And finally - ATHENS!!!

I have wanted to go to Athens ever since I was a little girl living in Sicily.  My Daddy had to go to Greece for some reason and he brought back some little marble statues that I thought were so beautiful!  Finally my dream came true!

The Parthenon was built between 447 and 438 BC at the height of Greek civilization.  If you are like me, you have always imagined white marble statues on white marble buildings. with Greek philosophers in white tunics.  I was surprised to learn that archeologist now think that ancient Athens was full of color. The marble was brightly painted.  Using ultra-violet-light they can find color on statues that have no obviously visible signs of decoration.  They can't tell exactly what colors were used but they can see patterns.  Wow!  That changed my whole picture of ancient Greece.  

Painted or not the statues are extremely impressive!  This is a miniature replica. 

Just look at that detail. 

The statues on the temple right by the Parthenon are remarkable also.  In fact, walking around in Athens looking at all the antiquities was quite wonderful.  Way to end a fantastic trip!

Santorini

I choose this cruise over several others because of its stop in Santorini!  When George looked out the window in the morning he said, "Look snow"!  With the crazy weather we've had on this trip nothing would have surprised me, so I raced to the window to look and see.  What a tease!  Not snow but the white houses of Santorini looking, oh so white, against the black volcanic rock.  

Did you know that the whole complex of the Santorini islands is still an active volcano and probably the only volcano in the world whose crater is in the sea?

The unique location is made even more charming by the local architecture.  Small cubical houses are made of local stone that is whitewashed or lime washed with volcanic ash.  

The blue domes add a pop of color.

The interesting church steeples are a nice contrast to the round domes. 

 Sometimes the dome and the steeple are neighbors! 

As we walked through the narrow streets watching the construction workers getting the houses, restaurants and hotels ready for the upcoming tourist season I was sure that they must have a real love/hate relationship with those hordes of people descending on their island each year.

Tourists like me who are looking for the perfect photograph don't see (or choose to ignore) the 'private street' signs.  

Your 'private balcony' is not so private when people are swarming through the town but those same tourists are the chief source of wealth for the islands.

One group who seemingly love the tourists are the cats.  Santorini is home to a huge number of stray cats.  Normally I take a lot of dog photos but not here. 

You could even 'rent a cat'.  

I thoroughly enjoyed checking another one off the bucket list after this day on what is called the 'Gem of the Aegean'. 

Back to the cruise ship for just one more night at sea. 

Albania or Bust

Does he look a little nervous?

I am almost embarrassed to admit that we keep a count of the countries we visit.  We have a bucket list goal of visiting 100 countries so when we docked in Corfu, Greece we could not resist taking the ferry across the channel to Albania. George had done a lot of research about this little excursion.  When you are on a cruise ship and you take a cruise line sponsored excursion, you KNOW that the ship will wait for you if for any reason you are late.  This is not true if you go off on your own.  At the time the ship is about to leave, you hear one long blast of the horn and that means you had better run and get back on the ship.  I actually saw someone on our Black Sea cruise who came running up to the ship after they had already pulled away but were still very close to the dock and the ship did not go back the 25 feet to re-dock.  We did NOT want that to happen to us so the night before we arrived in Corfu we were understandably nervous but still thinking we would at least try to add Albania to our list!

Thanks to George's careful planning, we found the ferry ticket office quite easily and purchased our tickets for the hydrofoil.  I had read horror stories of people going by hydrofoil to Albania and having  it break down leaving them no choice but to stay several days in Saranda while it was repaired.  Not a scenario we wanted to experience!  

We made it to the hydrofoil just in time and had an easy 30 minute trip to Saranda, Albania. Next problem was that all the organized tours from the port area took too long.  We knew that we had to be back in time to catch the one ferry of the day.  My brilliant husband decided to go and ask the very nice woman at the ferry ticket office.  She just happened to have a friend who was willing to drive us out to the Roman ruins, wait for us and then get us back in time and all for $30! Perfect!

We explored the Ruins and then headed back to the entrance hoping our driver would be there. And he was there waiting for us, took me to a souvenir shop and we had still had time to splurge and enjoy a real Coke and not a Coke Zero!  We were celebrating after all!

And lo and behold the hydrofoil experienced no mechanical difficulties.  We left just on time.  Our cruise ship was still docked.  The rain didn't start until we were back in Greece.  

A perfect day!  George planned all of this as a Christmas gift to me!  We can add Albania to the list now!  

Turns out that wandering totally alone in a Roman ruin from the 7th century is pretty magical!

After the Romans the town had quite a turbulent history but by the 19th century was a small fishing village clustered around a Venetian Castle. 

 George looks pleased because we explored the entire site and were headed back to our driver, hoping that he would still be there.

Venice to Croatia

We were back to the cruise ship in plenty of time for its supposed 11:00 p.m. departure.  Unfortunately Mother Nature got involved with our trip again.  There were high wind warnings so the Port of Venice was closed to outgoing and incoming ships.  I'm glad we were in the harbor and not out on a rough sea!  At about 5:00 a.m. they opened the port, our ship got out and then almost immediately the port was closed again.

Our next port was supposed to be Koper, Slovenia but the winds were still high and our captain announced that it was dangerous to try and dock in a small harbor with 40 mile per hour wind gusts so we got an 'at sea' day.  The ship is beautiful and it was great to have a totally relaxing day.  I took not one but two naps, went to 2 lectures on "Yugoslavia - the Country that Used to be" and ate great meals.  George had a massage.  I was sorry to miss Koper but I'm already figuring how we can add it to another trip!

Luckily the wind died down and we were able to dock the following day at Spilt, Croatia which is part of the Dalmatian region of the country.  And yes, Dalmatian dogs did originate here.

 We didn't see a Dalmatian but we did see this 'Croatian Lab' who seemed to be ball crazy just like American labs!  He walked all around our group with the ball in his mouth hoping someone who throw it.  When no one did, he decided to just lie down and rest.

At the last minute we added a visit to the 'Falconry' center to our excursion.  Turned out that this was one the highlights of the trip for me! The owner, Emilio, has an obvious affection for his birds and a tremendous amount of knowledge.  The center is both a rescue operation and a place where people can be educated about birds.  Emilio's personal birds were the only ones we got to see. The rescued birds are kept in a separate location and only a few people are allowed inside.  He does not want these birds to get accustomed to people because they will be released into the wild.  

First we were introduced to his beautiful Eagle Owl.  I'm not sure if he intended for his hair to match her eyes but they certainly do! 

Female owls are bigger than males.  They are predators and catch mice, squirrel, cats, small dogs, fox, and other birds.  They are lethal hunters and can see a mouse from up to 8 miles away.  The, "Whooo, whoo....." call,  when heard in the forest,  strikes fear into the hearts of all small animals.  She isn't too bothered by people but we were warned not to try to touch her.  She sees this as threatening and will bite.  However she isn't bothered by human heads and we could approach her for a snuggle!

Next Emilio brought out a falcon to show us how he could let her fly free but she would return.

 Krka National Park has spectacular waterfalls.  I read that you could swim in them, but not today!

The "No Swimming" signs were not really necessary when it was cold and when this much water was coming over the falls.   Nor were we tempted to jump from the bridge!  

Maybe Croatia has something in common with their neighbor Italy as this  particular 'wrong way' sign seemed to be totally ignored. 

What a beautiful place!

 I sometimes want to burst out in song... "I think the world is glorious and lovely as can be...."

 It truly is glorious and I feel so fortunate to have been able to see so much of it!

Church of Gold

The Basilica of Saint Mark  is a 'must see' in Venice.  From the 11th century on, the church has been known by the nickname Chiesa d'Oro (Church of gold). When you go through the door and look up, it is easy to see why.

I was somewhat dismayed to see this sign as soon as we walked in.  What no photos!!!  Then I remembered that we were in Italy where all laws are merely suggestions and I joined the throngs of other camera happy people totally disregarding the signs!  Although I have to admit that I worried someone would come and kick me out of the place for brazenly breaking the rules.

It truly is a magnificent cathedral!

 The golden mosaics are beautiful!

We went up to the balcony area where we had access to the roof. 

And also were able to view an exhibit that allowed us to see the mosaics up close.  Here is St. Mark.

Now look at his face close-up! It takes a true artist to be able to combine small glass tiles to create such lifelike mosiacs.

Here is Abraham...

And Abraham close up... 

I also loved the marble mosaics on the floor.

 The designs aren't as intricate as those on the walls and ceilings but are still beautiful.

I am trying to convince George that doing a mosaic on our patio in Boise would be a good project for him after he retires. These should give him inspiration!