Med Cruise: Santorini, Greece

 

The very next morning we came into the port for Santorini.  Santorini is actually the name of a group of islands around a volcanic caldera.  Rob was fascinated by the fact that the "youngest" island is only a few hundred years old.  Also, an underground rush of molten rock just 6-7 years ago rose parts of the largest island of Thira by 8-14 cm! Cruise ships can't get in close enough to land to port here, so we "tendered" to shore by motorboat.

 

Once on land at the base of the cliff, we had a choice to walk, ride donkeys, or take a cable car up to the main town of Fira. We took the cable car which was fast, fun for the kids, and gave us great views of the caldera and ship below.

 

We hailed a cab, piled in, and headed straight for the black sand beach of Kamari.  My thinking was that we would enjoy the beach while it was quiet and not so hot and then go visit the town of Oia on the opposite end of the island once some people had headed back to the ship and it wouldn't be so crowded.

 

The black sand was really rocky.  We wore flip-flops and crocs this day in anticipation of a beachy day, so that was good.

 

The kids swam, collected rocks, and just generally loved being at the beach.

 

I loved how empty the beach was, and listening to the gentle waves from my shady beach chair.  I did go in the water a bit too, but it was very rocky and very cold!

 

Sisterly love.

 

The beach chairs and umbrellas were courtesy of a restaurant behind us.  They were free, as was the clean and modern restaurant bathroom, and the wifi.  We felt obligated to order some drinks while we enjoyed all of the perks.  We stayed until just before noon and then headed out to find a cab to take us to Oia.

That ended up being more difficult than expected.  We couldn't find a taxi anywhere.  We walked for about 20 minutes, during which time we passed this cute church, until we finally found a bus stop.  We ended up waiting there for about 30 more minutes until a public bus came by which took us back to Fira.  Once there, the girls needed a bathroom break.

 

There was a (pay) public bathroom right at the bus stop, so I took the girls.  This was their first encounter with a squatty potty.  Amelie was not amused, and Charlotte thought she had somehow ended up in a shower stall.  I explained the process, and we made the best of it. When we came out, Rob had hailed a cab to take us to Oia.

Now, I know this will horrify some people, but the taxi drivers we met on this trip had no qualms about squeezing all six of us into seats for four people.  We just piled in and made the best of it.  I took this short video on part of the drive from Fira to Oia just to give you a glimpse of the driving experience in Greece. Good times. This guy was my favorite driver the whole trip. He was happy, conversational, and just a nice guy.  He told us to pay him on the way back- that way we knew he would return for us because "a taxi driver will always show up to collect his fare."

 

We finally made it to Oia around 1 pm, and arranged with the driver to come back for us at 2:30 pm. The last tender to the cruise ship would be at 4:15 pm, and we didn't want to cut it close.  We were all hungry too so we found a restaurant serving Gyros and enjoyed a quick lunch.

 

Then we just walked around Oia taking pictures of the beautiful whitewashed buildings  and the caldera.  Doesn't this dining area look dreamy?

 

All of that white sure does reflect the sun's heat!  There were very few shady spots in Oia, but our kids found them whenever they could.

 

There was no avoiding the crowds, but the beautiful views were worth it. 

 

After our little photo safari, we found an ice cream shop and headed back to meet our cabbie.  He surprised us by sending a large van to pick us up for the ride back to Fira, which was fantastic! Once there we got in line for the cable car to head down the cliff side.  It was then about 3:15 and the line was about two blocks long.  I started stressing.  I don't do well with standing still when there is a time crunch, so I convinced Rob we could easily walk down to the tender on the donkey trail.

 

We headed out down the slippery, smelly switchback stairs that these poor donkeys take.  If they looked like they were treated half decently, we may have opted to pay for a ride, but those poor animals were not in good shape, and we would not add to their misery.  So on we walked... in flip-flops. 

 

We slipped so frequently that it was impossible to carry the children, so they had to walk the whole way too.  I did once land on my backside, hopefully that will make me think twice before suggesting an activity like this again.  There are 588 stairs (I googled it) but they are long and each takes about four careful steps to cross (remember: slippery, donkey poop, hay, and so on) so this took a looooong time. 

 

But we did it!  We made it on the second to last tender, hot and sweaty.  I was so proud of Amelie!  Yes, she complained and whined the whole way down, but she DID IT. I tried to talk to her about how she can do hard things when she chooses to, but she was not very happy with me at the moment... just happy to be headed to dinner and the pool!

Med Cruise: Katakolon, Greece (Olympia)

Katakolon is the nearest port to Ancient Olympia. As we got off the ship, our plan was to find a taxi to take us to the sights but we didn't see any taxis right away. We did see a lot of tour buses, so we opted to board one of those. We waited for about 30 minutes for the bus to be filled before it would depart, and that was frustrating for me, as I like to try to beat the crowds when we arrive, but oh well. It ended up not mattering anyway.

 

Cats.  Cats everywhere. The girls loved petting all of the stray cats in Greece. Thankfully I packed sanitizing hand wipes.

 

When we finally made it to Ancient Olympia, we were severely disappointed.  It was closed.  Nowhere on the sight's website or through the cruise line were we informed that would be the case.  We were aware that May Day is a European holiday, but were not expecting them to turn away thousands of tourists here.  The closest we could get was to walk up the nearby hillside and peek over the fence for this view.  

 

We read from our Rick Steve's guidebook about the stadium:

Olympia was a mecca of ancient Greek religion — its greatest sanctuary and one of its most important places of worship. Ancient Greeks came here only every four years, during the religious festival that featured the Olympic Games. The original Olympic Games were more than an athletic fest. Athletes, who were usually aristocratic youth, would stay here to train for months. There were no losers...except those who quit and cheated. Drinking animal blood — the Red Bull of the day — was forbidden. Official urine drinkers tested for this ancient equivalent of steroids. Today, modern visitors just can't resist lining up on that original starting block from the first Olympic Games in 776 B.C.

 

To be honest, this was probably enough of a "visit" for the kiddos, but I was bummed.  It was a very hot day though, and we still had a bunch of time before our bus would head back to the ship, so we took a horse drawn carriage ride uphill from the sight to the modern downtown area.

 

There we found all of the locals, and a few tourists, celebrating May Day with music, food, and dancing.  That was a fun surprise and the upside of being in town on the holiday.

 

We bought the kids some cold icy drinks and enjoyed the music and people watching for a bit.

 

Then we found the Archimedes Museum which was both open and free!  Born in the 200s BC, Archimedes is considered one of the greatest mathematicians of all time.  He is credited with discovering, or mathematically explaining, a TON of concepts, such as deriving an accurate approximation of pi and defining and investigating the spiral bearing his name.  Here Toby and Jake were using an Archimedes' screw to bring water up from a reservoir.  This interactive museum was perfect for our little ones!

 

We also spent some time shopping for souvenirs before boarding the bus to return to our ship.  And then some more time at the port looking at the fish in the clear blue sea.

 

Our day in Olympia wasn't what we had planned, but it ended up being a really enjoyable day after all.

Med Cruise: Brindisi, Italy

 Our first port of call was Brindisi, Italy.  Brindisi is on the "boot heel" part of Italy, if you know what I mean. It isn't a major tourist town and was kind of an odd place for a cruise to stop... but I'm not about to complain about having a sunny afternoon stroll around Southern Italy!

 

We didn't arrive in port until after lunch, so we spent the morning exploring the ship and playing a few holes of mini golf on deck.  Toby is playing golf this Spring and liked showing off his new skills despite the fact that the slight rocking of the ship, combined with the cruddy green made this a very unpredictable game.

 

One of our lefties, putting rightie.

 

 

We had no major sights we really wanted to see in Brindisi, so we just strolled the Old Town.  Some of the buildings were in really rough shape.

 

 

But there was authentic Italian gelato.

 

 

Like much of Italy, there was a mixture of buildings from many different eras, some dating back to the Roman empire.

 

The tempio di San Giovanni al Sepolcro (Saint John Sepulchre Temple) was built in the 11th and 12th Centuries.  This church was once held by the Order of Holy Sepulcher (Templars Knights) and was a really cool find on our walkabout.

 

The frescoes inside have been terribly damaged over the years but pieces of the pictures are still visible in places.

 

  

The wooden roof is obviously new, but this tiny sanctuary was really lovely, light, and quiet inside.

 

  

We looked out the back door just out of curiosity, and found this lovely flower and vegetable garden in the courtyard.

  

There were tons of flowers, a few fruit trees, and some rows of veggies: including, artichokes, lettuce, and other greens. I loved it!

 

  

 Pit stop!

 

The next spot we explored was the San Pietro Degli Schiavoni archaeological area. This is an interesting area that was found and is being excavated under the city's main theater.  It was an ancient Roman street with shops and everything.  We walked around the perimeter and talked with the kids about what an archeologist does and how it is similar to and different from a paleontologist (Jake recently went on a field trip to a dinosaur museum.)  It was shady and cool under the theater and the sight was free which was perfect.

 

Well Brindisi, you were a very relaxing first stop on our cruise itinerary... but it was about time to get to some serious sightseeing!

Med Cruise: All aboard!

About two years ago we took an MSC cruise around the Baltic because it was the most affordable way to see a bit of those expensive Scandinavian countries and the only way we could travel to Russia. It was kind of exhausting, but we were glad we did it.  This year we decided to try another MSC cruise around the eastern Mediterranean.  Why MSC?  Their "kids cruise free" policy and budget pricing mainly. We were viewing the cruise ship as transportation more than as a destination if that makes sense.
 

 

From our house, we drove to the nearest train station. We just missed a train to the airport and had to wait about 30 minutes for the next one.  Jake and Amelie made themselves comfy on the platform.  By the way, that is all we packed for six people for eight days.  We pack light y'all.  We made it to Frankfurt airport where we took a Ryanair flight to Venice, Italy. (That's part of why we were packing so light- they have strict carry-on policies.)  Once we arrived in Venice, we took a taxi to "Camping Village Jolly" where we would spend one night before heading to the cruise terminal.

 

These EuroCamps are a really great deal for families.  We had two of these tiny cabins for three people each. They were basic, and the beds were hard, but they were clean and had a full bathroom and air conditioning.  The total was less than half of anywhere else I could find anywhere near Venice- including airbnb options.

 

The campground had a shuttle bus that ran to downtown and actually dropped us off right near the port which was a very happy surprise!  Not a happy surprise, was the fact that Jacob started sneezing the minute we got off the plane in Venice and by the next day had puffy, itchy eyes too.  He was severely allergic to something in the air in Italy!  Thankfully we had packed Benadryl and once we got out on the ship, it cleared up.

 

We opted not to tour around downtown Venice since we had done that not that long ago, and it was a holiday weekend in Europe due to May Day.  Instead we changed into our swimsuits and hit the pools and hot tubs.

 

The mandatory muster is always good fun.  Ha!  I was super glad I took this photo as we received a notification the next day to attend again as they didn't have record of us having been there despite having scanned our room cards.  I showed this photo to the reception desk and we were checked off the list of non-compliance.

 

It was nice to go up to the top deck and view Venice from the water as we left the port area.

 

Here is St. Mark's Square with the Campanile and Doge's Palace.  If you look closely you can see that the area is completely packed with tourists.  We were happy with our decision to skip downtown.

 

Ciao Venice!

 

Next it was time for some dinner.

MSC is not known for amazing food, and while we could go to the dining room for a somewhat fancier meal, our kids loved the buffet.  It was low stress, there were plenty of options, and no waiting with tired, hungry kiddos.  The main downside was trying to find a table for six, but after the first evening we would just show up for dinner early and bring card games with us and play Uno, Set, or War until the buffet opened for dinner.  It worked for us.

 

Finally we headed to our cabins.  

Again, since there are six of us, we had to book two adjacent cabins.  We split up girls and boys and were happy to have access to two bathrooms. We booked the cheapest rooms- interior, with no windows.  They weren't flashy, but they worked for us, and we were comfortable in our set up.  It was time to explore some new places!