Corfu Greece

This day we docked in Corfu.  The water was a beautiful turquoise blue.  We took a tour of the Achilleon Palace which belonged to Queen Elizabeth of Hungary.  She was an unhappy queen, whose life was controlled by her mother-in-law who even took her children away so she could raise them!  She found peace in her travels to Corfu and built a palace to visit.  The garden's and settings were beautiful.

 We then visited a very dark monstery which overlooked an amazing bay with crystal blue waters. 

 An Orthodox Greek Priest in Old Town Corfu.

 Market in Old Town

 Old Town Corfu is kind of like Greece's version of Tijuana, only nicer.  Terrence bought me the blouse I was trying on in this picture as well as a scarf and some small greek lanterns.

 Their cathedrals in Greece were covered in silver lanterns and very ornate.  Definitely a more "gypsy" feel than the Italians.

Afterwards we went to the ship for formal night and pictures.  It was a very fun, beautiful day!

25th Anniversary. Italy, Greece, Croatia!! Day 1

For our 25th wedding anniversary, Terrence and I took a vacation!!  It was a fantastic trip and we loved every minute of it.  

We left SLC May 4 and left Kinsey, Lane and Kacey in charge back at home.  Aunt Cari and baby Tamzy took us to the airport and off we went!

We landed in Paris the next afternoon to catch our flight to Venice.  

This is the view taken from the Rialto Bridge.

We took the water bus (orange line) to the Rialto Bridge to get to Venice from the airport.  We stayed in the Bernardi Hotel.  Sheesh!!  There was a miscommunication with the reservations and instead of two, we were booked as a four person party.  There was no way around it!  We paid the extra 70 euros and went to San Marco Square.

We had an amazing meal of Caprese salad, fish with spiced olive oils, and a delicious green salad.  We sat next to a spry 70 year old couple from New York.  She was there presenting at as a guest speaker for a psychiatrist convention.

This was the view from our restaurant.

We then went window shopping and stopped for vanilla with chocolate and rum raisin gelato.  It was Prego!

(Dodges Palace)

(Dueling orchestras in the square)

(St. Mark's Square)

We headed back to the hotel for an unrestful night's sleep.  It must've been the jet lag.

The next morning we walked around Doge's Palace and San Marco.  We went in a couple of years ago and didn't have much time, so took in the street life.  

(These are the keys to our hotel room.  Really?  When I acted confused the girl looked at me and said, "Allora!!" I laughed and asked what "Allora" meant?  She just looked at me and said, "It means nothing".  Sheesh again!

This was the blow dryer hose that took an hour to dry my hair.  "Allora!"

(Pizzeria we stopped at for lunch)

We stopped for pizza, got our bags and headed for the ship on the line 1 water taxi.

(Window Shopping in Venice is like eye candy)

Bari, Italy

Today we left Venice and started the cruise to Bari, Italy.  We had a great view of the ports from our balcony.  So worth the upgrade!

The port of Venice

Royal Caribbean's Splendor of the Seas

View of St. Mark's Square from our cruise ship.

Cruising down the Grand Canal.

It was a wonderful day, but Bari isn't much to see.  We took a walking tour through a family owned olive oil pressing factory.  They showed us miles of olive trees, pressing machines and gave us samples of olive oil mixed with lemon, basil, peppers or other spices.  They served olives, wine and lemonade (guess which one we had?!).  

It's interesting how hard some of them try to imitate the American Look.  Don't you love the Calvin Klein T?  Everywhere you look everyone's in Converse and Levi's.

We then toured Betinto and a a church.

Terrence loves to look behind closed doors...

This was the church of pergatory where the angels go to hell and bring up the dead.  We didn't go inside.

This church was filled with symbolism.  

The floor was sinking and upon inspection they found the church had been built upon another church which had been built over catacombs.  They unburied and restored the original surroundings in 2008.  It was very cool.

This well was just  outside the church.  Terrence and I thought it looked like a good picture spot.  I ended up taking about 15 pictures for other people that were on our tour that thought it was a good spot too!

On our way to Corfu, Greece.