Santorini, Greece

Travel Diary Day 8
Santorini, Greece

1. We spent the entire day in Santorini and had a blast!

2. We got very lucky as to how many ships were in port today. It can get busy with up to 8 ships in port at a time. Today it was only us and one other ship anchored near the pier.
3. Our plan for today was to hike a volcano, swim in the hot springs, tour a winery, and then spend some time in town shopping.
5. We got off our ship and hopped onto a smaller boat. That boat took us to the lava inlet of Nea Kameni where we hiked up to the top of the still-active volcano.

5. This hike was not a highlight for me. It's along lava fragments and the views are great, but I'm over any kind of exercise by now. The tour guide said it would be a 20 minute (approx 1 mile) hike to the top. It was WAY longer than that. We kept going and going and going. Thankfully there were no steps and it was just a never ending continuous up hill slope. So the views were great, but I think I've hiked so much uphill in the last week that I'm just done with it.

6. Once we left the volcanic island, we sailed towards the thermal springs at Palea Kameni. Our boat anchored and we jumped into the green sulfuric waters.
7. The thermal springs were actually the highlight of my day for many reasons. 1) we actually anchored in the sea, jumped from the boat (7ft) into the sea not knowing the temperature, and then had to swim to the thermal springs area. No life jackets, no lifeguards, you were on your own. 2) Brent is crazy sensitive to water temperatures. It took him 30 min to get into the Aegean Sea the other day because it was too cold
for him. But today, he had no choice. There was no testing the water before you jumped in. You have to jump from 7 ft up straight into the water. And that water was cold. He did it. He had too. It was great to watch and 3) seeing several OLD men DIVE off the boat into the sea was very entertaining.

8. It was quite a swim from the boat over into the thermal springs area. So you jumped into cold water that was 20ft deep and swam to the thermal area. You could feel the water getting warmer as you got closer to the thermal spring.
9. As you swim into the thermal spring , it starts looking like orange dirty water. The water is full of iron and rust but it's not dirty. They even told us to wear dark swimsuits because the water may stain them. 10. When we finally got out and dried off with our white towels, you could see a slight rust color stain on the towels. Which reminds me, we should probably shampoo our hair twice tonight before dinner time.

11. I've talked before about how much Brent loves to swim in different bodies of water. He can add the Sea of Crete to that list because that's what we jumped into today.
12. The boat then took us back to the pier where we boarded a bus and drove up the hill to Santos Winery. We sampled three wines, snacked on cheese, bread, and olives. Well, Brent ate the olives. Olives are one of my least favorite foods. The wine was good but we didn't purchase any.

13. The excitement at the winery happened when a waiter was walking by Brent carrying two trays of clean sample size wine glasses (he had around 40-50 stacked on the trays). Something shifted on the tray and the glasses went flying. 40-50 glasses shattered about 2ft behind Brent. He could feel the glass pieces hitting the back of his leg. The waiter looked terrified, embarrassed, and in shock. The whole winery went silent and everyone seemed to freeze. Thankfully, I only
pulled a couple small glass fragments from the back of Brent's leg. No blood so he was fine. But that poor waiter!!!
14. After the winery we took the bus into town. All the towns are up on top of the mountain. There's not much of anything at the shoreline. The shops and cafes are wonderful. There's a good mix of souvenir stores and upscale stores. Every where you turn in town, there's a fabulous view. There's a rooftop terrace on every building. It's almost magical.

15. We've been to Mykonos twice before. Absolutely love it there. But we also knew Santorini had great reviews too, so we were excited to compare the two since they are very much alike in terms of white houses, blue doors, blue roofs, etc. Turns out, they are quite different. Santorini has the views due to its location on the mountain. Mykonos is mostly on the shoreline. They both have a majority of white buildings but we feel Mykonos has more blue accents. Both have great shopping. Realistically, we now love Santorini just as much as Mykonos. These Greek islands are just stunning, clean, and little slices of paradise in our opinion.
16. We bought a pita gyro (lamb) while shopping in town. Best pita gyro we have ever had!
17. I can't believe we forgot our selfie stick on this entire trip. Felt like we would have used it quite a bit today had we brought it along from home. On another note, I've not had any eye makeup on this trip either (which is just mascara and eyeliner since I don't wear eye shadow) I never go a day without mascara and I've now gone a week. I'll actually go the whole trip without it because I'm not wasting good trip time shopping for mascara.
18. At the end of the day, we took the cable car down from the town to the pier. Could have walked or taken the donkey, but it was too hot plus I wouldn't do that to a donkey. So cable car it was.

19. Back on the ship and the first thing I grabbed before going to the room was a Pina Colada. And then we get to the room, and a cheese platter is waiting for us. Score!! It was a great day and I hope we can come back here soon. It's just as beautiful as everyone says it is.

Volos, Greece

Travel Diary Day 7
Volos, Greece

1. We've been going non stop for 7 days now, so we both thought today would be a good day to rest.
2. We researched and made sure we wouldn't regret staying on the ship and missing Volos. There was a museum we could visit and of course various villages. But we figured we could miss a day of village shopping and museums filled with more stone statues to get some rest.
3. We did get two loads of laundry done.
4. I have no idea why I brought two pairs of jeans. It's too hot for that. I do have other pants for monastery visits, but the jeans - why did I think I needed those?
5. Even though we designated today as a rest day, that didn't mean we wouldn't get off the ship for a beach visit. We had a couple crew members research this option for us. Unfortunately, there are no beaches close enough to us to access easily. We were way bummed about this.
6. But we did take the afternoon to rest on the deck near the pool and enjoy reading, listening to music, and sipping our favorite, Aperol Spritzers.
7. I brought the book, Cancel the Wedding by Carolyn Dingman, to read on the trip. A friend recommended it so we shall see if it's one I recommend in the end too.

8. My music choices today were Billy Joel, Duran Duran, Enrique Iglesias, Rod Stewart, and Flo Rida. I like to mix it up. I'll listen to it all except for country.
9. I haven't taken many pictures of our evenings here or talked about them. We get dressed up every night for dinner. I've enjoyed a different fish dish every night. And I've gotten the cheese platter every night for dessert, because if a cheese platter is ever an option anywhere, I'm getting it.
10. Definitely cherishing the evenings with Brent when the schedule from the days settle down and it's just us. We eat dinner outside at the back of the ship often.

11. We always follow dinner with relaxation time outside of the lounge at the back of the ship. Somehow, with 450 people onboard, we always have that area to ourselves. We chat, listen to the wake behind the ship, I enjoy a glass of Chardonnay, and Brent enjoys a Grey Goose martini straight up and dirty. It's the same routine we have every evening after dinner. I love it!
12. So it's been a great day of relaxing. We are now about to set sail to the island of Santorini ☀️

Patmos, Greece

Travel Diary Day 6
Patmos, Greece

1. Patmos is the Jerusalem of the Aegean Sea. Lots of religious history here.

2. The timing of visiting here couldn't be more perfect, as I just finished studying the book of Revelation with Bible Study Fellowship. This island is where John was given a vision from Jesus and recorded in the book of Revelation.
3. The population of Patmos is only 3,000.
4. We've noticed with Rhodes and now Patmos, that there is heavy naval presence in the port. Large naval destroyers sitting in the waters. Our guess is it's because of what is going on in Turkey right now and Turkey is extremely close to these islands.
5. We visited the Monastery of St. John. Unfortunately we weren't able to take photos inside. But I did snap a few outside of the monastery.

6. Sometimes I feel like once you've seen one monastery, you're seen them all. But this one seemed to stand out to me. I can't pinpoint whether it was the view, the multiple potted flowers in the courtyard, the monks cute, quaint bedroom, the clean cobblestone walkways/hallways, the balconies, or the ornate Orthodox Church that won me over. It was probably all of that combined. I really enjoyed this monastery.
7. There is a museum at this monastery. Again, no photos can be taken inside but we were able to see the 3rd oldest copy of the New Testament. It looked to be only a few pages worth, but I could have stared at that for awhile. I really wanted to break the rule and snap a photo, but I obeyed and took a mental photo instead.
7. After the monastery, we drove over to the Cave of the Apocalypse. This cave is where John is said to have been given a vision from Jesus and told to record it. And this became the book of Revelation.

8. Again, we couldn't take photos inside the cave. But I'm telling you...we both felt the holiness in the cave. It's really a feeling that can't be described. Same feeling we felt in Jerusalem numerous times. It's real. It's raw. And it's true. We both walked out of the cave, looked at each other and said "I felt it"
9. We came back to the boat and realized we had 3-4 hours until sail away. That was more than enough time to toss our swimsuits on, head back out to the pier and walk to the beach.
10. If you know Brent then you know if there's enough time and a beach is within reach, he's going. He has to touch every body of water. Even better if he has time to swim in it.
11. Patmos is in the Aegean Sea, so we went swimming in the sea for an hour. That water was so cold. Took our breath away. Yesterday, when we swam in the Mediterranean, it was slightly chilly but comfortable. Today was downright cold. Burr. But we managed to go all the way in and swim for an hour.

12. We are now about to sail to Volos, Greece. Looking forward to seeing what it has to offer. In Brent's mind, hopefully a beach.

Rhodes, Greece

Travel Diary Day 5
Rhodes, Greece

1. Docked in Rhodes at 9am, but we didn't wake up until 10:30am. Felt great to sleep in!
2. Hopped on a bus at 12:15 and headed to the Acropolis of Lindos. Another hour long bus drive there. Brent and I have been trying to count how many hours we've spent in a taxi or bus since we got off the plane on Sunday. We think it's around 28 hours. With many more hours to come.
3. It was 105 degrees in Rhodes today.
4. The drive to Lindos was incredibly scenic. This island is simply gorgeous.

5. Brent and I both agreed Rhodes would be a great place to come back and spend vacation. In other words, we hope to come back.
6. In Lindos, to get to the Acropolis you have to hike up 950ft (mostly steps) to reach it. Remember it was 105 degrees today. Out of 32 people who were supposed to go, only 15 of us went. The other half backed out because of the heat.

7. You can pay for a donkey to take you halfway up, but I wouldn't do that to a poor donkey in this kind of heat. So we hiked it.

8. Made it to the top to see amazing views!! Worth the hike, even if our clothes were completely soaked with sweat.

9. On our way back from the Acropolis, we stopped at a ceramic factory. We saw them making the pots, painting and glazing the pots. We've been in plenty of ceramic factories in various places of travel but this one took the cake. If we had more time to shop there, we probably would have bought all new kitchen plates and bowls.

10. Tons of very nice hotels on the beaches. It really is a slice of paradise.
11. On our hour long bus ride back, the driver played Greek music. I have no idea what the singer was saying but the music beat made me want to jump out of my seat and dance.
12. We got back to the ship 90 min before sail away. With that 90 min left, we decided to toss our swimsuits on and walk 10 min to the beach by the pier.
13. The Mediterranean Sea is so refreshing! After hiking in the heat, the chilly water was perfect! Loved how clear the water was too. We could see down about 10 ft. We stayed in the water for 30 min before walking back to the ship.

14. It was a great day here and we certainly hope to come back one day and stay longer.
15. Sailing towards the island of Patmos now.

Cypress

Travel Diary Day 4
Limmasol, Cyprus

1. We are in Limmasol, Cyprus today. This island is the 3rd largest in the Mediterranean. The northern half of Cyprus belongs to Turkey and the southern half is Independent Greek. We spent our day in the southern half.

2. For some reason I thought we would be able to sleep in this morning and not have to be off the ship until 10:30am. Well, either I looked at the itinerary wrong or the ship changed the plan, but we had to be off at 8:30am to meet our driver.
3. Our first stop was the Sanctuary of Apollo. It's one of the most religious centers on the island. The ruins were very interesting especially the cypro Corinthian columns still standing. We had fun walking this site.

4. Then we drove over to Eustilios House which was a palace that was excavated in the 1930's. You can still view the original tile work on the floors. The best part about this location were the views of the sea. Gorgeous! This house also had an outdoor amphitheater next door. The palace belonged to someone very wealthy obviously.

5. Finally, we visited Omodos Village. It's an old village in its original state filled with cafes and shops.

6. We didn't buy anything but enjoyed browsing the small shops and bakeries.
7. In the village is the Monastery of the Holy Cross. There is Greek Orthodox Church there. There is something I just love about Greek Orthodox churches. I think it's the ornate woods and golds. They are so beautiful!
8. They also showed us an old wine press. The wines and brandies produced here are supposedly outstanding. We probably should have bought a bottle but we didn't.

9. Here is the major pro and con of being in the Mediterranean right now. The pro is its not crowded at all! The con is its so HOT which explains why it's not so crowded.
10. We only docked for 7 hours in Cyprus. We have an early sail away at 4pm so Brent and I plan to have a drink on the balcony (our Mediterranean favorite - Aperol Spritzers) and then take a short nap before dinner.
11. Initially, the plan was to sail to the southern portion of Turkey and dock for the day tomorrow. But because of recent, unfortunate events there, that port was cancelled. So now, in place of that, we will sail to the Greek island of Rhodes. We have been to Turkey twice before and loved it, so we're sad about the change. But we have never been to Rhodes so that's a nice surprise. We're excited to check it out!

Dead Sea and Massada

Travel Diary Day 3
Masada and Dead Sea

1. We woke up early to be on the bus by 6:30am. We had a 13 hour day planned ahead of us.
2. Our day was going to include touring Masada and swimming in the Dead Sea. Both of those locations are a 3-4 hour drive away so that's why we had to leave so early. Out of 450 people on this ship, only 17 of us opted to take this long trip today.
3. We saw several sites on the way to Masada. The first one we passed was the city of Megiddo, or as the Bible calls it "Armageddon".
4. We also drove past the area where David killed Goliath.
5. Then we entered the West Bank. The checkpoint area stops all cars but they don't search the vehicles coming into the West Bank. They do, however, search the ones leaving the West Bank. So on our way back, we had two heavily armed military men search us and our seats.
6. Before we reached the desert area, we passed hundreds of palm tree farms. I'm talking multiple farms with thousands of Palm trees. It's stunning!!
7. I must mention our entire drive was along the border of Jordan. Just another country we unexpectedly got to view from a very short distance.
8. We passed by Jericho City.
9. We also passed the area of the Jordan River where Jesus was baptized. There is a monastery on the bank of the river at the site now.
10. The closer we got to Masada the more desert the area became and boy did it start getting temperature HOT!!
11. We took a rest stop to grab more cold drinks and use the restrooms. The cool thing about the rest stop location is that it was the base of the hill where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found. You could view the caves alongside the hill from our parking spot.
11. We spent the majority of our day outside in 115 degree weather, 109 degrees if you found shade. It was tough, y'all!
12. We finally reached Masada which is a palace and self contained city built by King Herod. It was also where the Jews fled when they were under Roman siege for 3 yrs. Thankfully they have a cable car that takes you to the top of the hill because there is NO WAY I was hiking it in 115 degree heat.

13. The heat made it very tough for everyone but the views of the Dead Sea below were totally worth it.
14. After almost dying of heatstroke walking the ruins of Masada, we finally left to head to the Dead Sea. We actually spent our afternoon at a resort on the Dead Sea. We had lunch there first, and then quickly changed into our swimsuits
15. The Dead Sea is larger than I thought. It's also hotter than we thought it would be. It's not refreshing water by any means. Remember, it's surrounded by desert...the outside temps were 115....and the sea water was 98. Yeah, 98. Hot tub temperature.

16. The Dead Sea is 1400 ft below sea level, no marine life, basically nothing is in the water but SALT. The beach edge is covered with salt, and instead of walking into the water and the sea floor being sand, it's salt.

17. People come from all over the world with pulmonary and skin problems in hopes the Dead Sea water and climate will heal them.
18. They highly recommend you only be in the Dead Sea for 10 minutes at a time. Then get out, shower, and rest awhile before going back in for another 10 minutes. So that's what we did.
19. Besides the healing properties of the sea, the coolest thing about it is your body is far more buoyant than in any pool or other sea/ocean. You don't need a pool float or a noodle. You naturally float. We had so much fun playing around with the buoyancy aspect.

20. We made the long drive back to the ship just in time for sail away from Israel.
21. Ever since our feet hit the ground Sunday morning is Israel, we have been going nonstop not wanting to miss a thing. We feel like we came here and saw absolutely everything we had planned to see. It cost us very long drives, fatigue and exhaustion, and sometimes starvation because we would rather make it to the next site versus taking time to eat. I wouldn't change a thing. This 3 day stop in Israel was an experience we will both never forget.
22. Right now we are sailing towards Cyprus and will arrive tomorrow morning. Looking forward to sleeping in finally and exploring Cyprus tomorrow afternoon.
23. One final note- Israel is very vigilant with their security. Never seen so many heavily armed military roaming the streets, the markets, etc. The one and only time we were remotely worried was in Jerusalem when we walked into the area of the Western Wall. But we were told that area was highly secured due to it being a potential for terror so that is why we were worried and only spent less than 10 min there before moving on. Otherwise, the Israel military is strong, vigilant and we felt very safe.
P.S. We have tried to hit the highlights in the posts. The last three days were like we were living the bible stories: including the site of the Sermon on the Mount, the story of Ahab and Jezebel, the story of Ruth and even the site where Jesus may have been imprisoned. There are important sites everywhere you turn around and you just have to soak it all in.

Jerusalem, Israel

Travel Diary Day 2
Jerusalem, Israel

1. Fact for the day: every single boy and girl in Israel must join the military (except for the Muslim population) Boys must do 3 yrs. Girls must do 2yrs. Explains a lot about why Israel has such a strong military.
2. Our driver picked us up in Haifa and drove us to Jerusalem (about 2hr drive). There we met our tour guide for our day in Jerusalem.
3. On our drive to Jerusalem, we passed the west banks of Israel. It's a walled off, highly secured area of Arabs. There are terrorists in the west banks, so that explains the high security and walls. Some of the Arabs can leave the walls but they have to have a permit. I could elaborate more on how this area came to be, but for the sake of diary space, I'll let you google it.
4. Our first stop in Jerusalem was the Mount of Olives. It's a traditional overlook spot of the city and generally where a tour guide will take you to get a visualization of the new and the old city. There we visited a church, and I can't remember the name of it, but the church displayed the Lords Prayer among beautiful tile work in over 100 languages. I loved looking at the Lords Prayer in so many different languages.

5. We visited the Garden of Gethsemane at the base of the Mount of Olives. This is where Jesus went after the last supper and had his conversation with the disciples. Some of the olive trees in the garden were massive and looked extremely old. Brent and I both agree we felt lots of emotion here.

6. Then we went to the Garden Tomb. Uh, wow! It's an alternate possible location of the crucifixion/burial site of Jesus. Our guide made a great case of why this could
possibly be the spot. There were a group of tourists near the tomb entrance sitting and singing praises to our Lord. That alone was so moving!

7. Jerusalem was hot today, y'all. Hot!! Drank bottles and bottles of water. I don't know how the Orthodox Jews roam the streets in this heat wearing pants and dress coats.
8. We saw a cute blonde headed girl in her mid twenties carrying an uzi. She was guarding the Damascus gate into the Old city of Jerusalem.
9. We visited the Cenacle which is the location of the Last Supper. You could picture Jesus in that room eating with the disciples. I so wish the table was there!

10. The old city is composed of four quarters. Muslim, Christian, Jewish, and Armenian. We walked them all. And all quarters were very different. I wish I could share with you all my thoughts on each quarter.
11. Then we went for lunch. Brent wanted to eat at the Shuk (spelling?) part of the Muslim quarter but our guide highly recommended another spot in the Jewish quarter so we took her advice. We ordered traditional Shawarma. It was like Chipotle with vegetables instead of rice. It was very good.
12. We then continued through a very secure area to the Western Wall. It was also the area where you could go into the Temple Mount but our time was too short to visit there. This area is highly secured and you get searched before you enter. I felt the most vulnerable here than any other time on this trip thus far. Large crowds, a mix of religions congregating in one spot...We walked through and probably spent a total of less than 10 min inside the area.

13. Then we walked through the Shuk (in Muslim quarter) and onto the stations of the cross.
14. Our guide walked us to every station of the cross. I will tell you that I never dreamed I would get this opportunity. Other than the crucifixion site (which was 1 of 2 possible sites) station #5 felt the most emotional because that's the spot where Jesus met his mother. Heart wrenching.

15. We ended at the site where the Catholics believe the crucifixion and burial were at. This place was crazy crowded and the church that is built over this area had no air flow. It was humid and hot in there. That being said, though, the area here that I felt most drawn to was actually the site where they laid Jesus body to dress him for burial. I kept walking back to that spot.

16. Our day in Jerusalem was really so much more involved then the simple statements above. It was a place I never, in a million years, thought I would visit. And it's an experience that is hard to describe. Many emotions involved.
17. I loved that our guide read many passages from the bible to us throughout the day. We focused most of the reading on Mark 14.
18. If you don't know the Lord personally and want a relationship with Him, I would love to walk that walk with you. Message me!
19. Our drive back from Jerusalem to Haifa was insane. To keep things short, it took 4 hours, major traffic, air conditioning broke, and our drivers car broke down over 3 times. I won't elaborate more than that but it was an adventure. Brent diagnosed and fixed the car problem thankfully. Who would have known brent could diagnose car issues. LOL.
20. OH, our luggage was found. That's a whole other story for another day. But it was found and we have it in hand. Thank You God!!
21. Tonight we boarded the Regent Seven Seas Navigator. 450 people onboard. We don't sail away from Israel until tomorrow night, so we have another crazy, fun, busy, long day planned here tomorrow.