Today we took an excursion from the ship. Santorini has 2 main towns, Oia and Fira. Fira is the better known town...the one you have 3 ways of approaching - by donkey, by hanging tram, or by climbing the 729 stairs used by the donkeys. We, however, took a bus to Oia first! This town was amazing...all whitewashed with the beautiful blue doors. There are 400 inhabitants of this town and 80 tiny churches!! It is pedestrian only and truly a delight to wander thro...

Today we are in Turkey...we got to see the amazing archeological ruins at Ephesus and then we got to see the ship's hospital, up close and personal. 3 days ago when we encountered rough seas Gary went to the ships hospital and was given Dramamine and some seasick wrist bands. He didn't feel satisfactory relief so he used some of the patches that Lenore had received from her doctor at home. Today on our tour he began to feel faint, complained of heavy limbs, stu...

Our first full day at sea! We crossed through the Straight of Messina last night around 11pm. This is the little narrow passage that separates the toe in the"boot of Italy" from the island of Sicily. Gary went to bed after dinner last night but Ron, Lenore and I walked around the Promenade deck several times...laughing hysterically as we rounded the corner and had to walk at a 45 degree angle when we were walking into the wind!! Then we would round the corner ...

This beautiful gold mosaic was above the altar in the Cefalu cathedral.

We pulled into Palermo this morning. The town looked pretty as we cruised in. But the Port was not attractive at all! We had an early morning shore excursion so both r&l and g&k had breakfast in our rooms, thanks to room service! Boy is it going to be hard to get back to reality in a few weeks! This is the one port where we were sure we wanted to take an organized tour because all the guidebooks mention Palermo being dangerous...you know, the mafia and...