“For mine own part, it was Greek to me” Shakespeare

Before leaving on any of our more exotic (at least to us) trips I do hours of research on our destinations. I have assembled a better shelf of travel books over the years than many libraries and always check out the second hand book stores wherever we happen to be in case they have slightly out of date travel guides or maps.














Before we went to Scotland in 2001 for my 50th, Allan suggested I decide what areas I wanted to see and map out a general itinerary for us for our three weeks. I went to my favorite second hand book store the next day and sitting there on the shelf crying out to me were two(!) very current driving maps of Scotland in almost mint condition. I rescued them for the princely sum of $3.00 and took them both with me to Business Depot where I bought two large sheets of clear plastic that I could write on and wipe off. As you see from the pictures, I mapped and I mapped and I mapped. I used every guide book in the library system and I haunted the local book stores, huddling in the corners of the stacks making notes and writing down the names of other books to research. I spoke to friends who had been to Scotland for advice and emailed all sorts of people on the web. By the time I was done with my maps, Allan came in and added up the estimated time needed for each of the routes and stared laughing. We had three weeks to see Scotland. Doing it my way? Needed forty seven days. And that didn't allow any time to stop and smell the haggis.

Allan finally had to take over because I just couldn't bring myself to delete anything from my list of must-sees. I'm a huge history buff but I don't think I'm quite as bad as my husband says I am. Allan tells everyone that if I see a pile of rocks by the side of the road I go crazy and have to stop to investigate.


That is so not true. I ask you, does this look like a pile of rocks?

Castle Ardvreck

When we began taking longer cruises, I naturally faced an even greater dilemma. Since cruise ships usually only stop in each port for a few hours, how on earth was I going to see everything in such a short amount of time? Again, my wise husband told me, "You can't see everything. Pick two or three places you REALLY want to see and that's it. Maybe we'll get back one day and you'll get to see some of the other sites, but it is not possible to see all the sites in Florence in one day!" Although I am incredibly proud embarrassed to say that we *did* the Uffizi in an hour and a half ... "hurry, we have to get to Gallery 8 to see the Filippo Lippi...No, don't stop to look at that painting it's not on our list! We are on our way to The Leonardo Room to see Adoration of the Magi, so move it! And then we have to get to Room 18 - The Tribune and after that Room 10-14 - The Botticelli Room...you get the idea. Someone should have been filming us running around like idiots - I don't recommend anyone else try this. It is our Shamefully Bad Tourist Story; the sort of behaviour that gives 'tourist' a bad name. We don't do this any more. *g*

So we have learned a few things about how to research and see a port of call. One of the best places to find information on the net is a site called cruise critic that has an area for people to hook up with others going on the same cruise. We had a great group organized when we traveled to Southeast Asia and we had a lot of fun on that trip. So when this trip started to come together I got busy on the cc boards and sure enough there was a huge group of people looking for other travelers to join them for private tours in the various ports. It's always cheaper and usually a better tour if you are able to arrange a driver/guide or whatever, depending on the size of the group.

Since Allan has become ill I have had to learn to travel smarter and conserve his energy, so running him off his feet from dawn till dusk is pretty well out of the question now. I think I wrote before we left about some of the strategies I was going to use to try and keep his strength up and using private cars and guides was the main one.

I had arranged a car and driver in Athens who spoke English and who (very importantly) didn't smoke to show us the sites and a girl answered my request for someone to share the car and the day with us. As it happened, Tara had booked a car and driver in Rome and was looking for a couple to share with, so with just a few emails we were set for Athens and our first day in Rome. LOL! Tara and Greg turned out to be honeymooners the same ages as our children! AHAHAHA! It was all good though and the four of us got along very well.

So, without going into (more) incredibly boring detail, here are the highlights of our day in Athens.

The Port of Piraeus



Olympic Runner Made out of Car Windshields


The Parthenon


Temple of Olympian Zeus





Porch of the Maidens, Erechtheum


Theatre of Dionysos


Our visit to Athens



He might be wearing a skirt and have pom-poms on his shoes, but I still wouldn't mess around with him. Well, I would, but not while he's holding a rifle! We were warned in no uncertain terms not to touch the Evzones!