Athens (2024 Europe)

We disembarked at the Port of Piraeus (outside of Athens) on my birthday. We bid farewell to my folks who were flying back to the States while D and I and my sister and her family were staying on for an additional few days to explore Athens. I never really had a big desire to visit Greece but felt this would be a nice opportunity to see one of the oldest named cities in the world and learn more about ancient civilizations. After getting off the boat, we queued up for the taxi line to bring us into Athens and to our hotel.

After about a 45 minute drive (due to some abnormal traffic – I guess we arrived the day after a big holiday) and almost to our hotel, we passed by the Arch of Hadrian and Syntagma Square, where the Old Royal Palace is. This is also where you can see the Presidential guard change every hour at the tomb of the unknown soldier (we weren’t around on a Sunday but I guess they have a bigger guard change then).

We got checked into our hotel (Elia Ermou Hotel), located in a bustling shopping area (Ermou Street) and then walked over to see the guard change (above).

My sister invited us over to check out their vacation rental (about a 5 minute walk from our hotel). They had a nice apartment with multiple bedrooms, living room, kitchen, laundry. We ended up hanging out there quite a few times and also were able to use the laundry. At the end of the cruise, I gave one of my carry on luggages to my folks and D and I both were going to finish our trip traveling minimally (with just a travel backpack each).

We had dinner reservations for later in the day and had some time to kill (again it was quite hot here as well so finding something indoors was a priority). We elected to walk over to the Acropolis museum, but first had lunch nearby.

The Acropolis museum is filled with archaeological artifacts from the surrounding area from Greek Bronze Age to Roman and Byzantine Athens. It sits over some Roman ruins as well – you can actually go underneath the museum to see some of these ruins. It was neat to see these artifacts up close. On the 3rd floor, you also had a nice view of the Acropolis with the museum’s floor to ceiling windows.

The address of our dinner spot was a little confusing as first it said it was only 1.5 miles from our hotel, but then I searched the address on the restaurant web site and it said it was over 6 miles away. I have never had either the Uber or lyft app before but realized that to get to the restaurant (especially given the heat), we would need to find transportation. I downloaded the Uber app and luckily it wasn’t too expensive. However there was still traffic going on so it was going to take almost an hour to get there (our return trip by contrast took like 20 minutes).

Cruising part 3 (Italy, Greek isles)(2024 Europe)

Continuation from previous post.

We continued south on our cruise and stopped on the island of Sicily at Messina. This sleepy port town didn’t really have too much to do. We planned another half day since it was still scorching hot and gross to be out for the full day. The main attraction is the Campanile del Duomo con Orologio Astronomico
(Astronomical Clock of the Cathedral of Messina). At 12 o’clock noon each day the clock has movement show with its mechanical infrastructure.

We happened to be there while the european professional volleyball was having a tournament – set up just adjacent to the cathedral.

After seeing the church and realizing we had a few hours to kill before noon, we walked through town to La Tradizione Doddis. One thing Sicily is known for is something called a granita with coffee. There are also other more dessert like variations with fruits, almond, mint. In Messina, granita with brioche is a common summer breakfast, which is exactly what I was looking for.

Afterwards we meandered through town checking out the various historic buildings, passing by a monastery. And then we settled back across from the church to watch the noon show.

Cruising part 2 (Naples) (2024 Europe)

Continuation from previous post.

Somehow I missed this port stop when I started on part 3 of the trip so Naples will get its own short post.

I had anticipating and looking forward to this stop because this is where Pizza Napoletana (Neapolitan) pizza originated from. This trip for me was an exploration of the various foods of each region. Naples sits near Mount Vesuvius, famous for the eruption that destroyed the city of Pompeii.

Waking up and stepping out onto the balcony, I could tell it was going to be another hot and humid one. The sky was kind of a hazy red-orange.

We had breakfast and then disembarked and started the trek to Galleria Umberto I, which is a public shopping gallery. Prior to walking through, we stopped at Gran Caffè Gambrinus – a historic coffeehouse founded in 1860. On the way there we walked by the Fontana del Nettuno (Fountain of Neptune) and the Castel Nuovo (“New Castle” or Maschio Angioino).

Cruising part 1 (south of France, Italy) (2024 Europe)

Start of the trip is here.

Our first stop of the cruise was in Cannes where we had to tender from boat to the port. D and I had signed up for an afternoon shore excursion that left us a little short on time exploring Cannes. Luckily there wasn’t too much to see in this beachside town. Known mostly for Cannes Film festival and being a destination for the rich and famous to hang out on yachts, we were there during the Cannes Lion festival and there was a big Amazon House there. We walked along the water briefly and then ventured into the small streets of the town. Initially we wanted to check out the local farmer’s market but it was closed that day.

With time running out we elected to get some lunch. We settled on Astoux et Brun where D had the Sole Meunière and I had the Marmite du Pêcheur (essentially a fish soup with various sea food in it in the style of bouillabaiise). Very delicious.

Barcelona (2024 Europe)

Earlier this summer, we took a 3 week trip to Europe. This was our first big trip since COVID. The trip started with a 10 day cruise with Norwegian Cruise Lines, which was a re-do from our trip originally scheduled for last year. The starting point was to be Barcelona and originally we were scheduled to arrive about 1.5 days early. Having been to Barcelona before, we didn’t feel the need/rush to try to see all the big things (La Sagrada Familia, Park Güell, Casa Batlló) since we had seen it before. There were a few places that we missed out on previously.

Our trip didn’t start off quite as planned. I woke up the morning of our flight only to see an email from the airline (LEVEL) that our flight had been cancelled. As soon as I saw this, I contacted customer services only to be told that the next flight they could get me on was for 2 days (meaning we would arrive AFTER our cruise departed). I had even checked their web site which indicated they had a few seats available for a flight the next day but the service representative said that wasn’t available. My only recourse was to have them refund me and then scramble to find a last minute flight with any airline. Luckily Aer Lingus had a flight that same evening (also an overnight flight but with a stop in Dublin). Having never flow on Aer Lingus, I have to say that it was a comfortable flight although a pig of a trip with the overnight. We arrived late on Friday evening and took the bus to Plaça de Catalunya, which is kind of a central meeting point in Barcelona but also very close to our hotel. We checked in and passed out for 10 hours and then had about 24 hours of sightseeing before needing to board the boat.

The next morning we walked over to a popular brunch spot, Picnic, after passing the Arc de Triomf in Passeig de Lluís Companys.

With brunch complete, we walked over to the Picasso museum and checked out the art. It ended up being a lot smaller than I thought so we managed to get through it relatively quickly.

Since we were near the Ramblas and the Mercat de Sant Josep de la Boqueria, we walked through the market and took in all the various goods that were sale from fresh fruit, juices to the vegetables and meat and seafood.

StewsCat

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