October 7-15
Our 8:12am train departure had a 2:01pm scheduled arrival at Venice's Santa Lucia station. We only had a single connection to make. The only worry was that the connection had to be accomplished in 7 minutes. Several other non-Europeans were tense about this as well.
We arrived in the station, darted off pulling our wheelie bags, down the escalator, hurried across, up an escalator, found our car, got on and sat down. It all took 2 minutes; nothing like air travel. Smooth sailing.
Venice is like nowhere else. It is a maze of islands molded into a city. The lack of anything like automobiles makes it special enough. Boats make up the system of transportation. Everything is brought in that way, and moved on carts by human muscle.
We were staying on the nearby island of Murano. This cut our costs in half, and put us in a very quiet neighbourhood each night. As in Salzburg, we stayed for three sleeps.
We wandered over bridges, through open piazzazs, and down tiny, narrow alleys. I don't get disoriented easily, but in Venice I met my match.
St. Marks square was packed with huge bunches of tourists. I shudder to think what it would be like if we were not there in the off season. Helen does her photography; willing to wait a minute or two for a break in the crowds. If you ever get to see her pictures, they lie. Add about a billion more people.
When our time in Venice ended, we had one last breakfast, and headed to the Vapporato bus. We took line 4.2, walked the waterfront, and caught a private boat over to the cruise ship terminal.
Our ship was the Splendour of the Seas, and would take us through the Adriatic, Mediterranean, and Aegean Seas for seven days. Our cabin was a windowless one down on deck two; the lowest passenger deck. She is an older vessel, having been built 19 years ago. She will soon be sold out of the Royal Caribbean fleet.
Cruising was a way to add Croatia, Turkey, and two Greek isles to our trip without any of the hassles that doing so on our own would have entailed.
Boarding was very relaxed. The ship is still well kept up, and very pretty. She is 70,000 tons which is small for us these days, but nothing is wanting.
The first port of call was Debrovnik in Croatia. It is a gorgeous, walled town set between the sea and high, steep hills. It is remarkably preserved. We walked the town, and then the wall.
It was about this time that our room issue started to matter. The temperature was very low, and continued through the first night. It was uncomfortable. We mentioned it, and somebody came while we were out, and got the heat on. The problem now became an inability to turn it off. The thermostat was pretty useless. It was like sleeping in Vegas, in summer, outside in the sand. Another night and a few more complaints and technician visits got the heat off again.
We had a restful day at sea, mostly eating. This was followed by a visit to the Turkish town of Kudasaki. The draw here is some Greek ruins at Ephesus, nearby. We stayed and poked around the town, and shopped a little, and ate back on board after a morning ashore.
Technically, we were in Asia. According to the usual Canadian reckoning of continents, that was our third out of seven.
Santorini is one of a kind. In ancient times, a volcano exploded there, killing everyone and causing area-wide devastation. What remains are a few little islands, and one big one. The villages there cling to the top of very-high cliffs. The dominant colour of all the buildings is white.
Our ship anchored early. Helen and I were on the tender and halfway to shore before 8am.
There are three ways up the cliff-side. One can walk, or ride a donkey. We opted for the cable car.
We grabbed a local bus tour for a fraction of the price than what the cruise offers. It ran us over to Ioa, the cutest town, and also the most tourist-packed, and to a scenic vista, and back.
We walked a great distance in both Ioa and Fira before catching the cable car back down. This time there was a bit of a wait. Moments after reaching the bottom, disaster struck.
Walking on flat, paved ground, Helen hurt a muscle in her leg. At the time she said she had a charlie horse, but it was much more than that. She made it the short distance to the tender that took back to our ship. She was moving very slowly and unsteadily getting to our cabin, which was luckily very close to the entryway.
During the rest of the day she took it easy; soaking in the hot tub, and taking a muscle relaxant that she carries for her back. She went for supper, which is nearby, but nothing else. The heat in our room, luckily, was finally repaired by the installation of a new thermostat.
The next day we had a tour booked to go from the port of Katakolon to Olympia in Greece. As she wasn't significantly better, we popped down to the deck-one medical facility just before it opened at 8am. We like being first in line. The nurse said take it easy and not to overdue things, and asked if we wanted to see the doctor. We did.
He asked a lot of questions in his Italian scented English, and manipulated and measured Helen's legs. He said to take it easy and not to overdue things, and gave Helen some anti-inflammatory pills for the next few days. Back at our cabin, Helen wisely decided not to go on the tour. I would liked to have stayed with her, but she wanted me to do the trip for her, carrying the big camera.
Therefore, I went on the tour solo.
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