Cruisin'

For spring break, we took an Eastern Mediterranean cruise on an Italian cruise line called MSC. We stopped in Santorini, Mykonos, Athens, and Corfu, Greece and Dubrovnik, Croatia. We had it so easy --- we sailed out of the port of Venice! It was so amazing to sail out of that city way up high on the cruise ship. All of the tourists in teeny boats waved to us as we passed. And (snottily) we chanted, "you wish you were us!" LOL!



We had two rooms, since they were out of the quad rooms when we booked.  We didn't mind this at all, once we realized they would be next to each other and we'd have the extra bathroom.  BUT, once we got on board, even though our tickets showed adjacent rooms, they told us they could only give us rooms on two separate floors!  We argued, but customer service was non-existent and there was nothing we could do.  So, the girls were on the 10th floor and the boys were on the 9th.  It worked out ok, we spent most of our time anywhere else but the rooms!



Half of our room, with balcony





The other half of our room





Goofing off during the mandatory safety briefing as we set sail




The dining room where we ate every evening -- 7 courses if we wanted them!


Well, the room mess-up started us off on the wrong foot, and it still didn't get better right away.  The weather turned really cold and windy and it caused us to have a major delay at our first stop, on Monday, the first full day.  We were supposed to stop in Bari, Italy.  Well, we did stop, and we stayed stopped about a half mile off the coast, waiting for the weather to improve.  They had to drop off and pick up passengers, so around midnight, it calmed down enough for them to do that.  Unfortunately, we were supposed to have left there around 6 pm to make it in time to our next day's stop, Olympia Greece. Since we were late, we couldn't stop in Olympia at all the second day (Tuesday).  Well, now we had 2 full days at sea when were weren't supposed to have ANY.  So, we made the most of the relaxation, and adopted our slogan for the cruise "Eat 'till you're tired, sleep 'til you're hungry!"  It was even too chilly for the kids to swim!  Disaster!  Thank goodness our friends, the Archuleta's were also on board.  Andrew and Sara each had a friend to keep them company, and us adults did what we do best -- sit and drink and talk!



Mojitos!




The pool deck

 

Antonio and Andrew






Sara tried it, but it only lasted 5 minutes!  Way too cold!

  

Sara, enjoying our balcony




The cruise got a lot better after the first two days!!  I'm breaking this trip up into multiple blog entries -- one for each port we stopped in -- to make it more manageable.  I took a lot of pictures!  Next entry -- Santorini and Mykonos Greece!

Mr. Handsome!

Look who got glasses today! He was so excited to be able to see things clearly. They totally fit his personality!

Escape to Garmisch

After a whirlwind marathon since the beginning of the new year, we finally took a short break. We'd had the 2 month long, drawn out sickness and eventual death of our beloved cat Sterling, the extremely time-consuming play, Children of Eden, and the endless busyness of Bryan's job, among other things. Bryan hadn't had a full weekend off at all in 2012! And there was finally a bit of breathing room for him to take one, so we wanted to go somewhere he could truly get away from work. The kiddos chose Garmisch, even though they've been there 3 times already. They really enjoy all the outdoor stuff we do there and we do different things each time. We were SO lucky to hit PERFECT weather for our stay. This time, we stayed in a cabin that is owned by the Edelweiss Lodge, the military resort that's there. The kids got to swim both nights at the hotel's pool and huge outdoor hot tub.


The kids had a cool loft to sleep in...



The cabin had a bedroom, bathroom and kitchen as well. Not very rough living!


Here's the gorgeous view from the hotel. The peak to the far right is the Zugspitz.


Many, many homes here use woodstoves for heat. And so they have a lot of small logs stacked neatly, literally around the house and sheds. Here's an example. They even build out the windows and stack the wood around it.


Our breakfast, in the marketplace, of German pastries (and milk from McDonalds). Sara was still in a bad mood because she didn't think she liked what we had planned for the day. That crazy child still thinks that when we go on trips we are just supposed to lounge around our hotel room all day. She ended up having a great day after all, which is usually what happens!


We took a gondola up to the peak of the Zugspitz -- at 2962 meters (9717 feet), it's the highest point in Germany. We had a full 360 degree view of the Alps. We could see Germany, Austria, Italy and Switzerland! It was green and pleasant down in the valley, but the temp dropped 40 degrees on our way up with all the skiers. It's a good thing I had brought our warm coats -- it was only 17 degrees at the top!!

Here are the kids on the gondola, which, by the way, was swinging in the wind gusts the whole time we were on it! Yikes!


This is the gondola loading dock as we waited for it to come down and get us. We went all the way to the top hanging from those tiny little wires!


It was like a whole different world up there...



This picture shows Lake Eibsee, half frozen. We hiked around part of that when we went down...



You can see Garmisch in the valley...


Here's Andrew showing you the upside down icicles on the side of a building! There was some pretty hard and cold wind!


We spent a few hours strolling the streets and shops of the town of Oberammergau, which is very close to Garmisch. We stopped to look at this monastery on the way...


We also enjoyed strolling the little streets and shops of Garmisch. This picture shows you the definitive personalities of my two children all in one shot -- the drama diva and the comedian!


Of course, we had dinner at my favorite restaurant -- anywhere ever! I mean it! And I'm a world traveler! I'd been here twice before, when I brought visitors. This was Bryan's first time and he loved it too! There's a potato dumpling, ham, mushroom, cheese, white wine sauce dish there that is PHENOMENAL! Not to mention the awesome schnitzel, sauerkraut, fried potatoes and German beer!



Monkey 1 picture...


Monkey 2 picture, out of focus...


On our way home, we stopped for a quick lunch at a place I had always wanted to try. I wonder how a little town in northern Italy came to give their restaurant this name! The food was good, and the view was gorgeous too!


Here's another view from the drive. This is in Italy...


Bryan really enjoyed himself and got to relax, finally! We all love Garmisch and know we will be going back again sometime!