Cruise on the Viking Sky to Istanbul, Turkey – Kusadasi,Turkey

December 29, 2021 – January 7, 2022 After our fun day at Heraklion, Crete and our wild and crazy New Year’s Eve party on the Viking Sky; it was off to Turkey! Our first stop was the town of Kusadasi. Kusadasi has been occupied since 3,000 BC. During the Roman era it was their provincial …

Cruise on the Viking Sky to Istanbul, Turkey – Heraklion, Crete

December 29, 2021 – January 7, 2022 We left the Piraeus, the seaport in Athens, Greece, heading south in the Aegean Sea to the island of Crete and the City of Heraklion. The Island of Crete was home to the Minoan Civilization from the 16th century to the 14th century BC, or about 3,500 years …

Cruise on the Viking Sky from Athens, Greece to Istanbul, Turkey

December 29, 2021 – January 7, 2022 After our Madrid to Tomar trip, it was time for the big adventure. We had booked a cruise on Viking Ocean Cruises on their ship the Viking Sky. We really enjoy the Viking Ocean Cruises as they are much smaller ships than the typical cruise line and are …

Exploring Tomar, Portugal; trying to find our new home (with a stop in Madrid, Spain).

December 13 – 29, 2021 Andrea and I have been discussing the possibility of moving to Portugal during our retirement years. As she grew up in England; she really enjoys the European lifestyle, so we seriously started investigating the possibilities. We have been to Portugal several times, staring with our Viking River Cruise on the …

Royal Caribbean Cruise – Western Caribbean Islands from Cape Canaveral

November 14 – 21, 2021 Once again Randy and Andrea have teamed up with their good friends Mike and Stephanie to sail on the Royal Caribbean Harmony of the Seas. A few short years ago, the Harmony of the Seas was the largest cruise ship in the world. Now it is just a few feet …

Europe 2021 – Rome – St. Peters Basilica and Piazza San Pietro

September 2 – 5, 2021 On our final day in Rome we saw a few more of the highlights of this great city. We started off with St. Peters’ Basilica and Piazza San Pietro. These are located on the eastern side of the Vatican. St. Peters’ is the largest church in the world. While there …

Europe 2021 – the Colosseum and the Roman Forum

September 2 – 5, 2021 After spending the day at the Vatican yesterday, it was time to head south east and see the Colosseum. This is another item on my “have to see in my lifetime” list. We have all been seeing pictures and reading stories about this magnificent building since we were kids in …

Europe 2021 – Rome, Italy – The Vatican

September 2 – 5, 2021 After spending the morning in Herculaneum, we headed north to Rome. We had reservations in a nice Airbnb apartment on the western side of Rome, not too far from the Vatican. We were also only 4 blocks away from a Metro stop, which we used a lot. As with all …

Europe 2021 – Herculaneum

September 1 -2, 2021 The next day after exploring Pompeii we headed to the town of Herculaneum (located in the present day town of Ercolano). Most people don’t know about the town of Herculaneum and the fact that it was destroyed and preserved by Mt. Vesuvius also. Herculaneum is located about 7 miles north of …

Europe 2021 – Pompeii and Mt. Vesuvius

September 1 -2, 2021 After we visited the Leaning Tower of Pisa, we headed south to Pompeii and Mt. Vesuvius. As every one knows; Mt. Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD and buried the town of Pompeii under volcanic ash. The town was rediscovered by a surveying crew in 1748. Archeologists were able to dig through …