a train to Florence. Buddy is the resident expert on Florence so we followed his lead most of the way. He did great too. He and Pam picked out a great little hotel. The Hotel Donatello . Check it out. It was very nice. The weather in Florence was so so. Rained a bit - it was cold - but warmer than Brussels - however that did not really get in our way too much. We hit a ton of the local - must see- sites in Florence. Below is a link to a few of the best spots.
The Duomo - The big climb.
Santa Croce
Ponte Vecchio
Uffizi Musem
San Lorenso Market Images - Its best to just look at images :)
da Vinci Museum
Galleria dell'Accademia - Academy Gallery
We had some great food too! Italy is a great place to visit. The people are friendly, the sites are great and the food is out of this world. We hope to return soon.
Right after Christmas Kathey and Keith came to visit. They were here through New Years and for Alex's Birthday. (More about that in a second). New Years was really fun. We went to our favorite local restaurant Cicco Bello! who were holding a New Years bash. It was a good meal and quite somber - right up until the point that the clock struck midnight. Then it was crazy. Being one group of a few who spoke English we had a good time watching the locals run around, drink heavily and dance. All in all it was good fun - Thanks goes to Pam for setting up a great evening for all of us. Kathey is keeping an entire log of what they did while they were here - and if I can get them into the 20th Century we will get them to add some comments to this blog post. :)
For Alex's 15th B-Day the entire gang took a side trip to Italy. Man was that fun.
View Larger Map
We did not drive though. We flew to Pisa and then took a train to Florence. Buddy is the resident expert on Florence so we followed his lead most of the way. He did great too. He and Pam picked out a great little hotel. The Hotel Donatello . Check it out. It was very nice. The weather in Florence was so so. Rained a bit - it was cold - but warmer than Brussels - however that did not really get in our way too much. We hit a ton of the local - must see- sites in Florence. Below is a link to a few of the best spots.
The Duomo - The big climb.
Santa Croce
Ponte Vecchio
Uffizi Musem
San Lorenso Market Images - Its best to just look at images :)
da Vinci Museum
Galleria dell'Accademia - Academy Gallery
We had some great food too! Italy is a great place to visit. The people are friendly, the sites are great and the food is out of this world. We hope to return soon.
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