Saturday, August 6, 2011

Dream Vacation

** I interrupt this quilting blog for a travel post, quilting fun will resume as soon as possible**

I've finally finished working on my photos of my recent trip.  I don't pretend to be a great photo journalist, it's more like, Oh! I should take a photo of this.

I get really caught up in what I'm doing and seeing, but here are some high points of my trip.

We're here!  In Rome wait to go to the ship.


I must say again that the 4 year wait for this one was worth it!
The MS Noordam (we cruised on her 7 years ago in the Caribbean) is a lovely ship.  Our home away from home.



The first sea day they had a tour of the kitchen, one of my favorite things.  This is the Pasta kitchen - look at the size of those pots!


Fruit and vegetable carving - I love the photo food maps that are posted - everything is plated very beautifully.


Our first port; Dubrovnik, Croatia.  We loved it.


We had a wine tasting here after our bike ride at a private winery.


We took a 5 mile bike ride to this Monastery.  It was beautiful.


This is Ancient Olympia.
This cruise became knows as the "Hot Rocks Tour".


The original Olympic stadium - the original.  The kids and I ran it for fun.



Andrew Zorba Dances at lunch


Beautiful Santorini.  This a town called Oia.


It's hard to see, but this is the mule trail.  There are 3 ways to get up and down to the port; cable car (our choice), walking, or riding a mule.


Turkey!  I'm very excited to add Asia to my list of visited continents.  Turkey is beautiful.

We visited Mary's Chapel.  The Virgin Mary lived out her life here on a mountain top in this 3 room home.  The 2 most recent Popes' have visited it.


Ephesus was my favorite place.  The ruins (hot rocks) are incredible.  Cleopatra walked the same marble streets.  It was an incredible place.



My favorite; the library - remarkable!


You know you're not in Jersey when you see this guy...

 A pretty display at the dessert extravaganza.


The Parthanon on the Acropolis (hotest rocks of all)


This temple with the Caryatids is my favorite thing here.  Love those ladies.


Deck 3, Promenade deck was our meet up place in the late afternoon.


Hanna and I loved dressing for the formal nights.  Hooray, she got to wear her graduation dress again.  We look like salt and pepper shakers, lol.


This is a Clock Tower at the Cathedral in Messina, Italy.  It is the largest mechanical perpetual clock in the world - It shows, day, time, year - but also the constellations, the phases of the moon, the biblical year, etc.  It is incredible!


Thanks for visiting and taking the tour.


Whether you have been traveling or enjoy the summer at home, I hope it's been great.  Now I'm ready for fall, how about you?

30 comments:

Taryn said...

Thanks for sharing your trip with us. It must have been so amazing. I think this is a cruise I could actually convince my husband to do (he's not a fan of boats). I must disagree, though, please don't end summer yet!

antique quilter said...

I am so ready for fall...now I am ready for an amazing vacation as well! Glad you all had fun and made those memories.
Kathie

Crispy said...

Thanks so much for sharing your trip, I love seeing place I will never get to see in person. I'm always in awe thinking of the people, in the past,who had walked and lived on those streets.

Crispy

Mayleen said...

It looks like you had a great time! Pictures are wonderful too.

I'm with you, time to end summer and get into fall as its way too hot here!

Janet said...

I'm ready for spring and the last week has been just like that. I loved going through your holiday snaps. What a fabulous trip, I love the photo of Santorini, the light thre looks amazing.

Anonymous said...

I am so glad you had a wonderful time away with your family, thank you for sharing your holiday, it feels a little like being there myself.
DH and I hoping to do a cruise September 2012 in Europe from Budapest to Amsterdam and visiting our Mothers on the way home in Germany.

Have a great Sunday
Christine

Anonymous said...

I am so glad you had a wonderful time away with your family, thank you for sharing your holiday, it feels a little like being there myself.
DH and I hoping to do a cruise September 2012 in Europe from Budapest to Amsterdam and visiting our Mothers on the way home in Germany.

Have a great Sunday
Christine

Julie in the Barn said...

What a great trip. That mule path is a hoot. I would have chosen the cable car transport for sure. Thanks so much for sharing. I almost feel like I went along.

Vicki said...

Memories that last a lifetime - ones that you keep in your heart!

Barb said...

How fun!!! You and your daughter look lovely! Great pictures!

Barb said...

How fun!!! You and your daughter look lovely! Great pictures!

Nancy said...

Wonderful trip, wonderful photos! Looks like the weather was perfect, too. Thanks for sharing these.

regan said...

What an amazing trip; one that I would love to take one day! I'm going on the Bonnie Hunter cruise at the end of August (countdown 20 days!)....I've never cruised before, and I'm just about to bust! Can't wait! And I hope they do a tour of the ship we go on, too.....that kitchen tour looked fun! Thanks for sharing all your great pics.....that's what dreams are made of!

Browndirtcottage said...

Your photos were Fabulous!!! Wow, what a trip!! Can you believe what you got to see!!!! Nice VA-CAY!!!!

Kim said...

Oh wow, I have never been on a cruise but it looks like you know how to do it right! Oh the places you got to see, how wonderful. Great family memories too!
My DH and I have never regretted the time and money spent on an experience vs a thing. We have great memories of world travels.
But I am not quite ready for Fall...we are going to S. America where it will be winter!
See you in Sept.

Happy Sewing

Pinkadot Quilts said...

Wow it looks like you saw some incredible things!I think my favorite was the shot of the library, how lovely. I may be going to Italy in the spring, you have to tell me your favorite spots.

sandra said...

Thankyou for the pictures they bought back many memories as my daughter and I did a cruise back in 95 of the Greek Islands, and we visited a lot of the places you did except for Croatia and Italy, what beautiful scenery.

Teresa Rawson said...

I want to go to ALL these places...I loved the BVM house. Isn't it interesting to think of all these people who had such interesting lives and lived in such tiny places?!? I mean...she was Jesus' mother...if she lived nowadays, she might be demanding a mansion in Malibu, or something...I wonder where she kept her "stash," for example.

It is nice to see pictures from Croatia that don't show the past war! Thank you so much for sharing the highlights of your trip!

In stitches,
Teresa :o)

Quilts And Pieces said...

Wow! What a beautiful and fun trip this must have been. Bet it ended too soon for you!

Margaret said...

Thoroughly enjoyed the visit and the added trip .

QuiltSue said...

That looks like a wonderful holiday but with so much to do and see did you come back exhausted and needing a holiday to recover?

Shelina (formerly known as Shasta) said...

What great pictures! I want to do that cruise too! I've been getting advertisements about trips, and I think I want to do them all. I am glad you had a great time.

Dawn said...

What a beautiful trip and the memories you made!
Fabulous!

Lori said...

Barb, that looks so amazing!! Love teh looks of Oia. Beautiful!!

Maureen said...

Wow! You visited some fabulous places. Looks like a lot of fun - making special memories with your family.

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Janet said...

I sure enjoyed your pictures. It looks like an amazing trip!! I should start saving I guess :0) I am so NOT ready for fall. I just love summer and its such a short season here.

Thimbleanna said...

Look at you two, looking all hot in those prom dresses -- did people ask if you were sisters??? (And so NOT like salt and pepper LOL!) Looks like a FABULOUS vacation -- you lucky ducks. Beautiful pictures -- thanks for sharing. (Who knows, maybe someday I'll think hmmm, I want to take a Med. cruise...hey, didn't Barb do that? and e-mail you for advice ;-) ) And shows ya what I know -- I thought Turkey was part of Europe!

Ann Champion said...

What fabulous pics! I watch the History International channel on tv quite a bit and have seen so many of those places featured. It would be SO cool to see them in person.
It looks like the weather was sunny the whole time?
You and Hanna looked very stunning all dressed up, and I was surprised to see how big the ship looked compared to the family.
The carved fruits and veggies are amazing. Thanks so much for sharing a bit of your trip with us! :)

Jill Reid said...

Great photos. Thanks for sharing. Everything looked so perfect. How nice that you could share all of it as a family before Hanna goes off to college. Great family memories.