Santorini and Katakolon

Hello all. It is Thursday night and we are in Zurich, Switzerland. It was hard to get off the ship and back to reality this morning. The others stayed in Venice for one more day and we headed to the airport. We didn't leave Venice till 3:00 for the short flight to Zurich and got to our hotel late in the afternoon.....but first.....i need to backtrack and do some more catching up. This will be without pictures. Will do pictures when i get home and have unlimited time on the computer.

Monday, the 5th, we were in Santorini, Greece, a beautiful crescent shaped island that is a big draw for tourists. We tendered from the ship to the island.....a high rocky island that sits around the top edge of a volcanic caldera or spout. We got off the tenders and there three ways up the mountain to Fira, the town at the top. We had already decided to ride the donkeys....others in the group rode the tram or there was the option of walking up 500 winding wide steps to the top. The poor donkeys, hour after hour, day after day......haul these heavy (from eating too much food on the cruise) up the mountain. Once at the top, we had a beautiful view of the island and surrounding areas. It was breaktaking. We worked our way through the shopping area and
to the 4 wheeler rental shop so that we could see more of the island. John and I got separated immediately from the group - the traffic was horrendous - but once outside the town, we enjoyed the churches and scenery. Back to more shopping and looking around before heading back to the ship via the 500 steps dodging the donkey doo the entire way down. it was a great day.......not at all what i expected.

Tuesday morning we were up early and docked in Katakolon, a small port which has been redeveloped to accommodate visitors. We were off to spend a few hours in Olympia, the site
of the first Olympic games. We decided to rent a car and had an interesting ride to Olympia, about 30 minutes from the port. Got lost, found the road, saw the ruins and museum, started back to the ship, got lost, found the road, found the port. So much history at Olympia...was
a thrill to be there.

Wednesday was a day a sea...finally after a week of constant sightseeing, we could just relax and enjoy the last day. It was a fun cruise....good company.....the boys met kids their age - not too many though - mostly the older crowd....and that made the trip enjoyable for them.

Tonight, Thursday, as I mentioned, we are in Zurich.....we got to the hotel Ibis, put on our walking shoes and out we went to explore this beautiful city. It was just getting dark and we walked along the Bahnhofstrasse - the most expensive street for shopping in the city and
with swiss banks on every corner to accomodate you. We walked by every hoity toity upscale
store you can think of.....the prices were displayed in the window.....whew......too much for our taste, but it was fun looking. we saw the lake just as the sun was setting.....can't wait to load some pictures. We bought a 24 hour pass that gives us access to all trains, trams, buses, etc. which will save us much money......tomorrow we will do a city tour on a tram, and then head outside the city to see some beautiful sites.

We are walking back to the hotel and starving, hoping to see a McDonald's since we know that we can get a meal at a fairly reasonable price. The exchange rate here is about 1 to 1 with the dollar......so we walk into Micky D's and the price for a big mac meal was 11.30 franc.....which is about 11.00 US......so there you go.....we have it pretty good at home.

Found out that Matt Lauer was in Istanbul the same day that we were there doing his week of "where in the world".......he was at the blue mosque about the time we were eating lunch....wish we would have known because we, of course, would have hightailed it over there to be on TV.

I believe that we will be ready to go home on saturday......it is hard being in a city where we don't speak the language and they are not too anxious to speak english. we are tired, but will have much to see tomorrow.......good night from Zurich.....it is 3:30 p.m. your time.

The weather has been warm and sunny every single day................PERFECT!!!!!!