Oh My, It's Malta

It's Wednesday and we're back in Malta.  You might ask, "why in the world are they back in Malta?"  Let me tell you.  The main reason is that our granddaughter, Phoebe, and her fiance, Carter, are having their destination wedding here in Malta. The wedding will be on October 12th.  So, you might ask, "why in the world are they in Malta so early?"  Let me tell you.  Long story short, when Phoebe announced the plans for the wedding, we had to cancel a cruise that conflicted with the dates.  Then we found a cruise that leaves Malta tomorrow and ends in Malaga, Spain on October 7th.  From there we will return to Malta for the wedding festivities.

After 2 smooth flights, we arrived in Malta last night and took a taxi to the 115 The Strand Hotel (where we will stay for the wedding).  The hotel is along the strand in the town of Gzira.  The hotel has a nice terrace overlooking the harbor with evening welcome drinks.

After dinner at an Italian restaurant near the hotel (it seems that most of the restaurants in the area are Italian or have Italian foods on their menus), we walked along the waterfront and enjoyed the sunset.

This morning we took a walk through Sliema town to the waterfront by the Torri ta' San Giljan.

Walking back to the hotel along the waterfront, we passed some interesting, non-sandy beaches.

And some artwork and another fortress.

After a stop for lunch at, believe it or not, another Italian restaurant, we heard back to the hotel for a rest.  I have to say that the jet lag does not seem too bad right now.  Tonight, the plan is to have a non-Italian dinner.  Malta is very influenced by Italian, British and Tunisian cultures.  But, I'm quite sure that we will pass on the traditional Maltese rabbit stew!  After dinner, we may spend some time searching for the Golden Maltese Falcon which apparently been missing since 1539.

Tomorrow we will embark on the Oceania Nautica for the short 12 day cruise.  Our first port of call will be Tunis, Tunisia.  That's exciting for us since we have never been to Tunisia.

Peace and blessings,

Linda and Larry

The End Is Near

It's Friday in Athens and we'll be flying home tomorrow.  It's time  to wrap this journey up.

Wednesday we were in Bodrum, Turkiye, another new port for us.  

We took the Oceania Bodrum Peninsula & Vineyards excursion.  Following a picturesque 45 minute ride up the peninsula, we arrived at the Mor Salkim Vineyards & Winery.  We were given a tour around the vineyard and winery!

The wines were good and the food was plentiful.

An interesting aspect of Bodrum is the number of relatively new hotels.  The area has become a tourism hot spot since the construction of the airport.  Oh, and the temperature was hot also.

Our day was topped off with a dinner with Samantha Brown and her husband, Kevin O'Leary (not that Kevin O'Leary!).  It was a very pleasant dinner and we were surprised when she said that she wanted to pick our brains about travel!

It was the second great dinner in a row for us as the previous evening we finally had dinner with Cruise Director Paul, Assistant Cruise Director Robbie and his wife Casey (the Social Hostess).

Thursday, we were in Patmos, Greece, another new port for us.  It was a nice tender ride into the port.

We took the Oceania St. John's Patmos excursion.  The excursion took us to St. John's Grotto and then to the Holy Monastery of Saint John the Theologian.  The grotto was smaller than I expected.  Don't tell God, but I took a photo inside when we weren't supposed to.

There were some good views from the site.

The monastery sits atop a hill in the town that is the capital of Patmos and walking up the reward for the walk up was really good views.

 

The monastery itself was interesting.

Don't tell God, but Linda also snuck in a photo there.

The excursion provided an insight to an important aspect of Patmos, but I have to say that the religious narrative that our guide provided was a bit much for us.

Being back in Greece gave me the opportunity to do my best Zorba the Greek dance.

And now we're up to Friday.  Disembarkation and transfer to the hotel went quite smoothly.  After we dropped our luggage at the hotel, we took an Uber to Placa, the neighborhood below the Acropolis.  We did a walk around the area, checking out old and new churches and, of course, ruins. Walking around Athens reminded Linda of Rome with less crowds and a lot cleaner! We do have to add that it is a holiday today.

And then it was time for a lunch of Greek salad and mezze.

Before heading back to the hotel, we walked past Hadrian's Arch (the guy got around) and the Temple of Olympian Zeus.

So this wraps up our 3 month journey around Europe (and a bit of Asia).  It's been a journey with so many highs (and just a couple of lows).  It has provided us with a good baseline for next year when we are doing a 4-month around the world cruise.

I know that some of my blog posts are far too long (like this one!).  But I try to tell the story of our journeys as best I can.  And there are probably so many more stories we could tell.  Which brings me to the quote from Tivoli Park in Ljubljana that I will end this journey on. 

"Listen, and you will realize that we are made not from cells or from atoms. We are made from stories."

Mia Couto

Till next time, peace, blessings and stories,

Linda and Larry