We're in the US

We made it to America!!! Hooray! It was crazy in the TLV airport the weekend before a holiday. It's their New Years Celebration. It was stressful trying to get through the lines and having people pushing from behind. One middle eastern looking young man actually wore a belt with a "hand gun belt buckle". It held up the line for quite a long time. Finally they detained him while they let others go through. Not sure what he was thinking wearing something like that... especially through the Israeli airport. The flight was long (13 hours) but we were able to sleep quite a bit. And the TVs worked at each of our seats so we could pass the time watching movies. On the leg from Atlanta to Orlando we (Ken) got a first class free upgrade (due to his frequent flyer status) which I got to take advantage of. Pretty cool. Customs was a breeze at 5:30am and our luggage made it to the US as well!!! That's a recipe for a good vacation. The car rental and hotel check in went smoothly. We were given an upgrade to the business floor which included free breakfast M-F and appetizers in the evening :-)

After check in (at 10am) we went to Kennedy Space Center. We were hoping to stay up for most of the day and get onto Eastern Time Zone. The KSC was very cool (hot outside, but lots of amazing things to see). On our way there we figured out the toll roads. We only had 2 quarters on hand which held us till the next toll booth which had an operator to make change for us. It was so fun to see restaurant chains we were used to and a few new ones too. We stopped for lunch at the WhataBurger. YUM. Ken had a fabulous Bacon Cheeseburger. At the Space Center we took the tour to see the shuttle launch pads and went to International Space station Museum. We stayed for the whole day. On the way back we stopped by an Alligator park. It was closed but we did see them up close through a wire fence. They were about 12 feet long and made a hissing noise at us. Yikes, glad the fence was there. We were able to stay up till 9pm before hitting the pillows hard for the night.

Saturday we drove to Tampa to visit the Busch Gardens. We didn't actually realize how far away the park was from Orlando, but we enjoyed it quite a bit. There were lots of fun rides and it was quite warm/muggy (not as hot as Haifa though). We saw all sorts of animals and enjoyed an entertaining show as we ate our lunch. We stayed until when the park closed, which may have been a mistake. We sat in traffic forever. It took us over an hour to get out of the park :-( I knew I should have used the restroom before we left.

On the way out from the park we got the crazy idea to go to a gulf coast beach. Ken thought he saw a sign indicating it was only 6 miles out. Well an hour later the sun was setting and we were still looking for the coast. We finally found Reddington Beach and were able to dip our toes in the gulf coast just before the sunset. We didn't stay long, but it was worth it. The drive home was long (over 2 hours) on unfamiliar roads but we made it safe and sound.

Sunday we used the other half of our Busch Gardens ticket to get into Sea World. We went to a couple of shows and were very impressed with the dolphins and the killer whales. Shamu, Shamu, Shamu everyone chanted. I was a little disappointed to find that there is more than one Shamu. We hung around to try and touch the dolphins but were unsuccessful. We may have had better luck if we had stood in a mile long line to get into the special feeding area. Oh well.

Monday we went to Disney's Epcot. We decided to tackle the "Future World" attractions in the morning. Most of the rides were pretty relaxing- sit in a chair and float through the exhibit. I liked Soarin the best, where they simulated a hand gliding adventure with a big screen out in front of you. It was fun. We left around 2pm and had lunch back near our hotel and took a short nap while Ken had a short meeting for work. By 6pm we were back at Epcot and toured the "World Showcase" which features exhibits and food from all over the world. The firework show at the end of the evening was very cool.

Tuesday we went to Disney's Magic Kingdom. I woke up not feeling great, but we went anyway. It was a bit overcast and the weather man indicated a light sprinkle was coming our way. He wasn't kidding. This was the first raindrops I had seen since June 2nd. It was very light and hardly counted as rain. The park was all decorated for Halloween/Fall. How fun. The castle was fun to see. We enjoyed each of the six regions of the park. I think Frontierland with Splash Mountain was Ken's favorite. Some of the shows were very interactive and funny. The Main street parade was fun too. It was so cute to see all the little girls dressed up in their princess outfits. We unfortunately came on a day when they closed at 7pm instead of 9pm so we missed the evening firework show that's held every other night. Guess I should have planned better. It was a full day and I was exhausted.

Wednesday (today) we decided to go to Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure. Universal Studios was interesting. I think the Mummy ride got the best review. There were a couple of short 3-D movies we watched that were cool too. The second half of the park was more thrill rides (which Ken likes more than I). The Incredible Hulk ride and the Dueling Dragons were a favorite here.

It's been a whirlwind vacation but a lot of fun. Tomorrow we plan to have a relaxing morning and leave FL around 1pm. Can't wait to see home! Looking forward to seeing you all in Portland soon!

Packed and ready to go...

So I've been packed since 11am today (Wednesday), now I just need for Thursday midnight to roll around. (Just a little anxious to come home?) I miss you all too much. We are actually taking a stop over in Orlando to stop by Sea World and the Kennedy Space Station but we will be home before I know it! Might as well take a little vacation along the way right? I can't wait to be surrounded by signs I can read (without any effort) and where English is the first language. I wonder if I will be able to drive with all you civilized people who stay in your own lanes? When Sara was here last week there were several times she was fearing for her life :-) Keep the sun out for another week or two, okay? I love fall.

See you soon!

Computer is up and running !!!!

Hooray! My laptop which died in June shortly after we got here has been resurrected :-) Ken was able to get some software last week and update the system. It's still extremely slow... but now I can at least connect and read email. Hooray!

Day 7- Friday

I slept like a rock in my bed. There’s something about being in a familiar place. Around 10:30 or so we went for a walk down the hill to the bakery. She loved the apple filled pastries coated in powdered sugar. Unfortunately we didn’t buy an extra for her to take home with her (they probably wouldn’t last anyway). The hike back up the hill is always a fun one. You feel like you need a huge glass of water and then a shower when you finally make it to our house. But it’s worth the workout for the pastries. Sara packed her suitcases and I got things ready to go back to Portland:-( How sad. I’ve had such a fun week with her. It feels like she got here just yesterday. I had planned to hit Caesarea, the Haifa market, and take a swim in the Mediterranean Sea in the afternoon before heading to the airport today. However, we ran out of time and didn’t make it to the market. Oh well. I took Sara to the airport around 8pm. It was a full week. Ken comes home tomorrow!

Day 6- Thursday

We slept in till about 8:30 and then had breakfast in the cafeteria. We debated on snorkeling in the Red Sea or getting a start heading toward home. We finally concluded we should at least check out the Red Sea while we were here and drove West about 15 minutes almost to the Egyptian border to a the "good" snorkel spot. We walked out on the dock and were amazed at how clear the water was. You could see tons and tons of colorful fish swimming around. I ran back to the car to get my camera. Back at the dock there were a few tourists throwing bread crumbs to the fish. Instantly there were hundreds of fish fighting for their breakfast. There was a staircase from the dock going down into the water. I sat on the bottom stair to try and get a few pictures. I wondered if they would nibble at my feet? The tourist (with the bread) saw what I was trying to do and through a few crumbs my direction. I snapped at least 100 pictures. I haven’t looked to see if any of them turned out yet. They were literally jumping out of the water to get the bread. Very cool. After 20 minutes we decided we couldn’t leave without at least getting in the water. So we put our camera/towels on the beach and joined the fish. I loved the blue/white striped fish, but the black with orange tails were cool too.

Knowing we had a full day drive ahead of us we didn’t stay too long. Our next stop would be at the Dead Sea a good 3 hours away. Sara loved the Dead Sea and how effortless it was to float. I went to a different beach then we went to in June. This place had a longer shallow end and the water seemed a bit warmer. It had a nicer beach too. It was about time for lunch but we decided a picnic back at Ein Gedi nature reserve would be a better spot so we packed up and headed North again. We thought it would be fun to hike back to the water falls again but after looking at the clock we decided not to.

We headed back through the West Bank to Jerusalem and on to Tel Aviv. We really didn’t have an issues at the check points. It must have been obvious that we were tourists. Just past Tel Aviv we stopped for dinner at my favorite burger place in Herzliyya. They just installed flat panel screens at each table (booth) so that you could play games like memory or connect four while you wait for your food. I think the waiter had more fun watching us play they we did. Sara and I are both fairly competitive :-) The drive home from there should have been about 40 minutes but it took over 2.5 hours with traffic. Uggh. What a long day. I was so tired of driving. The frustrating thing about Israeli traffic is that there is usually not explanation for it. When it starts moving again you don’t pass by a policeman who has someone pulled over or a car with a flat tire. It just all of a sudden clears up. Anyway, when we got home we had enough energy to bring the bags in from the car and fall asleep.

Day 5- Wednesday

Today we are going to Petra! Hooray! We met the lady in the lobby and she took us to the Israel/Jordan border. There were 18 people in our group. Once our visas were processed we started the tour with a walk through “no man’s land” to officially cross into Jordan. There we met up with a tour guide and boarded a minibus for a two hour ride to Petra. The tour started off with a drive through the city of Aquba with careful mention of all the resorts and hotels that will be available in the next year or two. Hint, hint, "come back and stay at our resorts" was what I heard. tow hours later we finally arrived in Petra. We armed ourselves with our camera and water bottles and set off down the dusty path soon winding through the red rock canyons. Each turn in the path was simple amazing. Some designs carved into the rock could still be seen. Every spot was a great picture opportunity. It was amazing to think about the formation of the rocks, the vivid colors and amazing twists and turns in the canyon. Finally reaching the end of the path we found ourselves standing in front of an amazing palace façade cared in to the rock (know as the Treasury).The view was quite spectacular. How did they carve this beautiful building right into the rock? After 20 minutes or so, we followed our guide to the right taking us on another path towards the ancient Nabatean city. The next two hours were filled with more amazing carvings. Some of them were buildings you could actually walk through.

It was definitely worth the hike (although, I was getting extremely hungry and hot by now). Lunch was supposed to be at the bottom of the trail. It was about 2pm and we still weren’t there yet. We were told specifically not to bring any snacks with us into Jordan. Hindsight, I wished I had tested that rule out. Sara and I were both so hungry. I guess we got used to snacking on a regular basis over the last few days. We did finally make it to the restaurant and there was a huge spread of food… salads, rice, chicken, beans, pita, hummus, watermelon, and much more. After lunch our guide met with us and said we should meet him at the top of the trail in an hour and a half. Guess I haven’t said much about our tour guide yet… probably because his English was so poor no one could understand what little he did have to say about the site. I think he said it was his first month on the job. So we unfortunately didn’t learm much about Petra- other than what was in the brochure up at the visitor center.

Anyway, the walk down took us at least 3 hours down so when we heard we only had 1.5 hours to be up at the top we decided we should at least head that direction. With the heat we weren’t sure how long it would take us. We made it back just in time. I thought I might fall over from heat exhaustion on the last ¼ mile in the blazing sun. We rewarded ourselves with ice cream at the visitor center before getting on the bus. I had a good nap on the way back to the border. Processing us through the border took a long time but we eventually made it back to Israel and to our hostel in Eilat. We should sleep good tonight… regardless of the planes flying over head.

Day 4- Tuesday

After a rough nights sleep I finally decided it was okay to get out of bed (6am) and start the day. Between the traffic noise, car alarms, cats fighting and occasional loud bang (was that a bomb?) all night long there was very little sleep to be had that night. We felt safe though… inside a stone church with our car parked inside the gate. We had a nice Israeli buffet style breakfast before we headed off on our next adventure. We drove inside the old city to pick up a couple of hats we had seen the day before. It ended up being a costly adventure but we got what we needed. The next step was to find the freeway towards the Dead Sea. We were amazed at how quickly the scenery changes from Jerusalem to the Negev. Near the Dead Seas we stopped at the Ein Gedi nature Reserve for a hike to David’s waterfall. It was a terrific hike. Probably only about 45 minutes long, but beautiful. It was mostly up hill but we stopped at the lower and middle falls for a quick break. The middle falls was perfect for swimming in the pool below. We got a few pictures of us in the waterfall itself. It was really nice. I felt like I could have stayed there all afternoon if it wasn’t for the tour bus of people that came and interrupted the serenity of this amazing place. Sara and I reluctantly put our shoes back on and kept hiking up the trail. We saw a few fuzzy creatures along the way and some ibex too. Knowing we had a few hours of driving ahead of us, we ate a quick picnic lunch and moved on to Masada. Even though this was my second time visiting Masada it was still quite impressive. This time I remembered to take our water bottles wit us to the top. I saw much more of the Northern Palace this time which I prioritized after racing so quickly through it last time. I think Sara liked it too. At the bottom we indulged in a n ice cream treat before driving to Eilat. We weren’t sure how long it would take and hoped to get there before dark. The drive ended up only being about 2.5 hours. The challenge then became finding the Eilat Guest House which is where I made reservations. I didn’t have a chance to get directions and thought the address and map would be sufficient. Ooops. We drove around for about 45 minutes before we found someone who could help us. No one seemed to recognize anything on our map or the address we had. Finally we called the phone number I had written down and soon we were checking in. After much needed showers we set out to find dinner. We went to the mall across the street and had shwarma. I know this was not too adventurous, but we were exhausted from a long day and even though it was 9pm it felt like 100 degrees outside. Air conditioning relief was a guarantee at the mall:-) Totally wiped out we decided to go to bed early….especially with a 6:30am pickup from the Petra tour group. Just as I was turning out the lights we heard a sequence of loud bangs outside the window. Seeing a bunch of military personnel (with their guns) at the youth hostel, my first thought was they were starting target practice at 10pm and our room must be close to the shooting gallery. After looking out the window I discovered there was a firework show across the street which marked the beginning of an outdoor concert (which would last for another two hours). I felt like I was doing okay drowning out the music until the planes started flying in over the hostel. I guess we are right next to the airport:-) I think I finally fell asleep around 5am.

Day 3- Monday

We packed our bags for the next 4 days and drove to Jerusalem. Our first stop in the old city was the Western Wall. Apparently it was a BarMitzpha day so there was a lot of activity. There were probably twenty-five 13 year old boys and their families celebrating this special event. Women are not allowed in the men’s area, so there are groups of men set up next to the divider wall. The women pull chairs up to the divider and stand on them so they can see and participate in the ceremony. The boys tie a box with scriptures on it to their foreheads and put a leather strap around their arms. Then they read from the Torah and the women clap and throw candy at them. (This is obviously my observations only as I haven’t researched or asked much about what actually happens at a BarMitzpha). It was fascinating to watch.

After visiting the wall we ventured further into the old city and walked past a million street vendors with all sorts of things to buy. Sara tried her hand at bartering - she needed some coaching :-) It can be overwhelming with all the commotion and things to look at. Once you stop and look if you don’t buy you must be prepared to hear them call you names. One vendor was muttering stupid ugly faces as we were leaving. It was almost funny. That seems like something you might hear from a 5 year old, not a grown man. Anyway, we tried to not stop and look unless we were seriously considering a purchase. After picking up a few things, we found the Via Dolorosa. We stopped at each of the 14 stations that mark the path Jesus took with the cross all the way to the crucifixion and burial. It was a hard path to follow with so many street vendors and tourists along the way. The final stations 10-14 were all in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.

After touring much of the Old City we made our way through the Muslim quarter and out the Damascus Gate towards the Garden Tomb. This is by far my favorite spot in Jerusalem. It’s so peaceful here. We stayed for almost and hour and then decided we should probably figure out where we were staying tonight. We noticed there were a few hotels not to far away so we went in and asked if they had any rooms and what the price was. At the second hotel we said we were looking for something a little cheaper and he directed us to the St. George’s Cathedral Guest House. He called them and they had availability so we walked another block and reserved a room. Now to get back to the car which was parked at the mall outside of the Old City. We stopped at the outdoor mall and split a pasta dish for dinner. Sara ordered coffee. The lady looked at her funny and said “hot?” I was surprised too. How can anyone drink coffee when it’s 90 degrees outside? I guess if I drank coffee maybe I would understand.

After dinner I thought I would show her the Mt. of Olives. Ken and I walked up it last time, but there were cars there and I thought I would be able to find the road easily. Hmmmm. We drove all over, down a few one way streets and had a few near misses. One pedestrian seemed pretty angry with my maneuvering and Sara thought he might try and break through the passenger window. She said, “it’s clear, it’s clear, drive, drive!” We did also come face to face with a tour bus on a one way street. I was thankful for a parking spot on the left to jump into while the bus drove by. In the end we finally made it to the street I thought would take us to the top of the Mt. We drove and drove and pretty soon I thought there is only room for one car here, how are we going to get down the mountain? Is this a one way? How does this happen!?! In my defense there are hardly any street signs in Israel. The road turned to gravel and the next thing I know there are a bunch of teen age boys on the side of the road just hanging out. They thought it would be fun to bang on the windows of the car. Yikes! Up a head I saw a girl with a couple of guys and thought maybe we could ask her how to get down off the mountain. Miraculously her brother was just about to drive into Jerusalem and he was willing to show us the way. We went barreling down the same road we just came up. I guess the street is used both ways and they just honk when they get to a blind corner. With all that adventure, Sara felt like she had seen enough of the Mt. of Olives and didn’t need to come back in the morning. We arrived at the hostel and fell asleep…or tried to.

Day 2- Sunday

Another busy day planned ahead of us. We left for the Sea of Galilee around 10:30am. I guess the Israelis refer to it as Lake Kinneret. Ken’s co-worker always looks at me funny when I refer to it as the Sea of Galilee. Anyway, our first stop was the Jordan River and then on to the historic city of Capernaum where Jesus did most of his miracles and sermons. This site was considered a holy site so we had to put our extra clothes on that covered our shoulders and knees. The city had a temple and the remains of many houses- one of which belonged to Peter Jesus’ disciple. Down the road we tried to get into the Mt of Beatitudes but found it closed on Sunday. This was disappointing but we did get into the church of St Peter which commemorates the miracle of the feeding of the 5,000 and the restoration of Peter after his denial of Jesus. We finished the day with a walk on the beach in Haifa. That evening we finalized our plans for visiting Eilat and Petra later in the week by booking a tour and place to stay.

Day 1- Saturday

I allowed Sara to sleep in a little bit before packing up and heading to Megiddo. There was only one other tourist there while we were there so we were able to enjoy the excavation site and ruins pretty much by ourselves. It was a great temperature outside with a nice breeze (better than when we were here last time). Sara found a lizard peacefully laying on a rock nearby and thought it would be fun to chase it my direction. Yikes! They scurry so fast! This was the biggest lizard I have seen yet… maybe 12 inches head to tail. We walked through the whole site and down the water cistern through the tunnel that led outside the city wall. After a short hike back to the car we decided to head to Nazareth for the rest of our afternoon.

Finding the old city was rather difficult since most of the signs were in Arabic, but we eventually found it. We visited the Basilica of the Annunciation which holds the ruins of an ancient house proposed to be Mary’s home where the angel announced to her that she would give birth to a son and will name him Jesus. When we got there, a service was currently being held so we tried not to be a distraction. Both Sara and I had tank tops and shorts on which is not considered appropriate attire so we had to borrow 2 pieces of cloth- one to wrap around our shoulders and the other around our waists. This was a good reminder for us to bring an extra set of clothes for the “sacred” sites that require you to follow a dress code. We walked through the market and on to “Mary’s Well” which supposedly used to have healing water in it (all gone now). On the ay back to the car we stopped by a bakery and tried a tasty treat. Not sure what was in the pastry… it was very sugary. We came home around 5pm and joined our neighbors (Bears) for dinner down at the beachfront. We had a really nice time and we were both ready for bed after a full day.

Busy week

My good friend Sara is coming to visit today!!!! I can't wait. Ken is leaving for his meetings in the US tonight so I will be dropping him off and bringing Sara back for the week. I think it will be a busy week with lots of sightseeing trips. I will have limited access to the computer so I'll probably blog about it next weekend.
Stay tuned...

Just my luck...

I'll start with Thursday. Ken woke up not feeling well so he called in sick. Actually he still worked most of the day, but it was from home. Around 4pm we were feeling hungry so we drove down the hill and decided to try a famous falfel stand. Parking is kind of a bear down there so we thought we would just jump out, order and get back to the car. Shouldn't take more than 5 minutes. Once we were down there we must have forgotten about our get-in-get-out plan and were down there for a bit longer than planned. When we came back to the car we had a friendly note on our windshield kindly requesting 100 shekels for a parking violation. Uggh. We must have had our sadness written all over our faces because someone actually stopped to see if we needed help (doesn't happen often here). The man said if you buy a slip from the meter within 10 minutes of getting the ticket you can send it in with a letter and they will dismiss the ticket. Seems like a good idea to us, so we went up to the machine and purchased a slip. I stopped by the neighbors (Bears) that night and asked if they could explain the process better to me and they helped me type up a letter in Hebrew to send in with the ticket. Have I told you how wonderful and helpful our neighbors are? On Friday I took the letter and the ticket to the post office to send it registered mail. When I got there I found a parking spot and went to the meter to get a slip. Well, there was a min charge of 1.50 and guess what I had... a paper 20 and 1.40 in change. Hmmm what to do? The post office would close in 30 minutes. I asked a few people for any extra coins they might have but was unsuccessful, so I decided I am superfast I can just run inside send the letter and get out. Yep, dumb idea. It was important that the letter get sent today though. Inside the line took longer than it should have and you can probably guess the end of the story. While paying for one parking ticket, I got another one! What are the chances? We have been here 3 1/2 months and never seen the parking reinforced here in Israel. Apparently now that summer is over they are watching the parking closely. I actually did see the guy who gave me the ticket a few cars ahead and went and talked with him. He was very gracious and said he would recall this ticket but be sure to buy a ticket in the future. I've learned my lesson....

It's my Birthday!!!!

Wendy and Bob (our new friends from Portland who also moved to Israel for a short term assignment) had us over for dinner on Saturday night for a birthday dinner. She made the best chocolate cake ever!!!! Actually the entire meal was fabulous but of course the chocolate part was most memorable :-) After dinner we stayed and played Yatzee and card games. It was a lot of fun.

Today, Wendy came over and we scrapbooked the day away. My first time scrapbooking since I've been in Israel. I got a lot done! I think she did too. This afternoon I picked Ken up from work he had a dozen roses and a present for me (3 bags of PB M&Ms and 2 bags of dark chocolate M&Ms). This was my only request. Actually it was a tall order since you can't get them in Israel. I think he had someone bring them on a business trip from the US, but he won't reveal his source.

For dinner we went to the neighbors (Bears) to BBQ chicken skewers on their grill. I told Ken I didn't want to cook today ;-) It ended up being a big party with the Shermans coming over to visit too. I think I ate too much.

Monday (flying home)

Well, we've had a crazy week and it's hard to imagine it getting much crazier but here's what our Monday looked like :-( We were able to get to the airport and check in for our flight from BCN to Milan, Italy (the first of 3 legs). The man gave us our boarding passes but said we would have to get our Milan boarding passes there because the system wouldn't let him generate them. We asked if there was a problem and he said no, not at all. We asked if our bags would make it to Tel Aviv the final destination and he said Yes, I will try. That answer didn't seem very confident, so we rephrased the question. He showed us the baggage ticket he was putting on that showed TLV so we figured there was nothing else we could do. We did try to clarify that it would go straight through and there was no need for us to pick the bags up in Milan and recheck. No, it should go to TLV. Okay. In Milan we got off the plane and passed baggage claim going to the ticket counter to get our boarding passes. Here is where we learned that our flight wasn't leaving from this airport but from another airport over an hour away in Bergamo. We pointed to the ticket and said the ticket says Milan and we bought this ticket from their website (not orbitz or travelocity). We asked if they had a shuttle to that airport or better yet since they had a flight from this airport straight to Rome if they could put us on one of those flights (well that will cost you 50Euros per person to change your ticket- which quickly rose to 200 Euros per person with additional fees and taxes). Where is your luggage? We answered, the man in Barcelona said it will go straight to TLV. Oh no, if you are going through Bergamo you need to recheck your bags. YIKES. While Ken tried to negotiate a ride to the next airport or a change in flights straight to Rome, I ran downstairs to try and get back into the secured baggage area and rescue our luggage. I finally found someone in an airport uniform that was willing to let me back into the luggage carousel area, but it had been about an hour and no of the carousels indicated the recent Barcelona arrival. I asked around at the desks but no one was helpful. Finally I ended up at the lost baggage area. They asked if I had lost my bags. I said I was looking for it, do you know what carousel it was on. No, you only need to come here if you have lost your bags. Please go look and if you still don't find it you can open a claim here. Talk about the run around here. I stood at each carousel for at least 10 minutes, until I saw the same bag 3 times and moved to the next one. Isn't this a fun story? Finally I went back to the desk and there was someone different there. I showed him my ticket and asked if he could tell if our bags did in fact go to TLV or if I needed to pick them up here. He thought the bags should show up on carousel 4 in a few minutes. So I waited and waited and waited. Finally I saw them come through. Gratzi, Gratzi I said to the man and ran upstairs to see how Ken was doing. So we orginally had a 6 hour lay over which was now more than half gone now and Ken was hitting a dead end at the customer service desk which actually told him "I am not here to help you" and walked away. Uggh. We finally accepted the fact that we need to buy our own tickets to the central bus station and then take another shuttle from their to Bergamo. Racing against the clock we took the 20 minute ride downtown and just barely caught the hour long shuttle to the airport in Bergamo. We were able to check in an hour and half before the flight. The lady asked if we had any bags to check. Hesitantly we said yes, but can you make sure they get to Tel Aviv? The flight from Bergamo to Rome and then Rome to TLV were a bit late but relatively uneventful :-) We were so happy to be back in Israel even if it was 4am. We were even more elated to see our bags in Tel Aviv. Picking our rental car back up from Hertz was not an issue either. We were so thankful for a smooth re-entry. They didn't even detain us at customs like they normally do. We arrived back home just before 6am. There was a big sign on our door in Hebrew that said Welcome Home and inside our neighbors had a few things to get us started for the week. Now for a two hour nap before Ken has to be at work.

Sunday (Barcelona)

We took our time getting off the ship in the morning. It seemed like everyone was off by 8am. I think we stuck around till about 10am since we weren't flying out till Monday. Once off the ship we looked at the long lines for taxis and the city bus and opted to walk the 3 miles back into the city center (it was much cooler than last Sunday). We made it to our hostel around 11:30 which was a little early for check in but they were happy to hold our bags for us while we went off to do a little more sightseeing. We took the city bus to Park Guell. It was an interesting park designed by Gaudi. There were a hiking trails and a place to have a picnic (Pringles and Oreos...yum) a beautiful view overlooking the city and some intersting houses designed by Gaudi. I thought the houses looked a little like gingerbread houses. Ken saw some amazing green parakeet type birds but I was unable to get a photo - they were too fast! It was a restful afternoon. For dinner we went to a "subway" type shop and tried to order a Turkey sandwich. He didn't speak much English but had an English menu so I pointed to the words Turkey sandwich. When we picked up our tray we realized we got a Brie cheese sandwich :-( I went to the counter to see if he would be willing to fix it and after many conversations with his manager they agreed to give us a chicken sandwich (which was a fine solution). This has been a challenging week. That evening we took the city's double decker bus for a night tour thinking we would get to see the city from a different point of view. I guess it was okay. The bus would fly by the sites so it was hard to take a picture. The coolest part was the water fountain light show. The music was fun and although we got a little wet I think it was worth it. Back to the hostel... I think we are both ready to head back to Israel our home away from home.

Saturday (Nice, France)

We decided to take it easy this morning. Our tummies were hurting from all the food we've been eating and we were feeling a bit "plugged up" so we just had fruit from the buffet line for breakfast. The fruit seemed to work much faster than expected and we spent the next few hours close to the bathroom. We tried to get off the ship about 10:30 am but I wasn't convinced we were ready to leave the ship and finding a toilet in the city might be a challenge so we had a relaxing morning on the deck chairs viewing the quaint French village across the way. We ended up leaving the ship around noon and going for a walk through the town. We made it to the train station and thought it would be fun to go to Monte Carlo and see all the fancy cars but the trains seemed to be running late and we only had 3 hours in port now. It would be a bummer to miss the ship at this point in the trip. Unfortunately we didn't see much of France... maybe next time? We had a nice dinner and enjoyed our last night on the ship. One disturbing note we saw while watching the news: A small headline running across the bottom of the screen indicated that Alitalia (our airline carrier) has filed bankruptcy. We are hoping that won't affect us at all.

Friday (Livorno, Pisa)

Another early morning (are we supposed to be on vacation? This seems like hard work!) and off to the train station. The ship's shuttle bus took us into the center of the city and from there we needed to find the train station. A mom and her daughter from Canada were behind us in the information line and were talking about how they knew how to get to the train station, so we followed them and took bus #1 to the station. At the station we bought our train tickets for 2 Euros and waited for maybe half an hour for the next train. During that time we got to talking with the Canadians and somehow forgot to validate the train ticket we just bought :-( Just as the train was pulling away I remembered we should have done it, but then we thought well there was nobody checking on the Rome or Pompeii trains and in Israel you can do whatever you want... so we hoped we would be okay. UNFORTUNATELY, there was a security man who walked through and asked to see our tickets. Ken pulled out the tickets and handed them to him. The man looked very confused (he didn't speak much English) and asked where are you going? Rome? Apparently Ken grabbed our tickets from the day before and not the ones we just bought. He began searching his pockets and finaly found the most recent ones (which didn't have a validation on it). The man handed us a card that said in English the fine would be 40 Euros per person for not validating your ticket and got out his notebook to start writing a ticket. Uggh. We tried to tell him we just bought the tickets, but it was not changing his mind. In the end we ended up with a 10 Euro fine which was still cheaper than if we had taken the cruise excursion to Pisa for 99 Euros a person, but it was a dumb mistake. Especially since we were running out of Euros. Once of the train the Canadians wanted to take a taxi (hindsight we should have), but we decided to walk to the leaning tower which didn't seem too far away. Which is wasn't far away, but we did get pooped on by a pigeon which I think was the straw that broke the camels back. We made it to the tower took a few pictures and after a while headed back to the train. I was actually expecting something a little more spectacular like the Eiffle Tower and was surprised at how short the Leaning tower of Pisa was. We had thought about going from their to Florence before heading back to the ship but decided it was better to go back and get some rest. We remembered to validate our tickets this time... and took a walk from the station back to the city center where the cruise shuttle was supposed to meet us. On our way we walked by a pond that had maybe 30 turtles in it. We stopped an watched them for a quite awhile. I didn't pay that close attention when we rode the city bus in, so I was a bit nervous when we kept walking and walking and not finding the main square. We did eventually find it though and made it back safely to the ship. After dinner we walked around the ship and went into the hot tub for a bit. That night was the "Chocoholic Buffet" which we were interested in seeing (not that we haven't had enough sweets on this trip!). We got there right as they opened and I tried to take a bunch of pictures of the sculptures before they were descimated. You can only imagine the 3,000 passengers on the ship all pushing their way through to get all the chocolate they can. It was chaos. Kids were trying to carry three plates stacked as full as they could be. It was every man for himself in there. We grabbed a few chocolate covered strawberries and some chocolate cake and watched the mayhem. We are going to sleep well tonight.

Thursday (Rome)

Up early again. Ate our usual Ham and Cheese omlet and then headed for the train station. On our walk to the train station I met this nice old couple from Belgium. My mom's family is from Belgium and this couple knew where Hansbeke was! They were from Antwerp. We bumped into them the rest of the week in each of the ports. Anyway, we got our train tickets and headed for Rome by 9:30am. The train ride was just over an hour. Our first mission was to figure out what bus we needed to take to get back leaving enough wiggle room for late trains. We figured we had till the 3:30 train. So we headed off to the city center and found a double decker sightseeing bus. We figured this way we would be able to see all the major sights and wouldnt have to find places on our own. We did have one guy on the street corner tell us about his great tour bus.... if you would just follow me down this dark alley a few blocks I can get you a ticket... (hmmm sounds a little suspicious). We decided to go with the company I had researched online. It had an audio guide too which would tell us what we were looking at. Similar to the Barcelona bus we could get off at any stop and just get back on the next bus that came by when we were ready to go. There were so many amazing sites to see. We started in the Piazza dei cinquecento, went to the quirinale, the palantino and colosseum, the piazza san Marco, St. Peter's square and the Vatican city, and the Trevi fountain. Actually it stopped at a few more places but these are the main sites we went to. It was a full day and we were happy to be back on the train by 3:30 headed for the ship. Another couple and their cute little boy got on the train too. They were talking to each other and after a few minutes Ken and I said to each other...they are speaking HEBREW! This was the first time we had heard Hebrew in almost a week. We chatted with them a little bit (they had fairly good English) and found that they are not too far from Haifa. Small world. We made it to the ship with no train issues and it turned out it was a much better deal to go with public transportation than the cruise ships high priced excursion. We had a relaxing evening and nice dinner. The entertainment was a comedy show that night. It was okay, maybe we were too tired.

Wednesday (Naples/Pompeii)

Rise and shine! After breakfast we decided to try our skills at riding the train into Pompeii. First we had to find the station. We ended up stopping at a hotel and asking if they had a map and where the station was. They were kind enough to point us in the right direction. We walked through the streets for about 20 minutes before coming to the station. We bought a ticket from the ticket counter lady who spoke almost no English and headed down the stairs to find the train. We looked around and it appeared there were other tourists getting on the train as well. This one Korean guy stood up and said "I think we are all from the cruise ships. For today we should be friends". We were fine with having a small group so we agreed and engaged in the small talk. They were all from either Carnival or Royal Caribbean. But they spoke English so it was nice to have a conversation with them. The train ride was about an hour before arriving in Pompeii. I had hoped we could get a group discount, but no luck :-( The group kind of disbanded at the entrance but we stayed with Mr & Mrs Kwan and their mother in law. The ruins were amazing. Mt Vesuvius was a volcano that blew in 79AD covering the entire city with ash. In the 1600s the city was rediscovered and was largely still in tact! We walked through the cobble stone roads and saw the temple columns, colosseums, neighborhoods, tombstones, statues. We also got the audio guide to listen to so that we could understand what we were looking at. It was a hot day and by 3pm we were exhausted. The Kwans had to be back by 5:30 too, so we headed to the train station. I think we got little distracted on the train and got off one stop early which I guess wasn't too terrible it just meant a little extra walking :-) That night we had a nice dinner and then went to the evening "magic" show. It was quite entertaining. We went to bed early. Tomorrow would be a big day- Rome.

Tuesday (Malta)

We woke up early to watch the boat come into port at 6am. We heard it would be a stunning view of the fortified city on this island... and it was. After docking we grabbed some breakfast and then headed off for the city center. There was a bus at the dock that would take us up the hill, but we figured we could handle it and the exercise would be good for us so we asked which direction to go and headed that way. After half a mile we thought maybe we went the wrong direction and tried to ask someone who was standing on the side of the road. He didn't speak any English but looked at our map, turned it around and pointed in the direction we just came from. Uggh. So after heading the right direction we climbed the steep incline and then 100 stairs to the top of the hill where the city center was. We decided to go to St. Johns co-cathedral which was beautiful. My pictures didn't turn out very well inside. There were signs everywhere saying no flash, so I was desparately trying to figure out what setting would work. Guess I need a little more practice. The camera battery was low and died there, but we brought our old one as a back up :-) After the cathedral we decided to take a city bus across the island to the Blue Grotto. The bus ride was hot and sticky (no AC) and quite bumpy on the old roads. The grotto was an archway rock formation off the coast. You could see small tour boats taking people through and around it from the ledge where we were at. The water was a beautiful blue and it would have been fun to stay longer and enjoy the site. I was worried about missing the next bus so we headed back to the bus stop and took the bus back to the city center. About half way there the bus pulled over and the driver got out and walked across the street. We looked around to see if anyone else thought that was strange. Apparently it was his smoke break. The bus was so hot we decided to get off and wait outside where there was a slight breeze. After a few minutes others on the bus followed suit. 15 minutes later break was over and the driver came back. We all piled back in the bus and were on our way. Once in the city center, we hiked down the hill and back to the ship. We went to the pool for a bit and then got cleaned up for a Murder Mystery dinner. They put us in groups of 6 and gave us a script of clues and information that had to be revealed throughout each scene. It was a lot of fun and the group we were put with were from England. Ken thought he was the one who did it even though each character had motive. At the end you had to guess who the murderer was. It was one of the other guys in the group. We stayed afterwards and talked for a bit with the group. It was nice. That evening we also signed up for a bowling tournament. Yes. This moving ship had 4 real bowling lanes on it and even made us where the special shoes! Apparently neither of us have bowled in a while because we did terrible. I think I had at least 7 gutter balls! And I probably can't blame the ships movement for all of them. Anyway, it was fun. The second game we did better but still not great. It was nice to meet a few other people on the ship as well.

Monday (Day at Sea)

What a relaxing day! We woke up when we felt like it and walked one flight downstairs for breakfast. We both order eggs benedict (with extra sides of bacon and fried ham), big glasses of orange juice and crossaints. We ate so much we skipped lunch... okay so we didn't officially skip lunch but we ate a light snack in the cafe just to tide us over to dinner. Most of the day was spent walking around the ship and finding a pool chair to lay on. (Which is actually quite a challenge with everybody putting their towels down to "reserve" their spot and then running off to get something to eat or go play bingo.) We finally decided to assist in enforcing the posted signs that said if you don't actually use the chair for 20 minutes your towel will be removed so that other guests can enjoy the chair. We figured if anybody ever did come by and say Hey that's my chair we would get up and look for another one. It never happened though, people were gone for hours at a time. It
was crazy with so many people on the ship. They had a couple of really cool "papasan" chairs on deck 12 and 13 up towards the front of the ship. We only sat in those once - we arrived by 6am! We listened to a presentation on each of the ports we would be visiting. This was Ken's first time really hearing about the ports since I had done all the research. It seemed like it would be a busy week and the cruise excursions were so expensive! No I'm serious. Even someone who is not as cheap as me would gasp at the 130 Euros just to shuttle you from the boat to Rome. The tour was called "Rome on your Own". We opted to walk to the train and pay for the 9 Euro train ride which gave you just as much time in the city for a lot less money! The most expensive excursion was 5,000 Euros a person to cook with and Italian chef in Tuscany. While that sounded like a fun experience I can't imagine forking over that kind of dough! The Excursion crew did warn us that the train may be unreliable (break down or be late) and that some people had been left in port before because they didn't go with the cruise recommended excursion. For the price delta we thought we would take that risk (with thousands of packbackers around Europe is the train really that bad?) and if we had to pay for a taxi on the way back well we would have to ante up then. Anyway, that was most of our day. They did have a Wii set up on the big screen in the middle of the ship so Ken and I signed up for tennis doubles. This is possibly the worst game I could play on the Wii and Ken had to carry most of the weight. We ended up losing, but not by too much to a few 10 years old who had obviously spent some serious time gaming. Oh well. Ken had fun and now thinks we need a Wii...

Friday-Sunday (Barcelona)

Last Friday we were packed and ready to go by noon for a 4pm flight. We decided to pack everything in 2 carry-ons so that we wouldn't have to bother with checking luggage. We only had one plane change in Rome, but we were arriving at 11pm and wanted to catch a city bus to the Hostel in Barcelona. Upon check in, the lady insisted that our bag was one kilogram over their limit and we would need to check the bags. Bummer. She reassured us that it would go straight to Barcelona (that should have been a red flag). With no other choice we checked the two carry-on sized bags and headed for the gate. The transfer in Rome was not an issue and we arrived in Barcelona about 11:15. Down at the baggage claim we caught one of our bags but waited and waited for the second one. Pretty soon they started adding more flights to the same baggage carousel. New bags were coming but ours was not. I looked up and it seemed that there were still a few from our flight waiting so we held out hope that our bag would be coming shortly. Ken checked all the other carousels. Then I checked all the other carousels. Finally I went to the lost luggage counter and ended up opening a claim. They were able to tell me the next flight from Rome was 11am the next day and it would most likely be on that flight. Unfortuantely, I didn't mix the clothing between the two bags very well and Ken was without most of his stuff. With nothing left for us to do at the airport we hurried outside to try and catch the last aerobus into the city at 1am. The ride was about 30 minutes and we were dropped off at Placa Catalyuna a few blocks from the hotel. Now which direction is it? It was not the best time for me to be unsure of where we were and where were were supposed to be headed. I was actually surprised at how many people were out that late at night just walking the streets. We arrived at the hostel after a 15 minute walk and got checked in. Maybe some rest will help put things into perspective for us.

Saturday morning we went and got something to eat and then called the airport, no luggage yet. So we decided to divert our attention and do a little sightseeing. We took the city's double decker tour bus which stopped at most of the cities major attractions (Sagrada Familia, Park Guell,Placa De Espanya, Olympic Stadium, waterfront, Christopher columbus monument, History Museum, etc). There was a red, blue and green route each with an audio tour to listen to. At some stops we got off to enjoy the site and then caught the next bus about 15 minutes later. We now know the orgin of the words "That is Gaudi looking". One of Gaudi's houses looked like a Halloween haunted house. Interesting form of art. Around 5pm we came back to the hostel to check in with the airport (still no luck) and then went out to dinner. Thinking about the possibility of not retrieving the bag before boarding the cruise we stopped at the only clothing department store we could find and bought a swimsuit, 2 pairs of shorts and 2 shirts which totaled to almost $300 USD!!! Back at the Hostel we tried calling the airport one more time. They said the bag would be delivered to us by 8:30 (it had made a connection to AFRICA!!!) but should be available tonight. Well that's good news! So we took those shopping bags back to the department store thinking, we've only had these in our possession for about an hour surely they should be able to void the transaction. The challenge however, was our limited Spanish and their willingness to be helpful at all. After much discussion we were finally able to return the items. Feeling better about the situation we walked around the square for a bit and then headed back to the hostel around 9:30 fully expecting the luggage to be there. Boy were were disappointed. We got on the phone again and they said it was supposed to arrive at the airport at 8:30 an no one had a chance to confirm. Finally we decided to head down there and look for it ourselves. We took a city bus this time and it took us all over the city before reaching the airport. Once we got to the airport we had the challenge of getting into baggage claim where only ticketed passengers can be. After an hour of being bounced back and forth between information offices we were given clearance to go in and found our bag on a lonely carousel. HOORAY!!!! Time to go to sleep. Sunday we had breakfast and then walked through the La Ramblas down to the waterfront and then on to the Pier. It's amazing how a big ship can seem so close. After about a 3 mile walk (towing both suitcases and two backpacks) we made it to the ship. Originally we thought we would drop our stuff off, get settled and then go back to the waterfront to look at what the street vendors had to offer since the ship didnt' leave till 6pm. After the walk, we needed and shower and just opted to just stay on the boat an get acquainted with our surroundings. What a weekend... we are ready for a vacation!

An unforgetable trip

The cruise was quite an "adventure". We are glad that we did it, but don't feel like we need to do it again in the near future. We had some unfortunate events that seemed to create the perfect storm for us. We lost one of our suitcases on both ends of the trip, bought all new clothes and then tried and return them an hour later when we found out where our bags were, we were pooped on by a pigeon (dejavu of last week), fined for not validating the train ticket, had digestive issues (ate too much!), experienced montezuma's revenge, and scrambled to get across town to a second airport in Milan for our flight home (not sure why an airline would sell you a ticket arriving in one airport in Milan, departing from another. And by the way you neeed to figure out how to get to that other airport that's at least an hour away). Rescued both suitcases sitting in the arrival airport of Milan that never would have made it to TelAviv. Uggh.

But there were definately postive things to highlight and it was quite an experience. The cruise itself was nice (the ship was new as of 2007) and the water was very calm (never once felt sea sick). Dinner was always ready for us whenever we were hungry. We met some nice people while we were out sightseeing. Taking the train/buses was relatively easy (with the one exception of getting fined). We got plenty of exercise (to counteract all those calories!). We probably liked Barcelona the most. The Hostel we stayed at was clean and the owners were so helpful. We also had the benefit of sticking around for more than 8 hours so we were able to experience more of the city.

We arrived in Tel Aviv on Tuesday morning (4am) totally exhausted but with a faint smile on our faces that we made it through the week. Coming throught the airport it felt so good to be at our home away from home. Our wonderful neighbors (who took care of our tomatoes while we were gone) stocked our refrigerator with some basic items (milk, fruit, and bread) and put chocolates on our pillow to welcome us home and get us through the day.