Post Script to Our Cruise

Athens airport

Heathrow airport

Seattle airport

Good ol' PDX

(Don here) The cruise was a wonderful, sort of once in a lifetime, experience. We had deliberately sought out a ‘see stuff’ cruise as opposed to a leisurely lounging, relaxing cruise. For our chosen cruise, there was the ‘on board,’ experience and the ‘shore excursions’ part of it.

The shipboard part would have been hard to improve on. Viking Cruises hit all the right buttons, at least for me. They took care of us in a seamless, not in your face way. Our stateroom was roomy and comfortable, as well as the other accommodations on the ship. The food and beverages were consistently excellent, with a range of choices. It didn’t feel like our goal was to see how much we could eat. The cruise ship did not feel crowded. The on-board activities catered to ‘thinking’ passengers (lot of presentations about where we would be visiting, history, etc.).

The shore excursions were generally very good. What we learned is that, in the guided tour mode you give up the ability to dwell on specifics. You have to stay with the tour group. The general tone seemed to be to see a lot in the available time. I ended up referring to our excursions as ‘samplers’. They were worth the time and effort, but if we were left to our own devices, we would have seen less, but at a more leisurely and detailed pace. Our two days in Rome on our own fell in that category. Again, the way Viking did it wasn’t bad, just not our native mode. One thing we liked was Viking’s use of

‘Silent Vox’ head sets, where we could hear our tour guide easily. Tour groups occasionally would get spread out, and hearing the tour guide directly would have been impossible.

I look back at our three weeks away, and in some ways it’s a blur. We did so much during that time. Writing the blog was really helpful in getting the experiences sorted out. In hind sight, even though I did a reasonable amount of research and planning before we left, more such work would have helped me get more out of the excursions.

The worst part of it all?...the long plane flights, cramped air planes, and all the security. Flying used to be sort of fun, but it’s hard work now.

Some additional thoughts...

Almost everything historic that we saw was surprisingly accessible (not behind protective barriers). That made the experiences more intimate and personal.

I had hoped that I would learn more about religions, as I am not very knowledgeable in that area. I came away feeling that it’s all more complex and convoluted than I had thought. One step forward...two steps back?

I see more vividly that civilizations have ALWAYS fought to be on top and to have the most, and that no civilization lasts forever. Perhaps this is a survival instinct. It is a bit depressing that ‘man’ is not able to inherently live a peaceful coexistence with others.

On this day (the day after Trump declared Jerusalem will be recognized as the capital of Israel), it is interesting to see places in the news we visited a couple of short weeks ago, and what it might be like if we were there now. Timing is everything.

All in all, the total experience will live in our memories forever. A pretty decent way to celebrate being married for fifty years!

Delos Kitty

A white kitty in the sun

A Rhodes calico

Mykonos Beauty

(Sami here) How lucky we are is so many, many ways. To have each other, relative health, and the means to take such a trip. I enjoyed it all thoroughly. And, I enjoyed putting together this blog. It increased my understanding and appreciation of everything. Plus I love the photos we took and enjoy sharing them.

Don said much of what I feel about the trip. But to add a bit, I will mention that the trip seemed focused of the Jewish/Christian history and culture of where we visited, and very much from that perspective. We learned about the beautiful medieval monuments created during the crusades, but little about the destruction of the religions and cultures they demolished. I would like to have had options to learn more about all the cultures that exist side by side in Italy, Greece, Cyprus and Israel. The trip made me wish even more that we need to stop fighting about religion. We destroy ourselves as we fight.

Finally, the trip let me nourish my “photo journalist” nature. I had so much fun taking pictures, especially of all of the places we walked, and of course – the cats!

This apricot-colored boy sat with us as we had a glass of wine in a Mykonos cafe. It was the end of the tourist season and he seemed to know that the island's livelyhood depended upon people like us.