After our epic Asian adventure, Rose and I planned to take it easy in 2017. As always, the best laid plans… Thinking a return to Italy and Greece would be a much needed change of scenery, we booked a cruise leaving October 1. October is the perfect time to visit Europe. The summer crowds are mostly gone and the weather is comfortable. We were starting from Rome. One piece of advice. Plan to arrive in the departure city at least one day prior to sailing. Flight delays happen and you don’t want to miss your boarding time or the cruise. The ports in many European cities may be a distance from your arrival city which requires additional transportation. The itinerary this time was Rome, Florence, Pisa, Sardinia, Crete, Athens, Santorini, Olympia, Malta, Sicily, Naples and back to Rome.
Since Rose never let me forget that she didn’t get to see the Trevi fountain on our last visit to Rome, I made sure that would not happen this time. We planned to stay in Rome an additional 2 days and I made sure to find lodging near the fountain. I found the perfect little boutique hotel on a pedestrian street half a block from the fountain. The crew this time consisted of Rose, myself, Roe and Dolores (remember Alaska) and another friend, Barbara. Naturally, the first order of business was to see the fountain, several times! It is exquisite.
The hotel recommended a local restaurant where the food was delicious. We met a couple from New York and had a great conversation. After dinner we decided to walk off what we had just consumed. Rome at night is magical. Since we had all previously been to Rome, we spent the next day exploring our local area, the fountain, again, and browsing the shops. Another wonderful dinner at another local restaurant and the next morning we were on our way to the port and our floating hotel.
Our first stop was Florence. This was not to be a happy visit. We had been warned, especially in Florence to be wary of pickpockets. After exiting our tour bus, Rose, who is usually very careful, was sitting in her walker waiting for the group to assemble. The walker has a mesh compartment with a zipper that is in the front. However, when you use the walker as a seat, the position is reversed and the compartment is in the rear. To this day, Rose doesn’t know why she chose to carry all her cash, credit cards and ID with her that day. It happened so fast no one saw the thieves but Rose knew right away that her purse and IPad had been taken. She was shaken and upset thinking the trip was over for her. Instead of seeing the sights in Florence, we spent the afternoon with the Carabinieri filing a police report and contacting Rose’s daughters to cancel her credit cards and obtain duplicate ID. Her one daughter was able to wire money to the ship and her other daughter took care of the credit cards and ID. The one saving grace was that the ship had retained our passports so that at least, was safe.
We returned to the ship and decided a drink was in order. We had planned to meet everyone in the wine bar but we arrived early. Our waiter came to take our drink orders. We gave him our choices and said we really can use a drink at this point. He was instantly concerned and asked what had happened. Rose told him and he offered his sympathies. He brought our drinks and again said how sorry he was that this had happened. When it was time to leave, our waiter, whose name was Abdul, brought us our bill. He then took Rose’s hand and said “my faith will not allow me to let you leave here with nothing”. Rose realized he had placed a currency note in her hand. She tried to refuse it but he insisted she take it. It turned out to be a 100 euro note. An unhappy day turned completely around by the kindness of a stranger who lives up to the best ideals of his faith. A few days later I had the opportunity to have a long conversation with Abdul, no longer a stranger, and I was mightily impressed by his peaceful nature and kind soul. We both wrote glowing recommendations for him. Knowing how hard cruise ship employees work and how long they are away from home, I hope this little bit we were able to do was helpful for him.
Thanks to Rose’s daughters, she now had money and her ID was being replaced. On to Pisa and the famous leaning tower. When we arrived at our drop off spot, it was a bit of a walk to the tower through an interesting outdoor shopping area with every type of souvenir you could possibly want and performers who appeared to levitate. We lost track of Rose who was behind us. She’s totally self sufficient with her walker so we really weren’t concerned but we decided to wait for her to catch up. Of all the things we were not expecting, here comes Rose, sitting in the seat of her walker being pushed by a Japanese man who was nearly jogging to catch up with us. He wanted to be sure she didn’t lose contact with her group. Another kind stranger. The whole complex at Pisa is absolutely worth seeing. Unfortunately, we had a lot to see that day so we didn’t have time to actually go in the tower.
After the events of the past few days, we were happy to move on. We were on our way to Sardinia. It was beautiful and peaceful. We spent the afternoon learning about the island whose history dates to prehistoric times. We also learned that when Rose’s daughter finished working on restoring her credit cards and ID, she went to the hospital and had a baby boy! Some good news.
Sardinia was a truly interesting place. While not as well known as Sicily, it has some of the worlds oldest and mysterious sites. I confess to being a closet archeologist. Give me a destination with ruins and I’m all in. Sardinia also has beautiful beaches and great coffee shops with delicious pastry. I wish we had more time to explore Sardinia but we had to head back to the ship. The next day was our only sea day so we enjoyed the break in the activity.
We next stopped in Knossos in Crete, where we saw the remains of the Minoan palace and some of the best preserved ancient frescoes. We then went to Athens.
Since we had been to Athens on a previous cruise, we decided to skip the tour of the Acropolis. Rose saw a hop on hop off bus tour in Athens which is an all day pass for the bus transit system. After happily wandering through Athens for quite a while it was getting late. Rose was deeply engaged in her favorite activity-shopping. I told her we had to go and she was not quite ready. When I finally convinced her we had to leave, we thought we were at the right spot, on a busy main street, but bus after bus passed us without stopping. It was getting really late and I didn’t know if we’d make it back to the ship on time. By now I was a second away from being desperate. We couldn’t find any cabs so the bus was the our only way back and they were all passing us by! Desperation kicked in and I waited until the next oncoming bus was a distance away, stepped into the bus lane, held up my hands and said my prayers. The bus stopped, we got in and explained our situation to the driver who, thankfully, understood. He told us we were not on the right bus but he would take us to the stop where we could get the bus going to the port. We thanked him and he told us he had contacted the driver of the other bus who then contacted the ship to let them know we were on our way. Again, the kindness of strangers. It was close but we got there with five minutes to spare. Now, whenever we plan a vacation, I warn everyone in the group-NEVER-do a hop on hop off bus tour with Rose! That includes her daughter who was with us on our latest adventure.
Next up, Santorini. What can possibly be said about Santorini that will do it justice? We visited the archeological site of Akrotiri which is much older than Pompeii. It was destroyed in the mid 16th century BC eruption of Thera (original name of Santorini) when the island was a very different shape. This next chart shows how the island changed.
The Akrotiri excavation is ongoing and has uncovered well preserved city streets, shops, houses and pottery. From what has been uncovered it seems every house had art on its walls. I was wishing I was part of the team uncovering the ancient city.
We had scheduled a tour of the local winery and on the way up (everything in Santorini is uphill) we saw the vineyards. The grapevines are some of the oldest on earth and are grown dug into the ground. This is due to the dry and windy climate which forces the vines to stay close to the earth. They are pruned into a wreath shape called Kouloura which protects the grapes inside the wreath and also gives the vines access to the volcanic minerals in the soil. I had been given a bottle of Greek wine as a gift and it was one of the best white wines I had ever tasted. It is called Assyrtiko and is the flagship variety in Santorini.
The vineyard provided a wine tasting and snacks which we thoroughly enjoyed. I love the Assyrtiko wine and I had planned to ship a case home. Unfortunately, at that time it was prohibited by the US. Not anymore! After enjoying our time at the winery we were taken to the main shopping area in Santorini. We were dropped off below the area you see in the above photo. The best shopping area was about 2 miles uphill. Not to be deterred, Rose and her walker made to to the top and she did what she does best, she shopped. It was a long way down to where we were meeting the tender for our ship and we opted to take the cable car rather than ride a donkey! We were sad to leave Santorini behind but it had been a hectic few days with more to come.
Next on the itinerary, the island of Olympia. I have to confess, we were all ready for a bit of down time but this was the last stop in Greece. We considered sleeping in and passing it up but then decided to go. I’m so happy we did! We had the best time. As the name implies, this was the site of the first Olympic games. We saw the original track and Dolores decided this was her opportunity to run the track. She did.
After her gold medal worthy run, Dolores and the rest of us were taken to a local restaurant for lunch. The lunch consisted of the typical Mediterranean ingredients and is probably one of my favorites. Pita bread, olives, feta cheese, salad and Ouzo. However, the best part of the lunch were the Greek dancers. They were so much fun! Besides the amazing traditional dances, they had the whole room participating. All the men were up first and after the required plate breaking, the dancers had the women dancing on the tables! Opa!! And to think we almost didn’t go.
We were so glad we decided to go. The dancers were so good and so energetic I wanted to thank them on my way out. The man who seemed like the leader was at the door saying goodbye to everyone. I went to shake his hand and thank him for the performance but being Greek, I got a big bear hug instead.
It was a memorable afternoon. After arriving back at the ship we left Greece and headed to Malta.
Malta is its own entity, an independent nation in the Mediterranean with a rich history dating back to ancient times. Roe’s father’s family are Maltese and she had been there a few times so she knew how beautiful it is. Parts of it are upscale and sophisticated, parts are very old world and parts are very rural and seem to be from long ago. Like Sardinia, it has several ancient archeological sites. We were only to be in Malta for a day so we chose to go ashore and explore on our own. The diversity in the architecture is amazing.
Dolores, me and Roe sitting above the Blue Grotto-when sunlight seeps through the sea caves entrances, the caves become an almost other worldly blue.
We were nearing the last few days of our cruise but we still had Sicily and Naples to see.
I honestly don’t know what I was expecting when we arrived in Sicily but it was beautiful. Again, we didn’t have too much time in Sicily but we had booked an excursion to Mount Etna, Sicily’s still active volcano. Apparently, no one who lives near the volcano is really concerned since while summit eruptions can be highly explosive they rarely threaten the inhabited areas. On the other hand, flank eruptions occur fairly recently and have damaged inhabited property. According to our tour guide, they are used to it.
The golden Madonna inscribed with Vos et Ipsam civitatem benedicimus “We bless you and your city”.
The ride up to Etna was hair raising. I’m not a fan of buses or RV’s and when a vehicle that big has to navigate really tight uphill curves in a road, I don’t look. Much of my career involved driving to appointments in a car and I think it’s the control freak in me (not being the driver) plus the inherent unbalanced (to me) ride of a vehicle that large that makes me feel the way some people feel about flying. We made it to the top and I was able to hike into one of the craters which was really eerie. As usual, I lost Rose in the gift shop and spent so much time looking for her that I gave up and went back to the bus. I was promptly chastised by the tour guide for being late and discovered Rose was already on the bus! Another hair raising ride down from Etna and I was happy to be off the bus.
Last stop of the day was a cameo factory. It was located in a gorgeous Italian Villa. I was really intrigued by the process. My dad had brought cameos home from Italy for my mom, my grandmother and Aunt Gen when he was there in WW II. I still have the ones from my mom and grandmother. I was told they were carved from seashells. They are one of my most treasured possessions. I did purchase a few cameos for my granddaughters. The owners graciously provided drinks and snacks on the terrace for the shoppers.
The cameo factory was our last stop in Sicily. Back on the ship, we stopped for cocktails and headed to Naples.
If you saw the series with Stanley Tucci “Searching for Italy”, Naples is where pizza originated. We were there before the series started and after walking all over Naples we had stopped to grab something to eat and settled on, what else, pizza. The five of us collectively agreed it was the best pizza we ever had. The series episode on Naples goes into great detail about the Neapolitan ingredients and how they are unique to that area of Italy. If you haven’t seen it, it’s definitely worth a look. The episodes go into detail about how the different dishes originated in various areas of Italy.
To return to the ship, we had to pass through a long shopping area that had a leather shop I had been to on my last visit to Naples. In addition to the beautiful leather goods there, this shop will measure you and custom make a fabulous leather jacket, your choice of color and style, in four hours at an extremely reasonable price. I was able to have a jacket made for my sister in law as a gift for taking care of my grandson while I was gone. Naples was our last stop before heading back to Rome but we had one last thing to do. I had purchased a new leather wallet for Rose and suggested she keep Abdul’s 100 euro note in it as a permanent reminder of the kindness of strangers. We then decided to double the gift and present it to Abdul with our enduring gratitude. He didn’t want to take it but as he had done, we insisted. I wish there were more like him in the world.
At the beginning of this post, I mentioned we were planning to take it easy this year. Well, that didn’t work out so well. A little more than three weeks after we returned from Italy, we were on our way to Churchill, Canada.
Churchill, situated on Hudson Bay, has a long history dating back to around 1000 AD. starting with the ancestors of the present day Inuit people. Its geographical location attracted an ill fated Danish expedition and subsequently, the English. Its population now hovers around 870. Today, the main economic contributor is tourism with heavy emphasis on ecotourism. Churchill is located in the middle of the area the bears have always traversed on their way to the sea ice. Until the 1980’s when a bear would wander into town, it would be shot. It was then that Churchill started the Polar Bear Alert Program which has turned things around. Churchill has now become “The Polar Bear Capital of the World”. The business of tourism in Churchill is hyper responsible which is good to hear. The full history of Churchill and the bears is fascinating reading which I highly recommend.
I first heard about Churchill after Butch and I saw a broadcast on a morning show over 25 years ago. We both really wanted to visit Churchill and view the bears from the Tundra Buggy which affords the closest you can safely get to the bears. It was a bucket list item for both of us right after the Holy Land and the Pyramids. Since Butch would not get to Churchill, I decided to go for both of us. As always, Rose was packed and ready. Getting to Churchill is not simple. There are no roads in or out so the only way in is either plane or train. At the time we were going , the train was not in service due to damage from flooding. Plane it is. We flew to Winnipeg and stayed overnight. We were then taken to the airport to board a charter flight to Churchill.
After landing, we were picked up by a bus and taken to our log hotel. The rooms were warm, clean and rustic. The lodge had a cafe where much to my surprise, there was fresh fruit every morning and really good cappuccino served with a bear print on top.
It was snowing when we arrived and our first expedition to see the bears was the following morning. We had some free time and the gift shops were calling to Rose. I’m glad she listened. In one shop we were able to design and purchase beaded, lined deerskin slippers. They were made in the shop by native women who were experts in leather craft. They would be ready in a day. The warmest slippers ever. After dinner, we spent some time in the lodge’s great room enjoying the warmth and the company.
The next morning we were off on our first day of bear watching. The vehicles used for these excursions have various names like Tundra Buggy, Arctic Crawler, Polar Rover etc. They are large heated vehicles that look like buses on steroids with an open viewing platform in the rear. Our first day we followed a bear for almost an hour until he or she decided to head to the water. We saw both red and arctic foxes and the wreck of the Ithaca in Bird Cove. There’s also a crashed plane nicknamed Miss Piggy that had no fatalities. It seems both the Ithaca and Miss Piggy would be far more costly to remove so they have become tourist stops and photo ops. Later in the day, we went to the Polar Bear jail and saw the Inuit stone formation called Inukshuk. A really remarkable day.
Churchill was without a doubt, the coldest place I have ever been but if you dress in layers and leave the flip flops home you’ll stay warm. It was a truly incredible day and the next day proved to be just as exciting. We started the day again in our heated vehicle but the bears were nowhere to be found. Keeping global warming in mind, we scheduled this trip as late as we could in November, thinking the sea ice would be forming later in the year. Of course, that particular year, the sea ice formed earlier than usual which meant most of the bears were already on the ice. To compensate, the lodge arranged for a helicopter ride over the ice where we were able to see more bears.
The photos from the helicopter are fuzzy because it was overcast but we did get to see a really good amount of bears.
That night, we were taken to a sled dog camp. I had been to a dogsled camp in Alaska but this was decidedly different. We were going for a dogsled ride through the forest, at night and that night the Aurora was really active.
The light show that night was awesome. Watching this incredible display take different shapes and finally curve into a spiral was something I will never forget.
This day couldn’t have been more perfect. We headed back to the lodge and our comfortably heated room. Tomorrow was to be an early day so we could get as much bear watching in as possible. There didn’t seem to be any bears around that morning so we toured the Itsanitaq Museum/Eskimo Museum and went to the Post Office to have our passports stamped with the Canadian Polar Bear. It’s not official, just a great reminder of a totally amazing trip. It was now time to head to the airport for our flight back to Winnipeg and then home. Just in time to prepare for Thanksgiving. So much for taking it easy in 2017. I wouldn’t change a thing.
Believe it or not, our next adventure in 2018 would bring us back to Italy. This time on land with more travel partners.
I want to remind everyone reading this blog, all these adventures were undertaken with travelers who were dealing with serious illness and/or physical limitations. What seems impossible is possible if you really want it and every problem has a solution. It may not be what you expect but it can be much more.