Greece – Kate and Mike

Cruise Part two

We docked in Rhodes – and could see the old town from the ship.

Its a beautiful walled town, with the walls and several of the buildings dating back to the medieval ages when the Knights Templar ruled here.

The street of the knights

In Kalymnos – we anchored and the water platform was down. We went scuba diving with a local dive centre. Not much to see but good practise. The first dive was called “amphora” – and the sights were…

wait for it….

broken amphora.

The second dive we saw some fish and we also got to see and touch a large sponge. Kalymnos is known for sponge diving. I hadn’t realized that sponges are black. They bleach them after they harvest them.

The crew leading YMCA at the on-deck bbq in Kalymnos

Then a day at sea and I got to walk to the bowsprit. Shame I haven’t seen Titanic.

And the last port, Nafplio, had a ruined castle that you could get a bus up to or climb 999 steps…

Well – in the end we are pretty sure it was more than 999 steps.

There were lovely views down to the harbor and town though.

Two rival ships also in port. The one with the sails is the Royal Clipper and is operated by Star Clippers.

Views from the ship

There used to be a chain across this harbor – which is what this little island was for.

Sailing back to Athens

The sail-away (I can only show short movies as the full length ones are too large for this site).

Our rival sailing ship the Royal Clipper as we sail by.

The crew bid us goodbye on the last night

Cruise part one

We have been traveling around Greece. We spent the first night in Athens at the Coral Hotel. We were able to watch the ClubMed 2 and the Wind Star Sail into port together.

We started in Athens.

Kate on the Back Deck

We had dinner on deck the first night and watched the sun set and sailed past the temple of Poseidon. It was very windy. Our salad was properly tossed and blown around.

Sunset

Just after Sunset

We sailed past the Temple of Poseidon. I think he was busy getting ready to release the Krakken.

The first port (Sunday) was Mykonos.

Our ship – the Windstar – in Mykonos harbor

And in Santorini

On Mykenos – we got the tender to shore and a ferry to Delos -an island near Mykonos famous for ancient ruins. Mythology says Delos is the birth place of Apollo and Artemis.

Photos of Mykonos from the ferry to Delos.

Photos of Delos

Second stop – Monday – was Santorini.

Our ship is the sail ship on the right. On

the left is a celebrity cruise ship – itself a relatively “smaller”. View from Santorini looking down into the caldera full of sea.

In Santorini the boat docks at the base of a cliff – and you can get a cable car, donkey or walk up. Most of you won’t need three guesses to work out what Mike proposed….

The donkeys – they looked well fed and healthy. But had a mind of their own when coming up or down – sometimes straight at us…

A donkey with Windstar in the background

Walking around Santorini

Views of Santorini from the ship

The houses look like White Caps on snow covered mountains.

More views of the caldera from Santorini

Europe Itinerary

So here is our itinerary. It will be updated as we make changes and fill in the gaps. Mike and Kate – Itinerary

We are staying at pet friendly hotels, motels and airb&b houses while traveling with Max.

Our plan is to drive to Newark. Love Jersey – NOT! We will rent a car in Syracuse, drive down, and spend the night. This will give Max time to have every opportunity to use the bathroom, before his trip to the UK. We have to have Max to the airport a few hours before the flight. I will drop Max and Kate off to have him checked in as cargo, while I return the car.

We will fly direct to London. No upgrade. We are sitting in the back of the bus. Max will be taken automatically through customs and immigration. We will meet him at HARC, Heathrow Animal Reception Center and Emporium. Ok, I made up the Emporium part. We are a little nervous about fitting Max, his crate, and our luggage in our rental car in the UK. Hopefully it will work out. We will spend the night at an Airport hotel. We check into an Air B&B place in the South of London, that has more greenery than buildings and concrete. We are there for a week.

While in London we plan to visit family and get settled into our travel plans and take care of anything forgotten. I plan to get a UK SIM card, and switch between my American and UK phone. I am still working out that plan. Kate’s niece has a certain affection for Max. Max even got a Christmas present from her (a snowman on a string that he loved to pieces- literally). She has imagined “Taking two airplanes to Auntie Kate’s house to play with Max.” Those were her words. We absolutely need her to meet Max for real.

After a week there, we will drop Max off at a cattery, so that we can cruise around the Greek Islands. We have a direct flight to Athens. We were able to work out a ‘free’ upgrade on Aegean Airlines in one direction. Yippie. I love upgrades. It is not that great of an upgrade, but allows some small perks like not sitting next to anyone and getting on the plane first.

We will cruise around the Islands. Here is the Cruise Itinerary.

We come back to London for a few days. We then will head to Settle, UK . This will be a very productive time for Kate. I plan to quite a bit of hiking and exploring of the countryside. We will stay there until it is almost time to come back home. We will spend a few days in London with Kate’s parents before we leave.

Max will need to see a vet before he flies home. He needs a health certificate stating he is healthy enough to fly. We fly back to the States on Oct 20th. We are back in town for just under 6 days. We begin our journey to Hawaii on Oct 26th.

Hawaii will be the next post.