7/14/2014 - 12-Night Mediterranean Cruise (with Greece) Venice to Barcelona

[denise]

I'm going to ask my Greek buddies what they would do on each stop...the ones who have been to our stops. (It has been years since my husband has been there)

The new museum in Athens will be fun. It wasn't built the last time we were there. It's a world class museum now. They built it so they could get back the "stolen" Greek artifacts from England...

Should have a nice list by the time we go!

Checking on a tour guide for Athens....

BTW, Eleni will be 24 at the time of the cruise...(she just turned 23 last month)

Funny about not speaking Greek at home when you where little...My Dad's Dad, who was Greek, never spoke it at home. My grandmother was Swedish so she knew nothing in Greek only Swedish and Norwegian. So of course my dad only knew the bad words... And he was nice enough to teach us kids...lol
I learned Greek in College..that is how I met my DH...in Greek school...

off to the Glendi at Church...OPA!

 

[TammyAlphabet]

The new museum in Athens will be fun. It wasn't built the last time we were there. It's a world class museum now. They built it so they could get back the "stolen" Greek artifacts from England...

Funny! When I visited the British Museum the tour guide said, "Welcome to the British Museum! The museum of everything NOT British!" Boy was that true, I think they had 50 percent Greek and 50 percent Egyptian.

 

[MPS516]

Tammy, where in TN are you ? Wife and I from Memhis before MN, went to Christian Brothers then UT Mem medical. Also have some friends in Nashville, one cruising and another golf.

 

[MPS516]

May the Irish hills caress you,
May her lakes and rivers bless you,
May the Luck of the Irish enfold you,
May the blessings of Saint Patrick behold you !

 

[vacationsitis]

Was looking at disboards & found the following thread. She is really very thorough & lot of information on some of the ports on our cruise....

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=47757829#post47757829

 

[TammyAlphabet]

Tammy, where in TN are you ? Wife and I from Memhis before MN, went to Christian Brothers then UT Mem medical. Also have some friends in Nashville, one cruising and another golf.

I live in Murfreesboro, just south of Nashville. Small world!

 

[TammyAlphabet]

Was looking at disboards & found the following thread. She is really very thorough & lot of information on some of the ports on our cruise....

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=47757829#post47757829

Thanks so much for this link. I have subscribed to it.

 

[MPS516]

I used to have an office in Franklin just up the street.

 

[TammyAlphabet]

I used to have an office in Franklin just up the street.

I often go to Franklin for doctor visits and shopping. I bet it has grown since you were here. This whole area has exploded in growth in the last ten years.

 

[MPS516]

Exchange rate has been hovering in upper 70's since its peek last November, wonder if I should buy Euros now

77 1/2 is pretty good suppose hoping for 79 is dreaming

 

[keenercam]

Exchange rate has been hovering in upper 70's since its peek last November, wonder if I should buy Euros now

77 1/2 is pretty good suppose hoping for 79 is dreaming

There have been times in the past year where it got down to 1.25D/1.0E, so I think I am going to hold out for a while and see what it does. It is still so much better than when we bought for our 2011 trip. I think it was something in the 1.40D/1.0E range then.

 

[MPS516]

$ 1.29 today still sounds pretty good. I too have been thinking about the rate in 2010 and watched great rates slip into not good at all.

 

[SailingSeas]

Have you ever heard of dollar cost averaging? You may find it works best to buy some now, then if it dips lower, buy more. Your overall average price will be lower, and if it increases, you won't have missed the bottom.

Just a thought...

 

[MPS516]

Thinking the same thing, especially because it is a pretty good protection of increasing margin.

 

[denise]

Rick Steves travel program has been showing some interesting programs lately. Even though they are from 2006 ish they were good. Saw one on Venice and hoping they will repeat it again. They are on the PBS channel here...
The library might also have the DVD's to check out....

 

[keenercam]

Rick Steves travel program has been showing some interesting programs lately. Even though they are from 2006 ish they were good. Saw one on Venice and hoping they will repeat it again. They are on the PBS channel here...
The library might also have the DVD's to check out....

We checked out from the library and watched 2 DVDs re: Venice. Interestingly, while the city is clearly beautiful, I didn't get the impression from those two DVDs that the people were all that friendly. LOL! I am eager to get the Rick Steves one. We also have two general DVDs about travel in Greece that we'll watch tonight, probably. I know it is really early, but I'd like to get more familiar with the ports well in advance of when I'll have to start making decisions about hotel locations, tours, attractions, restaurants, etc.

I was happy to see the exchange rate down to 1.29/1.0 today. I'm going to keep watching for a couple days and then may buy the first 1000 Euros if it stays in the 1.20s.

 

[SailingSeas]

LOL Keener, I think they are friendlier further south too.

We love Rick Steve's YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/RickSteves

I'm also a huge fan of LonelyPlanet.com:
http://www.youtube.com/user/LonelyPlanet

 

[keenercam]

LOL Keener, I think they are friendlier further south too.

We love Rick Steve's YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/RickSteves

I'm also a huge fan of LonelyPlanet.com:
http://www.youtube.com/user/LonelyPlanet

Maybe it's something to do with living in a place that could share the same fate as Atlantis some day?

I am definitely going to check out those youtube channels. Thank you!

 

[vacationsitis]

I was happy to see the exchange rate down to 1.29/1.0 today. I'm going to keep watching for a couple days and then may buy the first 1000 Euros if it stays in the 1.20s.[/QUOTE]

Where do you buy the Euros in US? Our bank usually does not give the same rate as quoted on currency trade. We usually use ATM in the country we are traveling to get the best rate.

 

[Cousin Orville]

Did anyone see this

http://disneyparks.disney.go.com/bl...lty-on-a-vip-visit-to-doges-palace-in-venice/

that looks cool. Don't know if it will apply to our cruise since we're departing from Venice, but it would be awesome.