Ryan, Debi, and Toren Cragun's Blog

Our third stop in Greece was in Mykonos, a Greek island famous for its white buildings with blue roofs and doors, beaches, and night life.  Here’s a shot of the buildings:

the iconic architecture of Mykonos (photo courtesy of Brent)

We arrived early (7:00 am) and had to meet for our excursion at 7:15.  We struggled to get up as Toren woke up repeatedly through the night and only made it in time because Rosemary knocked on our door.  We had different excursions this day as well.  Brent, Suzy, and Ethan opted for the beaches of Mykonos while the rest of us headed to the island of Delos, one of the most important mythological and archaeological sites in Greece.  Delos is about 20-30 minutes away from Mykonos by boat.  Delos was a holy site long before Greek mythology turned it into the birthplace of both Apollo and Artemis.  At its apex, almost the entire island was covered with one massive, booming city.  According to our guide, there were over 60,000 inhabitants (today there are 14). It was covered with temples and monuments, most of which have been raided.  Since 1872, the French School of Athens has been excavating the island.  The island is fascinating because it has very few natural resources – no timber or arable land as it is too dry.  What little water the island has is stored in cisterns and the dirty water is managed through a complex sewer system (that actually runs under the cities streets; you can see it through the cracks in the rocks).  All the resources used by the inhabitants were shipped in, which was obviously a considerable amount considering the size of the population.  Delos was also quite multicultural as the Romans eliminated taxes on the island.  Everyone from the Naxos/Cycladic Culture (who were quite powerful before the Greek Athenians came to power; our guide was from Naxos and talked about it a lot) to the Egyptians set up shops and temples here.

Unfortunately, the place has basically been ransacked and most of the amazing artwork and sculpture has been taken by looters, but it’s still pretty amazing.  One of the first things our guide showed us was a portico donated by King Philip V of Macedonia, which still has the Greek writing on it indicating that he gave it as a gift to the island, the visitors of the island, and the gods.  Here’s the portico today:

portico donated by King Philip V of Macedonia, now lying on the ground but originally was quite a tall structure

Another remarkable site are the famed lions donated by the Naxos, which haven’t weathered well, but are still quite impressive considering they are close to 4,000 years old:

the three of us by the Naxos lions

Our guide also pointed out a still-standing herm (or herma), which is a squared statue with a head (typically of Hermes, the messenger god and protector of merchants and travelers).  More interestingly, the genitalia were also typically part of the sculpture and occasionally the erect penis held a sign with information or directions (the one below, unfortunately, is sans phallus):

a herm, sans penis and dangling sign

I think life would be more interesting if all of our road and information signs were herms today.  Don’t you?

As I mentioned, Delos is known for being the birthplace of Apollo.  According to Greek mythology, Leto, Apollo’s mother, was banned from giving birth on “terra firma” by Hera (Zeus’s wife; Zeus was the father, that scoundrel).  Delos was a newly created floating island at the time.  Leto found Delos and gave birth in the middle of the sacred lake, holding a palm tree, first to Artemis, and then to Apollo.  The sacred lake has been drained to prevent the spread of disease, but the lake bed is still there and there is a palm tree in the center:

the sacred lake, birthplace of Apollo and Artemis

Here we are at the birthplace of Apollo and Artemis:

the three of us at the birthplace of Apollo and Artemis

I’ve never visited the birthplace of a god before!  How cool is that?!?

Another temple had two very large phalluses standing guard at the entrance.  The phallus was often revered by the Greeks, who saw it as a symbol of fertility.  Unfortunately, they were both broken:

Debi by a broken phallus; poor phallus

From here we wandered into the ruins, visiting houses dedicated to various gods and other figures.  We visited homes dedicated to Trident, Poseidon, and a Cleopatra, but not “that” Cleopatra.  We eventually worked our way up to the very large amphitheater. However, on the way Toren started getting antsy, so he and I took off and left the rest of the group, climbing around the ruins.  We actually climbed to the top of the amphitheater before our group arrived and took this shot of the group as they entered:

view of the amphitheater from the top

Steve, in turn, took a shot of Toren and I at the top of the amphitheater:

Toren and I at the top of the amphitheater

The tour ended at the amphitheater.  Our guide, who was really good by the way, had noted that the mountain at the center of the island was called Mount Cynthus, which is the root for Cynthia, which is a different version of the name Artemis. We could see the mountain in the distance and noted that there was a path to climb it:

Mount Cynthos; the horizontal dark line is a stairway; the temple ruins you see at the bottom right are of an Egyptian temple

I asked the guide if we could climb it.  He said yes and that it was an easy climb.  Gary, Rosemary, and Debi weren’t interested, so I left Toren with them at the amphitheater and Steve and I set out to climb Mount Cynthos.  Twenty minutes later we were at the top:

Ryan at the top of Mount Cynthos

While up here I took a number of pictures to build a panorama of the great view, which I pieced into two photos:

panorama 1 of Delos (click to enlarge)

panorama 2 of Delos (click to enlarge)

If you look closely in the panoramas you’ll see rock walls running the length of the island.  As I noted above, the entire island was at one point inhabited, but only a small portion has been excavated.  The wall illustrates that the ruins do cover the entire island.  The island was, like most things pagan, abandoned with the spread of Christianity (the exception being temples that were converted to churches).

On our way to Mount Cynthos I saw a temple about half way up the mountain that no one was visiting.  On our way back down we found the path to it and worked our way over to it.  Turns out it isn’t a temple but the ancient entry to Mount Cynthos:

Ryan in front of the ancient entrance to Mount Cynthos; the sign to the right indicated what this was

We hiked back down the mountain and met back up with everyone at the amphitheater.  Toren was having a ball running around the amphitheater but was excited to see me:

Toren at the amphitheater

By this point we had about 30 minutes until we had to be back on the boat.  Debi, Steve, Toren, and I ran over to the museum, which houses the more sensitive sculptures and decorations that have been preserved from the ruins.  We didn’t have much time, but worked through the museum quickly.  A lot of the ancient artifacts have been plundered over the years, so not much remains.  We then got back on our boat and headed back to Mykonos.

We walked around Mykonos for a little bit, following the boardwalk to the nearby beach.  We also walked through some of the of the narrow back streets (stopping to buy some more wipes for Toren; we were running low).  We also found a free wifi hotspot, so Steve and I stopped to check our email for a few minutes.  We then headed back to the ship and grabbed a bite to eat at the buffet.

Mykonos does look very cool with the nearly uniform white buildings with blue accents.  The uniformity makes it very quaint.  Brent and Suzy said the beach was nice – not great sand, but the water was very clear.  Oh, and they went to a “family” beach; there are “adult” beaches too.

As was quickly becoming the pattern, we took a nap in the afternoon, waking up in time to get ready for dinner.  It was the second and last formal night, so Toren got fancied up in his tuxedo again.  We didn’t get as many pictures this time as he was still tired, but we snapped a few:

Toren eating pizza in his tux

Ethan, Toren, and Rosemary at dinner

We tried to go dancing again this night, but Toren wasn’t game.  Rosemary was with us and every time we’d start dancing, Toren would run out on to the dance floor and grab Debi.  So we called it a night and just went back to the room to put Toren down then fell asleep ourselves.

Our second stop in Greece was in Athens.  The port for Athens is actually Piraeus as Athens is not right on the ocean.  Given the distance between Corfu and Athens (440 miles, roughly), our cruise ship didn’t arrive in Piraeus until noon.  This was a nice change as we got to sleep in.  We actually had a little time to relax on the ship.  When we woke up, I took Toren up to the night club on the 11th floor of the ship, which bustled at night, but was deserted during the day.  It had great views and was actually quite child friendly.  He and I played up there for a while, then Debi took him to the Fisher Price Royal Babies activity room, which was a program set up for kids under 3.  Basically it was a room decked out with toys for toddlers.  Toren and Debi played in there for about 45 minutes with one of the staff members who was very good with Toren.  No other kids showed up and this was the only time Toren went, but he seemed to enjoy it.

After Toren and Debi played we went to brunch in the nice restaurant with the rest of the family.  After brunch we set out on our excursions.  Our group split up again.  Gary and Rosemary took a sightseeing bus tour around Athens as they smartly concluded they would have a hard time walking up the steps to the Acropolis in the searing heat (93 F).  The rest of us went to the Acropolis and then went on a sightseeing tour on our bus.

An “acropolis” is just a hill.  ”The Acropolis” is the specific hill in Athens famous for the structures on top of it (and the historical structures that no longer stand), in particular The Parthenon.  The hike up The Acropolis really isn’t that bad, even in hot weather (and with a 25 pound child strapped to your back).  The marble steps make it a rather straightforward hike:

the stairs up the Acropolis

Along the way you get to see some pretty cool stuff.  The first famous site is the Odeon of Herodes Atticus or the Theater at the Acropolis.  My first encounter with it was when Yanni played live at the Acropolis, but many other musicians and artists have performed here.  Here’s a photo of Debi in front of the theater:

Debi by the theater

And here’s a panoramic shot of the theater that captures most of it:

the amphitheater at the Acropolis (click for larger version)

From the theater you walk up to the entrance to the top of the Acropolis, which is guarded by gates or Propylaea.  From this point you can see several other famous sites.  You can see the Areopagus, which is a large rock outcrop with an amazing history:

the Areopagus or Areios is the 'Rock of Ares', north-west of the Acropolis; it is claimed this is where Paul (from the bible) was alleged to have preached Acts 17:24

Just north of the Areopagus is the Temple of Hephaestus which is the best preserved of the Greek temples from the golden age of Greece:

Temple of Hephaestus, which is a better preserved temple than the Parthenon and is just northwest of the Acropolis

Right next to the Propylaea, and undergoing heavy restoration when we visited, was the Temple of Athena Nike (nike means victory in Greek and is typically symbolized with wings, thus the Nike swoosh symbol).  As you work your way through the Propylaea, you eventually enter the top of the Acropolis and get your first view of The Parthenon, which is probably the most famous temple in the world:

the Parthenon from near the Propylaea

Our guide talked to us for a good 20 minutes from this angle (which is the western end of The Acropolis), then set us free to explore.  She noted in her discussion of The Parthenon that it was actually in very good condition up until the mid 17th Century and would likely have remained so were it not for the Venetians who attacked Athens in 1687.  Athens was under the control of the Ottoman Turks, who were using the temple as a place to store gunpowder.  The leader of the Venetian army ordered his soldiers to fire on The Parthenon.  One of the cannon balls struck The Parthenon and set off the gunpowder, collapsing the roof and a number of pillars.  It’s a beautiful building as it is; I can only imagine what it would have looked like had it not been destroyed and then looted (much of the decoration – called “The Marbles” – is in the British Museum).

The only other prominent temple on the Acropolis today is the Erechtheum.  here is Debi in front of the south side of the Erechtheum:

Debi in front of one of the south side of the Erechtheum

And here are the three of us in front of the east side:

the three of us in front of the Erechtheum

We also took pictures in front of The Parthenon:

the three of us on the west end of the Parthenon

And on the other end:

the three of us at the other end of the Parthenon

I was actually quite surprised by how uneven the top of The Acropolis is.  It seemed like it was just the original marble, which has been smoothed by centuries of people walking on it.  But given the history of The Acropolis I would be very surprised if that is the case.  And just as an FYI, the top would be very, very slick if you visit in the rain, particularly in the wrong kinds of shoes.  So, be careful.

Also, the Greek government is in the process of restoring some of the structures.  The Propylaea, The Temple of Athena Nike, and The Parthenon are all under reconstruction (though apparently at a very, very slow pace).  Any lighter colored pieces of marble you see in the pictures are places where the structures have been reconstructed.  All of the marble comes from a quarry to the west of Athens, not far away.  It’s the same marble, it just turns yellowish with age and exposure to the elements.

After touring around the Acropolis, our bus took us on a tour of Athens.  We saw a number of buildings that were very cool.  In particular, we got to see the new old Olympic Stadium, the Panathinaiko Stadium.  This stadium was the site of the first new Olympic games in 1896 after they were revived from millenia of Christian oppression (more on this in a follow-up post).  The stadium was originally built in the Greek style, without any seats or benches, but when the Romans conquered Greece, they added benches.  The stadium was modeled after the original Olympic stadium in Olympia (more on this to come), but was refurbished before the 1896 Olympics.  Here are some fun pics:

Toren and Debi at the new old stadium

the three of us at the new old stadium

And a panorama of the stadium:

the new old Olympic stadium (refurbished for the 1896 Olympics; click for larger version)

Our bus driver and tour guide also timed our tour perfectly so we could stop at the Parliament building and observe the very odd changing of the guards:

the changing of the guard

If you look closely, they have little puffy balls of yarn on the toes of their shoes.  It’s kind of hard to take these guys seriously when they are doing funny walks in funny outfits.  ;)

We also saw the National Library of Greece, the Academy of Athens, and the National University of Athens, all of which are remarkable neo-classical buildings.

We had the option of being let off the bus in Athens to walk around for a bit as the cruise ship didn’t leave until 7:00 pm, but there was no free shuttle back to Piraeus and after the difficulties we had the day before in Corfu getting back, we opted just to take the tour bus back to the ship.  We got back around 5:30, in time to get ready for dinner.  We had dinner in the main dining room, which was very good, as always.  After dinner, Toren did a little clowning around in our room.  We were trying to undress him and only got his pants off about half way when he started running around:

Toren being funny with his pants half off

He kept falling over, but he thought it was funny, so we let him play around for a while.  Once he was ready for bed, I went up to the hot tub with Steve and left Debi with Toren.  Debi was supposed to come up to the hot tube once he was asleep (Rosemary was going to sneak into our room and watch him).  But Debi never showed up.  I didn’t return to the room until about 10:30 and apparently Toren was awake until about 10:20, so Debi didn’t get to go to the hot tub.  That was the night for us.

Our first stop in Greece was in Corfu, a Greek island in the Ionian Sea.  The ship docked at 8:00 am, so our tour was early again.  Our tour in Corfu included two stops: Achilleion Palace and Palaiokastritsa.  Achilleion Palace was built by the Empress of Austria, Elisabeth of Bavaria. After her death it was purchased by Kaiser Wilhelm II who used it as a summer residence.  Both of them used Achilles as the theme of the palace, thus he figures prominently in the statues, paintings, and design.  The palace itself was mostly unremarkable.  Though there was one element of the whole thing that I found intriguing.  Elisabeth was Catholic, but was living in Greece, which is Greek Orthodox. In order to continue to practice her religion she built a chapel in the palace and provided a room and funds for a priest to stay in the palace as well (in the room next to the chapel).  Yet, the palace is dedicated to a Greek mythological figure, Achilles, and is rooted in Greek mythology with paintings and sculptures depicting Greek gods and Greek myths.  It seems like she took Greek mythology very seriously.  The mixing of monotheism with Greek mythology seemed odd.

Anyway, two of the  remarkable statues of Achilles are located in the garden.  Here’s the first of Achilles triumphant:

Debi in front of Achilles Triumphant - the amazing statue in the garden of the Achilleion Palace overlooking the bay

It’s hard to really capture how stunning this statue is.  It’s obviously quite large (which is why I posted the photo with Debi in it).  But its immensity doesn’t really come across in the photo. Also, it’s location is really remarkable.  It’s overlooking this view:

view from Achilleion Palace (click for larger view)

It’s a stunning view of the bay.  So, the statue is on a promontory overlooking the bay and is really breath taking when you first see it.  Here are the three of us in front of the remarkable view:

Toren, Debi, and I at Achilleion Palace

Not far from the statue of Achilles triumphant is another statue of Achilles, depicting his death:

The Death of Achilles

The statue of Achilles Triumphant was commissioned by Kaiser Wilhelm.  The statue of the Death of Achilles was the favorite statue of Elisabeth and was originally where the statue of Achilles Triumphant stands.

Here’s Debi right behind the Death of Achilles statue by these two odd looking youths:

Debi at Achilleion Palace

The other really great piece of art is this painting of Achilles called “The Triumph of Achilles” which is just above the main stairway in the palace:

The Triumph of Achilles - depicting Achilles dragging Hector at the battle of Troy

It’s enormous, life-like, and extremely well done.  I’m not easily impressed by art, by these three pieces all impressed me.

Here’s one more photo from Achilleion Palace of Debi with her mom:

Debi and Rosemary at Achilleion Palace

From Achilleion Palace we drove about 40 minutes to Palaiokastritsa which is both a municipality and the name of a monastery.  Our tour was of the monastery.  We weren’t that impressed with the monastery itself, as it is highly commercialized.  As an example, here’s a photo of Debi, Toren, and I at the front gate getting a picture with two Greek women dressed in traditional Greek clothing:

Toren, Debi, and Ryan with some Greek women at the highly commercialized Palaiokastritsa monastery

We’re not sure why we bought this (I don’t recall the exact price, but I think it was something like 5 Euros).  But this was how most of the monastery was – lots of stuff for sale.  I’m not sure what the appeal of the monastery was supposed to be.  Not even the chapel was that amazing, as Steve indicated in this photo:

Steve illustrating what most of us thought of the chapel at the monastery

Despite the monastery not being particular amazing, the view from the monastery was really remarkable:

view from Palaiokastritsa monastery

And here’s Debi at the monastery:

Debi at the Palaiokastritsa monastery

Also of interest is the fact that Corfu is considered to be the mythical island of the Phaeacians, which figures prominently in Homer’s Odyssey.  It’s the home of Nausicaa, the princess who helps Odysseus when he is shipwrecked by Poseidon.  According to local legend, Odysseus’s ship was turned to stone and can be seen off the coast of Palaiokastritsa:

Odysseus's petrified ship is the rocky island you see in the center of this picture

I was far more interested in the connection of the island to Homer’s Odyssey than I was in the monastery, but the monastery does have good views of the surrounding coast.  However, knowing what I know now, I wouldn’t visit the monastery but rather would take a boat out to the sea caves nearby if I were to visit Corfu again.  The sea caves also figure in the Odyssey and they can be visited today.  Also, the beaches, while they didn’t look like they had great sand, looked like they led to crystal clear water.  There is also a very cool castle in Palaiokastritsa that can be visited, Angelokastro.  So, if you find yourself in Palaiokastritsa, I’d recommend the beach, the sea caves, and the Angelokastro castle.

After our tours, the bus dropped us off near the old fort in Corfu Town and we walked around for a bit.  Debi bought a purse (she’s needed a new one for a while) and I bought a dessert similar to baklava, but slightly different.  It was made with sesame seeds, almonds, and honey.  It was okay, but not particularly great.  The streets of Corfu Town were cool, but it was very busy and very touristy.  We pushed getting back to the ship a bit and ran into some issues getting on the shuttle back to the dock as a lot of people were trying to get back on the later trips, but we eventually muscled our way on to one of the buses and made it back before the ship left (3:30).

We grabbed a late, light lunch at the buffet then crashed again.  Napping the day before screwed up my schedule and I ended up staying up until about 1:00 am writing.  So I was tired again in the afternoon and we all ended up sleeping.  We got up in time to shower and go eat again.  Luckily I skipped breakfast, so I wasn’t putting on weight!  Hooray!

This was the first formal night.  And, thanks to Suzy, both Toren and Ethan had tuxedos, which made them the hit of the ship.  Everyone kept pointing at them and various people wanted pictures with them.  Why, you ask?  Because they were this cute:

Ethan, Toren, and Debi all dressed up

Toren looking dapper

Toren taking a close look at the menu

Toren looking at the fountains in the Centrum

Toren in his tux

We hung around a bit after dinner for the Captain’s welcome then went to bed.

The first stop on our cruise was actually not in Greece but in Split, Croatia.  Why, you ask?  Because it’s about half way between Greece and Italy.  I created a Google Map of our entire trip (flights and cruise), but you can see the route for our cruise ship here (in green):

View Europe Trip – 2010 in a larger map

And who wouldn’t want to go to Croatia, right?  As with Venice, I learned a number of things about Croatia, like the fact that the name “Split” actually comes from a plant (the Spiny Broom) and has nothing to do with the English word “split”.  Split is the second largest city in Croatia and the largest in Dalmatia.  Like many of the places we visited, Split was ruled by the Venetians at one time.  Also, for those who don’t know, Croatia is part of the former Yugoslavia.

Our ship arrived early, 7:00 am, so our tours were early as well.  This was one of two days when we were not all together for the tour.  Gary, Rosemary, and Steve took a walking tour of historic Split, which focused on Diocletian’s Palace, admittedly the most famous attraction in Split.  Suzy, Brent, Ethan, Debi, Toren, and I visited two different sites: Salona, a Roman settlement (Split was also conquered by Rome) and Trogir.

On our way from the port to Salona I snapped a few pictures. This first one is of a high-rise apartment building built during the communist era:

communist construction

For those who don’t know, Yugoslavia was kind of like an independent satellite of the USSR.  It was technically independent, but practically not and was self-governed by communists.  I’ve always wanted to get a picture of the apartments constructed in communist countries in the Eastern Bloc as I’ve heard they were functional but spartan.  I think that’s pretty accurate.

Perhaps of more interest to everyone else is the next photo, which is of a Roman aqueduct:

Roman aqueduct in Split, which is thousands of years old and still standing

When the Romans conquered Split, they built this aqueduct, which was still in use until quite recently.

Salona is about 20 minutes from Split, inland.  It was originally an Illyrian settlement, but it was taken over by the Greeks and then the Romans and eventually became the capital of the Roman province of Dalmatia.  Today, Salona is a ruin, with only about 16% having been excavated.  Much of the original building material has been scavenged over the years for other construction projects.  Our guide walked us through the area, pointing out various Roman structures.  However, I wasn’t able to hear a lot of what was going on.  Toren decided he wanted Debi’s audio receiver and when we tried to take it from him, he refused:

Toren refusing to give up his audio tour guide; photo courtesy of Ethan

Apparently he really wanted to hear what the guide had to say (not really, of course; Debi just let him hold it and put the headphones on then followed me around).

The size of the ruin isn’t apparent when you first walk in to the excavation, but a little further in it becomes apparent that Salona was once a very large town:

a small part of the ruins of Salona; that's Debi, Toren, and I in the center (photo courtesy of Brent)

Here’s Debi in front of some ruins:

Debi in Salona

And here are Toren and I by a doorway among the ruins:

Toren and I amid the ruins of Salona

We spent about 2 hours at Salona, then got back on our bus and drove about 30 minutes to Trogir, which is more of a resort town and is even referred to as “Little Venice” because of its architecture, the fact that it is right on the water, and because it has many buildings built using Venetian architecture as it was controlled by the Republic of Venice as well.  Here’s Debi in front of Fortress Kamerlengo, a castle from the 15th Century that was built by the Venetians:

Debi in front of Fortress Kamerlengo

Trogir is also famous for its churches.  Many of them have bells and for some reason they are not coordinated in any real fashion.  So, around noon, the bell clanging is a true cacophony.  Anyway, the Fortress lies at the end of this really remarkable boardwalk:

the boardwalk in Trogir

If I were looking for a place to vacation with the intention of just relaxing near the water, I’m thinking Trogir would fit the bill.  It’s not very expensive, but beautiful and very laid back, aside from the bell situation.  And it does kind of live up to its nickname of Little Venice with alleys like this:

Debi, Toren, and I down an alley in Trogir

While we wandered around Trogir we found these pretty flowers, which Toren really liked:

Toren playing with flowers

After a couple hours in Trogir (we got some gelato here, too, and it was about as good as that in Venice), we headed back to the ship (which left Split at 2:30 pm).  We grabbed a quick lunch in the buffet restaurant, then headed back to our cabin.  Some of the other people in our party went swimming, but we crashed.  Too many days with too little sleep caught up to me.  Toren, of course, needs naps, and Debi loves them.  So, we slept.  In fact, we slept from just after we ate lunch (around 2:00) until about 6:00, which was a half hour before dinner.  We got up with just enough time to shower before dinner then eat again.  Yes, folks, this is cruising: eat, sleep, shower (got to wash off the crumbs from the previous meal), then eat again!  Uggh!  I know, I shouldn’t complain.  But that is the one thing about cruising that scares me – eating too much.

Anyway, dinner was great, as was expected.  We then went back to the room (dinner, with its three courses, always took from 6:30 until about 8:30) and played with Toren until he fell asleep.  I stayed up taking a few notes for the blog, then we went to sleep as well.

We spent the morning getting everything packed back up and cleaning up the condo.  We were done by about 10:45 and then went to San Samuele, the same place we were dropped off, to get our reserved water taxi (Rosemary arranged that as well).  The water taxi took us up to the port where a bunch of cruise ships were waiting, including ours: Royal Caribbean’s Splendour of the Seas.

We had a little issue checking in as everyone but Gary, Brent and I had had a little cold/runny nose over the previous couple of days.  So, before we could board the nurse onboard the ship had to check everyone out, but we were fine.  Once they cleared us we boarded but couldn’t go to our staterooms until 1:00.  It was around 12:00 at this point.  So we went up to the buffet and grabbed some lunch, then checked into our state rooms.

After we got settled, I walked around the boat with Toren, Steve, Rosemary, and Suzy while Debi got more food (Toren was too tired to let her eat as much as she wanted).  After she got seconds and I returned from my tour of the ship, Debi put Toren down for a nap.  I went up on deck with Steve and Gary to watch as we left Venice.  We had great views of Venice and its many towers while cruising past.  Here’s an example:

Piazza San Marco from the cruise ship

We had a couple hours after we left Venice and were on the open ocean before we had anything planned, so I headed down to the library to do some reading.  The library/game room was my preferred location for reading because no one was ever in there and it has great views.

Our dining time was 6:30 in the nice restaurant (called “The King and I”).  One of the great pleasures of cruising for the family is the nice dinners in the restaurant.  We met up just before 6:30 and went to dinner together.  It was, as we expected, very good.  Here is Toren deciding what he’d like for the evening:

Toren ordering his dinner (he's actually watching a video on my phone)

After dinner we put Toren down and then Rosemary graciously offered to sit in our room with him while Debi and I snuck out to do some dancing.  We haven’t been ballroom dancing since Toren was born, so we took her up on the offer and danced for about 30 minutes.  The only place with ballroom music was in the Centrum, which doesn’t have a good dance floor.  But the band played pretty good Latin music.  After dancing, we went back to our room and went to bed.

Oh, and if anyone is wondering, the cruise was a 7 days Greek Isles cruise.  You’ll see where we stopped over the coming days.