Ending the summer just right

The end started with our first visit from Gigi & Rooster shortly followed by our first family cruise in the Eastern Mediterranean. The only bummer of this trip was that Tony had to fly out to the US the very next morning after getting back from the cruise.

With just a couple of weeks left in the summer Gigi & Rooster arrived looking for some Dutch sunshine, but I don't think they found much. The day after they flew in, we decided to go visit Alkmaar. Famous for their Friday morning cheese market, we thought it would be a great town to go visit as none of us had seen it yet. We were right about the town, the market itself was a bit disappointing, but the town itself was quaint and very pleasant to walk around. The cheese market on the other hand was a bit of a let down, their were too many people, so you can't really see anything and even when on our tippy toes, we realized we weren't missing much. Lucky for us there was a poffertje stand right where we were trying to get a look so we all shared a plate of mini Dutch pancakes with powdered sugar.

After Alkmaar, we spent the weekend absorbing Amsterdam with Gigi & Rooster in a very local fashion. On Saturday morning, Gigi & Rooster headed up to the bike rental shop to pick up a couple of bikes (we tried to convince them to get the tandum, but Rooster wouldn't go for it). After getting the bikes, we all headed up to the Noordermarkt (farmers market in the Jordaan open on Saturday's). Getting their was an adventure in itself as Gigi & Rooster had to figure out how to maneuver throughout the center of Amsterdam on the bikes (a notably brave excursion for some bike rookies). After the bike ride, we went home to let the boys take a nap then it was off to Sebastians house (another bike ride up into the Jordaan).

Sebastian, Tony's friend from work, lives on a houseboat up in the Center of Amsterdam. We really can't thank him enough as he invited the whole family over to his house from where we got on his little boat ("Wuzi Wuzi") to get a local guided tour of Amsterdam. We really lucked out on the weather that day. The combination of the sun shining the whole 4 hours we were on the canal, some champagne, snacks, family, friends (Sebastian, his fiance Fabiola & Bryan) and Amsterdam from a very unique viewpoint, it all made for a perfect afternoon. After touring nearly every canal route in Amsterdam, yes, Red Light District included, Carter got the opportunity to drive Sebastian's boat for the last 20 minutes. Yeah, he was pretty proud of himself. After a long day, Sunday required a bit of relaxing & bar-b-que to get rid of the sore muscles from all of that bike riding the day before.

The next week Tony had to head back to work after which on Thursday, Gigi drove us down to Rotterdam so we could hop on a plane to Rome. While we headed off on our cruise, Gigi & Rooster drove down to Metz to visit Sandra and her family for some authentic French relaxation.

Upon arriving at our hotel in Rome, we headed over to the nearest grocery store to stock our room up with the bare essentials. From there we took the hotel shuttle down to the area near the Spanish steps. After absorbing some people watching and the sights of the area, we boarded the subway to take a gander at the Roman Coliseum & the Forum. Simply amazing when you consider how old all of this is, imagine what went on in these areas some 2000+ years ago (wars, the creation of democracy, gladiators, etc.) then you throw on top of that the sheer size of these structures, no disappointments here.

Our second day brought us on a tour to Vatican City. We usually don't sign up for tours and probably never will again. We were told that it was a good idea to avoid the lines, but its just not as fun going at someone else pace. We made it to the Vatican museum & Sistine Chapel but unfortunately we weren't allowed into St Peters Cathedral. They claimed Stacie's dress was too short, after we intentionally got dressed up the pull this off, what?? The most horrendous part was that as we were waiting for the group to come back we observed various crowds of mid-westerners sporting some fancy cut-off jean shorts with matching wife beaters coming out of the cathedral, what a joke!

Rome is not to be missed, with expectations somewhere at a midpoint due to it being potentially over hyped, we left our short stay with a collective nod that this has to be one of the greatest towns of all. We had our greatest Italian eating experiences to date; from our local eatery full of sausages & great pastas to a hot stroll around supplemented by some of the finest gelato the world has to offer. We were pleasantly surprised by how Rome lived up to its huge expectations from all angles.

Just 3 days after arriving in Rome, we had to say good bye and head off to our boat. If anyone ever encourages you to arrange transportation from Rome to the port of Civitavecchia... DON'T! It's really quite simple, an 90 minute train into the port town, ~10 minute walk, 5 minute shuttle from the port entrance and you make it there for ~10 Euros per person. The arranged travel would have been at least $300.

As soon as we dropped our luggage, we headed up to the room, put on the trunks & g-strings, the headed to the pool-side bar for some Pina Colada's & Apple Juices. Our bartender told us he was bummed because this cruise was typically full of Italians. Inquiring as to why, he said they don't like to have fun and are all rude. Initially surprised, we came to find him spot on. We had countless experiences that pushed me to the brink of changing our last name. In the end, it made for some good entertainment, for an example, see the below:

1. The table behind us at dinner complained about all of their dishes to the waitstaff each night which created tension in a room that should have been overly enjoyable. The worst part was on one of the last nights, it got to the point where the mother at the table had the head waiter standing over her pealing a plate full of shrimps.
2. The great thing about the lack of fun was that it made for a short line at the bar. From sun up til sun down, the sun decks were lined with Italians soaking up the 100 degree rays all looking like the grandma from "There something about Mary" by the end of the cruise. I swear, it looked like a cancer production line.
3. Common courtesy, oh hell no. Maybe we are a bit off mark, but usually, in all places around the world, you allow people to get off of elevators & buses before trying to enter. The Italians have a different perspective. To highlight how bad it was, on our last night, we were waiting to go down to our room when the elevator opened up and we saw that the same girl in the wheel chair was still in the same elevator that we had just seen pass us. We had to ask why and she noted that they wouldn't let her off, how horrible is that??

Once all of the ice in the apple juices was gone, we took a quick tour of the boat and found the kids club. This could be one of the best concepts ever. Once in there the next day, Carter never wanted to leave. We went on 3 excursions and he stayed on the boat the whole time. Beyond the kids club, we got familiar with the spa, the fitness center, climbing wall, mini-golf course, arcade and the other 1000 things to do, this was going to be fun.

We were out on the boat for a complete day and didn't dock until our second morning at sea. Our first port was Messina and we actually ended up just dropping the kids off at the club, going for a nice workout, then enjoying some Pina Coladas off of our balcony. We had a nice view of Sicily, so even though we didn't physically step foot on Tony's homeland, we enjoyed it all just fine.

A day after Messina, the boat arrived in Athens, Greece. Athens is really great for a day trip, but we wouldn't recommend more than that. We took a 12 euro taxi from the port to the bottom of the Parthenon. Though posted at 12 euro's, our driver tried to charge us 40 from which Tony quickly negotiated back to 12. After that, the driver offered a full day of guided tours in his taxi for only 200 euros. We denied that and were glad when we found out that it was only a 10 minute walk to the shopping area of Placa, which he quoted as at least an hour. After soaking up the Acropolis, we walked down to the Placa, did a bit of window shopping then enjoyed a slow Greek lunch with Avery (yes, Carter was back on the boat the whole time). On our way back, we walked to the right of the port instead of the left, that little mistake costed us an extra hour of hiking in the hot sun that caused us to nearly miss the boat. The good part, we burned an extra 1000 calories which allowed us to enjoy the evening meals and drinks.

From Athens, our cruise took us over to Ephesus, Turkey, our hands down favorite stop. We ended up getting a private tour here with our own tour guide & seperate driver. They were recommended by a friend of ours and turned out really good. We went to see the house of the Virgin Mary followed by the town of Ephesus (one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world). Ephesus is essentially a town of ruins from an old Roman settlement which has slowly been uncovered by archeologist (including Indy) over the past 50 or so years. Unlike Rome (where all of the notables are surrounded by buildings built in the last 100 years), Ephesus stands alone stuck in time. As you walk through it, you can really imagine what it was like to live 2000 years ago. At the conclusion of the town walk, we headed over to a museum then finished off the day with another slow lunch (yes, without Carter, he again was back on the boat) in an old train yard. On the way back to the boat, we stopped by a Turkish rug merchant and picked up an original (If you come by, please don't spill wine on it).

Our last port before heading back to Civitavecchia was in Crete, Greece. You know, the Greek islands were the original inspiration for this trip. We had been planning to get a villa with some friends but the timing couldn't be coordinated so we opted for the next best thing, a Mediterranean cruise! Unfortunately, Crete was a big disappointment. It was far from a quaint island village and more of a bustling, smoggy big city. We were only here for a few hours, so, though not the highlight of our trip, we now know which island not to spend a week on if we go to get a villa some other time.

With only one day at sea and a couple of nights left, we ended the cruise in style, enjoying all it had to offer. Our last day was spent lounging around the pool, getting one last burger at Johnny Rockets then heading over to watch the Ice show with some friends we met (Hananah, Ahmed & their boy) from Dubai (originally from Washington DC) that we spent some time with on the boat. We took the kids to dinner that night and handed out the tips to our wait staff after which we brought the kids back to the room to hang out with the babysitter. Stacie and I went to go catch a variety show after which we made our rounds to the many themes bars before finishing the night off on the boats promenade. We had a great time chatting it up with some of the crew as they were trying to push some goods, we took advantage by leveraging the free Sangria they had at their table.

On our last day, we woke up, got breakfast, checked out then made our way back to Rome. We got a chance to spend a full day in Rome as our flight didn't leave until 8:30 pm. After finally getting to bed around midnight, it was up and out the door first thing the next Monday. Unfortunately the plane connecting from Amsterdam took off late so Gigi & Tony got stuck in Frankfurt for a night, not the best way end a vacation!